Critical Week: Things are heating up

These strange times continue to challenge the film industry, as distributors keep shifting release dates, and changing the rules about attending press screenings (I had my first screening this week that required a negative covid test). But it's definitely getting busier, and it's great to be seeing the big movies on huge screens again. Let's just hope that hospital numbers don't rise again. As for the movies this week, one of the more intriguing was the English-language Polish thriller Mosquito State, which is very big on style (see above) even if the plot remains rather elusive. One of the most entertaining Marvel blockbusters yet, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a thrilling martial arts action adventure adeptly led by Simu Liu and Awkwafina. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leads the identically named nearly 30-years-later sequel Candyman, a punchy political horror that's more darkly unsettling than scary. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Candyman
The Last Bus • The Nest
PERHAPS AVOID:
Mosquito State
The Pebble and the Boy
ALL REVIEWS >

A hit West End musical based on a true story, Everybody's Talking About Jamie has been adapted into a surprisingly emotive film. It's still exuberant and inspiring, but everything feels much more intense now. From Peru, the animated adventure Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon looks fantastic and features some lovely magical touches in its rather simplistic story. From Germany, the English-language futuristic thriller The Colony blends Waterworld/Mad Max-style imagery to say some intriguing things about humanity. And it was great to catch the restored 1963 Joseph Losey classic The Servant on a big screen. Still rivetingly deranged after all these decades, it's adeptly anchored by devastating performances from Dirk Bogarde and James Fox.

I'm also watching films as part of both Outfest (Los Angeles) and FrightFest (London) at the moment. These have included the award-winning nonbinary drama Firstness, the quirky autobiographical memoir Potato Dreams of America and the astonishing Swedish thriller Knocking. There are a few more of these to come, and they're being covered both on the site and in other blog posts.

This coming week I'll be watching more FrightFest movies,Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in Respect, the family drama A Wake, the British drama Second Spring, the British thriller Shorta, the German revenge thriller Plan A and the true boxing drama The Champion of Auschwitz.