Bigger movies continue to turn up at the box office each week, signalling a return to the pre-lockdown pattern of one blockbuster per week. And press screenings are also getting a bit more colourful as a result. We had two big screenings this week, starting with the Nicolas Cage pastiche action comedy bromance
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which is even more fun than expected. Going full-method as himself, Cage and up-for-it costar Pedro Pascal dive fully into the ridiculous story, and they keep the audience right with them. There was also
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third chapter in the whizzy but oddly uninvolving Harry Potter prequel franchise. This one is much more momentous, and the actors (notably Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen) make it worth a look. I also caught up with Michael Bay's latest over-the-top action thriller
Ambulance, a choppy but very entertaining ride through Los Angeles with the superb Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen and Eiza Gonzalez.
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BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Compartment No 6 • Small Body
Poppy Field • Cow
PERHAPS AVOID:
Agent Game • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
ALL REVIEWS > |
Further afield were the by-numbers spy thriller
Agent Game, which has a strong cast (Dermot Mulroney, Jason Isaacs, even Mel Gibson) but rarely rises above its cliches. French actor-filmmaker Valerie Lemercier's
Aline is a fictionalised biopic about Celine Dion, and it's as bonkers as you hope it will be. From Ireland,
You Are Not My Mother is a stylish dramatic horror that properly gets under the skin. And from France,
Anais in Love is a sunny, chatty comedy-drama that recounts an awkward coming of age.
For this coming week I have no press screenings in the diary, but I do have some links to watch at home, for films including Eva Longoria in the comedy
Unplugging, James Duval in the comedy
I Challenger and the Japanese triptych
Sexual Drive. I also hope to see Alexander Skarsgard in
The Northman, most likely buying a ticket for a regular cinema.
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