Critical Week: The world in his hands

Awards season is cranking up earlier than usual this year, kicking off even before the Toronto International Film Festival finished. So screenings have kept me on the run this week. The biggest was the world premiere royal performance of Digger, with Tom Cruise, Alejandro G Iñárritu and the cast on hand to watch this astonishingly enormous movie. People will love or hate it, but it's undeniably full-on. I also had screenings of two Toronto titles: the hugely crowd-pleasing biopic I Play Rocky features an amazing performance by Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone makes of his classic underdog movie. And Rhys Ifans and Laura Linney star in Onwards and Sideways, an involving romance that knowingly takes on Parkinson's.

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Elsewhere, Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson star in Charlie Harper, which gets a little over-emotive as it spirals around a love story. Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton lead Nicolas Winding Refn's fantastical futuristic thriller Her Private Hell, which looks amazing but doesn't hold together. From Belgium, the gorgeously animated drama In Waves is a superbly moving true story about surfers. I also enjoyed De Gaulle: Liberté, the expertly made conclusion of the two-part biopic starring Simon Abkarian as the French general, this time covering the final years of WWII. The German satire Babystar is witty and very pointed as it sharply lampoons social media culture. The Filipino black comedy Filipiñana is simply stunning: funny, skilfully shot and darkly powerful. And Juliette Binoche directed In-I in Motion, tracing her collaboration with choreographer Akram Khan on a stage show. She presented the screening herself, and held a terrific Q&A at the end. I also had a live performance of the National Dance Company Wales' show Blue | Glas.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Sebastian Stan in the Cannes winner Fjord, the dramatic thriller Child, the Spanish drama The Portuguese House and three documentaries: The Last First: Winter K2, How Deep Is Your Love and Kikuyu Land, plus live performances of Deepfake and Flamenc Oh!