BFI London Film Festival: seven films you won’t want to miss

Andy Serkis drama and a punk fantasy are
among the highlights

In Depth

The 61st BFI London Film festival runs from 4-15 October, with a
programme of 243 films from 67 different countries. It will open
with a new film from Andy Serkis, Breathe, and close with the
latest crime caper from Martin McDonagh.  

Here are our top picks for the festival’s unmissable films.

Breathe

Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes actor Andy Serkis makes
his directorial debut with Breathe, which will open the festival.

Serkis’s company Imaginarium Productions made the movie, which
is based on the real story of Imaginarium co-founder Jonathan
Cavendish’s parents. It follows Robin Cavendish, Andrew Garfield
(Hacksaw Ridge) and his wife Diana, Claire Foy (The Crown) as they
attempt to lead a normal life after Robin is paralysed by
polio.

Serkis told Variety the film was “a deeply personal
story to all of us at The Imaginarium, and to have the European
premiere of my directorial debut in London, my hometown, is beyond
my wildest dreams.” 

Battle of the Sexes

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in this tennis drama based on
the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King (Stone) and Bobby
Riggs (Carell). The match saw a 55-year-old Riggs, the former male
world number one, take on 29-year-old King, the top female player
of the time with much stereotyped hype. 

The competition was full of showbiz glitz, including a rickshaw
pulled by models and a bevy of topless men, as the pair competed
for $100,000 (£77,300) of prize money. The movie promises to be a
joy, with the trailer teasing a sparky performance from Stone
and Carell on fine form as a cheesy chauvinist. 

How to Talk to Girls at Parties

John Cameron Mitchell directs this film adaptation of a Neil
Gaiman short story about a love-starved teenager’s night of
other-worldly experiences in the early days of the London punk
scene. The movie stars Alex Sharp, Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman,
Ruth Wilson and Matt Lucas. It has been described by the Hollywood Reporter as “an anarchic
collision between Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and a gender-flipped Earth
Girls Are Easy” with “a hallucinogenic dash of Romeo and Juliet”.
You can watch the trailer here.

Lean on Pete

Based on a novel by Willy Vlautin, the Tom Waits of American
literature, Lean on Pete, tells the poetic story of lost souls,
life’s losers and redemption. Brit Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years)
directs his first American-set movie, starring Charlie Plummer as a
teenage boy who befriends a failed racehorse bound for the
slaughter yard, with Steve Buscemi as the hard-bitten trainer Del.
The Guardian calls it “heartfelt and
affecting” like a good country ballad.

The Final Year

HBO’s fly-on-the wall documentary about the last 12 months of
the Obama administration is bound to provoke political soul
searching. Director Greg Barker benefits from rare access to
members of Obama’s team and provides unique insights into the White
House machinations during this tumultuous period in the lead-up to
the 2006 election.

Journeyman

Paddy Considine wrote, directed and starred in this boxing tale
alongside Jodie Whittaker. He plays Burton, a boxing champion
approaching the end of his career, who suffers a serious head
injury during his last fight. After waking up in a coma, with
memory loss and personality changes, Patty tries to pull his life
together. Considine’s critically acclaimed directorial debut,
Tyrannosaur, won numerous awards, but wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
Fans who enjoyed it can head back into the ring for more
hard-hitting drama.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Seven Psychopaths’ writer-director Martin McDonagh’s crime caper
closes the London festival. Frances McDormand, of Coen Brothers’
fame, stars as a mother who takes on the police (Woody Harrelson
and Sam Rockwell) in her Missouri town when her daughter is
murdered and the authorities fail to find the culprit. Given
McDonagh’s form and a glimpse of the trailer, viewers can look forward to dark, comic
delight.

Other films to look out for include Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, the romantic comedy The Lovers
and Loveless, the latest film from Andrey Zvyagintsev whose
Leviathan won Best Film at LFF in 2014.