Author: Gabriella Incalza Kaplanova

Not for the faint hearted, this docu-film is all about Alex Barbu, a twenty-five year old Reading Festival Virgin experiencing all the event has to offer for the first time.

Littered with bad language, subtle and not so subtle sexual references and, of course, disturbing drinking sessions, The Pilgrimage to Reading Festival 2013 is supposed to explain why festival goers go back year after year.

Following Alex’s camera strapped to his head, the viewer enters a journey into the decadence of his crew, self proclaimed “professional drinkers and their mindless alcohol abuse”, and other punters who can barely string a sentence together, never mind answer any questions. It ends up documenting a very British, tribal way of approaching live music where no shameful behaviour is spared.

Hardly a journalistic piece, the documentary is a good effort for an amateur documenting his holiday at a music camp, with some well captured concert experiences; best of all, when Alex illustrates Eminem’s wing man’s flop in trying to entertain the crowd.

With the same annoying blank screen editing effect all throughout, an over exposed and badly staged pre festival interview, poor sound quality and a Borat-like voiceover, The Pilgrimage to Reading Festival 2013 is painfully and unjustifiably too long. Yet, it can be a very insightful view into what to expect from a British, three-day music festival, especially if you are under 25.

Raw, matter of fact and at times even a bit uncomfortable, Gillian Robespierre’s directorial debut is no regular rom com; Obvious Child is in fact absolutely irresistible and refreshingly hilarious.

Donna (Jenny Slate) is an aspiring stand up comedian who spends her days earning a living in a bookshop called Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books. Yes, really. At night, she is a regular at a local comedy club where she unapologetically discusses every single detail of her personal life and challenges the audience with her confrontational monologues on pretty much anything. She is bold, crude and extraordinary.

But when confronted with her cheating boyfriend who dumps her for her best friend, Donna’s sense of humor seems to dry up and all her insecurities come to light. We watch the venue’s audience cringe when she discusses her break up in minute details and, worse of all, her intentions for her recent unplanned pregnancy, which comes about after a one-night stand with a stranger.

Touchingly, the abortion is also a vehicle for twenty-something Donna to come out of her status of ‘obvious child’, as the accidental pregnancy forces her to come to terms with herself as a woman and as a vulnerable adult for the first time.

Obvious Child, an independent American movie, caused quite a stir amongst the Conservative anti-abortionists as it tackles the topic of abortion in a way that’s never been done before on screen. Starring Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann and David Cross, the film was at the same time warmly welcomed by Sundance audiences.

Despite its controversial topic and the rawness of its delivery, Obvious Child is also tremendously romantic, in a very unexpected way. An absolute winner packed with outstanding performances and a rich soundtrack.

Set in 1920s affluent South of France Riviera, Magic in The Moonlight is a romantic comedy about a master magician trying to expose as a fraud an irresistibly endearing clairvoyant.

Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth) is the most celebrated magician of his age. He is also an ill-tempered, pompous and arrogant Englishman. He is a magician who doesn’t believe in magic, he ridicules those who believe in God and feels that those who follow the occult are “simpleminded morons”.

Nothing is quite as exciting as helping to unmask a possible swindle, so when his long lost friend Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) tells him of an medium who appears to have hoodwinked a wealthy family with her surprisingly accurate predictions, Stanley sets off on a stunning journey through the Côte d’Azur to reach the Catledges lavish family mansion.

Cynic Stanley is startled at once when he encounters Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) who appears to have some rather outstanding psychic abilities. Sophie cradles the air with her hands and seems to unwillingly be forced to distribute information about anyone she encounters, including Stanley, who will end up querying his long-standing faith in science and reason.

What follows is an entertaining journey through breath-taking and exquisite views of the South of France, irresistible one-liners, catchy, jazzy themes and a superb, final trick. Colin Firth allows his character to travel from scepticism to lyricism and back with an outstanding performance.

Woody Allen’s fascination with the occult is once again intertwined with his reflections on destiny, mortality and his quest into the meaning of life. A period drama filled with irony, comedy and a touch of magic. Divine.

Magic in the Moonlight is out today.

Geographically Desirable tells the story of Nicole (Blair Bowers), an overworked, sleep deprived TV producer whose life is turned upside down when a distant relative passes away.

Nicole represents a stereotypical workholic who is so obsessed with her work that finds it impossible to relax; too tired to realise that life is passing her by, that friends can’t keep up with her and that her relationship doesn’t stand a chance.

Unsurprinsingly, Nicole struggles to cope when she finds herself in the middle of nowhere to attend her uncle’s funeral. She is eager to get back to the city and the newsroom where she feels she belongs. But things are not as easy as that, as she has to deal with her inheritance, which now includes a cute dog.  Needless to say, Nicole will realise that not everything is as it seems and that happiness can also be found in small town Floyd.

Geographically Desirable, written and directed by Mike Kravinsky, is neither original nor unpredictable and it is as sleepy as the main character.

Apart from the soundtrack and some beautiful shots, I struggle to find reasons to recommend this film, unless you are sleep deprived yourself and are searching for a bit of sympathy.

Based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mabatha-Raw), Belle is a British period drama set at the end of the 1700s. But Belle is a lady like no other, as she is not only an illegitimate child but also mixed raced; her father, John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), is a white British admiral, but little is known of the mother, who we are led to believe is a black slave.

When, aged 10, Belle’s mother dies, her father leaves her in the care of her aristocratic aunt (Emily Watson) and her uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson), who happens to be the Lord Chief Justice overseeing the final verdict on the Zong case, the horrific drowning of 142 slaves by a mercenary shipping company. Lord Mansfield’s ruling on this infamous case became an important step in bringing an end to slavery in England.

Surprisingly (or, sadly, unsurprising in those days), the trial wasn’t about the murder of these people, but an attempt by the captain to claim insurance money on their lives, as he insisted that their deaths were inevitable, pretending that the ship had ran out of water. At the time, the Empire’s economy depended on the slave trade and it was an accepted part of British life. In Georgian Britain, in fact, there were about 15,000 black people; only 30% of those were free from slavery.

Mixed raced Belle, on the other hand, grew up in Kenwood House in Hampstead, causing a stir amongst aristocratic social circles. She was raised almost as an equal to her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon). The film, in fact, is inspired by the 1779 painting of the two girls appearing on the same eye line.

Little is known of the real Dido Elizabeth Belle’s daily life; in the film, however, her lineage affords her certain privileges. At times, the color of her skin prevents her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. Belle seems resigned to accept her strange place, where she is “Too high in rank to dine with the servants, but too low to dine with the family” when entertaining guests. It is ironic that, when she sets her eyes on the local vicar’s son, her uncle Lord Mansfield finds him beneath her and therefore not worthy of her hand.

As period dramas go, Belle is just as beautifully written and directed as many classics. Raising awareness of issues faced by bi racial people, however, makes it unique. And there was certainly no better way to capture a period drama where skin colour is such an important issue than with 4k resolution. Belle is in fact the first major British film shot on Sony’s F65 CineAlta digital camera, where its ultra-high definition images are a perfect way to showcase the warmth of skin shades and the movie’s spectacular costumes and settings.

Belle is an elegant and tasteful film, passionately directed by British black director Amma Asante, who leads us into a rarely explored subject through the beautifully expressive eyes of Gugu Mabatha-Raw. Her character is witty and almost too outspoken for a lady of such epoch, whether she is discussing race issues or dispensing dating advice to her cousin. It feels way too modern for Belle to have actually lived in corseted Georgian society, and maybe that is the point. Because her mere existence may have in fact shaken its people to the core and, whether fact or fiction, we love to think that Belle, the stunning product of love between two such different worlds, may have actually influenced the end of slavery.