Critical Week: Pucker up

This week I attended the UK premiere of Jeanne du Barry, which opened last year's Cannes Film Festival. And there was a very rare red carpet appearance by Johnny Depp, who introduced the film with filmmaker-costar Maiwenn. It's a great film, a lavish true costume drama with an earthy edge to it. (Yes, I snapped pics for Instagram as always - see below). And then there was the lively press screening of Luca Guadagnino's new film Challengers, which stars Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist in perhaps the most detailed love triangle ever put on film. It's absolutely breathtaking cinema.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
If Only I Could Hibernate
Jeanne du Barry • The Book of Clarence
Boys on Film 24 Happy Endings
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Also this past week, I caught up with Matthew Modine as a cycling coach in Hard Miles, a warm-hearted true story that feels a bit obvious but still inspires. Jo Hartley leads an ensemble of British comical actors in the hilarious mock-doc Swede Caroline, although the plot spirals out of control. The French Canadian comedy-tinged romance The Nature of Love is a bracingly honest look at the rules of attraction, beautifully directed and played by a terrific ensemble cast. The Mexican drama All the Fires finds new things to say in a darkly involving coming-of-age story. I attended the premiere of the bracingly energetic music doc Bass Impact, which outlines the history of dubstep with real flair. And we also had the short film compilation Boys on Film 24: Happy Endings, which is said to be the final edition of the long-running series (I've covered all of them).

This coming week I'll be watching Justice Smith in The American Society of Magical Negroes, Nikki Amuka-Bird in Jericho Ridge, the historical drama Kidnapped, the German drama Elaha, and two spider-based horror movies: Infested from France and Sting from Australia. I also have two stage performances to attend.

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Critical Week: Take on the world

As Britain continues to strain against the ongoing lockdown restrictions, it seems like all of my friends have already had the vaccine, but I'm still waiting. It's now looking like cinemas won't open until mid-May at the earliest, so these online screenings will just have to do for now. Another film that really should have been seen on the big screen was Disney's animated adventure Raya and the Last Dragon, which looks breathtaking however you see it as it spins an energetic, involving and ever-so-familiar tale. Less successful is the strained attempt to "update" Tom and Jerry with a half-hearted human-based plot. Sticking to what made the cartoons work might have been a good idea, but what do I know?

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Notturno • Moxie • Justine
The Truffle Hunters
White Colour Black 
ALL REVIEWS >

More grown-up films this week included the legal drama Foster Boy, a rather formulaic film with Matthew Modine based on a powerful true story; the bonkers French mystery Keep an Eye Out, a police pastiche with a hilariously black sense of humour; the true-life disaster epic Fukushima 50, chronicling Japan's near catastrophe in the wake of the 2011 earthquake/tsunami; and the artfully involving odyssey White Colour Black, in which a British photographer explores his roots in Senegal. There was also this virtual screening as part of the London Indian Film Festival...

Evening Shadows
dir Sridhar Rangayan; scr Saagar Gupta, Sridhar Rangayan; with Mona Ambegaonkar, Devansh Doshi, Ananth Mahadevan, Arpit Chaudhary, Sushant Divgikar 19/India 1h42 ****

The standard coming-out story is given a nice spin in this warm-hearted Indian drama, which centres on a mother-son relationship. It's a strong depiction of how a conservative culture piles expectations on young people and accepts endemic sexism and homophobia. Filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan carefully reveals compassion under the cruelly bigoted surfaces, creating a vivid portrait of the enormous issues that face women and queer young people in communities that are ruled by hatred.

After four years away, Kartik (Doshi) returns home for a family event, then is surprised by his harshly controlling father Damodar (Mahadevan) with a prospective bride and more criticism about his career as a photographer. No wonder he chooses to live in Mumbai and keeps his boyfriend Aman (Chaudhary) a secret. When he comes out to his loving mother Vasudha (Ambegaonkar), she struggles with what to do with this information in such a close-minded corner of India and with such a dogmatic husband.

The actors are terrific even if the characters are a bit schematic: Kartik is relentlessly smiley, while Damodar shouts angrily at everyone and rails against news stories of the Supreme Court's imminent ruling on whether homosexuality should remain criminalised (under a law brought in by British colonialists). In the middle, Ambegaonkar shines as a woman working through her feelings. The coming-out sequence is beautifully played with honest big emotions. So even if the film sometimes feels rather melodramatic, it touches on some real nerves and grapples with darker, often unmentioned issues in society. And it leads to a staggeringly strong confrontation.

 LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL • 28.Feb.21

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Coming up this next week, I have the British immigrant romance The Drifters, the dark American romance Luz, the Australian drama Sequin in a Blue Room and the German fantasy Undine.

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Critical Week: Over the borderline

Back in London after a two-week break, I've been catching up on several films, including the sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado (UK title Sicario 2: Soldado), a gritty and intensely gripping thriller following on from the more resonant first film. Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro and Isabel Moner are excellent. Tonal issues make the romcom Ideal Home surprisingly challenging - it feels like a gentle family film, but is packed with more provocative adult elements. Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd are superb at the centre. And Mary Shelley is a fascinating biopic about the author of Frankenstein, although it feels like it has smoothed out the real story. Elle Fanning is terrific in the title role.

A little further afield, My Life With James Dean is a gentle, wry French comedy about a filmmaker on a bizarre odyssey in a sleepy coastal town. It's artful, quirky and hilarious. And Postcards from the 48% is a solidly assembled doc digging into the issue of Brexit. It may be one-sided, but frankly there hasn't yet been a compelling argument in favour of leaving the EU, aside from emotional nationalism. Which makes the film seriously scary.

Coming up this week are screenings of the Dwayne Johnson action Skyscraper, Nick Offerman in Hearts Beat Loud, Emma Thompson in The Children Act, the comedy A Swingers Weekend and probably a few more as I continue to play catchup...