BFI London Film Festival 2015 has come and gone. This time I was on the other side of the ‘red carpet’ as a delegate rather than organizer. This year round for me the festival wasn’t just about the films but also the related events. I had the pleasure of attending the Geena Davis Symposium  – a proactive discussion about the disastrous gender inequality within the film and television industry. Some of the statistics were bewildering and frankly upsetting but the engaging, optimistic and very funny way in which Davis and some of the excellent panels engaged the audience in activism made me hopeful that the tide will inevitably turn if the film industry is going to survive.

I also attended a discussion about the merits of film as a medium with Christopher Nolan and Tacita Dean on panel as well as a Todd Haynes Screen Talk about his career. The former wasn’t necessarily for me although I agreed with the general consensus that film should be respected and promoted, the latter I was honored to be able to hear for myself the eloquent thoughts and processes of one of my favorite directors.

But let’s get it straight, my primary reason for enduring ridiculous early morning film starts (8.45am is just cruel and unusual punishment (just kidding)) and Festival Flu was for the film. Without further ado here a round-up of the films I saw at LFF 2015 (Part One):

CRONIES dir. Michael Larnell

Part of the ‘Laughs’ category of the Festival programme (I’m going to be honest, I don’t always get how this these categories work and Cronies was no different) I was intrigued by the Spike Lee association and it’s label as a black Clerks. This low budget black and white homage follows three ambling friends on one hot summer day punctuated by to camera interviews by the film’s director as he tries to dig into the fraught friendship of two of the friends – Jack and Louis. Clearly wearing its Clerks and Do The Right Thing influences on its sleeve, Cronies doesn’t quite have the clever dialogue of Kevin Smith aforementioned and the palpating tension of my favourite Spike Lee feature (I prefer Spike Lee’s documentaries on the whole). I wasn’t alone in seeing less a comedy, as apart from a few funny lines, and more of a drama. The world in which the three friends live isn’t really funny and isn’t treated as such.

Central to Jack and Louis’ relationship concerns a violent incident in the past that neither are able to quite move past. Their current lives are on the periphery of gang violence. The film doesn’t mine much humour from these central plot lines instead relying on some of the funny dialogue exchanges – but these are few and far between and I felt almost misled by the way in which it was marketed at the Festival. That’s not to say I didn’t like it. Shot digitally in black and white I quickly got over this almost gimmicky conceit and was quickly immersed in the world of these friends. I put that down to the confident directing. While some of the acting was a little stilted, there was enough charisma between the three leads where all could be forgiven. By the quite explosive end, I was invested in the characters friendship. The film is too small to maybe work in cinemas but it would be quite a find on Netflix or even a small event screening.

MEN AND CHICKEN dir. Anders Thomas Jensen

I’ve come to learn that the Danes have a distinctly unique sense of humour. Like the Australians I say (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Men and Chicken is no different. A black comedy-cum-horror-come parable about two half-brothers who prompted to find out about their biological father, find instead disturbing secrets about their heritage. While thoroughly weird I found Men and Chicken enjoyable. This bizarre tale of dysfunction and ill-manners is quite simply twisted fun and it was a joy to watch the likes of Mads Mikkelsen and Soren Malling move away from their dramatic personas and take obvious relish in showing off their comedic chops.

OUR LITTLE SISTER dir. Hirozaku Kore-Eda

Still Walking is my favourite Kore-Eda film (also in my top ten of all time) and Our Little Sister has deep echos of the 2008 drama about family dysfunction (I seem to gravitate towards film on this topic). However, Kore-Eda’s latest is much more sentimental, almost, but not quite, tipping into saccharine. The film follows three Japanese sisters who all live together in the grand old house they inherited from their grandmother, which they affectionately call the “girls dorm room”. Upon the death of their estranged father, the girls discover they have a little teenage sister, who they decide to take in under their wings. From there the film explores their lives, loves and the individual losses each sister has experienced through such absent parenting.

While the film doesn’t hold as much emotional power as I Wish, it would take a hardened heart to not be touched by this charming film. Besides the quiet beauty of the film’s setting, the layered performances of the female cast is what anchors the film. Their relationship is close and loving, but their are layers of tension and resentment towards each other and their parents. As I mentioned before, the film never quite tips into saccharine because it manages to expertly reveal the continued effect of their dysfunctional past with the present. In particular, the strained and heartbreaking reunion with their absent mother demonstrates the maestro abilities of the film’s director. While not my favourite Kore-Eda, it’s a gentle reminder of what magic that man can weave.

BONE TOMAHAWK dir. S. Craig Zoller

An impressive debut directional effort, this old-style western slash horror is sure to be cult favourite in due course. While not a huge fan of horror, even I can see this ticks all the boxes of what horror fans love – the growing sense of dread, the unsettling score, the out of nowhere body horror. It’s all there in spades. With excellent performances from Kurt Russell (watching him I realised how much I’d missed seeing him on the big screen) and an unrecognizable Richard Jenkins (award-winning performance I kid you not), one would struggle how this won’t be a hit. Set in the old west, Kurt Russell leads a group of men on a mission to save three people kidnapped by a savage group of cannibal cave-dwellers. While I keep stressing that horror ain’t my thing, I’d be bad at my job, at life even, if I didn’t recommend this to horror fans. BE WARNED: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

PARTISAN dir. Ariel Kleiman

Intrigued by a fondness for Vincent Cassel, this film was on my radar quite early on in the Festival. Directed by Australian Ariel Kleiman and shot in almost post-apocalyptic looking Georgia, Partisan is an intriguing story about a young boy, Alexander who has lived all his life in a commune populated by women, children and one man – charismatic commune leader – Gregori. It transpires that Gregori helps destitute women and their children into the commune, offering shelter and protection to the women, while meanwhile training the children to be assassins. By Alexander’s twelfth birthday he begins to question the seemingly benevolent leader’s ideas as he becomes more and more intrigued by the world beyond the commune.

The directional debut of Kleiman the film is beautifully shot and there are some standout scenes (a regular karaoke night being one of them a particular highlight), however the film was too distractingly vague in it’s story that it becomes frustrating to watch. For starters who are the children assassinating and why (I assumed it was the past abusers of women). What has happened outside the commune – economic downturn, the Apocalypse? I like my abstract storytelling like the rest of them (Evolution which I will review later is another such abstract story but very well done) but to be able to leave so much unsaid, one has to replace it with visual, tonal depth which Partisan simply lacks. I also had trouble with the film being in English with all non-native speakers.  Some actors obviously struggling to the degree that it becomes more important to get the line out than to act or sometimes the line reading was incomprehensible. I liked Cassel’s performance, bringing a certain nuance to such an underdeveloped role. I was also intrigued by the young lead Jeremy Chabriel quiet but intelligent performance. However, the two leads roles seemed to be giving too much to a film that’s unfortunately forgettable.