Critical Week: Let it burn

A much-promised heatwave failed to materialise in London this week. It's been a bit warmer, but not worth planning to be outside instead of in a cinema. Press screenings this week were lower key than they have been - no blockbusters this week. Caleb Landry Jones has been rightfully winning awards for his textured turn in Nitram, a fact-based story from Australia that's involving and very chilling. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Quiet Girl • Vortex
Everything Everywhere All at Once
This Much I Know to Be True
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Two films skilfully mangled genres. Emergency looks like a standard American stoner comedy romp, but is actually much darker and deeper in its exploration of race and class issues. All My Friends Hate Me looks like a standard British reunion comedy, but is actually an unnerving exploration of 30-something insecurities. The experimental military drama Foxhole takes a pointed, involving look at war by putting its cast into action on three very different battlefields. The Chilean drama The Sea tackles issues of love and sexuality in offbeat, impossible to stereotype ways. And the documentary The Princess chronicles Princess Diana's life using only news and paparazzi footage, creating a powerful narrative in the process.

This coming week, films to watch include Tom Cruise's 35-years-later sequel Top Gun: Maverick, the 50-years-later sequel The Railway Children Return, Jesse Buckley in Men, Rebel Wilson's comedy Senior Year, the Romanian drama Uppercase Print and the Chinese drama River of Salvation.