Critical Week: A star is born

As we approach Oscar weekend, there is always a flurry of activity in trying to predict the possible winners. And it's great that this year's race seems much more up in the air than usual. So I'm rooting for some surprises (and I'll post predictions as usual on Saturday). Meanwhile, there have been more new movies to watch, including the finely produced British biopic Mr Burton, which recounts the early days of Richard Burton (played by Harry Lawtey, above) and his English teacher mentor Philip Burton (Toby Jones). Another British true story is set off the Scottish coast: Last Breath is a taut thriller adaptation of the nailbiting 2019 documentary about deep-sea divers (Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole) caught in a terrifying situation. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Last Showgirl • Chang'An
The Summer With Carmen
My Dead Friend Zoe
Superboys of Maleagon
ALL REVIEWS >

Taking on the finale of Homer's Odyssey (and perhaps offering a preview for Christopher Nolan's forthcoming epic), The Return stars Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus, arriving home in Ithaca to find chaos presided over by his faithful wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche). It's rivetingly played and a bit stagey. One of Them Days is a very silly but strongly engaging comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA as best pals on a momentous day in their Los Angeles neighbourhood. Bruno Dumont's The Empire is a wacky alien invasion thriller disguised as an edgy social satire, set in an offbeat French seaside village. And the Georgian drama April follows a doctor on her illicit rounds with audacious visual and thematic style and bizarrely indulgent flourishes.

This coming week I'll be watching Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, John Lithgow in The Rule of Jenny Pen, Bruce LaBruce's new film The Visitor, the drama Throuple, the animated adventure Giants of La Mancha and the documentary Riefenstahl.

Critical Week: The horse and his boy

I'm definitely enjoying the calm following the storm of awards and festival season, deliberately taking on less. Perhaps this is a way forward permanently! But we'll see how that goes, as I have a couple of events and trips planned over the coming months. Films I saw this week included Jackie Chan's Chinese action comedy Ride On, in which he plays a has-been stuntman whose friendship with his horse leads to a comeback that forces him to confront his age. Yes, there's a lot going on, and it's very engaging, even if the sentimentality gets rather corny. One of the year's best surprises so far, Jon S Baird's new film Tetris chronicles the birth of the iconic video game with another terrific lead role for Taron Egerton.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Joyland • Air • Tetris
Lola • Godland
ALL REVIEWS >

The anime epic Suzume is visually spectacular, and its mind-bending story about an unexpected relationship, childhood memory and parallel worlds is remarkably involving. The Dutch drama El Houb recounts a story about a Moroccan family confronting the eldest son's homosexuality. It's tough and unflinching, and very moving. The British doc Blue Bag Life artfully explores issues of addiction and motherhood from a sometimes startlingly intimate perspective. And the biographical doc Little Richard: I Am Everything is a skilfully assembled portrait of the artist who essentially created rock 'n' roll, then influenced everyone who came after him, from Elvis to Lil Nas X. Does racism and homophobia explain why it took so long for him to get the recognition he deserves?

I also attended the press view at the Design Museum for Ai Weiwei's new exhibition Making Sense, which is another superb provocation about human history, taking a sharp new perspective on everyday objects (review up soon). And I was at the press night for Akram Khan's Jungle Book Reimagined, a visceral take on Kipling's stories about the connection between humans and nature. It's dazzlingly staged with inventive dance, music and projected animation, although the message is a bit overstated (review is already up).

This coming week includes the four-day Easter weekend, and I'll be watching Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in Renfield, Henry Golding in Assassin Club, Shailene Woodley in To Catch a Killer, Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Teyana Taylor in A Thousand and One and the action thriller Once Upon a Time in Ukraine.

Requisite Blog Photo: Enjoying the sunshine

Critical Week: The right stuff

It's been another odd collection of screenings for London critics. Julianne Moore and Ellen Page (above) give their usual storming performances in Freeheld, a true story about legal equality that feels a bit simplistic even with such strong characters. Chris Pine and Casey Affleck are excellent as quiet heroes in The Finest Hours, the true story of a 1952 ocean rescue that's told on an impressively grand scale. The British comedy Dad's Army brings the iconic 1970s TV series to the big screen with a terrific A-list cast but almost no comical energy. I'll See You in My Dreams is a nice but mopey and inconsequential romantic drama starring Blythe Danner, Sam Elliott and Martin Starr.

Further afield, Adrien Brody stars in Backtrack, a ghostly Aussie thriller that gets increasingly ridiculous as it goes along. Also from Australia, Oddball and the Penguins is the relentlessly charming and surprisingly important story of a big sheepdog that finds a new calling. From Greece, the acclaimed drama Xenia insightfully explores issues of immigration, community and sexuality through the eyes of two lively brothers. Battle Mountain is a properly inspirational doc about Scottish cycling champ Graeme Obree and his attempt to break a world record at age 48. And Peccadillo's latest collection, Boys on Film 14: Worlds Collide, features nine edgy, inventive short films from around the world, many dealing with political issues like class, homophobia and HIV.

Among this coming week's offerings, we have Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool, the Oscar-nominated Mustang, Freida Pinto in Desert Dancer and the Canadian drama Love in the Time of Civil War.

33rd London Critics' Circle Film Awards

It wasn't just another Critics' Circle ceremony for me: this year I was chair of the awards committee, so the whole evening was my baby. And it was odd to see every tiny detail I've agonised over for the past few months slot into place so nicely, despite some significant obstacles. We lost four nominee attendees at the last minute due to the snow (Tom Hooper) and the flu (Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter and Jacqueline Durran), and others couldn't come because they were working far, far away. But everyone who made it had a great night.

The day started on Sunday morning as I looked out the window to see snow falling. It's been a snowy week in London, with the usual travel chaos any change in the weather brings. But we were in motion, and couldn't be stopped. I headed from home via replacement bus (my Tube line was helpfully closed) to the May Fair Hotel in Mayfair, where the production team ran through the show in the theatre at noon. Then there were fine-tuning adjustments, printing up the winners cards for the envelopes, collating the speeches from those who couldn't be there to accept their award, and of course changing into our finery for the show. The critics who were presenting awards arrived at 5pm to run through their parts of the presentation with our host Richard Herring (who has blogged brilliantly about his experience).

By 5.30pm the first attendees were assembling on the red carpet and facing the press line. The cameramen of course latched on to the glamorous women, including Helena Bonham Carter (recipient of our top honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film), Emily Blunt (nominee for British Actress), Samantha Barks (nominee for Young Performer) and Olivia Colman (last year's British Actress winner, who generously came to help me present the award this year).

Also very popular with the press was young Jack Reynor, nominated as Young Performer, who has just been named as the star of Transformers 4. He had a great night, knowing he was heading home to Dublin in the morning to begin four months of physical training for the film. Although I told him he really needs to take a break to celebrate his 21st birthday this week!

I had a chance to talk to all of our special guests as they arrived, including Ben Drew (nominated for Ill Manors), Charlie Creed-Miles and Dexter Fletcher (nominatees for Wild Bill), and three nominees from the superb British film My Brother the Devil: writer-director Sally El Hosaini, actor Fady Elsayed and cinematographer David Raedeker. At 6.30pm the champagne reception was shifted into the theatre for the awards ceremony, which clipped along thanks to Richard Herring's snappy hosting. Several early winners weren't present: Anne Hathaway's Supporting Actress award was accepted by Les Miserables producer Debra Hayward, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was unable to be here to get his Supporting Actor award, Emmannuelle Riva sent a lovely video message from Paris to accept Actress, and Joaquin Phoenix wrote the thank-you note of the night* to accept Actor.

But most of the British winners were on hand to collect their prizes. Above: The Impossible's Tom Holland with his Young Performer trophy, Rafe Spall turned up to accept the Director award for his Life of Pi director Ang Lee, and The Imposter's Bart Layton took home the award for Documentary. Below: Alice Lowe and Steve Oram were multiple nominees for British Actress and British Actor, and won Breakthrough Filmmaker for their Sightseers script.

Andrea Riseborough won the British Actress award, which I presented, but she'd had to cancel her attendance at the last minute due to illness. So last year's winner Olivia Colman accepted the award and read a message from her. Toby Jones (below) won the British Actor award, and then came back to the stage with sound designer Stevie Haywood (a Technical Achievement nominee) to claim British Film of the Year for Berberian Sound Studio.

There was a warm acceptance video from Bill Westenhofer, who won Technical Achievement for the visual effects in Life of Pi. And Michael Haneke sent two thank-you videos - accepting his awards for Screenplay and Film of the Year for Amour. He's in Madrid at the moment staging a version of Cosi Fan Tutte. 

The highlight of the evening was Mike Newell presenting the Dilys to Helena Bonham Carter: "She's like a kaleidoscope, she is able to deliver these wonderful, vivid characters again and again. They're all full of variety, full of wit and energy and I think people long to see what she's going to try next. She's become an institution. Working with her is always surprising, always harmonious. Not one tiny little bit of foot-stamping or tantrum-throwing."

Her speech was hilariously witty, warm and honest, and she later told the press: "It feels like a rash. It suddenly seems like I've got a contagion of diseases - I mean awards! But it's nice, it's a nice feeling. It's so weird, because I'm only 46. A lifetime achievement award - it feels like 'I'm not over yet'. I hope they're not trying to say it's time to stop. I'm only just getting the gist of it." She clearly had a great evening, and she and Tim Burton were among the last to leave, happily chatting to everyone throughout the after party. I left shortly after them, sharing a cab through the snowy streets to North London with fellow critic and awards committee member Pauline McLeod (that's us below).

I didn't open my goody bag until this morning - quite a haul! I need to thank our charity partner Missing People and our amazing sponsors for making this happen. And now I feel like I need a holiday before I start thinking about 2014....

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Critics' Circle Film Section - top 10 films of 2012:

1. Amour
2. The Master
3. Life of Pi
4. Argo
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild
6. Zero Dark Thirty
7. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
8. Django Unchained
9. Tabu
10. Rust and Bone

EIFF 8: Staring at the sea

Straight from Cannes, the anthology film 7 Days in Havana beings the EIFF back to Cuba again, with segments from a series of top directors. And the Latino seaside theme continues in Chile's The Lifeguard - both films are covered below, along with the world premiere of Peter Strickland's new movie. Last night was the festial's elite party in Edinburgh Castle, to which mere mortal journalists aren't invited. I haven't heard anything about how it went, but it was nice to have a free evening since there are two parties tonight: a tango-themed concert for Future My Love and a later event for the anthology film The Fourth Dimention.

7 Days in Havana
dir Pablo Trapero, Benicio Del Toro, et al; with John Hutcherson, Emir Kusturica 12/Sp ***
There's plenty of colour and culture in this anthology, which could have been titled La Habana Te Amo, to match the similarly uneven Paris Je T'Aime and New York I Love You. It has moments of artistic inventiveness, but barely breaks the surface... FULL REVIEW

Berberian Sound Studio
dir Peter Strickland; with Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco 12/UK ****
Clever filmmaker Strickland (Katalin Varga) aims this film right at movie geeks, mixing comedy, drama and horror to tell the story of a tweedy British sound designer (Jones) who travels to a notorious Italian studio to mix the audio for a grisly 1970s schlock movie. The director insists that this is a serious historical drama, but the voice actors and sound artists all recognise it as a trashy romp about demonic witches. Intriguingly, Strickland only shows us the film within a film's title sequence, evoking the rest of it through a wonderfully detailed sound mix as we see how the audio track is assembled. This is often wickedly hilarious, not to mention an engaging look at analog sound assembly. Then things start to twist and turn, as the gruesome movie starts to merge with real life. Stunningly visual, the film is utterly mesmerising. Well, right up to the slightly unsatisfying coda.

The Lifeguard
dir Maite Alberdi; with Mauricio Rodriguez, Jean Pierre Palacios 11/Chl ****
From Chile, this sundrenched, sand-blown film chronicles a few days in the life of Mauricio, a lifeguard on a busy beach that has a fierce undercurrent. His philosophy is that preventing someone from getting into trouble is better than swimming to their rescue, so he uses his whistle liberally while never going into the water. This puts him at odds with Jean Pierre, the guard the next tower, who seems to do nothing all day long, waiting for someone to get into trouble. That's pretty much the plot of this film, which just follows Mauricio's interactions, including people asking stupid questions, trying to flout the rules, gossiping about each other and tormenting him about his dreadlocks. What makes it compelling viewing is the astounding cinematography, editing and sound mixing, which skilfully and artfully capture the tiniest details. And this includes getting far beneath Mauricio's skin.