It's been another unusually busy week for this time of year in the screening rooms, with a steady stream, of movies to watch. I'd been hoping to get a break after awards season, but we are powering forward at full speed. So any down time will have to wait. Big releases are screening late these days, with three that are coming out this week: Ayo Edebiri leads the cast of
Opus, a blackly comical horror film that isn't very scary. But Edebiri makes it very watchable, as does a scene-chewing John Malkovich. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender sizzle in the snaky, intelligent thriller
Black Bag, which refreshingly isn't about what you think it's about. And Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt lead an offbeat ensemble in
The Electric State, a retro sci-fi adventure that's watchable but also forgettable.
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Other films included the perhaps too-emotional drama
The Life of Chuck, with a superb ensemble led by Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan.
The Parenting is an amusing meet-the-parents horror pastiche with Brian Cox, Edie Falco and Lisa Kudrow. It's funny and grisly, but never frightening. Infused with music,
Throuple is an offbeat indie romance that knowingly bends the rules. And there were two Chinese films: the epic animated sequel
Ne Zha 2 is visually dazzling, while the blackly comical thriller
Brief History of a Family is riveting and surprising.
There were also two festival films. From South by Southwest, there was the sharply made teen comedy She's the He, and from WatchAUT, I enjoyed the offbeat drama of Peacock, starring the superb Albrecht Schuch. And I also caught two stage shows: Dear Martin at the Arcola Theatre and Drum Tao: The Dream at the Peacock Theatre.
This coming week I'll be watching two films with Pedro Pascal, the adventure
Freaky Tales and the comedy-drama
The Uninvited, plus Disney's live-action
Snow White, Michel Hazanavicius' animated
The Most Precious of Cargoes, Alain Guiraudie's
Misericordia and the artificial intelligence doc
The Thinking Game. In addition, the remake of
The Wedding Banquet, starring Bowen Yang, opens BFI Flare film fest on Wednesday.
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