Critical Week: Change the system

I've been playing catch-up since the festival ended, trying to watch things I'd been putting off, which means that several of the screening links have expired (why do they so rarely tell us there's an expiry date?). Oh well, I don't have time to watch everything, especially with two more festivals incoming.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK: 
Summer of 85 • The Climb
David Byrne's American Utopia
The Secret Garden
PERHAPS AVOID:
Honest Thief
Max Winslow & House of Secrets 
FULL REVIEWS >

Two movies I watched this past week star Sacha Baron Cohen, who gives a serious Oscar-contending performance in The Trial of the Chicago 7, Aaron Sorkin's smart, all-star dramatisation of the events surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention Riots. It's very dense but also riveting, and the film couldn't be much more timely. Baron Cohen's other movie is Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, in which he reprises his role as the bumbling Kazakh journalist. His schtick isn't as fresh this time, which is probably why it plays more like a scripted comedy. But he still manages to expose some shocking stuff.

Anne Hathaway goes for broke in The Witches, a new adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic novel. It's more gleeful than actually nasty, but still good fun. Malin Akerman stars in Friendsgiving, a chaotic holiday comedy that almost writes itself, but has some very nice touches. The Sundance hit The Climb is a terrific exploration of a long friendship between two rather dopey men, so it's very funny in between the emotional bits. The kids' fantasy Max Winslow and the House of Secrets has its moments but never quite finds anything fresh or new in the formula. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet is a beautiful, powerful documentary that's trying to be hopeful about how we can stop destroying the planet. But it feels pretty bleak. And The Italian Boys is a collection of five thoughtful, sharply well-made shorts about men and boys trying to make sense of their inner desires.

I've got more catching up to do next week, including Elizabeth Debicki in The Burnt Orange Heresy, Jaeden Martell in The True Adventures of Wolfboy, the British drama Philophobia, the Peruvian drama Song Without a Name, the Argentine drama Young Hunter and the doc Boys State, plus some titles for both FrightFest and Raindance.