Critical Week: Tea, biscuits and a spot of murder

Cinemas are a bit busier, as a bunch of high-profile movies arrive in the weeks before the autumn festival season kicks off awards season. This time of year also signals the return of London's FrightFest, which plays out over this long weekend. I've been watching those scary movies all week, and have many more to see between now and Monday night. As the festival kicked off tonight in Leicester Square, I was across the way attending the UK premiere of the all-star British whodunit The Thursday Murder Club, starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie (above). Unsurprisingly, it's warm and funny, perfectly cosy entertainment.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sorry, Baby • Battleship Potemkin
Eddington • Dongji Rescue
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We finally got to see The Toxic Avenger, shot three years ago and now being released uncut. Peter Dinklage has a lot of fun as Toxie in this hilariously messy remake, which is packed with pointed satire and gleefully excessive gore. Danny Power gives a terrific debut performance in the intimate Irish drama Christy, the involving story of a teen discovering who he is. From China, Dongji Rescue is a thrilling true WWII action story told on a grand scale. Its set pieces are seriously heart-pounding, and the characters are great. And from Germany, the animated romp Grand Prix of Europe sends animals on a racing tour, punctuating every scene with nutty slapstick silliness.

This coming week I'll be watching several more FrightFest movies (quick reviews will be here over the weekend), plus Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Roses, Austin Butler in Caught Stealing, the Japanese drama Happyend and the restored 1980 thriller Night of the Juggler.

Raindance: Take your shot

The 33rd Raindance Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with the world premiere of the British drama Heavyweight and a properly epic afterparty at with special honours were presented to screen icons Celia Imrie and Jason Isaacs. The festival runs over the next 10 days with a flurry of independent films. I'm trying to limit how many I watch, aiming for one per day. So here are the first two...

Heavyweight
dir-scr Christopher M Anthony; with Jordan Bolger, Nicholas Pinnock 25/UK ****
Unfolding in real time and largely in a single room, like a stage play, this British boxing drama has a propulsive pace as it traces the run-up to a championship bout. Writer-director Christopher Anthony keeps the tension high with edgy dialog, beefy performances, prowling camerawork and a churning underscore. The sheer machismo on display is perhaps a bit exhausting, but it's balanced by a terrific sense of underlying emotion.

A Cell Phone Movie
dir-scr Will Sterling; with Will Sterling, Tessa Glanville 25/US ****
As the title indicates, this meta-comedy was shot on a mobile phone. It looks great, skilfully filmed in wide-screen and sharply well-edited too. Actor-filmmaker Will Sterling is a charming lead, and the comedy is warm and off-the-cuff, with a continual stream of witty gags about trying to make a no-budget movie. Even more engaging are the thoughtfully serious sequences that dig deeper into the characters and situations.

Full reviews of festival films will be linked here in due course: SHADOWS @ RAINDANCE >

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Red Path • 28 Years Later
Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf
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This week I got to attend the glamorous world premiere of Jurassic World: Rebirth, with the full cast and crew in attendance, including Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali. And the film is great fun. The new Pixar animation Elio is an enjoyable if familiar space romp, but it's packed with dazzling touches. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are back with 28 Years Later, a superbly ripping addition to the franchise. John Travolta stars in the wobbly but watchable caper comedy High Rollers. Harry Melling and Caleb Landry Jones lead the cast of Scottish period weirdness Harvest, which struggles to make its point. Writer-director Eva Victor stars with Naomi Ackie in the beautifully written and directed Sorry, Baby, putting a truthful spin on a big event. Leonie Benesch is excellent as an overworked nurse in the expertly shot Swiss drama Late Shift. And the properly stunning Tunisian drama Red Path tells a riveting true story with power and emotion. I also attended the opening night cabaret for this year's London Clown Festival

This coming week there are many more films at Raindance, plus Brad Pitt in F1, Dylan O'Brien in Ponyboi, the indie comedy Rent Free, the French comedy Colours of Time and the Colombian drama Salt Water, plus the premiere for Lena Dunham's TV series Too Much and three live performances: Quadrophenia at Sadler's Wells, Jonah Non Grata at Soho Theatre and Botis Seva's Until We Sleep at Sadler's Wells East.

Critical Week: Reject oppression

It's been a busy week for me, as I chair the London Film Critics, and we announced our nominations on Tuesday.  Meanwhile, I keep watching movies in lockdown, all send virtually through a variety of streaming systems, usually with my name and/or email address watermarked across the screen (which can sometimes be distracting). There were a few heavy-hitters this week, including the great Daniel Kaluuya in the ripping true drama Judas and the Black Messiah, about the political machinations within the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers in 1968. Oscar powerhouses Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto lend their considerable skills to the rather straightforward serial killer thriller The Little Things. And John David Washington and Zendaya have an extended tense conversation in the stylish and fascinating stage-like drama Malcolm & Marie.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
MLK/FBI • Blithe Spirit
Boys Feels: High Tide 
ALL REVIEWS >

Smaller films included the warm comedy-drama Love Sarah, starring Celia Imrie and a lot of delicious baked goods. The superb Shahab Hosseini stars in The Night, about an immigrant family that checks into a freak-out hotel. The surreal Greek drama Apples is about a world inflicted by a pandemic that causes amnesia, and the story is packed with clever insight. There were two award-worthy docs: The Truffle Hunters is the utterly delightful story of the old Italians who guard their old world profession, while MLK/FBI is a blood-boiling look at how J Edgar Hoover ruthlessly harassed Martin Luther King and smeared his name in the 1960s. Finally, there was a collection of four short films in Boys Feels: High Tide - each of them is an astute look at youthful yearning.

This coming week I'll be watching Anthony Mackie in Outside the Wire, the Indian biopic The White Tiger, Nahuel Perez Biscayart in Persian Lessons, the Danish thriller The Exception and still more awards contenders.