Lou Thomas Festivals

Dec 4, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Lou Thomas Festivals |Lou Thomas |Duncan Wheeler |George Bass

For cinephiles visiting Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, it’s worth a peek outside the cinema. Aside from the cobbled streets and medieval spires of the Estonian capital’s old town – a UNESCO World Heritage site – you can glimpse arthouse and blockbuster locations alike, including for Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi drama Stalker (1979) and Christopher Nolan’s palindromic puzzler Tenet (2020).

Jan 23, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Lou Thomas Festivals |Lou Thomas |Ian Wang |Guy Lodge

Reviewed from the 2024 Sundance Film FestivalImpatient viewers might wrongly assume American indie director Nathan Silver’s oddball comedy Between the Temples to be a misfire, thanks to its bizarre pre-credit sequence establishing Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) as a depressed forty-something with two pushy moms who are keen to get him interested in a woman, therapy, or both.

Jan 23, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Lou Thomas Festivals |Lou Thomas |David West |Sinead Gleeson

In Amrou Al-Kadhi’s directorial feature debut Layla, the eponymous drag queen (played with great frankness and sensitivity by newcomer Bilal Hasna) lives a life full of fun, though pocked by conflict. A wild onstage presence in east London’s drag clubs, but somewhat shy away from the spotlight, the non-binary Arab performer has a loving and nurturing group of friends but hides their true identity from their family.