The London Independent Film Festival 2023 recently ended and here is a full round-up of the feature reviews for your enjoyment in this single article:
ALEX LEWIS: MOUNTAIN
Four decades on from the famine crisis that prompted Sir Bob Geldof to galvanise and motivate the pop elite to take the stage at the old Wembley and Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium for Live Aid on July 13th 1985, Ethiopia becomes once again the bacldrop for an extraordinary tale of triumph-over-adversity – in Simon Ratigan‘s insightful documentary ALEX LEWIS: MOUNTAIIN.
Back in 2013, Alex Lewis was a healthy male with a loving partner in Lucy and young son, Sam. Then tragedy struck with a condition that was soon to render him a quadruple amputee which in the mindset of somebody more complacent would have killed them off never to be thought of again.
However, Lewis somehow decided that it would be best to try and find a common ground for the greater good for like-physical disabled folk like himself.
And so it came to pass….with help from university students in Southampton amongst others he looked to try and design a machine that could be mobile enough to work in places where disabled people felt challenged. The result – an odyssey to climb Ethiopia’s highest peak (‘higher than Dartmoor’, Lewis is heard at one point in the documentary).
The effect is a fascinating journey which prompts Lucy to question whether if Alex had not been what he is today whether they would still be together (she states that his main interests when he was able-bodied were golf and booze). Upon arrival in Ethiopia, he meets Emebet, affected in a like-minded physical challenge who is keen also to climb the high peak like him.
However, ALEX LEWIS: MOUNTAIN is not just a tale of how one man could overcome his own physical limitations, it is also a tale of how diversity and disability can triumph over all manner of challenges thrown your way when curveballs hit you from the centre plate of life. There are also, as in the terrific FREE SOLO, some breathtaking vistas that would challenge even the most able-bodied vertigo suffering viewers, let alone the amazing dynamic duo of Lewis and Emebet.
Well, there is a saying that a picture paints a thousand words, but could a picture save more than a thousand lives? Such is the conundrum facing a world of alternate universes, realities and a canvas of noir in Matthew Philip Cannon‘s sci-fi thriller REVOLUTION X.
At the Daydream Cancer Charity, Tee Hudson (Tee Morris) is about to celebrate an incredible success with his latest work. He has a dark side and is involved with a loving partner. However, the conflicts of his past and his relationship with his daughter Jasmin (Carlotta Ryan) are starting to impose on his troubled mind, as well as the tragedy of losing his mother back in 1983.
Retreating to a rural farm where he continues to paint, Hudson is trying to reestablish a relationship with Jasmin, whilst his ex-wife is determined to stop him from seeing her. A buyer from Carlisle is on the way to see his work and perhaps a good fee will save his personal troubles. When the buyer pulls out, Hudson wonders what will happen, until a woman, Lottie, turns up thrilled with the work on show in his farmyard barn and would like to come back again….
OK, that is a reasonable set-up of plot for this film, but rest assured the overall result is not as straightforward in a film (co-written by Cannon with Ella Valentine) that combines the best influences of Philip K. Dick and a touch of TERMINATOR which once you pull focus and pick up all the elements (give it time as it is admittedly a little random in the early third of the film!) settles into an involving and cleverly worked-out multi-dimensional thriller with high stakes at it’s heart (or should I say art?)
Fans of the likes of INCEPTION and MINORITY REPORT will be rewarded and the film moves towards a terrifically-staged final quarter of action which would do the likes of John Woo and the JOHN WICK team proud.
This is not a check-your-brain-in-for-action yarn, it is a film that demands your brain as much as your eyes and ears. As I said, pay close attention to all the elements in the first third and be rewarded by the end.
I BRING JOY
London is a city which brings so much promise as you arrive – and so much variety of life as you evolve with it. For dancer Joy, the ‘Big Smoke’ is about to provide something else iin David Stuart Snell‘s psychological horror noir I BRING JOY.
Joy (Elena Rivers) is used to the world of the casting couch, cattle call and making sure she is on time whilst in time at the heart of the dance studio where she is determined to make it as the ‘Queen Of The West End’, but it is clear that one more audition is draining her resolve. Matters aren’t helped by the studio ‘Queen Bee’ Meghan (Verity Hayes) , always near-perfect and getting a call back in a role above the one Joy was aspiring to get.
One night, whilst walking alone through the North London streets, Joy is given some unwanted attention from a knife-wielding love wannabe, which leads to the accidental stabbing of the individual. Joy quickly begins to realize that she might have a rhythmic talent for co-ordinated stabbing against those who suppress her the most. Add in some local drug dealers and a shoe designer who are becoming part of her expanded inner circle….and some dark and dastardly deeds are afoot…..
The title seems rather ironic, given this dark and sinister take of a classic genre, encompassing the stylistic tropes of AMERICAN PSYCHO and BLACK SWAN, alongside the backdrop of the classic urban canvas that has defined many indie London flicks over the decades. Virtue-signallers will detect a subtle aside to the #MeToo and #TimesUp mindset regarding the mystique of a figure known as only ‘The Legend’ discussed in the post-rehearsal bars and dance studio, but at its’ heart I BRING JOY is a traditional thought provoking tale of ambiguity that polarises your thoughts as the final credits roll.
TO A CINDER
Obsession and voyeurism go hand in hand when your mind is unsettled, but for a Marine reject they are essential tools in Henry Scriven‘s TO A CINDER.
Based on a graphic novel by David Taylor, TO A CINDER is the story of Paul (Elliot Warren), who is assigned by Gustav (Bill Ward), to watch over Eleanor (Rosalind Halstead) incognito from a vantage point across the street from her ground floor flat. Paul is given strict instructions not to blow his cover, but as he watches he witnesses a variety of characters seemingly part of Eleanor’s world become as obsessive about being around her as he is, prompting all manner of brooding hate and jealousy in his bid to carry out his mission.
Pretty soon, the resistance becomes futile and Paul has to emerge into the open to try and fulfil his mission, even if it means breaching the original requirements….
Concise, very well-worked and twisted noir that switches mood and intent halfway through, making a social comment about the nature of male-v-female dynamics in the modern world. The film starts out a bit like Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW with Warren looking across the road at Halstead, but evolves into the realm of SHALLOW GRAVE and WILD THINGS for the latter half which skewers audience belief and expectations as it moves towards the climax.
In a market when the desire to bombard audiences with spectacular imagery and ideas, TO A CINDER relies on old-fashioned gradual development and set-up to build to a very satisfying conclusion in a film that clocks in well under ninety minutes, at a time when most movies in length are crying out to be at least half an hour shorter in terms of audience attention span.
NOT_A.JPEG
Take a look around your community, house and museum. When you look at the art you desire, own or resent, how much of a price do you put on it?
Art takes different forms and has evolved over the years. Icons like Banksy and Leonardo DaVinci have created some many things that have polarised opinion and there are connoisseurs and investors who will happily pay incredible (and perverse) sums of money ‘because they can’.
A new documentary from Vitor Vilela, NOT_A.JPEG reflects on a possible flipside of the art world, in the form of the emerging (and perhaps misunderstood at present given what has happened in its’ market recently) blockchain art market, with new brands like ‘Cool Cats‘ and ‘Bored Ape‘ galvanising many new and discovering fans who are willing to buy via an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) .
Regarded as an alternative to standard financial attributes, the difference between an NFT and your money (be it cash, debit or credit card) is that a single NFT is a unique element with unique codes and metadata. I have to admit that I am a little old-fashioned given my life-long usage and awareness of good old-fashioned ‘green’ and – as some of the contributors in this documentary will tell you – there are risks and losses like the established financial and stock markets.
At first glance, the unaware or uninitiated might be resistant to whether the blockchain industry is a con or scam, but for some of the artists in the community which has grown over the last few years it has been the guiding light out of darkness which has given them renewed focus and purpose in the fragility and unpredictability of life, personfied by the global pandemic that is still causing major grief across the world with variants of the virus still existent under the radar.
In a wider sense from others featured, the documentary also touches on this belief that the blockchain revolution – given time – could also change the way traditional entertainment is viewed alongside the streaming markets that have benefitted from people unable to go out and watch their entertainment in communal and live formats like concerts and cinema when the lockdown hit hardest.
Even if you have no desire to own one of the pieces of art on show in this film (which all seem to be out of the range of many of us who are suffering due to the present cost-of-living crisis) NOT_A.JPEG will at least provide you with context and enlightenment in a fascinating expose.
DREAM AGENCY
The line between dream and reality has been explored umpteen times in films over the decades. For troubled soul Janet, the dreamscapes shaping her well-being come to the fore in Andy Field and Deborah Pearson‘s indie psychological drama DREAM AGENCY.
Situated at a cliffside beach with her civil partner Beatrice in bridal attire, Janet has doubts about the choices she is faced with as she receives a piece of bone which Beatrice says could be made into a necklace if sculpted right. She is part of a rural commune that has embraced her and tends to deal with a reality between abstract and surreal. Inevitably, the desire to follow the more traditional human desires begins to impact on Janet’s well-being.
Whether it is being a servant in a period dinner scene or running as part of a pack of dogs wearing a dog mask on the beach, Janet’s own sense of belonging begins to be impacted by the consequences of visualising your dreams and what it truly means to be living in dreamland….
Left-field and surrealist fantasy drama, if that’s one definition I could tender towards you, which comes across like Lars Von Trier collaborating with David Lynch. Audiences will certainly start to think where this is going when at one point a discussion about the relationship between bladders and dreams comes into play (I kid you not!).
Overall, the experience of watching DREAM AGENCY can come across as a little idiosyncratic and wanting, which is probably why it does retain the attention due to you wanting and wondering where the narrative is taking you. Of all the offerings on show at LIFF 2023, this is probably the weirdest on offer. Still, films are made to cater for all mindsets, sensitivities and tastes. If you are keen to find a film that explores concepts and ideas against a canvas of non-specifics, then this film will probably be right up your street.
OLDER GODS
Chris (Rory Wilson) heads to Wales from Denver, leaving his pregnant partner Karen in limbo. His objective – to get to why his best friend Billy (Ieuan Coombs) and partner Paula (Lindsay Bennett-Thompson) tragically ended their lives. He decides to stay for few days at an isolated cottage where he looks at a package and posthumous messages from Billy, talking of alternate universes and questioning how our own seemingly insignificant time on the planet cannot be measured by our own mortality.
Before long, however, Chris suffers major delusions, not helped by visions of mysterious watchers in the woods and images played out on his cottage plasma that are starting to impact on his own sanity as much as Billy’s own reflections about where the universe plays a part in humanity…..
Atmospheric and unsettling compact psychological horror, echoing the likes of THE EVIL DEAD and CABIN FEVER, playing off implied horror and suspense with a solid usage of light and shadow throughout. Rory Wilson holds the frame competently as the main protagonist of the piece, drawn deeper and deeper into his late friend’s conflicts and mental deterioration as the story unfolds.
At its’ heart there are themes of guilt, mental health and a desire to atone for our sins when we need to be around. Although the climax of the film is partly sentimental, OLDER GODS does at least try to have some context and subtext amidst the blood and gore on show, with some admirable effects from the team of Andrew Sexton and Scott Bishop.
It’s not a perfect film by any means but competently-made nonetheless.
LOVE WITHOUT WALLS
The tough world of the streets comes home to roost for a loving young couple in writer/director Jane Gull‘s drama LOVE WITHOUT WALLS.
Aspiring singer-cum-taxi driver trainee Paul (Niall McNamee) and photographer Sophie (Shana Swash) try to make ends meet with Paul playing various low-paying acoustic gigs and Sophie trying to get some decent shots, mostly of Paul at the gigs themselves.
Soon however, money is silent in the bank account and a final notice of eviction greets their doormat. In desperation, they head off in Sophie’s car (affectionately called ‘Patrick‘) to the streets of Southend to seek out an old friend of Paul’s. Sophie decides to take a low-paying job as a hotel cleaner, whilst Paul decides to use his musical talents alfresco.
It isn’t long though before their car is repossessed by the Police for having no road tax and complaints from local residents about their anti-social behaviour take hold, forcing them to go even deeper into despair. However, Paul and Sophie are bound by love through thick and thin – and their lives still have to be lived….
Firmly in the realm of classic social dramas like CATHY COME HOME, as well as more recent Ken Loach offerings like I, DANIEL BLAKE and SORRY WE MISSED YOU, LOVE WITHOUT WALLS encompasses the after and ongoing effect of the lockdown and pandemic, as well as the current cost-of-living status quo.
It’s not an easy watch at the best of times, the hard-hitting harsh realities of being suddenly thrust out into the open without a net to catch you. However, Paul and Sophie’s predicament is realised with affection, love and a sense that they both know that something better might be around the corner if they graft sufficiently.
The leads have terrific chemistry without resorting to stereotype and the film also benefits from acting veteran Paul Barber (Denzel in ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES, THE FULL MONTY and THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY amongst others) who makes an appearance as a lovable vagrant whom Sophie meets one day.
LOVE WITHOUT WALLS is a grounded, solid social drama (and heartbreaking, so bring some tissues with you!) that lays down the facts and will certainly hit you if you are struggling to make ends meet at the moment. It certainly isn’t designed to be a cathartic release, but it proves its’ point more than effectively.
ABOUT LIFF:
Festival Director Natasha Marburger (above) oversees this festival celebrating the best in indie cinema from across the globe which brings together film-makers and fans every April at the Genesis Cinema in Mile End, East London.
The event also offers networking opportunities and panels discussing the key priorities that film-makers in the indie market required to move their careers and films forward. In addition, there are opportunities to watch short films which form the cream of the talent showcased. Here are two reviews of two key titles that wowed the audiences in the 2023 event:
THE DRAFT
The hopes of the human race are in the hands of a few fertile women, brought together for a Lottery TV extravaganza in the new sci-fi short THE DRAFT.
Best friends Kate and Jessica are two of five selected in a dystopian future where they are paraded as the lucky ones who can procreate and give the world what life truly means. However, when it comes to the key selection moments, the pair suddenly begin to realise and rethink what their true objectives are…
Director Raphaela Wagner‘s solid compact film, intended as a proof-of-concept, visually reminds one of THE HUNGER GAMES, but has a narrative firmly rooted in the classic sci-fi films of the 1970s like A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, ROLLERBALL and LOGAN’S RUN amongst others, encompassing the reality show boom of shows like I’M A CELEBRITY and BIG BROTHER.
SEANCE
Regrets about your relationships with your parents come to the fore for one such young man in the new comedy-drama short SEANCE.
Matthew (Charlie Robb) schedules an appointment with medium Mystic Mike (Douglas Tawn) with a wish to speak with his mother who perished in a recent car accident alongside his father. When she isn’t available, Matthew learns about a few nagging realities from his present father who is about to go out with some supernatural socialites and the seemingly uncomfortable truth….
Darkly comic and satisfyingly grounded supernatural short, written and directed by Robb and Tawn which holds the attention and reflects on family relationships when they could be at their nadir. Atmospheric cinematography and music add to the flavour.
For more on the London Independent Film Festival, including news, how to submit films and tickets, please go to:
