Critical Week: Up to no good

With the distraction of the Paris Olympics on television, and the fact that they're so close we can almost touch them from London, it's easy to lose sight of the movies screening in nice, cool cinemas. But there's a steady stream of releases, and I'm trying to keep up for the moment while anticipating a drastic change in my daily routine over the next few months. The biggest filmI saw this week was The Instigators, a reunion for Matt Damon with both Casey Affleck and director Doug Liman. It's an enjoyably scrappy action comedy with sharp character touches. The cheeky animated adventure Ozi: Voice of the Forest has a starry voice cast that includes Laura Dern, Amandla Stenberg, Djimon Hounsou and the late Donald Sutherland. This helps make up for a sometimes awkward, preachy script. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kensuke's Kingdom
A Story of Bones • Kneecap
ALL REVIEWS >

Abbie Cornish elevates the low-budget psychological thriller Detained, which is twisty but undercooked. Robin Campillo's 1970s Madagascar coming-of-age drama Red Island is gorgeous to look at, and powerfully involving as it tackles personal and political issues. The British drama Sebastian is an intimate, moving profile of a writer who becomes an escort for research, then has to rediscover himself. The Chinese noir-style thriller Only the River Flows weaves wit and visual style into a darkly resonant odyssey. And the Saint Helena doc A Story of Bones packs a powerfully resonant kick in its exploration of the importance of remembering difficult history. I also saw Jamie Allan's stage magic show Amaze, and published a roundup of TV reviews for the summer, including The Bear, Shogun, The Boys, The Acolyte, Fallout, The Curse and more.

This coming week I'll be watching Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis in Borderlands, Eugenio Derbez in Radical and a whole bunch of films that will be showing at London's FrightFest later in the month. I'm also heading up to Edinburgh for a week to cover the Fringe theatre festival, which I'll be covering here.