I’ve been sitting through the Love & Anarchy film festival, which started last Thursday and will go on until next Sunday.

So far, the best movies have been these three:

Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World… is a story about a woman who is fired from her job at an employment agency and sets up her own, hustling immigrants into low-paying, semi-illegal jobs paid by the day or the hour. It’s strange to see a movie that so resolutely refuses to make the lead character into a hero or an antihero or a villain. She’s just a regular person, with good intentions and bad decisions. And sometimes bad intentions. This is the fifth globalization movie I saw on this festival, and also the best. Another good one was the Dardenne brothers’ Lorna’s Silence.

I really looked forward to seeing Bruce La Bruce’s Otto; or Up With Dead People. I loved the movie he made before this, Raspberry Reich, but this was possibly even better. Its a zombie movie about a young undead gay guy who ends up in an underground movie playing a young undead gay guy. There’s a black and white Louise Brooks lookalike hovering around, and the whole thing’s very sharp despite the charade of silliness.

I missed Veiko Õunpuu’s Autumn Ball at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in June, but friends saw it there and recommended it. I’m a sucker for this kind of deadpan comedy in a movie set in pretty dismal surroundings, about dismal people. It may have not been a fun movie, but the funny bits were the best at the festival so far.