Critical Week: Under pressure

It's been another lightish week film-wise, and we have three big weekends up ahead. First is the May Day holiday, followed by the three-day Coronation weekend, and then there's Eurovision, which Liverpool is hosting on Ukraine's behalf. Meanwhile, I've been watching movies and writing about them this week. Filmmaker Ari Aster is back with Beau Is Afraid, an unhinged three-hour odyssey starring an astonishing Joaquin Phoenix. It's ambitious, indulgent and fairly impenetrable, and its packed with moments of genius. Big George Foreman is a by-the-numbers biopic about the great boxer. Its sanitised, anecdotal, relentlessly inspiring approach is frustrating, but Foreman's story is riveting. And Khris Davis is solid in the demanding role.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Eight Mountains
Love According to Dalva
Little Richard: I Am Everything
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there's Last Sentinel, a nicely contained thriller set in 2063 on an isolated outpost where Kate Bosworth and three men grapple with paranoia and other dangers. It's engaging but a bit thin. From Greece, the drama Broadway looks great, and has a fascinating premise that involves quirky outcasts surviving with a performance art/crime scam. But it's superficial and aimless. For contrast, there was dancer-choreographer Siobhan Davies' mesmerising autobiographical film Transparent, which screened at the Lillian Baylis Studio at Sadler's Wells, followed by a terrific Q&A with Davies. Also at Sadler's Wells, I covered this spring's stunning performance by the exceptionally talented Nederlands Dans Theater.

This next week, aside from enjoying some downtime over the three-day weekend, I'll be watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, Jim Parsons in Spoiler Alert, the small-town comedy-drama 5-25-77, Irish drama Lakelands, French drama Mother and Son and Tunisian drama Harka. And there's also the stage show Supernova at the Clapham Omnibus (review here soon).

Critical Week: A proper belter

It was a long weekend in Britain, but the much-promised heatwave never materialised. It was warmish, but only sporadically sunny - basically like the entire summer has been. We haven't really had seasons this year, with a mild winter, chilly spring and a summer that has only rarely been warmer than 25C/75F. It's enough to make you want to scream. Thankfully, that's not what Jennifer Hudson was doing in the biopic Respect. Her performance is simply astonishing, never mimicry but rather inhabiting Aretha Franklin from the inside out, including her distinct way of singing. Her story is powerful too, even if the film feels a little standard (and overlong) for a biopic.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Year of the Everlasting Storm
Shang-Chi • Annette
Misha and the Wolves 
PERHAPS AVOID:
The Last Job • Wildfire 
ALL REVIEWS >

Distinctly outside any boundaries, Sion Sono's Prisoners of the Ghostland stars a gruff Nicolas Cage as a man forced to rescue a damsel (Sofia Boutella) from a Japanese wasteland. It's utterly nuts, and surprisingly enjoyable. Tom Burke stars in The Show, a colourfully bonkers British horror featuring a parallel reality underworld, or something. And a Canadian horror, Bloodthirsty, takes a grisly but muted approach to the werewolf genre. All three of these were at FrightFest and have release dates coming soon. A more serious drama from Poland, The Champion of Auschwitz, recounts the involving true story of a boxer in a Nazi prison camp. It's remarkably grounded and powerful. The nicely observant drama A Wake digs into a family dynamic after a funeral, then shakes things up with a revelation. And the harrowing, edgy Danish thriller Shorta follows two cops caught up in an anti-police riot. I also caught up with one that I had missed a couple of weeks back...

Vivo
dir Kirk DeMicco; voices Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ynairaly Simo 21/US ***.
Sony Animation's first musical was nabbed by Netflix, which made it hard to see on a big screen where its colourfully lush animation would have looked gorgeous. It's a lively tale that follows a cheeky honey bear (Miranda) from Havana who connects with a cheeky teen (Simo) in Key West, leading to a madcap adventure en route to Miami. There's a lot going on along the way, even if the plot itself is pretty simple. But it's populated by wonderfully lively characters (voices include Zoe Saldana, Brian Tyree Henry and the fabulous Gloria Estefan) and several terrific songs too. It's a little gem that adeptly keeps us smiling with a lovely Latin beat.

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Films to watch this coming week include Camila Cabello in Cinderella, Justice Smith in The Voyeurs, Jon Bernthal in Small Engine Repair, Jaboukie Young-White in Dating & New York, coming-of-age drama Iceland Is Best, queer horror comedy Death Drop Gorgeous, and the German courtroom drama The Collini Case. We also have the programme launch for October's London Film Festival.

LFF: Share a snack on Day 10

The 61st BFI London Film Festival powers into its final weekend with a flurry of world premieres, red carpet galas and lots of great little films packed into the edges of the programme. I have no more press screenings, but there are several movies I'm hoping to catch at public screenings over the weekend, so watch this space. And here are some more highlights...

The Florida Project
dir Sean Baker; with Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite 17/US ****
Loose and lively, this free-flowing comedy-drama is set among people living just outside the main gates of Disney World. And its young cast of mainly non-actors is terrific at creating likeable characters with big attitudes. As he did in Tangerine, filmmaker Sean Baker focusses on engaging people touched by the carelessness of loved ones who think they deserve sympathy, but don't... FULL REVIEW >

Downsizing
dir Alexander Payne; with Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig 17/US ***
Alexander Payne eschews his usual organic style of storytelling for something more pointed and constructed. The premise is ingeniously conceived and thought out down to the (ahem!) smallest details, and as the plot develops a variety of big issues make themselves known. This may provide a connection to present-day issues, but it makes the film begin to feel rather pushy. And the ideas themselves become stronger than the narrative... FULL REVIEW >

Sweet Country
dir Warwick Thornton; with Sam Neill, Hamilton Morris 17/Aus ***.
With a gentle pace that echoes the rhythms of life in turn-of-the-century rural Australia, this slow-burning dramatic Western quietly creeps up on the audience. It offers deep themes and detailed characters, plus a vivid depiction of the clash between the Aboriginals and the European interlopers. The film's setting may echo other movies, but the tone is distinctly more internalised, exploring the true nature of justice in a seriously unfair place... FULL REVIEW >

The Forgiven
dir Roland Joffe; with Forest Whitaker, Eric Bana 17/SA ***
This well-produced drama about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission feels somewhat dated, as this kind of story has been told in plenty of movies over the past 20 years. But strong performances from an international cast raise the interest level, and it's a vivid exploration of forgiveness that transcends some rather sentimental storytelling.

A Sort of Family  [Una Especie de Familia]
dir Diego Lerman; with Barbara Lennie, Yanina Avila 17/Arg **.
From Argentina, this dark drama is intriguing enough to hold the interest, but it loses the audience's sympathy along the way. With a central character whose specific issues are only superficially defined, much of what happens feels infuriating, which is a problem for a movie that's straining so hard to be emotionally wrenching. Even so, filmmaker Diego Luna has an eye for characters and settings, so he draws us in to the dilemma and its implications.

Grain
dir Semih Kaplanoglu; with Jean-Marc Barr, Ermin Bravo 17/Tur ***.
With a gorgeous visual sensibility augmented by expansive monochrome cinematography, this Turkish odyssey explores big issues about the future of humanity through a meandering narrative following a man across a dystopian landscape. It's a bit obtuse at times, dipping into allegorical surrealism and arthouse nuttiness, but it's also utterly riveting, both for its epic plot and its big ideas.

Venezia 73: First contact on day 2

The press room was buzzing after this morning's screening of Denis Villeneuve's brainy new sci-fi thriller Arrival (that's Amy Adams above), which was also the starry red carpet tonight, along with Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, of course. Here's what I saw today...

Arrival
dir Denis Villeneuve; with Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner 16/Can ****.
With an enormous suggestion about the potential of humanity, this darkly emotive science-fiction thriller grabs the audience by the brain and never lets go. So while the film feels somewhat overserious and densely packed, director Denis Villeneuve also offers huge rewards to viewers who pay close attention. And his actors deliver performances that burst with both intelligence and emotion.


Prevenge
dir-scr Alice Lowe; with Alice Lowe, Jo Hartley 16/UK ****
Call this a serial killer movie from the heart. With her debut feature as director, Alice Lowe creates a rare black comedy that makes the audience complicit with murder. But even more than a riotous rampage of grisliness, this is an emotionally resonant exploration of the innate craziness of pregnancy, vividly capturing that feeling that an alien creature is living inside, taking over your life.

Pamilya Ordinaryo
dir-scr Eduardo W Roy Jr; with Ronwaldo Martin, Hasmine Kilip 16/Ph ***.
Relentlessly grim in its realism, this is a drama of desperation from the streets of Manila. It explores an underclass of people living rough with no hope of getting a fair shake. Even though the central story is hugely compelling, justice is elusive here. This is bracingly honest filmmaking that finds glimmers of humanity at every turn, even as hope seems to disappear.

Films on the slate for tomorrow are Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals, Francois Ozon's Frantz and the Italian drama Le Ultime Cose.

Critical Week: This year's Help

UK critics finally got their first look at Lee Daniels' all-star epic drama The Butler this week. While it plays out essentially a Civil Rights-themed variation on Forrest Gump, it's actually a true story. And an unusually slushy film for Daniels. We had a lot more fun watching the sequel Thor: The Dark World, an oversized blockbuster that's so ridiculous that you can't help but smile. But the best movie this past week was Ryan Coogler's Sundance-winning Fruitvale Station, a shocking true drama skilfully filmed without pushing any sort of message other than this kind of thing must never happen again.

Off the beaten path, there was the surreal adventure thriller Escape From Tomorrow, a fiendishly clever film shot guerrilla-style at Disney theme parks; the British gypsy drama Traveller, which isn't well enough made to overcome its cliches; and the dark gay thriller Triple Crossed, which makes up for its low budget with a twisty plot and intriguing characters. And we also had three documentaries: the rousing Milius exploring filmmaker John Milius' astounding life and work; the harrowing Pandora's Promise looking into the truth about nuclear power an how it's probably the answer to climate change; and the witty but dry Rough Cut remaking scenes from a fake 1980s slasher horror.

This coming week we have Jude Law in Dom Hemingway, the animated adventure Free Birds, the British comedy Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson, the political thriller Exposed, and the Israeli drama Fill the Void.