Critical Week: Now you see her

It's been a busy week, with another wildly eclectic selection of films to dive into. Seriously, my head begins to spin sometimes at the way they bump into each other in my schedule. The biggest title was a late press screening of The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell's new take on the classic novel, centring on the terrific Elisabeth Moss as a woman haunted by her unseen ex. Clever acting and directing add subtext that makes up for the rather lazy screenplay. Nicolas Cage goes nuts once more in Color Out of Space, also based on a classic novel, this one about pink-hued alien invasion on an isolated farm. The movie is bonkers, and a lot of fun.

Smaller movies made the most of sometimes tired genres: Villain stars Craig Fairbrass in an unusually thoughtful London crime thriller. Run is an atmospheric smalltown Scottish drama with Mark Stanley. Straight Up mixes comedy and drama as a gay man tries to make his relationship with a woman work. Blood on Her Name is a taut, grounded dramatic thriller about a woman in trouble. The Garden Left Behind is a thoughtful, moving New York drama that takes on both immigration and transphobia. And Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is both a fascinating behind-the-scenes doc and a provocative look at one man's personal odyssey to accepting his past.

Outside the cinema, I caught up with two plays: Tom Stoppard's astonishing Leopoldstadt (at the Wyndham) is a grand yet deeply personal look at the impact of history, while Al Blyth's The Haystack (at the Hampstead) is a riveting thriller about state-sanctioned hacking and personal compromises. And I also visited Rethreading and Retracing, a lovely exhibition of textiles by Bita Ghezelayagh at the Aga Khan Centre.

This coming week, I have a screening of the new Pixar animated quest adventure Onward, Daniel Radcliffe in Guns Akimbo, Michael Pena in a horror-style Fantasy Island, the festival favourite System Crasher, the topical romcom Breaking Fast and the doc Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.

Stage: A dazzling double

Message in a Bottle
director-choreographer Kate Prince
music and lyrics Sting
with Tommy Franzen, Lukas McFarlane, Michael Naylor, Emma Houston, Robia Milliner Brown, Lizzie Gough, Nafisah Baba, Samuel Baxter, Lindon Barr, Jaih Betote, Anne Edwards, Onyemachi Ejimofor, Nestor Garcia Gonzalez, Anna Holmstrom, Ajani Johnson-Goffe, Daniella May, Kino McHugh, Annakanako Mohri, Aaron Nutttall, Daniel Phung, Hannah Sandilands,  Delano Spenrath, Gavin Vincent
The Peacock, London • 6.Feb-21.Mar.20

Ambitiously combining the music of Sting and The Police with issues surrounding refugee migration, this debut production is a definite crowd-pleaser, packed with great songs and a company of seriously talented dancers expressing themselves with eye-popping choreography that captures both the inner spirit and physical expressivity of the characters and situations. It's a powerful show, provocative and deeply moving, raw and beautiful.

The story centres on three teens who are living happy, love-filled lives when their community is obliterated by military conflict. The survivors band together to escape, but are separated during their odyssey, taking distinct journeys that involve horrific treatment by officials, attempts to assimilate into new cultures, finding new love and surviving some darkly gruelling situations, such as human trafficking as a drug-addicted sex slave. Through all of this, the three central figures express their emotions in vivid ways that take the audience on a journey with them.

Sting's music bristles with political commentary, especially the songs from his 1987 Nothing Like the Sun album, which use their yearning, issue-tinged lyrics and world music beats to draw out underlying ideas and feelings. Other numbers feel more than a little on-the-nose, even contrived. And attempts to match lyrics to story or choreography elements are uneven. But the songs are gorgeously re-recorded, and Kate Prince's stylistically eclectic and physically demanding choreography brings out intense feelings, often seeming to suspend the laws of gravity as performers hang in the air, smoothly mixing street moves with classical ballet and modern dance. It's a visually stunning show, demanding a lot of the dancers, and they deliver with style, energy and a strong emotional kick.

There are several high points in the show, most notably Tommy Franzen and Samuel Baxter's duet to Shape of My Heart, which discovers an unexpected romance with a gorgeous blend of power and tenderness. Other moments are exhilarating or wrenching, carefully constructed to take the viewed on a swirling journey through the themes, staged with a wonderful sense of lyricism. Human migration is a vitally important issue, explored with beauty and a clear sense of righteous anger. And the grim ending finds a triumphant note that raises spirits even if it feels oddly false. Still, it leaves us thinking, and more importantly feeling what life feels like for displaced people.

19.Feb.20

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Alina at Sadler’s Wells
curator Alina Cojocaru
with Alina Cojocaru, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Dominic Harrison, Johan Kobborg, Juliano Nunes, Marcelino Sambé, Takahiro Tamagawa
choreography Frederick Ashton, Kim Brandstrup, Johan Kobborg, Juliano Nunes, Tim Rushton,
music Antonio Bazzini, Francois Couperin, Georg Frederic Handel, Luke Howard, Franz Liszt, Arvo Part, Henryk Wieniawski
Sadler's Wells, London • 20-23.Feb.20

This enjoyable collection of classical and contemporary works is curated and performed by Alina Cojocaru, the Romanian lead principal dancer with the English National Ballet. It's a lively mix of music, dance and film layered with moments that are dazzlingly athletic, moving and even funny. To kick off, the evening opens with a dance between Charlie Siem's violin and Margarita Balanas' cello as they perform Handel's intricate, frisky Passacaglia.

This is followed by the more sombre Reminiscence, which Cojocaru performs with her partner Johan Kobborg in an evocative display of support, echoing, reflection and elevation. Cojocaru is simply magical on-stage, with her floating limbs moving with seemingly supernatural fluidity, always with the hint of a joyful smile ready to erupt. Journey is a three-part piece in which she is joined by Juliano Nunes and Dominic Harrison for a physically demanding, emotionally raw exploration of interaction that shifts and expands as it progresses, often taking the breath away with the use of balance and motion, choreographed beautifully to Luke Howard's music.

Les Lutins is the show-stopper, opening with the charismatic Marcelino Sambé interacting playfully with Siem and his violin before being joined by Takahiro Tamagawa for some cheeky one-upmanship, which shifts into witty rivalry when Cojocaru joins them. Kobborg's choreography is lightly gorgeous, as these three spiral around each other, echoing and expanding on each others' movements.

There are also lovely two short films by Kim Brandstrup, which offer even more intimate touches. Faces is an excerpt from a 2018 film, offering a chance to see Cojocaru close-up as she thinks through her movements. Kiev is a newly commissioned piece that follows Cojocaru back to the faded halls of the Kiev State Ballet School for the first time in 25 years, where she has a powerfully moving encounter with her former teachers. It's haunting and full of intensely internalised meaning.

And finally, there's the classically staged Marguerite and Armand, complete with Cecil Beaton's glorious costumes. Frederick Ashton's iconic choreography to Liszt's swirling piano score is given a fresh, energetic kick in this colourful, vibrant performance, as courtesan Marguerite (Cojocaru) dreams of her young lover Armand (Francesco Gabriele Frola), who stands out among her many suitors. But as their romance blossoms, Marguerite is afraid to tell Armand that she is dying. No, it doesn't end happily, but it's achingly beautiful.

20.Feb.20

Critical Week: Nose to nose

I've had a line-up of events and stage shows this week, rather than movies, which makes a very nice change. I only saw three films: The Call of the Wild is based on the Jack London novel about a dog's adventure in the Yukon, with a human cast including Harrison Ford, Omar Sy (pictured) and Dan Stevens. There is no dog cast, as that's Terry Notary in digital motion capture. The film is a lovely adventure but you can always tell that it's not a real dog.

There are actual horses in Dream Horse, based on the true story of a syndicate in a small Welsh village that raised a thoroughbred champion against the odds. Toni Collete leads an eclectic cast in an earthy, crowd-pleasing charmer. And Rosamund Pike stars as Marie Curie in the biopic Radioactive, which recounts the earth-changing scientist's life with some ambitious but distracting flourishes. And because I had the time, I revisited Parasite in a cinema packed-out with a paying audience, and loved it all over again. I originally saw it at a small press screening in September.

Outside the cinema I had the fringe theatre play Undetectable at the Kings Head (already reviewed) and the extremely starry press night for Message in a Bottle (review incoming), a thrilling dance performance staged to Sting's memorable songs and pointedly themed around the refugee experience. There was also a lively launch event for the new production of the Hairspray musical, which opens in April at the Coliseum starring Michael Ball and Paul Merton. I attended the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, which was a terrific ceremony packed with luminaries from the dance world, including Cats star Francesca Hayward, who was named Best Female Dancer for her work with the Royal Ballet. And finally, the British Film Institute hosted the launch of the 34th edition of BFI Flare, London's LGBTIQ+ film festival, another lineup of great cinema that runs 18-29 March at BFI Southbank. The event included the lively annual launch party, complete with a seriously yummy cake designed to match the festival artwork (see below). This is my 22nd year covering this festival.

There's a bit more stage to come this week too, plus press screenings of The Invisible Man with Elisabeth Moss, Colour Out of Place with Nicolas Cage, Villain with Craig Fairbrass, Scott Graham's drama Run, the noir thriller Blood on Her Name and the romcom Straight Up.

View this post on Instagram

It’s the annual #BFIFlare cake! A particularly delicious one, I should add. Tonight’s was the programme launch for the festival’s 34th year.

A post shared by Rich Jack Cline (@ukcline) on Feb 18, 2020 at 2:53pm PST

Stage: Grappling with intimacy

Undetectable
by Tom Wright
dir Rikki Beadle-Blair
with Lewis Brown, Freddie Hogan
King's Head Theatre, Islington • 12.Feb-7.Mar.20

Taking a complex look at the difference between intimacy and sex, this provocative two-hander draws the audience into a constantly shifting dialog about the nature of connection. The fact that it's a gay couple adds several additional textures, but the topic has a remarkable universality that anyone can identify with. It also helps that the spiralling conversation includes moments that are warm, funny, sexy, wrenching and emotionally engaging.

Bradley and Lex (Brown and Hogan) have been going out for three months, and both are feeling that it's time to have sex for the first time. But each has issues from his past that are causing him to pause. These relate to feelings surrounding safer-sex and HIV, drugs and alcohol, past relationships and self-doubt, all of which come out as they talk to each other, taking turns on the offensive and defensive while also finding common ground. This includes an extended flashback for each man: Bradley revisiting his wildly drug-fuelled party days and Lex remembering a tragedy from his romantic past.

Sustaining a conversation over 90 minutes without a break is no mean feat, and director Beadle-Blair adeptly switches things up constantly, keeping these guys in motion. The stage is a raised bed in the middle of the theatre, surrounded by the audience. These two guys climb on it, run around it, hide behind it as they get into and out of their clothing and the bedding, revealing and obscuring themselves from each other. Clever lighting and music add to the atmosphere, never telling the audience what to think or feel but highlighting the issues these men are grappling with. And Wright's script never moralises at all, which is refreshing considering the potent themes.

Both Brown and Hogan deliver remarkably wrenching performances that evoke a wide range of emotions, from playful tenderness to full-throttle screaming, without ever becoming overwrought. Because the audience is so close to the actors, this kind of underplaying is essential to maintain authenticity, and both men create remarkably private moments surrounded by a crowd of observers. Their performances are also full-bodied, both physically and emotionally, often leaving them (and the audience) sweaty and out of breath. This makes the connection between them powerfully real, with genuine ripples of doubt about where the relationship is headed, offering some proper suspense in the narrative. So we both empathise and root for them, layering our own feelings and opinions into the story to bring it to life in unexpected ways. Which of course leaves us with a lot to think about after the lights come up.

15.Feb.20

Critical Week: Do a little dance

Well, the Oscars have certainly shaken things up in recent years, and Sunday's ceremony brought some wonderful surprises, handing top honours to Bong Joon Ho's masterful film Paradise. If you've seen the film, it's not difficult to understand why it connected so well with voters. By contrast, this week's big screening was the resolutely silly Sonic the Hedgehog, offering Jim Carrey a chance to hilariously play around with both wacky wordplay and full-bodied physicality. It may be slight, but it's an entertaining romp.

There were three films that honed in on a female perspective. The latest adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a young woman manipulating the love lives of those around her. It's snarky and skilfully made, a perfect film for Valentine's Day. Misbehaviour stars Keira Knightley and Jessie Buckley in the terrific true story of women's rights activists who disrupted the Miss World contest in 1970 London. And from Ireland, Rose Plays Julie is a moody, wrenching tale of a young woman (Ann Skelly) who connects with her birth mother (Orla Brady), unearthing a haunting secret.

By extreme contrast, The Misogynists stars Dylan Baker in a rampaging performance as a Trump supporter in a hotel room on election night 2016. It's like a particularly pointed, provocative one-act play, and leaves the audience with plenty to think about. From Germany, Orpheus' Song is a quietly involving romantic drama about two men having a magical (or maybe drunken) experience while on holiday in Greece. And then there was this controversial doc...

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The Edge of Democracy
dir-scr Petra Costa
with Petra Costa, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff, Michel Temer, Jair Bolsonaro, Sergio Moro, Eduardo Cunha, Aecio Neves, Jean Wyllys, Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva
release Br/US/UK 19.Jun.19
19/Brazil Netflix 2h01 ****

I missed this doc when it was released last summer, and wanted to watch it before the Oscars, as it was the only nominated film I hadn't seen. The timing couldn't be more chilling, as the film outlines the step-by-step dismantling of the democratic system in Brazil by politicians who use the judicial system to both cover up corruption and convict opponents with crimes they haven't actually committed, in order to remove them from office. All while the nation's population divides itself into two camps that scream irrationally at each other. The parallels with what happened last week in Washington DC are downright horrifying.

Never attempting impartiality, the film is a first-person account by filmmaker Petra Costa (in a mumbly voiceover that's both eerily dispassionate and often lost in the sound mix). She's expressing her her views on Brazil's political turbulence over the past half-century, as military dictatorship gave way to democracy controlled by the wealthy. Then came Lula, the working-class president who brought fairness to the society, opportunities for the poor, and approval ratings higher than anyone in the world. When he passed the torch to his successor Dilma, the wealthy class suddenly cracked down, twisting an investigation into corruption to set up both Dilma and Lula on charges that were tenuous at best.

Costa pays attention to detail, which makes it clear what actually went on here. Her cameras have terrific access to these people, capturing private moments that are interwoven with the news footage to offer a bigger picture. Sometimes this dense approach a little overwhelming, while her comments about personal connections feel distracting. But even if it's one-sided, there's a bracing sense of fairness how events are recounted with news footage and audio recordings. There's no doubt about what has actually going on.

Which is perhaps what makes the film resonate so sharply. There's Boris Johnson shamelessly lying to the British people (and perhaps to himself) about the true impact of leaving the European Union. There's Donald Trump championing his own victory with a stream of false statistics and manipulative stories even before the Senate voted to ignore their duty to the US Constitution. There's a quote late in this documentary from Ancient Greece, that democracy is only working if the wealthy feel threatened. On the other hand, when the wealthy are threatened, they have the power to suspend democracy. And to brainwash the people into cheering them on.

9.Feb.20 • Sundance

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This coming week I have screenings of Harrison Ford in a new adaptation of Jack London's The Call of the Wild, Rose Byrne in the comedy Like a Boss, Rosamund Pike in the Marie Curie biopic Radioactive and the psychological thriller You Go to My Head, plus a couple of nights at the theatre, two press launches and an awards ceremony.

Out on a limb: Oscar picks & predictions

And so Oscar night rolls around again, much earlier than usual, capping a crazily truncated awards season. Here are who I think has a good chance of winning, and who I hope will win. My track record isn't great here, and this year there are some big questions lingering, mainly how much love Ampas voters will have for a Korean movie. Parasite is undoubtably the best movie of the year, perhaps the decade. But Oscars rarely actually go to the "best", as they're too busy honouring people they like. As always, I'm hoping for upsets and surprises...

BEST PICTURE

Should win: Parasite
Will win: 1917
Dark horse: Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Should win: Pain and Glory
Will win: Parasite

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Should win: Honeyland
Will win: American Factory
Dark horse: For Sama

ANIMATED FEATURE

Should win: I Lost My Body
Will win: Klaus
Dark horse: Missing Link

DIRECTING

Should win: Parasite - Bong Joon Ho
Will win: 1917 - Sam Mendes
Dark horse: Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Should win: The Two Popes - Anthony McCarten
Will win: Little Women - Greta Gerwig
Dark horse: Jojo Rabbit - Taika Waititi

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Should/will win: Parasite - Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won
Dark horse: Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Should/will win: Renee Zellweger - Judy

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Should win: Antonio Banderas - Pain and Glory
Will win: Joaquin Phoenix - Joker

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Should/will win: Laura Dern - Marriage Story
Dark horse: Florence Pugh - Little Women

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Should win: Al Pacino - The Irishman
Will win: Brad Pitt - Once upon a Time ... in Hollywood

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Should/will win: 1917 - Roger Deakins

COSTUME DESIGN

Should win: Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood - Arianne Phillips
Will win: Little Women - Jacqueline Durran

FILM EDITING

Should win: The Irishman - Thelma Schoonmaker
Will win: Ford v Ferrari - Michael Mccusker & Andrew Buckland
Dark horse: Parasite - Yang Jinmo

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Should win: Judy - Jeremy Woodhead
Will win: Bombshell - Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan & Vivian Baker

ORIGINAL SCORE

Should win: 1917 - Thomas Newman
Will win: Joker - Hildur Gudnadottir
Dark horse: Little Women - Alexandre Desplat
Always a contender: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - John Williams

ORIGINAL SONG

Should/will win: (I'm Gonna) Love Me Again -  Rocketman, Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Dark horse: I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away - Toy Story 4, Randy Newman

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Should win: Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood - Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh
Will win: 1917 - Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales
Dark horse: Parasite - Lee Ha Jun, Cho Won Woo

SOUND EDITING

Should win: 1917 - Oliver Tarney & Rachael Tate
Will win: Ford v Ferrari - Donald Sylvester

SOUND MIXING

Should win: 1917 - Mark Taylor & Stuart Wilson
Will win: Ford v Ferrari - Paul Massey, David Giammarco & Steven A Morrow

VISUAL EFFECTS

Should win: 1917 - Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler & Dominic Tuohy
Will win: Avengers: Endgame - Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken & Dan Sudick

Critical Week(s): A girl's best friend

The week of the London critics' awards, I only had two screenings, so I'm rolling that into this past week here. Films at the moment are mainly arthouse movies, because I've seen all of the big ticket movies either at festivals or during awards-voting periods last year. Then this week we had 2020's first big title, the DC Comics' action romp Birds of Prey. To be honest, I was dreading it, because I'm not the biggest fan of 2016's Suicide Squad. But director Cathy Yan rights everything David Ayer did wrong with that film: this one has deeper characters, coherent action, a plot that actually develops the situations and people in interesting directions. Margot Robbie is still over-the-top as Harley Quinn, but she has layers of interest this time, and is never sexualised. In other words, the film is a refreshing blast of bonkers energy.

There were also two powerfully involving low-key independent dramas. From Ireland, Calm With Horses is a dark and punchy drama about a hulking young ex-boxer (the terrific Cosmo Jarvis) struggling to balance his work as a henchman with his love for his young autistic son. And from England, County Lines is a pointed, often harrowing drama about a 14-year-old (astonishing newcomer Conrad Khan) groomed into a life of crime by a charismatic stranger (Harris Dickinson). Two Scandinavian movies were unnerving for very different reasons: The Icelandic drama A White, White Day is a slow, moving exploration of grief, while the Swedish horror Koko-Di Koko-Da is surreal, unhinged and breathtakingly original. And then there was the 3D documentary Cunningham, which inventively chronicles the career of groundbreaking dancer-choreographer Merce Cunningham.

This coming week's screenings include Jim Carrey in Sonic the Hedgehog, Anya Taylor-Joy in Emma, Tiffany Haddish in Like a Boss, Keira Knightley in Misbehaviour and the British thriller Rose Plays Julie.

And in the wake of the always rather predictable Baftas last weekend, which were as usual broadcast in the UK heavily edited and several hours after they took place, I'll be staying up all night on Sunday to watch the Oscars handed out live. In the UK the show starts at 1am. I'll take a nap beforehand...

Stage: Let your hair down

Mám
by Michael Keegan-Dolan and Teac Damsa
music by Cormac Begley and Stargaze
with Imogen Alvares, Romain Bly, Lisa de Boos, Tyler Carney, Marlies van Gamgelen, James O'Hara, Aki Iwamoto, Zen Jefferson, Mayah Kadish, Maaike van der Linde, Amit Noy, Keir Patrick, Ellie Poirer-Dolan, Rachiel Poirer, Connor Scott, David Six
Sadler's Wells, London • 5-7.Feb.20

A breathtaking mix of history, art, music and dance, Mám is an exhilarating odyssey through the culture of southwest Ireland. Bold and expressive, it's packed with moments that are funny, surreal, intense and sometimes wrenchingly emotive, performed with passion and energy by a group of musicians and dancers who never take a break over the course of 90 minutes.

The title has a variety of meanings relating to the easiest way to surmount a large geological obstacle, like a wind-filled pass through Ireland's second-highest peak Cnoc Bhréanainn on the Dingle Peninsula. Teac Damsa (which means "house of dance") funnel their expression through this idea, giving the show an elemental quality even as it's packed with recognisable references to culture through the centuries, like a Lynchian take on Riverdance.

It opens with a young girl (Poirer-Dolan) in white, perhaps a first communion dress, being serenaded by the breathy, visceral tones of a concertina played by composer-musician Cormac Begley wearing a massive goat head. A fascinating expression of the nation's complex religious history, this juxtaposition continues as the 12 dancers are also initially revealed with their faces obscured, wearing sober black suits and dresses that become increasingly loose as they throw off their shoes and literally let their hair down. The physical movement shifts from ghostly and lyrical to frenzied and acrobatic, beautifully depicting scenarios that reveal fierce individuality, romance, family and, most powerfully, a sense of community.

As the backdrops fall, revealing further performers, this sense of interaction expands to include musicians playing a range of instruments in ways that speak right to the gut, from the gorgeously purring sounds coming from Begley's concertina to the earthy roar of van der Linde's bass flute. These echo the astonishing physical connectivity between the dancers and the band, evoking the feeling of an evening in a rural Irish pub where a bit of inebriation brings out the instincts of locals who express their feelings through physicality and artistry. It's a thrilling show that challenges the audience to dig deeper into their humanity and love each other with just a bit more ferocity.

Illustration by Dómhnal Ó Bric • Photos by Ros Kavanaugh • 5.Feb.20