Critical Week: Sucker punch

There were three big movies screened to critics this week. Liam Neeson takes on the lead role (as the son of Leslie Nielsen's iconic character) for the reboot/sequel The Naked Gun, which is flat-out hilarious. And as wonderfully stupid as we hoped it would be. Pedro Pascal leads the action reboot The Fantastic Four: First Steps, alongside Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bacharach. Groovy visual stylings and superbly character-rooted comedy make it thoroughly engaging. And Sam Rockwell is back for the animated sequel The Bad Guys 2, which is just as funny and action-packed as the first movie. With some terrific new characters and bigger set-pieces. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Dying • The Bad Guys 2
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
ALL REVIEWS >

Further afield, Fiona Shaw and Katherine Waterston are as good as expected in the mother-daughter drama Park Avenue, which is involving but elusive. Even more the evasive, Gazer is a stylised mystery thriller that intrigues but never quite pays off. Slovenian drama Little Trouble Girls is also somewhat slippery in its coming-of-age story about a teen choirgirl. 

Much more gripping is Love, the second chapter in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, which features fascinating characters on offbeat journeys. I also loved watching the 100-year restoration of Eisenstein's silent masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, with a new score by the Pet Shop Boys. I'd never seen it on a big screen, and it looks and sounds gorgeous. It also feels thoroughly modern. Finally, I attended a special 3D premiere of the new trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which looks properly epic. The film itself comes out in December.

This coming week I'll be watching the horror thriller Bring Her Back, British road movie The Ceremony, Dutch coming-of-age drama Young Hearts, the final chapter of the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Sex, and the Ukrainian documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka. I'll also attend the premiere of the second season of the Netflix show Wednesday.

Critical Week: Eye of the tiger

It's a busy but short week here in London, and I've been running around catching the usual eclectic variety of movies at press screenings. I've been a fan of Henry Golding since his excellent work in Crazy Rich Asians and Monsoon, so I was willing to set Snake Eye aside and look forward to Assassin Club. Alas, this one's a generic, poorly written thriller. At least he's good in the first act, before things get truly nutty. Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult are gleefully over-the-top from the start of Renfield, and they're the best thing about the movie, which mashes-up horror, comedy, romance and drama in ways we've seen before. But at least it's good fun.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Suzume • Everything Went Fine
Private Desert • Cairo Conspiracy
PERHAPS AVOID:
Assassin Club
ALL REVIEWS >

Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton are of course excellent in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a very British road movie about a man who decides to walk the length of England. Thankfully, it avoids sentimentality for something darker and more resonant. Teyana Taylor is a force of nature in A Thousand and One, an unusually realistic New York drama that traces a mother and son over a decade that's as tumultuous for the city as it is for them. And the Norwegian pitch-black comedy Sick of Myself, which lampoons how everyone is vying for attention, is so bone-dry that it makes us feel uncomfortable in all the right ways.

This next week I'll be watching Eva Green in The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan, Jim Gaffigan in Linoleum, the Polynesian epic Pacification and the Filipino drama I Love You Beksman, which opens the Queer East Film Fest (reviews here soon).

Critical Week: Suit up

Awards season is cranking up with various bodies chiming in on the best films of 2021. Indeed, the London Critics' Circle announces its nominations tomorrow! As chair, I've had quite a bit of work to do this week to make that happen, so it will be nice to enter the holiday season while the members are considering the nominees for the final round of voting in January. I have a couple of nominees to catch up with myself. In the mean time, there were two big movies screened to critics this past week. The King's Man is Matthew Vaughn's 100-years-earlier prequel to his Kingsman films. A great cast helps make it watchable, but the tone varies wildly between hyperviolent action and serious war thriller. Spider-Man: No Way Home is even more audacious, but manages to stir its chaos into a coherent, entertaining romp through the multiverse with Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zendaya and others. Spoilers abound, so writing that review was tricky.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Swan Song • Cyrano
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Lola and the Sea
ALL REVIEWS >

Even more starry, Don't Look Up is a smart, funny social satire about two astronomers (Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) trying to warn a wilfully disbelieving world that the planet is about to be obliterated. Mahershala Ali is terrific in the lightly futuristic Swan Song, an elegant exploration of memory and identity. Comedians come together for A Clusterfunke Christmas, a silly and occasionally hilarious pastiche of TV holiday movies. Berlin Film Festival winner Happening is a very serious French drama about a teen in the 1960s, when abortion is illegal. From Belgium, Lola and the Sea is a thoughtful, observational film about a young trans woman and her deeply bigoted dad. And from Turkey, Not Knowing is a bracing look at the dangers of self-involvement, tapping into a range of big topics.

This coming week, I'll be watching Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza, Romola Garai's Amulet, and awards contenders including The Worst Person in the World, Minyan, Great Freedom and Mass.

Critical Week: Things are heating up

These strange times continue to challenge the film industry, as distributors keep shifting release dates, and changing the rules about attending press screenings (I had my first screening this week that required a negative covid test). But it's definitely getting busier, and it's great to be seeing the big movies on huge screens again. Let's just hope that hospital numbers don't rise again. As for the movies this week, one of the more intriguing was the English-language Polish thriller Mosquito State, which is very big on style (see above) even if the plot remains rather elusive. One of the most entertaining Marvel blockbusters yet, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a thrilling martial arts action adventure adeptly led by Simu Liu and Awkwafina. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leads the identically named nearly 30-years-later sequel Candyman, a punchy political horror that's more darkly unsettling than scary. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Candyman
The Last Bus • The Nest
PERHAPS AVOID:
Mosquito State
The Pebble and the Boy
ALL REVIEWS >

A hit West End musical based on a true story, Everybody's Talking About Jamie has been adapted into a surprisingly emotive film. It's still exuberant and inspiring, but everything feels much more intense now. From Peru, the animated adventure Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon looks fantastic and features some lovely magical touches in its rather simplistic story. From Germany, the English-language futuristic thriller The Colony blends Waterworld/Mad Max-style imagery to say some intriguing things about humanity. And it was great to catch the restored 1963 Joseph Losey classic The Servant on a big screen. Still rivetingly deranged after all these decades, it's adeptly anchored by devastating performances from Dirk Bogarde and James Fox.

I'm also watching films as part of both Outfest (Los Angeles) and FrightFest (London) at the moment. These have included the award-winning nonbinary drama Firstness, the quirky autobiographical memoir Potato Dreams of America and the astonishing Swedish thriller Knocking. There are a few more of these to come, and they're being covered both on the site and in other blog posts.

This coming week I'll be watching more FrightFest movies,Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in Respect, the family drama A Wake, the British drama Second Spring, the British thriller Shorta, the German revenge thriller Plan A and the true boxing drama The Champion of Auschwitz.

Critical Week: Take on the world

As Britain continues to strain against the ongoing lockdown restrictions, it seems like all of my friends have already had the vaccine, but I'm still waiting. It's now looking like cinemas won't open until mid-May at the earliest, so these online screenings will just have to do for now. Another film that really should have been seen on the big screen was Disney's animated adventure Raya and the Last Dragon, which looks breathtaking however you see it as it spins an energetic, involving and ever-so-familiar tale. Less successful is the strained attempt to "update" Tom and Jerry with a half-hearted human-based plot. Sticking to what made the cartoons work might have been a good idea, but what do I know?

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Notturno • Moxie • Justine
The Truffle Hunters
White Colour Black 
ALL REVIEWS >

More grown-up films this week included the legal drama Foster Boy, a rather formulaic film with Matthew Modine based on a powerful true story; the bonkers French mystery Keep an Eye Out, a police pastiche with a hilariously black sense of humour; the true-life disaster epic Fukushima 50, chronicling Japan's near catastrophe in the wake of the 2011 earthquake/tsunami; and the artfully involving odyssey White Colour Black, in which a British photographer explores his roots in Senegal. There was also this virtual screening as part of the London Indian Film Festival...

Evening Shadows
dir Sridhar Rangayan; scr Saagar Gupta, Sridhar Rangayan; with Mona Ambegaonkar, Devansh Doshi, Ananth Mahadevan, Arpit Chaudhary, Sushant Divgikar 19/India 1h42 ****

The standard coming-out story is given a nice spin in this warm-hearted Indian drama, which centres on a mother-son relationship. It's a strong depiction of how a conservative culture piles expectations on young people and accepts endemic sexism and homophobia. Filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan carefully reveals compassion under the cruelly bigoted surfaces, creating a vivid portrait of the enormous issues that face women and queer young people in communities that are ruled by hatred.

After four years away, Kartik (Doshi) returns home for a family event, then is surprised by his harshly controlling father Damodar (Mahadevan) with a prospective bride and more criticism about his career as a photographer. No wonder he chooses to live in Mumbai and keeps his boyfriend Aman (Chaudhary) a secret. When he comes out to his loving mother Vasudha (Ambegaonkar), she struggles with what to do with this information in such a close-minded corner of India and with such a dogmatic husband.

The actors are terrific even if the characters are a bit schematic: Kartik is relentlessly smiley, while Damodar shouts angrily at everyone and rails against news stories of the Supreme Court's imminent ruling on whether homosexuality should remain criminalised (under a law brought in by British colonialists). In the middle, Ambegaonkar shines as a woman working through her feelings. The coming-out sequence is beautifully played with honest big emotions. So even if the film sometimes feels rather melodramatic, it touches on some real nerves and grapples with darker, often unmentioned issues in society. And it leads to a staggeringly strong confrontation.

 LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL • 28.Feb.21

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Coming up this next week, I have the British immigrant romance The Drifters, the dark American romance Luz, the Australian drama Sequin in a Blue Room and the German fantasy Undine.

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Critical Week: Family time

These are busy days in the screening rooms, with festival films as well as the usual forthcoming releases. And the awards season has also begun to rear its head with for-your-consideration screenings. It'll be like this for the rest of the year! This week I caught up with the Cannes-winning Parasite by Bong Joon-ho, a staggering drama about a family of con-artists that continually twists and turns to keep the audience gasping. There was the second Shaun the Sheep Movie, Farmageddon, which is just as sweet and hilarious, if a bit more madcap, than the first. Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss all go against type in the thriller The Kitchen, which struggles to find its tone. And Ready or Not is a horror comedy that's funny and very grisly, but not scary at all.

Awkwafina is terrific in a dramatic role in The Farewell, a charming and involving drama set in China. The gifted Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is back with the important, unnerving and rather long dramatic thriller The Nightingale, set in 19th century Tasmania. Celine Sciamma (Girlhood) is back with the staggeringly good, utterly unmissable period romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Richard Kind gets a rare serious role in the gentle, uneven virtual reality drama Auggie. The inventive but messy black comedy Groupers takes on homophobia in ways that will make everyone feel uncomfortable. And this beautiful documentary opens this week...

Mother
dir Kristof Bilsen; scr Kristof Bilsen, Xan Marquez Caneda
with Chutimon "Pomm" Sonsirichai, Maya Gloor, Elizabeth Rohner, Martin Woodli,
Walter Gloor, Joyce Gloor, Sara Gloor, Tanja Gloor
release UK 20.Sep.19 • 19/Belgium 1h22 ****

Reflective and intimate, this understated documentary simply follows women who initially seem completely different but reveal layers of common ground between them. Filmmaker Kristof Bilsen cuts between Thailand and Switzerland, quietly observing mothers and children as they connect to each other in unexpected ways. This gives the film a gently involving narrative, allowing the audience to experience these situations and emotions in a vivid way.

Pomm is a care worker from an isolated Thai village. She only gets to see her children when she's on holiday, and feels guilty that she isn't there all the time. Her job is to work with the Western patients at Baan Kamlangchay, an Alzheimer's care centre in Chiang-Mai. One of these is Elizabeth, a smiley woman who occasionally wonders where she is. "You're on holiday in Thailand," Pomm cheerfully reminds her, calling her "granny". Pomm feels that her patients are family, and she uses emotions to communicate with them. Meanwhile in Switzerland, Maya has early onset Alzheimer's at 57, and is being readied by her family to travel to Chiang-Mai. Maya's husband and daughters are sensitive to criticism that they are sending her away, but from their perspective this is a sacrifice, giving up their time with her so she can have a better life and proper care. As Pomm is grieving Elizabeth's death, Maya moves in, and they begin a new relationship.

The film is beautifully shot without ever being pushy about themes, offering remarkable insight into a variety of issues, including a young woman who needs to work two jobs to support a family she rarely sees and also the importance of providing dignified care for Alzheimer's patients. It's fascinating to see how Pomm identifies with women who have lost their past lives. She longs to hug her mother, who takes care of her kids, but the culture forbids it, so she lavishes affection on her patients instead. She's also well aware that if she needed this kind of care, she could never afford it. Yes, this is the kind of doc that makes us think.

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Much of my time at the moment is being taken up with festival screenings. The Raindance Film Festival is running right now (18-29 Sep), and press screenings have already begun for the London Film Festival (2-13 Oct). I'll of course have more updates on both of those! And there are also regular movies screening for the press these days, including Naomie Harris in Black and Blue, Juliette Binoche in Non-Fiction, Jamie Bell in Skin, Mathieu Amalric in Sink or Swim and the horror movie The Birdcatcher