BFI LFF 2016: A MONSTER CALLS (2016)
★★★★☆
JA Bayona’s magical fantasy A Monster Calls tugs at adult heartstrings.
adaptation
Remainder (2015)
★★★★☆
What if you couldn’t remember your past and you tried to recreate it? Omar Fast’s visually stunning debut Remainder is a compulsively mind-bending puzzle.
Love & Friendship (2016)
★★★★☆
A witty adaptation of Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship is a sassy parody of Regency manners.
Anomalisa (2015)
★★★★☆
A story of depression, alienation and looking for love where the human characters are played by puppets, Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa is unsettling and haunting.
Festival Review: Yarden (2016)
★★★☆☆
Adapted from Kristian Lundberg’s autobiographical novel, Måns Månsson’s Yarden is a parable of entitlement that turns welcomingly political.
Room (2015)
★★★★☆
With heartbreaking performances from an exceptional cast, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is a triumph of delicate relationships and emotional fallout.
Festival Review: Carol
★★★★☆
Adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Todd Haynes’ Carol basks in a 1950s glow of glorious chiffons, illicit love and stifled emotion.
Festival Review: The Lady In The Van (2015)
★★★★☆
The funny and poignant tale of Bennett’s live-in codger, Nicholas Hytner’s The Lady In The Van is entertainment at its most prestigious.
Festival Review: Brooklyn (2015)
★★★★☆
A brilliant adaptation of Colm Tóibin’s novel, John Crowley’s Brooklyn is a funny and moving portrait of an Irish girl finding herself and emigrating to the USA.
Festival Review: Room (2015)
★★★★☆
A sensitive study of imprisonment and the painfulness of freedom, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is an emotional, cinematic tour-de-force.
Festival Review: High-Rise (2015)
★★★☆☆
Adapting JG Ballard’s dystopian novel for the silver screen, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise is a glamorous reproduction of the Seventies high life.
Macbeth (2015)
★★★★☆
Bringing a fearsome pace and inescapable style to Shakespeare’s tragedy of murderous ambition, Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth is a luscious, bloody triumph.
Miss Julie (2014)
★★★☆☆
Transporting August Strindberg’s play to colonial Ireland, Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie imbues her underwhelming tale of forbidden love with Swedish style.
Suite Française (2014)
★★★☆☆
Turning Irène Némirovsky’s novel of French occupation into a love story across enemy lines, Saul Dibb’s Suite Française is a powerful, arrogant adaptation.