by Joanna Orland The BFI London Film Festival has come to a close for another year.  The 59th edition had quite an impressive selection of 240 films in its lineup including opening gala Suffragette, closing gala Steve Jobs and other memorable movies such as The Lobster, Youth, Room, Beasts of No Nation, Son of Saul, […]

Audio: Danny Boyle, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels & Aaron Sorkin by Joanna Orland This year’s BFI London Film Festival closing gala is the fantastic Steve Jobs directed by Danny Boyle, written by Aaron Sorkin and starring the ridiculously talented Michael Fassbender in the title role. Boyle, Sorkin, Fassbender and […]

Steve Jobs Directed by Danny Boyle Written by Aaron Sorkin Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg and Katherine Waterston by Joanna Orland What Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin have created with the Steve Jobs biopic can only be described as a Jobs well done.  The film was initially tainted by […]

Right Now, Wrong Then (Jigeumeun matgo geuttaeneun teullida) Directed by Hong Sang-soo Starring Jung Jae-young and Kim Min-hee by Ruth Thomson The opening fifteen minutes of Right Now, Wrong Then by South Korean director Hong Sang-soo is painfully endearing. Film director Ham Sung (Jae-yeong Jeong) is in a small town for a screening of his […]

The Apostate (El apóstata) Directed by Federico Veiroj Starring Álvaro Ogalla by Ruth Thomson In Spanish existential comedy The Apostate, Gonzalo Tamayo (first time actor Álvaro Ogalla) wants to do something pretty simple. He wants to leave the Catholic church, into which he, along with millions of others, was baptized as an unassuming infant. A […]

Chronic Directed by Michel Franco Starring Tim Roth, Sarah Sutherland and Robin Bartlett by Ruth Thomson In this quietly observed drama by Michel Franco, David (an understated Tim Roth) cares for the chronically, terminally, terribly ill. He bathes, comforts, feeds, and lifts his stricken adult charges with little fuss, going about the business in a […]

Hot Sugar’s Cold World Directed by Adam Bhala Lough Starring Nick Koenig (Hot Sugar), Jim Jarmusch, Kool A.D., Martin Starr, Shelby Fero, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Rachel Trachtenburg Produced by David Gordon Green, Hunter Stephenson, Jody Hill and Danny McBride by Joanna Orland Nick Koenig, better known by his stage name of Hot Sugar, is […]

Directed by John Crowley Written by Nick Hornby Starring Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters Brooklyn is a visually stunning film and touching story about a young Irish girl named Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) as she makes herself a new home away from Ireland.  Saoirse Ronan is captivating as Eilis, as […]

Beasts of No Nation Directed by Cary Fukunaga Starring Idris Elba and Abraham Attah by Joanna Orland Beasts of No Nation is a disturbing depiction of the plight of child soldiers in Africa, told from the perspective of a young boy named Agu.  The film is the first of Netflix’s original movies to stream on […]

Assassination Directed by Choi Dong-hoon Starring Gianna Jun, Lee Jung-jae and Ha Jung-woo by Richard Hamer Director Dong-hoon Choi’s follow up to 2012’s excellent crime caper The Thieves takes us back to the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1933, and a resistance assassination plot to take out two key figures in the Japanese military. Much […]