Critical Week: Father knows best

It's been another odd mix of screenings in London this week, with the added distraction of sensational weather over the four-day Easter weekend. Among the films we saw the current No 1 box office hit in the US, The Curse of La Llorona. Made to a very high quality, with a better than necessary performance from Linda Cardellini, it's a rather standard entry in the Conjuring universe: freaky and jumpy but never actually scary. And then there's the film that will be No 1 at the global box office for the near future, Avengers: Endgame. Thrilling, funny and even emotional, it's a massively satisfying climax to the last decade or so of Marvel movies.

Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder reteam for the enjoyably offbeat romantic comedy Destination Wedding, adeptly playing two relentlessly grouchy cynics, the only speaking roles in the film. The involving Just Friends is a Dutch romantic drama gently dealing with a range of social issues, from race to homophobia. And I also saw a range of short films screening this week at Tribeca Film Festival. The best of a strong bunch were by Nick Borenstein: the mother-son zinger 99 and the exuberant lovelorn comedy Sweater.

Finally, I had a chance to catch up with Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 11/9, which is set out as a carefully researched look at Donald Trump, linked to the horrific water crisis in Flint, Michigan. No politicians get off lightly. And after watching the first few episodes of the new series Fosse/Verdon, and seeking tickets to the new London stage production, I watched Bob Fosse's stunning 1969 musical Sweet Charity, featuring a magnificent Shirley MacLaine. I also attended the opening of the Stanley Kubrick exhibition at London's Design Museum - a seriously awesome collection of the filmmaker's notes, tools, props and sets that runs until September...

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A few teaser images from the Kubrick exhibition opening this morning. Serious treasure trove for movie fans #discoverkubrick

A post shared by Rich Jack Cline (@ukcline) on Apr 25, 2019 at 6:32am PDT

Films screening this coming week include Ryan Reynolds voicing the title character in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Ethan Hawke in The Captor (aka Stockholm), Josh O'Connor in Only You and the new documentary about Halston.

Critical Week: On the horizon

Among the eclectic collection of press screenings in London this week, we caught up with John Hurt's final lead performance in That Good Night. Based on a play, this thoughtful film is rather stagebound, but Hurt is as magical as ever. We also had a seriously enormous screening of Avengers: Infinity War, the seriously enormous climax of this phase of the Marvel movie franchise. It's a big, busy film that has very little in the way of actual plot or characters but will hugely entertain fans.

And then there was Tully, which reteams Charlize Theron with writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman. I liked its bold approach and deep themes, but this is the kind of film that stirs debate and divides opinion. In yet another genre, Sherlock Gnomes is a profoundly ridiculous animated comedy adventure, solidly well made and packed with witty gags, even if it isn't a classic. As for horror, we had The Strangers: Prey at Night, a sort-of sequel about a group of vaguely undefined murders tormenting a family for no real reason. And then there was the quirky British indie drama Pin Cushion, a warm but very dark mother-daughter drama with fairy tale touches.

This coming week, screenings include Rosanna Arquette in Born Guilty, Doug Jones in Gehenna: Where Death Lives, the Mexican drama A Place to Be, the Daesh doc Path of Blood, the Grey Gardens doc That Summer, the Essex doc New Town Utopia, and an adventure movie titled The New Legends of Monkey.

Requisite Blog Photo: They made me choose sides

Critical Week: The pitch is back

For critics, one of the most anticipated films of the year was Pitch Perfect 2, the sequel to the surprisingly amazing 2012 comedy. So of course the highlight of the week was the press screening of the follow-up, which surpassed expectations (again), reuniting the Bellas for another hilarious adventure. The other big movie this week was of course Avengers: Age of Ultron, which has provoked a bit of a mixed response. But I'm looking forward to meeting them all at the press junket today!

We also caught up with Thomas Vinterberg's sumptuous version of Far From the Madding Crowd, starring Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Tom Sturridge and Michael Sheen (I interviewed Carey and Matthias last week for this film). Lower profile films included Nia Vardalos as a seriously annoying mother in the otherwise decent comedy Helicopter Mom; the clever and occasionally scary computer-screen teen slasher horror Unfriended; the scruffy indie British caper comedy Taking Stock starring Kelly Brook; the corny and very childish Euro-animation Two by Two; the nicely moody gay mystery-horror Drink Me; and the superbly blood-boiling political doc The Emperor's New Clothes, by Russell Brand and Michael Winterbottom.

Screenings this coming week are a bit thin, but include Michael Fassbender in Slow West, Simon Pegg in Kill Me Three Times, the German drama West, the Hungarian drama Land of Storms, and the controversial world premiere doc A Sinner in Mecca, and the public action doc We Are Many.