Critical Week: In the shadows

I only saw two movies this week - but then I am on holiday at the moment! Dane DeHaan stars in A Cure for Wellness, an overlong, visually sumptuous horror thriller set in a Swiss sanatorium where something nasty is going on underwater. Alas, the script simplifies things rather than deepening them over two and a half hours. More enjoyable is the Matt Damon romp The Great Wall, a big East-meets-West action adventure blending mythology with history. Silly and over-reliant on digital effects, but entertaining.

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On Saturday, since I'm in Los Angeles, I was able to attend the Dorian Awards winner's toast at The Pikey on Sunset Blvd. I'm a voting member of Galeca, which hands out the prizes, but I'd never attended the event. It's a casual, lively gathering featuring champagne and frites, and I enjoyed a chance to interact with other critics as well as the winners and special guests. Here are some pics...

The creators, writers and cast of The Real O'Neals turned up to collect their award for Unsung TV Show of the Year.

Left: composer Nicholas Brittell and actor Trevante Rhodes collected the awards for Moonlight, including Film, Rising Star (Rhodes), Director, Screenplay, Actor (Mahershala Ali) and LGBTQ Film. Right: cinematographer Lunis Sandgren accepts the award for La La Land as Visually Striking Film of the Year.

Left to right: actress Amy Landecker picked up the award for Transparent as TV Comedy, Michelle Visage collected the prize for RuPaul''s Drag Race All Stars as Campy TV Show, and producer Ashley Golden was presented the award for Full Frontal With Samantha Bee as TV Current Affairs Show of the Year.

The event was unusually relaxed, allowing for some terrific rambling conversations, photo ops and lots of laughter. A highlight for me was getting to meet Bradley Whitford (right with his partner Landecker) and having a lengthy friendly drunken political rant about Trump and climate change issues. Exactly the kind of conversation you'd want to have with Whitford! Of course, now I want to plan a trip back to LA every year to coincide with this event.

See the full list of Galeca nominees and winners.

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Movies opening here in the USA this weekend that look interesting include Jordan Peele's offbeat horror Get Out and the Nicholas Hoult thriller Collide. Hopefully I'll have time to see one of them this weekend, along with watching the Oscars on Sunday at a normal hour (as opposed to the live 1am to 6am in London). And then it's back to London on Monday!

Critical Week: Take a back seat

London critics had a chance to see Anton Corbijn's new film Life this week, recounting the series of meetings between freelance photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) and actor James Dean (Dane DeHaan), just before the release of his first film. It's beautifully shot (of course) and a cleverly written exploration of pre-stardom, but despite a strong performance DeHaan is simply never James Dean. Also rather uneven, Everest tells the true story of a fateful day in 1996 when an unusually large number of people climbed the world's tallest mountain and were caught in a surprise storm. It's efficiently made and well acted, but oddly uninvolving.

My best film of the week, hands down, was Tangerine, a micro-budget American indie shot on iPhones. As it follows a couple of tranny hookers on the streets of Hollywood, it's hilarious, moving and thrilling filmmaking. Welsh treasures Rhys Ifans and Charlotte Church appear in Under Milk Wood, an experimental and eerily cold adaptation of Dylan Thomas' poetic drama. Michael Pena and Dougray Scott star in the exorcism thriller The Vatican Tapes, which is edgy and earthy but a bit slow. And the superb, unmissable He Named Me Malala is an involving documentary about feisty Pakistani teen-turned-activist Malala Yousafzai, who is inspirational simply because she is so normal.

This coming week we have Hugh Jackman in Pan, Kurt Russell in Bone Tomahawk, Agyness Dean in Sunset Song, the festival favourite The Club and Kate Dickie in Couple in a Hole. Also, press screenings for the London Film Festival start on Monday with two or three films per day. The festival itself runs 7-18 October.

FLARE 2: Surprising connections

It was a weekend of parties at the 28th BFI Flare film festival - and they show no signs of stopping for the rest of the week. Much of this involves networking with filmmakers, critics and actors, which is great fun, and makes a nice change from the usual day-to-day business of watching movies then spending hours writing about them alone at my desk. But during a festival I have swathes of time to kill between screenings, so I enjoy getting to know people visiting from all over the world. Yesterday I even had a couple of hours to walk along the river in the sunshine and take in a gallery or two at the Tate Modern. Anyway, here are more programme highlights...

Gerontophilia
dir Bruce La Bruce; with Pier-Gabriel Lajoie, Walter Borden 13/Can ****
Bruce LaBruce is working dangerously close to the mainstream in this gentle drama with romantic overtones. But even though there isn't a monster in sight, the film includes some of LaBruce's trademark jolts, not least in how the provocative subject matter is treated with unnerving honesty. It's about a young guy named Lake (Lajoie), who is startled to discover that he's attracted to geriatric men, specifically 81-year-old Melvyn (Borden, pictured above with Lajoie during a drunken game of strip poker). Intriguingly LaBruce frames this in an everyday style, focussing more on Lake's voyage of self-discovery than the transgressive sexuality. Even his girlfriend (Katie Boland) feels that this shift makes Lake a revolutionary saint. The film is a bit rough around the edges, but it's beautifully acted and shot and edited in a way that makes it thoughtful and warmly engaging.

The Passion of Michelangelo

dir Esteban Larrain; with Sebastian Ayala, Patricio Contreras 13/Chl ***.
With the aesthetic of a Pasolini film, this Chilean drama tells the true story of 14-year-old Miguel Angel (the astonishing Ayala), who in 1983 became nationally famous for his visions of the Virgin Mary, accompanied by a variety of miracles. But in the shadows he was being manipulated by Pinochet's government, which was trying to distract the populace from street protests. The film slightly muddles the story, forcing us to work to make much sense out of events that feel fragmented and a bit random. But as we think about it, the story worms its way under the skin as a telling exploration of misplaced religious fervour and cynical political manipulation.

The Punk Singer
dir Sini Anderson; with Kathleen Hanna, Adam Horovitz 13/US ***.

Lively and insightful, this biographical documentary traces the life of feminist punk artist Kathleen Hanna, a strikingly strong voice in the music scene from the 1990s until her sudden retirement in 2005. The film kind of races through the story, but is thoroughly engaging and ultimately inspirational in ways we don't expect. What makes it worth a look is the way it tells the story of a musical movement that has never quite been in the mainstream, but has had a major impact on the rest of the pop world. And as its catalyst, Hanna is a staggeringly important figure whose impact is still being felt. There's also a strikingly moving sidestory about Hanna's marriage to Beastie Boy Horovitz, who has been at her side through a very difficult illness that also rarely makes the headlines.

BEST OF YEAR
Kill Your Darlings
dir John Krokidas; with Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan 13/US ***. 
Based on a shocking true story about celebrities before they were famous, this dark drama is strikingly written, directed and acted to recount a series of unnerving events while evoking a mood that would later grow into a movement. It's a clever approach to a complex group of artists, even if it feels somewhat mannered... FULL REVIEW >

Flare Shorts
I saw three shorts programmes over the weekend - 16 films in all ranging from 3 to 30 minutes long. Standouts include: Mathilde Bayle's The Swimming Trunks, a strikingly daring exploration of pre-sexuality; Christophe Predari's Human Warmth, a sensual, inventive look at lingering attraction; Mike Hoolboom's eerily moving Buffalo Death Mask, a nostalgic trip through the Aids epidemic; Stephen Dunn & Peter Knegt's Good Morning, a light morning-after comedy with a warm sting; and Mark Pariselli's Monster Mash, a hilarious riff on horror movies. Honourable mention goes to Laura Scrivano's one-man monologue The Language of Love and Karol Radziszewski's photographer doc Kisieland.

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CRITICAL WEEK
Along with the festival, critics still have the usual releases to watch. Screenings this week included slightly uneven the franchise launcher Divergent, which at least has terrific performances from Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet. Two slightly underwhelming sequels were both sillier and less snappy than the originals: Muppets Most Wanted and Rio 2. And there was also the astonishing high school black comedy The Dirties and the involving but somewhat dense undersea Scandinavian thriller Pioneer.

This coming week, alongside BFI Flare, I'll also be watching Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah, the Greek action epic The Legend of Hercules, the Pierce Brosnan comedy The Love Punch, Juliette Binoche in A Thousand Times Good Night, Kristen Scott Thomas in Before the Winter Chill, the British comedy Downhill and the Mexican drama The Golden Dream.

LFF 8: Hello ladies

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was on hand at the 57th London Film Festival this week to present his writing-directing debut Don Jon, looking every bit the dude on the red carpet that his movie requires. There's definitely a sense that the festival is winding down, as film journalists are starting to wake up from their zombie-like states with the thought that they may get to sleep in a few days. Here are some more highlights...

Don Jon 
dir Joseph Gordon-Levitt; with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson 13/US **** 
Gordon-Levitt catches us off-guard with this remarkably assured writing-directing debut, which also gives him a chance to go against type as an actor. It's a warm and raucous comedy that wins us over as it reveals the soft side of a dedicated hard-man... FULL REVIEW >

Kill Your Darlings 
dir John Krokidas; with Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan 13/US ***.
Based on a shocking true story about celebrities before they were famous, this dark drama is strikingly written, directed and acted to recount a series of unnerving events while evoking a mood that would later grow into a movement. It's a clever approach to a complex group of artists, even if it feels somewhat mannered... FULL REVIEW >

Parkland
dir Peter Landesman with Zac Efron, James Badge Dale 13/US **.
With a documentary sense of detail, this film recounts JFK's assassination from a variety of previously unseen angles. It's skilfully made but lacks any sense of focus that might draw us in. There isn't a single well-developed character, and it oddly doesn't even centre on the hospital that gives the film its name... FULL REVIEW >

Blue Is the Warmest Colour 
dir Abdellatif Kechiche; with Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seydoux 13/Fr ****. 
Food, art and sex are the three elements of life in this evocative French drama, which takes a generous three hours to tell its story. This is an almost unnervingly honest film that holds us in rapt attention, shaking us even if we have nothing in common with the characters. Because it's about something much deeper than what's on screen... FULL REVIEW >

Tracks
dir John Curran; with Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver 13/Aus *** 
As an account of an incredible journey, this film can't help but hold our interest, especially when the central figure is so beautifully played. But director Curran opts for glossy warmth rather than expansive nature, which leaves it feeling more like a movie and less like real life. [review coming soon]

Gloria
dir Sebastian Lelio; with Paulina Garcia, Sergio Hernandez 13/Chl **** 
This Chilean comedy-drama may have a rather meandering narrative, but it's packed with memorable scenes that bring its characters vividly to life. It's also a rare film that centres on a 50-something woman trying to make the most of life on her own terms... FULL REVIEW >

Critical Week: Through the dangerzone

Speed was the name of the game at press screenings this week, as critics boarded Disney's Planes, the spin-off from Pixar's Cars movies; Ron Howard's Formula One drama Rush, about the rivalry-respect between 1970s champs James Hunt and Niki Lauda; Johnny Depp's latest wacky sidekick in The Lone Ranger, which is bloated but more fun than expected; and Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain, an over-pumped comedy based on a true story of torture and murder (!).

Our pulses slowed a bit for the all-star sex-addiction comedy-drama Thanks for Sharing, with Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Tim Robbins and Alecia Moore (better known as Pink); the dark drama Ain't Them Bodies Saints, with Rooney Mara and Dane DeHaan; the warm, funny and extremely telling Saudi drama Wadjda; and two docs: the straightforward biographical Hawking and an exploration of privacy-erosion in Terms and Conditions May Apply. Finally, we were jolted back out of our seats by a horror double bill: Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in the demonic possession chiller The Conjuring, and a family under siege by masked killers in You're Next.

Coming up this week: Hugh Jackman is The Wolverine (again), those all-star retired killers are back for RED 2, Sandra Bullock teams with Melissa McCarthy for The Heat, there's more muscled men in skirts in Hammer of the Gods, Ulrich Seidl closes out his trilogy with Paradise: Hope, The Great Hip Hop Hoax documents Scots pretending to be American rappers, And we get a look at a reissued-remastered version of the 1981 epic Heaven's Gate.