Critical Week: Phone home

Awards season is properly cranking up, with lots of screenings (and online links) for movies that are coming out in December and January - so we can see them ahead of voting deadlines, which are quickly approaching. It's great to see these films on a big screen when possible. Certainly, two unusually striking films I saw this week deserve that - both are very long movies based on true stories. Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme stars Timothee Chalamet (above) as an aspiring ping pong champ, and it's a singular visual odyssey, high energy and utterly riveting. It's also a little exhausting. And then there's Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried as the founder of the Shakers in 18th century England and New England. It's a swirling, mesmerising journey that leaves us thinking. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Rental Family • Cactus Pears
Wicked: For Good
The Thing With Feathers
Zodiac Killer Project
PERHAPS AVOID:
The Ice Tower
ALL REVIEWS >

A bit more mainstream, Emma Mackey stars in filmmaking maestro James L Brooks' Ella McCay, a sparky and enjoyable comedy-drama about a family and political ambition. Bill Skarsgard leads the cast of Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire, based on the true story of an unusual 1977 kidnapping. It's a gripping, strikingly well-made film. June Squibb stars in Scarlett Johansson's directing debut Eleanor the Great, a lively and likeable comedy-drama about memories and perception. Nicolas Cage leads The Carpenter's Son, an offbeat horror film based on an apocryphal gospel about the childhood of Jesus Christ (played by Noah Jupe). It's ambitious and creepy, and a little overwrought.

And then there was Park Chan-wook's overlong but sharply observant comedy No Other Choice starring Lee Byun-Hun as a guy who takes desperate measures to find a job. Sope Dirisu stars in the gorgeous British-Nigerian drama My Father's Shadow, as a man who takes his two cheeky sons on a day out in 1993 Lagos. The wonderful Iraqi drama The President's Cake centres on a young girl navigating her way through a restrictive system simply to bake a cake. The moving French drama Nino features yet another astonishingly transparent performance from Theodore Pellerin. And the Taiwanese drama Left-Handed Girl takes a snappy, fresh approach to connections between generations of women. I also attended the British premiere screening of Landman season 2 with Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore and Ali Larter in attendance.

It's another big week coming up, and I'll be watching Jodie Foster in A Private Life, Josh O'Connor in The Mastermind, Lav Diaz's epic biopic Magellan, the Spanish adventure Sirat and the animated films Scarlet and Little Amelie, plus festive live performances of Growled at the RVT and The Magic of Christmas at Brick Lane Music Hall.

Critical Week: And they called it puppy love

It's been another busy week in awards season, with screenings every night and lots of films to watch at home on links during the day. I also somehow have to find time to write about them all. It was great to catch up with festival breakout hit Pillion, Harry Lighton's offbeat romance starring Harry Melling (above) and Alexander Skarsgard. It's notorious for its dominant-submissive sexuality, but is actually a rather sweet and moving drama. By far the biggest movie was the European premiere of Wicked: For Good and I got to meet Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, along with director Jon Chu, at a reception before the screening. Unsurprisingly, the film is spectacular, much darker and more emotional than the first part. I also saw two gorgeous animated adventures: In Your Dreams is a fabulously colourful trip into the imagination, and Arco skilfully uses hand-drawn style anime to tell a pointed story from the future.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
In Your Dreams
Arco • Jay Kelly
Night of the Juggler
ALL REVIEWS >

At another starry awards screening, Kate Winslet presented her directing debut Goodbye June, alongside costars Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn, plus gifted young screenwriter Joe Anders (who happens to be Winslet's son). It's a funny and moving ensemble film. The Broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along, including Tony winners Daniel Dadciffe and Jonathan Groff, features in a superbly filmed stage performance of Stephen Sondheim's powerful exploration of art and friendship. 

A bit further afield, Tom Blyth stars in the perhaps too-snappy investment banking comedy Bull Run. Jorma Tommila is back for the entertaining and outrageously grisly Finnish action sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge. The Danish drama Sauna is a darkly thoughtful romance. Hong Kong drama Valley of the Shadow of Death, explores grief and redemption in an involving faith-based story. From Argentina, 300 Letters deconstructs a romance in ways that are sexy, funny and moving. And I finally caught up with the breakout animated hit KPop Demon Hunters, which is a lot of bright-hued fun, packed with great music. On top of all of that, I attended the seriously epic UK premiere of the first episode of Stranger Things season 5.

Coming up this next week, I plan to watch Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee, Nicolas Cage in The Carpenter's Son, Emma Mackey in Ella McCay, June Squibb in Eleanor the Great, British-Nigerian drama My Father's Shadow, Iraqi drama The President's Cake, French drama Nino and Taiwanese drama Left-Handed Girl, plus a premiere screening of Landman season 2.

Dance: Connection is the answer

Nederlands Dans Theater & Complicité 
Figures in Extinction
direction & choreography Crystal Pite, Simon McBurney
dancers Alexander Andison, Demi Bawon, Anna Bekirova, Jon Bond, Conner Bormann, Viola Busi, Pamela Campos, Emmitt Cawley, Conner Chew, Scott Fowler, Surimu Fukushi, Barry Gans, Ricardo Hartley III, Nicole Ishimaru, Chuck Jones, Paloma Lassère, Casper Mott, Genevieve O'Keeffe, Omani Ormskirk, Kele Roberson, Gabriele Rolle, Rebecca Speroni, Yukino Takaura, Luca-Andrea Lino Tessarini, Theophilus Veselý, Nicole Ward, Sophie Whittome, Rui-Ting Yu, Zenon Zubyk
music Owen Belton • sound Benjamin Grant
lighting Tom Visser • sets Jay Gower Taylor, Michael Levine
Sadler's Wells, London • 5-8.Nov.25 ★★★★★

Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité are two of the world's finest dance companies, led by top artists Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney. So it's hardly surprising that this three-part show (with two intervals) is both dazzlingly beautiful and often heart-stopping, drawing the audience in with visual, technical and artistic prowess to provide an experience that is both thought-provoking and deeply moving. From the detailed, precise choreography to an inventive mix of sound and light, everyone involved is at the very peak of their powers.

The trilogy opens with Figures in Extinction [1.0] the list, which I first saw as part of another NDT programme at Sadler's Wells in 2023. Here it's presented in a robust new context as it traces species and places that have been lost, including mammals, birds, flowers and glaciers. Alongside a mix of spoken words and musical underscore, each is depicted interpretively by the dancers in ways that send chills up the spine. Highlights include a herd of caribou, a breathing cheetah skeleton, a duet of macaws and a twitching frog. Through all of this there's a real sense that we are watching the earth disappear around us, and the earth is watching us.

Figures in Extinction [2.0] but then you come to the humans finds the entire cast on-stage in chairs, with tiny movements expressing isolation as they look into phone screens. Their reactions are hilarious, and also astutely pointed, as the voiceover speaks about how brains are constructed for various tasks, including the distinctly human ability to see perspectives beyond ourselves, giving us both distance and empathy. This plays out in expressive ways that urge us to see humanity in a new way. Visual trickery often feels like magic, especially as the dancers bring cameras onto the stage, projecting images onto the screen behind them. It's also deeply moving to think about humanity in connection with everything around us.

Finally, Extinction [3.0] requiem explores our relationship with those who have gone before us, intriguingly opening as each dancer notes where they were born, the culmination of ancestors scattered across the globe. A gigantic black cube descends onto the stage, revealing a hospital scene that plays out through this piece in a mix of gallows humour, family drama and profound grief. Even here, there's a blast of life in choreography that resolves into full-on Fosse-style jazz riffs as well as moments of racing and straining, understanding that death is something real for all of us. Witty, harrowing and tender, this is viscerally moving on surprising layers.

Throughout this show, light and shadow are skilfully deployed alongside striking projections, evolving through a series of spectacular transitions. But the demanding choreography makes the biggest impression, as dancers guide our eyes around the stage with both micro-movements and grandly sweeping physicality, often performing as if they are puppets controlled by an unseen hand. At every point in all three segments, there are pointed comments that combine physicality, religion and politics into a pure reflection of what it means to be human. It's the kind of show that changes the way we see the world and ourselves. As Pite says, "If separation is the question, then connection is surely the answer."

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Rahi Rezvani • 5.Nov.25

Critical Week: Ready to run

Awards season continues in full swing, with screenings every day of the week. Things will only escalate this month as voting deadlines begin to approach around the first of December. So I have a lot that I still need to see, especially since I also have to watch TV shows and podcasts for the Golden Globes. This week's big films included Glen Powell in Edgar Wright's entertainingly fast-paced remake of The Running Man, based on the Stephen King novel. There are big issues in here, but it never goes very deep. At least Colman Domingo is having a blast. And there was also the lavishly well-made post-war epic Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe and Rami Malek in a thought-provoking exploration of political morality. Leo Woodhall very nearly steals the show.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Belen • Train Dreams • Odyssey
Peter Hujar's Day • The Choral
The Marbles • Love + War
ALL REVIEWS >

One of the most delightful surprises was Song Sung Blue, an emotional rollercoaster of a true story starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as a Neil Diamond experience. Yes, lots of great music too. Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner also have fun in the existential romantic-triangle comedy Eternity, which finds serious emotions along the way. Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall are riveting in Peter Hujar's Day, a mundane/momentous conversation between two artists in 1970s New York. The artful French romance Eden & Charlie is simply gorgeous to look at, and carries a wistful kick. The documentary The Marbles is an entertaining, enlightening exploration of why museums have a duty to repatriate antiquities. And the interactive thriller The Run takes the audience on a wild ride, all while we choose where it goes next. I also attended a gala screening of the hilarious and sharply pointed short Burn Your Gays. And there was a live performance of the dazzling Figures in Extinction at Sadler's Wells.

Coming up for this next just-as-busy week, I'll be watching Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked: For Good, Alexander Skarsgard in Pillion, Kate Winslet's film Goodbye June, Tom Blyth in Bull Run, the animated adventure In Your Dreams, the action sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge, Hong Kong crime thriller Valley of the Shadow of Death, and the anti-romcom 300 Letters, plus a premiere screening of the first episode of Stranger Things season 5.

Critical Week: Hold on tight

Because awards season is fully underway now, there is a steady stream of screenings to help voters catch up with contenders. It's not always clear how these are selected, as some great movies are routinely ignored during these months, while others get massive campaigns. So it's always great when smaller films get a bit of a push - and I love discovering these gems. One of the best of the year is Joachim Trier's drama Sentimental Value, a stunner from Norway featuring another riveting performance from Renate Reinsve, plus Stellan Skarsgard in the role of his career as her filmmaker father. And from Argentina, Belén has real power in its true story about women fighting for rights in a male-dominated society. Actor-filmmaker Dolores Fonzi and Camila Plaate (in the title role) are terrific in this moving, important film.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Palestine 36
Stitch Head • Bugonia
Nouvelle Vague 
ALL REVIEWS >

More mainstream, the animated comedy Stitch Head is a wonderfully cartoonish spin on Frankenstein that's funny and engagingly sweet. The atmospheric horror Shelby Oaks is creepy and gleefully gruesome, but never scary. And the bonkers Aussie animated romp Lesbian Space Princess is smart, rude and delightfully ridiculous. I also saw a live performance of Akram Khan and Manal AlDowayan's Thikra: Night of Remembering at Sadler's Wells. And I spent a day on the set of MobLand, as it begins filming its second season, accompanied by cast members Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Joanna Froggatt, Anson Boon, Lara Pulver, Mandeep Dhillon and Teddie Allen.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Russell Crowe and Rami Malek in Nuremburg, Glen Powell in The Running Man, Jodie Foster in A Private Life, Miles Teller in Eternity, Andrea Riseborough in Dragonfly, the French romance Eden & Charlie, the British Museum doc The Marbles, a gala screening of the short Burn Your Gays, the interactive movie The Run and a live performance of Figures in Extinction.

Dance: A reminder from mother earth

Akram Khan Company
Thikra: Night of Remembering
director & choreographer Akram Khan
visual director, costumes, set Manal AlDowayan
dancers Pallavi Anand, Ching-Ying Chien, Kavya Ganesh, Nikita Goile, Samantha Hines, Jyotsna Jagannathan, Mythili Prakash, Azusa Seyama Proville, Divya Ravi, Elpida Skourou, Mei Fei Soo, Shreema Upadhyaya, Kimperly Yap, Hsin-Hsuan Yu
music & soundscape Aditya Prakash • sound Gareth Fry
lighting Zeynep Kepekli • dramaturgy Blue Pieta
Sadler's Wells, London • 29.Oct-1.Nov.25 ★★★★

A collaboration between choreographer Akram Khan and visual artist Manal AlDowayan, this one-hour dance performance is a journey into an elemental past that plays on rituals, history and mythology. Watching it is an unusual experience, as there's the sense of a strong narrative in the action on-stage, even if the meaning remains tantalisingly out of reach. But the expressive movement bursts with humanity as it explores spaces between the past and present.

With an all-female cast, it opens with a leader standing atop a rock encircled by acolytes, as a young woman in white appears. This is an ancestral spirit, who returns to her tribe for one night to help them reflect on their existence. The story plays out in swirling dance scenes in which four key characters interact in a variety of intense ways, controlling and being controlled, sleeping and waking, echoing each other and leading the larger group into wider actions. While the show emerges from the ancient Arabian city of AlUla, it reverberates with pre-history along the spice route through Europe, Africa and Asia.

Choreography is sweeping and expressive, often involving the performers' long straight hair. Much of this is individualistic, but there are ripples of synchronicity that sometimes blossom into precise full-group sequences. Floaty costumes and the extended locks add to the flowing effect, with the four central figures standing out in white, black, red and burnt orange. So watching this is mesmerising, with impressive work from the dancers as they go through some seriously demanding movements. It's restlessly eye-catching, and darkly moving.

Intriguingly, this piece was originally designed to be staged outdoors, and it certainly has a primordial sensibility to it, transporting the audience out into the wilderness and back to the dawn of time. The set, lighting and swirl of music and sound create a strongly evocative mother-earth vibe. So even if we're never quite sure who these characters are or what they're up to, their interaction is both visual and emotional. And it speaks to our primitive souls.

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Camilla Greenwell • 28.Oct.25

Critical Week: On the road again

Hello from Rome! I'm here for a few days this week, my first-ever visit to the city, so I plan to do a lot of walking. I've also caught up with a London Film Fest movie here at the Rome Film Festival, namely Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner It Was Just an Accident, a riveting comical romp with dark undertones that surge to the surface in the haunting final act. Panahi was on hand to accept a special award before the screening last night, then today I attended a conversation with him about his extraordinary career. Before coming to Italy, I watched several films during London Film Fest's closing weekend, including Paolo Sorrentino's Venice festival opener La Grazia, another outrageously gorgeous odyssey starring Toni Servillo as a wry, reflective Italian president.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Bugonia • Hedda
Love+War
ALL REVIEWS >

Also at LFF: Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere offers Jeremy Allen White another wonderfully textured role as the Boss, so the film is entertaining even if it never surprises us. Richard Linklater brought his second film this year, Nouvelle Vague, a French comedy-drama about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, shot completely in period style. It looks amazing and is a lot of fun. There was also a lavish premiere for Annemarie Jacir's historical drama Palestine 36, beautifully dramatising a pivotal moment in time. The vast ensemble cast is excellent. From UAE, the psychological horror The Vile is a superbly unnerving thriller about a woman confronting her male-dominated culture. And the photography doc Love+War profiles top conflict photographer Lynsey Addario as she balances work with a lively family life.

My favourites from the London Film Festival:

1. 
   Is This Thing On? (Cooper, US)
2. Hamnet (Zhao, UK)
3. Rental Family (Hikari, Japan)
4. La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy)
5. Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson, UK)
6. Palestine 36 (Annemarie Jacir, Palestine)
7. Lurker (Alex Ross, US)
8. The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus, UK)
9. Train Dreams (Clint Bentley, US)
10. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, US)

All festival film reviews are linked here: SHADOWS @ LFF >

Back in London this next week I'll see the horror thriller Shelby Oaks and the Argentine drama Belen, and I want to catch up on a couple of films that I missed because I was unable to attend screenings, including The Mastermind and Tron: Ares. I also have a live performances of Thikra: Night of Remembering.