It's been nice to see new films coming into cinemas for a change, alongside the continuing trickle of festival gems from last year. Perhaps the biggest movie yet,
Project Hail Mary is almost a one-man show for Ryan Gosling, and it's enormously entertaining on several levels: as a comedy, thriller and outer space adventure. Include Sandra Huller back on earth and a genuinely charming friendship with a rock-like alien. Glen Powell leads
How to Make a Killing, a remake of the classic black comedy
Kind Hearts and Coronets that starts well but struggles to find a consistent tone. And Pixar's first film this year is
Hoppers, a colourfully amiable romp with adorable critters and a wacky sci-fi twist in the premise.
Further afield, I caught a big-screen presentation of the inventive Chinese epic
Resurrection, with an on-screen Q&A with filmmaker Bi Gan. It's fiercely original, visually stunning, thematically a bit bewildering. The French drama
Wild Foxes is a beautifully assembled drama about teen boxers, exploring machismo with a remarkably light touch. Also from France, the rather talky but beautifully animated biopic
A Magnificent Life traces author and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol's life as a history of cinema itself. And from Japan, the anime crime drama
The Last Blossom gets under the skin with its quietly involving storytelling. I also attended the European premiere of the emotionally intense TV series
The Madison, with the entire cast in attendance, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell (see below).
Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Jesse Buckley in
The Bride (buying a cinema ticket tomorrow because I couldn't attend the one press screening), Maika Monroe in
Reminders of Him, Ferzan Ozpetek's
Diamonds, Japanese/British drama
A Pale View of Hills, Oscar-nominated doc
Cutting Through Rocks, and quite a few movies in the BFI's Cinema Made in Italy season. I'll also attend a live performance of
Sugar Daddy at Underbelly Boulevard.
