On the Road: Take a ride

I'm out in Southern California once again, catching up with friends and family for a couple of weeks, so my film-watching schedule will be greatly reduced. I hope to see a few things while I'm out here, both press screenings and regular cinema outings, but I also want to enjoy the sunny weather, beachy Orange County vibes and of course fish tacos. Before leaving London I managed to see the new Star Wars movie The Mandalorian and Grogu twice - first at a crew screening with a friend who works in special effects, and then at an Imax press screening. It's a lot of fun, but feels oddly slight for the franchise, especially the undercooked dialog. 

On the flight, I only watched one movie, the hilariously ridiculous Downton spoof Fackham Hall, which I had missed when it came out in cinemas. Perfectly mindless airplane entertainment. Then I found the latest series of The Traitors US, and watched three and a half episodes from London to Denver and then one and a half from Denver to Orange County. Need to find the rest of the season now.

While I'm here there are a few films opening that I hope to catch, including Brendan Fraser in Pressure. And I wouldn't mind seeing the new Scary Movie and Masters of the Universe. I have one press screening in the diary, for Olivia Wilde's The Invite with Seth Rogen and Penelope Cruz. And I'm chasing press screenings for both the new Spielberg film Disclosure Day and the drag action comedy Stop! That! Train! Whatever I see, I'll update things here...

BFI Flare: Hit the road

We're into the second half of the 38th BFI Flare film fest, and I've been enjoying the wide range of films in the programme. The four highlights noted here are quite an eclectic bunch, very different styles of moviemaking from four countries — a comedy, drama, collage and documentary...

Drive Back Home
dir-scr Michael Clowater; with Alan Cumming, Charlie Creed-Miles 24/Can ****
Based on a true story that took place at a time in Canada when men were sent to prison for being gay, this film bristles with dark humour as it recounts a story involving brothers and entrenched societal homophobia. Writer-director Michael Clowalter and his cast fill the screen with sparky attitude and offbeat character touches that are both funny and honest. It's a lively, entertaining movie that cleverly uses its period to explore present-day attitudes.

The Pleasure Is Mine [El Placer Es Mío]
dir-scr Sacha Amaral; with Max Suen, Katja Alemann 24/Arg ***.
Like its central character, this drama from Argentina is a bit flippant and enigmatic, pulling us in with pure charm. Unfolding in fragments of scenes, this observant film follows a quick-thinking hustler who finds it easier to manipulate people than to make a meaningful connection. Writer-director Sacha Amaral shoots with offbeat wide-screen camerawork that sharply captures the characters, which makes it eerily easy to put ourselves in their shoes.

Memorabilia
dir-scr Charles Lum, Todd Verow; with JJ Bozeman, Justin Ivan Brown 24/US ****
Planned by filmmaker Charles Lum before his death and completed by his collaborator Todd Verow, this experimental film is a collage-style film memoir tracing a gay man's sexual journey, including things rarely spoken of on film. It's also unusually honest in its depiction of inner yearning, creating a gorgeously lusty vibe that runs through even in the more prosaic interludes. So the cumulative effect is dreamy and resonant.

Fatherhood 
[Tre Fedre]
dir-scr Even Benestad, August B Hanssen; with Kristopher, David, Sindre 25/Nor ***.
Warmly soft-spoken, this documentary presents three men in a relationship in a matter-of-fact way. Being gay in Norway has never been a problem for these guys, although being a throuple did catch people off guard, as did the way they planned to become parents. These are earthy, funny men who will clearly make good fathers, and the film knowingly traces their journey as they prepare for the birth.

Full reviews will be linked on Shadows' BFI Flare page when published.

Critical Week: Gone fishing

The heatwave continues, although perhaps as Londoners get tired of the sunshine we're being driven back into air conditioned cinemas! Box office figures for Thor last weekend didn't seem to suffer. Meanwhile this week, I've seen another eclectic collection of films both in cinemas and in my rather sweltering flat. Daisy Edgar-Jones stars in Deep South melodrama Where the Crawdads Sing, which seems deliberately designed for teen girls. Others are likely to find it contrived, even if the actors are excellent. Winona Ryder stars in the offbeat horror thriller Gone in the Night, as a woman looking for answers. It's involving, even if what she discovers is rather silly.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Good Boss
The Gray Man • Poppy Field
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there was Sally Phillips in How to Please a Woman, a very gentle Australian sex comedy that's packed with clever insight even if it's too subtle for its own good. Alan Cumming takes on a superbly offbeat role in My Old School, an inventive and fascinating documentary about a Glasgow classroom scandal. The Jordanian drama The Alleys is a visceral multi-strand journey into the Amman suburbs, with unusually complex morality. And telling the story of a trans activist icon, Donna is a warm fly-on-the-wall doc that maintains a clear-eyed focus.

Films to watch in the coming week include Russell Crowe in Prizefighter, Katie Holmes in Alone Together, the comedy-drama The Shuroo Retreat, the romantic drama You Are My Sunshine and the shorts collection Girls Feels: Skin Deep.

Critical Week: On a night like this

As Britain experiences a heatwave during the final week of Wimbledon and the start of the Euro-2022 women's football championship, it's perhaps a bit unlikely that people will be abandoning the sunshine for cinemas. Although Thor is likely to have some pull, smaller films will suffer. And the weather looks like it will continue like this for a couple of weeks (yay!). I saw two very big movies on the big screen this week. The riotously action-packed The Gray Man pairs the fabulous Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans as duelling, scene-stealing hitmen, while Ana de Armas (above) almost walks off with the whole film. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi are back for Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel's first slapstick action comedy. It's a lot of fun, even if the formula is as stale as ever.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Brian and Charles • Cop Secret
The Railway Children (1970)
ALL REVIEWS >

Adrien Brody is terrific in the redemption thriller Clean, although the script (which he cowrote) never has something original to say. The offbeat British drama All Is Vanity is very odd indeed, a great idea that struggles to have some impact. Alan Cumming leads the doc-drama hybrid My Old School, a fascinating and remarkably involving account of an epic deception. And two collections of short films explore issues of identity and sexuality in inventive, sometimes superbly provocative ways. Both Boys on Film 22: Love to Love You and Girls Feels: Into the Blue are well worth a look.

Coming up this week, I'll be watching Daisy Edgar-Jones in Where the Crawdads Sing, Juliette Binoche in Both Sides of the Blade, the Jordanian drama The Alleys, the trans activist doc Donna and the shorts collection Girls Feels: Force of Nature.

31st Flare: Make an opening move

The 31st edition of the British Film Institute's Flare: London LGBT Film Festival kicked off on Thursday night with the world premiere of the BBC drama Against the Law, produced to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. It's a powerfully cinematic movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen, as it includes documentary clips of men who lived through the events depicted from the 1950s, starring Richard Gadd and Daniel Mays (above).

Against the Law
dir Fergus O'Brien; with Daniel Mays, Richard Gadd 17/UK **** (world premiere)
An inventive blending of period drama and talking head documentary, this pointed film is beautifully edited to make the most of both strands. Each feeds into the other with a powerful sense of momentum, giving the final scenes a proper emotional kick. And there's also a sense of timeliness, as the story recounts events from 60 years ago that would change British law about homosexuality a decade later. And the events still resonate loudly today.

After Louie
dir Vincent Gagliostro; with Alan Cumming, Zachary Booth 17/US ***. (world premiere)
Big ideas circle around this earthy drama set among New York artists. The characters are bright and engaging, even as they are deeply flawed, and the talky script takes an unexpectedly honest approach to hot potato topics, exploring how nostalgia for the gay rights movement of the 1990s might not be the healthiest way to move forward. It's perhaps too deliberately provocative to be properly moving, but Alan Cumming delivers a beautifully complex central performance.

Taekwondo
dir-scr Marco Berger; with Gabriel Epstein, Lucas Papa 16/Arg ***. 
Essentially a mash-up of writer-director Marco Berger's Hawaii and producer-codirector Martin Farina's Fulboy, this film places nine athletic young men in an isolated house for a sweltering summer getaway and observes the physicality between them. There's a hint of a plot between two of the guys, and a few traits emerge here and there, but the movie is basically a tactile, tantalising tease that pays off only in the final moments... FULL REVIEW >

B E S T   O F   T H E   Y E A R

Moonlight
dir-scr Barry Jenkins; with Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland 16/US ****.
With its intimate approach and deeply resonant themes, this film gets under the skin right from the start, putting us in the shoes of the lead character at three points in his life. His journey to self-discovery is difficult, partly because he is painfully withdrawn due to his tough life experiences. And what this movie has to say is so important that it deserves all the the attention and awards it gets... FULL REVIEW >

It's Only the End of the World
dir-scr Xavier Dolan; with Gaspard Ulliel, Vincent Cassel 16/Can *****
Few filmmakers are as bold as 27-year-old Canadian Xavier Dolan, who regularly takes on family relationships using bravura filmmaking that brings out unexpected, unfiltered emotions. This film, based on a play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, is a staggering dissection of the dynamic between parents, children and siblings. It's heightened to the point that it's often painful to watch, but it's also urgent, honest and essential... FULL REVIEW >

Festival Days: You've been papped!

The East End Film Festival winds up on Wednesday with its closing night gala screening of the biopic Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried (pictured) as the pornstar turned anti-porn crusader. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the film has divided opinions due to its selective, doc-style approach, but it's still jarringly revelatory.

Other East End Film Fest titles I've caught up with include Ben Wheatley's brain-spinning 17th century Civil War odyssey A Field in England, which also opened in Britain on Friday (simultaneously released on DVD, VOD and screened on Film4). It's impossible to unpack, but is also unmissably insane. Any Day Now is a punchy drama about equality starring the superb Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt, managing to make a vitally important point without becoming an issue movie. Prospects is a loose, honest doc about two young British boxers trying to make it through the amateur system to get to the Olympics. It's superbly assembled and almost painfully involving. I also attended two world premieres: The Brightest Colours Make Grey is a low-budget London relationship drama that looks amazing on the big screen and benefits from a perhaps too-literate script. And Bruno & Earlene Go to Vegas is also gorgeously shot. It's a lively road movie that scrambles issues of sexuality for its characters. Cast and crew members were on hand from both films for Q&As.

Outside of the festival things were just a bit more massive, starting with Guillermo Del Toro's entry in the robotic blockbuster genre Pacific Rim, which is expertly assembled but ultimate sinks due to its underwhelming script. A lot more fun will be had when Edgar Wright's The World's End opens the following week - a raucous reunion of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, along with Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike, all creating memorable characters amid the blind-drunk chaos of an apocalyptic pub crawl.

This coming week, British critics finally get a look at Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger and Michael Bay's Pain & Gain, as well as Disney's Cars spin-off Planes, the Sundance winner Ain't Them Bodies Saints and the horror romp The Conjuring.