What to see at the virtual Glasgow Film Festival 2021 Scotland’s first digital-only festival is bursting with cinematic treats, including 48 UK premieres. The 2020 Glasgow Film Festival seems as if it occurred a lifetime ago. It must have been one of the last live, in-person festivals where people could actually utter the words “Is Read More
Danny Boyle will direct a TV miniseries about The Sex Pistols
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Those words, uttered by Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten as he concluded his final show with soon-to-be-dead bandmate Sid Vicious, encapsulate a lifetime of regret and disappointment with the music industry and the complexes of fame. But for too long, Sex Pistols superfans have felt cheated in their Read More
County Lines
Henry Blake’s assured debut sees a young boy forced into trafficking drugs across the UK’s internal borders. In the opening moments of Henry Blake’s County Lines, a woman out of shot explains the meaning of an ‘acceptable loss’ to 14-year-old protagonist Tyler (Conrad Khan). “You. You’re the acceptable loss.” She insists that he is replaceable Read More
What’s gained and lost by the HBO Max-Warner Brothers deal?
There are so many films I remember vividly thanks to the context in which I saw them. Chicken Run: I was eight years old, front row of the Sheffield Showroom. I cried when they nearly got baked into pies. The Fellowship of the Ring: I was 12, it was my friend’s birthday, and we went Read More
Christmas gift guide 2020 – 10 ideas for film lovers
It’s safe to say that Christmas 2020 is going to feel very different. But if you’re still in the mood for gifting this year (and let’s be honest, who couldn’t use a bit of retail therapy right now) then we’ve got just the thing for you. Below we’ve hand-picked 10 film-related gifts which are currently Read More
Steve McQueen: ‘Until things change, these stories will always be timely’
Steve McQueen: ‘Until things change, these stories will always be timely’ The director reflects on the making of his triumphant ode to Black culture and resilience, Small Axe. It took 11 years for Steve McQueen to get the green light for his anthology film series Small Axe, which tells five stories centred around London’s West Read More
LWLies 87: The Mank issue – On sale now!
If you’re reading these words, there’s a likelihood you’re in the midst of a second lockdown and unable to stroll down to your local newsagent to pick up the latest LWLies. Well, for this issue, we’d urge you to stay indoors, not because we don’t want you to pick up the magazine, more because you Read More
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a terrifying look at the banality of evil
In 1986, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, a micro-budget horror film from first-time director John McNaughton, disturbed critics and audiences so much that it challenged the paradigms for on-screen violence. Loosely based on real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, whose crimes spanned 1960 to 1983 (he was convicted of the murder of 11 people Read More
How filmmakers are highlighting racial discrimination in the criminal justice system
How filmmakers are highlighting racial discrimination in the criminal justice system At the 64th BFI London Film Festival, three films provided a timely addition to discourse ignited by the Black Lives Matter movement. Three standout films at this year’s BFI London Film Festival deal with the topic of racism in the criminal justice system: Steve Read More
Feast your eyes on hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos from Mank
As long as it’s safe to use pandemic-related idioms again, we can safely say that Mank fever has swept the LWLies offices with a swiftness, leaving us all itching with anticipation for the new film from David Fincher. We’ve sprained our index fingers hitting replay on the full trailer unveiled earlier this week, and now Read More
How we trained the cockroach in Saint Maud
Occupation: Bug Wrangler. Well, on this occasion anyway. I’ve worked with everything from tigers to camels and crocodiles, but these days I specialise in the smaller critters that most other people don’t like: bugs, reptiles and rodents. I joke that someone has to do it, but the truth is these animals have always been my Read More
Bong Joon-ho’s early shorts are coming to the UK for the first time
Though viral idioms may be a bit iffy right now, it’s still entirely accurate to say that the world has been swept up by Bong fever in the wake of the filmmaker’s underdog Best Picture win for Parasite. A spiffy 4K restoration of his Memories of Murder is on the way, and soon, Bong Joon-ho Read More
COVID relief scheme offers respite for UK film and TV production
Mere days after chancellor Rishi Sunak suggested that musicians and other arts sector employees struggling financially should just get a new job, the UK government has made moves to provide relief to the entertainment industry. As the coronavirus continues to spread, though abating ever so gradually in some swaths of Britain, a fiscal shot in Read More
Tilda Swinton sits for Pedro Almodóvar in The Human Voice trailer
Not even a global pandemic can stop Pedro Almodóvar from creating his paeans to the strength, composure and complexity of womankind. Among the first surreal stills to depict a filmmaker proceeding with their work under quarantine was a photo of Almodóvar directing Tilda Swinton, and now a new trailer shows the result of that delicate Read More
Borat is back in the trailer for his Subsequent Moviefilm
Just when we need him most, Borat has returned to us. Sacha Baron Cohen took a big bite out of Dubya-era culture in the United States with the blockbusting 2006 movie vehicle for Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, who came to the West on a mission of enlightenment that quickly spun out into cringe-worthy calamity. Now, Read More
Watch the hair-raising first trailer for refugee horror His House
One in the handful of long-overdue reckonings that the UK film industry has faced over the past couple years concerns the presence of BAME characters onscreen and professionals behind the scenes. A diverse Britain should be reflected by a diverse cinema, and a new title coming online next month will contribute to that hopeful sea Read More
Could you design a postcard inspired by Hilma af Klint?
“Art history has to be rewritten.” This is the quote that piqued director Halina Dyrschka’s desire to create her debut feature film, Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint. Its subject is the pioneering abstract female artist, Hilma af Klint, whose name does not appear prominently in art history books, or on the walls of the Read More
Tricia Tuttle on what to expect from the 64th BFI London Film Festival
Tricia Tuttle on what to expect from the 64th BFI London Film Festival The Festival Director speak about putting together the most accessible, expansive LFF programme yet. This year has presented an unprecedented challenge to organisers of film festivals around the world, with many major events – from Cannes to Toronto – being either cancelled Read More
Kirsten Johnson ponders life and death in the Dick Johnson is Dead trailer
Kirsten Johnson has no use for the common language of documentary cinema, with its talking-head interviews and establishing drone shots and pretensions of an unattainable objectivity. She’s risen to the top of the nonfiction heap by embracing subjectivity, first assembling her autobiography Cameraperson through a swirl of free-associative footage, and now upping the ante of Read More
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune gets a spicy first trailer
While the COVID-19 pandemic has largely gutted the release calendar for 2020, the planet has still reached a juncture of confidence and security from which the blockbusters we were promised for this year can be trotted out with a tentative caution. Today, this proves fortuitous news for Timothée Chalamet superfans and devotees of sci-fi/fantasy alike, Read More
The 2020 BFI London Film Festival line-up has been announced
The 2020 BFI London Film Festival line-up has been announced This year’s scaled-back celebration mixes world cinema gems with something a little different. If nothing else, this wretched year has spurred innovation within the creative sector. Accepting that the time is not yet now for mass gatherings and business-as-usual celebrations of global art, institutions such Read More
No Time to Die gets an action-stuff, neon-soaked new trailer
If we know anything about James Bond, it’s that he’s very hard to kill. He’s made it through shark tanks and laser beams and gunfire of every variety, an agent so durable that not even a globe-spanning pandemic can stop him. 007‘s latest vehicle No Time to Die – Daniel Craig‘s last time donning the Read More
Francis Lee’s Ammonite to close the 64th BFI London Film Festival
Francis Lee’s Ammonite to close the 64th BFI London Film Festival The British writer/director’s lesbian romance will cap off this year’s LFF on 17 October. If you love a good period lesbian romance (who doesn’t?), the BFI London Film Festival has a hotly-anticipated treat for you. Following Monday’s announcement that Steve McQueen’s drama Mangrove will Read More
Paleontology and sapphic passions combine in the Ammonite trailer
The recent success of Portrait of a Lady on Fire left cinema audiences starved for more, craving their next fix of staid passions between beautiful, misunderstood women in a sapphic period piece. Specific as those needs may be, viewers won’t have to wait much longer to fulfill them, with the trailer for Ammonite now here Read More
Ai Weiwei has made a sobering pandemic documentary in secrecy
The great multimedia artist and human rights defender Ai Weiwei has not been sitting idly by while the world has descended into pandemic-fueled disarray. Though he’s been unable to leave his current residence in Europe, he nonetheless directed a new documentary titled CoroNation about the cataclysmic situation in Wuhan and the surrounding regions of China, Read More
Steve McQueen’s Mangrove to open the 64th BFI London Film Festival
Steve McQueen’s Mangrove to open the 64th BFI London Film Festival The first of five films from the director’s Small Axe anthology will screen for free to audiences across the UK. With the BFI London Film Festival set to move online for its 64th edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a relief to know Read More
John David Washington: ‘I’m better acquainted with heights now’
John David Washington: ‘I’m better acquainted with heights now’ The star of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet revels in the toil of making an experimental mega blockbuster. Leaving behind a career in American football, John David Washington has been making steady waves in the acting sphere. His most lauded and recognisable roles have come from a number Read More
Steve McQueen’s John Boyega-starring miniseries is arriving this year
In recent months, John Boyega has proven himself beyond all shadow of a doubt to be a real one. He was on the front lines of the police brutality protests, speaking candidly about the sorry state of racial inequality in the UK without a care as to how it could affect his career prospects in Read More
See the trailer for a stripped-down concert film Nick Cave recorded under COVID
Of course an artist as tirelessly inventive as Nick Cave wasn’t going to let a little thing like a global pandemic slow him down. A new press release issued today by the musician/writer/filmmaker/all-purpose creative fount paints a picture of a Cave chafing under the confinement of quarantine, and using his resources to break through these Read More
BFI London Film Festival announces virtual 2020 edition
BFI London Film Festival announces virtual 2020 edition This year’s LFF will offer online screenings, free screen talks and more, widening access across the UK. As the ever-present threat of a global pandemic has made group gatherings in contained spaces all but impossible, film festivals have had no choice but to throw out the playbook Read More