My favourite film festival is here, the 2021 British Film Festival. We’re so lucky to be out of lockdown and able to enjoy films on the big screen. Now to make time for all the films I want to see. Here are my top 5 tips.
2021 marks the ninth British Film Festival, just looking at the line of brilliant actors gets me excited. Think Dame Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Michael Caine and Timothy Spall. Acting royalty all in one festival. So what to pick?
Ali and Aya
The preview movie Ali and Aya, was billed as a working class romantic comedy and I was delighted to find that was true. A slow burn tale about finding love second time around, with a good dollop of English drama thrown in. The film explores when folk and punk music mesh together. Worth a look. Rating 6/10.
The Duke
The Duke is the Opening Night film which always means it’s worth leaving the house for. Staring Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent it is based on the 1961 true story of sixty year-old taxi driver Kempton Bunton who steals Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first and remains the only theft from the gallery. Rating 7/10
The Last Bus
Any film starring Timothy Spall is a must for me. Spall stars as Tom, an elderly man, on a mission to return the ashes of his recently deceased wife, Mary (Phyllis Logan) to Land’s End, Cornwall, Britain’s most Southerly point. However, Tom lives in the village of John O’Groats at the northeastern tip of mainland Scotland and has no real way to get to Land’s End, but he does have a bus pass. Using only local buses, Tom embarks on a nostalgic trip, carrying with him his wife’s ashes in a small suitcase, travelling the length of the country to take her back home. Along the way, his adventures are recorded by the people he meets and helps, and by the end of his trip he has unwittingly become a social media celebrity.
Best Sellers
Sir Michael Caine stars in this warm-hearted road movie as a cranky, retired author who reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher. Caine stars alongside Aubrey Plaza in this rollicking literary comedy.
Boiling Point
Boiling Point tells the tale of Andy (the wonderful Stephen Graham), an emotionally scarred, drug addicted London chef struggling to keep it together. A heated single-take thriller, set in and around a top London restaurant during a single evening. Over the course of the night, Andy must deal with acrimonious staff, difficult customers, an old adversary and the pressures of keeping a frenetic kitchen and busy restaurant floor going.
Others that look good are: Falling For Figaro with Joanna Lumley; Mothering Sundays a romantic period drama starring Olivia Colman and Colin Firth. The festival also included the 7 From The Seventies retrospective and a stunning 4K restoration of the Clockwork Orange.
For more information go to Palace Cinemas and Luna Cinemas
