Critical Week: Practice makes perfect

The 70th London Film Festival continues to play at venues around the city, and I caught up with four more films this week. Yes, I'm taking it a bit easy this year, simply for my mental health. That said, I've already seen 25 films, with more to come (reviews are linked HERE). It was especially fun to meet Pedro Pascal at the screening of Behemoth, a superbly delicate drama about a cellist working through his past. At the reception I also chatted with two of his seriously gifted collaborators on the film: writer-director Tony Gilroy and costar Eva Victor. Speaking of receptions, I got to chat with the talented cast and directors of both La Bola Negra (my favourite film so far this year, out this week in the US) and Possible Love (another fave) at Netflix's annual LFF brunch.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
La Bola Negra • Naza
Forgotten Island • Case 137
Musk • Hadestown: The Musical
ALL REVIEWS >

I also had a great chat with Incredibles director Brad Bird, then immediately headed to a screening of his newest movie Ray Gunn, a beautifully animated retro-futuristic noir mystery. After that, there was screening of Laika's magnificent stop-motion epic Wildwood, attended by director Travis Knight, voice actors Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay and great cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. The film is unmissable! And Sandra Huller gives yet another astonishingly nuanced performance in Pawel Pawlikowski's gorgeous Fatherland, a father-daughter road movie set in Germany just after the war. 

Outside the festival, I saw the frenetic action thriller Street Fighter, starring Noah Centineo, David Dastmalchian and a Hulked-up Jason Momoa. It's loud and chaotic, and very troubling thematically. But gamers might enjoy it. There were also live performances of the unauthorised parody Heated Rivalry and the celebratory dance Ballet Black at 25, plus a visit to the Design Museum to preview Laika's Wildwood Exhibition (see below).

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Julianne Moore in LFF's closing night film The Debut, the comic book thriller Clayface, Clio Barnard's I See Building Fall Like Lightning, John Hannah in Bad Day at the Office, Australian drama Sweet Milk Lake, the restored version of Ken Russell's The Devils on the big screen and a live performance of Tellus at Sadler's Wells East.

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Raindance: Take your shot

The 33rd Raindance Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with the world premiere of the British drama Heavyweight and a properly epic afterparty at with special honours were presented to screen icons Celia Imrie and Jason Isaacs. The festival runs over the next 10 days with a flurry of independent films. I'm trying to limit how many I watch, aiming for one per day. So here are the first two...

Heavyweight
dir-scr Christopher M Anthony; with Jordan Bolger, Nicholas Pinnock 25/UK ****
Unfolding in real time and largely in a single room, like a stage play, this British boxing drama has a propulsive pace as it traces the run-up to a championship bout. Writer-director Christopher Anthony keeps the tension high with edgy dialog, beefy performances, prowling camerawork and a churning underscore. The sheer machismo on display is perhaps a bit exhausting, but it's balanced by a terrific sense of underlying emotion.

A Cell Phone Movie
dir-scr Will Sterling; with Will Sterling, Tessa Glanville 25/US ****
As the title indicates, this meta-comedy was shot on a mobile phone. It looks great, skilfully filmed in wide-screen and sharply well-edited too. Actor-filmmaker Will Sterling is a charming lead, and the comedy is warm and off-the-cuff, with a continual stream of witty gags about trying to make a no-budget movie. Even more engaging are the thoughtfully serious sequences that dig deeper into the characters and situations.

Full reviews of festival films will be linked here in due course: SHADOWS @ RAINDANCE >

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Red Path • 28 Years Later
Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf
ALL REVIEWS >

This week I got to attend the glamorous world premiere of Jurassic World: Rebirth, with the full cast and crew in attendance, including Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali. And the film is great fun. The new Pixar animation Elio is an enjoyable if familiar space romp, but it's packed with dazzling touches. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are back with 28 Years Later, a superbly ripping addition to the franchise. John Travolta stars in the wobbly but watchable caper comedy High Rollers. Harry Melling and Caleb Landry Jones lead the cast of Scottish period weirdness Harvest, which struggles to make its point. Writer-director Eva Victor stars with Naomi Ackie in the beautifully written and directed Sorry, Baby, putting a truthful spin on a big event. Leonie Benesch is excellent as an overworked nurse in the expertly shot Swiss drama Late Shift. And the properly stunning Tunisian drama Red Path tells a riveting true story with power and emotion. I also attended the opening night cabaret for this year's London Clown Festival

This coming week there are many more films at Raindance, plus Brad Pitt in F1, Dylan O'Brien in Ponyboi, the indie comedy Rent Free, the French comedy Colours of Time and the Colombian drama Salt Water, plus the premiere for Lena Dunham's TV series Too Much and three live performances: Quadrophenia at Sadler's Wells, Jonah Non Grata at Soho Theatre and Botis Seva's Until We Sleep at Sadler's Wells East.