Rum and Popcorn

Leeds International Film Festival 2023

#manhole

A man gets stuck in a hole. How will he get out? This takes a dumb idea and turns it into a suitably taught little thriller. Quite fun.

All of us Strangers

Ooh this was bleak.

Anatomy of a Fall

I think I had too high expectations of this one (Palme d’or!). It’s a well paced courtroom drama with fabulous acting. I came out of it feeling disappointed that I wasn’t blown away by it - but perhaps that’s ok: this is back to basics excellent filmmaking.

Celluloid Underground

A fabulous personal voyage through Iranian cinephilia. Merging video diaries, archive footage and snippets of classic cinema this tells a beautiful tale of cinema as memory, resistance and community

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint

Oh this felt like a short that had been stretched out to feature length. Some very neat ideas and lovely moments but it felt like it needed a little more. The visual effects and the lead actor are fab.

Conann

I thought I was going to hate this but absolutely loved it. It’s insane - a retelling of Conan, something something, female cast, lots of gore - makes almost no sense and is lavishly over the top. A lot of unforgettable scenes!

Daaaaaali!

Such a joy. Concentric and eccentric in equal measure. An attempt to interview a proud, self important Dalí escalates wildly - it’s relentlessly absurd, with a cascade of actors, times, realities. My sort of thing.

Fallen Leaves

A very small Finnish tale of two lonely people. Working insecure jobs, drinking dangerously, and hanging about in odd bars, this is an awkward, mumbled romance but it was quite compelling

Fanfare

Gloriously bonkers Dutch film about a village falling out and forming two rival factions, each with their own brass bands. Cue people getting pushed into lakes, cows rampaging through a cafe and lots of elaborate schemes to hide a band’s worth of instruments from the local policeman. Lovely

Goodbye to the Dragon Inn

Oh. No. I do love a bit of slow cinema but this wasn’t for me. I quite liked the shots of the cinema but the sort of humorous, sort of spooky half narrative of the guy wandering around the cinema was tiresome