Critical Week: Dog days

With cinemas open again in the UK, things are slowly getting back to normal, and I've had a few press screenings and even a premiere to attend in-person this week. It's great to see movies on the big screen again - I'd begun to forget the joy of being in a darkened room away from distractions. The social distancing guidelines mean the communal experience in audience reaction isn't quite back to normal, but it's getting there. We have another month like this before restrictions will be re-evaluated and perhaps even lifted. Of course, all of this means that freelance critics must now return to negotiating with distributors for precious screening seats, facing seemingly random decisions. For example, despite holding a number of screenings, Disney only offered me an online screening link for the 101 Dalmatians prequel Cruella. I loved the film's subversive approach, its feisty script and characters, and especially the sterling scene-stealing work from Emma Stone and Emma Thompson.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
First Cow • Zebra Girl
A Quiet Place Part II • Cruella
PERHAPS AVOID:
Earwig and the Witch
ALL REVIEWS >

Jason Statham reteams with Guy Ritchie for Wrath of Man, an unusually gritty and bleak movie for both of them. It's very well-made, riveting and darkly involving. Zack Snyder makes his return to the zombie genre with Army of the Dead, an entertaining but overlong rampaging heist epic set in a locked-down Vegas. James Corden is back to voice the title role in Peter Rabbit 2, but the script this time lacks the witty humour. Kids will love the silliness. Director Stephanie Zari and actors Sarah Roy and Tom Cullen attended the premiere of Zebra Girl, a superbly crafted British drama with waves of wit and emotional horror. And I was in heaven finally watching Nomadland on the big screen this week. It was my favourite movie from 2020, but I'd only seen it on my laptop. It's a masterpiece, and looks even more spectacular projected.

In addition to getting my second vaccine, this coming week I have Dylan O'Brien in the sci-fi thriller Flashback, Elia Suleiman's acclaimed It Must Be Heaven, the actor doc The Most Beautiful Boy in the World and the war dancer doc Being Thunder.

Screen: Summer TV Roundup Part 1

Because of these extraordinary times, I've watched rather a lot more series television than usual in between the movies I'm reviewing (obviously, I can't cover theatre or dance these days). So I'm dividing my Summer TV Roundup into two parts. It seems like there's no end of new series popping up involving some serious talent both in front of and behind the cameras. As a result, there are still several intriguing shows on my to-do list, rather like how that pile of books to read just keeps growing...

SOMETHING NEW 

Hollywood

Set in the mid-1940s, this fabulously produced drama roots its story in several little-known facts and then stirs in some fictional twists, until it explodes into a riotously entertaining fantasy in the final episode. The point is very strong: what would have happened if studio moguls had stood up for what was right way back then instead of cowering in the closet? The cast is simply awesome, anchored by by the glorious Patti LuPone and Holland Taylor, plus scene-stealing turns from Jim Parsons and Rob Reiner and a solid cast of newcomers. And not only is it a great "what if" but it also makes us wonder if we're there yet. 

The Great

From The Favourite screenwriter Tony McNamara comes another bawdy historical romp, this time centring on Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) and her stormy marriage to Emperor Peter (Nicholas Hoult). This witty approach would be much more engaging in half-hour increments; these hour-long episodes feel rather over-extended. But the dialog sizzles with wit and insight into bigger themes about politics, gender and power. And it also offers a wry slant on real historical events that brings them to life, sometimes in exhilaratingly funny ways. Some of the crudity is a little tiresome, and the rampant sex feels oddly timid, but the cast is excellent across the board. And the production design is fabulous.

Run

There's an underlying nastiness to the premise of this adventure comedy, about two people who escape from their established lives based on a promise made 15 years earlier. Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson are good enough in the central roles to earn our sympathies, but the plotting is too gimmicky for its own good, constantly throwing in contrived obstacles, unnecessarily violent twists and gaping inconsistencies in the plot and characterisations. This means that the show never gets the chance to explore the much more intriguing central idea about dissatisfaction or the yearning for past simplicity.

Never Have I Ever

Gorgeously written, this teen comedy gets under the skin of its characters in a way that pulls the audience right into the hilariously soapy situations. There are layers of meaning here, including clever explorations of ethnicity, gender and sexuality. So even if the entire show feels a bit coy and gimmicky, it helps that the characters are realistically unpredictable, likeable even as they do all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. The cast is terrific across the board, anchored by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as the enjoyably hapless Devi, who muddles her relationships with everyone around her but has a darkly emotive centre.

The Eddy

Damien Chazelle combines his love of jazz with an edgy, verite style of filmmaking for this dramatic musical about the trials of running a groovy nightclub in Paris. The dark tone is a little much for a series, but the music has a loose energy, even if spontaneous jam sessions feel oddly contrived. The cast is excellent, including superb performers like Andre Holland, Amandla Steinberg, Leila Bekhti, Joanna Kulig and (far too little of) Tahar Rahim, but none of the characters are sympathetic, and they're so deliberately awful that they're not hugely believable either. The strong production values kept me watching, but I wouldn't want to spend any more time with these people

Upload

There's a dopey-sexy charm to this high-concept comedy anchored by the hugely likeable Robbie Amell, whose character dies young in 2033 and is uploaded into a virtual afterlife. He can keep in touch with the living world, including his high-maintenance fiancee (Allegra Edwards), who is paying the bills so controls his experience, and his clever-hot upload assistant Nora (Andy Allo), with whom he's falling in love, of course. There's nothing terribly smart about this show, and it never even tries to grapple with issues like mortality or regret. But it's packed with witty gags, great side characters and irresistible emotions. Looking forward to the next season.

Little Fires Everywhere

This insidious drama gets under the skin with its suggestive plotting, and since it takes until about the fifth episode to give anything away, the audience is hooked. The way the shows jumps around in time is very awkward, and the tone feels just a wee bit overwrought. But the cast is terrific, adults and teens alike, led by the adept Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, who rise above their rather typecast roles. So it feels like a shame that the plot felt so obvious and predictable, even though the writers kept trying to throw us off the scent.

Dave

What starts as a rather silly stoner comedy, cleverly deepens into something far more interesting, with astonishing undercurrents that say powerful things about friendships, personal ambition and the surprising nature of raw talent. The series hits its stride in the seventh episode, taking on mental illness before delving into some properly pungent internalised issues about what it takes to become a star. And the final three episodes are simply genius. Dave Burd and his crew are terrific in the roles, plus some fabulous guest stars. It's rare to see a show that's unafraid to be both ridiculous and unapologetically complex at the same time. A must-see.

CARRYING ON

Dead to Me: series 2

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini are back for more chaotic black comedy as two women who are inexorably linked by a bond of friendship that's entangled with death and murder. Resurrecting James Marsden as the hitherto unknown identical twin brother of the season one villain/victim makes this show feel like a full-on soap opera. Which is of course entertaining, even though there's not much to it. It may be thoroughly ridiculous, hinging on a series of ludicrous coincidences, but the ongoing messiness of the characters and the way they are increasingly intertwined is enjoyable. And the actors manage to add clever subtext.

The Conners: series 2b

There aren't many shows that are tapping into the current zeitgeist as adeptly as this does, poking gentle fun at everyday annoyances linked to much more profound truths about how the current global economy and right-wing governments are crushing the working class. There are quiet comments on immigration, social services, entrepreneurialism, ageing and pop culture scattered among these terrific characters, finely performed across the board (just give Laurie Metcalf all the Emmys). And the way the storylines continually catch reality is both entertaining and brave.

Insecure: series 4

I've had problems with this show from the start. I keep watching because of the terrific cast, but the characters just get more and more self-absorbed, with increasingly insulting storylines. This doesn't serve any of the actors well, because it's just too pushy and contrived for the characters to engage with the audience. It's odd that Issa Rae writes this herself, undermining her own character's integrity (and wasting the terrific Jay Ellis in the process). Although other side roles fare better. And the way it's structured to stretch out plot strands over multiple seasons is cynical and annoying. I give up.

WAVING FAREWELL 

Bless this Mess: series 2b

Essentially a ridiculous updating of Green Acres, this is the kind of show I would never stick with if it weren't for the actors in it. They manage to not only deliver hilarious comical performances, but are continuing to deepen their characters even as the show seems unable to figure out where it's heading. There are moments when Lake Bell and Dax Shepard seem to tap into something genuinely funny and relevant, but most scenes opt for the dumb gag rather than the smart one. Thankfully, there are sharp jokes too, but not enough to make me miss it now that it's been cancelled. 

Homeland: series 8

Claire Danes returned for one last hurrah as the brilliant but unstable Carrie in this tightly scripted final season. Cleverly highlighting how the world has changed since this show premiered, the drama is intense, as are the beautifully staged action sequences. And the writers clearly didn't feel constrained to play it safe. Both Danes and Mandy Patinkin are as excellent as ever, surrounded by a terrific supporting cast creating characters with their own stories and interests. So even as the narrative goes way off the rails in the final two episodes, with an implausible lapse for Carrie herself, what this show is dealing with gets more and more urgent, as does what it says about today's global political issues. 

Will & Grace: series 11

After its original eight-year run, this classic sitcom returned 12 years later for three more seasons, leading up to another series finale. It's a shame that the show's creators didn't use these three new series to push things further, or develop the characters in interesting directions. The comedy is amiably entertaining, but it's always far more mindless than the writers think it is. And while there are some great gags (as always for Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes), there were some excruciating bits too, including a bizarrely simplistic I Love Lucy homage. The ending is a bit happier and more open-handed this time, but once again it kind of missed the point.

CATCHING UP

Kim's Convenience: series 1-2

I've only watched two of four seasons so far, but I'm enjoying this show's askance approach to the usual sitcom about a mother, father and two grown kids. There's plenty to like about this show, including its dry humour and spiky interaction. That they're Korean Christians living in Toronto adds amusingly unexpected textures to the show, as do some intriguing wrinkles in their interaction. Although it's a bit of a problem that Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's Appa is simply too mean and self-absorbed to be likeable, even though he's skilfully played for laughs.

Elite: series 1-3

From Spain, this sexy-dopey high school soap is a guilty pleasure largely because of the beautiful, talented 25-year-old actors who play teens at a posh private school where each day seems to consist of an exam, a party and some blackmail. Plots also include murders and other violent nastiness, as the kids treat each other horribly. The first series had a lively vibe, while the second was dark and ugly, and the third continued with contrived, increasingly angry storylines to a gruesome climax and extended emotional finale. But it definitely has its moments, so I'm glad there's more to come.

The House of Flowers: series 1-3

This Mexican soap starts as a snappy-smutty comedy and morphs into a flailing comedy-melodrama about a messy upper-class family. By the middle of the second season, each character has given into his or her most idiotic personality traits, while the clumsy plots become increasingly corny (including a doomsday cult and TV talent competition). And in the third season, the timeline splits, crosscutting with the youthful antics of the older generation in the late-70s while neglecting the core cast. Most of these people are nasty and/or stupid, but they do manage to hold the interest. 

NOW WATCHING: Normal People, Mrs America, Snowpiercer, The Plot Against America, What We Do in the Shadows (2), Killing Eve (3), Kim's Convenience (3-4).

COMING SOON: Love Victor, Space Force, Messiah, I Know This Much Is True, A Series of Light, The Umbrella Academy (2), Queer Eye (5).

Critical Week: Check out any time you like

It's been another seriously eclectic week on the press screening circuit! There was Hotel Artemis, a fiendishly stylish futuristic crime thriller starring the superb Jodie Foster, with a terrific supporting cast and some deep, dark resonance. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was screened along with an array of Greek-style canapes and colourful cocktails to loosen us up to more Abba antics. It's a lot of fun (Go Cher!), but feels padded out with too many B-side songs. The Little Stranger is a dark, creepy adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel starring Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter and Charlotte Rampling. And Glenn Close is absolutely fantastic as The Wife in a riveting marital drama costarring Jonathan Pryce as a Nobel Prize-winning novelist.

A little further afield, Sylvester Stallone was back with Escape Plan 2: Hades, a preposterous but rather enjoyably dopey sequel costarring Dave Bautista (also seen in Hotel Artemis). Jonathan Rhys Meyers does a gloomy James Bond impersonation as a Mossad spy in Damascus Cover, a dry and dated thriller. Oona Chaplin and Natalie Tena take a narrowboat around London's canals as they have a relationship crisis in the engaging, provocative drama Anchor and Hope. The bone-dry Finnish black comedy Euthanizer growls its way through a story about a man fed up with the inhumanity of his neighbours. And Love, Cecil is a lush, lyrical documentary tracing the life of the gifted photographer/designer Cecil Beaton.

This coming week we have Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Jon Hamm in The Negotiator (aka Beirut), Timothee Chalamet in Hot Summer Nights, the Sundance hit American Animals, the British drama Apostasy, the British comedy Strangeways Here We Come and the American serial drama Paper Boys.

Critical Week: Oscars for everyone

The 90th Oscar ceremony on Sunday night felt unremarkable, running along without incident with a line-up of winners that was never surprising. There were some nice touches along the way, including host Jimmy Kimmel's opening newsreel montage and his dry, sharply pointed opening monolog. Many of the thank you speeches were also topical, touching on key themes of inclusion and diversity. The star moment went to an impassioned Frances McDormand.

Meanwhile, the show was stolen by Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph, who appeared holding their high heels to present a couple of awards. That made as strong a statement as any, and their banter was flat-out hilarious. Clearly the producers worked overtime to compile a diverse list of presenters, with an emphasis on women and ethnicities. Some of the homage sequences were a little odd (looking at war movies through the decades?), and Kimmel's star-packed trip to the cinema next door was clever but rather corny.

Other highlights included powerful performances of all five song nominees and welcome wins for A Fantastic Woman and long-time nominee Roger Deakins. Although the sweep by The Shape of Water felt somewhat excessive. A good film rather than a great one, its message to outsiders was certainly timely. And frankly, if the ceremony was more entertaining, we wouldn't mind if it was longer.

Meanwhile, back in the screening room, Rooney Mara stars in the biblical drama Mary Magdalene, which is a little too reverent to properly spring to life, despite a strong cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim as Jesus, Peter and Judas, respectively. Gringo stars David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron and Joel Edgerton in a lively, funny, entertaining but ultimately pointless action comedy. Peter Rabbit is a fast-paced, genuinely amusing romp mixing photo-real animation with live-action (Domhnall Gleeson and Rose Byrne are adorable) to riff on the classic Beatrix Potter stories. And the documentary Mansfield 66/67 traces the final years of the iconic bombshell, whose notorious friendship with Satanic church leader Anton LaVey sparked rumours of a curse surrounding her death at age 34.

Coming up this week are screenings of Alicia Vikander in the Tomb Raider reboot, Bella Thorne in Midnight Sun, Mathieu Amalric in My Golden Days, the dark drama My Friend Dahmer, the teen drama Screwed and something called Attack of the Southern Fried Zombies.

Critical Week: Jailyard blues

Films were a little more low-key this week, as studios continue their current trend of simply not screening the biggest releases (including Geostorm, The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Snowman, Flatliners, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the forthcoming A Bad Moms Christmas). With some of these, I buy a ticket to see the movie so I can review it. Others I skip even though they feature favourite actors and filmmakers (perhaps I can catch up with The Mountain Between Us on a flight). Either way, it's rather frustrating that distributors are now telling us how to do our job, and sometimes forcing us to lose paying work. Basically, they have forgotten that we are part of the industry and treat us instead as one element in their PR plan. I'm afraid this is only going to get worse.

Anyway, I only saw two films this week that featured mainstream stars. One was the gritty thriller Shot Caller, in which Game of Thrones' Nicolaj Coster-Waldau plays a banker sent to prison, where he becomes a criminal with the help of gang member Jon Bernthal (above). The other was the comedy Crash Pad with Domhnall Gleeson, Thomas Haden Church and Christina Applegate, corny but enjoyably silly.

From Australia, Teenage Kicks is a dark coming-of-age drama with very realistic characters. The offbeat British drama Palace of Fun is an intriguing story of obsession. From Congo, Felicite is a gorgeously made odyssey about a fiercely strong woman. Belgian ensemble romance Even Lovers Get the Blues features a cast of good-looking 30-somethings wrestling with issues of sex and love. And the web series I'm Fine follows a group of cliched but likeable gay men in West Hollywood. Then there was a festival that held its opening night...

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12th LONDON KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL 26 October - 19 November
The Day After
dir Hong Sangsoo; with Kwan Haehyo, Kim Minhee 17/Kor ***.
With a blackly comical tone, Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo tells a witty tale of relational chaos centring around a man caught between the three women in his life. With its improvised dialog and extended takes shot in striking monochrome, this is a loose, entertaining film that continually surprises the audience with its tricky pacing and an elliptical style of storytelling that makes it feel like we've been here before. And the characters are hilariously messy.

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Coming up this next week, we have the eagerly awaited sequel Paddington 2, the star-packed remake Murder on the Orient Express, supernatural thriller Sightings, horror action movie Mayhem, Norwegian thriller Thelma, Cuban drama Santa & Andres,  and the Psycho shower scene doc 78/52.

Critical Week: Into the woods

It's been another very long week for me, with screenings of films both heading for regular cinemas and featuring in the forthcoming London Film Festival. Some movies fit in both categories, of course. One of the bigger ones was Goodbye Christopher Robin, the AA Milne biopic starring Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie. It's gorgeously produced and thankfully much grittier than expected. Another surprise was Stronger, the biopic starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a man injured in the Boston Marathon bombing. Completely lacking in rah-rah patriotism, the film is a gruelling, expertly told story of a flawed man everyone called a hero.

Also heading for cinemas are the documentary Earth: One Amazing Day, which puts stunning footage from the BBC's Planet Earth II up on the big screen, with some added scenes. The Unseen is a British film set up as a Hitchcockian thriller about a couple haunted by the death of their son. Double Date is a British comedy thriller that's gleefully grisly and funny without being scary. And Furious Desires is a collection of lusty short films from Brazil, Mexico and Italy.

London Film Festival offerings included Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in the surreal thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the witty and pointed black comedy Brigsby Bear, Michael Haneke's offbeat comical drama Happy End, Aidan Gillen in the improvised comedy-drama Pickups, the simply gorgeous Chilean drama A Fantastic Woman, the powerfully moving French drama 120 Beats Per Minute, the cleverly scary Icelandic thriller Rift and the thoughtful Finnish romance A Moment in the Reeds. There were also two Israeli films: the sharply inventive Foxtrot and the gently moving romance The Cakemaker. More on those coming soon.

Up this week are Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, Kate Winslet in The Mountain Between Us, Jessica Chastain in Molly's Game and Josh Hartnett in 6 Below. The 61st BFI London Film Festival officially kicks off on Wednesday, and press screenings include Julianne Moore in Wonderstruck, Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes, Cate Blanchett in Manifesto, Carey Mulligan in Mudbound, Clio Barnard's Dark River, Sean Baker's The Florida Project and Michel Hazanavicius' Redoubtable. My daily LFF updates will start next Thursday.

Critical Week: The need for speed

There were two late press screenings for London-based critics of movies coming out this week. Doug Liman's American Made is a lively odyssey starring Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise - no, as real-life smuggler Barry Seal, who got was running arms for the CIA and White House and drugs for the Colombian cartels in the 1980s. It's entertaining, but overwhelmed by Cruise's presence. Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky is a scruffy heist comedy with Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and a scene-stealing, against-type Daniel Craig. There's not much to it, but it's a lot of fun.

Rather more serious, Taylor Sheridan's Wind River stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen in a mystery thriller set on a native American reservation in snowy Wyoming. It looks amazing and has a strong emotional kick. And then there's the goofy comedy Unleashed, which lacks discipline but has a certain charm as a dog and cat are transformed into their owner's idea of boyfriend material. Finally, Loving Vincent is the extraordinary Vincent van Gogh drama made using hand-painted animation. It looks simply dazzling, and features strong, recognisable performances from Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan, Chris O'Dowd and Helen McCrory.

This weekend I am catching up on some screeners at home before heading off to Venice for the 74th edition of the film festival on the Lido. Films on offer there include Alexander Payne's Downsizing, Darren Aronofsky's Mother!, George Clooney's Suburbicon, Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete, S Craig Zahler's Brawl in Cell Block 99, Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and many, many more. I'll be updating the blog regularly...

LFF 6: Charm the fans

More glamour on the red carpet last night at the 59th BFI London Film Festival, with the premiere of Black Mass, attended by filmmaker Scott Cooper and actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Depp - who got the crowds cheering. On the red carpet tonight: Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen for Brooklyn; top filmmakers Hirokazu Kore-eda and Hany Abu-Assad; and writer-director Robert Eggers and his entire cast from The Witch. A few more highlights...

Brooklyn
dir John Crowley; with Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson 15/Ire ***.
Constantly surging emotions become a little overwhelming very soon after this film opens, never letting up until the very end. Most of this is genuinely resonant, thanks to a sensitive script and transparent performances from the entire cast. But even a slight hint of loose energy wouldn't have gone amiss, and might have helped balance the romantic suds with earthy realism.

From Afar [Desde Allá]
dir Lorenzo Vigas; with Alfredo Castro, Luis Silva 15/Ven ****
Twisty and unexpected, this Venezuelan drama stars acclaimed Chilean actor Alfredo Castro as a lonely man who strikes up a tentative relationship with a young street thug. It's a remarkably involving film, because the characters have so many sides that they lead the audience on a quest for understanding. Equally impressive is how first-time filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas never sensationalises the subject matter.

The Witch 
dir Robert Eggers; with Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson ****
Taking elements from historical accounts that would go on to become classic fairy tales, filmmaker Eggers creates a period movie that plays on our culture's deepest fears. It's also a strikingly well-made horror film, offering eerily realistic settings that are filled with character subtlety, unnerving details and plenty of big jolts. Although genre fans might find its arthouse pacing a bit dull.

My Skinny Sister [Min Lilla Syster]
dir Sanna Lenken; with Rebecka Josephson, Amy Deasismont 15/Swe ***.
Essentially an issue movie, this Swedish drama is effective because it sticks closely to an unusual perspective, drawing out resonant themes in a variety of relationships. The topic is eating disorders, and seeing it through a little sister's  gradually dawning understanding adds unusual angles to the film. Which makes it more involving than expected.

Critical week: Hive mentality

A couple of big films screened to the London press this week, including Marvel's latest blockbuster Ant-Man, a hilariously engaging action romp that's sure to win over just about everyone in the audience. The adult comedy Ted 2 carries on the story of Mark Wahlberg and his best pal, a talking teddy bear voiced by Seth MacFarlane. And its nonstop barrage of adult-aimed humour is packed with laugh-out-loud moments. Saoirse Ronan is superb as always in Brooklyn, an emotional epic about a young woman migrating from Ireland to America in the 1950s.

There were also two very different documentaries: The Salt of the Earth is the stunning story of photographer Sebastao Salgado, who changed the world (and himself) with his daring, potent photos of humanity and nature, while The Nightmare is a gimmicky doc about sleep paralysis told as a horror freak-out without any expert commentary. There was also the inventive British indie thriller 51 Degrees North shows considerable promise, even if the found-footage structure leaves it somewhat fragmented. And the American indie Angels With Tethered Wings felt rather thrown together with jarringly contradictory tones in each plot thread, amateurish direction and a cast that can't keep up.

This coming week we have Ryan Reynolds in Self/Less, James Franco in True Story, Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman in Ruth & Alex, Craig Roberts in Just Jim, the horror thriller The Gallows, the animated adventure Maya the Bee, the romance doc Looking for Love and two horror comedies: 100 Bloody Acres and Dude Bro Party Massacre III.

Critical Week: Manners. Maketh. Man.

Easy: the press screening of this past week was Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service, the Kick-Ass style James Bond spoof that's sure to have fans clamouring for more. It stars Colin Firth and rising-star Taron Egerton, plus the likes of Mark Strong, Michael Caine and Samuel L Jackson. The other high-profile screening this week was for Ex Machina, Alex Garland's debut as a director, a surprising artificial intelligence-themed sci-fi thriller starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and the increasingly unmissable Oscar Isaac.

Also: The Turning is an anthology film from Australia, mercifully cut in half for its international release. It features engulfing, emotional stories starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne and Miranda Otto. Black November is a Nigerian drama re-edited for global release with new footage featuring stars including Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Wyclef Jean and Akon. A great story, awkwardly told. It Follows is a freak-out horror movie that makes up for its essential simplicity with movie-style scares. And Snow in Paradise is yet another East End crime drama, tired but at least it takes an engagingly emotional approach.

This coming week we have Oscar nominations on Thursday and I am chairing the London Critics' Circle Awards on Sunday - always one of my busiest projects of the year as I put the event together and grapple with celebrities and their publicists. But Sunday night will be a lot of fun - look for the usual full report. As for screenings, there's Johnny Depp in Mortdecai, Daniel Bruhl in Michael Winterbottom's Face of an Angel, Stephen Daldry's Trash, Simon Helberg's We'll Never Have Paris, and the documentaries Dior and I, about the design house's new creative director, and Maidan, about the Ukrainian revolution.

Sundance London 3: Tales of deconstruction

The Sundance London Festival is winding down tonight, and it's been a rather crazy weekend at the O2 with films and filmmakers crawling all over the place. The public screenings are always a lot more fun than the press shows, as we get filmmaker intros and Q&As, plus of course lively audiences to watch the movies with. I'll have one last entry tomorrow; in the meantime, here are more highlights...

They Came Together
dir David Wain; with Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler 14/US ***.
A goofy spoof of romantic-comedies, this film sets itself a pretty tricky target, since rom-coms are pretty corny themselves. But cowriters David Wain and Michael Showalter and their up-for-it cast charge on regardless, wringing a lot of laughs from the material. Frustratingly, the hilarious rom-com they create isn't actually very involving. The story plays out in flashback as Joel and Molly (Russ and Poehler, above) recount their movie-like tale to friends (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper) over dinner. And there isn't a single movie cliche left out, from various montage sequences to a series of best pals to various improbable breakups and reunions. With lesser actors, this could have turned out like a painful cross between Mel Brooks and Zucker-Abrams-Zucker, but Rudd and Poehler add the necessary zing to hold our interest and keep us laughing at the dense onslaught of visual and verbal gags. Not to mention a non-stop flow of hilarious starry cameos. But if the film itself was actually a charmer, that would have been something special.

Frank
dir Lenny Abrahamson; with Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender 14/Ire ****
Loosely based on the life of Chris Sievey (aka Frank Sidebottom), this offbeat comedy continually challenges us both with big ideas and narrative U-turns. It's a remarkably assured comedy with a warm centre underneath a prickly, sometimes maddeningly absurd surface... FULL REVIEW >

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter 
dir David Zellner; with Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube 14/US ***.
An offbeat riff on the Coen brothers' Fargo, this "true story" is packed with witty touches and knowing references, as well as a remarkably complex, surreal performance from Kikuchi. It's also a little bit frustrating in its refusal to let the audience in on the joke, if it is a joke. It opens in Japan with the surly but intriguingly cheeky Kumiko (Kikuchi) following a treasure map to a videotape buried in a seaside cave and a clue pointing to a specific moment in the film, indicating the spot a case of cash is buried in snowy Minnesota. Even though Fargo is clearly a fictional movie, Kumiko becomes obsessed with travelling to the wintry American Midwest to find that cash. The bare bones of the plot are so bonkers that the film has the ring of truth to it, although there's something squirm-inducing about being asked to sympathise with someone who is so delusional - and probably mentally ill. And director-cowriter-costar Zellner somehow manages to create a lightly comical tone while undermining every scene with horror movie touches. Clever, unsettling, unforgettable.

Sundance Shorts

I watched nine shorts at this year's festival, and the best was easily Yearbook, Bernardo Britto's animated tale about a man trying to distill human influence into the historical records before the planet is destroyed. It's a real stunner. Other highlights included Burger, the Iris-produced late-night comedy shot in Cardiff that's a blast of pure energy; The Last Days of Peter Bergmann, an Irish documentary about a man who managed to erase himself from the world; and Life's a Bitch, a staggeringly ambitious and utterly wonderful French short about the romantic entanglements one hapless guy gets into and out of over a year.

Critical Week: A song for Frank

London critics got a chance to catch up with this year's Sundance sensation, Lenny Abrahamson's Frank, starring Michael Fassbender wearing a giant papier-mache head. Yes, it's as offbeat and arty as it sounds, but also surprisingly warm and endearing, with terrific performances from Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy. The other big movie was Hossein Amini's subtly involving and very twisty thriller  The Two Faces of January, starring Viggo Mortensen, Kristin Dunst and Oscar Isaac, based on the Patricia Highsmith novel.

Only slightly further afield, C.O.G. is a dark, introspective drama starring Looking's Jonathan Goff as a guy trying to run from his own shadow. Khumba is an engaging, colourfully animated South African feature, with a somewhat compromised plot about a geeky zebra. Cheap Thrills is an escalating exercise in finding the audience's breaking point - a very clever, hard-to-watch black comedy. Awful Nice is an awkwardly written comedy with some telling observations. And The Punk Singer is a lively, insightful doc about feminist punk, centring on the iconic Kathleen Hanna.

The big films screening this coming week are the Marvel sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the TV show reunion Veronica Mars and the black comedy A Long Way Down. There are two Irish films - Brendan Gleeson in Calvary and Andrew Scott in The Stag; the Indonesian action-sequel The Raid 2; Chiwetel Ejiofor in Half of a Yellow Sun; the black comedy How to Be a Man; the animated adventure Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return; and something called Patema Inverted.

Critical Week: Out of the closet

That's Domhnall Gleeson emerging from a wardrobe in the time-travelling romance About Time, which was the surprise film at June's Edinburgh International Film Festival and has been screening to London press this past week. It's what you'd expect from writer-director Richard Curtis, including a terrific cast that features Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy and Lindsay Duncan. Tilting more toward the comical end of the rom-com spectrum, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis star in We're the Millers, a rude drug-smuggling romp that's more amusing than riotous

We also had two indie comedy-dramas: Aubrey Plaza stars in the sex-focussed coming-of-age comedy The To Do List, which is much smarter than expected; and Kristen Bell gets a more serious role than usual in The Lifeguard, as a 29-year-old who reverts to her teen life in a moment of panic, complete with her old summer job and a 16-year-old boyfriend (the superb David Lambert). Both films are strongly involving, and likely to provoke different reactions in audiences.

A little further afield, Uwantme2killhim? is a chillingly clever British thriller based on a true story about an internet-based crime; Kon-Tiki is the spectacularly photographed Oscar-nominated epic about Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 raft journey proving that Incas populated Polynesia; and Una Noche is a disarmingly engaging drama about three young Cubans planning a dangerous journey to Miami. And I also revisited one of my all-time favourites: Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, which is getting a digitally restored release.

This coming week we catch up with the 3D doc One Direction: This Is Us just before its release. There's also Saoirse Ronan in the WWIII thriller How I Live Now, the Cannes-winning romance Blue Is the Warmest Colour, the British youth-crime comedy Borrowed Time, the British-Indian comedy Jadoo, and the restored final cut of the 1973 classic The Wicker Man.