Leto
(Mubi)
Rock‘n’roll biopics are 10-a-penny at the moment, but Leto represents a nice change of pace, detailing the rise of Soviet new wave band Kino and their its enigmatic frontman Viktor Tsoi. In sharp black and white, this a wonderfully cool hangout film, with added stylistic touches such as hand-scrawled animations over the top of the film whilst Russian-accented versions of Iggy Pop’s The Passenger and Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer play out. It might be a bit baggy in places, but there’s such cool and charm stuffed into every crevice of this film, it’s hard not to be won over. Plus, the music’s great. **** words Fedor Tot
Transit
(Curzon Home Cinema)
By the time you read this, Transit will have been and gone in cinemas, but thankfully distributors Curzon have a policy whereby they simultaneously release their films on both cinema screens and streaming. In the case of this beguiling mystery from German director Christian Petzold, that’s hugely welcome. Set in a half-aged, half-contemporary Marseille, we follow a refugee fleeing German fascist forces from Paris in some kind of dystopian near-future world. It’s an enveloping, intensely complex and emotive film that lingers for a long time in the memory. ***** words Fedor Tot
Hail Satan?
(Curzon Home Cinema)
A documentary on the rise of The Satanic Temple, and the resultant controversies as its followers attempt to express religious freedom – most notably by attempting to place a statue of Baphomet next to various statues of the 10 Commandments on State Capitol buildings, a protest against the strictly unconstitutional interlinking of church and state in the USA. This is a smart little documentary, functioning as a mini-history of what the word ‘Satan’ means in the US on a cultural level, and how Satan is depicted in mass media. The Satanic Temple followers are not particularly religious, nor are they Anton LaVey style hedonists (his Church Of Satan is a different beast), rather a group of outsiders – encompassing trans folk and POCs to boot – interested in challenging accepted norms of free expression in an increasingly conservative atmosphere. Great stuff. **** words Fedor Tot
Mindhunter S2
(Netflix)
The second series of this David Fincher-helmed serial killer show has much of what you’d expect a serial-killer show to have. Serial killers. Morose detectives. Bureaucratic higher-ups. Of course, it’s all a little bit more than that: the series focuses on the birth of the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit, psychologically profiling mass murderers, and the visual focus tends to shy away slightly from the grisliness of the murders covered, highlighting instead the psychological and personal toll they take on the families who suffer. It’s superbly written, and handsomely shot, though Fincher’s career-long obsession with dark grey and blue hues does grate on me – you can get some contrast in there, mate! **** words Fedor Tot