KelGriff
Thursday 01 Nov 2012 - 2:00 PM

The top 12 London Film Festival favourites

With Aussie Clare Stewart as the new London Film Festival Director (Stewart formerly helmed the Sydney Film Festival and was Head of Films Programs at ACMI), this year’s London Film Festival broke audience attendance records and delivered, once again, a stellar program of premieres and highlights from both established and new filmmakers.

The festival takes place in-between other top film festivals Cannes, Venice and Toronto prior to the award ceremony season, and many of the films screened at LFF in the past have gone onto take the top film accolades – most famously, The Artist, The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire.

Double espresso, dark sunglasses (to hide the bleary eyes) and notebook in hand, TheVine attended as many screenings as humanly possible to bring you an in-no-particular-order rundown of the festival’s best offerings. Watch out for these bad boys in the coming months.

Frankenweenie

Tim Burton fans are in for such a treat as the father of Gothic and “weird” family-friendly films (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice) returns to form with Frankenweenie.

Mixing new technology (3D) with the old (stop motion and black and white), Frankenweenie is the heart-warming story of a young boy who loves his pet dog so much he resurrects it after a fatal accident, although (as anyone who loves their horror genre will know) bringing a dead thing back to life comes with consequences.

As well as heavily referencing Frankenstein, the film is also jam-packed with nods to many of the other great films and actors from the horror pantheon.

The voice cast includes screen legend Martin Landau, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, Atticus Shaffer and Charlie Tahan.

Opens in Australian cinemas: October 25, 2012

Argo

Ben Affleck directs and acts in thriller Argo, which tells the astonishing story of one CIA operative’s attempt to smuggle six fugitive American diplomats trapped and wanted in revolutionary Iran, 1979.

The CIA’s plan to pose as a Hollywood film producer coming to Iran to scout locations for his sci-fi film ‘Argo’ sounds shady and sceptical at best, but what unfolds is a gripping tale, unbelievably actually based on true events.

Argo is already mounting Oscar-buzz.

Opens in Australian cinemas: October 25, 2012

Beasts of the Southern Wild

American indie film Beasts of the Southern Wild has quickly become a film festival darling, having won both the Camera d’Or for best first film and the International Critics’ Prize at Cannes as well as the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Thankfully this film, part fantasy, part magical-realist melodrama lives up to the hype. Beasts is narrated by six-year-old philosopher Hushpuppy who lives with her ailing father Wink in their shantytown The Bathtub, which becomes devastated by wild storms and rising seawater (recalling Hurricane Katrina and perhaps the future of low-lying island communities).

With Hushpuppy’s whole universe falling apart, this is the precious story of a tiny hero in the fight of her life. At the LFF, director Benh Zeitlin was awarded the Sutherland Award for “most original and imaginative feature debut”.

Opens in Australian cinemas: September 13, 2012

Rust and Bone

‘Romantic drama’ really doesn’t do this gritty film justice. Marion Cotillard gives an award-worthy performance as whale trainer Stephanie who meets Alain (newcomer Matthias Schoenaearts) in a club.

He’s a street fighter struggling to raise his young son, while her life changes forever when a freak work accident leads to the amputation of her lower legs and a life wheelchair-bound.

Through the grim and the violence, a tenderness of sorts ensues between the two. Directed by Jacques Audiard, Rust and Bone picked up Best Film at this year’s LFF, as did his previous film A Prophet which then went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.

Opens in Australian cinemas: December 26, 2012

Amour (Love)

If you like your films gut-wrenching, then take along a box of tissues to Michael Haneke’s unflinching love story about an elderly couple in Paris dealing with old age and illness.

In May, Haneke scooped up top prize Palme d’Or at Cannes for Armour, as he did three years ago with The White Ribbon.

He is the only filmmaker to win the top award for two consecutive films in such quick succession.

Opens in Australian cinemas: No release date yet.

The Hunt

In Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish film The Hunt, the talented Mads Mikkelsen (A Royal Affair, Casino Royale) plays a divorced, single-parent kindergarten teacher who is accused of sexual assault when one of his five-year-old students tells an attention-seeking little lie.

Exploring friendship and community and their subsequent implosion, as well as mass hysteria and mob mentality, The Hunt is an explosive and powerful drama-thriller, tense till the very end.

Opens in Australian cinemas: No release date as yet.

Ginger and Rosa

Elle Fanning and NZ-born Aussie Alice Englert (Jane Campion’s daughter) give award-worthy performances as two British teens growing up and growing apart. Set in London against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis, director Sally Potter explores and juxtaposes the nuclear family and the nuclear war in this – veering on melodramatic - coming of age tale.

Opens in Australian cinemas: No release date as yet.

Frank and Robot

In this curious film set in the near future, Frank Langella plays a retired cat burglar who, instead of being placed in a nursing home, is bought a walking, talking robot (voiced by Peter Skarsgaard) to care for him.

Susan Sarandon plays Frank’s library crush, in this charming yet tender film about aging and friendship in unlikely places.

Opens in Australian cinemas: November 15, 2012

Crossfire Hurricane

Coinciding with the Rolling Stones’ 50^th anniversary, Brett Morgen’s new documentary on the great British rock ‘n’ roll band may not reveal much more about the band that fans don’t already know.

But, packed with archive footage, new interviews, live performances and montage shots of hysterical female teens, it’s an enjoyable watch for any Stones fan.

Opens in Australian cinemas: October 28, 2012

My Brother The Devil

What could be just another gritty British crime drama about the gangs of East London?! My Brother The Devil surprises in its sensitive and what feels like realistic exploration of life on the fringes.

Centring on an Egyptian family living on a council estate, older brother Rash is a ‘respected’ drug dealer dreaming of a less illegal and violence lifestyle, but continuing to do so to support his family and fund his younger brother’s future education.

Younger brother Mo (Fady Elsayed), however, idolises his older brother and would prefer to follow in his footsteps. Director Sally El Hosaini picked up the LFF award for Best British newcomer.

Opens in Australian cinemas: No release date yet.

End of Watch

From the writer of Training Days, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as LA police officers who happen upon the country’s most dangerous drug cartel in this adrenalin-pumping action thriller, laced with art house styling and sterling performances.

Opens in Australian cinemas: November 1, 2012

Room 237

From the expert to the absurd, subjective documentary Room 237 explores numerous theories about Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 1980 psycho-horror The Shinning and its hidden meanings.

With some theories as farfetched as Kurbrick inserting subliminal messages to reveal he was involved with filming the “fake” moon landing, this doco is certainly more fun than fact.

Ultimately it’s a fascinating look at conspiracy theorist and film fans who obsessively read, perhaps, a little too much into Kurbrick’s enigmatic masterpiece.

Opens in Australian cinemas: No release date yet.