Critical Week: A family portrait

Three big sequels were screened this week for the press. The big one was the world premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, attended by most of the cast and crew. The film is a worthy farewell to this franchise, and there are no surprises. Which makes it even more cosy and comforting. A lot more fun was Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, continuing the hilarious mock-doc comedy antics of the world's favourite fake British heavy metal band. And then there were Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga back for one more time as the ghostbusting Warrens in The Conjuring: Last Rites, which works best when it centres on the characters rather than the rather silly ghostly creep-out.

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We also had Benedict Cumberbatch in The Thing With Feathers, an artful exploration of grief that really gets under the skin. Cooper Hoffman leads The Long Walk, based on a Stephen King novel set in a 1970s American dystopia. It's very dark, but also compelling and thought-provoking. The horror thriller Good Boy skilfully unfolds through a dog's-eye-view, which makes it unusual enough to catch us off guard. And the British drama Brides addresses a very thorny issue with engaging characters and a sharp sense of youthful hope.

There are fewer screenings this coming week, largely due to the week-long Tube strikes, but among films I'll be watching are Emma Thompson in Dead of Winter, Michael Chiklis in The Senior, Adam Bessa in Ghost Trail and Justin Kurzel's Warren Ellis doc Ellis Park.

Critical Week: Shape your reality

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! My special gift today was a positive covid test, despite being triple-jabbed and always wearing a mask, so I'll be isolating through the holidays this year. This won't be much of a change from the past few weeks - but I'll miss being able to meet people in person for a week or so. And I don't have another in-cinema screening until January 5th, so I'll keep watching things at home on screener links. 

This past week, the bigger films I watched included The Matrix Resurrections, a 20-years-later sequel that has some enjoyably brain-bending nonsense in it and a refreshing refusal to take itself seriously. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are superb, plus the always watchable Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick and several returnees.  Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is freeform comedy Licorice Pizza, an enjoyably loose slice of 1970s nostalgia starring Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour) and Alana Haim (of the pop group). Plus starry scene-stealers like Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn.

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The Matrix Resurrections
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Smaller movies included the unsettling, atmospheric British horror Amulet, actor Romola Garai's writing-directing feature debut. The Worst Person in the World is a wonderfully complex drama from Norway following a young woman (the superb Renate Reinsve) over four years as she tries to find herself. From Austria, Great Freedom is a stunning prison drama that traces the lingering legacy of a cruel Nazi law outlawing homosexuality. And the autobiobraphical odyssey HipBeat is a bit preachy but makes some nice observations along the way.

I also caught up with a couple of movies for fun. The hugely entertaining doc Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It traces the astonishing career and personal life of the iconic actress who's still going strong at 90. And the Christmas comedy Single All the Way is an enjoyably silly holiday romance with an above average cast including Michael Urie, Kathy Najimy and Jennifer Coolidge.

And this coming week, as I am in forced isolation, I'll be catching up with a few more awards contenders, including I'm Your Man, The Summit of the Gods, Mandibles and Writing With Fire. And I have a few links to watch as well for films coming out soon, including the thriller Borrego and the shorts collection The Last Days of Innocence.