Manchester Film Festival 2017

It's back! The official selection for #MANIFF 2017 was announced today, and although I haven't had chance to give the list more than a cursory glance so far, I have booked my festival pass. Here's the preview reel - stay tuned for updates from me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox9sa48TuyM

Det borde finnas regler – There should be rules

As a rule, I avoid anything which has the tag 'coming of age' - I don't want my leisure time to be filled with precocious teenagers. And while there is an element of that with one of the friends, Mia - who takes centre stage - is fortunately more interesting than this and is played …

Despite the Falling Snow

I wonder if Sam Reid will ever grow up to play himself? He's been a young Peter Firth in Spooks, a young Stellan Skarsgård in The Railway Man, and here he's a young Charles Dance. But this cold war/thaw film, which jumps around quite a bit in the first third between the early 1960s and …

Broke

A washed-up former rugby star is given a chance at redemption when he is offered shelter by a fan who remembers his glory days. Match-fixing is apparently a real problem in Australian rugby, so this is addressing topical issues, some of them head-on. I liked the performances, particularly the daughter (Claire van der Boom), and …

No Limits – Impossible is Just a Word

If you take this at face value, then Alex Zanardi is nothing short of a iron-willed saint. A former F1 driver who lost both legs after an accident, who went on to become Paralympic and World para-cycling Champion, he is now embarking on his next challenge - being part of a 3 man driving team …

Vince Giordano – There’s A Future in the Past

For anyone even remotely interested in jazz music of the first half of the 20th century, this will be an interesting watch. According to Manchester Film Festival's website, 'Vince Giordano is responsible for the period music in Todd Haynes’ “Carol”, Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator”, Robert DeNiro’s “The Good Shepherd”, Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club”, …

All Rise

  Mildly interesting documentary that would have whiled away 90 minutes in the background on Netflix. Each year, law students form all over the world face each other in a moot court to argue the case for an imaginary nation embroiled in an international dispute with its imaginary neighbour. This film follows a selection of students …

Martin Sheen presents – The World is My Country

A still-in-the-editing stage screening of a film featuring a wonderfully inspirational character whose story should not be forgotten. Garry Davis used The Universal Declaration of Human Rights to proclaim himself a citizen of the world, not of any one nation. His position is that if there are no individual countries and we are all citizens of …

Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in PyongYang

In which extrovert non-conformist Dennis Rodman offers North Korean despot Kim Jong-un a visit of an NBA All-Stars basketball team for his birthday. Rodman is an unlikely friend for Kim Jong-un but for reasons which are never confirmed (obviously), the North Korean leader is happy to be seen smiling and hugging Rodman - at least …

Manchester Film Festival begins!

It's about to start! Thursday 3rd March sees the beginning of Manchester Film Festival, which runs until Sunday 6th March. Thanks to the generosity of the festival organisers, I've been given a free pass to a good selection of the programme (for which I'm very grateful) - enough to keep me in a cinema for most …