Critical Week: Family matters

While covid continues to impact cinema on multiple layers, things are beginning to feel much more normal with an increasing number of films shown to the press in actual screening rooms. Seats are still distanced, but it's been nice to get used to seeing colleagues again regularly. And I've also had a bit of theatre to liven things up in between the movies. Films this week included The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos telling an involving story about the entwined mob families, including several familiar characters, and a few sharp new ones. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sweetheart • The Green Knight
The Man Who Sold His Skin
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Dev Patel gives another knockout performance in David Lowery's ambitious The Green Knight, which unfolds as an ancient legend with all kinds of inventive touches. Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the quirky biopic The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, which feels a bit over-done but is witty and clever. Ben Whishaw gives an outrageously physical performance in Surge, a London drama that shifts into a harrowing odyssey. The South African supernatural thriller Gaia is beautifully set in a lush forest where four people have a collision with nature itself. And the shorts collection Parental Guidance takes some knowing and often very dark looks at family life through a queer eye.

Screenings also started this week for the 65th London Film Festival (6-17 Oct), including the pandemic comedy 7 Days, Jacques Audiard's intertwined romance Paris 13th District, the beautifully animated refugee doc Flee, and the Finnish road movie Compartment No 6.

Coming up this next week, I have several more London Film Festival movies to watch, plus Daniel Craig's final Bond movie No Time to Die, Bill Nighy in Living and the British horror Shepherd.

Critical Week: It's all coming back to me

The pandemic continues to affect releasing schedules. Even with twice as many movies in need of cinema slots, studios are being unusually tenuous in getting movies out to audiences. This week, the two biggest releases were only screened once to the press, a few days before the films opened. Even though the films are finished and sitting on shelves waiting to go into cinemas, studios are more protective than ever, which means they're effectively killing any chance at word of mouth. This is obviously why some major releases have stumbled recently, but no one is saying this. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Annette • Underground
Censor • Sabaya
PERHAPS AVOID:
Rare Beasts
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The biggest release this week is Reminiscence, in which Hugh Jackman uses sheer charm to sustain a futuristic plot that's full of gaping holes. And costars Rebecca Ferguson and especially Thandiwe Newton help too. The other big UK release is Snake Eyes, again rescued by its lead actor Henry Golding, even though the GI Joe action movie's script isn't up to much. A lot more intriguing, and much more challenging, is the darkly satirical show-business musical Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. It's a movie that could only have come from the minds of musicians Sparks and filmmaker Leos Carax.

Less mainstream, Underground is a French-Canadian drama that astutely unpicks issues of masculinity, and Demonic is a gritty horror film from Neill Blomkamp that almost works. The American indie The Land of Owls is a sensitive, occasionally insightful look at relationships. A new French animated version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days is very quirky, and more fun than it should be. And seven filmmakers contribute segments to The Year of the Everlasting Storm, exploring the impact of covid lockdowns in ways that are witty, pointed and hauntingly personal.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Elijah Wood in No Man of God, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Powder Keg, sci-fi thriller The Colony, Beau Knapp in Mosquito State, and the horror films Bloodthirsty and Knocking.

Sundance London: Get out of there

The fifth Sundance Film Festival: London wraps up tonight at Picturehouse Central. It's been a terrific collection of films this year - a varied selection of American indies made by gifted filmmakers. Repeat cast members included Lakeith Stanfield (Crown Heights and The Incredible Jessica James) and David Warshofsky (Beatriz at Dinner and Wilson). And the surprise film Patti Cake$ is likely to end up in my top 10 movies of the year. Full reviews will appear on the site as the films open, but here are some final blurbs...

A Ghost Story
dir-scr David Lowery; with Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara 17/US ***.
A quirky oddity of a movie that's more than a little indulgent, this spiritual odyssey explores issues of life, death and time with a poetic sensibility, almost as if Terrence Malick made an extended Saturday Night Live sketch. It's so absurd that it feels like it should be funny, but the tone is strikingly somber, even morose. And while it's too mannered to be emotionally involving, it's impossible to look away.

Wilson
dir Craig Johnson; with Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern 17/US ***
A jarringly offbeat tone keeps the audience on its toes for this scruffy comedy, which is essentially a celebration of a hyperactive, hopelessly optimistic curmudgeon. Based on screenwriter Daniel Clowes' graphic novel, there's nothing very realistic about this character, but the script is brittly funny, with hints of real insight under the goofy surface.

The Incredible Jessica James
dir-scr James C Strouse; with Jessica Williams, Chris O'Dowd 17/US ****
With a perceptive script and a wonderfully nuanced lead performance from Jessica Williams, this comedy has a lot of very honest things to say about the difficult choices we make relating to both relationships and careers. But while the film has moments of pointed intensity, nothing is ever laid on thickly. Instead, writer-director James Strouse keeps the audience laughing at the witty dialog and surprising characters all the way through.

Patti Cake$
dir-scr Geremy Jasper; with Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett 17/US *****
A loud blast of fresh air, this crowd-pleasing comedy-drama is impossible to watch without generating a huge smile and probably a few tears. It's a forward-thinking story of frustration and ambition that almost anyone in the audience can identify with, and it's populated with an eclectic bunch of messy, loveable characters. If you have the ability to find beauty in even the most unlikely places, it's pure bliss.