Critical Week: I'll drink to that

In this full week between two short ones, I've been working to get ahead of things before taking a break starting next week. So I've been both attending screenings and watching films at home on links. And there were a couple of big ones along the way. Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are back for the frothy comedy-thriller Another Simple Favour, this time set in gorgeous locations around Capri. Both silly and violent, it's also very entertaining. Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan lead a ragtag ensemble in Thunderbolts*, a more character-based Marvel film than usual, with a terrific linear narrative that outs the effects nonsense into emotional context.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Where Dragons Live • Thunderbolts*
Parthenope • Another Simple Favour
ALL REVIEWS >

Nicolas Cage gives one of his wonderfully bonkers performances in The Surfer as a guy who simply wants to return to surf the waves on the Australian beach where he grew up. Then things get outrageously messy. From Scotland, the 18th century samurai-Western mashup Tornado is set in the Highlands, slow and riveting, and superbly played by Koki, Tim Roth, Jack Lowden and more. From Italy, Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope is yet another sumptuously gorgeous free-spirited epic odyssey, enjoyable and yet oddly out of reach. From Brazil, Karim Ainouz's bracingly colour-drenched dramatic thriller Motel Destino is bursting with passion and yearning. The Argentine drama Most People Die on Sundays has a much lighter tone than the title suggests, and it's a warm exploration of identity and connection. And the British doc Where Dragons Live is a fascinating look at a middle-class family sifting through its personal history.

This coming week, I'll have a few things to watch over the long weekend before heading off to visit my parents for a couple of weeks. Films include the musical drama Midnight in Phoenix, and there's also a stage production of Blood Wedding at the Omnibus in Clapham.