Critical Week: Enjoy the view

London began reopening this week, and after four months of lockdown it feels like Christmas! The weather is brightening up too, although it's still chillier than it should be. Meanwhile, the movies I've been watching have been a bit further from the mainstream than previous weeks, including Ed Westwick and Louise Linton in the pitch-black rom-com Me You Madness, which is uneven but engaging. Dustin Hoffman stars in the brain-bending Italian thriller Into the Labyrinth, an over-ambitious film that looks great and has a nice Lynchian touch. And the edgy teen drama Beast Beast adopts an approach that feels fresh even as it explores familiar themes.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Gunda • True Mothers
In the Earth • The Banishing
PERHAPS AVOID:
I'm Not in Love • Sensation
ALL REVIEWS >

There were also four documentaries. Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation is like a double biopic, beautifully edited together to explore the parallel lives of two iconic writers who were close friends. Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies is a terrific trip into film history, warmly exploring the life of producer Alan Ladd Jr, who was responsible for getting a huge number of timeless classics made. And from Norway, Gunda is a wordless black-and-white look into a pig's life on a farm. It's utterly enchanting, and sharply pointed too. I also caught up with this Oscar-nominated documentary...

The Mole Agent  [El Agente Topo]

dir-scr Maite Alberdi; prd Marcela Santibanez

with Sergio Chamy, Romulo Aitken, Berta Ureta, Marta Olivares, Rubira Olivares, Petronila Abarca, Zoila Gonzalez

release Chl 21.Aug.20, US 28.Aug.20,  UK 11.Dec.20 

20/Chile 1h24 ****.

This documentary plays like a reality show, as a private investigator hires an elderly man to go undercover in a retirement home. The story unfolds with the engaging pace of a breezy adventure, as each scene is infused with witty observations. Filmmaker Maite Alberdi shoots this expertly, making it feel more like an scrappy comedy than the fly-on-the-wall doc that it actually is. But of course, there's something much more serious going on here, and Alberti's film becomes a warm exploration of age that's both entertaining and deeply moving.

After interviewing a hilarious line-up of men in their 80s and 90s, investigator Romulo hires the alert Sergio and teaches him to use spy cameras in pens and glasses and call in reports using FaceTime. His job is to make sure that the mother of Romulo's client isn't being mistreated. Once inside, Sergio settles in to his secret task, interviewing people and reporting back to Romulo. Meanwhile, sparky resident Berta befriends Sergio and makes a move. And she's not the only one. But then with 40 women and only four men, it's hardly surprising that the charming Sergio is elected king.

Alberdi hilariously plays with the format, as she drafts in a wide range of colourful characters. She even sends her film crew inside on a bogus job, so they can secretly document Sergio's mission. His reports are remarkably observant, and he even solves another mystery in the nursing home, but it's his compassion that wins us over. And his conclusion to the case is eye-opening. Alberdi's approach is so offhanded and amusing, that she catches us off-guard with the film's real agenda, exploring about how it feels to get old and live in a nursing home away from loved ones. These spirited retirees have a lot to teach us.  

PG themes • 24.Apr.21

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Even with cinemas still closed, there is no end of films to see at home, and review screeners to watch include Glenn Close in Four Good Days, Christopher Walken in Percy vs Goliath, RJ Mitte in The Oak Room, the designer doc House of Cardin, the rugby doc Steelers, the shorts collection Upon Her Lips: Pure Feels and the 15th anniversary director's cut of Another Gay Movie.

Critical Week: Socially distant

The weather has warmed up again in the UK this past week, which makes staying indoors more annoying - apart from that allowed one-hour walk each day. But there are plenty of films to watch, and I've also binged some TV (loved Ryan Murphy's Hollywood and enjoyed Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever). As for the movies, it was another uneven batch.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Half of It • Spaceship Earth
A Good Woman Is Hard to Find
PERHAPS AVOID:
Cry for the Bad Man
Can You Keep a Secret?

Bigger films included Arkansas, Clark Duke's directing debut. He stars with Liam Hemsworth (above) in a thin but entertaining drug thriller infused with Coen-like comedy. Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer deserve to become stars for their work in The Half of It, one of the finest teen comedy-dramas in recent memory. It upends, and betters, all of the usual tropes of the genre. On the other hand, All Day and a Night gets stuck in its grim, tough portrayal of of a teen (the superb Ashton Sanders) caught in a cycle of drug-fuelled violence.

Some other decent films included the low-key drama Working Man, weaving a witty, involving story following the closing of a small-town factory; and Spaceship Earth is a fascinating doc about biospherians trying to help the planet, but caught up in rumours that they're in a doomsday cult. Guilty pleasures included the bonkers horror movie Reborn, which carefully recreates a 1970s vibe; and Enemy Lines is a standard WWII rescue adventure, but it's nicely shot on location with a solid cast. Less successful were the atmospheric but vacuous fairy tale horror Gretel & Hansel, the intimate but unsatisfying drama Clementine, and the hammy but over-serious home-invasion thriller Cry for the Bad Man.

I have quite a few things to watch over the next week, including Timothee Chalamet in A Rainy Day in New York, David Spade in The Wrong Missy, Kumail Nanjiani in The Photograph, Tamsin Grieg in Days of the Bagnold Summer, Imogen Poots in Castle in the Ground, festival hit Never Rarely Sometimes Always, coming-of-age drama Angelfish, horror anthology Evil Little Things, sci-fi thriller Red Rover, and Italian comedy-drama Fairytale.

Critical Week: Follow your nose

In the New Year so far, there have been no actual press screenings, so my movies have been on the small screen. This includes a couple that were made for TV. Benedict Cumberbatch was back for Sherlock: The Six Thatchers, an enjoyable mystery that continued this sporadic series' drift into insufferably smug tricksiness. This includes Sherlock's obsession with Twitter, swiftly abandoned when the plot needs to move. Let's hope upcoming episodes are more focussed on solid storytelling and character development. I also finally caught up with the pilot for The Get Down, directed by Baz Luhrmann. It's a hugely engaging movie set amid the burgeoning rap scene in 1977 New York. There's plenty of whizzy style, as expected, but also a clever depth of character that developed nicely through the following five episodes. I also caught the financial thriller The Crash, which has a starry ensemble cast good enough to make the film watchable despite a startlingly dull script.

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My Scientology Movie
dir John Dower; with Louis Theroux, Marty Rathbun, Marc Headley, Andrew Perez, Rob Alter 16/UK ***.
British journalist Louis Theroux seems to fall into the Twilight Zone as he tries to make a balanced and open-minded, sympathetic documentary about Scientology. Despite never setting out to be combative, he keeps running into bizarre roadblocks, inexplicable reactions and aggressive resistance. Even the ex-members he talks to seem to be less than forthcoming. Some elements of this film don't work very well (such as all of the repetitive driving around or hiring actors to play prominent church members like Tom Cruise), but the film paints an intriguing portrait of an organisation that doesn't want any scrutiny at all - friendly or otherwise. And while Theroux goes out of his way to find the positive aspects of their beliefs and practices, Scientology's rather comically intimidating, incessant meddling ultimately makes it impossible for the audience to remain objective. Which of course ends up being the point.

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Before the Flood
dir Fisher Stevens; scr Mark Monroe; with Leonardo DiCaprio, Barack Obama, Ban Ki-Moon, Pope Francis, Elon Musk, Alejandro Inarritu 16/US ****
This documentary may be rather pushy, but then it's about what should be the most important issue facing humanity at the moment: climate change. The film follows DiCaprio as he travels around the world for two years as a United Nations messenger of peace, asking questions, talking with leaders and experts, exploring the situation from devastated boreal forests to melting ice caps to burnt-out jungles to the flooded streets of Miami. Scientists have almost never so wholeheartedly agreed on any issue, including what needs to be done to slow the changes and avert catastrophe. And yet idiots (most of whom are paid off by oil company lobbyists) continue to deny that this is taking place, unforgivably jeopardising future generations. This isn't about ignorance, it's about evil. And there's plenty we can do if we can muster up the will. This clear-eyed, beautifully assembled documentary is a bit gimmicky, but it carefully highlights the issue for anyone who wants to know the truth.

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Screenings start up again on Monday, and I have the James McAvoy thriller Split in the diary. There's also Ben Affleck's mobster drama Live by Night, the 60s-style thriller The Love Witch and a German drama called Jonathan.