Tag: BFI Player

The Square (2017)

Where to find it: MUBI or BFI Player (both available through Amazon)
Length: Two and a half hours
Synopsis: Sluggish Swedish satire about pretentious contemporary high art
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: smart, can be very funny, beautifully framed shots
What I don’t like about it: too long, Nordic pacing

Review:
Christian is the curator of a top Stockholm modern art museum, housed in a former royal palace. He and his colleagues talk about their lofty artistic ideals and are regularly confronted by reality and how they and the world fall short of their ideals. It’s quite compelling and funny in a ghastly, cringe-comedy sort of way, explores ‘the Other’ and strongly rebukes the middle-class.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex

Snowpiercer (2013)

Throughout September I will be raiding my collection of favourite movies to review one a day, with a focus on overlooked and underappreciated films.

Where to find it: Rent on BFI or Amazon
Length: two hours
Synopsis: The Communist Manifesto on wheels
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: metaphor, action
What I don’t like about it: not fun

Review:
I gained a lot of appreciation for this in retrospect after watching Parasite and deciding I liked this one more. The metaphor works better – a train, constantly in motion and “unable” to stop, moves around a world ravaged by climate change. At the back of the train are some overworked and underfed people living in darkness and squalor, a revolution ensues and one of the proletariat fights his way through increasing luxury to the front of the train. There (spoilers for capitalism) he learns that the train is actually fuelled by human bodies and stops it in disgust, taking his chances in the frozen wasteland. And all of that, unlike Parasite, in an action film that I could show to pretty much anybody.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence

Festen (1998)

Where to find it: BFI Player
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Hard-to-watch Danish family melodrama
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: fascinating psychological drama, the theme of avoidance
What I don’t like about it: this one is going to haunt me for a long time, ending doesn’t feel cathartic enough

Review:
A party for a wealthy Danish family takes a very dark turn around the 30 minute mark, which makes it hard to pull away from as we watch the fallout through unassuming home-video-style camerawork. This film was a big influence on HBO’s Succession but even as dark as that can get sometimes, this hits horrifying lows they wouldn’t touch. It’s a very good film but not much fun at all.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): child sexual abuse, incest, suicide

The Double (2013)

Where to find it: Rent on BFI Player or wait until it’s on Film4
Length: 90 minutes
Synopsis: A meek office worker finds his life usurped by an assertive doppelgänger
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: the retrofuture aesthetic, arresting visuals, music
What I don’t like about it: slow and quiet, demanding lots of attention

Review:
Jesse Eisenberg ably plays the double role of nerdy doormat and arrogant charmer but the real star here is Richard Ayoade, setting up visuals and sequences that Kubrick would be proud of. The music, a mix of staccato stings and Asian crooning, is another highlight. Worth watching if you don’t care much for plot.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): stalking behaviour, suicide, violence, cutting, depersonalisation