Critical Week: On top of the world

Christmas was a quiet one for me, as I tested positive for covid right before the holidays. I had no symptoms beyond a mild sniffly cold (which I probably would have had anyway), but I have had to isolate for a week and wait for a negative test. So I used the time to catch up on a few awards-season movies that I'd missed, including the French animated adventure The Summit of the Gods, a thrilling story about mountaineering with seriously spectacular imagery (find it on Netflix). The drama Mass centres around a conversation about a tragedy between four people, played by the superb Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton and Reed Birney. It's riveting and powerfully provocative.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Licorice Pizza • Titane
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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From Germany, the disarming comedy I'm Your Man stars Maren Eggert as a woman living with a robot (Dan Stevens) who has been designed as her perfect man. It's funny and hugely charming. From India, the documentary Writing With Fire follows a group of fierce female journalists who are making a huge impact on their nation. The Last Days of Innocence is a collection of four expertly made short films about that moment when childhood is interrupted by real life. And among the TV series and favourite old films I've been watching, I saw Last Train to Christmas, a fiendishly clever fantasy satire starring Michael Sheen that starts as a goofy comedy and becomes something surprisingly thoughtful.

Coming up this next week, my first in-person screening of the new year will be the action thriller The 355 with Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong'o, and I have more awards contenders to catch up with, including the Kosovo drama Hive and Mexico's Prayers for the Stolen.

On the Road: Nice work if you can get it

Our Brand Is Crisis

dir David Gordon Green; with Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton 15/US ***.

Despite an uneven tone, this breezy political drama touches on several important themes as it freewheels through a scruffy story of American campaign strategists working for rival candidates in an election for Bolivia's president. Based loosely on real people, the film has an authenticity to it that holds the attention, even as it veers wildly between politics, comedy and even slapstick. Of course, Bullock can bridge these gaps effortlessly, and she's terrific as the burn-out reluctantly making a comeback against her fiercest rival, played by an underused Thornton. But then all of the supporting roles are thinly written. This is Bullock's show, and her performance makes the film worth a look. As does what it says about the American political system.  

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CRITICAL WEEK
There are several other films out now in America that I'm hoping to catch up with, including The 33 and By the Sea, and also - purely for work reasons of course, as they open later in the UK - The Peanuts Movie and Love the Coopers.