Critical Week: And they called it puppy love

It's been another busy week in awards season, with screenings every night and lots of films to watch at home on links during the day. I also somehow have to find time to write about them all. It was great to catch up with festival breakout hit Pillion, Harry Lighton's offbeat romance starring Harry Melling (above) and Alexander Skarsgard. It's notorious for its dominant-submissive sexuality, but is actually a rather sweet and moving drama. By far the biggest movie was the European premiere of Wicked: For Good and I got to meet Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, along with director Jon Chu, at a reception before the screening. Unsurprisingly, the film is spectacular, much darker and more emotional than the first part. I also saw two gorgeous animated adventures: In Your Dreams is a fabulously colourful trip into the imagination, and Arco skilfully uses hand-drawn style anime to tell a pointed story from the future.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
In Your Dreams
Arco • Jay Kelly
Night of the Juggler
ALL REVIEWS >

At another starry awards screening, Kate Winslet presented her directing debut Goodbye June, alongside costars Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn, plus gifted young screenwriter Joe Anders (who happens to be Winslet's son). It's a funny and moving ensemble film. The Broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along, including Tony winners Daniel Dadciffe and Jonathan Groff, features in a superbly filmed stage performance of Stephen Sondheim's powerful exploration of art and friendship. 

A bit further afield, Tom Blyth stars in the perhaps too-snappy investment banking comedy Bull Run. Jorma Tommila is back for the entertaining and outrageously grisly Finnish action sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge. The Danish drama Sauna is a darkly thoughtful romance. Hong Kong drama Valley of the Shadow of Death, explores grief and redemption in an involving faith-based story. From Argentina, 300 Letters deconstructs a romance in ways that are sexy, funny and moving. And I finally caught up with the breakout animated hit KPop Demon Hunters, which is a lot of bright-hued fun, packed with great music. On top of all of that, I attended the seriously epic UK premiere of the first episode of Stranger Things season 5.

Coming up this next week, I plan to watch Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee, Nicolas Cage in The Carpenter's Son, Emma Mackey in Ella McCay, June Squibb in Eleanor the Great, British-Nigerian drama My Father's Shadow, Iraqi drama The President's Cake, French drama Nino and Taiwanese drama Left-Handed Girl, plus a premiere screening of Landman season 2.