Critical Week: Smile for the camera

I'm travelling these days, visiting friends and family in Southern California, where I was born. I've certainly been enjoying the sunshine and fish tacos! And of course the Christmas spirit. Work has taken a back seat, with no screenings and refreshingly few deadlines. And I'm working on those pesky year-end best lists. The only film I've watched was revisiting the Knives Out sequel Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix - still one of my favourite movies of the year, this is a smart, funny whodunit with some added insight into compassion and faith. The ensemble is fantastic too, led by the excellent Josh O'Connor and Daniel Craig, plus a fabulous scene-stealing Glenn Close.. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Is This Thing On? • Cover-up
The Voice of Hind Rajab
ALL REVIEWS >

On the plane flight over here, along with various TV episodes, I finally caught up with the guilty pleasure comedy Nonnas, a silly but warmly enjoyable true story starring Vince Vaughn as a guy opening a restaurant in Staten Island with a group of Italian grandmas as chefs. And Mariska Hargitay's documentary My Mom Jayne, is an intimate and involving exploration of her connection with her mother Jayne Mansfield. I also rewatched Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life somewhere over Greenland. This film never ages - it's just as entertaining and moving as ever. One of the best movies of all time.

Coming up this next week, I still have a few movies I need to watch for awards voting deadlines, but otherwise it's more likely that I'll see a few more holiday classics with friends and family.

Critical Week: Nothing to see here

This has been a very odd month for me, watching my hometown Los Angeles battle such devastating wildfires from afar, while also grappling with the political ramifications of what's happening across that country in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, I have been busy as the chair of the London Film Critics' Circle, as we prepare to present our winners at a starry ceremony in about 10 days. So my movie-watching has been somewhat limited. But I did manage to catch Back in Action, the action comedy starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz in the usual story of former spies whose past catches up with them. The plot is simplistic, but the film is well-made, they have great chemistry, and the cast includes Andrew Scott and Glenn Close, so it's well worth a diverting watch on Netflix.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Colours Within • The Brutalist
ALL REVIEWS >

A bit more highbrow is Steven Soderbergh's take on the horror genre with Presence, although it's more of a gentle ghost story than a freakout. The pace and introspection might annoy genre fans, but it's strikingly shot and acted with unusual subtlety. From Ireland, Four Mothers is a hugely engaging comedy about a young writer (James McArdle) caring for his sparky mother (the great Fionnula Flanagan) when three of his friends drop off their own demanding mothers for a weekend. It's knowing, funny and thoroughly entertaining. The documentary Luther: Never Too Much is a warm celebration of Luther Vandross' indelible musical talent, packed with terrific performance and backstage footage, but only a brief glimpse into his personal life. And it was great to finally see Peter Weir's haunting and dreamy classic Picnic at Hanging Rock projected on a big screen, pristinely restored for its 50th anniversary.

This coming week, I'll be watching are Companion with Jack Quaid and You're Cordially Invited with Reese Witherspoon, plus a big-screen preview of the TV series Paradise. But most of my time will be spent organising the London Critics' Circle Film Awards ceremony on Sunday 2nd February.

Critical Week: Stay classy

Over halfway through our month-long Lockdown 2.0, it's clear that everyone is seriously bored with all of this now, longing for a reopening of cinemas, restaurants, pubs, theatres and everything really in time for Christmas. Meanwhile I've had three days and counting without internet, thanks to Virgin Media's astonishing inability to solve whatever the problem is in my neighbourhood. This means that I've had to use my phone's 4G to watch movies this week. And the films were a mixed bag. Ron Howard's new movie Hillbilly Elegy, which stars Glenn Close and Amy Adams. It's watchable but too simplistic to have any kind of kick. David Fincher's biopic Mank, starring Gary Oldman as the screenwriter of Citizen Kane, has equally great performances (especially from Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies), and much more visual panache, although Fincher's perfectionism drains the story of passion.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK: 

Lovers Rock • Another Round

Mosul • Happiest Season

Possessor

PERHAPS AVOID:

Hillbilly Elegy • Buddy Games

The Ringmaster

FULL REVIEWS >

And then there's the messy romantic comedy Love, Weddings & Other Disasters, a frothy, corny multi-strand affair starring Diane Keaton and Jeremy Irons. Jungleland stars the superb Charlie Hunnam and Jack O'Connell as brothers on a road trip with the always excellent Jessica Barden, but the film is too hushed to come to life. Lost at Christmas is an awkward little holiday rom-com from Scotland, with just about enough charm to win us over. Host is a refreshingly original British horror movie set entirely on a Zoom screen, and it's skilfully terrifying. And The Ringmaster is a sickeningly derivative Danish horror movie that's uber-grisly but not very scary.

There were also two docs: Zappa uses extensive archival material to trace the iconic musician's career, while Markie in Milwaukee is about a 7-foot deeply religious trans woman who decides to live as a man again, then has to face her true nature. I also caught Kevin Hart's new stand-up show, Zero F**ks Given, which has a nicely intimate feel in his house, including some very personal jokes. And then there was The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special, a giddy bit of Christmas fluff that felt like just what I needed.

This coming week I'll catch up with Red, White and Blue, the third film in Steve McQueen's Small Axe series, as well as the all-star musical The Prom, Viggo Mortensen's Falling, Diane Lane in Let Him Go, Drew Barrymore in The Stand-In, Margot Robbie in Dreamland, the psychological thriller Muscle and the shorts collection The American Boys.

Critical Week: Check out any time you like

It's been another seriously eclectic week on the press screening circuit! There was Hotel Artemis, a fiendishly stylish futuristic crime thriller starring the superb Jodie Foster, with a terrific supporting cast and some deep, dark resonance. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was screened along with an array of Greek-style canapes and colourful cocktails to loosen us up to more Abba antics. It's a lot of fun (Go Cher!), but feels padded out with too many B-side songs. The Little Stranger is a dark, creepy adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel starring Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter and Charlotte Rampling. And Glenn Close is absolutely fantastic as The Wife in a riveting marital drama costarring Jonathan Pryce as a Nobel Prize-winning novelist.

A little further afield, Sylvester Stallone was back with Escape Plan 2: Hades, a preposterous but rather enjoyably dopey sequel costarring Dave Bautista (also seen in Hotel Artemis). Jonathan Rhys Meyers does a gloomy James Bond impersonation as a Mossad spy in Damascus Cover, a dry and dated thriller. Oona Chaplin and Natalie Tena take a narrowboat around London's canals as they have a relationship crisis in the engaging, provocative drama Anchor and Hope. The bone-dry Finnish black comedy Euthanizer growls its way through a story about a man fed up with the inhumanity of his neighbours. And Love, Cecil is a lush, lyrical documentary tracing the life of the gifted photographer/designer Cecil Beaton.

This coming week we have Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Jon Hamm in The Negotiator (aka Beirut), Timothee Chalamet in Hot Summer Nights, the Sundance hit American Animals, the British drama Apostasy, the British comedy Strangeways Here We Come and the American serial drama Paper Boys.

Critical Week: Brotherly love

It's been a meagre week, screening-wise, mainly because I've already seen virtually everything that's being shown to the press at the moment (thanks to autumn film festivals and awards-season screenings and screeners). I did manage to catch up with Owen Wilson and Ed Helms in Father Figures, which wasn't screened to the press, and now I know why. It's a bizarre mix of gross-out comedy and brotherly bromance sentimentality. Another set of fraternal twins feature in The Lodgers, an atmospheric Irish freak-out starring Charlotte Vega and Bill Milner as siblings keeping watch over their collapsing family manor by day, then hiding from marauding nastiness at night. It turns genuinely creepy when two interlopers upset the balance. There was also the sensitive Brazilian drama About Us, which has a ring of autobiography in its introspective exploration of a past, pivotal relationship between a filmmaker and an architect. And I watched this documentary to take part in a rather strong TV panel discussion...

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Saving Capitalism
dir Jacob Kornbluth; with Robert Reich 17/US ***.
One of those blood-boiling documentaries that leaves the audience feeling helpless, this film skilfully holds the attention with its disarmingly gentle tone and likeable central figure. Robert Reich was Labor Secretary under Clinton, and is now travelling around America to understand how average people feel about being squeezed by rising inflation and falling wages. He explains that this is happening because corporations are draining the system, shifting money from workers to top-tier executives while at the same time siphoning off tens of billions from the government in tax breaks and incentives, plus special laws and loopholes as the result of lobbying. Reich argues that this is just another form of regulation, promoting capitalist business with socialist hand-outs. It's hard to fault his logic, because he articulately states the case and backs it up with both clear facts and historical precedent. And filmmaker Kornbluth assembles this in a riveting, entertaining way. Most telling is that this same situation developed in the 1890s and was corrected with extensive limits on corporate power. But Reich admits this will only happen if voters stop putting populists in office and let government do its job to protect people from companies that are literally stealing money then blaming the government for the problem. And without limits on campaign donations, it's only going to get worse. No wonder so few people trust politicians. And no wonder the usual urgent plea to vote and protest feels like a drop in the bucket.

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SHADOWS ON THE STAGE
Strictly Ballroom: The Musical
Based on the 1992 sleeper hit movie, which launched Baz Luhrmann's career, this Australian stage musical is heading for the West End in March. At its launch event this week at the Cafe de Paris, we were treated to a few musical numbers by cast member Will Young, a fiery flamenco performance from veteran actor-dancer Fernando Mira, and lively speeches from director-choreographer Drew McOnie and Oscar-winning designer Catherine Martin. There was also more dancing from the show's stars Jonny Labey and Zizi Strallen and the company. It was a colourful morning, properly whetting the appetite for a show based on a film that lingers in the memory. I don't think I've watched it all the way through since it was in cinemas 25 years ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing this on-stage, with its mixture of deranged Aussie humour and pointed social commentary that feels even more timely today. And of course because it launched a global sequin-bedazzled ballroom craze that's stronger now than ever.
Previews begin at the Piccadilly Theatre on 29th March, more info is HERE.

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Screenings of new movies are still slow, but I have a few things in the diary over the next week, including Toni Collette in Madame, Taraji P Henson in Proud Mary, the Justin Chon drama Gook and the programme launch event for the British Film Institute's Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, which takes place 21 March to 1st April.