Now that the 54th London Film Festival has drawn to a close, it’s time to look back at all of the feature films that I reviewed. Here is the list, ordered from best to worst.
1) Dhobi Ghat
5) Tabloid
6) Cold Weather
8) Miral
10) West is West
11) The American
12) Never Let Me Go
Some further guidance on the ranking: 1-2=must see; 3-5=strong, unforgettable films; 6-8=worth seeing, in spite of certain drawbacks; 9-10=good fun, with room for improvement; 11-12=dismal.
Although there is a certain pleasure to be had in giving films star ratings or ranking them from best to worst, there is something inevitably reductive about this process. You might feel quite sure about your highest and lowest ratings: these are films which have really stood out for their sheer brilliance or absolute dreadfulness, and so it is easier to rank them as ‘best’ and ‘worst’. Somewhere in the middle, though, the limitations of simple rating systems becomes clear: films that are good in some ways, bad in others, are difficult to compare, because the ways in which they are good and bad differ in themselves. To rank these films, you find yourself engaging in a rather unpleasant task of having to gauge proportions of good and bad qualities in a given film: was it 80% enjoyable, or only 60%? But the proportions themselves are like apples and oranges when it comes to ranking films against each other: does film A’s slow moving narrative make it worse than film B’s bland dialogue? Or do film A’s beautifully composed shots count for more than film B’s innovative approach to storytelling?
In the end, the ranking system has nonetheless provided a relatively accurate guide to how good I think these films are: I have tried to weigh the films’ creative ambition against their enjoyment factor. Although it was difficult to decide the exact position where a film should be on the list, making this list is a useful exercise, as the films that appear near each other tend to share certain qualities, and could result in some interesting comparisons or insights as to what makes a good film. The American and Never Let Me Go both have a profound problem with their characters, making the films difficult to tolerate. Cold Weather and Love Like Poison shared a stillness and mystery at their centre which left the audience wanting something more. Tabloid and The Tillman Story are two documentaries which introduce the audience to their subject matter with consummate skill. The Kids Are All Right and Dhobi Ghat give the audience delightfully recognisable character types and give us the opportunity to both laugh and sympathise them.
As I wrote my reviews, it felt like I typically had a lot of criticisms about the films I saw. But looking back at this list of films, I realise how strong the selection was this year. This may be due to the fact that I mainly attended press screenings, which tended to offer films with one or more of the following assets: big budgets, established writers and directors, and big-name actors. That said, some of the films I liked least featured some of the best-known actors, were written by successful writers and made by well-known directors. Meanwhile, some of the most intriguing films were by first-time directors with relatively unknown actors. Both the London Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival seemed markedly stronger to me this year: there were far fewer disappointments than usual, and a handful of truly outstanding films, which is as much as any reviewer can ask for.
