ALISON ROWAT

London Film Festival

OPENING with Suffragette and closing with Steve Jobs, London is fitting nicely into the film festival calendar as a chance to grab a sneak peak of likely Bafta and Oscar contenders.

Trumbo (FOUR STARS) is a Hollywood love letter to, what else, Hollywood. Dalton Trumbo was the highest paid screenwriter in the business in the Forties. He was also a socialist, which put him on a collision course with one Senator McCarthy. Played in Oscar-nomination worthy style by Bryan Cranston, Jay Roach’s funny and heartfelt drama is heroically one sided in its defence of free speech.

A Bigger Splash (three stars) finds Tilda Swinton reunited with I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino. Swinton plays a rock star resting her voice on an Italian island when who should turn up but good old record producer Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his recently discovered daughter (Dakota Johnson). Enjoyably OTT, particularly Fiennes’s dad dancing, but alas, like a bad guest, the film does not know when to go.

Sightseers and Kill List made British director Ben Wheatley hot enough to merit his own fire brigade. His latest, High-Rise (two stars) is a let down, however. Adapted from the JG Ballard novel, the drama is set in a dystopian future where society is organised by floor. Despite the best efforts of Tom Hiddleston as a doctor caught in the middle (class) this is more the stuff of first year sociology essays than compelling cinema.

Black Mass (four stars) will remind audiences everywhere that underneath all that Pirates nonsense Johnny Depp remains an outstanding actor. Here, he burns up the screen as notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in what is otherwise a largely by the numbers crime drama.

One to watch out for this winter is Room (four stars), the story of a young woman held prisoner in a shed. Played with depth and intelligence, Lenny Abrahamson’s picture announces a blistering new talent in Brie Larson.

Brooklyn (four stars) brings to the screen in fine style Colm Toibin’s beloved novel about a young Irish woman’s immigration to America. From Saoirse Ronan’s performance onwards there is nothing flashy, but everything is done with impeccable feeling for the material. An old fashioned treat.