Critical Week: Pleased to meet you

It's been another eclectic week at the cinema, with a very, very wide range of movies to watch. Sophisticated audience will love the nuances in Materialists, Celine Song's second film, which plays on the romcom formula. It stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. Rather a lot more low-brow, Smurfs features voice work from Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman and John Goodman. It's very silly, and also occasionally funny.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Unicorns • Friendship
ALL REVIEWS >

The sweeping Irish romance Four Letters of Love stars powerhouse actors Helena Bonham Carter, Pierce Brosnan and Gabriel Byrne, but its strongest roles go to the terrific Fionn O'Shea and Anne Skelly. A prickly bromance is at the centre of the provocative black comedy Friendship, starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. Despite its three-hour running time and rather grim title, the German drama Dying is mesmerising, witty and wonderfully thoughtful. The first film in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Dreams is an astute and involving look at teen longing. And because I'm seeing the sequel this weekend, I finally caught up with the animated action comedy The Bad Guys, which is cool, funny escapism.

This coming week we have Pedro Pascal in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun,  Sam Rockwell in the animated sequel The Bad Guys 2, Fiona Shaw in Park Avenue, the mystery thriller Gazer, Slovenian drama Little Trouble Girls, and the second chapter in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Love. I'm also looking forward to the 100-year restoration of Eisenstein's iconic Battleship Potemkin, which I've never seen projected. And there's a special 3D premiere of the new trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Critical Week: Mommie dearest

I had two press screenings this past week, as well as two open-air events: a screening and a stage play. So it felt like another step in the right direction, especially as it was accompanied by great weather. But then new restrictions came in, so here we are. The biggest film of the past week was a streaming release, Enola Holmes. Millie Bobby Brown stars as the younger sleuthing sister of Sherlock and Mycroft (Henry Cavill and Sam Clafin, having a lot of fun), with Helena Bonham Carter (above with Brown) as their mum. It's a rambunctious franchise-launcher. And then there was Janelle Monae in the freak-out drama Antebellum, which has too little energy to be a classic but shows plenty of invention and passion. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Little Girl • Monsoon
PERHAPS AVOID:
Ava
FULL REVIEWS >

More independent films included 23 Walks, a gentle late-in-life romance with the reliable Alison Steadman and Dave Johns; Becky, a violent thriller about a plucky teen taking on a malevolent Kevin James; Miss Juneteeth, an extremely low-key mother-daughter drama with Nicole Beharie; and Shortcut, a decent thriller about five teens trapped in tunnels with a slimy monster. There were also three French films: Francois Ozon's Summer of 85 is a complex and intimate teen drama. Two of Us is a provocative, involving romance between two 70-year-old women. And Little Girl is a seriously gorgeous doc about a mother fighting for her 8-year-old's right to be herself.

Coming up this next week are virtual screenings of the all-star remake of The Boys in the Band, Julianne Moore in The Glorias, Sally Hawkins in Eternal Beauty, Aya Cash in Scare Me, Harry Melling in Say Your Prayers, Aunjanue Ellis in Miss Virginia, the Danish drama A Perfectly Normal Family and the Turkish horror-thriller The Antenna.

Critical Week: Looking good

London critics finally had a chance to catch up with Spike Lee's Cannes prize-winning BlacKkKlansman, and it was well worth the wait. The film is a fierce, skilfully told true story with lots of present-day resonance. John David Washington (son of Denzel) is terrific in the title role. Meanwhile, the week's blockbuster was the tongue-in-cheek guilty pleasure The Meg, with Jason Statham doing what he does best, diving into the action and winking at the camera. But the latest near-future young adult adventure The Darkest Minds was a disappointment, despite a strong cast led by Amandla Stenberg and Harris Dickinson.

Outside the mainstream, we had the animated true story Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero, which is involving and very moving. Making a Killing is a wildly entertaining true crime romp, told with heavy doses of irony. Tides is a meandering, improv-style British comedy-drama set on a canal boat holiday. And The King is a staggeringly clever documentary about Elvis Presley, layered with a telling exploration of American culture today.

There were also three excellent European films. From France, The Guardians is a gorgeous drama about women who run the family farm while their men are off fighting WWI. From Germany, The Captain is a pitch-black satire about a deserter who assumes power as an officer during the final weeks of WWII. And from Iceland, the unnerving, involving Under the Tree weaves irony into a darkly witty story of a war between two neighbours.

Films screening in this coming week include Ewan McGregor in Christopher Robin, Ansel Elgort in Billionaire Boys Club, Hugo Weaving in Black '47, the British comedy The Festival, the coming-of-age drama We the Animals, the zombie apocalypse thriller Redcon-1, the German drama Paths, and the ballet documentary Nureyev.

Critical Week: Women on top

Two big films screened to London press this week have strong female voices. Lily Tomlin stars in Grandma, as a sparky 70-year-old on a mission with her granddaughter (Julia Garner). It's a funny, involving film with unexpected depth. Much more overtly political, Suffragette explores the real events a century ago when women demanded that they should no longer be treated like slaves, beginning with the right to vote. It features a blistering performance by Carey Mulligan, plus strong support from Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Press and, in a cameo, Meryl Streep.

Women are also at the centre of the scruffy comedy Addicted to Fresno, starring Judy Greer and Natasha Lyonne as sisters who get involved in a silly caper. A Haunting in Cawdor is a moody horror thriller centres on a young woman (Shelby Young) in a summer work-release theatre camp. And the messy British comedy Convenience stars Vicky McClure as a savvy mini-mart clerk dealing with two idiotic robbers.

Both Grandma and Suffragette are screening in the London Film Festival, for which we also had press screenings including: Clemence Poesy and David Morrissey in The Ones Below, Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation, Mads Mikkelsen in Men & Chicken, Deepa Mehta's Beeba Boys, Marco Bellocchio's Blood of My Blood and the British addiction doc Chemsex. More comments on these as the festival gets underway.

Coming up this week we have Ryan Reynolds in Mississippi Grind controversial filmmaker Gaspar Noe's Love, the doc Listen to Me Marlon and the British animated romp The Big Knights. London Film Festival screenings include Truman, The Invitation and James White.

Requisite Blog Photo: Disney's newest princess

33rd London Critics' Circle Film Awards

It wasn't just another Critics' Circle ceremony for me: this year I was chair of the awards committee, so the whole evening was my baby. And it was odd to see every tiny detail I've agonised over for the past few months slot into place so nicely, despite some significant obstacles. We lost four nominee attendees at the last minute due to the snow (Tom Hooper) and the flu (Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter and Jacqueline Durran), and others couldn't come because they were working far, far away. But everyone who made it had a great night.

The day started on Sunday morning as I looked out the window to see snow falling. It's been a snowy week in London, with the usual travel chaos any change in the weather brings. But we were in motion, and couldn't be stopped. I headed from home via replacement bus (my Tube line was helpfully closed) to the May Fair Hotel in Mayfair, where the production team ran through the show in the theatre at noon. Then there were fine-tuning adjustments, printing up the winners cards for the envelopes, collating the speeches from those who couldn't be there to accept their award, and of course changing into our finery for the show. The critics who were presenting awards arrived at 5pm to run through their parts of the presentation with our host Richard Herring (who has blogged brilliantly about his experience).

By 5.30pm the first attendees were assembling on the red carpet and facing the press line. The cameramen of course latched on to the glamorous women, including Helena Bonham Carter (recipient of our top honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film), Emily Blunt (nominee for British Actress), Samantha Barks (nominee for Young Performer) and Olivia Colman (last year's British Actress winner, who generously came to help me present the award this year).

Also very popular with the press was young Jack Reynor, nominated as Young Performer, who has just been named as the star of Transformers 4. He had a great night, knowing he was heading home to Dublin in the morning to begin four months of physical training for the film. Although I told him he really needs to take a break to celebrate his 21st birthday this week!

I had a chance to talk to all of our special guests as they arrived, including Ben Drew (nominated for Ill Manors), Charlie Creed-Miles and Dexter Fletcher (nominatees for Wild Bill), and three nominees from the superb British film My Brother the Devil: writer-director Sally El Hosaini, actor Fady Elsayed and cinematographer David Raedeker. At 6.30pm the champagne reception was shifted into the theatre for the awards ceremony, which clipped along thanks to Richard Herring's snappy hosting. Several early winners weren't present: Anne Hathaway's Supporting Actress award was accepted by Les Miserables producer Debra Hayward, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was unable to be here to get his Supporting Actor award, Emmannuelle Riva sent a lovely video message from Paris to accept Actress, and Joaquin Phoenix wrote the thank-you note of the night* to accept Actor.

But most of the British winners were on hand to collect their prizes. Above: The Impossible's Tom Holland with his Young Performer trophy, Rafe Spall turned up to accept the Director award for his Life of Pi director Ang Lee, and The Imposter's Bart Layton took home the award for Documentary. Below: Alice Lowe and Steve Oram were multiple nominees for British Actress and British Actor, and won Breakthrough Filmmaker for their Sightseers script.

Andrea Riseborough won the British Actress award, which I presented, but she'd had to cancel her attendance at the last minute due to illness. So last year's winner Olivia Colman accepted the award and read a message from her. Toby Jones (below) won the British Actor award, and then came back to the stage with sound designer Stevie Haywood (a Technical Achievement nominee) to claim British Film of the Year for Berberian Sound Studio.

There was a warm acceptance video from Bill Westenhofer, who won Technical Achievement for the visual effects in Life of Pi. And Michael Haneke sent two thank-you videos - accepting his awards for Screenplay and Film of the Year for Amour. He's in Madrid at the moment staging a version of Cosi Fan Tutte. 

The highlight of the evening was Mike Newell presenting the Dilys to Helena Bonham Carter: "She's like a kaleidoscope, she is able to deliver these wonderful, vivid characters again and again. They're all full of variety, full of wit and energy and I think people long to see what she's going to try next. She's become an institution. Working with her is always surprising, always harmonious. Not one tiny little bit of foot-stamping or tantrum-throwing."

Her speech was hilariously witty, warm and honest, and she later told the press: "It feels like a rash. It suddenly seems like I've got a contagion of diseases - I mean awards! But it's nice, it's a nice feeling. It's so weird, because I'm only 46. A lifetime achievement award - it feels like 'I'm not over yet'. I hope they're not trying to say it's time to stop. I'm only just getting the gist of it." She clearly had a great evening, and she and Tim Burton were among the last to leave, happily chatting to everyone throughout the after party. I left shortly after them, sharing a cab through the snowy streets to North London with fellow critic and awards committee member Pauline McLeod (that's us below).

I didn't open my goody bag until this morning - quite a haul! I need to thank our charity partner Missing People and our amazing sponsors for making this happen. And now I feel like I need a holiday before I start thinking about 2014....

---

Critics' Circle Film Section - top 10 films of 2012:

1. Amour
2. The Master
3. Life of Pi
4. Argo
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild
6. Zero Dark Thirty
7. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
8. Django Unchained
9. Tabu
10. Rust and Bone

LFF 10: Big finale

The 56th BFI London Film Festival came to a close tonight with the European premiere of Mike Newell's new version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which brought Helena Bonham Carter back out to the red carpet just a night after she and her partner Tim Burton (himself an LFF red carpet veteran from opening night) attended the glamorous festival awards presentation, where they were each awarded the BFI Fellowship. Here are all of the winners:

• Film: RUST AND BONE
• Documentary (Grierson Award): MEA MAXIMA CULPA
• First Feature (Sutherland Award): BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
• British Newcomer: Sally El Hosaini (MY BROTHER THE DEVIL)
• BFI Fellowship: Tim Burton (FRANKENWEENIE) and Helena Bonham Carter (GREAT EXPECTATIONS)

Here are my own 10 favourites from the festival:

1. RUST AND BONE
2. SIGHTSEERS
3. AMOUR
4. NO
5. OUR CHILDREN
6. KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
7. ERNEST & CELESTINE
8. ARGO
9. MY BROTHER THE DEVIL
10. BEYOND THE HILLS

Saturday also included Silver Linings Playbook as the surprise film (I'm seeing it on Tuesday) - pictured (right) at the surprise screening are David O Russell, LFF director Clare Stewart and Bradley Cooper.

And here are a few final highlights...

Great Expectations
dir Mike Newell; with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter 12/UK ***.
Charles Dickens' oft-adapted novel is faithfully transferred to the screen barely six months after another BBC television version. And while this film is very nicely made and played, it's impossible not to wonder why they've done it again so soon... REVIEW >

Celeste & Jesse Forever
dir Lee Toland Krieger; with Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg 12/US ***.
With a snappy script and observant filmmaking, this enjoyable rom-com refuses to fit into the standard movie formula. It also offers both Jones and Samberg the chance to give much more layered performances than usual... REVIEW >

Our Children
dir Joachim Lafosse; with Emilie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim 12/Be, ****.
Based on a true story, this film paints a picture of happy but complicated domestic bliss before quietly shifting into something very unsettling. The understatement is likely to annoy some filmgoers, but it allows the cast to deliver devastating performances... REVIEW >

Ernest & Celestine
dir Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner; voices Lambert Wilson, Pauline Brunner 12/Fr ****.
Charming and adorable, but not remotely childish, this animated French adventure has a terrific sense of anarchy that will appeal to adults as much as kids. It's also a superb fable about standing up for yourself even when you challenge society's traditions... REVIEW >