The 10 Must-See Films At This Year's Festival
Posted on Monday October 15, 2007, 17:22 by Olly Richards

Lions For Lambs
Mon 22 Oct, Wed 24 Oct
Robert Redford’s take on Iraq does not really have a story as such, but don’t let that put you off. In what amounts to basically a collection of discussions, Redford (as director and one of the stars) outlines the situation in the Middle East from the points of view of a Republican Senator (Tom Cruise), a liberal journalist interviewing him (Meryl Streep) and a university professor relating the story of two enlisted ex-students to an apathetic political science pupil. There are no sides taken, nor pat answers given in this film, but if you come out without a need to discuss it, then you weren’t watching properly.

Juno
Tue 30 Oct, Wed 31 Oct
Juno arrives at the LFF with whispers of its brilliance only just starting to build. The film was one of the big hits of the Toronto Film Festival and looks set for Little Miss Sunshine like success. Ellen Page (brilliant) plays a pregnant teenager who wants to give up her child. But this is no dreary drama. Some of the best comic talents around – Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Alison Janney – make this a film with as many assaults on your funny bone as your heartstrings.
I’m Not There
Why have one person play Bob Dylan, when you can have six? Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) hasn’t gone for the traditional biopic in his exploration of the music legend; he prefers instead to have different actors play different aspects of his personality. So, you have Christian Bale as a folk star turned born again Christian, Cate Blanchett as a rebellious folk rock pioneer and Heath Ledger as an actor playing Christian Bale’s character. It’s not going to be for everyone, but Haynes’ film gives more of a portrait of an artist than any soup to nuts movie could.

The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Fri 19 Oct, Sun 21 Oct
Brad Pitt gives the best performance of his career in this long-delayed, but worth the wait masterpiece from Andrew Dominik. Pitt is the legendary Jesse James, fabled outlaw and celebrity of his day, whose revered and feared status draw the awe of Robert Ford (brilliant younger Affleck sibling Casey). You can probably guess the outcome from the title, but Dominik’s perfect control of mood makes the lack of story a non-issue and the 150-minute running time a treat rather than a chore.

In The Shadow of the Moon
Thu 18 Oct, Sat 20 Oct
Imagine going to visit your grandparents and instead of tales of the price of haddock in Budgens and the odd half-remembered war story, you get tales of standing on the moon and obscuring all of humanity simply by raising your thumb. That’s what you get from In The Shadow of the Moon, a fascinating and joyous documentary that brings together the surviving Apollo astronauts for their account of carrying the hopes of humanity and fulfilling every child’s dream. This is less about science, more about senses.

Catching The Big Fish
Tue 23 Oct
On a weirdness scale of 1 to 10, this is Completely Batshit Crazy, but in a very good way. Lord of Odd David Lynch and flowery ‘60s folk singer Donovan team up to discuss the benefit that transcendental meditation has had on their creative careers. Which is really something we can all relate to. Do not take drugs before this event, as they really couldn’t make it much bizarre.

Enchanted
Sat 20 Oct
This is far from your traditional festival film, being, as it is, a story of a cartoon Disney princess (Amy Adams) who is sent to live-action real world New York and has trouble matching up her own expectations of true love’s first kiss and cute animals who help with housework with modern reality’s cynicism and vermin. But this charming film is packed with clever references to past Disney classics and Amy Adams nails the wide-eyed, overly gesticulating animated heroine.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
Fri 19 Oct
Already famed for its surprise Palme D’Or victory in Cannes this year, 4 months… is the rare film worthy of the Cannes jury’s often slightly barking votes. The grimly realistic tale tells of two young women in 1980s Romania, with one of them desperate for a (highly illegal) abortion. Told over the space of a single night, 4 Months is a string of perfectly orchestrated scenes where time period and language become irrelevant in the face of crisp universal depiction of frantic emotion.

Into The Wild
Thu 25 Oct, Fri 26 Oct
Sean Penn directs a break out turn from Emile Hirsch as a young man who decides to give up all his worldly possessions and live life off the grid. And by ‘off the grid’ we mean ‘up a mountain’. Penn, making his most ambitious film yet, puts Hirsch through the wringer (the actor lost 40lb playing the role) and, though the true story has its downbeat moments, creates a more positive look at mankind than he’s
presented in the past.

Funny Games
Sat 20 Oct, Mon 22 Oct
After massive critical and commercial success with 2005’s Hidden, Michael Haneke leaves his follow-up a great deal to live up to. So he’s gone back to a film he made long before Hidden hit. Funny Games, starring Naomi Watts as woman whose family is taken hostage during a holiday, is a remake of the director’s own 1997 Austrian language film of the same name. It’s not a match for Hidden, but it’s a bold-faced, gripping experiment.