Critical Week: Nice kitty

While many critics are darting off to Venice this week for the film festival there, I'm holding the fort in London. I had been hoping things would be a bit quieter here than usual, but that's not the case next week. There were two big last-minute screenings for films opening this week. Austin Butler stars in Darren Aronofsky's entertaining action romp Caught Stealing, which is funny and darkly violent. The acting and storytelling are often exhilarating. Meanwhile, Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star in Jay Roach's new take on The Roses, which is both more British and less bitter than the 1989 classic adaptation The War of the Roses. But its characters and dialog are sharp and hilarious.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Young Mothers • Big Boys
Caught Stealing • Motel Destino
ALL REVIEWS >

Theodore Pellerin and Archie Madekwe are excellent in Lurker, a riveting dissection of celebrity culture as a young ruy worms his way into the entourage of a rising star musician. It's engaging and utterly riveting. The Japanese drama Happyend, follows a group of teens who are rebelling against both the school and national leaders who are wanting to watch and control them. Huge issues and engaging characters make this well worth a look. And the newly restored 1980 thriller Night of the Juggler is one of the grittiest, most ripping New York action movies I've ever seen. It stars James Brolin and Cliff Gorman and takes no prisoners. I also watched rather a lot of FrightFest movies over the long weekend, reported here in earlier posts.

This coming week I'll be watching Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in The Conjuring: Last Rites, Denzel Washington in Highest 2 Lowest, Benedict Cumberbatch in The Thing With Feathers, Cooper Hoffman in The Long Walk, dog's-eye-view horror Good Boy and British drama Brides.

Critical Week: Monumental

Screenings have been a bit slow in London during the Cannes Film Festival, so it's perhaps appropriate that I saw two French films this week. Romain Duris plays the eponymous tower-building character in the biopic Eiffel, which injects Hollywood-style melodramatic romance into a fascinating story. And Juliette Binoche is wonderful as always in Between Two Worlds, an earthy doc-style drama about a journalist who joins a community of very low-paid workers.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Luzzu • Cop Secret
The Perfect David • 18½
ALL REVIEWS >

There was also the offbeat Watergate thriller 18½, about two people who discover a copy of that "accidentally erased" tape. It's witty and very clever. And from China, Boonie Bears: Back to Earth is the eighth movie in a 10-year franchise, but only the first to get a UK release. It's a strikingly well-animated romp involving bears and aliens, with some terrific action set pieces and a surprisingly big story too. I also caught up with these two recent streaming releases...

Senior Year
dir Alex Hardcastle; scr Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli, Brandon Scott Jones 
with Rebel Wilson, Sam Richardson, Angourie Rice, Mary Holland, Zoe Chao, Justin Hartley, Chris Parnell, Jade Bender
22/US Paramount 1h51 ***
Refreshingly, this comedy never aspires to be anything more than a goofy romp that keeps us smiling and occasionally laughing. Slick and bouncy, the film's chirpy attitude makes up for a string of cheap jokes and a lack of anything substantial under the surface. The story centres on Stephanie (Wilson), who has just woken up after 20 years in a coma following a cheerleading accident. Now at 37, she wants to finish high school, again as head cheerleader and this time as prom queen. There are the obvious gags about about how the world has changed since Stephanie's heyday, including of course mobile phones, social media and Lady Gaga. Her best friend (Holland) is now the principal, the boy (Hartley) she loved is married to her nemesis (Chao), and the friend (Richardson) who had a secret crush on her is for some reason the school librarian. It's annoying that the writers never dig any deeper, because there's scope for a more layered comedy here. Instead they fall back on simplistic plotting, buckets of sentimentality and oddly vague nostalgia. But because the movie is so happily superficial, it just about does the trick as mindless entertainment.

Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers
dir Akiva Schaffer; scr Dan Gregor, Doug Mand
with Andy Samberg, John Mulaney, Will Arnett, KiKi Layne, JK Simmons, Seth Rogen, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Bana, Dennis Haysbert, Tress MacNeille
22/US Disney 1h37 ***.
Intriguing reviews made me want to check out this new take on the iconic Disney chipmunks, set in a world where cartoon characters live alongside live-action people. Filled to the brim with cameos, it's a meta-comedy about the movie business. Years after their act broke up, Chip and Dale (voiced by Mulaney and Samberg) have gone their separate ways. Chip is selling insurance, while Dale has had "CGI surgery" and wants to reteam with Chip for a reboot of their 30-year-old hit TV show. Along with wildly inventive effects, witty sight gags and a surprisingly strong mystery plot involving bootleg cartoon characters, the film is a steady stream of hilarious pop culture references. There's even a trip to Uncanny Alley, where everyone has those creepy "Polar Express eyes". A deeply irreverent attitude infuses this film, which makes the barrage of gags unusually sharp and surprising, and the action sometimes feels thrilling too. But it's the character details that make this riotous romp unusually involving. 

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Things remain a bit quieter than usual next week as far as screenings go, but I have one rather big film, Baz Luhrmann's epic biopic Elvis, plus a few to watch at home, including the award-winning Italian drama Il Buco, the burlesque doc Baloney, the comical doc A Sexplanation and the shorts collection The Male Gaze: Fleeting Glances.

Critical Week: Founding fathers

It's my birthday week, so I've been a bit off-schedule, spreading celebrations over three days (as you do!). But I still managed to watch a number of films, including two on the big screen. On Netflix, America: The Motion Picture is a wacky animated mash-up of US history and pop culture silliness. It's utterly idiotic, but the barrage of gags means that some of them elicit laughter. On Prime, The Tomorrow War is a bloated action epic thankfully starring the hugely watchable Chris Pratt as a biology teacher (of course with special ops training) sent to the future to save humanity from spike-shooting aliens. It's utterly idiotic, but cheesy enough to keep us entertained. And on HBO Max, No Sudden Move is a gritty mob thriller expertly directed by Steven Soderbergh, with an superb ensemble led by Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro and Jon Hamm. It's snaky and involving, but holds onto its best thematic kick too long.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Man With the Answers
Another Round • Summer of Soul
Freaky • No Sudden Move
PERHAPS AVOID: Voyagers
ALL REVIEWS >

As for cinema screenings, there were The Last Bus, an involving and never sentimental drama with Timothy Spall as a very old man travelling the length of Great Britain on public busses, and Jumbo, an inventively well-made French romance based on a provocatively offbeat true story. I also watched The God Committee, a dark morality drama starring a serious Kelsey Grammer; the Argentine dramatic horror Rock, Paper and Scissors, which scarily pits siblings against each other; and the glorious Summer of Soul, beautifully documenting a shamefully forgotten Harlem concert series from 1969.

I also returned to a West End theatre to finally catch up with the musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, a triumphantly engaging story about a teen who wants to be his colourful self. It has properly great songs too, which bodes well for the film adaptation that's due in the autum.

This coming week, I am looking forward to in-cinema screenings of Black Widow with Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, and The Duke with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent. Other films to watch include Emile Hirsch in Son and Nicolas Cage in Pig. I'm also taking a couple of days off, getting out of London for the first time in a year.

Critical Week: Under attack

There's been some tentative move to ease lockdown, but cinemas are still mainly showing old movies (The Empire Strikes Back is No 1 on the UK box office chart this week). I had my first meal in a restaurant since early March -- well outside it on a distanced table. But the weather has been gloomy, which is more suited for watching movies at home really....

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Sunlit Night • The Painted Bird
Palm Springs
PERHAPS AVOID:
Fatal Affair • Getting It • Divos!
FULL REVIEWS >

The biggest movie I saw this week was the gripping WWII thriller Greyhound, which no doubt would have looked better on a big screen. As always, Tom Hanks is solid as a captain shepherding a convoy of ships through a pack of Nazi submarines in the North Atlantic. Much better is the Andy Samberg comedy Palm Springs, a bit of time-loop madness that's both clever and surprisingly deep. By contrast, Fatal Affair is a simplistic and derivative thriller that wastes excellent actors like Nia Long and Omar Epps.

As for arthouse titles, The Sunlit Night is a very smart comedy-drama about a young American painter (Jenny Slate) working in Arctic Norway for a summer. It's quirky and involving. Carmilla is an atmospheric 19th century gothic freak-out based on a pre-Dracula vampire novel. It looks amazing. From Denmark, Dreambuilders boasts seriously impressive, ambitious animation and some great characters. But the goofy comedy Divos! never lives up to its promise, and Getting It has a solid story but works too hard to praise its writer-director-star. There were also two entertaining, offbeat docs: In Bright Axiom is about a playful secret society that sparks imagination and collaboration, while Superhuman: The Invisible Made Visible explores the untapped power of the mind's connection to, well, everything.

Films to watch this coming week include Elisabeth Moss in Shirley, Brenton Thwaites in Ghosts of War, Josh Hartnett in Most Wanted, underground boxing thriller American Fighter, horror movie Open 24 Hours and the Italian drama Piranhas.

Critical Week: Off the rails

The best film screened this week was easily the Korean action horror Train to Busan, a nonstop thrill ride of a movie that keeps you holding on for dear life and screaming at the screen. And it has some properly serious subtext too. Honestly, I didn't think they made movies like this anymore! Alongside the current release of Under the Shadow, it's nice to see that there's life in the horror genre again.

Also this week, we had the lively, hilarious animated adventure Storks; the superbly well written and acted British comedy-drama Burn Burn Burn; the choppy, romantic Bollywood epic Mirzya; the meandering experimental Spanish drama The Ways of Man; and the hugely affirming narrative documentary Life, Animated, offering a new angle on autism.

Also, the 24th Raindance Film Festival came to a close over the weekend. I saw two more features: the harrowing trafficking drama Selling Isobel and the moving Holocaust documentary Trezoros. And I spent an hour experimenting with virtual reality in the festival's whizzy VR Arcade - clearly a glimpse of the future, but filmmakers still need to seize the narrative possibilities.

This coming week I have the Da Vinci Code sequel Inferno, Ken Loach's Cannes-winner I, Daniel Blake, the British drama Starfish and about 25 films I'll be watching just in the next week for the London Film Festival. Daily blog updates start Thursday...

Requisite Blog Photo: Special delivery

Critical Week: Hit the road...

It's been a very busy week, screening-wise. Easily the best film, and one of my favourites of the year so far, was Kubo and the Two Strings, the animated adventure set in a mythical Japan. It's a stunning mix of stop-motion and live action, but the story and characters make it unmissable. The week's other animated offering was Seth Rogen's rude comedy Sausage Party, but the cinema had a power cut 10 minutes into the press screening, so I'll be unable to review it (some might say I had a lucky escape).

Back in live action, we had the all-star ensemble adult comedy Bad Moms, which is better than it looks. The story is silly, but the cast and script are hilarious. Anthropoid is a true story from WWII Prague told with a bracing attention to realistic detail, anchored by solid turns from Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan. Daniel Radcliffe plays a corpse in Swiss Army Man, a survivalist comedy also starring Paul Dano. It's perhap of the oddest movies of the year, but has a certain charm. Andy Samberg brings his ex-boyband sketch character to the big screen for the constantly funny pastiche doc Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. And the doc The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years takes a somewhat easy approach to the subject matter, but holds the audience with unseen footage, big personalities and great music.

But there was more! Genre films included Blair Witch, a 17-years-later sequel to the game-changing found footage hit. The rather nutty action thriller Kickboxer: Vengeance shifts Jean-Claude Van Damme to the mentor role for new Muay Thai expert Alain Moussi. The gentle British comedy ChickLit has some fun with the mummy porn phenomenon. The skilfully madeAustralian drama Downriver is deeply haunting, as is Pablo Trapero's stunning drama The Clan, about a real-life 1980s crime family in Buenos Aires. And then there's the Mexican shocker We Are the Flesh, an outrageously in-your-face post-apocalyptic freak-out. And Hell Town goes for more comical chills with its witty pastiche horror-soap TV format.

This coming week I'm heading to Italy for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. It's my first time at the festival, and in Venice for that matter. So I'm looking forward to exploring the city as well as seeing some amazing movies. Films on the programme include new work from Denis Villeneuve, Tom Ford, Terrence Malick, Damien Chazelle, Derek Cianfrance, Wim Wenders, Pablo Larrain, Francois Ozon, Paolo Sorrentino, Antoine Fuqua and Ana Lily Amirpour. Stars expected on the red carpet include Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Alicia Vikander, Chris Pratt, Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Natalie Portman, Denzel Washington, Diane Keaton, Jeremy Renner, Jude Law, Mel Gibson, Keanu Reeves, JK Simmons and Dakota Fanning. Of course, I'll be covering it all right here...

Critical Week: For the boys

One of the most enjoyable films screened to London critics this past week was the Aussie crowd-pleaser The Sapphires, anchored by a terrific performance from Chris O'Dowd. It's the true story of a quartet of aboriginal singers who sing for the troops in Vietnam in 1968, and it's shot and played with a lot of infectious energy. We also had a musical drama from America, the less enjoyable but still watchable Sparkle, featuring the last film role for Whitney Houston. And a lively audience of critics on Friday night laughed all the way through Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis' The Campaign, even though it loses its satirical edge along the way.

With press screenings underway for the London Film Festival (10-21 Oct) and the Raindance Festival (26 Sep-7 Oct) in full flow, the screening schedule is busier than normal. Other mainstream titles included Mike Newell's new version of Dickens' Great Expectations, Liam Neeson's return to the action-revenge genre in the preposterous Taken 2, the energetic and engaging animated monster romp Hotel Transylvania, and Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg in the nicely observed relationship comedy-drama Celeste & Jesse Forever.

Further off the beaten path were the British independent dramas Shell, an atmospheric film set in the Highlands, and Love Tomorrow, a downbeat London romance. There was also the cheesily low-budget American thriller Into the Lion's Den, the provocative and controversial Cannes-winning Danish drama The Hunt, and Poland's gritty and rather insular true rap-group drama You Are God.

This coming week we have the Irish musical drama Good Vibrations, the British wedding comedy The Knot, Stephen Dorff in Zaytoun, the acclaimed Swiss drama Sister, the horror film Excision, the indie drama Laurentie, clown horror in Stitches, the French animation Ernest & Celestine, and the documentaries Everything or Nothing (about James Bond) and West of Memphis (about a miscarriage of justice). Among other things...

Requisite Blog Photo: One of the undead

It was perhaps a bit early on Sunday morning to face a cinema packed out with hysterical, sugar-overloaded children. So I fit right in with the movie's cast...