Critical Week: Put that thing down

As Britain enjoyed a sunny heatwave, we were clobbered with the news that pandemic restrictions won't be further lifted on 21st June as planned: we have another month to go before things will get back to a semblance of normality. Most things are open now with distancing regulations, which means that press screenings are few and far between (literally!). I only had one this week, a special celebrity packed screening of the sequel Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, introduced by the always lively Salma Hayek in person. The film is messier than the first one, too busy and distracted to really hold together, but it has quite a few hilarious moments along the way. Meanwhile, Disney is bypassing cinemas with Pixar's latest minor masterpiece Luca, a gorgeous story about friendship and the importance of diversity set on the sunny Italian coast (and under the seas around it). 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Luca • The Reason I Jump
It Must Be Heaven
Summer of 85
Truman & Tennessee
ALL REVIEWS >

The rest of the films I watched this week were an eclectic mix: Untitled Horror Movie is a computer-screen based comedy-thriller that's very well put together, with a terrific cast, but isn't very scary; from Brazil, Half Brother is a naturalistic, moving drama about two people finding themselves; and premiering at Tribeca Film Festival, Pray Away is a straightforward, expertly shot and edited doc about gay conversion therapy, as seen through the eyes of the people who ran those programmes and are now trying to make amends.

Finally, I revisited Stephen Frears' 1985 classic My Beautiful Laundrette, starring breakout young actor Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm hosting a conversion with the film's writer Hanif Kureishi on-stage before a screening of the film on Friday night at BFI Southbank as part of the London Indian Film Festival. It's a remarkably timely story about connections between communities, adeptly touching on ethnicity, culture, class and sexuality. And it's depictions of right-wing bigotry are eerily current.

Coming up this next week are the latest entry into the Fast & Furious franchise, F9: The Fast Saga, as well as Isabelle Huppert in Mama Weed, 1980s-set horror comedy Vicious Fun, the action thriller Unchained, the Argentine comedy thriller Rock Paper & Scissors and the Roma drama Carmen and Lola.