Critical Week: Love is all around

As the year-end holidays get closer, more and more awards bodies are presenting their nominations. Monday it was the Golden Globes, which I am voting in for the second year. The new collection of 300 international critic voters has seriously shifted the nominations into something very interesting this year. Meanwhile, there's a new romantic comedy in the cinema: What Happens Later, directed by Meg Ryan, who stars alongside David Duchovny as exes who cross paths in an airport. There are no other actors on-screen, and their charisma makes the movie enjoyable if corny. Another actor-turned-director, Eva Longoria shows serious skill with the whizzy, hugely entertaining biopic Flamin' Hot, which tells the story of the janitor who rebooted Frito-Lay, from his colourful perspective.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
American Fiction • Wonka
The Zone of Interest • Every Body
The Lost Boys • The Taste of Things
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
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More serious fare came from Michael Winterbottom, whose 1940s Israeli drama Shoshana feels almost painfully timely and informative. It's a sometimes odd mix of politics and romance, but is hugely involving. From Poland, Agnieszka Holland's terrific drama Green Border has courted controversy for its honest depiction of heartless right-wing immigration policies, simply by telling an honest story from three wrenching perspectives. From Germany, the drama The Teachers' Lounge skilfully follows a young teacher as her optimism is dealt a blow from a flurry of rumours and accusations. It's riveting and rather scary. From Romania, Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. And I was in the theatre for another panto this week, Puss in Boots at Wonderville.

Movies this week include a trip to the cinema to catch The Three Musketeers: Milady, since I missed the only press screening. And there's more catching up needed to see films before the next voting deadlines. The London Critics' Circle announces our nominations next Wednesday...

Critical Week: On a mission

Well, the 93rd Oscars managed to completely reinvent their ceremony for the pandemic era, although the severely simplified structure left it feeling a bit awkward. A host would have helped provide some humour, context and connectivity. The one comedy bit didn't work at all (aside from Glenn Close's apparently not-so-impromptu jig), and the order shuffle at the end left it ending on a dry note. But the winners were all hugely deserving, and it was great so see people celebrating in one place together.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Limbo • About Endlessness • Laddie
The County • Truman & Tennessee
Heavy Trip • The Outside Story
PERHAPS AVOID:
Without Remorse
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Back to the movies, the big movie this week was Without Remorse, Michael B Jordan's take on the Tom Clancy franchise-launcher. Jordan delivers the goods, but the film is rather tough going. More intriguing is the sci-fi drama Stowaway, with its low-key approach and philosophical themes, plus a terrific four person cast led by Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick. Much bigger still, Mortal Kombat is a big-scale battle epic that holds the interest in a guilty pleasure way, despite the simplistic plot.

A bit higher brow, Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the Cold War biopic The Courier, a tautly written, directed and acted thriller about a normal guy pulled into the spy game. Bob Odenkirk is solid in the derivative but engaging action thriller Nobody. Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough really go for it in the uneven Americans-in-Greece romance Monday. China's maestro Zhang Yimou brings his stunning visual approach to the riveting 1930s spy thriller Cliff Walkers. Veteran filmmaker Agnieszka Holland finds some superb textures in the fact-based 1950s Czech drama Charlatan. The dryly funny and enormously violent Dutch thriller The Columnist has its moments. And the stylish doc Some Kind of Heaven explores the lives of residents in America's most enormous retirement community, basically Disney World for pensioners. Hint: it isn't heaven for everyone.

Films to watch this coming week include the animated adventure The Mitchells vs the Machines, the marital drama The Killing of Two Lovers, the house party comedy The Get Together, the moviemaking action comedy In Action and the horror comedy Fried Barry.