Film

Writer: Martyn Hesford Director: Adrian Noble Reviewer: Dave Cunningham It is surprising that it has taken so long for the life of artist L S Lowry to be dramatised on the cinema screen. After all, his story has inspired a ballet, stage and radio plays and a number of documentaries. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Martyn Hesford’s script for ...

Director: Jeanie Finlay Reviewer: Richard Maguire The male seahorse has quite a burden to carry. Not only does he have to carry the female’s eggs in a pouch until they hatch, releasing them into the ocean fully developed, but also the seahorse now stands as a symbol for the unpredictability of gender roles in the modern age. Jeanie Finlay’s beautifully ...

Writers: Claudio Giovannesi, Roberto Saviano and Maurizio Braucci Director: Claudio Giovannesi Reviewer: Richard Maguire Like a cross between The Godfather and Quadrophenia, Claudio Giovannesi’s Piranhas certainly lives up to its name as it follows the lives of Neapolitan teenagers attracted by the glamour of crime. Tattooed and streetwise, these boys bite, and soon, like the Amazonian fish, they develop a ...

Writer: Robert Holman, Nick Drake and Mark Rosenblatt Director: Dominic Dromgoole Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Theatre has long overlapped with film, benefiting from the application of cinematic techniques on stage thanks to the pioneering work of companies like Complicitéand renowned directors including Ivo Van Hove and Robert Icke, while actors have always moved back and forth with ease between the two. ...

Writer and Director:  Keith Behrman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire There’s no shortage of coming-out films, but they are still necessary, especially when there’s a revival of right-wing thinking across the world. However, Giant Little Ones, a Canadian film showing at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQ+ film festival, is not a straightforward coming-out film. It could be argued that it’s not a coming-out ...

 Writer and Director: Doug Spearman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Just before his film was shown at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQ+ film festival, Doug Spearman confessed that he was surprised that the programmers had labelled it as a comedy. He thought he’d made a love story. But, ultimately, From Zero to I Love You is a combination of both these genres. In short, ...

Writer and Director:  Vincente Alves do Ó Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Portuguese film Sunburn really split the critics at its press screening this week at the BFI Flare Festival, London’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival. Some walked out while others kept glancing at their watches. After the film, those who had stayed were trying to extol Sunburn’s virtues to those who had threatened ...

Writers: Eileen Atkins with Chanya Button Director: Chanya Button Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Opening this year’s Flare, London’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival, is Vita and Virginia,a lavish period drama based on the love affair between Sackville- West and Woolf at the beginning of the 1920s. While Vita’s dogged pursuit of Woolf is dramatically reimagined, the film is dripping with so many ...