Critical Week: So in love

It's been another busy week at the movies, as Cannes announced its programme of films, instantly launching next year's awards season with a bang. Almodovar! Refn! Pawlikowski! Farhadi! Zvyagintsev! Kore-eda! Sachs! Hamaguchi! Dhont! The Javis! Meanwhile, I bought a ticket to see Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in The Drama, because I wasn't invited to the one and only press screening. I really enjoyed it, an unhinged black comedy that pushes the audience to take a side.

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Outcome • The Stranger
Father Mother Sister Brother
California Schemin'
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Otherwise, there was the family comedy whodunit The Sheep Detectives, an enjoyably silly Babe-style romp starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson, with the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Bryan Cranston. Keanu Reeves leads Jonah Hill's quirk-filled Outcome, a smart comedy-drama about Hollywood packed with fantastic characters. The cast includes Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Martin Scorsese and Susan Lucci. Gaten Matarazzo, Lulu Wilson and Sean Giambrone star in the riotous stoner comedy Pizza Movie, which is far smarter than it looks thanks to filmmakers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney. The Japanese anime romcom ChaO looks like nothing you've ever seen, and tells an oddly engaging story about a man who marries a fish. And I also attended a special cast and crew screening of the pointed and involving short film Geronto, plus a live performance of Palatable Gay Robot at Udderbelly Boulevard.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the British romcom Finding Emily, Jude Law in The Wizard of the Kremlin, Charli XCX in Erupcja, Bob Odenkirk in Normal, John Magaro in Koln 75, the romantic comedy Almost Us and the French comedy-drama Colours of Time.

Stage: Don't fence me in

Palatable Gay Robot
by Stephen Brower
director Zachary Prince
with Stephen Brower, Julia Murney
Udderbelly Boulevard, London • 7.Apr.26 ★★★★

Funny and sharp, with a big emotional kick, this one-man show explores themes of identity and community through an absurd premise, expertly written and performed by Stephen Brower. This is a fast-paced 75 minutes, overflowing with verbal gags, physical schtick, musical skill and pointed observations about how difficult it is to fit into society's strict boxes. And while it keeps us laughing, the show also leaves us with a lot to think about.

It's set up as a demonstration of HumaVibe's latest device, introduced by a voiceover moderator (Murney) as our new gay best friend Billie Bowtie (Brower), a robot with "a little extra sugar in the tank". The moderator continually reminds Billie that he needs to be "palatable" to avoid offending anyone, but Billie is unable to stop making rude jokes and references. The more background reference material he downloads, the ruder and more deeply insightful his humour gets. But even when the moderator applies additional constraints, Billie continues to break through them.

Billie's primary directive is to provide endless entertainment for straight people, and his quick wit is loaded with riotous innuendo, puns and references. He also performs elaborate song and dance routines and does amusingly awkward crowd work before he is urged to share his story. At this point, Brower weaves his own life into the narrative, using playful humour and an underlying authenticity as he recounts his Oklahoma childhood, family pressures, dance camp joy and a bittersweet experience with first love. The moderator continually resets him, but Billie simply can't stay in the lines.

Brower's performance is bright and smiley, augmenting everything with elaborate physicality. So Billie's robotic glitches carry an underlying meaning. Hugely likeable, he mixes sassiness with darker edges, impressively deploying surreal comedy alongside moving emotions. His blinding verbal riffs are often astonishing, from a hilarious brunch-buddy rant to a climactic sequence synchronised with clips from a broad range of bracingly current cultural iconography. 

At its core this show is an attempt to define what it means to be gay. The word may mean happy, but it also carries fear, self-hatred, love and longing. So the sharply cutting gags touch on religion and politics sit with complex comments about themes from self-discovery to false security. Queer stereotypes are lampooned along the way, always subverted with smart punchlines. And it gets more personal as the show continues: Billie's most insistent urges are to become an actor, to be loved and not to die alone. What's most impressive is how Brower so seamlessly blends intelligence with stupidity, profanity with open-hearted emotion, and most importantly performative robotics with raw humanity.

For information: STEPHEN BROWER >

photos by Danny Bristoll, Spencer Clark • 7.Apr.26

Critical Week: Outside the margins

A highlight this week was a special screening of John Huston's 1961 classic The Misfits, starring Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Clark Gable, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. Following a group of people who simply don't fit in, this is a staggeringly powerful film with strong present-day resonance. The final completed film for both Monroe and Gable, it was screened at the programme launch for Marilyn Monroe: Self-Made Star, a season at BFI Southbank marking the iconic star's centenary in June-July.

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Otherwise, there was Hokum, an enjoyably bonkers horror comedy starring Adam Scott as an American at a nutty hotel in Ireland. By contrast, the horror thriller Undertone is inventive, most notably with its layered sound mix, but neither fun nor scary. Laszlo Nemes' Orphan is a complex, textured exploration of post-WWII Hungary with a riveting central performance from teen Bojtorjan Barabas. I also saw quite a few more films over the final weekend of the 40th BFI Flare, and I attended The Offies, a gala night of awards and live performances celebrating Off-West End theatre.

Coming up over Easter weekend and the following week, I'll be watching Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in The Drama, Gaten Matarazzo in Pizza Movie, the Japanese anime romcom ChaO, a special screening of the short film Geronto and a live performance of Palatable Gay Robot at Udderbelly Boulevard.