The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão
London Film Festival, 15th October. The setting of this gorgeous wallowing melodrama is a lavishly realised 1950s Rio de Janeiro. Two sisters, Eurídice and Guida, cherish dreams of the future: one hopes to be a concert pianist, the other longs for love. But they're kept apart by a lie and the deeply ingrained patriarchy of the world they inhabit. With its languid pacing, its stunning, enveloping cinematography and its saturated sense of melancholy, this is a film that feels like a life-changing journey.
The French Dispatch
All cinemas, 22nd October. The latest film from Wes Anderson is a typically precise and meticulously detailed confection. The setting is the offices of The French Dispatch, an outpost of an American publication in an unnamed but extravagantly Gallic French city. The structure of the film—a series of vivid chapters—reflects that of the magazine itself. As with all portmanteau films, some of the strands are more successful than others. A Timothée Chalamet-starring segment about a student protest is somewhat laboured, but the final story, starring Jeffrey Wright as a food critic, is deliciously funny.
Last Night in Soho
All cinemas, 29th October. Thomasin McKenzie plays an aspiring fashion student from Cornwall who moves to London, and discovers that she is able to slip between the present day and swinging Soho of the mid-1960s, in this riotously entertaining psychological thriller by Edgar Wright. There she meets her alter ego, an ambitious wannabe singer played by Anya Taylor-Joy. As with all the director’s films, music is a crucial part of the storytelling—but even by Wright’s high standards the film’s soundtrack, full of heart-swelling sixties staples, is an absolute joy.
