Film Brain took the BFI London Film Festival last year to the absolute extreme and trying to watch and see as many movies as possible - and now he has the unenviable task of reviewing them all! Jack Martin of Film Feeder joins him for a bit of help - and let's be honest, emotional support - in a podcast months in the making!
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00:00 Hello and welcome to the Film Brain Podcast. It's been a little while, almost 18 months by my count
00:00:06 in actual fact, but we're back and we've got a big bumper episode for you today because I recently
00:00:12 went to the BFI London Film Festival, the UK's biggest film festival and certainly one of the
00:00:17 major festivals on the fall awards calendar. So I've seen a number of the big major movies that
00:00:24 are coming out this winter and some of which next year and maybe in some cases the year after that.
00:00:30 So we have got a big bumper crop of movies to review on this episode. In fact I think it's 31
00:00:37 movies I've seen at this festival but of course there were plenty of other people at the festival
00:00:43 and one of the people that I met was Jack. Do you want to introduce yourself Jack? Hello everyone,
00:00:48 my name is Jack Martin, it's a pleasure to be here. This is my podcast debut funnily enough.
00:00:54 Yeah. This is a lot of stress already but I'm feeling confident. I have been running a my own
00:01:01 website called Film Feeder for the last 10 years so that's www.filmfeeder.co.uk. Basically I provide
00:01:08 my own little written reviews using my own skills in analysis and just writing skills to give my
00:01:16 thoughts on just about anything from the big Marvel blockbuster to the most obscure art house film. So
00:01:22 whatever I can see basically. So I put all my stuff on Film Feeder and hope you're all up for
00:01:27 the ride because here we go. I met up with you on I think my first day at the festival this year,
00:01:32 what was that late September? Yeah. For those who are not aware the BFI London Film Festival's
00:01:39 press calendar is a little bit weird because it starts before the festival which always catches
00:01:44 people out every single year. I think they try and get a lot of them in early so you know critics
00:01:50 can like spend a lot of time all on other films. Yeah exactly. I think the ones that screen earlier
00:01:56 the week before are the ones that have kind of debuted at other festivals. That kind of catches
00:02:01 people out because sometimes they don't re-screen those films at least for press during the actual
00:02:06 press week of the festival while it's running which can be a little bit annoying for some people.
00:02:11 It's bizarre that they do that because there's some of the most anticipated films there. They
00:02:16 only have one screening and we'll get to this later when with the Poor Things Chicken Run debacle but
00:02:23 it's kind of insane that they put one screening on for all of that and then just I get that there's
00:02:31 a lot of films to get through but like even still it'd be nice to like spread it out. I don't know.
00:02:37 Yeah I mean there are so many films at the festival you can understand that scheduling it is an
00:02:42 absolute nightmare and I just want to say by the way just an absolute thanks to everyone at the
00:02:46 BFI everyone that volunteered at the film festival they were all really wonderful really lovely
00:02:52 really courteous and understanding especially because I don't think that's an easy job at all
00:02:56 the amount of people that they have to just kind of file around. The film festival has this kind of
00:03:02 unique coinbase system where they you know have a number of coins that kind of matches the amount
00:03:08 of seats in that screening so there's kind of like you got the coin you're guaranteed to see
00:03:12 in that screening it's kind of it's first come first serve for a lot of it. I feel like this
00:03:16 year it was much more comparative than it was last year. Last year was the first idea in person this
00:03:22 is my fourth year covering the festival but it felt like it was much busier this year did you
00:03:28 get that impression? Yeah yeah no I definitely felt that there was a lot going on I think which
00:03:34 is surprising because the festival happened during the the strikes the SAG-AFTRA WGA was
00:03:41 was WGA like yeah yeah did they settle before or after the festival? I think they settled just
00:03:46 before the WGA but the SAG-AFTRA strike was still ongoing it was yeah so like there was that that
00:03:52 had the impact of pretty much knocking out a lot of production over here because we're very linked
00:03:57 with America. One upside to the you know SAG-AFTRA obviously the actors couldn't be there was like
00:04:02 it was a lot more especially the red carpet stuff it was a lot more about the the films themselves
00:04:07 and the filmmakers rather than the big stars which is kind of refreshing in a lot of ways.
00:04:12 Yeah you did some of those red carpets didn't you you kind of went to the fan areas which I didn't
00:04:16 really do. Yeah yeah I mean I tend to do them like I just I'm just curious like yeah you get a bunch
00:04:22 of um autograph dealers and stuff that kind of ruin it for everyone but that's a whole other thing
00:04:27 but yeah uh when I so the ones I went for the red carpet premieres they had for One Life which was
00:04:32 the American Express Gala and um it was just the director was there you know James Hawes and uh
00:04:40 hope I'm saying that name right and it was also the later one for the Zone of Interest which had
00:04:44 um I think it had one of those um interim agreements so like the cast or maybe the actors
00:04:50 just want part of SAG-AFTRA so they could obviously uh promote. It was just nice and
00:04:55 so much space you know like I miss that you know when it's all crowded and stuff you know like
00:05:02 calling for like Brendan Fraser or whatever and you know it it can be so and I I suffer from severe
00:05:07 anxiety and like I don't do well in crowded spaces at all so it was just nice to have like all that
00:05:13 I kind of like arm's length freedom it was just so liberating I wish they were more like that but
00:05:18 it won't be which is sad. Yeah it felt very different this year because the strikes were
00:05:24 still ongoing while many of them were still happening it meant that it kind of recalibrated
00:05:29 onto the actual filmmakers themselves which arguably is the right place for them to be but
00:05:33 yeah the other big thing about the festival this year it's the first one with Christy Matheson
00:05:38 as the new festival director and I was wondering if there was going to be a bit of a change of tone
00:05:42 this year to the previous years but actually no it felt fairly consistent it felt pretty much
00:05:48 like it did the year before actually. I will say that it felt that there's been a lot more focus on
00:05:53 homebred films like British films like because Saltburn opened the festival and then The Kitchen
00:05:58 which was co-directed by Daniel Kaluuya it closed it so with that in place of something like Poor
00:06:05 Things which obviously is a much bigger production having those smaller films instead of like the
00:06:11 bigger like awards contenders made it feel more like appreciative of like our proper British films
00:06:16 you know. Yeah especially a lot of the premieres were kind of smaller British films of course the
00:06:21 big British film that premiered at the festival was Chicken Run and of course we're going to be
00:06:25 talking about that later yes but enough talking about the festival we got a lot of films to cover
00:06:32 let's get started so we're going to start with what was it day minus six before the festival
00:06:38 actually started this would have been late September this was a Wednesday I believe I
00:06:43 have a little vloggy clip that I recorded during the festival so we're going to cut to that for a
00:06:47 moment. Good morning technically the festival doesn't start for another week but that doesn't
00:06:52 stop me because unfortunately the press week actually starts before the festival so I am
00:06:58 making a special trip on Wednesday the 27th of September I've been up since about 10 to 5 in
00:07:05 the morning I'm a little bit tired it's just before 9am and I'm here to see the new Richard
00:07:11 Linklater movie but here I am at the National Film Theatre for the first set of press screenings.
00:07:17 There's me getting the day completely wrong I'm so tired in that clip I'm just standing there in
00:07:23 front of the South Bank standing behind this sign trying not to look like an absolute pillock
00:07:29 while recording this vlog and of course I'm disguised from the street I'm behind this sign
00:07:34 so people are kind of walking past me not realizing I'm recording like what is he doing over there
00:07:39 how do people record public vlogs like that? Oh no. Anyway first movie at the festival very
00:07:46 strong one to start on Hitman which is the new Richard Linklater movie so this stars Glenn Powell
00:07:53 he is a professor who also works as a tech for the local police department he ends up being
00:08:00 recruited in to do an undercover operation because another cop has been suspended so he ends up
00:08:06 taking the place in this meeting pretending to be a hitman and actually surprisingly he's pretty
00:08:11 good at it and he develops this persona and then he eventually meets a woman played by Adrienne
00:08:17 Ojona that he suddenly feels is innocent and could actually be protected and so he manages to get her
00:08:24 off of that conviction but then starts a relationship with her and this was a really
00:08:30 nicely done comedy thriller it's based very loosely on a true story and the film kind of makes
00:08:35 a joke about how loosely it's based on that even at the end credits going "that didn't happen"
00:08:40 which I thought was funny. Glenn Powell I underestimated him a little bit I think because
00:08:47 I haven't seen him in a whole bunch of things obviously you will know him from Top Gun Maverick
00:08:51 where he was kind of the goose equivalent in that movie he was kind of a bit cocky this is a very
00:08:56 different role actually and the film is very much about kind of transformation his character starts
00:09:02 out as this very geeky guy with kind of glasses and he goes around in jorts he's got this kind
00:09:09 of Paul Blart kind of vibe almost his cats are named Ed and Ego I think yeah exactly they kind
00:09:16 of they really play into that theme the way that he kind of starts adopting many of the traits
00:09:22 of the hitman persona that he's developed especially as the lines between his two
00:09:27 identities start to become blurred what I really liked about this movie in terms of its direction
00:09:32 is that Linklater doesn't oversell the comedy it's actually quite understated a lot of the time which
00:09:38 I thought helped it a lot because I feel like there is a version of this movie where you could
00:09:42 have really really kind of pushed that and kind of made it very broad instead it has a very almost
00:09:49 kind of subtle charm about it almost like a 70s Burt Reynolds vehicle almost yes I also really
00:09:57 liked the chemistry between Pau and Adria Ojona I thought she was fantastic in that movie yeah I
00:10:04 always think it's a little bit cringe when critics say oh this is a really sexy movie but in this
00:10:09 case no really it is oh yeah this is very sexy movie this is like out of sight level of uh on
00:10:16 screen chemistry like yeah what they have together is insane it's like kind of old school kind of
00:10:21 like um screwball it happened one night kind of pairing where it's just like these two people go
00:10:27 so well together and they work off each other so well that it's just like all the time even when
00:10:33 stuff happens like you're always rooting for them to be together because you know my god they they
00:10:37 just click so well they absolutely steam up the screen like some of the scenes are just so
00:10:43 romantic oh yes it's erotic the chemistry is undeniable I came out of that movie and I thought
00:10:49 that Ojona was a star in the making again I hadn't really taken notice of her before and this really
00:10:54 made me sit up I think that when this movie comes out this is going to be really well received oh
00:10:59 yeah you know I'm just going to come around and say it I think this is my favorite film of the
00:11:03 festival it really I know we've saying that it's one of my favorites yeah I know saying that right
00:11:08 in the beginning is kind of dangerous because especially because there's a lot to get through
00:11:12 but this really was my favorite I absolutely love this movie I thought it was funny it was charming
00:11:18 like you said it was sexy and what I loved about it is like this is a film that juggles so many
00:11:23 different tones obviously it's comedic then it gets pretty serious but there's such a great
00:11:28 balance and I think Richard Linklater is such a generous director in that you know he allows um
00:11:33 scenes just kind of play out exactly for how long they need to be this is my favorite the best film
00:11:39 he's made since boyhood which I also loved and this was just great and it really kind of kills
00:11:45 me that it's going straight to Netflix because this is this was something that people were
00:11:49 discussing at the festival like like the it was just before the screening it was kind of announced
00:11:55 that Netflix had it and there was a lot of people that have gone to that screening that were
00:11:58 actually disappointed they went oh really yeah it's a movie that deserves to be seen in a cinema
00:12:05 in all honesty we were at the press screening for this the whole way through the audience was just
00:12:10 they were laughing hard they were there were even there were even the moments of applause during it
00:12:15 which was yeah genuinely there were there's a scene quite late in the movie uh I'm being quite
00:12:20 careful here because obviously this is almost spoiler territory but there's a scene late in
00:12:25 the movie that has got a lot of suspense in it but there's also quite a bit of comedy it's kind
00:12:29 of juggling that simultaneously and it's so deftly handled that when that scene finished the entire
00:12:36 audience erupted into applause that doesn't happen very often no no this that caught me off
00:12:43 guard it's just like wow this this is going over so well yeah it's a great scene it's a phenomenally
00:12:49 played scene I've heard actually reports at other festivals that other audiences have done the exact
00:12:54 same thing at that same scene they all just kind of went that is brilliant and they all just started
00:13:00 applauding and that's why it's such a shame that you know Netflix has got it and it probably won't
00:13:05 get a big theatrical run before it lands on the service because it's the kind of movie that is a
00:13:10 genuine unfiltered crowd pleaser it's probably Richard Linklater's funniest most mainstream
00:13:18 movie since probably School of Rock in all honesty yeah I think I'm kind to agree on that
00:13:24 this this is like I love School of Rock and 20th anniversary this year but like 20 years later
00:13:30 he's made a film that's just kind of got that School of Rock energy man like I can't express
00:13:35 how much I really love this movie and I really hope people get to see it in a cinema with a
00:13:39 crowd make sure you get to chance to see this on the big screen if if not Netflix is fine but yeah
00:13:45 please try and see this with a crowd as much as you can because it really yeah it really deserves
00:13:50 to be seen that way but at least with Netflix it will get seen so I guess there is at least that
00:13:55 people you know when you think of subscription services everyone thinks of Netflix so at least
00:14:00 people are probably going to see this and they're really going to love it I think it's released next
00:14:04 year on Netflix definitely check out Hitman so going from one of the best movies at the festival
00:14:12 to arguably one of the worst our next movie is The Beast yeah quite quite a quite a turnaround
00:14:19 yeah it was a day of real extremes this first one uh this was a really competitive screening
00:14:25 as I recall as well like it was completely full lots of people were trying to get into it to the
00:14:30 point where I actually think they put an extra screening of it later in the festival because
00:14:34 people didn't get in to see it those people were lucky in actual fact so yeah The Beast is the new
00:14:42 film from Bertrand Bonello who did Saint Laurent and Zombie Child uh it's kind of got this multiple
00:14:48 timeline structure so it's set in a near future of 2044 where AI has taken over but it's also got
00:14:57 this kind of post-pandemic landscape as well can you guess when this movie was written? Lea Sedu
00:15:04 plays a woman in this future who agrees to go through a procedure that will replay her memories
00:15:11 from past lives that are embedded in her DNA because she has this undeniable sense of dread
00:15:18 and fear throughout her entire being but she also finds herself inexplicably drawn to another man
00:15:25 played by George Mackay who is tied to her past and so there are several different timelines
00:15:31 running through this movie you've got a period section in 1910 then you've got one in 2014 and
00:15:38 then finally you've got 2044 which is the wraparound this movie is a great big honking
00:15:46 mess I described it to other people at the festival as being the Homer Simpson makeup shotgun
00:15:53 of movies in that it's the big bundle of ideas and just shoots it right at the wall with no
00:15:59 shape or definition whatsoever it's two and a half hours long and it feels even longer than that
00:16:07 in my opinion we both sat through this movie I think we were sat apart during this screening
00:16:13 and when we reunited at the end of it I remember you walking up to me going what the hell did we
00:16:17 just watch? Always a great thing to come out of the screening thinking of. Yeah that is pretty
00:16:24 much verbatim what I said because this movie I mean because you're right I was like a bit
00:16:30 further towards the screen than you were but I was sitting there just in kind of like in a
00:16:36 ponderous pose was just like chin on the thing really that really like probably pretentious
00:16:41 thing that most some cinema people go it's just like but the whole time my face just going like
00:16:47 what for those who can't see the video I'm just I'm just in an absolute state of like confusion
00:16:53 and just like what am I watching this is I don't know what is happening because apparently this is
00:16:59 based on a book right this is yes so it's very loosely based on Henry James's The Beast in the
00:17:06 Jungle which is what the English title refers to the film is largely in French but there is quite
00:17:13 a bit of English dialogue I looked at the synopsis of The Beast in the Jungle it's very loosely
00:17:17 inspired by it from the looks of it so it's not like a faithful adaptation but it's clearly taking
00:17:22 elements from it and kind of spinning it into this new narrative the problem is the movie doesn't
00:17:28 feel very coherent at all and my plot synopsis there probably makes it sound more intelligible
00:17:33 than it actually is at point it's like when you know obviously Stanley Kubrick when he adapted
00:17:38 The Shining and obviously Stephen King famously hated it because obviously it wasn't it was
00:17:42 much looser with the narrative like I imagine this is like uh that only if it was only if
00:17:51 someone like David Lynch uh directed it when he was just flat out drunk there is definitely a
00:17:57 Lynchian quality to this movie especially during the 2014 section which is like very clearly wants
00:18:03 to be like Mulholland Drive but it is very it's not the thing about this movie is that when I
00:18:08 think back upon it I can kind of identify more the ideas and themes as I as I mentioned you can
00:18:13 definitely tell this is a film that was kind of cooked up during the height of the Covid pandemic
00:18:18 because there's so much of the 2044 stuff that kind of represents that that I wonder might
00:18:24 actually feel quite dated in only a few years time the period stuff the 1910 stuff is much of
00:18:30 the first half of the movie and I was dreadfully bored for a lot of it I've got to be honest I sat
00:18:35 there going when exactly is this movie going to start properly there's this kind of chance
00:18:40 encounter between Mackay and Sadhu and they kind of knew each other in the past and they've kind
00:18:45 of reconnecting their relationship I think the big problem with why The Beast doesn't adhere very
00:18:50 well Lear Sadhu and George Mackay I think are two good actors they just don't have the chemistry
00:18:55 together no to make this work and actually George Mackay was a late replacement for Gaspard Ulliel
00:19:02 yeah he sadly passed away and apparently the role was originally meant for him he obviously died
00:19:09 before he could could do it so they got George Mackay and who to his credit you know he does
00:19:14 speak a lot of French during it so props for him for actually kind of going in for all for that for
00:19:19 that language but yeah you're right it's a very awkward chemistry between him and Sadhu they don't
00:19:25 act like lovers or anything they're just like people who are just there to read lines like
00:19:30 there's meant to be this kind of cosmic tragedy that there are these people that almost but never
00:19:35 quite due to circumstance there's something always kind of separating them even though they're drawn
00:19:40 together and the period ending of that section was actually the point of it which I started to get
00:19:46 interested in what was going on and then I realized oh that's the climax of that portion of
00:19:50 the movie and it's over now and then it turns into basically Mulholland Drive light for the second
00:19:56 half of the movie Mulholland Drive by way of Joker in that incarnation Sadhu is an actress
00:20:03 George Mackay is an incel yeah that's didn't have that on my festival bingo card um so he's an incel
00:20:10 he is making video blogs about how much he hates women those two characters even though they
00:20:15 shouldn't be in each other's orbit somehow they find themselves being drawn together there's kind
00:20:20 of repeated elements in some of it there's this uh clairvoyant character that Sadhu keeps kind
00:20:26 of seeing in various incarnations this is straight out of Inland Empire yeah there's a recurring gag
00:20:33 in the 2014 stuff I think this opens the movie which is a really jarring way of opening it where
00:20:38 Sadhu is on a green screen and she has to act out this entire thing again it ties into that movie's
00:20:43 sense of isolation and disconnection and those are probably some of the best scenes in the movie but
00:20:48 again everything kind of feels weirdly disconnected with each other and doesn't make any sense at one
00:20:53 point very late in the movie Sadhu's laptop gets infected with a virus and it starts showing clips
00:20:57 from Trash Humpers which is about the point where I went is this a troll movie is this just designed
00:21:04 to troll the audience a feeling that wasn't diminished by the fact that when the movie ended
00:21:09 it had no credits it just came up with a qr code on the screen that was the moment was just like
00:21:14 okay I feel like this is this movie is just screwing with me now like it's just like yeah
00:21:19 it's the equivalent of like putting like people act as twitter handles in their credits names
00:21:24 it's just like I hope to god that doesn't become a thing going on because I get why they do it you
00:21:29 know for spending time but isn't that's probably really insulting to like all the people that
00:21:34 worked on it it's just like your name's not even attached to the end of it I actually was reading
00:21:38 some of the lesser box reviews uh and someone actually linked to what this ending was and it
00:21:43 is literally just mostly the end credits but there is a little extra scene with the claire voint
00:21:48 character she's on she's on the laptop sadhu's laptop after the events of what's happening and
00:21:53 she's going going like you don't you need to contact this guy you need to figure out who this
00:21:57 guy is uh it doesn't really add very much to the movie at all it's just kind of there I don't know
00:22:02 why it's not attached to the end of it there's no reason that this movie doesn't and then and then
00:22:06 they have credits and then Samuel L Jackson shows up with an eyepatch just to say yeah this is weird
00:22:10 I'm out the beast will be out next year uh we don't recommend it nope nope let's get this one
00:22:18 let's get this one yeah