Monday 29 January 2018

38th Critics' Circle Film Awards: words and pics...

As chair of the London Critics' Circle Film Awards, I get to be right on the frontline putting this event together. It's a lot of work, over about six months with especially intense days when voting starts in early December until the big night. Our 38th awards were handed out on Sunday 28th January at The May Fair Hotel, presented by Dover Street Entertainment. And since I have to get up at the start to thank our sponsors, I usually hand out the first award. This year's first honour went to Hugh Grant (above), named Supporting Actor of the Year for Paddington 2. He joked, "Well that's ludicrous. Trump, Brexit, and now me winning this. It's the end of days!"
The ceremony ended on a highlight, as Kate Winslet was presented the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film by her friend Jude Law. She gave an electric speech referencing the Time's Up movement from her own personal perspective. Kate started with, "It almost feels uncomfortable to receive an award at such a time." And she went on to reference the #MeToo issue: "I realised that I wouldn't be able to stand here this evening and keep to myself some bitter regrets that I have about poor decisions to work with individuals with whom I wish I had not."
These three men from Call Me By Your Name were in the house - Armie Hammer came along with his friends, nominees Luca Guadagnino (up for film and director) and Timothee Chalamet, who won Actor of the Year. Timothee thanked Luca ("Who basically gave me my career at this point") and his "tongue-wrestling partner" Armie.
Here's the team running the show: host Steve Oram, Critics' Circle President Anna Smith, host Alice Lowe and Critics' Circle Awards Chair Rich Cline. This was Steve and Alice's third year hosting the show - they're an awesome double act.
Winners for Breakthrough Filmmaker and Young Performer: Francis Lee for God's Own Country and Harris Dickinson for Beach Rats.
Lesley Manville was named Supporting Actress of the Year for Phantom Thread, while producer Daniel Battsek collected awards on behalf of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: for best film, screenwriter Martin McDonagh and actress Frances McDormand.
Writer-director Paul King and writer Simon Farnaby, both nominees for their work on Paddington 2, were in the house. Writer-director Dionne Edwards and producer Georgia Goggin won British/Irish Short Film of the Year for We Love Moses.
Supervising Art Director Paul Inglis accepted production designer Dennis Gassner's Technical Achievement Award for Blade Runner 2049. Noah Jupe (Suburbicon) and Dafne Keen (Logan) were nominees for Young Performer.
More nominees in the house: Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth), Josh O'Connor (God's Own Country) and Emily Beecham (Daphne).
Emma Willis was a nominee for her amazing hair and makeup in The Love Witch. Other guests included Alec Secareanu (God's Own Country), Jessica Barden and Jack Johns.
Four of our winners sent thank you videos. Clockwise from top-left: Martin McDonagh won Film and Screenwriter of the Year for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Daniel Kaluuya was named British/Irish Actor of the Year for Get Out; Paul Verhoeven won Foreign-Language Film of the Year for Elle; Sean Baker took Director of the Year for The Florida Project.
And finally, our former chair Jason Solomons presented a lovely In Memoriam segment for Barry Norman, one of Britain's best-loved film critics.

The awards were presented this year by Dover Street Entertainment. Our main sponsor was The May Fair Hotel. Award sponsors were Heaven Skincare, Cameo Productions and Millbank and CooperSearle Management. In-kind sponsors were Sacred Gin, Remy Martin, Voss Water and Audi.


Thursday 25 January 2018

Critical Week: Size matters

There were two rather underwhelming sequels to see this past week, neither of which came with very high expectations. Kickboxer: Retaliation is the middle part of a rebooted trilogy starring Alain Moussi and the original star Jean-Claude Van Damme, plus assorted massive meatheads. It looks great, so it's a shame so little attention was paid to characters or story. And then there's the Maze Runner trilogy finale, The Death Cure, with its somewhat messy mythology and bland characters. The film has its moments, but never quite comes to life.

Two small British films at least tried something original. Lies We Tell is a rather choppy crime thriller set in Yorkshire starring a mopey Gabriel Byrne. And Gholam is a riveting, slow-burning London thriller starring the excellent Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini. Even further afield, I enjoyed seeing a big-screen press preview of the restored version of Ingmar Bergman's witty film of Mozart's The Magic Flute. And I watched all of the episodes for the snappy, clever web series Dropping the Soap, which is out soon on dvd. As the title suggests, it's a backstage soap opera spoof. And I also greatly enjoyed this doc, which I needed to see for awards voting purposes...


Bombshell
dir-scr Alexandra Dean; with Diane Kruger, Robert Osborne 17/US ****
Based around the discovery of a lost interview recorded on cassette tapes in 1990 when she was 76, this documentary traces the extraordinary journey of movie siren and brainy inventor Hedy Lamarr from her childhood in Austria to her reclusive old age in America. Along the way, she shared the screen with all of Hollywood's biggest stars as the most beautiful woman in movies. But she was always aware that no one took notice of her intelligence. "Any girl can look glamorous," she said famously. "All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." And now it emerges that Lamarr had a secret life of curiosity and scientific ambition, including a working friendship with Howard Hughes and conceiving the idea that would lead to modern communications systems like wifi and bluetooth (the US government never paid her for her patent, which the doc claims would amount to some $30bn today). She also built the first ski resort in Aspen, which was stolen from her by a vindictive ex-husband. Filmmaker Dean assembles this beautifully, using Lamarr's own voice and a wealth of footage and stills. It's a gripping film, packed with emotional kicks and an inspiring final message from Lamarr herself, reminding us that when the world treats us badly, we should give our best anyway.


Much of my time has been spend working on the impending Critics' Circle Film Awards on Sunday night - I'm the chair, so haven't had much spare time to catch up with press screenings. Maybe next week. I've got the Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon in the diary, as well as the Helen Mirren ghost story Winchester.

Thursday 18 January 2018

Critical Week: Somebody's watching

There were three high-profile British films screened to the press in London this week. Ghost Stories is Andy Nyman's clever adaptation of a stage pay that merges three horror subplots into a twisty, nasty comedy-thriller. Early Man is the latest claymation romp from Aardman, a hilariously silly adventure set where the stone and bronze ages meet. And Finding Your Feet is a warm and easy-going romantic drama livened up by excellent performances from Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie.

From America, we had more horror comedy in the shape of Mom & Dad, a gonzo twist on several genres, featuring terrifically unhinged performances from Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage in the title roles. Dance Baby Dance is an extremely low-budget comedy about an aspiring tap dancer, charming but amateurish. And from France, the short film collection French Kisses is the usual mixed bag, and features some very strong clips.

There were also two documentaries: The Final Year is an oddly overslick look at Obama's last 12 months in office, fascinating but scrubbed clean. And 100 Men centres on a Kiwi filmmaker who takes an offbeat angle to explores gay culture over the past few decades.

Films this coming week include the trilogy finale Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the British thriller Lies We Tell, the musical biopic Thirsty and a restoration of the Bergman classic The Magic Flute.

Friday 12 January 2018

Critical Week: It's a battlefield

Normal press screenings are slowly returning to London, although there are still a lot of awards-season screenings going on for Oscar and Bafta voters to catch up on things. The Bafta nominees came out this week, led by The Shape of Water, and nominated films are beginning to flood the cinemas.

But I'd seen all of those ages ago! So this week, I caught up with Journey's End, a slow-burning WWI drama with Asa Butterfield, Sam Claflin and Paul Bettany. It's moody and intense, and carries a very strong kick. The late Martin Landau gives his last screen performance in Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game, a warm drama costarring Paul Sorvino about two retirees in a rest home trying to have a bit of an adventure.

The micro-budget British drama In Another Life is a fascinating story told through the eyes of a Syrian refugee trying to get from France to England. It's strikingly well shot, and the story is compelling. And there were also two documentaries: The Ice King is the amazing story of British figure skating legend John Curry, a tortured genius whose life is revealed through lots of lost footage. And there was also this one...


Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars
dir Lili Fini Zanuck; with Eric Clapton, BB King 17/UK *** 
Low-key and a little dry, this documentary is an intriguing portrait of a guitar nerd who became a rock hero. Fans will love it, certainly not minding its long and meandering structure. Filmmaker Lili Fini Zanuck traces Clapton's life from his childhood in Surrey (including the shock of learning that his sister was actually his mother) to art college and London's 1960s underground blues scene, his key influences (BB King, Muddy Waters, Bismillah Khan) and work with the Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers and Cream. It also traces the impact of friendships with Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison, his years battling with addiction and his inability to remain faithful in a relationship. This is assembled from existing footage and interviews, with terrific home movies and performances segments. But the narrative is fractured, dropping key revelations in later on and getting rather distracted by some events while skipping over others. Thankfully it comes back together in a powerful final chapter as Clapton finally seems to have his life in control. Through all of this, his musical genius is indisputable, and that's enough to keep us watching.


This coming week I'll be seeing Aardman Animation's Early Man, the British drama Finding Your Feet, the British horror Ghost Stories and the doc The Cinema Travellers, among other things no doubt. I also have a lot of work still to do as chair of the London Critics' Circle Film Awards, which take place on 28th January.

Friday 5 January 2018

Critical Week: Hope floats

Things are slowly cranking back up after Christmas and New Year, although I haven't yet been to a screening room in 2018, as my films so far have all been at home on screener discs or links. Jupiter's Moon is a fiendishly clever drama from Hungary about a Syrian refugee who discovers he can levitate. Brad's Status stars Ben Stiller as a guy who is annoyingly overthinking his mid-life crisis, with the excellent rising star Austin Abrams as his teen son. Saturday Church is a sensitive, moving drama about a young teen (the superb Luka Kain) trying to balance who he knows he is with who he's expected to be. From Bulgaria, Glory is a clever, involving satirical adventure into the messy depths of publicity and bureaucracy. And I also caught up with this one...


Columbus
dir-scr Kogonada; with Haley Lu Richardson, John Cho 17/US ***.
This extremely low-key drama gets under the skin with its vivid characters and lovely settings, beautifully shot with an architectural eye. Writer-director Kogonaga is exploring the delicate connections we have between each other and our surroundings, using formal camerawork that hones in on the characters, buildings and greenery around them. And it's anchored by a terrific central performance by Haley Lu Richardson as a young woman, only a year out of high school, who has decided to stay in Columbus, Illinois, to take care of her ex-addict mother (Michelle Forbes). Then she befriends Jin (John Cho), in town to look after his eminent architect father, who is in a coma. Their conversations swirl around expectations and dreams as they push each other to break free of the issues that are holding them back. It's a gentle film that never quite works up a head of steam, but its ideas are moving and provocative.


This coming week there are only a few screenings in actual cinemas (things get started very slowly after the holidays), but I'm set to see Martin Landau's last film Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game, the migrant drama In Another Life, the musical doc Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars and the sporting doc The Ice King, among other things.

Meanwhile, awards season shifts up a gear with the Golden Globes, the Bafta nominations and more. Keep track of who's winning overall with my annual SHADOWS SWEEPSTAKES.


Tuesday 2 January 2018

Shadows on the Screen: Winter TV Roundup

I had some time over the holidays to catch up on TV shows I've been following over the past few months. Results have been mixed, but there have been some great small-screen gems in here to help me recover from the big-screen movies...

Stranger Things: Series 2
The Duffer Brothers step things up a notch with a bigger, much scarier story arc that feels much more finely tuned to the characters and the actors. Everything in these nine episodes fits together beautifully, deepening the connections and unnerving the audience. References feel somewhat more grown-up this time, from X-Men to The Exorcist, and the scale of events is genuinely enormous, with deeply personal touches. All of the cast is excellent, from adults like Winona Ryder and David Harbour to the older and younger teens, who mix beautifully and end up nowhere near where they started. It's also refreshing that they ended on such an open note: anything can happen next year. 

The Crown: Series 2
Basically an anthology series, each episode takes an aspect of Elizabeth II's life from her second decade as monarch. So there are episodes on JFK, sending Charles to school, the Profumo scandal, modernising the monarchy, confronting the family's Nazi past and Margaret's romance with Lord Snowden. But the season's through-line centres on Philip's indiscretions and how the couple weathered those various storms to solidify their relationship as a marriage rather than an arrangement. It's grippingly well written and played, but this structural approach makes it feel rather, well, episodic, without much momentum as a series. It's almost more like an unusually well-produced educational film. And these actors are all so good that next season's all-new cast (as everyone ages) has a lot to live up to.

Easy: Series 2
The second season of this anthology show revisits all of the overlapping characters, finding moments of proper comedy and drama along the way. Although most of the humour is of the bitter sort. Episodes all stand alone but loop around to touch others, and the characters all feel enjoyably realistic. The main problem is writer-director Joe Swanberg's relentless sexualising of females (for example, when artists are struggling, the man becomes an Uber driver, the woman becomes a prostitute). In isolation, none of this feels excessive, but when every episode features a scantily clad woman it becomes a little obvious. That said, there's equal opportunity nudity. And the characters are all complex and involving.

I'm Dying Up Here
The 1970s Los Angeles stand-up scene is the setting for this solidly produced hour-long drama, which follows a group of comics as they traverse the ups and downs of their careers. The show is packed with terrific characters, all superbly played, from mother hen Melissa Leo to a varied bunch of hopefuls played by Ari Graynor, Andrew Santino, Michael Angarano, Clark Duke, RJ Cyler and Al Madrigal, to name a few. The political aspects of the comic scene are a little dull, but the personal journeys taken by each person are compelling, and the period detail is a lot of fun. There are also some terrific stand-up routines along the way.

The Deuce
The 1970s New York sex industry is the setting for this solidly produced hour-long drama, which follows a group of bar owners, prostitutes, pimps and pornographers as they shuffle through the crime-ridden streets. The show is almost incredibly murky, with corruption everywhere and such a huge range of detailed characters that none of them really stand out. There simply isn't time to properly develop each of them into a sympathetic person we can identify with in some way. But the acting is superb, anchored by James Franco as a rather too identical pair of twins and Maggie Gyllenhaal as hooker with a lot of personal issues. It's also refreshing to see a show that lacks the usual American hang-ups about sex and sexuality.

Black Mirror: Series 4
Charlie Brooker's slick, technology-themed variation on The Twilight Zone continues to tap into very current fears with its only slightly futuristic stories. These new Netflix episodes are produced like mini movies (the first episode is feature length) and have A-list Hollywood casts and crews. The plots sometimes have lapses in logic, but the themes are powerful, exploring how technological advances play into the darker urges we already have. This means that some of the stories are downright bleak. For example, Jodie Foster's episode Arkangel is deeply unsettling not because of its child-spying implants, but because of what it says about today's overprotective culture. And the best episode, Timothy Van Patten's Hang the DJ, mixes gloominess with hope as it plays with the concept of dating apps.

Transparent: Series 3
Thankfully less gloomy than the last season, these episodes saw the astonishingly dysfunctional family travelling to Israel as they connect with a long-lost relative. There were quite a few genuinely hilarious moments along the way, and most of the outlandish slapstick was reined in this time, even if each person's personal crisis seemed like the end of the world, to them at least. Of course, the setting gives the show's writers plenty of scope to play with political ideas. And they also cleverly infuse this entire season with songs from Jesus Christ Superstar. This is perhaps a little on-the nose as far as irony goes, but it grounds the family in a shared experience that connects them to this place. 

You're the Worst: Series 4
What was once a caustic, brave show has clearly reached the limits of its premise. this season, the writers struggled with what to do with a couple that needed to get together for the audience's sake, but were designed to be thoroughly toxic. Instead of playing on the codependent aspects, this season has them lashing out separately. But it felt like the wheels were spinning with nowhere left to go. All of the actors continue to approach their broadly ridiculous characters with an intriguing sense of emotional honesty that makes them sympathetic and unlikeable at the same time. But I don't think I could take one more half an hour with any of them.

Episodes: Series 5
The final season of this loose-limbed sitcom circles back to end exactly as you've always known it would. And along the way there are plenty of ridiculous antics for Sean and Beverly (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Grieg) and their circle of hopelessly neurotic friends, including Matt LeBlanc, who is now hosting one of the most hilariously appalling game shows ever imagined. The show has always had a way of lampooning Hollywood by playing everything just a little broadly. But there's also the definitely sense that pretty much everything they've ever depicted has actually happened. And the characters really grew on us.

SEASONS IN PROGRESS

This Is Us: Series 2
In this second season, the writers are taking things very seriously, piling lots of big themes into each episode. Life for these people feels a little too difficult this year, at each of the various periods in their lives. And the show has introduced yet another timeline that lets the main cast get a bit more screen time while playing their characters a little younger and hotter. But the real thing, of course, is that the writers are now torturing the audience mercilessly with the possibilities about how Milo Ventmiglia's Jack dies, setting up a potential calamity in each episode. It's getting a bit silly. Just tell us and get on with the story.

Jane the Virgin: Series 4
Fiendishly well written, this spoof of Mexican soap opera plays on its origins mercilessly. And some of the twists and turns are more than a little annoying. But the central characters are all so loveable that it's hard to mind. By now, the writers have milked several of the characters as far as they can (it's way overtime to lose Yael Grobglas' evil twin character Anezka), and there's only so long they can stretch the will-they/won't they romance between the adorable Gina Rodriguez's Jane and the ludicrously hot Justin Baldoni's Rafael. But every scene is still packed with such great touches that it's worth hanging in there.

Scandal: Series 7
True confession: I am only still watching this show because it's the final season, and I might as well see it through. Because this year's series is actually pretty bad, straining to shift Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope from hero of the peoiple to villainous mastermind (ie, she's become her father Joe Morton). This is so contrived that it's almost laughable, well it would be if it weren't so unnecessarily dark and violent. In fact, all of the subplots are grislier and nastier this year. The zing of, well, the scandal is gone. This is apocalyptic.

Shameless: Series 8
It's amazing that this show can carry on, throwing the Gallagher family into even more spiralling mayhem without feeling contrived. Some elements are infuriating, as they're meant to be, while others leave us wondering what the writers were thinking when they came up with this. William H Macy is clearly relishing this new phase in Frank's life, and the undulating feud between Emmy Rossum's Fiona and Cameron Monaghan's Ian has been played with surprising texture. Even Vee and Kev (Shanola Hampton and Steve Howey) are still on fire. It's impossible to predict where any of the plot strands are headed.

Will & Grace: Series 9
I don't remember this show being quite so broad and smiley the first time around. Even the opening credits this time reek of fake camaraderie. And while the idea is amusing that, 11 years later, these people are basically back where they started, the writing really needs to push them forward rather than using each episode to revive one of the more memorable gags or side characters. And the actors need to pull back a bit on their broadly comical performances, stirring in just a bit of believability. Except Megan Mullally, of course. Karen is still one of the most amazing characters ever seen on a sitcom, and she's as funny now as she ever was.

Modern Family: Series 9
This show has had some weak episodes over the past couple of years, but this season the writing feels back up to par. Plotting is tight, weaving various threads together in each episode that build to a big punchline. Of course, better writing gives the ace cast a lot to work with, and these characters are proving to be a continuous source of comedy: people we think we know very well who continue to surprise us. And the increasingly number of characters, including the kids, all have ongoing storylines that are genuinely engaging and witty. Indeed, the children are growing into comedy icons themselves.

I GIVE UP

The Orville
Seth MacFarlane had a great opportunity here to make a full on satirical sci-fi series, and yet he seems happy to merely nod earnestly in the direction of Star Trek. There's the occasional great gag or inventive touch, but the plots and characters are never interesting or funny enough to care about. I stopped at about episode 5.

The Flash/Supergirl 
These were the last two shows of the DC Comics universe that I was watching, and they too have shifted into cheaply made, far too violent storylines that make absolutely no sense and have no angle on which the audience can find a connection. It's just gimmicky and grisly and angsty. Life's too short.

Empire
I was a big fan from the start of this show, and I hung in there even through some long dips into seriously silly storytelling. But this season simply lost all of the various plots, giving each character a drastic personality change. Nothing is happening here that's even remotely compelling. And the people are annoying. I'm done.