Critical Week: Let's talk about love

Screenings are few and far between at the moment, with most smaller releases running scared from the single big movie that's either coming out this week or is still dominating the box office. But there are still some good things out there - both in cinemas and on streaming services - even as the blockbusters have been merely ok so far this summer. One of the most endearing films of the year is Billy Porter's comedy-drama Anything's Possible, a teen romance that's packed with heart and just enough realistic edge. And the newcomer leads, Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali (above), are terrific. Meanwhile, this week's big release is the animated DC League of Super-Pets, a comically entertaining adventure packed with genuinely smart gags delivered by a scene-stealing vocal cast, even if the superhero formula feels as stale as ever.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Hit the Road • Sharp Stick
Ali & Ava • Hypochondriac
ALL REVIEWS >

More intriguing was The Score, an inventive genre mashup starring the terrific Will Poulter, Naomi Ackie and Johnny Flynn that features romance, comedy, violence and musical numbers. Juliette Binoche stars in master filmmaker Claire Denis' Both Sides of the Blade, a boldly complex French drama about relationships and regret. And the horror thriller Hypochondriac finds some original, and deeply unsettling, things to say about mental illness while properly freaking us out.

Screenings remain thin next week, but I'll be watching Brad Pitt in Bullet Train, Charlotte Rampling in Juniper, the Predator spin-off Prey, the animated adventure Luck and the refugee doc Fadia's Tree.

Critical Week: Mask up

The weather in the UK has broken all records, unbearably hot temperatures for a nation that has so little air conditioning. Thankfully, I was able to escape to cool theatres and cinemas! And the warm weather is continuing, so I'll be on the look out for ways to avoid the sweatiness. Films this past week included the Austen-style period romance Mr Malcolm's List starring Freida Pinto and Sope Dirisu. It's engaging but feels very gimmicky. And then there was Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, a surprising remake of Blazing Saddles as an animated kid-friendly romp set in feudal Japan. It's silly fun, perhaps too messy for children, but fans of the original will enjoy the references, including Mel Brooks voicing a new take on his original role.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Big City • My Old School
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time
ALL REVIEWS >

A little further afield is the British historical drama Prizefighter, about 1800 boxing champ Jem Belcher. It's simplistic, but is boosted by having Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone in key roles. Katie Holmes writes, directs and stars in the pandemic romance Alone Together, which is warm and engaging, and also predictable. The comedy-drama The Shuroo Retreat, follows a journalist to a wacky self-help weekend, with results that are funny and remarkably complex. The British romantic drama You Are My Sunshine is clearly a labour of love by inexperienced actors and filmmakers. It's awkward but has its moments. And there were two more selections of shorts in the Girls Feels series: Forces of Nature and Skin Deep, taking bold, insightful looks at young women coming of age.

Films to watch this coming week include the animated adventure DC League of Super-Pets, Juliette Binoche in Both Sides of the Blade, Will Poulter in The Score, Billy Porter's comedy-drama Anything's Possible and the horror thriller Hypochondriac.

Stage: Hear our voices

Millennials
by Elliot Clay
dir Hannah Benson
with Luke Bayer, Hiba Elchikhe, Hannah Lowther, Rob Madge, Georgina Onuorah, Ivano Turco
orchestration Auburn Jam
choreography Tinovimbanashe Sibanda
set & lighting Andrew Exeter
The Other Palace Studio • 8.Jul-4.Sep.22

This world premiere show calls itself a "pop song cycle" rather than a musical. Indeed, it features neither a narrative nor defined characters; it's a collection of impassioned musical numbers that express the emotions of people who have been labelled as millennials. Writer-composer Elliot Clay has clearly been inspired by Jonathan Larson with these Rent-style rock numbers, a mix of powerful anthems and soulful ballads that describe this generation in their own words.

This is a reflective and defiant cry for understanding, as most songs explore issues of self-doubt that young people experience even as they are fiercely proud of their individuality. It's perhaps a bit repetitive, and not as deep as it seems to be, but then that's also part of the point. Millennials are generally defined as young people who have struggled to find their identities, putting off big life decisions like buying a home or getting married due to a combination of personal, cultural and economic issues. And both the writing and the design work remind us that they also popularised avocados.

The six cast members burst with energy throughout this performance, moving among the audience and encircling the avocado-shaped stage with its trampoline stone. They have a terrific sense of camaraderie between them, and each boasts a belting singing voice, while their colourful costumes help them play knowingly with a range of queer sensibilities. Both the solos and group numbers pulse with soulful electricity, conveying the inner desires of these young people to both find their place in the world and make themselves known.

Impressively, the entire space has been reshaped as a playroom, with the audience sitting on beanbags, in a ball pit, a bathtub or on blankets and cushions scattered around the glittery, shiny room. The effect is like being at a garden party as a raucous performance unfolds around you. And while the feelings are resonant and the songs infectious, perhaps some clearly constructed characters or storylines might have made it even more memorable. That said, it's a striking reminder that this particular generation isn't facing anything new: older or younger, we all have to come to grips with the same things.

For information, visit THE OTHER PALACE >

photos by Mark Senior • 14.Jul.22

Critical Week: Gone fishing

The heatwave continues, although perhaps as Londoners get tired of the sunshine we're being driven back into air conditioned cinemas! Box office figures for Thor last weekend didn't seem to suffer. Meanwhile this week, I've seen another eclectic collection of films both in cinemas and in my rather sweltering flat. Daisy Edgar-Jones stars in Deep South melodrama Where the Crawdads Sing, which seems deliberately designed for teen girls. Others are likely to find it contrived, even if the actors are excellent. Winona Ryder stars in the offbeat horror thriller Gone in the Night, as a woman looking for answers. It's involving, even if what she discovers is rather silly.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Good Boss
The Gray Man • Poppy Field
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there was Sally Phillips in How to Please a Woman, a very gentle Australian sex comedy that's packed with clever insight even if it's too subtle for its own good. Alan Cumming takes on a superbly offbeat role in My Old School, an inventive and fascinating documentary about a Glasgow classroom scandal. The Jordanian drama The Alleys is a visceral multi-strand journey into the Amman suburbs, with unusually complex morality. And telling the story of a trans activist icon, Donna is a warm fly-on-the-wall doc that maintains a clear-eyed focus.

Films to watch in the coming week include Russell Crowe in Prizefighter, Katie Holmes in Alone Together, the comedy-drama The Shuroo Retreat, the romantic drama You Are My Sunshine and the shorts collection Girls Feels: Skin Deep.

Critical Week: On a night like this

As Britain experiences a heatwave during the final week of Wimbledon and the start of the Euro-2022 women's football championship, it's perhaps a bit unlikely that people will be abandoning the sunshine for cinemas. Although Thor is likely to have some pull, smaller films will suffer. And the weather looks like it will continue like this for a couple of weeks (yay!). I saw two very big movies on the big screen this week. The riotously action-packed The Gray Man pairs the fabulous Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans as duelling, scene-stealing hitmen, while Ana de Armas (above) almost walks off with the whole film. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi are back for Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel's first slapstick action comedy. It's a lot of fun, even if the formula is as stale as ever.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Brian and Charles • Cop Secret
The Railway Children (1970)
ALL REVIEWS >

Adrien Brody is terrific in the redemption thriller Clean, although the script (which he cowrote) never has something original to say. The offbeat British drama All Is Vanity is very odd indeed, a great idea that struggles to have some impact. Alan Cumming leads the doc-drama hybrid My Old School, a fascinating and remarkably involving account of an epic deception. And two collections of short films explore issues of identity and sexuality in inventive, sometimes superbly provocative ways. Both Boys on Film 22: Love to Love You and Girls Feels: Into the Blue are well worth a look.

Coming up this week, I'll be watching Daisy Edgar-Jones in Where the Crawdads Sing, Juliette Binoche in Both Sides of the Blade, the Jordanian drama The Alleys, the trans activist doc Donna and the shorts collection Girls Feels: Force of Nature.

Stage: Never be normal

A-typical Rainbow
by JJ Green
dir Bronagh Lagan
with JJ Green, Caroline Deverill, James Westphal, Conor Joseph, Joy Tan, Maya Manuel, Jack Chambers
composer & sound Max Alexander-Taylor
choreo William Spencer
set & costumes Frankie Gerrard
lighting Bethany Gupwell
The Turbine Theatre, Battersea • 30.Jun-7.Aug.22

With this world premiere play at the Turbine Theatre, JJ Green takes an astute look at the life of an autistic person from childhood to early adulthood. Cleverly written and directed as an experiential odyssey, the show is visceral and resonant, constantly surprising the audience with breathtakingly moving observations that affirm why the word "normal" should never be aspirational.

Green himself plays an unnamed 7-year-old boy who loves his happy life swimming with mermaids and running with wolves. His doctor (Westphal) notes that he probably has Aspergers, and that he can be conditioned to behave like everyone else to make his life easier. His compassionate mother (Deverill) is dubious about that, but his rather Neanderthal father (also Westphal) doesn't want a son who plays with a mermaid doll and wears dresses. Meanwhile, the boy is viciously bullied at school, finding an unexpected friend (Tan) along the way, then later running off to join the circus and falling for a fellow performer (Joseph).

Aside from Green, the cast members all play multiple roles that circle around the boy, offering a blinding flurry of mixed messages. Many are kind and supportive, yet inadvertently trigger the boy's anxiety by expecting him to see the world the same way everyone else does. Others are close-minded, merely thoughtless or downright cruel. Each character has a vivid physicality that is expressed through inventive choreography, with the actors radiating powerful emotions in a strikingly naturalistic way. Meanwhile, Green's performance is staggeringly demanding, a proper tour-de-force that carries and ultimately lifts the audience.

The stage is deceptively complex, a mix of lighting, video projection and clever props, with a set of boxes that are continually in motion to create various scenarios, including a spot of water skiing and dragon soaring. These boxes are then opened on cue and, like magic, always have the correct contents to propel the scene further. Because everything is always in transition, the show is dazzling to watch, even if some elements, like the boy's padlock, feel overstated and under-defined. Even with all of this, it's the emotional intensity that brings the show to life, as we begin to see the world through this bright boy's eyes.

Green knowingly includes big highs and lows in the narrative, including grief, heartbreak and crippling questions about identity ("No one can see you if you pretend to be someone else"). But there's also deep love, respect and even a warmly queer romance along the way. So the boy's nagging question gives us something powerful to consider: who had the worst ending, Peter Pan, who was never able to grow up, or Wendy, who grew up and lived the life that was expected of her?

For information, visit THE TURBINE THEATRE >

photos by Pamela Raith • 7.Jul.22

Critical Week: At the movies

It's been an odd week at the movies for me, with only a couple of in-person screenings, plus a few films to watch online. These included the Japanese anime Pompo: The Cinephile, based on a manga about a hyperactive young film producer who gives her assistant the chance to direct a movie. It's energetic and rather nutty, but an enjoyable homage to moviemaking. From Ukraine comes the prescient wartime drama Sniper: The White Raven, an internalised thriller set around Russia's 2014 invasion. It's dark and involving.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Nitram • The Princess
ALL REVIEWS >

I also had a chance to see the historical drama Hill of Vision, which recently opened in Italy. It's a warm, involving and inspiring true story of survival during WWII and then adaptation to a new life. The London Indian Film Festival closed today with Superfan, an entertaining Canadian documentary about iconic NBA fan Nav Bhatia, who attended the screening and the party afterwards. This was screened with the Indian short Jaagran, which won the Satyajit Ray Prize from the jury I participated with - and director Ritviq Joshi was also on hand for the afternoon. And earlier in the week I attended the second Iris Prize Fellowship event, which honoured iconic TV writer-director-programmer Jacquie Lawrence.

Among films I'll see this coming week at press screenings or online links at home are Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Love and Thunder, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in The Gray Man, Adrien Brody in Clean, Winona Ryder in Gone in the Night, the British indie All Is Vanity and the shorts collections Boys on Film 22: Love to Love You and Girls Feels: Into the Blue.