Critical Week: To the stars

It's been nice to see new films coming into cinemas for a change, alongside the continuing trickle of festival gems from last year. Perhaps the biggest movie yet, Project Hail Mary is almost a one-man show for Ryan Gosling, and it's enormously entertaining on several levels: as a comedy, thriller and outer space adventure. Include Sandra Huller back on earth and a genuinely charming friendship with a rock-like alien. Glen Powell leads How to Make a Killing, a remake of the classic black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets that starts well but struggles to find a consistent tone. And Pixar's first film this year is Hoppers, a colourfully amiable romp with adorable critters and a wacky sci-fi twist in the premise.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sound of Falling • Heel
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Further afield, I caught a big-screen presentation of the inventive Chinese epic Resurrection, with an on-screen Q&A with filmmaker Bi Gan. It's fiercely original, visually stunning, thematically a bit bewildering. The French drama Wild Foxes is a beautifully assembled drama about teen boxers, exploring machismo with a remarkably light touch. Also from France, the rather talky but beautifully animated biopic A Magnificent Life traces author and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol's life as a history of cinema itself. And from Japan, the anime crime drama The Last Blossom gets under the skin with its quietly involving storytelling. I also attended the European premiere of the emotionally intense TV series The Madison, with the entire cast in attendance, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell (see below).

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Jesse Buckley in The Bride (buying a cinema ticket tomorrow because I couldn't attend the one press screening), Maika Monroe in Reminders of Him, Ferzan Ozpetek's Diamonds, Japanese/British drama A Pale View of Hills, Oscar-nominated doc Cutting Through Rocks, and quite a few movies in the BFI's Cinema Made in Italy season. I'll also attend a live performance of Sugar Daddy at Underbelly Boulevard.

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The Guilt Trip

The Guilt Trip
dir Anne Fletcher; with Seth Rogen, Barbra Streisand 12/US ***
With a surprisingly low-key tone, this road comedy is more gentle and sentimental than it looks in the trailer. But it's consistently enjoyable and has a couple of strong moments along the way thanks to an off-handed turn from Streisand that never goes over the top. She plays a Jewish mum who won't stop meddling in the life of her only son (Rogen). He has his own reasons for inviting her along on a business trip driving from New Jersey to San Francisco. Incidents along the way are amusing if never hilarious, and the message about paying attention to the needs of those around you while tempering your own impulses isn't terribly deep. But Streisand gives a beautifully layered performance that mixes broad comedy with internalised drama. So if the filmmakers avoid all of the story's potentially interesting edges, we don't mind too much.

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REPORT FROM ON THE ROAD:
I'm enjoying being in Southern California for the holidays - it's a bit chilly but the sunshine and ocean views are great. Film-wise this is the first new one I've seen in over a week. I rewatched Magic Mike on the plane (just as enjoyable, same narrative problems) and then took my parents to see Life of Pi, which is just as astounding the second time and likely to unseat Rust and Bone as my best of the year in my lists next week.