One of the most satisfying things about film festivals can be the sidebar of retrospectives or, in the case of the LA Film Festival, the intermittent “Films That Got Away”. There was only one such this year, but it was a good one – Wakamatsu Kōji’s follow-up to United Red Army (2007), and his penultimate […]
Los Angeles Film Festival
LA Film Festival: ‘Jimi: All Is By My Side’ (d. John Ridley)
Jimi: All Is By My Side is a film with multiple problems serious enough that the couple of very good things it has going for it stand little chance of compensating. As written and directed by 12 Years A Slave scribe John Ridley, the narrative sets off down familiar musical biopic lane: musician discovered; gains […]
LA Film Festival: ‘Frank’ (d. Lenny Abrahamson)
A provincial young man dreams of writing songs. He is not very good at it. A chance encounter with a touring American band with an unpronounceable name leads to his stepping in for their sectioned keyboard player, travelling to Ireland to spend a year of musical experiments and recording and, through slightly underhand methods, getting […]