Critical Week: Battle scarred

There were three big film screenings this week. The filmmakers and much of the cast turned up for the European premiere of Warfare, at which I had chats with Kit Connor (pictured), Will Poulter, Michael Gandolfini and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Depicting an intensely gripping battle during the Iraq War, this is easily the best film I've seen so far this year. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Four Mothers • Freaky Tales
The Most Precious of Cargoes
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I also attended the UK premiere of The Amateur, attended by the filmmakers and Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne and Caitriona Balfe. It's an engaging original thriller, but a little underpowered. And while the stars were at the premiere on the other side of Leicester Square, I was at a lively press screening of the enjoyably dopey A Minecraft Movie.

In addition, I caught up with Miguel Gomes' stunningly lyrical road movie Grand Tour and the entertaining, gripping and very offbeat British bad-neighbour thriller Restless. The 39th BFI Flare also wrapped up over the weekend with a number of films and a big party.

This coming week I have very few screenings in the diary for some reason. But I'll be watching Viola Davis in G20, the documentary One to One: John & Yoko and there are sure to be others.

Critical Week: On the front line

I've missed several big films recently simply because studios are not notifying me about press screenings. Screenings are taking place, but they tend to only invite influencers; in other words, studios just want an Insta post, not a full review. It's been frustrating to watch distributors undermine the entire industry like this, but I have stopped chasing these things. So if it's something I want to see, I'll watch it later. It took me a week or so, but I finally saw Alex Garland's new film Civil War at my local cinema. It's a strikingly well-made, involving thriller that feels oddly hollow in the middle, where a thoughtful exploration of the story's political reality should be. The terrific cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny (above), plus a nerve-jangling cameo from Jesse Plemmons. I'll try to catch up with others I missed, like Monkey Man and Kung Fu Panda 4, as well.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Infested • Challengers
Kidnapped • Omen
Drifter • Nowhere Special
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As for upcoming movies, I watched the satirical fantasy The American Society of Magical Negroes, a fascinating approach to a complex racial theme starring Justice Smith and David Alan Grier. It's entertaining, but the plot abandons pointed comedy for a simple romcom. Nikki Amuka-Bird is excellent in the contained and rather thin thriller Jericho Ridge, which is relentless enough to hold the attention. 

Marco Bellocchio's historical drama Kidnapped recounts a jaw-dropping story from 18th century Italy. The film is overlong, but gripping. From Germany, the involving but uneven drama Elaha is set in the Kurdish subculture as a young woman struggles with her heritage. And it felt like spider week for me as I faced off against the insanely intense, brilliantly well-made Infested from France and it's an alien spider that causes blackly hilarious mayhem in Sting, set in Brooklyn but made in Australia

There were also two press nights for stage shows. Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England at Southwark Playhouse Borough is a ripping one-man show, both hilariously raucous and darkly moving as it explores Britain's lad culture. And Roy Young's dance piece Out at Sadler's Wells is provocative, playful, demanding and perhaps a bit indulgent.

This coming week I've got: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy, Josh O'Connor in La Chimera, Lea Seydoux in The Beast, Jesse Eisenberg in Sasquatch Sunset, a new version of Lassie, Argentine drama Adios Buenos Aires, British actor doc Much Ado About Dying and a new production of King Lear at Riverside Studios.

Critical Week: Take my breath away

In the cinema this week, I had two sequels that were made decades after the original films. One of the biggest blockbusters of the year, Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick comes 35 years after Top Gun. The script isn't very good, but the action is so visceral that it's bound to be a mammoth hit. And then there's the 50-years-later sequel The Railway Children Return, which again stars Jenny Agutter, a teen in the original and a grandmother this time. It's a gently warm family film with lots of child-based adventures, although it's unclear who the audience will be for this one.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Men • Emergency • Benediction
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there was Men, Alex Garland's unhinged horror movie starring Jesse Buckley as a woman who goes on a very nasty odyssey fuelled by grief. It's heavy symbolism a little unclear, but the film is challenging and provocative. Eugenio Derbez stars in a remake of The Valet, an enjoyably unchallenging romantic comedy. Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude ambitiously takes on his nation's dark past in the inventive dramatised documentary collage Uppercase Print. And I also attended one of the in-person screenings that are part of Odyssey: A Chinese Cinema Season, a month-long festival featuring more than 60 films and events in various UK venues and online... 

River of Salvation
dir-scr Gao Qisheng; with Li Yanxi, Zhu Kangli 21/Chn ****

Chinese filmmaker Gao Quisheng takes an observant approach with this drama, which traces a young woman's heart-stopping journey into accepting her long-hidden truth. Shot in an up-close documentary style, the story centres on 32-year-old Rong (Li Yanxi), a masseuse who lives with her layabout 18-year-old brother Xiaodong (Zhu Kangli). They barely connect, but are both going through identity-shaping events: while she worries about a shifting situation at work, his free-spirited girlfriend (Yang Peiqi) has just announced that she's pregnant. The plot seems to meander between them, then shifts as they find common ground and make some big decisions. What emerges is a startlingly insightful exploration of the pressures of modern life. Ultimately, Rong finally feels ready to face up to her distant past by heading back to her snowy hometown. This startling epilogue adds new context to the story and offers a moving sense of catharsis.

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This coming week, films to watch include Juliette Binoche in Between Two Worlds, Romain Duris in the biopic Eiffel, the Watergate thriller 18½ and the horror thriller Frank & Penelope.

Critical Week: Out of the shadows

Amid an unprecedented onslaught of snow and freezing temperatures, London critics caught up with a few big titles this week. Jennifer Lawrence is the main reason to see Red Sparrow, an overlong, rather muddily plotted Russian spy thriller. And Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams make the most of a surprisingly smart, funny script in the action-comedy Game Night. Then there were two new sci-fi films by hotshot British filmmakers, released directly to Netflix in the UK: Annihilation is Alex Garland's followup to Ex Machina, and it's a swirling, gripping, smartly obtuse odyssey starring Natalie Portman. Duncan Jones' Mute stars Alexander Skarsgard against type as a shy Amish barman in a Blade Runner-esque Berlin, but the plot gets lost amid its murky gyrations.

Further afield, The Lullaby is a gleefully grisly South African horror film that plays with some deeper, darker themes but never quite digs in to them. From Russian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, A Gentle Creature is a gorgeously shot and cleverly acted Kafkaesque parable about a nation that has lost its own soul. And I tracked down the final two Oscar nominated features I hadn't seen: The Breadwinner is a powerfully moving, flat-out gorgeous Irish-Canadian animated drama set in Taliban-era Kabul, while there was also this best actor nominee...

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Roman J. Israel, Esq.
dir-scr Dan Gilroy; with Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell 17/US ***
Denzel Washington gives one of his most enjoyably textured performances yet in this offbeat legal drama, which tells an intriguing story while grappling with some very big issues. Washington is the title character, a veteran lawyer whose life changes drastically when his more-public partner dies. He ends up going to work for slick hotshot George (Colin Farrell) while trying to help some vulnerable clients and taking some dodgy actions that benefit him personally but also put him in danger. The film is gripping as it follows Roman as he begins to emerge from his shell, breaking rules, ruffling feathers, flirting with an unfeasibly gorgeous charity lawyer (Carmen Ejogo) and, when he discovers that George has both a mind and a conscience, begins mentoring him without him even realising it. As it gets increasingly knotted, writer-director Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) loses control of the overlong narrative, with some over-detailed tangents and undercooked themes. And the side characters never seem to have a life of their own. But the smart script allows Washington to continually add wit and subtext to each scene. And he makes the film worth watching.

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It's Oscar night on Sunday, which here in London means staying up all night to watch the ceremony live from Los Angeles. Naps will be required. And this coming week, I'll catch up with Rooney Mara in Mary Magdalene, Domhnall Gleeson in Peter Rabbit and the documentary Mansfield 66/67, among other things.