Critical Week: Isolation blues

It's becoming clear that this extended third lockdown is making Londoners a bit loopy, especially as it has no end in sight. Although we keep hoping that as the pandemic numbers improve slightly, relief is on the horizon. But being able to get back into a cinema seems like a distant hope! I've been rather swamped with preparations for the London Critics' Circle Film Awards on Sunday night, which has involved lots of email communication with Los Angeles - something an eight-hour time shift makes rather tricky. As a result, I only watched four movies this past week.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Falling • Another Round
Two of Us • Malcolm & Marie 
ALL REVIEWS >

By far the biggest film I saw was the Russo brothers' Cherry, starring Tom Holland (above) as an Army veteran who becomes a junkie to deal with his post-traumatic stress. It's 2 hours 20 minutes long, and feels like an operatic epic. It would look amazing on a big cinema screen. Ambitiously taking on the same theme in a very different way, Mike Cahill's Bliss stars Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek in a fantasy-style thriller about a parallel reality. It's provocative and engaging. The Australian remake of the Icelandic gem Rams stars the superb Sam Neill, Michael Caton and Miranda Richardson, and finds earthy humour in a dark situation. And the pitch-black Argentine thriller 4x4 traps lead actor Peter Lanzani inside an SUV, becoming a seriously harrowing ordeal.

Coming up this week, I need to catch up on quite a few films, including the true thriller Murderous Trance, the British comedy Running Naked, the Argentine romcom A Skeleton in the Closet, the Chinese drama Twilight's Kiss and the short film collection Desire in the Dark.

And if you want to watch the 41st London Critics' Circle Film Awards, our virtual ceremony goes live at 7pm Sunday night 7th Feb and will also be rewatchable on the CRITICS' CIRCLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL >

Critical Week: Have a scary Christmas

There was a late press screening of this week's holiday horror comedy Krampus this week, the fourth film this year about the mythical Anti-Claus who terrorises families on Christmas. More family-style holiday pleasures were found in The Peanuts Movie, which nicely captures the tone of the original Snoopy and Charlie Brown cartoons with an updated animation style and a gently hilarious story that grown-ups and young children will enjoy.

I also caught up with The Big Short, Adam McKay's comedy about the financial crisis starring the superb Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. Matthew Macfadyen plays a filmmaker in the knowing pastiche Lost in Karastan, which kind of loses its way about halfway through. And the acclaimed Icelandic film Rams is a fiercely clever exploration of an estranged brotherhood in a style best appreciated by arthouse fans.

This coming week we have a screening of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy in The Revenant, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Joy, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in the comedy Sisters, Jackie Chan and Adrian Brody in the action movie Dragon Blade, and Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa.