Critical Week: When the night falls

It's been a very quiet week, so I've spent some time catching up on movies and television shows (I am still far behind on the small screen!). One film I saw in a cinema was I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the Whitney Houston biopic that's rather straightforward but livened up by a terrific performance by Naomi Ackie. Lena Dunham's Catherine Called Birdy is a delightful modern-minded comedy set in medieval England, starring the wonderful Bella Ramsey. And Toni Collette lends some badly needed earthiness to the goofy black comedy The Estate, about cousins circling around their dying wealthy aunt (an up-for-it Kathleen Turner). 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Wildcat • Corsage
Peter Von Kant
ALL REVIEWS >

A bit further afield, All Quiet on the Western Front is a staggeringly well-made German drama about World War I. It may have the usual war-is-horrific message, but its perspective and first-rate production values make it worth a look. From Japan, Inu-oh is an extremely offbeat historical drama that's worth a look for its originality and dazzling animation, even if the storytelling is messy. And there were three docs: the absolutely gorgeous Moonage Daydream recounts the life and work of David Bowie using a swirling collection of archival footage; the deeply engaging Wildcat follows a damaged young man to the Peruvian Amazon to find a sense of purpose; and the chilling Navalny exposes the Russian government's ruthless attempt to murder an opposition politician.

This coming week I still have quite a few awards-worthy films to catch up with at home, plus some things I've been putting off like the sequel Disenchanted and the Disney animation Strange World. Actual press screenings won't be back until 9th January. I'm also still way behind on my television viewing - I've only just begun this last season of The Crown, and I haven't yet started the last season of A Handmaid's Tale or indeed House of the Dragon.

Critical Week: Socially distant

The weather has warmed up again in the UK this past week, which makes staying indoors more annoying - apart from that allowed one-hour walk each day. But there are plenty of films to watch, and I've also binged some TV (loved Ryan Murphy's Hollywood and enjoyed Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever). As for the movies, it was another uneven batch.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Half of It • Spaceship Earth
A Good Woman Is Hard to Find
PERHAPS AVOID:
Cry for the Bad Man
Can You Keep a Secret?

Bigger films included Arkansas, Clark Duke's directing debut. He stars with Liam Hemsworth (above) in a thin but entertaining drug thriller infused with Coen-like comedy. Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer deserve to become stars for their work in The Half of It, one of the finest teen comedy-dramas in recent memory. It upends, and betters, all of the usual tropes of the genre. On the other hand, All Day and a Night gets stuck in its grim, tough portrayal of of a teen (the superb Ashton Sanders) caught in a cycle of drug-fuelled violence.

Some other decent films included the low-key drama Working Man, weaving a witty, involving story following the closing of a small-town factory; and Spaceship Earth is a fascinating doc about biospherians trying to help the planet, but caught up in rumours that they're in a doomsday cult. Guilty pleasures included the bonkers horror movie Reborn, which carefully recreates a 1970s vibe; and Enemy Lines is a standard WWII rescue adventure, but it's nicely shot on location with a solid cast. Less successful were the atmospheric but vacuous fairy tale horror Gretel & Hansel, the intimate but unsatisfying drama Clementine, and the hammy but over-serious home-invasion thriller Cry for the Bad Man.

I have quite a few things to watch over the next week, including Timothee Chalamet in A Rainy Day in New York, David Spade in The Wrong Missy, Kumail Nanjiani in The Photograph, Tamsin Grieg in Days of the Bagnold Summer, Imogen Poots in Castle in the Ground, festival hit Never Rarely Sometimes Always, coming-of-age drama Angelfish, horror anthology Evil Little Things, sci-fi thriller Red Rover, and Italian comedy-drama Fairytale.