Critical Week: Reach out and touch me

There have been a flurry of screenings this week, as studios try to make sure critics see their films before the Cannes Film Festival gets underway next week. Two films opening this week were screened a bit late to the press. Billie Eilish's July 2025 Manchester concert has been filmed in 3D in Hit Me Hard and Soft, directed by Eilish herself, working with 3D aficionado James Cameron. The concert footage is stunning, remarkably immersive and intimate; the backstage doc material is rather thin. And then there's the videogame action sequel Mortal Kombat II, this time starring Karl Urban as fan-favourite Johnny Cage. He's hilarious, and helps non-fans get through two hours of dense mythology and astonishing grisliness. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kokuho • Romeria
PERHAPS AVOID:
Mortal Kombat II
ALL REVIEWS >

Wider audiences will enjoy the straight-to-streaming animated adventure Swapped, a colourful and very nutty body-swap romp with a terrific voice cast led by Michael B Jordan and Juno Temple. Leo Woodall puts his likeable charisma to fine use in Tuner, a mashup of drama, romantic comedy and crime thriller. Costars Dustin Hoffman and Havana Rose Liu help make it thoroughly entertaining. Sam Nivola ably leads the cast of the enjoyable teen road-trip comedy Driver's Ed, with ace support from Kumail Nanjiani and Molly Shannon. And Pedro Almodovar's new drama Bitter Christmas is another gorgeously layered tale about creativity. I also saw three live performances: the fabulous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Sadler's Wells, the immersive dinner theatre Chat Noir at the Lost Estate, and Bullyache's challenging A Good Man Is Hard to Find at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Allison Janney in Miss You Love You, Sally Field in Remarkably Bright Creatures, Emilia Jones in Fairyland, Curry Barker's horror thriller Obsession and a live performance of Remachine at Sadler's Wells East.

Critical Week: Up against the wall

London is gearing up for Sunday night's Baftas (aka the British Academy Film Awards), which sends awards season into its final lap before Oscar night in three weeks. I still have a few nominees to catch up with (namely documentaries), and I will be rooting for underdogs while watching the ceremony on TV on Sunday ... then congratulating them in person at the after-party. As for movies watched this past week, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is an energetic and very scrappy sci-fi action comedy starring Sam Rockwell as a man from the future trying to recruit a team of sceptics to prevent an AI apocalypse. It's a lot of messy fun even if it doesn't quite hang together.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kokuho • The Secret Agent
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Wasteman • Cold Storage
A Private Life
ALL REVIEWS >

Even messier is the crazy alien invasion mayhem of Jimmy and Stiggs, which was home-made by actor-filmmaker Jeff Begos. It's riotously yucky. And then there were the slick thrills of Scare Out, a spy thriller from China that has too much choppy dialog for its own good. But Jackson Yee and Zhu Yilong are terrific leads. From North Macedonia, DJ Ahmet is a wonderfully involving comedy-drama about the collision between sparky youth and old world tradition. And the gorgeously shot documentary Underland explores human fascination with travelling below Earth's surface. Speaking of underground, I also attended an immersive premiere for the second season of the Disney TV series Paradise, elaborately held in a network of caverns under Waterloo station (see below). And I was at the programme launch party for the 40th BFI Flare, a favourite festival that I have covered for 30 years.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Neve Campbell in Scream 7, the Lithuanian drama The Activist, the acclaimed one-man psychological thriller Disremember and the documentary Palestine Comedy Club. I'll also attend Netflix's big party after the Baftas on Sunday night and a special screening premiering Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2.

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Critical Week: Making movies

It's been a busy week at the movies, as the London Film Festival came to an end and screening schedules kick into high gear for awards season. Basically, we have about eight weeks to see all the contenders before we fill in our ballots, so everyone wants to make sure we see their movies. Winning the top LFF prize, the animated Memoir of a Snail is a gorgeous stop-motion movie recounting a kid's journey for an adult audience. It's quite dark, but also wonderfully uplifting. Another animated film about kids, The Colours Within follows the Japanese anime tradition while adding terrific visual and narrative detail. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Conclave • Emilia Perez
Memoir of a Snail
ALL REVIEWS >

The starriest screening was for Pablo Larrain's biopic Maria, as Angelina Jolie turned up to chat about playing the iconic diva. It's a fascinating, cleverly made film that's worth a look. Tom Hardy is back for more action in Venom: The Last Dance, which like the previous two films is messy but watchable. Elizabeth Banks plays a paranoid health specialist in Skincare, a nutty thriller that takes some silly twists and turns. Even sillier, Jordana Brewster and Scott Speedman star in Cellar Door, in which everyone is keeping secrets, including the house. Christmas Eve in Miller's Point is an overcrowded ensemble piece without a central plot, but the mini-adventures are involving.

As for festival fare, there was the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, in which he's depicted as a chimp. Along with lots of panache, the film is surprisingly earthy and serious, and powerfully moving. Walter Salles' superbly well-made I'm Still Here is a riveting true-life family drama, while the beautifully observed Indian drama All We Imagine as Light gently follows three women at a crossroads. There were two docs: Mati Diop's inventive and haunting Dahomey, about returning plundered antiquities to Benin, and the delicately balanced The Divided Island, which skilfully outlines the complex situation in Cyprus. I also saw two live performances: Filibuster at Jackson's Lane and Stories at the Peacock. And I attended the glamorous premiere of the TV series The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. Now I want to see more episodes.

This coming week shouldn't be quite so jam-packed. But I'll be watching Nicholas Hoult in Juror #2, Cate Blanchett in Rumours, Liam Neeson in Absolution, Pharrell's Lego movie Piece by Piece, the Aussie comedy Secrets of a Wallaby Boy, the Christopher Reeve documentary Super/Man and the disinformation doc How to Build a Truth Engine.

Screen: April TV Roundup

I feel like I've had less time than usual to watch television shows over the past three months, largely because of organising the Critics' Circle Film Awards, taking a three-week break to visit family in California and the 38th BFI Flare festival. But I've been sneaking episodes in here and there, and even watched one of these series on the flight. Starting with some shiny new shows...

Mary & George
Casting is everything in this lurid historical series about the first Duke of Buckingham, his voracious mother and King James. Nicholas Galitzine, Julianne Moore and Tony Curran are fantastic in these roles, spinning around each other with multiple layers of intent. The first four episodes are spicy, sparky and great fun, and then the story settles into the political rumblings that have previously stayed in the subtext. So the last three episodes are a bit of a slog, getting lost in stylistic indulgences and painfully dry plotting. It's frustrating that the writers couldn't maintain the juicy, sexy vibe to the end of this true story. (Sky)

Mr & Mrs Smith
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine play spies assigned to live as man and wife, although we have to wait until the final episode for a replay of the spy-vs-spy mayhem depicted in the 2005 movie. The show is played with a nice sense of edgy humour and a parade of terrific guest stars that liven things up in various episodes. So it's very entertaining, even if the overall plot feels rather underpowered, building the connection nicely before nosediving into relational trouble without any real warning. Thankfully both Glover and Erskine are intriguingly offbeat leads, the locations are gorgeous and the expected cliffhanger ending leaves us wanting more. (Prime)

3 Body Problem
Apparently set up as the first of four seasons based on Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, this near-future sci-fi show gets off to a strong start thanks largely to a very strong cast. The globe-spanning plot is epicentred in Oxford, where top scientists get entangled with alien technology, learning that beings from another world are heading toward Earth (due to the show's title). Quite a few central characters die in the process, often in shocking ways, as the show explores issues of mortality and destiny and so on. While the intrigue is fascinating, it's all a bit dense. And the ending is merely a set-up for more to come. (Netflix)

Open to It
A web series with snappy short episodes, this comedy centres on Cam and Greg (Tim Wardell and Frank Arthur Smith), a couple who invites a third into their relationship to liven things up. But of course there are the usual underlying issues, unspoken reservations and nosey neighbours. Intriguingly, the scripts take on deep-seated beliefs relating to morality and fidelity, which puts gay relationships into a fresh context. While it's a refreshing take on polyamory, the show never quite grapples with the issue. But the open-minded approach is lively and sexy, with some drag-scene antics that provide extra colour. (OutTV)

The Flatshare
The uber-likeable Jessica Brown Findlay and Anthony Welsh star in this sparky British comedy about two young professionals who share an apartment on alternating schedules without meeting each other. Except that they do of course, in a somewhat contrived embarrassment that sparks a flurry of wildly random plotting, which spirals into an entertaining mess of humour and emotion. There's never even the slightest doubt where this is headed, but the writers and a superb ensemble of actors have some fun getting there. And while it's a nice look at professional life in London, it feels a bit scrubbed-up. (Paramount)

My Life With the Walter Boys
Enjoyably stupid, this earnest drama is full of soap opera style characters who don't act like normal people. So watching the show is effortlessly escapist. Even the premise is vaguely dodgy, as teen Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) goes to live with family friends (Marc Blucas and Sarah Rafferty) when her parents die in a crash. This couple already has 10 kids, including four teen boys who are around Jackie's age, but no one thinks it's a problem for them to all live in a massive Colorado ranch house. Love-triangle chaos ensues, but these are resolutely cliched caricatures, so the drama is silly rather than involving. (Netflix)

A N O T H E R   H E L P I N G

Fargo: series 5
Quite a bit darker than previous seasons, this one has hints of horror and surreal nastiness along with some genuinely harrowing storylines that focus on domestic abuse. As always, the first-rate cast is terrific at balancing the tone with witty throwaway dialog, ably led by Juno Temple. There are also wonderful scene-chomping turns from Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh as very different kinds of baddies. Show-runner Noah Hawley is terrific at coming up with sympathetic characters who get into life-or-death situations, often at random, revealing untapped strengths ... or weaknesses. Riveting. (FX)

Feud - Capote vs the Swans: series 2
Lavishly produced with a terrific cast, this long-awaited follow-up to 2017's Feud: Bette & Joan centres on Truman Capote's relationship with New York's elite socialites in the 1960s and 70s. Scrambling the narrative eliminates any momentum, so it's essentially a series of beautifully played scenes exploring how Capote (an on-fire Tom Hollander) fell out with his inner circle of powerful women (including Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Demi Moore, Chloe Sevigny, Calista Flockhart and Molly Ringwald). It's a great story, but a more linear approach might have carried a stronger punch. This feels oddly massaged to death. (Hulu)

Young Royals: series 3
For its final season, this Swedish teen drama piles on the usual mix of romantic messiness entangled with royal family politics, as spotty 16-year-old Crown Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) grapples with more trouble at his posh school, his now out-in-the-open romance with dreamy scholarship classmate Simon (Omar Rudberg) and ongoing family chaos. On-off villain August (Malte Gardinger) is less sneery this time round, although Simon's sister Sara (Frida Argento) still only ever looks worried. Thankfully, the show remains a bit prickly even when it strains to be Heartstoppers cute. Cue another sweet song by Simon. Awww. (Netflix)

Girls5Eva: series 3
Wildly overwritten, this rapid-fire sitcom packs more hilarious gags into a 20-minute episode than most shows can manage in a 20-episode season. The problem is that it's such a relentless pile-on of references, puns, absurd jokes and silly gags that it's impossible to take it all in. Thankfully, the foursome (Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell) is able to layer in some surprising pathos beneath the nuttiness, as this 1990s girl band attempts to take a reunion tour culminating in a hopefully triumphant concert at Radio City. What could go wrong? More than seems humanly possible. (Netflix)

Invincible: series 2
It's easy to zip through episodes of this hyper-violent animated superhero series, which plays on the idea that people with powers are as complex as mere mortals. The title character Mark has been crushed by his now missing all-powerful father, leaving his mother distraught. So Mark tries to carry on with his studies and also be a good hero. But a call from a planet of insects diverts his attention, changing his destiny. This show is enjoyably messy, bombastic and grisly, but not quite deep enough to really work. But its bonkers approach to the narrative makes sure that it is never remotely dull. (Prime) 

GUILTY PLEASURES: The Traitors (2), Queer Eye (8), Drag Race (16).

NOW WATCHING: Ripley, Palm Royale, The Gentlemen, Expats, Sexy Beast, Night Court (2), Abbott Elementary (3), True Detective (4).

COMING SOON: Loot (2), Star Trek: Discovery (5), Sugar, The Sympathizer, The Veil , Acapulco (3), Hacks (2), Bridgerton (3).

Previous roundup: JANUARY 2024 > 

Critical Week: Scary monsters

It's a third short week this spring here in Britain, so there have been fewer than usual screenings. But I did manage to catch up with Colossal, the genre-defying movie starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis. It's funny, scary, harrowing and very well-made. And then there was Sleepless, an almost painfully predictable cop thriller livened up by an adept cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney and Scoot McNairy.

A hybrid crime thriller and arthouse drama, Away is a small British drama starring Timothy Spall and Juno Temple as two desperate people who meet in Blackpool. It's nicely shot and acted, but jarringly edited. And Last Men in Aleppo is the prize-winning documentary about the White Helmets, rescue workers in war-torn Syria. Skilfully shot on the ground during the fighting, it's utterly devastating to watch, and urgently important.

Screenings coming up this week include Ridley Scott's Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant, the comedy The Big Sick, the action movie Stratton, the road movie Folk Hero & Funny Guy, the period drama Interlude in Prague and the animated adventure Spark.

LLGFF 2: Take a ride

In the documentary Interior. Leather Bar., directors James Franco and Travis Matthews are trying to challenge their own preconceptions by reconstructing 40 lost minutes from William Friedkin's notorious 1980 thriller Cruising. At the 27th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, the doc was shown with a couple of similarly themed shorts, providing a rather steamy night for those in attendance. Here are some festival highlights...

Interior. Leather Bar.
dir James Franco, Travis Mathews; with Val Lauren, James Franco 13/US ****
A fascinating exploration of artistic expression on a range of levels, this documentary is just as provocative for its cast as it is for the viewer. Although it's easy to miss the point of it all if you're not paying attention. Franco and Matthews set out to recreate the 40 minutes censored from William Friedkin's shocking 1980 thriller Cruising, in which detective Al Pacino goes undercover in New York's gay fetish scene. Franco's long-time friend Lauren plays Pacino here, and his reaction is the fascinating as he grapples with the ramifications of appearing in a project that can be defined as almost-porn. He spends a lot of time on the phone to his agent and girlfriend, and discusses it at length with Franco and his fellow actors. This behind-the-scenes footage is far more informative than the slickly produced scene fragments they come up with. But the film's real value is in how it explores the line between movie-sex and porn, and between prejudice and diversity.

Facing Mirrors
dir Negar Azarbayjani; with Shayesteh Irani, Ghazal Shakeri 11/Irn *****
There's real tension in this steely, low-key Iranian drama, which outlines the moving story of two women who are struggling against the demands of their culture. Hinging on their unusual friendship, this sharply well-observed film gets deep under the skin as it traces a very difficult story to an overwhelming conclusion. The women are Rana (Shakeri), whose husband is in prison as she illicitly drives a taxi to make ends meet, and Edi (Irani), who wants to return to Germany for a sex change operation before her father marries her off. Their meeting is anything but smooth, as Rana certainly has no sympathy for Edi's situation. But both of them are transgressive in their own way, and as they begin to see things through each others' eyes, a surprising friendship develops. Officially sanctioned by the powers that be (trans-gender operations are legal in Iran), the film is impeccably written, directed and acted to draw us into a complex story with a serious punch of emotional resonance.


Jack & Diane
dir Bradley Rust Gray; with Juno Temple, Riley Keough 12/US **
Even though it's infused with moody atmosphere that captures the confusion of first love, this gimmicky romance is indulgent and infuriatingly hesitant about its plot and characters. A clever horror subtext rendered in Quay Brothers' animation helps, but it's so relentlessly low-energy that it feels like it simply won't end. The title characters are two young women played by Keough and Temple, respectively. Jack is tomboyish and quirky, Diane is sickly and quirky, and both mope everywhere they go, rarely speaking above a squeaky whisper. They're so annoying that we really don't care that Diane is about to move to Paris, certainly not because we believe they have discovered true love and don't want to be separated. Oddly, it's the fantasy animated sequences that ring truest in this mumbly, inarticulate film.


My Brother the Devil
dir-scr Sally El Hosaini; with James Floyd, Fady Elsayed 12/UK ****
Punchy and emotive, this British drama deals with intense themes in its story of two brothers caught between subcultures in northeast London. Even though it gets a bit overwrought, this is a beautifully observed film that gets us thinking... REVIEW >

Critical Week: Into the woods

The most anticipated press screening this past week was The Place Beyond the Pines, a moody three-part drama starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper that's beautifully filmed and acted. It certainly leaves us with more to think about than the colourful Disney adventure Oz the Great and Powerful, which has fantastic 3D and a strong cast led by James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis, but feels both too family friendly and over-reliant on digital flashiness. We also caught up with Fire With Fire, a contrived but watchable thriller with Bruce Willis and Josh Duhamel; the lushly photographed French double-biopic Renoir, an intriguing film about both the painter father and filmmaker son; and the Icelandic true-life adventure The Deep, an astonishing story of survival that's intriguingly (and slightly dully) told without any manipulative moviemaking.

I also continued to preview films from the upcoming 27th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (14-24 March). There was more James Franco - both on-screen and as codirector this time - with the seriously clever arthouse oddity Interior. Leather Bar., recreating 40 censored minutes from Al Pacino's 1980 thriller Cruising; rising stars Juno Temple and Riley Keough in the mopey romance Jack & Diane; the powerfully moving Iranian drama Facing Mirrors (my best of the fest so far); the provocative, intense Israeli drama Out in the Dark; the engaging, startlingly honest retiree documentary Les Invisibles; an eye-opening doc about female-to-male transexual pornstar Mr Angel; the artful Swedish kaleidoscopic doc She Male Snails; and the intensely powerful activism doc United in Anger.

This coming week, I've got still more James Franco in the crime comedy Spring Breakers, Steve Coogan in the Soho property tycoon biopic The Look of Love, Steve Carell as The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, the animated prehistoric comedy-adventure The Croods and the Spanish drama The Sex of the Angels.

Critical Week: Bafta with beards! On ice!

The British Academy Film Awards - better known as the Baftas - were held last night at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, a gorgeously glamorous venue even on a grisly night in which the driving rain turned to sleet and then snow. A-listers bravely made their way up the icy red carpet under umbrellas and heavy coats, with the odd instance of a starlet visibly shivering in the cold while trying to show some flesh. And as predicted, it was Argo's night in the spotlight, as Ben Affleck won two of his three nominations - for Director and Film (produced with George Clooney and Grant Heslov, above). He missed out on Actor to, unsurprisingly, Daniel Day-Lewis. Bafta voters also showed their love for Django Unchained, giving Original Screenplay to Quentin Tarantino and Supporting Actor to Christoph Waltz, essentially making this category a two-horse race at the Oscars in two weeks between Waltz and SAG winner Tommy Lee Jones.

Anne Hathaway continued her romp through the Supporting Actress category this awards season. And in a not-so-surprising upset Emmanuelle Riva won Actress, considerably boosting her chances of taking the Oscar. The nicest surprise was David O Russell winning Adapted Screenplay and delivering a genuinely unexpected thank-you. In the British categories, Skyfall was the predicted winner of British Film; British-produced docs The Imposter and Searching for Sugar Man both won awards; despite the fact that no one saw Killer Joe, Juno Temple won the public vote for Rising Star; and the two awards for venerable Brits went to filmmaker Alan Parker (Bafta Fellowship) and Film Four veteran Tessa Ross (Outstanding Contribution). Pictured at right (clockwise from top-left): Hathaway, Waltz, Temple, Tarantino, Mendes and Broccoli, and Day-Lewis.

Speaking of venerable, Stephen Fry was simply terrific as the ceremony's host, with his smart, hilarious banter, most of which probably went over the heads of the Americans in the audience, for a variety of reasons. Mixing absurd silliness with pithy commentary on recent headlines, he kept things moving impeccably as always, eliciting a kiss-to-camera this year from Jennifer Lawrence and flirting shamelessly with a slightly perplexed Jeremy Irvine. The Best Presenter-Pairing Award goes to Bradley Cooper and Affleck - there were audible "woofs" from the audience as they strode manfully tot he podium. The Best Acceptance Speech Award goes to Waltz, for a warm, snappy thank you, with Day-Lewis as a witty runner-up.

All the winners...

• Film: Argo - Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
• Film Not in the English Language: Amour - Michael Haneke, Margaret Ménégoz
• Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man - Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
• Outstanding British Film: Skyfall - Sam Mendes, Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
• Animated Film: Brave - Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
• Director: Ben Affleck - Argo
• Original Screenplay: Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino
• Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook - David O Russell
• Leading Actress: Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
• Leading Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
• Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables
• Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
• Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Bart Layton, Dimitri Doganis - The Imposter
• Rising Star: Juno Temple
• Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema: Tessa Ross
• Bafta Fellowship: Sir Alan Parker
• Cinematography: Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda
• Original Film Music: Skyfall - Thomas Newman
• Production Design: Les Misérables - Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson
• Costume Design: Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran
• Editing: Argo - William Goldenberg
• Make-Up And Hair: Les Misérables - Lisa Westcott
• Sound: Les Misérables - Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Jonathan Allen, Lee Walpole, John Warhurst
• Visual Effects: Life of Pi - Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer, Donald R Elliott
• Short Film: Swimmer - Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw
• Short Animation: The Making of Longbird - Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson

~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~

CRITICAL WEEK:

Meanwhile, films screened for London critics this past week included the gonzo guilty pleasure Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, a violent fairy tale starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton (who both presented awards at the Baftas). Elijah Wood stars in the first-person remake of the grisly serial killer horror Maniac; Danny Dyer stars in the dire film adaptation of the British farce Run for Your Wife; Romain Duris stars in the charming, slightly too-quirky French romantic-comedy Populaire; and Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda won the week with his drop-dead gorgeous childhood adventure I Wish.

This coming week's titles include late screenings of Bruce Willis in A Good Day to Die Hard and Alice Englert in the teen-franchise launcher Beautiful Creatures. We also have James McAvoy in a film of Irvine Welsh's Filth, Viggo Mortensen in Everybody Has a Plan, Brady Corbet in Simon Killer, Joss Whedon's take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Mathieu Kassovitz's thriller Rebellion, the New York gang drama Gimme the Loot, the Oscar-nominated Israeli doc The Gatekeepers, and the Snoop Dogg/Snoop Lion doc Reincarnated.

EIFF 1: The kickoff

The rebooted 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival kicks off tonight with William Friedkin's Killer Joe, starring Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, Matthew McConaughey and Thomas Haden Church.

Killer Joe
dir William Friedkin; with Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey 11/US ***.
This film's unhinged plot constantly catches us off guard with its bizarre twists and turns, all of which are grounded on the hapless characters. But despite strong filmmaking, it feels like we're watching a play, especially in the contained final act... FULL REVIEW >

Hail
dir Amiel Courtin-Wilson; with Daniel P Jones, Leanne Letch 11/Aus ***
Based on the real experiences of Jones, who plays a version of himself, this intensely personal drama gets under the skin quickly and stays there. The filmmaking is sometimes a bit pretentiously arty, but there's such a gritty earthiness to the film that it's impossible to look away. Jones and Letch have terrific chemistry, bouncing off each other with charming sweetness and hot tempers that could tear each other apart. This is a story about an ex-con drug addict who desperately wants to make his squalid life better, but he's terrified of change. So what chance does he have? Haunting and important, but at times difficult to watch.

Pusher
dir Luis Prieto; with Richard Coyle, Agyness Deyn 12/UK **
Coyle is superb as a cocky low-life London drug dealer whose life takes a few nasty twists and turns - bad luck combined with risky decisions that squeeze him into a nasty corner. Coyle also has terrific chemistry with his sidekick Bronson Webb, which is strained to he breaking point, drawing out some intriguing subtext that the script seems frightened to explore. And this is a big problem. There's little here that hasn't been said in countless urban London dramas, and the central relationship between Coyle and Deyn never remotely ignites, which kind of leaves us unable to really sympathise with anyone in the story.

The Invader
dir Nicolas Provost; with Issaka Sawadogo, Stefania Rocco 11/Bel ***.
This extremely detailed exploration of one man's odyssey is provocative and riveting, even when it takes some grim turns. It centres on Amadou, an illegal immigrant from somewhere in French-speaking Africa (the charming, intimidating Sawadogo) who ends up in urban Belgium trying to survive. He's clearly a smart, resourceful guy, and everyone he meets likes him, but his status makes getting ahead impossible. After breaking from his traffickers, he meets Agnes (Rocco), and sees her as his greatest hope. But this of course puts a bit too much pressure on her, which leads Amadou into a spiral of dehumanising frustration. The film looks terrific, with a sharp sense of human physicality and glassy modern life. But where the story heads is also very, very dark, which makes he film sometimes feel rather melodramatic.

In non-festival screening news, I also watched: Steve Carell and Keira Knightley in the funny and ultimately moving apocalyptic drama Seeking a Friend for the End of the World; Benjamin Walker in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which we know would be ridiculous before we even saw it; Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche in The Players, a French anthology about infidelity that's riotously funny and surprisingly pointed; another anthology film, 7 Days in Havana, an engaging if rather superficial collection of dramas directed by Gaspar Noe, Elia Suleiman, Benicio Del Toro and others; and the eerie drama Electrick Children, about a 15-year-old from an isolated religious community who is sure she's had an immaculate conception.