Critical Week: Road rage

It's been nearly five months since my normal everyday schedule ended abruptly, and I had a couple of firsts this week that make it feel like there may be light at the end of this long tunnel. I went to a restaurant with table service (outdoors on a gorgeous evening), and on only my third trip into Central London I had my first press screening in an actual screening room (with severe distancing measures). The movie on that big screen was Unhinged, a vicious thriller with Russell Crowe that arrives in cinemas next week.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Most Wanted
Stage Mother • Myth
FULL REVIEWS >

Other movies this week were an above-average mix, including the ripping true story Most Wanted, a Canadian drug-case drama starring the excellent Antoine Olivier Pilon and Josh Hartnett; the wrenchingly personal drama Retaliation, about the fallout from child abuse starring a raw Orlando Bloom; the gritty immigrant drama American Fighter; the ambitiously offbeat hybrid of WWII action and a haunted house in Ghosts of War, starring Brenton Thwaites and Skyler Astin; the corny but topical childbirth comedy Babysplitters, starring Community's Dani Pudi; and the clever guerrilla filmmaking comedy-drama Myth.

My list of films to watch over the coming week includes the animated comedy Animal Crackers, Patrick Stewart in Life With Music, Bella Thorne in Infamous, the indie romance Around the Sun, the backstage TV comedy Casting, the horror movie The Vigil, the arthouse film Last and First Men and the intriguingly titled doc Pornstar Pandemic.