The best films in July 2019—Varda and Only You

 

Varda by Agnes, Released on 19th July

The final film from the late Agnès Varda is an autobiographical celebration of the much-beloved purveyor of cinematic mischief. Launched on the crest of the New Wave, she was a creative force in arthouse cinema for 75 years. There is a sense in this film, a career retrospective which is pegged to a series of lectures by Varda, of the nonagenarian director signing off. But her playful intellectual spirit and wit remains undimmed. This is a delight of a film which will charm fans of her Oscar-nominated previous picture, Faces Places, and lovers of cinema in general.

Only You, Released on 12th July

Intimate and honest, this perceptive first feature gives us a window into a relationship, through the good times, and the disappointments that threaten to wrench the couple apart. Spanish actress Laia Costa (above) best known for the single-shot thriller Victoria, plays Elena, a woman in her mid-thirties living and working in Glasgow. Josh O’Connor of God’s Own Country plays post-grad student Jake. We are wholly invested in this relationship, and in their desperate, unfulfilled need to have a child.

The Brink, Released on 12th July

A cinema verité portrait of one of the most divisive figures in the political sphere, The Brink shadows Steve Bannon as he hawks his brand of toxic nationalism around the world. The fly-on-the-wall approach means that he is not interrogated by the filmmaker, but equally it means he reveals himself in more depth than perhaps he realises. Reinventing himself, after his exit from the Trump regime, as self-appointed leader of the populist movement, he sets his sights on the 2019 European parliamentary elections.