Best & Worst Films at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival
One of international cinema's most prestigious annual events, the 67th Berlin International Film Festival (commonly known as the Berlinale) wrapped up this weekend, with Hungarian drama On Body and Soul earning the top award from a jury led by director Paul Verhoeven.
Below, we sample the reactions from film critics to that and other notable films premiering at this year's festival (including the upcoming X-Men film Logan, new features from Oren Moverman, Sally Potter, and Agnieszka Holland, and more).
Raoul Peck’s follow-up to his widely heralded documentary I Am Not Your Negro was a letdown for many critics in Berlin. A biopic of Karl Marx (August Diehl) at age 26, prior to writing the Communist Manifesto, the film focuses on Marx’s friendship with Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske). The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw claims, “It should be dull, but it isn’t. Somehow the spectacle of fiercely angry people talking about ideas becomes absorbing and even gripping." But David Ehrlich of Indiewire believes it’s “well-furnished and fitfully gripping stuff, but it desperately lacks the full-bodied fervor that crackles throughout his Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro.”
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