Critical Week: Everybody wants to rule the world

While the television is covered with major sporting events at the moment, the gloomy weather is driving people into the cinemas. And there are plenty of things worth seeing. As usual, I'm a bit ahead of the pack on many of the films I saw this week. But I never heard about a press screening for Despicable Me 4, so I bought a ticket and was happy to find it the best in the franchise so far. It's still fast and blissfully nutty, but there's a smart edge to it this time. I also caught the British animated adventure Kensuke's Kingdom, based on the beloved Michael Morpugo novel about a young boy stranded on an almost deserted island. It's beautifully designed and well-written.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sisi & I • Problemista
Despicable Me 4
Fly Me to the Moon
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In live-action, there was Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum subtly falling for each other in the Apollo 11 comedy-drama Fly Me to the Moon, which is colourful and very charming. Jacques Audiard's new film Emilia Perez won multiple prizes at Cannes, notably for the staggering central performances in a bold, moving story about violence and transformation. Sandra Huller is as terrific as always in Sisi & I, as the handmaiden to the Austrian empress; the film is witty, inventive and involving. The Korean horror Sleep begins as a sharply well-made light drama about sleep-walking before turning genuinely freaky. And from Iran, My Favourite Cake is a warm and hugely involving late-in-life romance with a big emotional kick. On stage, I attended the opening cabaret of this month's London Clown Festival at Soho Theatre and Dorian: The Musical at Southwark Playhouse.

This coming week I'll be watching Glen Powell in Twisters, Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, June Squibb in Thelma and the British drama Chuck Chuck Baby, plus two stage shows: National Youth Dance Company at Sadler's Wells and more of Jack Tucker at Soho Theatre.

Critical Week: Let them eat cake

It was a party at the gala UK premiere of the romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue, an Amazon Prime movie at BFI Imax, the biggest screen in Europe. Representing the film was director Matthew Lopez, who made a statement in solidarity of striking actors and his fellow writers. So lead actors Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez (above) couldn't attend, although Perez offered a video introduction (preceded with a note that it was recorded pre-strike). The audience was a rather lively mix of critics and influencers bathed in red light while we waited for the movie to start. And it's a lot of fun: charming and goofy and just a bit pointed too.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Talk to Me • Baato
Bobi Wine: The People's President
Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know
ALL REVIEWS >

Last Friday, I bought a ticket to see Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer in 70mm (Universal had refused to allow me into the 70mm Imax press screenings). It's a glorious epic, as expertly assembled as expected, staggeringly visual and beautifully performed by a powerhouse ensemble. Even if it's a bit overlong, it's essential viewing. 

Other films this week included the moving and inventive French drama Smalltown Boys, the exhilarating if slightly awkward Malaysian action thriller Walid, the beautifully animated adventure Mavka: The Forest Song from Ukraine, the gorgeously shot Nepal migration doc Baato, and Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know, another excellent collection of provocative short films from the fine folk at Peccadillo.

This coming week I'll be watching Jason Statham in Meg 2: The Trench, Orlando Bloom in Gran Turismo, the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mania, the thriller Till Death Do Us Part, the black comedy The Trouble With Jessica, the action comedy Polite Society and the doc Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.

Critical Week: Field of dreams

UK critics were this week finally shown Clint Eastwood's new film Trouble With the Curve, and the delayed screening was probably due to the fact that baseball-themed films never do well here. The bigger problem though is that the film is only superficially dramatic and sentimental. More interesting was the overwrought and very dark British neighbourhood drama Broken, starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy. Speaking of overwrought, Bernard Rose's latest modernisation of Tolstoy starring Danny Huston is Boxing Day, a clever but relentlessly pushy drama.

Further off the beaten path was the American Christmas comedy Walk a Mile in My Pradas, with a clever variation on the body-swap genre as two men trade sexualities. It's too silly to say much, but is enjoyable enough. And there were two documentaries: a chilling exploration school-bullying in a beautifully made, heart-wrenching Bully, and the official film of the 2012 Olympics, First, which plays like a corporate promotional video but contains some genuinely inspiring stories.

This coming week I'll finally catch up with awards contender Life of Pi as well as the not-so-acclaimed The Man With the Iron Fists. And then there's the documentary Ballroom Dancer and the festival favourite Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Plus a few other things as they come....

Critical Week: Man candy

This week's big press screening was for Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, the male-stripper drama based on the experiences of Channing Tatum (pictured above with costars Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello and Matthew McConaughey). As if the film's heterosexual emphasis wasn't enough, the UK distributor screened the film to us after showing the England-France Euro2012 first-round match in the cinema, so it smelled like a locker room in there. Alas, comments on the film itself are embargoed for a couple of weeks.

Keeping with the theme here, we also saw heartthrob Robert Pattinson's new film Cosmopolis, a Cannes entry directed by David Cronenberg that's sleek and intriguing but ultimately impenetrable. Cillian Murphy stars in Red Lights, an increasingly strained supernatural debunking thriller costarring Robert DeNiro and Sigourney Weaver. Adrien Brody stars in Detachment, a ranty drama from Tony Kaye about the education system. And from Australia, we had the corny slapstick farce A Few Best Men with rising-star hottie Xavier Samuel.

And to appeal to our minds, we saw two potent docs: Searching for Sugar Man is a fascinating story of a forgotten Detroit musician whose failed recording career wasn't quite as disastrous as he thought, since he was bigger than Elvis and the Stones in South Africa. And Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry vividly chronicles the life and work of the charismatic, outspoken Chinese artist who is notoriously in trouble with his own government.
 

This coming week, London critics are watching Keira Knightley and Steve Carell in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Jean Dujardin and Michel Hazanavicius' next collaboration The Players, the Jo Nesbo thriller Jackpot, the Cannes-contending anthology 7 Days in Havana and the acclaimed Mormo-youth drama Electrick Children.

Finally, I'm heading to Scotland on Monday for the 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival (18 June-1 July), so the blog will reflect what I'm watching there on a daily basis over the next couple of weeks.