Sunday, 3 July 2022

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
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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.

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