Pickups

Aidan Gillen stars in a playful comedy about an actor struggling to keep things real after his divorce. In Pickups, the well-known Irish actor Aidan Gillen plays a well-known Irish actor called Aidan. He's not playing himself – or at least we hope not, given the murderous lengths to which the onscreen Aidan takes his method acting when playing a serial killer – but this spry, fleet-footed and very funny new film from director Jamie Thraves rings true throughout. Revolving around the fictional Aidan's post-divorce life as he prepares for a new film role and tries to reconnect with his teenaged son, this is at once a free-wheeling comedy of ideas about the uneasy, constantly moving line between real life and make-believe that all actors must tread, and a poignant, delicate, unblinkingly observed study of a mid-life crisis. (London Film Festival)