Critical Week: Practice makes perfect

The 70th London Film Festival continues to play at venues around the city, and I caught up with four more films this week. Yes, I'm taking it a bit easy this year, simply for my mental health. That said, I've already seen 25 films, with more to come (reviews are linked HERE). It was especially fun to meet Pedro Pascal at the screening of Behemoth, a superbly delicate drama about a cellist working through his past. At the reception I also chatted with two of his seriously gifted collaborators on the film: writer-director Tony Gilroy and costar Eva Victor. Speaking of receptions, I got to chat with the talented cast and directors of both La Bola Negra (my favourite film so far this year, out this week in the US) and Possible Love (another fave) at Netflix's annual LFF brunch.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
La Bola Negra • Naza
Forgotten Island • Case 137
Musk • Hadestown: The Musical
ALL REVIEWS >

I also had a great chat with Incredibles director Brad Bird, then immediately headed to a screening of his newest movie Ray Gunn, a beautifully animated retro-futuristic noir mystery. After that, there was screening of Laika's magnificent stop-motion epic Wildwood, attended by director Travis Knight, voice actors Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay and great cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. The film is unmissable! And Sandra Huller gives yet another astonishingly nuanced performance in Pawel Pawlikowski's gorgeous Fatherland, a father-daughter road movie set in Germany just after the war. 

Outside the festival, I saw the frenetic action thriller Street Fighter, starring Noah Centineo, David Dastmalchian and a Hulked-up Jason Momoa. It's loud and chaotic, and very troubling thematically. But gamers might enjoy it. There were also live performances of the unauthorised parody Heated Rivalry and the celebratory dance Ballet Black at 25, plus a visit to the Design Museum to preview Laika's Wildwood Exhibition (see below).

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Julianne Moore in LFF's closing night film The Debut, the comic book thriller Clayface, Clio Barnard's I See Building Fall Like Lightning, John Hannah in Bad Day at the Office, Australian drama Sweet Milk Lake, the restored version of Ken Russell's The Devils on the big screen and a live performance of Tellus at Sadler's Wells East.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rich Jack Cline (@ukcline)

Critical Week: Family values

I've been in America's Deep South for a week and finally managed to get to a cinema yesterday to see Incredibles 2, which opens next month in the UK. I really enjoyed the way Brad Bird recaptures the family dynamic in the superhero genre, deepening the characters of the children in the process (Jack-Jack steals the show). The dialog is hilarious, and the action sequences are hugely thrilling (Marvel take note). Although I wish the plot and the villain were a bit more fully formed. Still, it's enjoyable enough that it makes us hope Bird doesn't wait another 14 years to make the next one.

Last week, I watched two films on the flight over here. Del Shores' Sordid Lives expanded universe has had a place in my heart since I spent two weeks with him at a film festival where the first movie premiered. So I was happy to find A Very Sordid Wedding in the fight's entertainment system. It's as wacky as the previous films and TV episodes, with the same messy humour, depth of feeling and a proper edge of religious and political themes woven through the nutty characters. The awesome Beth Grant was sorely missed (although Dale Dickey was great), but the film is a lot of fun, and actually has something important to say.

The other thing I watched was the two-and-a-half hour conclusion to Netflix's Sense8, basically the third season mashed together. Fans will love this epic adventure, which has plenty of twists and turns and carries on the Wachowskis' staggeringly inventive visual style. Although there's perhaps a bit too much gunplay than was necessary. And the emphasis on violence leaves the more interesting, engaging interpersonal drama feeling kind of wedged in at the end with two massive montage sequences that give the series' devoted followers just what they wanted to see most. More of that ebullience woven throughout each episode might have helped it gain a wider fanbase. But at least cast and crew were able to wrap up the story in style.

There's only one other movie in cinemas here that I'm interested in seeing (the comedy Tag), and only one coming out this weekend (the sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado). But I don't know if I'll have a chance to see them before flying back home to London. Watch this space.