Critical Week: Bugging out

With yet another long weekend in the UK, we're all getting used to the idea of a four-day week. But the next holiday here isn't until the end of August. Between now and then, we'll be getting roughly one enormous studio blockbuster movie per week. Some of these are greatly anticipated, while others induce a feeling of dread. This week I caught up with two that I was actually looking forward to. Sony was very late in screening Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, perhaps so they could treat us to a star-studded blue-carpet premiere experience. The film is even more eye-popping than the first one, and the story is nicely involving amid the visual mayhem. And then there was an early screening of The Flash, easily the best DC movie in years, with a lively sense of humour and two terrific performances from Ezra Miller.

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I also caught up with Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera in the ambitious and intriguing, but ultimately awkward Carmen, which is infused with music and dance. The low-budget Breaking Infinity is an enjoyably brain-bending time-travel romp.  From France, The Innocent is a superb mashup of romcom, heist caper and crime thriller from actor-filmmaker Louis Garrel. And from Italy, The Neighbor is a dark drama about a man grappling with homophobia in his partner's family. 

I also attended three live performances: as a critic for State Shift at Sadler's Wells; as an audience member for Re-Member Me, Dickie Beau's clever but difficult one-man show about Hamlet at Hampstead; and as part of the crowd right in the middle of Guys and Dolls, the wonderfully lively and engaging new version of the classic musical at the Bridge.

This next week I'll be watching the franchise reboot blockbuster Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Toni Collette in Mafia Mamma, the Canadian drama You Can Live Forever, the series-turned-feature comedy Bridesman, and the Chilean documentary My Imaginary Country. I'll also attend live performances of Inside the Blind Iris / Air de Temps at Sadler's Wells (review here soon) and the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards.