Critical Week: Lie low

With the big autumn festivals behind us, it feels like awards season kicked off this week, as studios begin jostling for attention with special screenings of their contenders. Channing Tatum gets one of his best roles yet in Roofman, the astonishing true story of a nice-guy criminal. It's entertaining and surprisingly moving too. I also attended a lively Q&A screening with Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and writer-director Benny Safdie for another true story, The Smashing Machine. It's an unusually realistic mixed martial arts biopic with terrific performances from the whole cast.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Brides • Ellis Park
ALL REVIEWS >

Dylan O'Brien is terrific in Twinless, starring opposite gifted writer-director James Sweeney in an offbeat drama about grief and obsession. Marion Cotillard goes glacial in The Ice Tower, a too-murky fantasy about a teen girl who because fascinated by an actress on a film set. Eddie Marsan and Sam Claflin go very dark in All the Devils Are Here, an intriguing, artful British crime drama set in a gloomy farmhouse on a moor. 

Hong Kong icons Jackie Chan and Tony Leung face off in riveting, fast-paced cops-and-crooks thriller The Shadow's Edge. From Argentina, Kill the Jockey is a skilfully made and very quirky romp infused with dark emotions. And Justin Kurzel's doc Ellis Park beautifully explores the life of musician Warren Ellis and his involvement in rescuing animals in Indonesia. I also attended Acosta Danza's exhilarating A Decade in Motion on stage at Sadler's Wells. 

Films to watch this coming week include Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another (after I was unable to attend the only press screening), Riz Ahmed in Relay, Marlon Wayans in Him, Malcolm McDowell in The Partisan and Hunter Doohan in The Wilderness. There are also live performances of Lacrima at the Barbican and Get Down Tonight at Charing Cross Theatre.

Critical Week: Watch out

There were a range of more offbeat movies to watch this week, which always makes this job a bit more fun. Not a blockbuster in sight! Furthest afield was the Belgian-Congolese odyssey Omen, a powerful exploration of identity with terrific characters and colourful settings. From Ireland, All You Need Is Death is a delightfully unnerving folk horror about a cursed song. And from Japan, Spy x Family Code: White is frankly bonkers animation (a feature expanded from the Netflix series) about a assembled family made up of a spy, an assassin, a telepath and a dog who can see the future. Jaw-droppingly hilarious.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Close Your Eyes • Opponent
The Teachers' Lounge • Omen
Since the Last Time We Met
ALL REVIEWS >

Back to more mainstream fare, we had the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, a strongly well-made if incomplete film anchored by a tremendous performance by Marisa Abela. I loved The Book of Clarence, an uneven biblical comedy-drama that's both silly and earnest, but works thanks to LaKeith Stanfield. And then there was Liuben is an awkwardly dubbed Spanish-Bulgarian drama with a strong story about a repressive society. And the delightful Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces engagingly traces the comedian's life from stand-up to movie stardom and beyond.

I also watched three films from Argentina: Close Your Eyes is an epic-length mystery that makes the most of its extended running time with an attention to character and detail; Since the Last Time We Met is a remarkably sensitive look at a rekindled relationship; and Carnal Sins is a clever, beautifully made folk horror about a monster in the woods. 

This coming week I'll be watching Zendaya in Challengers, Johnny Depp in Jeanne du Barry, Matthew Modine in Hard Miles, the Canadian romcom The Nature of Love, Mexican drama All the Fires, the mock-doc Swede Caroline and the final compilation in the series Boys on Film 24: Happy Endings.

FrightFest: The woman in black

The 20th FrightFest continues through this long weekend in London, with one of the world's best programmes of movies that are designed to rattle the audience to the core. No wonder horror is my favourite genre. Here are a few more highlights, starting with the film that will close the festival on Monday, which stars Sarah Bolger (above). It's my favourite FrightFest movie so far...

A Good Woman Is Hard to Find
dir Abner Pastoll; with Sarah Bolger, Edward Hogg 
19/UK ****
There's a gritty, earthy undertone to this melodramatic thriller that lifts it far above the usual low-budget British potboiler. Writer Ronan Blaney and director Abner Pastoll have made a working-class drama that's packed with both nasty suspense and pointed commentary on the system, with a superb cast in complex roles. So even though the production values are basic, the film has a remarkable urgency... FULL REVIEW >

Feedback
dir Pedro C Alonso; with Eddie Marsan, Paul Anderson 19/Sp ***
Completely set within a London radio studio, this Spanish thriller is gripping thanks to its whizzy pace, extraordinary cast and the colourful panache of director Pedro Alonso. The way events play out is skilfully jarring, feeling completely out of control as things get nastier and messier. Perhaps with less screaming the subtext might have been more audible, but it's a taut and chilling ride... FULL REVIEW >

A Serial Killer's Guide to Life
dir-scr Staten Cousins Roe; with Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe 19/UK ***
A witty visual style helps this blackly comical British thriller connect with the audience, as filmmaker Staten Cousins Roe pokes fun at the very nature of defining ambition and "releasing the inner me". The film is sharply well made, packed with amusing observations on human behaviour. But in the end, there doesn't seem to be too much to it, really. Aside from a lacerating look at self-help culture.

Extracurricular
dir Ray Xue; with Keenan Tracey, Brittany Raymond 18/Can ***
There's a quietly building intensity to this dramatic horror movie, basing its nastiness in realistic teens and small-town life. Director Ray Xue establishes a dark and very serious tone while keeping things authentic with offhanded interaction and complex character detail. Where the story goes feels a bit pointless, but it's thoroughly unnerving. It's also grisly enough to offer fans an intriguing twist on the genre... FULL REVIEW >

The Dark Red
dir Dan Bush; with April Billingsley, Kelsey Scott 18/US ***.
Dreamy and intriguing, this moody drama is beautifully put together, with an earthy approach that finds key points of identification for the audience. Director-cowriter Dan Bush is an assured filmmaker who carefully builds the story using darkly dramatic flashbacks before flipping everything on its head. Where this goes is entertainingly disorienting, continually twisting the tale until it becomes a quietly outrageous rampage.

The Furies
dir-scr Tony D'Aquino; with Airlie Dodds, Linda Ngo 19/Aus ***.
Complete with a properly grisly cold open, this nasty little Australian horror has heavy echoes of Wolf Creek, and not just because its premise features men who inflict random violence on women (and also other men to be fair). Even if the plot is a bit thin, genre fans will love the often mind-bogglingly hideous gore. And there's a riveting pace to the narrative as secrets are uncovered, and as one grotesque set-piece follows another.

Here Comes Hell
dir Jack McHenry; with Jess Webber, Margaret Clunie 19/UK ***.
Opening with a witty disclaimer, this British comedy plays like a jaunty vintage romp, shot in academy ratio black and white. It's a clever pastiche, packed with amusing touches that undercut what feels like a freak-out campfire ghost story. Director Jack McHenry handles the comedy and horror with skill, creating an engagingly memorable spoof that's both funny and properly terrifying.

Links:
• Official FRIGHTFEST site
• Shadows' FRIGHTFEST homepage 

Critical Week: Boys gone wild

There weren't any kids' movies screened to critics this week, thankfully (it's been a bit much this summer!). But we had some films about kids aimed at grown-ups. The biggest is Good Boys, which is basically a standard rude teen movie featuring tweens in the central roles instead. Jacob Tremblay (above) leads the cast of kids and scene-stealing adults. Lupita Nyong'o plays a smart teacher in Little Monsters, taking her kindergarten class on a tour of local farm when a zombie apocalypse breaks out. Being an Aussie film, it's primarily a comedy, but there's also real gore and emotion too. And Steve Coogan leads Hot Air as a radio host who suddenly has to take care of his teen niece (Taylor Russell). It's snappy is rather predictable.

Two smallish movies benefit from big Hollywood actresses: Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams star in After the Wedding, as two women connected by a long-time secret involving Billy Crudup. Naomi Watts stars in the smart, provocative drama Luce, as a woman coping with possible issues relating to her adoptive teen son's past. Further afield we had the superb Iranian drama Permission, about a fierce, intelligent woman taking on an unjust system; the light, silly romantic comedy One Last Night is set around a struggling cinema; and Tu Me Manques is an artful, devastatingly emotional drama based on a play that links New York with Bolivia.

I've also been watching horror films that will be at the upcoming FrightFest (in London, 22-26 Aug). The quality of these films has been very high; for me horror is the perfect movie genre, because if done well it can truly make you forget the world outside. These include the opening film Come to Daddy starring Elijah Wood, the closing film A Good Woman Is Hard to Find starring Sarah Bolger, Eddie Marsan in Feedback, the teen-killers thriller Extracurricular and the dark psychological nightmare I Trapped the Devil. More to come on the festival next week.

This coming week we have screenings of Sam Taylor-Johnson's A Million Little Pieces, Guillermo Del Toro's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Alexandre Aja's Crawl and Francois Ozon's By the Grace of God. Plus several more FrightFest titles.