Critical Week: Nice kitty

While many critics are darting off to Venice this week for the film festival there, I'm holding the fort in London. I had been hoping things would be a bit quieter here than usual, but that's not the case next week. There were two big last-minute screenings for films opening this week. Austin Butler stars in Darren Aronofsky's entertaining action romp Caught Stealing, which is funny and darkly violent. The acting and storytelling are often exhilarating. Meanwhile, Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star in Jay Roach's new take on The Roses, which is both more British and less bitter than the 1989 classic adaptation The War of the Roses. But its characters and dialog are sharp and hilarious.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Young Mothers • Big Boys
Caught Stealing • Motel Destino
ALL REVIEWS >

Theodore Pellerin and Archie Madekwe are excellent in Lurker, a riveting dissection of celebrity culture as a young ruy worms his way into the entourage of a rising star musician. It's engaging and utterly riveting. The Japanese drama Happyend, follows a group of teens who are rebelling against both the school and national leaders who are wanting to watch and control them. Huge issues and engaging characters make this well worth a look. And the newly restored 1980 thriller Night of the Juggler is one of the grittiest, most ripping New York action movies I've ever seen. It stars James Brolin and Cliff Gorman and takes no prisoners. I also watched rather a lot of FrightFest movies over the long weekend, reported here in earlier posts.

This coming week I'll be watching Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in The Conjuring: Last Rites, Denzel Washington in Highest 2 Lowest, Benedict Cumberbatch in The Thing With Feathers, Cooper Hoffman in The Long Walk, dog's-eye-view horror Good Boy and British drama Brides.

Critical Week: Holding on...

I've been enjoying hanging out with family in Southern California, not worrying about the rather iffy weather, which turned downright nasty just in time for me to trek across town to see Dune: Part Two on the Warner Bros lot (which was cool - see Insta post below). It was quite surreal to be feeling so wet and soggy while watching such a dry and sandy movie. But of course I loved it; Denis Villeneuve's imagination and attention to detail being this dense story to life in constantly surprising ways. Each shot looks simply spectacular, and the powerhouse acting ensemble gets a lot to do as well.

I also caught Lisa Frankenstein in a cinema, directed by Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin) from a script by Diablo Cody. It's a bit of a messy concoction, but is packed with genuinely hilarious dialog and up-for-it performances from a strong cast that includes Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano and Carla Gugino. Its 1980s setting offers some strong gags as well.

Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls opens this weekend, so I plan to catch that in a local cinema. I am also asking around for contacts for a Kung Fu Panda 4 press screening here, as it opens the week I return to London. There may be some other things that pop up along the way, and I do have some screener links to watch, but am reluctant yo give up family time for that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rich Jack Cline (@ukcline)

LFF: Watch and learn

The 67th London Film Festival powers into its first weekend with a flurry of red carpet premieres attended by, well, directors and crew members. It isn't very starry unless you're a fan of people behind the cameras. But thats who audiences seem to be as they're sticking around for post-screening Q&As. And we're having a late autumn heatwave this weekend. Meanwhile, I enjoyed Disney's lunch the other day, celebrating both LFF and their 100th anniversary. And tomorrow is the annual Netflix brunch, no work allowed. Here are some more film highlights...

May December
dir Todd Haynes; with Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore 23/US ****
Layered and provocative, this melodrama is infused with a mystery-thriller sensibility, building tension and intrigue in the interaction between nuanced characters. Director Todd Haynes plays cleverly with perspective to explore the ways we try to understand others, sympathise with them and merge their experiences with our own. It's a fiendishly clever film that gleefully deploys a range of metaphors in ways that both lead and wrongfoot the audience.

The Bikeriders
dir-scr Jeff Nichols; with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer 23/US ***.
Based on a book of photographs and interviews from 1965 to 1973, this artfully crafted film explores motorcycle subculture as a makeshift family. Writer-director Jeff Nichols shapes this material into a strongly involving exploration of masculinity and identity, allowing the sharply drawn characters to exist in remarkable complexity, free from pushy narrative demands. The performances are loose and often lyrical, even as they hold us at an arm's length.

Shortcomings
dir Randall Park; with Justin H Min, Sherry Cola 23/US ****
This Bay Area romantic comedy infuses a naturalistic approach with witty dialog. Much of the humour is sharply pointed in an unusually soft-spoken way, and in his directing debut Randall Park maintains earthy rhythms that hold the interest. So even if it's never terribly flashy, there's a sense of honest depth to the film that makes it resonate far beyond the ethnic issues that simmer meaningfully throughout the script... FULL REVIEW >

Tiger Stripes
dir-scr Amanda Nell Eu; with Zafreen Zairizal, Deena Ezral 23/Mys ****
There's an engaging animalistic tilt to this adolescent body horror from Malaysia, as a young girl taps into her feral nature when puberty makes her feel like she's turning into a monster. Writer-director Amanda Nell Eu maintains a blackly comical undercurrent even as things get very freaky indeed, exploring big themes through lenses of culture, gender and religion. And Zafreen Zairizal shines in a complex and physically demanding role... FULL REVIEW >

In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon
dir Alex Gibney; with Paul Simon, Edie Brickell 23/US ****.
A musician of this stature deserves an epic documentary, and Alex Gibney takes an ambitiously artistic approach to Paul Simon's life and career. At three and a half hours, watching it is like binging a series, but on a big screen it's fully engulfing, thanks to the intimate approach and elaborate sound mix. This is a transcendent film packed with great archive footage, fantastic music and Simon’s raw humanity.

All full festival reviews will be linked to Shadows' LFF PAGE >

Critical Week: Taking care of business

It's been another eclectic week for press screenings, cut short here in Britain by a four-day weekend to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee: 70 years on the throne. But the movies just keep coming. The biggest screening was for Elvis, introduced in person by Baz Luhrmann, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler and various other actors and producers. I absolutely loved the film, as Luhrmann uses his hyper-lush approach to dig for deeper meaning in Elvis Presley's life story.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Fire Island • Men • Neptune Frost
Dashcam • Pickpocket • C.R.A.Z.Y.
ALL REVIEWS >

Also surprisingly deep, the romantic comedy Fire Island gives Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice a proper queer spin, and is notable for being unapologetic, hilarious and swoon-worthy. The animated feature The Bob's Burgers Movie is deadpan comical fun even for those unfamiliar with the TV show. And a bit further afield, the Indian drama Major recounts the true story of a hero of the 2008 Mumbai attack with sudsy melodrama and rah-rah patriotism, while the Rwandan musical fantasy Neptune Frost is so bracingly original that it gets deep under the skin even if its story is dreamy and enigmatic. And the shorts collection The Male Gaze: Fleeting Glances features seven sharply provocative films exploring awkward connections.

Everything gets much busier next week with Sundance Film Festival: London - I'm planning to see nine films there, and will cover them here as usual. The movies include Emma Thompson in I Love You, Leo Grande; Sterling K Brown in Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul; Rebecca Hall in Resurrection; the British drama Brian and Charles; Finnish horror Hatching; volcanic documentary Fire of Love; and social justice doc Free Sol Choo Lee.