Critical Week: On an adventure.

I took a four-day trip to France this week to attend the Annecy Festival of Film Animation, and along with spending time with filmmakers and fellow journalists, I also managed to see five films. Writer-directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado enthusiastically offered a sneak screening of Forgotten Island, a ripping, gloriously animated adventure centred around friendship memories. And Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri were on hand to open the festival with the world premiere of Minions & Monsters. It's a joyous romp through early Hollywood, the best minions movie yet. I also saw Nobody, a gorgeously animated and superbly well-told adventure from China; The Violinist, a beautiful but unsatisfying personal drama set over half a century in Singapore; and Soul Shift from Germany, a riotously silly, bright-hued sci-fi comedy with a sharp point. (NB. Titles link to reviews; Forbidden Island is embargoed until closer to release.)

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Drunken Noodles
A Private Life
ALL REVIEWS >

Meanwhile in London, the 34th Raindance Film Festival is heading into its final weekend. I caught four films: Think of England is a cheeky wartime British comedy that morphs into a rather intense drama; from Iran, My Daughter's Hair is a dark and involving family melodrama; Pescador is a provocative, artistic road movie that plays with magical realism in Mexico; and The Troll is a brightly deadpan pastiche of influencer delusion. Raindance reviews are linked HERE >

Finally, I saw two films that open in cinemas this week. Milly Alcock is Supergirl in a followup to last year's Superman. Set in outer space, it's a very different film, enjoyable but derivative, with lots of big action-comedy set-pieces. And the Icelandic vampire thriller Thirst has a dry, camp sense of humour running through the queer, outrageously grisly nuttiness.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching a few more films at Raindance and catching up with others that I've missed. Oddly, there are no press screenings in the diary for my birthday week, but I do have a show titled -370°F at Sadler's Wells.

Critical Week: To the stars

It's been nice to see new films coming into cinemas for a change, alongside the continuing trickle of festival gems from last year. Perhaps the biggest movie yet, Project Hail Mary is almost a one-man show for Ryan Gosling, and it's enormously entertaining on several levels: as a comedy, thriller and outer space adventure. Include Sandra Huller back on earth and a genuinely charming friendship with a rock-like alien. Glen Powell leads How to Make a Killing, a remake of the classic black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets that starts well but struggles to find a consistent tone. And Pixar's first film this year is Hoppers, a colourfully amiable romp with adorable critters and a wacky sci-fi twist in the premise.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sound of Falling • Heel
ALL REVIEWS >

Further afield, I caught a big-screen presentation of the inventive Chinese epic Resurrection, with an on-screen Q&A with filmmaker Bi Gan. It's fiercely original, visually stunning, thematically a bit bewildering. The French drama Wild Foxes is a beautifully assembled drama about teen boxers, exploring machismo with a remarkably light touch. Also from France, the rather talky but beautifully animated biopic A Magnificent Life traces author and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol's life as a history of cinema itself. And from Japan, the anime crime drama The Last Blossom gets under the skin with its quietly involving storytelling. I also attended the European premiere of the emotionally intense TV series The Madison, with the entire cast in attendance, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell (see below).

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Jesse Buckley in The Bride (buying a cinema ticket tomorrow because I couldn't attend the one press screening), Maika Monroe in Reminders of Him, Ferzan Ozpetek's Diamonds, Japanese/British drama A Pale View of Hills, Oscar-nominated doc Cutting Through Rocks, and quite a few movies in the BFI's Cinema Made in Italy season. I'll also attend a live performance of Sugar Daddy at Underbelly Boulevard.

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Critical Week: Driving me crazy

Screenings continue to be a bit less frequent this time of year, although I somehow found plenty of movies to watch this week. Eddie Murphy is back in action-comedy mode, starring in The Pickup alongside Pete Davidson and Keke Palmer. Their banter is enjoyable even if the plot is almost ridiculously simplistic. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are back for Freakier Friday, a hugely enjoyable 20-years-later body-swap comedy sequel. And there were two astonishingly grisly horror movies: Together stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple that's growing eerily close, while Weapons stars Julia Garner as a teacher whose students have mysteriously vanished. Both are stomach-churningly yucky in all the best ways, and both have serious subtext that holds the interest.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Young Hearts • Weapons
Stans • Freakier Friday
ALL REVIEWS >

In addition, there was the family adventure Sketch, about a teen whose drawings come to life and menace a small town. It's well-made and engaging. There were two films from France: The Musicians is an engaging and warmly understated comedy about a group of egotistic artists who form a historic quartet. And Bambi: A Tale of Life in the Woods is a nature documentary adaptation of the classic novel about a young deer growing up. It's beautifully shot, and openly emotive. I also watched Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical (arrives on Apple TV on 15th August), which I thoroughly enjoyed. As a lifelong Peanuts fan, the line-art animation was particularly nice. And the catchy songs were fun too. I also attended a live performance of new absurdist comedy Lost Watches at Park Theatre.

This coming week I'll be watching Jacob Elordi in On Swift Horses, Bob Odenkirk in Nobody 2, Orlando Bloom in The Cut, Matilda Lutz as Red Sonja, the animated comedy Fixed and the Chinese remake of Richard Linklater's Tape.

BFI Flare: Reveal yourself

The 38th BFI Flare wrapped up on Sunday, after Saturday night's closing ceremony and the world premiere of Lady Like, starring Lady Camden, who brought her starry glamour to the evening. It was a great festival, with lots of excellent films. Although without a delegate centre or team, it was tricky for press to see the films. And of course the best thing about this event each year is catching up with my Flare friends! Here are some final highlights, plus comments on the relatively few short films I managed to see and my 10 best films of the fest...

Lady Like
dir-scr Luke Willis; with Rex Wheeler, Shiloh Brody-Clarke 24/US ***
There's a terrific story at the centre of this documentary, tracing the life of drag star Lady Camden from her London childhood to TV stardom and beyond. Filmmaker Luke Wheeler has wonderful access, capturing Camden's alter-ego Rex Wheeler with unusual openness and authenticity. But the film itself isn't edited together with momentum or a clear structure, circling around and repeating emotional points. So it's entertaining, but never as moving as it wants to be.

Unspoken
dir-scr Jeremy Borison; with Charlie Korman, Michael Zapesotsky 24/US ****
Sensitive and introspective, this teen drama plays out almost like a mystery thriller. Sharply shot with a vivid attention to detail, the film has a focussed perspective that's both riveting and involving. Writer-director Jeremy Borison maintains narrative momentum along with a knowing sense of how it feels to be gay in a religious community. And because the story is connected to history, it carries surprising weight and complexity.

Love Lies Bleeding
dir Rose Glass; with Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian 24/US ****
Cleverly using excessive audio and visual flourishes to heighten the mood, filmmaker Rose Glass takes the audience on a pitch-black adventure that propels forward without mercy. The film is dark and often intensely gruesome, but there's a terrific undercurrent of raw emotion even in the more outrageous situations. So as it closes its grip on us, the movie becomes a skilfully lurid, heady mix of romance, murder and bodybuilding.

Orlando, My Political Biography
dir-scr Paul B Preciado; with Paul B Preciado, Oscar Miller, Janis Sahraoui 23/Fr ****
Breathtakingly original, this drama-documentary hybrid is a loose adaptation of Virginia Woolf's classic novel blurred inventively with portraits of trans people who connect with and elevate the book's story and ideas. Writer-director Paul Preciado maintains a cheeky tone, mixing plot elements with real-life details to create a movie that's colourful and often hilarious. And it also takes on several enormous issues with wit and knowing observations, challenging audience preconceptions.

Baldiga: Unlocked Heart
dir Markus Stein; with Jurgen Baldiga, Ulf Reimer 24/Ger ***.
Shot and edited with a contemplative, artful sensibility, this documentary focusses on thoughts and feelings as it recounts the life of German photographer Jurgen Baldiga, remembered depicting the truth in his images, which was uncomfortable to gay men during the Aids epidemic. Even if it's a bit slow and ponderous, the film is a remarkable depiction of a man who was hungry for everything life had to offer.

Flare Shorts

I wasn't able to watch as many shorts as I hoped to see, because they didn't make them accessible to the press this year. So I only managed to catch 12 of them - including the Five Films for Freedom. My favourite was from Spain, The First Kiss (dir Miguel Lafuente), a sharply clever drama that goes from funny to cute to intense in 15 minutes. I also really enjoyed The Lime Green Shirt (UK, Kaushik Ray), a lovely mother-son drama that's moving and provocative; Halfway (India, dir Kumar Chheda), a simple and inventive relationship drama with a quirky twist; We Collide (UK, dir Jason Bradbury), a two-minute thrill ride through a nightclub; Car Wash (Spain, dir Lucas Sogas), a complex drama about closeted football players; and A Bed for Three (Germany, dir Jan-Peter Horstmann), a silly but pointed comedy with a witty Ikea kick.

Rich’s Best of the Fest

1. 
   Crossing
2. Orlando, My Political Biography
3. The Summer With Carmen
4. Unspoken 
5. Unicorns
6. Love Lies Bleeding
7. Toll
8. Calls From Moscow
9. Riley
10. Desire Lines

All full reviews will be posted soon and linked on Shadows' BFI FLARE PAGE >
For festival information, BFI FLARE >

Critical Week: Run away and join the circus

The lockdown continues to slowly ease in Britain, with most museums and cinemas reopening this week. Watching a movie in a mask isn't great, but it's great to see movies on a big screen again. And in addition to a press screening (with others coming up), I also attended a press launch for a museum exhibition. Even so, it's about time we had a silly animated circus adventure to take our mind off all of this. Animal Crackers isn't a great movie, but it's lively, colourful and wacky enough to do the trick.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Shadow of Violence • Casting
Summerland • The Vigil
PERHAPS AVOID:
Unhinged
FULL REVIEWS >

There were also some mid-range movies punching above their weight. Dave Franco's directing debut The Rental is a ripping thriller about a weekend getaway gone very wrong. Survive the Night is a clunky home invasion horror with a stone-faced Bruce Willis. Summerland is a skilfully made exploration of unexpected human connections with a terrific Gemma Arterton. And Life With Music is a rather sudsy drama about nostalgia starring Patrick Stewart and Katie Holmes.

Further from the beaten path, The Vigil is a stunning horror thriller rooted in Hasidic Jewish tradition, while Casting is an inventive improvised German comedy-drama about an attempt to cast a movie. There were also two docs: Pornstar Pandemic is an unstructured collection of footage in which adult actors talk about how they're coping with lockdown, while 2015's Scrum looks at the lives of players on Sydney's gay rugby team. And there's also a collection of four superb football-themed shorts from the UK, Germany and France called The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders.

I have one press screening in the diary this coming week, for Seth Rogen's An American Pickle. And on my list to watch at home, there's Roberto Begnini in Pinocchio, Gillian Jacobs in I Used to Go Here, the ensemble thriller What We Found, the horror fantasy Peripheral, the fantasy adventure Mortal, the Algerian memoir Papicha and the dark Guatemalan's drama La Llorona.

Critical Week: Fashion forward

Since I travelled mid-week, my film viewing over the past few days was somewhat limited (I've already seen everything worth watching on the plane!). But before leaving Los Angeles, I caught an awards-season screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a 1950s London dressmaker. It's tricky, twisty and utterly mesmerising. And James Franco's The Disaster Artist is a hugely entertaining look at the making of a terrible movie, which turns into an ode to the importance of following your dreams. The all-star cast is excellent, and a lot of fun.

I also saw the family adventure Kepler's Dream, a rather simplistic TV-style movie that will appeal to undemanding audiences. It's boosted by the presence of Holland Taylor and Sean Patrick Flanery. And then there was the chance to revisit the 1969 Western Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, starring a surprisingly feisty Robert Redford. It's a complex ahead-of-its-time drama set in California's Native American community - riveting, emotional, challenging.

Coming up this week: the Cannes winner The Square, the Hungarian drama Jupiter's Moon, Rupert Graves in Native and the British drama Beast. There are also a number of for-your-consideration awards screenings coming up.

Critical Week: Fashion victim

This past week, I caught up with Elle Fanning in Nicolas Winding Refn's new horror drama The Neon Demon, the latest slick, lurid, fascinating, infuriating film from the Danish filmmaker. Another stylish thriller, Nerve, stars Emma Roberts and Dave Franco (sorry, comments are embargoed). And then there was some comedy: Ghostbusters entertainingly reboots the franchise with a terrific quartet of comedic actresses, while Ice Age: Collision Course carries on the ridiculous antics of that growing herd of loveable but random prehistoric critters.

Further afield, Pedro Almodovar's Julieta is a fluid, beautifully emotive drama with a twisty story and a terrific cast. The acclaimed Greek comedy-drama Chevalier is a fiercely clever dissection of masculine bravado. K-Shop is a solidly made British horror thriller with blackly comical overtones. And the latest collection from Peccadillo, Boys on Film 15: Time & Tied, features nine strikingly well-made short films addressing issues of gender and sexuality from a variety of astute, personal angles.

This coming week we have the long-awaited Matt Damon-starring sequel Jason Bourne, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG, Disney's remake of Pete's Dragon, Chris Pine in Hell or High Water and the oddly titled journalist doc Jim: The James Foley Story.

Critical Week(s): With a little help from my friends

I'm catching up on two weeks of film-watching here, since I took last week to write about theatre and TV instead, and also because screenings have been rather thin. There were two big sequels shown to UK critics: Finding Dory is an enjoyably colourful and slightly less satisfying follow-up to Disney/Pixar's 2003 hit, while Now You See Me 2 is an entertaining and somewhat convoluted continuation of the 2013 heist thriller about magicians. 

And then there are the pre-established properties: Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie brings the beloved sitcom characters to the big screen more than 20 years after they first appeared for a film that's better than anyone expected. And The Legend of Tarzan is an odd hybrid of a sweeping period epic and a silly action blockbuster, with an unusually strong cast. As for original stories, Ira Sach's Little Men is an exquisitely observed family drama, and Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune is a complex look at relationships in 1970s Denmark. I also caught up with the seriously stunning, unmissable Italian immigration doc Fire at Sea and the offbeat, segmented arthouse drama Like Cattle Towards Glow, exploring the link between lust, love and violence.

Coming up this week: the Ghostbusters remake starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, the animated sequel Ice Age: Collision Course, Dave Franco and Emma Roberts in Nerve, Pedro Almodovar's new drama Julieta and Michel Gondry's Microbe and Gasoline.

Critical Week: If the shoe fits

Some big movies were screened to UK critics this week, including Disney's new live-action Cinderella, starring Lily James and Richard Madden, plus the likes of Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Holliday Grainger and Downton Abbey's Sophie McShera. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, this takes a more sumptuous, old-fashioned approach than Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland or last year's Maleficent, and it's rather charming. This screening included the first London showing of the hilariously entertaining short Frozen Fever, which will definitely further the franchise.

The other gorgeously well-made big-budget film was Suite Francaise, based on Irene Nemirovsky's acclaimed novel and starring an especially superb Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts and Kristin Scott Thomas. We also had very late screenings of two films opening this week around the world, and both have had their reviews embargoed until later in the week: Neil Blomkamp's Chappie and the Vince Vaughn comedy Unfinished Business. 

A bit further afield, there was Salma Hayek energetically fighting off a steady stream of goons in Everly, Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman facing creepy child ghosts in Colombia in Out of the Dark, Jean Dujardin chasing an elusive drug dealer in The Connection, a group of kids trying to be themselves in the astute comedy-drama Geography Club, some comically inept East End London criminals in the rather tired Hackney's Finest, and a subtle exploration of unexpected young love in Berlin in Silent Youth.

Coming up this week: Sean Penn in The Gunman, Charlotte Gainsbourg in Samba, Virginia Madsen in Walter, the hit American teen comedy The Duff, another meta-comical American rom-com Playing It Cool, the British indie drama The Goob, and the Colombian drama Gente de Bien.