London Film Festival review - The Spectacular Now

This indie coming of age tale provides an interesting counterpoint to Superbad. Both films are about a confident, mouthy, academically unremarkable high school senior who concentrates on drinking and partying to avoid contemplating the future. The Spectacular Now takes a much more serious look at this condition, and at times is truly heart breaking.

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) thought he had it all – a great girlfriend, a job, a car. But when his girlfriend leaves him, his latent alcoholism and lack of direction become harder to hide. He meets Amy (Shailene Woodley), a good girl who really should know better than to go out with him, and love begins to blossom. But will Sutter allow himself to be happy?

Both leads are excellent, and look young and normal enough to make you feel they are real. The script (from the writers of 500 Days of Summer) is a lovely mix of funny and poignant. Amazingly, the film lasts only 95 minutes but feels much longer (in a good way), with ample time to breathe.

A quick look at director James Ponsoldt’s CV shows that all three of his films so far have been about alcoholics. This is obviously a subject close to his heart, and it shows in the sensitivity with which he treats the characters. The Spectacular Now is a sweet film, which while it doesn't particularly break new ground, takes you on an engrossing journey.

London Film Festival review - En Som Deg (Must Have Been Love)

Eirik Svensson's debut feature is a low-key, poetic romance that is more about loneliness than love. The film opens in Istanbul, where Kaisa (a Finnish girl) meets Jakob (a Norwegian guy) on holiday. They have an instant connection, but he leaves before they can swap mobile numbers, or even tell each other their surnames. When she moves to Oslo, she bumps into Andreas, who looks a lot like Jakob, and begins a relationship with him. But he just isn't the same.

What is lovely about this film is how naturalistic the conversations are. Unafraid of using silence, the characters talk to each other in awkward English and much of what is said is through the eyes.

And what eyes. Pamela Tola is luminous as Kaisa. Alone in a new city, we can feel her longing for warmth and familiarity. Espen Klouman-Høiner does an amazing job of playing two characters – I really didn't realise he was both Jakob and Andreas until I saw the credits (though that may have been because Klouman-Høiner looks 10 times more attractive without a moustache than with one).

The cinematography is beautiful – all four featured cities are crisply realised in muted tones. A soundtrack full of acoustic Nordic folk rock matches this perfectly.

This is a film where very little happens, but what does happen means a lot. It explores how people can project their past onto those around them, seeing what they want to see instead of what is there. Ok – so of course I wanted them to just friend each other on Facebook, which would have instantly solved all their problems, but I still enjoyed this quiet and heartfelt journey.

London Film Festival review - All Cheerleaders Die

Sianoa Smit-McPhee and Caitlin Stasey vamping it up.

Do you like zombies? Do you like vampires? Cheerleaders? Lesbian witches? If the answer is yes, then this is the gloriously demented film for you.

Maddy (Caitlin Stasey) is a beautiful outsider in her high school who has vowed to take revenge on the popular kids. When she infiltrates the cheerleader squad, she inadvertently sparks off a series of very unfortunate events that leave her and her teammates undead and thirsty for blood.

This film is a mishmash of tones, genres and stereotypes – and you can definitely see the joins. Frenetically lurching from one set piece to another, with little logic in-between, it is a wild ride for those happy to surrender to its many charms and ignore its many shortcomings.

All the girls in this film are a hoot – gorgeous, but with a lot more character than your usual bland horror beauties (Australian Stasey is certainly pretty and sassy enough to be a star). The script has some hilarious lines, and the soundtrack is as loud and brash as it could possibly be.  

This All Cheerleaders Die is actually a bigger-budget remake of directors Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson’s first film (though the new budget could only stretch to some very ropey special effects). By all accounts, the pair followed the original with a string of iffy horrors. Second time around, they have still not created a “good” film, but it has a certain kind of brilliance.

Easily the stupidest, weirdest and most fun film I have seen this year, All Cheerleaders Die is a cult classic in the making.