Critical Week: The look of love

It's been a busy week for me, catching up on some awards-season movie-watching. And the Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday, with some nice surprises (Delroy Lindo, Kate Hudson) and surprising omissions (Paul Mescal, Wicked: For Good). As for the movies, I was looking forward to Francois Ozon's take on the Camus classic The Stranger, and the film certainly didn't disappoint. It's a luxuriantly gorgeous exploration of disaffection that feels eerily timely today. And Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder (above) are superb. I also caught up with Cal McMau's impressive directing debut Wasteman, an intentive, involving and ultimately moving British prison movie starring the excellent David Jonsson and Tom Blyth.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The History of Sound
H Is for Hawk
No Other Choice • Heavyweight
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Further off the beaten path, the doc D Is for Distance is an artful cinematic essay by a filmmaking couple exploring their son's health issues with kaleidoscopic skill. It's also a bit indulgent. From Mexico, the observant and mesmerising Copper is an idiosyncratic drama about a man and a moral dilemma. From Germany, Phantoms of July is an enjoyably deadpan comedy that connects characters in unexpected ways. And I caught up with two more documentary contenders: Come See Me in the Good Light is the rightfully acclaimed (and now Oscar-nominated) depiction of a poet's strikingly straightforward approach to mortality, while Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is pretty much what it says: a sparky, hugely entertaining look at the life of Liza Minnelli through her own eyes. 

Beyond movies, I attended the premiere of Ryan Murphy's new grisly, camp, compulsively watchable TV series The Beauty, and chatted with cast members Evan Peters, Ashton Kutcher, Rebeccal Hall, Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope at the appropriately gorgeous afterparty (see below). And there was also a live performance of Gecko's wondrous The Wedding at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Jason Momoa in The Wrecking Crew, Olivia Colman in Jimpa, Riz Ahmed in Hamlet, Milla Jovovich in Worldbreaker, James McAvoy's directing debut California Schemin', the Aussie family adventure Kangaroo and Mark Jenkins' new film Rose of Nevada. And Bafta nominations are out next Tuesday.

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Stage: Married to the job

Gecko
The Wedding
created by Amit Lahavwith Mario Garcia Patrón Alvarez, Lucia Chocarro, Madeleine Fairminer, Vanessa Guevara Flores, Ryen Perkins-Gangnes, Saju Hari, Wai Shan Vivian Luk, Miguel Torres Umba, Dan Watson
music Dave Price • sets/costumes Rhys Jarman
lighting Joe Hornsby • sound Jon Everett
Sadler's Wells East, Stratford • 21-24.Jan.26 ★★★★

As part of MimeLondon, the international physical theatre company Gecko reimagines its acclaimed 2017 stage production exploring the contracts we enter into as members of society. This is a provocative piece, but it's also a lot of fun, bristling with wit as it playfully punctures imagery and ideas that we take for granted. Using marriage as a metaphor, the show is a work of art that doesn't need to be interpreted specifically. Instead, it's best to sit back and enjoy the astonishing skill in this eye-catching, emotionally resonant performance.

The setting is surreal, as new people are delivered onto the stage down a chute, put into a wedding dress and sent to work with a briefcase. Workers then spiral around, making phone calls and conducting business in squares of light on the stage, trying to fit in as they aspire for promotion. They speak to each other in a variety of languages that add to a richly dense music and soundscape, with thoughts and feelings revealed using both full physicality and the tiniest movements and pauses. The loose, kinetic choreography is a fascinating mix of personal and corporate expression.

Along the way a few characters emerge, including a married couple struggling with the demands of their life and a sparky family of immigrant buskers who live in a suitcase and try to integrate with society. Momentous events pepper this 75-minute show, including a few wildly energetic, ethnically charged weddings that create a striking sense of community. This adds a hopefulness to scenes that depict a life constrained by rules and expectations, including moments in which people are literally boxed in or thrown out.

Every element of this show is expertly assembled, including the timeless, shifting costumes and inventive sets and props that cleverly light up the cast members. Other lighting emerges from the wings, creating a luxuriantly inky blackness around the cast. The cumulative effect is dazzling, especially as the show continually offers honest commentary about how social structures can crush our humanity while also providing avenues for individual expectation. And it's in the paths to escape that the show finds a profound sense of joy.

For info, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Malachy Luckie • 21.Jan.26

Critical Week: Back on the case

Awards season continues to gather speed, with the Golden Globes on Sunday. I vote in these, and it was nice to see some sign of the international voting base in some more unexpected winners. I also had ballot deadlines with two other groups who announced their nominees: the Online Film Critics Society and the Dorian Awards. My annual Sweepstakes is up and running, tallying all the awards in one place, and next week things ramp up even more with the Oscar nominees. As for movies, I watched the deliberately gritty cop thriller The Rip, which does nothing much new but reunites Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on-screen, alongside a terrific cast including Steven Yeun, Catalina Sandino Moreno and new Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sound of Falling • Rental Family
A Private Life • Dead Man's Wire
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Another thriller, Bart Layton's Crime 101, features the starry quartet Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan, none of whom disappoint with their complex characterisations. And then there was the rabid chimp horror Primate, which never quite grabs hold largely due to its man-in-a-monkey-suit aesthetic. More intriguing, timely and important was the Palestinian drama All That's Left of You, with gets a bit soapy but packs a powerful kick. And I finally caught up with the animated epic Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which looks amazing even if it feels like watching someone else play a videogame.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Francois Ozon's new film of Camus' The Stranger, the British family doc D Is for Distance, a big-screen premiere for the TV series The Beauty and a live performance of The Wedding at Sadler's Wells East.

Critical Week: Take a leap

I travelled back from rainy California to icy London this week, having submitted my final ballot for the Golden Globes last weekend. So I look forward to seeing what our international group of critics chose to take home prizes on Sunday night in Los Angeles. I also caught up with two films opening this week: Kristen Stewart's writing-directing debut The Chronology of Water is a challenging arthouse collage, based on a dark memoir. Imogen Poots is superb in the lead role, although the film is a bit too fragmented to pull us in. By contrast, People We Meet on Vacation is a charming and silly romantic comedy (now on Netflix) that's a bit too slick and long, but has some underlying themes that resonate. Plus ridiculously likeable leads in Emily Bader and Tom Blyth. Still, Chloe Zhao's Hamnet is hands down the best film out this week.

I also caught up with the acclaimed German drama Sound of Falling, an ambitious and luxuriant multi-generational epic that continually sends shivers down the spine with its darkly astute observations. Another awards contender, the doc Orwell: 2+2=5 is expertly assembled by Raoul Peck to explore how George Orwell's prescient novels have been echoed in global politics over the past century. It's essential viewing, partly because of the rather terrifying things it says about humanity. And then there were two movies I finally caught up with on the plane flight home: Megan 2.0 is an enjoyably bonkers sequel that is unafraid to get both silly and sharply pointed. I loved it. And gifted filmmaker Kogonada takes a huge swing with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a surreal romance starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. It's skilfully crafted, but almost nothing about the story works at all.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo in Crime 101, survival horror Primate, Palestinian drama All That's Left of You and catching up on films and TV I haven't had time to watch over the past few weeks. There are also more voting deadlines to contend with.

A Year in Shadows: Vol 41

Wrapping up the 41st volume of Shadows on the Wall with the 52 covers over the course of 2025. Films featured in order are: Nosferatu, A Real Pain, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Hard Truths, September 5, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Mickey 17, Black Bag, Snow White, Novocaine, A Minecraft Movie, Warfare, Sinners, The Accountant 2, Thunderbolts, The Wedding Banquet, Good One, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, The Phoenician Scheme, Ballerina, How to Train Your Dragon, Elio, F1, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman, Smurfs, The Fantastic 4: First Steps, The Naked Gun, Freakier Friday, Materialists, The Life of Chuck, The Roses, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The Lost Bus, Dead of Winter, The Smashing Machine, Roofman, Frankenstein, Hedda, Bugonia, Train Dreams, Jay Kelly, Wicked: For Good, Wake Up Dead Man, It Was Just an Accident, Ella MacCay, Avatar: Fire & Ash and Marty Supreme, plus Bafta and Oscar. Full-sized versions can be found in posts here and on social media from throughout the year.

And here's the traditional flurry of unnecessary trivia...

Unusually, only two people appeared on two covers this year: Timothee Chalamet had two all to himself, with A Complete Unknown (in January) and Marty Supreme (in December); Pedro Pascal appears on two alongside his costars in The Fantastic 4: First Steps (in July) and Materialists (in August).

Getting their own solo covers: Adrian Brody, Lily Collias, Kit Connor, David Corenswet, Tom Cruise, Ana de Armas, Benicio del Toro, Tom Hiddleston, Emma Mackey, Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt, Jack Quaid, Emma Stone, Channing Tatum, Mason Thames, Emma Thompson and Tessa Thompson. And George Clooney shares a cover with his younger self.

Sharing a cover with one or more costars: Ben Affleck, Pamela Anderson, Michele Austin, Ryan Bader, Jonathan Bailey, Leonie Benesch, Jon Bernthal, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Miles Caton, Ben Chaplin, Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, Daniel Craig, Kieran Culkin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Lee Curtis, Britain Dalton, Lily-Rose Depp, Joel Edgerton, Jesse Eisenberg, Ali Elyasmehr, Cynthia Erivo, Chris Evans, Vera Farmiga, Michael Fassbender, America Ferrera, Gal Gadot, Lily Gladstone, Ariana Grande, Christopher Guest, Thomas Haden Church, David Harbour, Oscar Isaac, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hannah John-Kamen, Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Dwayne Johnson, Felicity Jones, David Jonsson, Michael B Jordan, Vanessa Kirby, Mila Kunis, Lindsay Lohan, John Magaro, James McAvoy, Matthew McConaughey, Daryl McCormack, Michael McKean, Jason Momoa, Wunmi Mosaku, Liam Neeson, Josh O'Connor, Hadis Pakbaten, Madjid Panahi, Lewis Pullman, Florence Pugh, Joseph Quinn, Jeremy Renner, Wyatt Russell, Andrew Scott, Harry Shearer, Bill Skarsgard, Cailee Spaeny, Sebastian Stan, Kelly Marie Tran, Patrick Wilson, Leo Woodall, Letitia Wright, Renee Zellweger, Rachel Zegler, Kerry Washington andSam Worthington.

On a cover but without their face showing - either obscured or as an animated character they voiced: Jacob Elordi (back), Andrew Barth Feldman (dwarf silhouette), Tituss Burgess (dwarf silhouette), James Corden (smurf), John Goodman (smurf), Yonas Kibreab (Elio), Martin Klebba (dwarf silhouette), Jason Kravits (dwarf silhouette), Olga Kurylenko (masked), Billie Lourd (smurf), Natasha Lyonne (poot), Xolo Maridueña (smurf), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (thing), Rihanna (smurf), George Salazar (dwarf silhouette), Jeremy Swift (dwarf silhouette), Andy Grotelueschen (dwarf silhouette) and Matthew Wood (robot).

The most crowded covers: Wake Up Dead Man (11), Snow White (9), September 5 (8), Smurfs (8) and Thunderbolts (7).

There were no animal covers this year, although critters appear in the margins for Snow White, A Minefield Movie and Jurassic Park: Rebirth. There's a big teddy bear for Roofman. And the most prominent creature is Toothless for How to Train Your Dragon.

And finally, here are some outtake covers that were designed but never used for a reason that seemed good at the time: Opus (bumped for Black Bag on 14 Mar), Jurassic World: Rebirth (alternate draft for 4 Jul), Fantastic 4 (alternate draft for 25 Jul), Caught Stealing (bumped for The Roses on 29 Aug), Plainclothes (bumped for The Lost Bus on 19 Sep) and Wake Up Dead Man (an LFF version bumped for Frankenstein on 17 Oct, then rejigged to use on 28 Nov).

The Best of 2025: 45th Shadows Awards

As usual, here's a brief summary of my top 10 lists for the year, with much, much more on the 45th Shadows Awards page on the website. These are my favourites - and as usual, I always like to be surprised...

BEST FILMS: 

1. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
3. Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper)
4. Hamnet (Chloé Zhao)
5. Cactus Pears (Rohan Parashuram Kanawade)
6. Good One (India Donaldson)
7. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
8. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
9. 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Mstyslav Chernov)
10. Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson)

DIRECTOR:

1. Chloé Zhao - Hamnet
2. Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland - Warfare
3. Lynne Ramsay - Die My Love
4. Ryan Coogler - Sinners
5. India Donaldson - Good One
6. Oliver Laxe - Sirāt
7. Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
8. Kelly Reichardt - The Mastermind
9. Mary Bronstein - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
10. Celine Song - Materialists

SCREENWRITER:

1. Ryan Coogler - Sinners
2. Eva Victor - Sorry, Baby
3. Rian Johnson - Wake Up Dead Man
4. Jafar Panahi - It Was Just an Accident
5. Harry Lighton - Pillion
6. India Donaldson - Good One
7. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade - Cactus Pears
8. Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet
9. Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier - Sentimental Value
10. Kleber Mendonca Filho - The Secret Agent

ACTRESS: 

1. Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
2. Renate Reinsve - Sentimental Value
3. Camila Plaate - Belén
4. Leonie Benesch - Late Shift
5. Jennifer Lawrence - Die My Love
6. Tessa Van den Broeck - Julie Keeps Quiet
7. Yasmine Al Massri - Palestine 36
8. Kate Hudson - Song Sung Blue
9. Laura Dern - Is This Thing On, Jay Kelly
10. Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

ACTOR: 

1. Théodore Pellerin - Lurker, Nino
2. Michael B Jordan - Sinners
3. Paul Mescal - The History of Sound, Hamnet
4. Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value
5. Mahmood Bakri - To a Land Unknown
6. Josh O'Connor - The Mastermind, Wake Up Dead Man, The History of Sound, Rebuilding
7. Ryo Yoshizawa - Kokuhō
8. Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent
9. Will Poulter - Warfare, On Swift Horses
10. Sergi Lopez - Sirāt

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 

1. Nina Hoss - Hedda
2. Glenn Close - Wake Up Dead Man
3. Amy Madigan - Weapons, Rebuilding
4. Youn Yuh-jung - The Wedding Banquet
5. Wunmi Mosaku - Sinners
6. Fiona Shaw - Hot Milk, Park Avenue
7. Mariam Afshari - It Was Just an Accident
8. Naomi Ackie - Mickey 17, Sorry Baby, The Thursday Murder Club
9. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas - Sentimental Value
10. Maxine Peake - I Swear

SUPPORTING ACTOR: 

1. Miles Caton - Sinners
2. Kit Connor - Warfare
3. Tonatiuh - Kiss of the Spider Woman
4. Alexander Skarsgard - Pillion
5. Min Tanaka - Kokuhō
6. Noah Jupe - Hamnet, The Carpenter's Son
7. Jay Lycurgo - Steve
8. Ken Watanabe - Kokuhō
9. Jack O'Connell - Sinners, 28 Years Later
10. Archie Madekwe - Lurker

WORST FILM: 

1. A Working Man (David Ayer)
2. The Home (James DeMonaco)
3. Star Trek: Section 31 (Olatunde Osunsanmi)
4. Him (Justin Tipping)
5. Night of Violence (Illya Konstantin)
6. The Electric State (Joe & Anthony Russo)
7. Bull Run (Alfredo Barrios Jr)
8. The Pickup (Tim Story)
9. The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
10. Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

TV SERIES: 

1. Adolescence (Netflix)
2. Hacks 4 (Max)
3. The White Lotus 3 (HBO)
4. Chief of War (Apple)
5. Boots (Netflix)
6. Juice 2 (BBC)
7. Only Murders in the Building 5 (Hulu)
8. Too Much (Netflix)
9. Andor 2 (Disney)
10. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (BBC)

SINGLE: 

1. Golden - Huntr/x
2. DtMF - Bad Bunny
3. Where Is My Husband - Raye
4. Undressed - Sombr
5. Manchild - Sabrina Carpenter
6. Daisy, When the Wine Runs Out - Role Model
7. The Giver - Chappell Roan
8. Rubber Band Man - Mumford and Sons & Hozier
9. I Lied to You - Miles Caton
10. Show Me Love - WizTheMc, Bees & Honey

On the road: Take the plunge

Being away for the holidays, I've prioritised hanging out with family and friends over work - so I'm a bit behind with everything apart from food! But I've managed to watch a few films here and there. Just out in cinemas here in the US, The Plague stars Joel Edgerton as a boys' water polo coach who seems either unable or unwilling to tackle the horrific bullying on the team. It's strikingly well made, with a terrific central performance by young Everett Blunck. 

The gentle drama Rebuilding features yet another excellent role for Josh O'Connor as a Colorado rancher trying to start over after a wildfire. It's quietly powerful. Ron Howard's Eden tells the true story of Europeans trying to find paradise in the Galápagos in the 1930s, with a cast that includes Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas. The cast makes it watchable even when it gets rather soapy. The documentary The Perfect Neighbor is assembled from body-cam footage as Florida cops teal with a messy situation that escalates until someone dies. It's hard to watch, but important. I also caught up with a few pulpy movies from recent years, including the cat-and-mouse thriller Carry-On in which Jason Bateman terrorises security agent Taron Egerton in Los Angeles airport. It's seriously stupid, but fun. Mel Gibson plays an action-oriented Santa in Fatman, an uneven mix of comedy and violence that never comes together. Walton Goggins is seriously intense as the baddie; Marianne Jean-Baptiste (yes, really) shines as Mrs Claus.

Over this next week, I'll be watching a few more contenders before ballots are due in various awards. I'm also flying back to London, so will no doubt catch up with some gems (!) on the flights. Before that, I will be finalising year-end lists of my best and worst from 2025 - watch this space...