Critical Week: It's showtime

Awards season has cranked up another gear this week with the announcement of the Golden Globes nominations. This is my third year voting in these awards, and it's now 334 voters in 85 countries - a very big change that is reflected in the enjoyably eclectic nominees. Now this weekend is the voting deadline for the London Critics' Circle, which will have its own distinct personality reflected in nominees announced next week. As for movies I've seen lately, one standout was The Last Showgirl, a surprisingly involving ode to old world Las Vegas razzle dazzle anchored by a lovely performance from Pamela Anderson. The two big releases this week are Kraven the Hunter, the Spider-Man adjacent Marvel movie with a cast (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott) that's far better than the script. But it's more watchable than The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which is beautifully animated in an anime style but has a personality-free, over-earnest screenplay that stretches the patience over two and a quarter hours.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
September 5 • Nickel Boys
The Last Showgirl • Queer
PERHAPS AVOID:
The War of the Rohirrim
ALL REVIEWS >

Intriguing awards-season movies include the earthy thriller The Order, starring a wonderfully grizzled Jude Law; the slightly over-egged but riveting and hugely involving biopic Bonhoeffer; the dark drama Reawakening, with Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson; and the beautiful but eerily humourless Italian drama Vermiglio. I also saw the hilarious comedy show Adam Riches and John Kearns are Ball & Boe for Fourteen Nights Only at the Soho Theatre.

This coming week I'll be watching the photo-real animated prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, the action-comedy sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the French epic The Count of Monte-Cristo, the Danish drama The Girl With the Needle, Asif Kapadia's innovative doc 2073 and more...

Stage: A gleeful panto mashup

Potted Panto
by Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner, Richard Hurst
director Richard Hurst
with Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner, Marie-Claire Wood, Sammy Johnson
sets Simon Scullion • costumes Nicky Bunch
music Phil Innes • lighting Tim Mascall
Wilton's Music Hall, London • 4.Dec.24-4.Jan.25 ★★★★★

First staged in 2010, this show has become a perennial hit with audiences for the way it cleverly mashes up Britain's holiday pantomime tradition into a high-energy comedy extravaganza. And even after more than a decade, Potted Panto still has the feel of improvised chaos in the way it weaves together a blinding array of hilarious references, from classic shows to comical riffs on this week's news headlines. Indeed, creator-stars Dan and Jeff show no signs of slowing down.

The idea is to take the audience on a whistle-stop tour of Christmas pantomimes, as the intentional Jeff introduces the six key fairy tales that are retold in these stage productions each year. Although the clownish Dan wants to include other classics like Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol, The Sound of Music and the John Lewis Christmas advert. After a brisk history of panto traditions, the first up is Jack and the Beanstalk, although since all the roles are being played by the two of them, Dan can only play the back half of Jack's cow. He also does the traditional gender swap to play Jack's mother ... as Dame Barbara Cartland.

In Dick Whittington, the panto tradition of audience call-and-response comes into play, plus a gorgeous fairy surprise (Wood). Sleeping Beauty introduces the ghost gag (it's behind you!) and Dan's ridiculously preening Prince Charming, who pops up again in both Cinderella and Snow White, which is performed, more or less, in traditional rhyme. Finally, Dan subverts Jeff's attempt to play out Aladdin by turning it into A Christmas Carol instead.

All of this is performed as a riot of physical slapstick and cheeky vulgarity, with a fiendishly clever stage set, quick-change costumes and wigs galore. The script is packed with a constant stream of meta gags, plus the expected double entendres, puns (sheik your booty), wacky musical numbers and constant malapropisms (a moose lays the golden egg). There's a 3D chase through the woods that involves Santa and a water gun. Children in the audience come up with the final punishments for the villains. And of course it ends with a big singalong.

Frankly, this is the kind of show that you wouldn't mind watching each year, as it brings together everything you love about pantos with a fresh blast of chaotic energy. And we don't have to worry about the over-familiar plots, because Dan and Jeff subvert them hilariously with a constant barrage of surprises, twists and knowing gags that play beautifully on the joys of live theatre. So in the end, it's both a celebration of a centuries-old musical-comedy artform and a gleefully silly night out.

For info, WILTON'S MUSIC HALL > 

photos by Geraint Lewis • 6.Dec.24

On the Road: Like a rolling stone

I've just spent the last three weeks in Los Angeles where my priority was to spend time visiting friends and family around the Thanksgiving holiday. But of course I also couldn't help catching some films along the way, and I even got to attend a couple of terrific awards-season screenings. The nicest surprise was James Mangold's dazzling A Complete Unknown, starring an impressive Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan with terrific support from Edward Burns (as Pete Seger) and Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez). I also really enjoyed the powerful biopic Unstoppable, starring Jharrel Jerome as Anthony Robles and Jennifer Lopez as his mother Judy (we even got to meet Jharrel, Anthony, Jennifer and Judy after the emotional screening). And Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson are excellent in the Halina Reijn's raw, complex drama Babygirl.

And then there was the animated sequel Moana 2, a crowd-pleaser that feels a bit simplistic compared to this year's much more innovative animated movies. That Christmas is another rather easy-going, unchallenging but enjoyable animated adventure. Further afield and far more ambitious, September 5 is a staggeringly well-made real-life thriller with Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro set at the Munich 1972 Olympics. Jack Huston's impressive directing debut Day of the Fight is an unusually personal boxing drama starring Michael Pitt. And Iranian exile Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a riveting dramatic thriller about a family straining against official morality.

And then there were the films I watched on the long flights. Colman Domingo is fantastic in the bracingly authentic prison drama Sing Sing. Tig Notaro's comedy Am I OK is packed with knowing observations and hilarious dialog. Dev Patel is astonishing as writer, director and star of the Indian action thriller Monkey Man. Channing Tatum goes evil for the darkly creepy Blink Twice. Zac Efron and John Cena team up for the rude but entertaining comedy Ricky Stanicky. And the documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero is refreshingly unfiltered as it explores the musician's explosion into the limelight.

This coming week I have more films to catch up with for awards voting, and also some that are coming to cinemas this month, including Jude Law in The Order, Tilda Swinton in The End, the animated epic The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Kerry Washington in The Six Triple Eight, Ralph Fiennes in The Return, Jared Harris in Reawakening, the Hong Kong comedy Love Lies, the comedy sequel Heavier Trip and the French epic The Count of Monte Cristo ... as time allows.

Critical Week: A new friend

These have been busy days with a variety of events and lots of errands before I travel over the coming weeks. But I caught up with two terrific all-audience movies that have been showing up at festivals and will likely feature at awards time. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the loveable Aardman duo's first film in 15 years, and it's a pure joy. It's so much fun, in fact, that I can't imagine how it could be any better if it tried - a barrage of terrific verbal and visual gags, pastiche moments and a superb thriller-style plot. And then there's the Latvian animation Flow, which is a bit rough-looking but also utterly mesmerising as it follows the astonishing adventures of a cat as its world is flooded.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Last Dance
All We Imagine As Light
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there was this season's big awards movie, Brady Corbet's The Brutalist, a four-hour epic (including an intermission) about an immigrant architect (Adrien Brody) in mid-20th century America. It's riveting and powerfully pointed. Daniel Craig is fully immersed in an unusual role for Luca Guadagnino's Queer, based on the William Burroughs novel about sex and drugs in Latin America. It's a stunning film, if a little enigmatic. And Isabelle Huppert is at her understated best in Hong Sang-soo's loosely observational drama A Traveler's Needs. I also attended the UK premiere performance of the exhilarating Exit Above at Sadler's Wells.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be visiting friends and family in Southern California, and I'm sure to see some awards screenings before my ballots are due. There's also the question of what I might watch on the plane! I'll be posting about the movies as I see them...

Dance: Walk away the blues

Exit Above
After the Tempest / D’après la Tempête / Naar de Storm
choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
music Meskerem Mees, Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin
dancers Abigail Aleksander, Jean Pierre Buré, Lav Crnčević, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Nina Godderis, Solal Mariotte, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Navarrete Valverde, Cintia Sebők (danced by Margarida Marques Ramalhete), Jacob Storer
musicians Meskerem Mees, Carlos Garbin
scenography Michel François
lighting Max Adams • costumes Aouatif Boulaich
Sadler's Wells, London • 12-13.Nov.24 ★★★★

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Belgian dance company Rosas brings this show to the UK for the first time. The approach is refreshingly offbeat, creating a loose atmosphere that often feels improvised but actually involves complex layers of movement tracing elaborate geometric patterns on the stage. This tone shifts and evolves throughout the performance, intertwining music and movement to create a powerfully visceral catharsis.

The first to take to the fully deconstructed stage are guitarist Carlos Garbin and vocalist Meskerem Mees, both of whom participate in the dance numbers as well. To an engulfing soundscape, Mees recites the words of philosopher Walter Benjamin, exploring the nature of history and the storm that is progress. Then a single dancer throws himself into the air and back to the floor in spiralling gymnastic moves, while a shimmering curtain wafts overhead.

From here, the show surges through an expansive series of dance styles, with performers on their own, in pairs or as one. The demanding choreography is expressive and broad, drawing on huge physicality as the seriously gifted dancers spin, jump, lift, balance or stand silent and still. But mostly they are walking ever forward, tightly connected to each other and the music. Accompanying this is Garbin's guitar, which cycles through a series of blues numbers that are sung by the angelic Mees, shifting the mood from pulsing rhythms to searingly pure tones. 

With lights positioned far above, the shadow of the rigging is projected onto the walls, creating an elemental space that's augmented by some lighting trickery. A spotlight traces slow circles around the stage, which is covered in geometric lines. The dancers echo the light's movement, creating a kind of counter-clockwise whirlpool. All of this is exploring the idea of everyday movement, walking ahead regardless of what's happening in our lives. It may feel a bit meandering, but there's also a strong sense of both individuality and community. And in the later scenes, as dancers fling off clothing in abandon, their connection grows powerfully strong, leading to a series of stunning final sequences.

For information, SADLER'S WELLS > 

photos by Anne Van Aerschot • 12.Nov.24

Critical Week: Are you not entertained?

As we get stuck into November, the year's big titles are beginning to turn up at press screenings, and none is bigger than Ridley Scott's sequel Gladiator II, a mammoth epic set in Ancient Rome starring Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal. The script is flawed (Connie Nielsen's role is criminally underwritten), but the film is hugely entertaining. Another sequel might even be more anticipated: while not as magical as No 2, Paddington in Peru is a charming, funny movie that sees our heroic little bear on an Amazon adventure accompanied by Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
No Other Land
Piece by Piece
ALL REVIEWS >

Another big one, Wicked: Part I stars Cynthia Erivo Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey (with added spark from Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum). It's gloriously assembled on a lavish scale, and we have to wait a year for Part II. Bill Skarsgard is imperious in Robert Eggers' profoundly horrific Nosferatu, costarring Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Willem Dafoe. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton find lovely textures in Almodovar's The Room Next Door, while Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson shine in the complex and powerfully provocative drama A Different Man. Meanwhile outside of awards contention, Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans provide some sparky banter in the otherwise over-familiar Christmas action comedy Red One. And the quirky British comedy Time Travel Is Dangerous is packed with hilarious performances and local North London gags.

This coming week I'll be watching the long-awaited Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, the acclaimed animated adventure Flow, Isabelle Huppert in A Traveler's Needs, the biopic Bonhoeffer and more awards contenders. I'm also travelling to Southern California to visit family for a couple of weeks, and I'm sure to see a few things out there before it's time to submit my ballots.

Critical Week: Generations

Awards season is cranking up for anyone who votes in these things, and yet there are still regular releases opening in cinemas that I need to cover, So the week was a combination of films aimed at very different audiences. As for cinema releases, there was the latest film directed by 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, the old-fashioned dramatic thriller Juror #2, starring Nicholas Hoult, and Toni Collette. It's slow and not nearly as complex as it looks, but enjoyably gripping. Hugh Grant is excellent as the charming-but-shifty villain in Heretic, a rather simplistic horror film that's livened up by deeper theological questions. And Liam Neeson's latest action movie is Absolution, a surprisingly thoughtful meditation on mortality and redemption.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
A Real Pain • Emilia Perez
Anora • Super/Man
Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives
ALL REVIEWS >

There were also a few more films that showed at the London Film Festival. Pharrell Williams uses Lego animation to tell his life story in Piece by Piece, an uplifting and delightfully original concoction packed with hilarious gags and lots of great music. Cate Blanchett leads the ensemble cast of Rumours, a nutty satire about G7 leaders lost in the woods. The film is a bit lost itself. From Hong Kong, The Last Dance is a beautifully well-made comedy about the tension between tradition and progress. From Britain, Secrets of a Wallaby Boy is a very scrappy hand-made comedy about a delivery boy. And there were two docs: Christopher Reeve is the focus of the fascinating, moving Super/Man, which has some important things to say about curiosity and compassion, and How to Build a Truth Engine is a fascinatingly detailed exploration of the spread of fake news.

As the big movies keep coming, this coming week I'll be watching Paul Mescal in Gladiator II, the adventure comedy sequel Paddington in Peru, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked Part 1, Dwayne Johnson in Red One, Emma Corrin in Nosferatu and the FrightFest Halloween comedy Time Travel Is Dangerous.

Critical Week: Making movies

It's been a busy week at the movies, as the London Film Festival came to an end and screening schedules kick into high gear for awards season. Basically, we have about eight weeks to see all the contenders before we fill in our ballots, so everyone wants to make sure we see their movies. Winning the top LFF prize, the animated Memoir of a Snail is a gorgeous stop-motion movie recounting a kid's journey for an adult audience. It's quite dark, but also wonderfully uplifting. Another animated film about kids, The Colours Within follows the Japanese anime tradition while adding terrific visual and narrative detail. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Conclave • Emilia Perez
Memoir of a Snail
ALL REVIEWS >

The starriest screening was for Pablo Larrain's biopic Maria, as Angelina Jolie turned up to chat about playing the iconic diva. It's a fascinating, cleverly made film that's worth a look. Tom Hardy is back for more action in Venom: The Last Dance, which like the previous two films is messy but watchable. Elizabeth Banks plays a paranoid health specialist in Skincare, a nutty thriller that takes some silly twists and turns. Even sillier, Jordana Brewster and Scott Speedman star in Cellar Door, in which everyone is keeping secrets, including the house. Christmas Eve in Miller's Point is an overcrowded ensemble piece without a central plot, but the mini-adventures are involving.

As for festival fare, there was the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, in which he's depicted as a chimp. Along with lots of panache, the film is surprisingly earthy and serious, and powerfully moving. Walter Salles' superbly well-made I'm Still Here is a riveting true-life family drama, while the beautifully observed Indian drama All We Imagine as Light gently follows three women at a crossroads. There were two docs: Mati Diop's inventive and haunting Dahomey, about returning plundered antiquities to Benin, and the delicately balanced The Divided Island, which skilfully outlines the complex situation in Cyprus. I also saw two live performances: Filibuster at Jackson's Lane and Stories at the Peacock. And I attended the glamorous premiere of the TV series The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. Now I want to see more episodes.

This coming week shouldn't be quite so jam-packed. But I'll be watching Nicholas Hoult in Juror #2, Cate Blanchett in Rumours, Liam Neeson in Absolution, Pharrell's Lego movie Piece by Piece, the Aussie comedy Secrets of a Wallaby Boy, the Christopher Reeve documentary Super/Man and the disinformation doc How to Build a Truth Engine.

Dance: Run, stop, fall, rise

Stories
by Romain Rachline Borgeaud
with Paul Redier, Angel Cubero, Lisa Delolme, Sandra Pericou, Geoffrey Goutorbe, Deborah Lotti, Antoine Nya, Aaron Colston Avella Hiles, Camille Lambese, Malory Hyvelin
sets Federica Mugnai • lighting Alex Hardellet
costumes Margaux Ponsard & Janie Loriault
Peacock Theatre, London • 23.Oct-2.Nov.24 ★★★★

After a sold-out tour of Europe, France's Got Talent finalists RB Dance Company present the UK premiere of their thumping show in London. A refreshingly new take on tap dance from writer-director-composer-choreographer Romain Rachline Borgeaud, this a loose take on the Icarus myth is packed with show-stopping numbers and breathtaking stagecraft. The plot may be a bit blurry, and the group numbers may sometimes feel repetitious, but this is a thrilling night at the theatre.

Set in a pastiche of Prohibition-era America, the show centres on a rising-star actor (Redier) who is pursued by both fans and the tabloids. But he is struggling to control his own destiny in the face of a movie director (Cubero) who calls the shots both on the set and in his private life. This leads to a fierce confrontation and a swirling nighttime odyssey into the city's streets, alleyways, hotels and speakeasies. Along the way he contends with a fiery femme fatale, an angry club owner and violent goons. But it's the director who guides his actions.

All of this plays out with enormous energy, as the company performs elaborate, pulsating tap numbers with staggering precision to a catchy collection of rhythmically growling songs. Even the sets themselves are in sync, moving and transforming accompanied by inventive lighting flourishes and visual trickery that add to both the narrative and the mood. The tone is robust and very masculine, even if half of the dancers are women, because the choreography demands strength and intensity. And along the way, there are several heart-stopping moments, including a couple of dives from dizzy heights.

Even more impressive is how the story generates a powerful emotional connection, allowing us to experience big feelings along with this tenacious young man. The story is very dark, sometimes downright grim, but it continually erupts in wildly energetic colour and movement that reflects the need for release and expression. Sequences around a gambling table, in lively bars or a bustling hotel lobby are remarkably vibrant. And in the end we're left almost as out of breath as the seriously gifted performers.

For information, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Aline Gérard • 23.Oct.24

Stage: Elasticity and emotion

Filibuster
by Kook Ensemble
with Tom Gaskin
dir Sean Kempton
set & costume Adrian Linford • sound design Pete Buffery
Jackson's Lane, London • on tour 14.Sep-8.Nov.24 ★★★★

Inspired by the classical silent movies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, this one-man show combines mime, juggling, slapstick and circus performance to tell the gentle story of a lonely man longing for love. Performed with physical elasticity and engaging emotion by Tom Gaskin, this is an amusing and warm one-hour piece punctuated with moments of expert balance and juggling work. There may be a bit too much dead space in the show to hold the attention of young children, but grown-ups will find plenty to connect with.

It opens as Gaskin's character moves to an isolated cottage pulling a pile of luggage and an armchair, cleans up a bit and makes himself at home. After a very cool sequence in which he balances and juggles with a hat, umbrella and cigar, he produces a mannequin torso dressed as his butler, who keeps him company and provides some witty interaction, largely because the butler proves to be rather possessive. This extends as Gaskin pulls up an audience member to perform the butler in a series of scenes, starting with a breadstick sword fight. Later there's a clever and seriously impressive block juggling sequence and a lively birthday party that leads to balancing an entire row of chairs.

Through all of this, the plot evokes emotion in this man's yearning for companionship. Sight gags abound as the set itself comes to life, opening hatchways that reveal wonderfully inventive props, images and even mini sets. And as the show continues, props pile up on stage in an enjoyable mess. There's very little actual dialog, but Gaskin mumbles words accompanied background music to make it very clear what he's thinking and saying. And there's also some very clever audio wordplay. His audience work is remarkably easy, flirting with a woman, using someone as a letterbox through which he posts various messages and orchestrating the crowd in a call and response moment. 

The show is a very astute mix of cute silliness and awkward humanity, as Gaskin playfully tries to look smooth even in his clumsiest moments. The narrative feels a bit random, and Gaskin spends rather a lot of time waiting for the next thing to happen, which allows everything to dribble to a halt. Then the music wakes things up, and we're off again, culminating in an elaborate bit of balancing and juggling that once again combines a collection of unexpected objects. So even if the show feels like it could be a bit tighter, it's so thoroughly endearing that we'd happily watch it again, simply to see how Gaskin responds to the chaos this time.

For info, KOOK ENSEMBLE >

Photos by Roy Riley and Jackson's Lane • 18.Oct.24

Critical Week: Backstage glamour

The 68th London Film Festival continues into this weekend with a range of terrific movies. I'm taking it easy this year, just seeing some of the top titles during these days, often including Q&As and receptions where we can chat with the filmmakers and actors. So it's been a lot of fun (see my Insta for pics!), and there's a bit more to come this weekend. One of the bigger titles was Jason Reitman's Saturday Night, a rollercoaster ride of a film recounting a tense 90 minutes before the first SNL show went live in October 1975. The cast is excellent, and it's skilfully written, shot and edited to be both funny and moving, although perhaps only for fans. It was also the surprise film at LFF this week.

Also this week, I finally caught up with the animated adventure The Wild Robot, which I saw preview footage from in June when I hung out with the creative team at Annecy Animation Film Fest. So expectations were very high, and the film more than lived up to them. It's one of the most gorgeously animated movies I've ever seen, and the story has unusual depth and textures.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Anora • The Wild Robot
The Crime Is Mine
The Summer With Carmen
 In Restless Dreams
ALL REVIEWS >

There were lots of good festival movies this week. Amy Adams goes for broke in Nightbitch, a seriously clever film that's deliberately uncomfortable. Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong are astonishing as Donald Trump and Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, a biopic that never takes a cheap shot but leaves us chilled. Thomasin McKenzie shines in Joy, a rather typical lively true British drama, this time about the development of IVF. Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin spark amazing chemistry as cousins in A Real Pain, a smart road movie set in Poland. The Indian comedy Superboys of Malegaon provides a lot of fun as a group of guys create a mini-film industry in their town. 

Outside LFF, there was the always watchable Alex Wolff in rather over-familiar fraternity drama The Line. And there were two docs: Mark Cousins' fascinating collage-style doc A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, about artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, and the lively Studio One Forever, exploring the iconic Los Angeles nightclub.

Things are clearly getting back to normal for me, as I have a final flurry of LFF films this weekend: Elizabeth Banks' Skincare, the animated Memoir of a Snail, Walter Salles' I'm Still Here, Mati Diop's Dahomey, Indian drama All We Imagine as Light and more. Then next week it's Tom Hardy in Venom: The Last Dance, Eddie Redmayne in The Day of the Jackal and Jordana Brewster in Cellar Door.

Critical Week: It's party time

The 68th BFI London Film Festival kicked off this week, just as my two-month stint on a television series wrapped, so there's been no time to kill! But I'm taking the festival more lightly this year, with just one or two films per day. I'll catch up with other movies later. Meanwhile, awards season is fully underway in London, with Q&A screenings most evenings. And over the next week many of these are also in the festival. This week's screenings included Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner Anora, a lively romantic comedy that spins into something even more interesting as it goes along. It's a proper stunner.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Transformers One
We Live in Time
ALL REVIEWS >

LFF opened with Steve McQueen's Blitz, a gorgeously produced recreation of 1940 London under attack, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan. The story doesn't quite work, but it looks astonishing. Ralph Fiennes leads a strong cast in Conclave, Edward Berger's drama about the selection of a new Pope. It's smart, nuanced and riveting. John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler lead an adaptation of August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson, which is beefy and intense, but remains rather stagebound. Mike Leigh is back with Hard Truths, an edgy family drama starring the terrific Marianne Jean-Baptists and Michele Austin. And apart from LFF/awards season, the lively Hong Kong action movie Stuntman pays playful and sometimes melodramatic homage to the stunt performing community. I also caught Chicos Mambo's amusing live show Tutu at the Peacock. 

Most films I'm watching this coming week are also screening at LFF, including the animated adventure The Wild Robot, the SNL romp Saturday Night, Angelina Jolie in Maria, Amy Adams in Nightbitch, Thomasin McKenzie in Joy, Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain, the Indian comedy Superboys of Malegaon and the psychic doc Look Into My Eye. There's also Alex Wolff in The Line, Mark Cousins' A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things and the doc Studio One Forever, plus Fillibuster at Jackson's Lane. 

Dance: Lighten up

Chicos Mambo
Tutu
choreography Philippe Lafeuille
with Marc Behra, David Guasgua, Julien Mercier, Kamil Pawel Jasinski, Vincent Simon, Vincenzo Veneruso, Corinne Barbara
costumes Corinne Petitpierre • lighting Dominique Mabileau
Peacock Theatre, London • 1-5.Oct.24 ★★★

Barcelona-based Chicos Mambo brings their playful show Tutu to London, and it's a real crowd-pleaser, peppering a range of dance pieces with cheeky humour and lively slapstick. And it continually finds clever ways to invert masculine cliches and gender issues, continually poking fun at social structures. For dance fans, it might be a bit frustrating that they can't get through a single number without some shameless clowning. But it's beautifully designed for a family audience, naughty enough to get children giggling and impressive enough for adults. It also has some very strong points to make, which are impossible to miss.

Many sections in this show are pure pastiche, such as the Swan Lake segment in which the dancers prance around in furry duckling outfits, or goofy takes on both Strictly Come Dancing and Dirty Dancing. There are also random gags, such as a perplexing hair-ography piece later on in which whey march around in long dresses flinging their wigs around. Most of this is very funny, stirring a wide range of music, dance and humour together in an entertaining way. And much of it is aimed at children, including some big circus-style touches and a segment featuring fluffy nappies.

Through all of this these six boys (plus one woman) play on their diversity, with differing ages, ethnicities and body types, while injecting moments of big personality. Each also gets his one stripped-back solo. Their dialog often sounds like hilarious Minions-style gibberish. But under the silliness, these are serious dancers, displaying both lyrical fluidity and feats of physical strength. Much of the movement is classical ballet, often impressively en pointe, although poses are exaggerated, faces are pulled and hand gestures continually puncture the tone. But several moments have a stronger impact in between the gags, such as a muscly solo in which the dancer doesn't move his feet.

Colourful lighting and costume tricks add to the visual impact, with characters clad in black assisting with some epic lifts, while a shimmering tutu floats through the show until Barbara reveals herself in the curtain call, which turns into a lively call-and-response dance class with choreographer Lafeuille. In the final act, a deeper theme emerges to comment on how it feels to be a male dancer in a world of machismo. The point is sharp, and quickly expressed before moving on. But watching these muscly men in tiny tutus expressing pure joy for 100 minutes or so is wonderfully infectious. And it's a terrific reminder of the importance of artistic expression, freestyle playfulness and staying in touch with your body.

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Michael Cavalca • 5.Oct.24