Critical Week: Making Music

We're charging into both festival and awards seasons here in London at the moment, led by the London Film Festival and followed by a flurry of niche festivals over the coming months. And the movie awards season is already underway as my inbox fills with for-your-consideration emails. But this means I can finally start catching up on the year's high-profile movies. And with the writer's strike settled, we can hope the actor's reach an agreement soon so red carpets can get back to their former glitz. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Old Oak • Flora and Son
The Exorcist: 50th Anniversary
PERHAPS AVOID:
The Plus One
The Re-Education of Molly Singer
ALL REVIEWS >

Films this week included John Carney's latest gorgeous music-infused Irish drama Flora and Son, starring Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (above). I attended the very cool UK premiere of Gareth Edwards' The Creator, a hugely involving and expertly made sci-fi thriller with John David Washington and a wonderfully villainous Allison Janney. And Benicio Del Toro is excellent in the crime drama Reptile, an overlong plod livened up by strong performances. 

For the youngsters, there was a return to Robert Rodriguez's franchise with the enjoyably silly reboot Spy Kids: Armageddon and the animated adventure Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which only very young viewers will love. There were two American comedies: The Plus One is a destination wedding comedy, while The Re-Education of Molly Singer is a back-to-university romp. Both have their moments, but aren't original or funny enough to stand out. 

I also attended the lively world premiere of I Am Urban, an authentically gritty 1990s-set British true-life drama that's more experimental than narratively engaging. This year's Palme d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting drama starring the magnificent Sandra Huller. The lovely Sundance award winner Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a powerful doc featuring Estonian women ... naked. And finally there was the Kyiv City Ballet's Tribute to Peace at the Peacock Theatre.

This coming week looks just as busy, with the 50-years-later sequel The Exorcist: Believer, Emerald Fennell's Saltburn, David Fincher's The Killer, British comedy Mind-Set and acclaimed doc The Eternal Memory, plus even more as the 67th London Film Festival kicks off next Wednesday.

Critical Week: Inappropriate touching

At press screenings in London this week, one of the most anticipated films was In Secret, a new version of Emile Zola's 19th century romance novel Therese Raquin starring Elizabeth Olsen and Oscar Isaac. It's lavishly produced but almost overpoweringly bleak. Both actors have other films coming out in Britain on Friday: Isaac costars in The Two Faces of January, which we saw a few months ago, while Olsen is in the new Godzilla movie, which first screened on Monday. Gareth Edwards (Monsters) has managed to create a fresh spin on the genre: more character based, more moral complexity, grittier use of effects. It'll be a monster hit.

Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon lead the strikingly detailed true-crime drama Devil's Knot, Atom Egoyan's slightly too-meticulous dramatisation of the story already documented in West of Memphis and the Paradise Lost trilogy. John Turturro and Woody Allen lead the cast of the extremely gentle comedy Fading Gigolo, which is spiced up by Sharon Stone, Vanessa Paradis and Sofia Vergara. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is terrific as Belle, the true story of a mixed-race woman in 18th century London, with solid support from the extraordinary Tom Wilkinson.

A bit further afield, Leo Gregory headlines the underwhelming East End crime thriller Top Dog. Dinosaur 13 is a massively involving narrative documentary about the nasty seven-year battle for the most complete T-rex fossil ever found. And I caught up with two reissued films: Wet Hot American Summer is a hilarious summer-camp spoof starring Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler and others who went on to more accomplished comedies. And the horror-comedy Theater of Blood is a classic, unmissable romp starring Vincent Price at the peak of his powers. He's a hammy actor who takes Shakespearean-style grisly revenge against dismissive critics. Genius!

This coming week kicks off with Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and pretty much everyone else in X-men: Days of Future Past, Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler reunited for Blended, Jon Favreau's food-based comedy Chef, and more...