Just a bit of a public service announcement. 

I love using Letterboxd, most easily described as ‘GoodReads for Films’. (You can find me at https://letterboxd.com/dorset/ if you’d like to follow my film ratings during MIFF, or afterwards).

While they offer a perfectly acceptable free service to members, you do have the option to subscribe for more features. I’ve been a Patron for a few years now, and it’s easily worth the asking price. That said, who doesn’t like a bit of a discount? If you’ve been on the fence, MIFF have organised a discount to Letterboxd during the festival this year – simply use the promo/voucher/coupon code “MIFF“, and you’ll get 20% off the normal price.

Welcome to MIFF 2023 (aka the 71st MIFF). Tonight was the opening night film at the comedy theatre and thankfully, my legs survived the well reputed seats. It appears they’ve been updated since I last visited.

SHAYDA – ★★★★

Shayda is an Australian film, set in mid-1990s Melbourne, and tells the story of an Iranian mother and daughter who spend time in a women’s shelter. It’s the first feature by Noora Niasari and is largely biographical about her experiences. It’s an incredible first effort, and deserves a watch. Nicely filmed, good pace, and creates tension and fun without overplaying it. If it’s not the best opening night MIFF film I’ve seen, it’s definitely in the top two.

My list of MIFF films that I’d like to see. I won’t make it to all, but here’s what I’d see if I could:

• 20,000 Species of Bees
• About Dry Grasses
• Absence
• The Adults
• Afire
• Ama Gloria
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Animalia
• Art College 1994
• Autobiography
• Beyond Utopia
• Biosphere
• Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
• Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
• Blue Jean
• The Breaking Ice
• The Buriti Flower
• The Carnival
• Casa Susanna
• Charcoal
• The Delinquents
• The Disappearance of Shere Hite
• Earth Mama
• The Echo
• The Eternal Memory
• Fairyland
• Fledglings
• Four Daughters
• Fremont
• Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field
• The Hidden Spring
• Hounds
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline
• How to Have Sex
• Invisible Beauty
• I Used to Be Funny
• Joan Baez I Am a Noise
• The Kingdom Exodus
• La Chimera
• Late Night With the Devil
• Little Richard: I Am Everything
• Lost Country
• The Maiden
• May December
• Medusa Deluxe
• MIFF Ambassador Special Screening: The Bank 4K Restoration
• Millennium Mambo
• Monster
• Mutt
• The Nature of Love
• O Canada! Shorts From The Maple-Leafed North
• One Last Evening
• Passages
• Past Lives
• Perfect Days
• Pictures of Ghosts
• Radical
• Remembering Every Night
• Riddle of Fire
• Robot Dreams
• The Rooster
• Scrapper
• The Shadowless Tower
• Shayda
• Shortcomings
• Shut Eye
• Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
• Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)
• Stonewalling
• The Sweet East
• Theater Camp
• Time Bomb Y2K
• Tótem
• The Tuba Thieves

I managed to watch a few extra films at MIFF 2022 that I hadn’t reviewed yet. Here they are:

BRIAN AND CHARLES – ★★★☆

Feel good comedy shot in Wales about Brian, a bit of a loner/inventor. He invents a robot and strikes up a father/son like relationship with him. The film feels like what would happen if Taika Waititi made a live actor version of Wallace & Gromit.

NAVALNY – ★★★☆

Documentary about Putin’s political opponent, Alexei Nalvany. Pretty well done, and some truly nail biting scenes as you’re shown details around his poisoning in 2020. Felt like the film makers were hedging their bets that Navalny would be dead by now to give some extra impact to a couple of the scenes, but overall worth a watch.

WHO KILLED THE KLF? – ★★★☆

I really like the KLF, so I wanted to know more about what KLF is about. Also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. Furthermore known as the Jams. The documentary is unofficial, and initially Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty tried to stop it from coming out. Apparently. One thing you’ll learn by watching is that there is often seemingly a lack of planning and a lot of ambiguity around the KLF. (Even their name stands for any number of things). Was this worth watching? Definitely for a fan. I found there was a bit missing, and while the film makers did get some good audio interview recordings of the band to use, I still don’t really feel like we got the inside story, and that the truth may still be out there. The number 23 is a key one for them, so here’s hoping for something new from them next year.

MASS – ★★★★

Deep, impactful drama about two couples coming together six years after a school shooting in America. One couple are the parents of a victim, the other parents of the shooter. Tense, and emotional, but never turning into unrealistic outcomes. Incredible acting by all the main characters, and I’m still thinking about this film the next day.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON – ★★★★

Cute combination of stop-motion film over a real world setting about Marcel, a shell, with shoes on. The shell lives in a house that was previously lived in by humans, but is now an Air BNB. One of the visitors starts filming Marcel and his innocent take on the world around him. Many inventive moments of how Marcel manages to take care of himself and his grandma (voiced by Isabella Rossellini) It’s an American film with decent budget and overall was a great feel-good start to the last day of in-person MIFF 2022.

BROKER – ★★★

I was really looking forward to this film by Hirokazu Kore-eda, as I liked Shoplifters and Still Walking at previous MIFFs. Yet again, he is exploring the definition of what makes a family, and showing that it’s not necessarily just who you are blood related to. In this case, a young new mother drops her baby off at a church. The baby ends up in the hands of human traffickers who sell babies to parents that are having a hard time adopting. Overall I didn’t enjoy this one as much – I found some of it confusing, possibly in part to being a little tired, and a little tired of the various collection of people in the cinema who were showing up 15 minutes late, looking at their phones, sniffling and sneezing, or crinkling their potato chip bag to an extraordinary degree. Decided after this to enjoy the rest of the day at home and end my in person MIFF 2022 here.