Critical Week: Smile for the camera

It's been a busy week for me, running around town watching movies and stage shows. It was fun to catch up with the hugely engaging characters for Heartstopper Forever, a strongly involving movie that caps the TV series with a nicely grown-up story, even if the writing is a little cute. Joe Locke, Kit Connor and friends are terrific. But basically this entire week has been about Christopher Nolan's massive adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey. I watched it on the huge BFI Imax screen, and it's thunderously entertaining, carrying a powerful thematic kick. The cast is also excellent, particularly Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo and Samantha Morton.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Last First Time • The Odyssey
Heartstopper Forever
ALL REVIEWS >

There were also two superbly made big-budget biopics. From France, De Gaulle: Resistance is the first of two films about the iconic general-turned-politician, and it's a thrilling account of 1940-42 from an angle I'd never seen before. From Romania, The Yellow Tie traces the life of composer-conductor Sergiu Celibidache, another involving story I'd never heard. 

There was also a filmed version of Hadestown: The Musical, a terrific stage production (the original Broadway cast performing in London's West End) based on the myth of Orpheus, with catchy soulful songs. The British romance A Year in London is enjoyable but overwritten. From Nigeria, the action thriller Son of the Soil is rather chaotic, but also very watchable as it dives into a nasty underworld. From Mexico, the beautifully shot Last First Time is an inventive, provocative coming-of-age drama. There were two docs: Synthetic Sincerity is a playful look at the limits of AI, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary is essentially a lavishly produced two-hour advert for the Bruno Cucinelli fashion brand. And I saw two live stage performances: Blue Mist at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and Ali in Wonder(Eng)land at Jackson's Lane.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Hannah Einbinder in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Corey Feldman in Sour Party, the animated adventure Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog and two docs: Ask E Jean and Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie.