Wednesday 23 September 2020

Critical Week: Mommie dearest

I had two press screenings this past week, as well as two open-air events: a screening and a stage play. So it felt like another step in the right direction, especially as it was accompanied by great weather. But then new restrictions came in, so here we are. The biggest film of the past week was a streaming release, Enola Holmes. Millie Bobby Brown stars as the younger sleuthing sister of Sherlock and Mycroft (Henry Cavill and Sam Clafin, having a lot of fun), with Helena Bonham Carter (above with Brown) as their mum. It's a rambunctious franchise-launcher. And then there was Janelle Monae in the freak-out drama Antebellum, which has too little energy to be a classic but shows plenty of invention and passion. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Little Girl • Monsoon
PERHAPS AVOID:
Ava

FULL REVIEWS >
More independent films included 23 Walks, a gentle late-in-life romance with the reliable Alison Steadman and Dave Johns; Becky, a violent thriller about a plucky teen taking on a malevolent Kevin James; Miss Juneteeth, an extremely low-key mother-daughter drama with Nicole Beharie; and Shortcut, a decent thriller about five teens trapped in tunnels with a slimy monster. There were also three French films: Francois Ozon's Summer of 85 is a complex and intimate teen drama. Two of Us is a provocative, involving romance between two 70-year-old women. And Little Girl is a seriously gorgeous doc about a mother fighting for her 8-year-old's right to be herself.

Coming up this next week are virtual screenings of the all-star remake of The Boys in the Band, Julianne Moore in The Glorias, Sally Hawkins in Eternal Beauty, Aya Cash in Scare Me, Harry Melling in Say Your Prayers, Aunjanue Ellis in Miss Virginia, the Danish drama A Perfectly Normal Family and the Turkish horror-thriller The Antenna.


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