The weekend has arrived. Saw two films last night and have 10 more to go by Monday night. 7pm on Monday I plan to head home, get a pizza and crack open a bottle of red. One of the problems of morningpersonitis and seeing films at night is that it’s a bit of struggle to not only stay awake but engage with the film. My passion is waning.

The first film of the evening was admittedly hard to engage with, that being The Killer Inside Me, directed by Michael Winterbottom. A noirish killer tale based on a pulp novel by Jim Thompson. The use of the word “blistering” in the SFF blurb, I think was a little misleading, though the novel may well be. While this was a well acted piece, especially by Casey Affleck in the main role, I felt disengaged from it, as though the film lacked its own conviction. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the movie just didn’t grab me and certain aspects just didn’t ring true. A few folk didn’t like the violence, as it was particularly gruesome, but for the most part, the film just plodded along without building any sort of tension.

The second movie of the evening was much better, I Am Love directed by Luca Guadagnino. Set within a rich, Italian family and explores the gradual falling apart of the family after the death of the family’s head. The passing down of the family business took an unexpected turn with father against son. This is not a violent sort of movie though, more about sadness and passion – both the giving up of passion and rekindling it. Swinton is a wonderful actor and I’ve loved the gravitas she can bring to a role – so too here, she delicately plays a russian woman who married into an italian family and consequently forsook her heritage. As the family circumstances change with new responsibilities, she meets a younger man and finds her passion reawakening. Swinton conveys that sense of change, not as a sudden break, but as something that gradually unwinds. The movie worked for me, though I’d like to see it again outside of festival to better appreciate it.