Darren Bignell, Senior Communication Manager
My favourite film was Argo, and my favourite moment was getting Terence Stamp to say “kneel before Zod!”

Jennifer Trevorrow, Content Manager – Digital & Editorial
My favourite film of this year’s festival was Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper. In fact, I’d even go as far as naming it one of my favourite films of the year so far. Another highlight was getting to talk to funny man Chris O’Dowd, twice.

Rich Turner, Digital Content Assistant
It might be the standard answer, but I absolutely loved Rust & Bone. And having Alice Lowe explain her toy caravan handbag was brilliant. Bizarre but brilliant.

Eve Leay, Intern
My favourite films were either Hyde Park on Hudson or Argo. Favourite Moment was seeing fitty Matthias on the Rust & Bone red carpet, and taking a cheeky snap on my phone.

Leading lady Helena Bonham Carter was joined by stars including Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Granger plus many more in Leicester Square.

Helena Bonham Carter

David Walliams and Lara Stone

Holliday Grainger and Jeremy Irvine

Ralph Fiennes

First up was Song for Marion, starring Gemma Arterton and Terrence Stamp, followed by the darkly brilliant Sightseers, from Ben Wheatley.

You can catch Ben Wheatley’s previous films Kill List and Down Terrace on LOVEFiLM Instant, plus catch the stars of Song for Marion in Lost in Austen, Poor Cow, September Dawn, A Month by the Lake, The Others and Let Him Have It.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sightseers

4 stars

British director Ben Wheatley certainly hasn’t been resting on his laurels since releasing last year’s Kill List. He’s back already with Sightseers, a comedy – albeit a very dark one – about a pair of caravanners on a murder spree in the Yorkshire countryside.

Setting aside the quirky concept, Sightseers is a surprisingly human story about Tina and Chris – the Bonnie and Clyde of the Lake District. Both riddled with insecurities and eccentricities, this odd couple come across remarkably well at the beginning of the film.

In order to escape Tina’s overbearing mother, the newly formed lovers decide to take a trip up north to visit some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes and humdrum museums. It’s only when Chris accidentally murders a serial litter bug that things start to take a turn for the worse. “Don’t let this ruin our holiday,” Tina pleads, but Chris has got the taste for blood.

What could have easily descended into a meaningless gore fest, Wheatley keeps his focus on the characters and the comedy of the situation. As we fall deeper into Tina and Chris’s world, the scenarios and people become even more surreal and nightmarish – a stand out scene sees Tina trying to write an apology letter in a cafe with a 10 foot pencil. But as the body count rises, our affection for the characters barely wains thanks to some fantastic performances from Steve Oram and Alice Lowe.

Sightseers might not be as earth shattering as Wheatley’s previous work, but it’s certainly more satisfying.

Affleck was in town for his third film as a director, the excellent Argo, which he also has a starring turn in. Plus The Rolling Stones were at the festival for the World Premiere of documentary Crossfire Hurricane.

Watch our red carpet report below, plus head over to LOVEFiLM Instant for similar titles, including Gone Baby Gone and The Rolling Stones – Stones in Exile.

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Ben Affleck in Argo

5 stars

The Town was Ben Affleck’s ‘difficult second album’.

It’s a phrase used when a new band has a massive smash with their debut outing. And then has the significant challenge of following it up with something at least as good, if not better.

Gone Baby Gone reset how many people, both inside the film industry and out, saw Ben Affleck. Casting brother Casey was a good move. But the movie’s screenplay and finished cut proved that Ben had skills as well as smarts.

And then he negotiated that tricky second hurdle with The Town, an unflinching and excellent crime thriller.

Which brings us to Argo. Rounds of applause during and after last night’s LFF gala screening were sincerely rendered. It is, in a word, terrific.

Based on staggering real events that occurred during the 1979 Iranian revolution, this tells the story of six staff from the US embassy in Tehran who escape just before revolutionaries storm the building and take everyone else hostage.

Still in Tehran, but holed up in secret at the Canadian ambassador’s house, they need a way out.
All the US State Department has are bad ideas. And the best of these bad ideas is from CIA ‘exfiltration’ specialist Tony Mendez (Affleck).

Setting up a fake movie company with Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman), Mendez is going to pretend that they’re all Canadian filmmakers, scouting locations in Iran for a new sci-fi movie.

The movie is called Argo. The mission is called suicidal.

Wearing the three hats of director, actor and producer, Affleck passes screenwriting duties on this occasion, but Chris Terrio’s screenplay is superb: pacey, informative and laced with dark comedy.

Affleck balances the gallows humour perfectly with the real-life peril, which threatens to engulf the would-be escapees at every turn. Especially after Mendez arrives in Tehran to school them on their alternate filmmaker identities.

Dramatic licence has, of course, been taken. But it’s been taken to such outstanding effect – rarely will you experience such a tension-hiking finale, delivered quite so deftly.

On this evidence, Affleck is doing a Redford. Or, indeed, a Clooney (who also produces here).

His experience in front of the camera is hugely instructive to his abilities behind it. It allows him, for the third time running, to assemble a cast of recognisable quality all the way down.

And, ultimately, it powers the crafting of one of the finest suspense thrillers you’ll see all year.

Argo is out in 7 November. In the mean time, you can watch Gone Baby Gone on LOVEFiLM Instant.

Actor-Director Ben Affleck was joined Bryan Cranston who plays a CIA exec and John Goodman who stars as an Oscar-winning make up artist.

Ben Affleck

Bryan Cranston, Ben Affleck and John Goodman

We talked to Chris O’Dowd, Bill Murray, John Hawkes and Helen Hunt about their roles in each of these films, check out the video below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re a fan of any of these titles we’ve got a selection of films on the instant service that you might enjoy including: Groundhog Day, Ghostbuster 1 & 2, As Good As It Gets, Chicago, Annie, It’s Complicated, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Marvin Gaye – Greatest Hits Live in ‘76

The Sessions

4 Stars

Where has Helen Hunt been hiding? We haven’t seen much of the Oscar-winning actress over the past few years, but she’s back with The Sessions and baring more than usual.

The comedy drama – which debuted at Sundance – is based on a true story about Mark O’Brien, a polio patient paralysed from the neck down. In his late thirties Mark hired a sex therapist to help him lose his virginity. He kept memoirs about his experiences which were later published by a magazine.

John Hawkes takes on the difficult task of playing Mark, proving he has a range which could rival Daniel Day Lewis. Both Hawkes and Hunt are class acts and even during the film’s awkward sex scenes both actors manage to keep their composure – a true testament to this film’s quality cast.

Hawkes’ other sparring partner is William H. Macy, who plays Father Brendan. Mark makes his weekly visits to church talking frankly with the Father, who listens intently to each and every intimate detail. The two actors bounce off one another generating some very entertaining scenes.

Writer/director Ben Lewin met with Mark’s other half Susan Fernbach and sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene to depict a fair and accurate account. A fellow polio sufferer, Lewin manages to tell the story with complete compassion and empathy.

Unsurprisingly The Sessions is already receiving awards buzz, and with the Academy Awards fast approaching it is definitely one to watch out for.

LOVEFiLM Instant: You can watch Helen Hunt’s Academy winning performance in As Good As It Gets, ready to watch now.

We were very excited to see Bill Murray on the red carpet who arrived in a stylish 1930’s car that looked like it was straight out of his latest film Hyde on Hudson.

Helen Hunt and John Hawkes were also there for the premiere of The Sessions, a moving film based on the true story of a polio patient Mark O’Brien, who sought after a sexual experience in his late 30s. Check out some pics of the evening below…

Both films out in cinemas early 2013.

Bill Murray

Bill Murray and Samuel West

Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt and John Hawkes