Note: This was written before the GBBO Final

Sad news. This week, I went out of the Great Film SW London Blog Off. While over the last few weeks, I got star blogger, it turns out that last week I totally forgot to mention that I’d watched The Pianist. (This part of the story is true, it was a good film). Therefore, as I was the worst of the week, it now means that the finalists are from some young kid’s website MotspurParkFansOfFilmsLikeCats.com website (He had two good reviews and even told the judges to look at his third review) and DavesMangoAndPassionFruitMovieReviews.blog.com. I wish them both the best in the final week, although I will be supporting LaurasFilms.com where even when watching Paddington 2, she still has some form of breakdown.

Anyway, now onto more pressing issues. Having been trying to go through some best picture winners, I’d realised that since lockdown, I haven’t watched many female directed films. Therefore, I decided to commit to a week of focussing specifically on female directors (with one exception). The rules were simple: It had to be a film directed/co-directed by a woman and it had to be a film I hadn’t seen before.

Sadly this second rule got rid of some great films. Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Katia Lund’s City Of God Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Little Women, Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Tomboy, Girlhood, or anything by her was banned. Other honourable mentions include The Matrix, Shrek, Leave No Trace and You Were Never Really Here. However, I was left with a set of critically acclaimed films, each of which was very unique.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) was co-directed by Valerie Faris and Jon Dayton. Frank (Steve Carrell) has recently attempted suicide and has to move in with sister Sheryl (Toni Colette) and her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear). When their daughter gets invited to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, they all go in this van with their grandfather and two children, one of whom chooses to be mute, and make their way across the country. Obviously everything that can go wrong does go wrong, whether people or cars breaking down.

There was a fair bit I didn’t like about this film. Some of the humour was hit and miss and Steve Carrell’s character only seemed to be there because Steve Carrell was going to be in the film. However, the film did have a heart and it found it by the end, which for most of it I didn’t think it would. It’s a nice family film, however in finding it’s message it’s much too heavy handed.

It was well made and a generally happy piece and maybe if I hadn’t had my heart torn apart by the bake off I would’ve liked it a bit more. A quirky oddball comedy and if you enjoy that type of film, you’ll definitely get something out of this.

Little Miss Sunshine can be rented on most streaming services

On the other end of the film spectrum, you find a really artsy film like Beau Travail (1999) directed by the acclaimed Claire Dennis. It was more of a mood piece than a narrative film and a week after watching it, I can’t really remember what happened. There was a French army in Africa. A new recruit came along, someone got jealous, someone got hurt, someone danced. Frankly, that’s all I can really remember.

It was a film which left you in a trance state. One that my housemate said “reviewers probably rated highly because they didn’t want it to look like they didn’t get it” (It was rated 91% on Metacritic, which is the amount of the movie I spent thinking okay when is it going to start). It’s all a bit slow, however the intense lighting and soundtrack, while not a great home watch, I imagine would’ve been brilliant to see in the cinema. However, in this lockdown, I wouldn’t especially recommend hunting it down.

Beau Travail can be rented on Amazon

Something Useful (2017) really pained me as the first 90 minutes were absolutely fantastic, but then I just got really bored. for the last twenty. Leyla is a lawyer and a poet who meets Canan, a young nursing student who is going for a nursing interview on a train. However, something doesn’t quite seem right as these layers unravel. Canan is always on the phone and is very nervous. We learn that she has offered to assist someone’s suicide. Leyla, unable to keep her nose out of anything agrees to help.

The first part is really deep tonally and symbolically. It’s understated and any part on the train is well worth a watch. However, once we arrive it really does slow down. There isn’t much of a place to go with these characters and once she goes to an event there really isn’t much to be taken from those scenes. If the film was 90 minutes it would’ve easily won the film of the week. If you’re really into action films then you won’t like this. However, there is definitely an audience for such a film with two brilliant intense leads bringing the script to life.

Something Useful is available to stream on MUBI

The world of animation is indeed a great way to bring across difficult issues in a sensitive way. The treatment of woman in Iran is a devistating issue discussed very well in both Persepolis (2007) and The Breadwinner (2017)

Persepolis focuses on the life of Marji, a young Iranian girl when the Shah were defeated in the Iranian revoloution. This is meant to be the beginning of her country’s liberty. However, when Islamic fundamentalists rule, she finds her freedoms to become even more curtailed. We see her grow up, deal with political tragedy, move abroard and struggle with that, and have to deal with everything is going on around her while trying to find her own identity.

95% of the film is in black and white in quite a graphic novel style. Little comic tricks show her emotion very explicitly in a similar way to how Spiderverse did. Its minimalist style really allowed the action to be the centrepoint of this film. The simplicity almost allows the film to give the plot as it is.

Persepolis is by no means a perfect film. The main problem was that they attempted to put far too much into a ninety minute run time which allowed us to see, but not really feel what the character was feeling. The art style may have also taken away from a more realistic issue. It had pros and cons. However, overall I felt it was a well made personal film.

Persepolis is available to rent on most digital platforms

I personally prefered the approach of The Breadwinner (2017), a film which looked at the same topics, but with a more focussed story line. Following the arrest of her father, Parvana can’t buy her siblings or mother anything or work for them as she is a girl. She cuts off her hair and dresses as a boy and attempts to live and work around modern day Iran.

We get a historical context, however its much lighter than Persepolis, with the film ending as a war begins. The animation itself was creative and beautiful with two story arcs coming together for tragic yet well made effects. Its certainly not an easy kids film as there is shooting and beating, but that is the harsh reality of life for women in Iran. The whole film was really well put together and is definitely worth a watch from a very good up and coming animation company.

The Breadwinner is available on Netflix

Film Of The Week

I didn’t really know what to expect going into Mustang (2015). The best foreign language film Oscar nominee was a film I hadn’t even heard of. However, I must say it’s one of the most fully complete films I’ve seen in a while. The story looks at 5 teenage sisters who are living freely in rural Turkey. One day after school they went down the beach with a couple of boys. The affair was totally innocent as they all played in the sea, with no malice or anything appropriate in anybody’s mind. However, a curtain twitching neighbour (It’s honestly Turkey and not Denmead) reports alleged frivolities to the girls’ grandmother. She and their uncle then go about restricting their freedoms before the grandmother parades them around town, looking to marry each one off.

However, these girls don’t take this lying down. The small acts of rebellion, like going to the football and sneaking out each give a sparkle of hope which will make you smile. The painful reality is that each one of these actions has consequences. As tthe movie progresses and the girls all get more desperate and unhappy, the house becomes more and more barred up and becomes a prison. There are some disturbing outrageous topics which come up in this film. As well as the stripping of liberties, there are mentions of doctors who check a girl’s virginity and many other horrific moments. The stakes in the film are high, and they feel very real.

The young actresses in this film were all fantastic. The directing was incredible and the musical score was one of the best I’ve heard in a while. I was fully engrossed in this film as it reached its climax, fearing for the lives of the sisters, not sure whether they would survive. An absolutely essential film.

Mustang is available to watch on MUBI