Critical Week: Into the sea

While the Cannes Film Festival continues in the South of France until this weekend, I've been keeping busy here in London with an eclectic collection of screenings. Most unusual was the Chinese animated adventure Deep Sea, which is dazzling to look at even if the story feels a bit busy. It's definitely worth seeing on the biggest screen possible.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Hit Man • Solo
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
In Flames • Kidnapped
PERHAPS AVOID:
The Garfield Movie
ALL REVIEWS >

Last Friday I attended the UK premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, attended by the cast and crew. Anya Taylor-Joy is terrific in the steely title role, and the film boasts terrific action sequences even if it feels a bit thin. Jennifer Lopez stars in the sci-fi thriller Atlas, which is fairly simple but enjoyably packed with very cool tech. Greg Kinnear stars in two movies I watched this week: alongside Isla Fisher in the silly but cute family fantasy comedy The Present and opposite Terry Chen in the inspirational and relentlessly preachy fact-based drama Sight. And from Canada, the drama Solo is a gorgeously observed character study set in the drag scene. 

After seeing Hit Man last week, I thought I should perhaps catch up with Glen Powell's last hit, the romcom Anyone But You, which is deeply goofy but also sunny, charming and sometimes even a bit sexy. On stage, I also watched the superbly provocative musical comedy drama Piece of Me at Camden People's Theatre.

This coming week I'll be watching Jessica Lange in The Great Lillian Hall, Anthony Hopkins in Freud's Last Session, Richard Armitage in The Boy in the Woods, Francois Ozon's The Crime Is Mine, Palestinian drama A House in Jerusalem and the doc The Pilgrimage of Gilbert & George. 

London Film Fest: Strike a pose

Definitely feeling like a zombie today, needing more sleep and more time to write! But there are only four more days, so I'll try to hold on. The 63rd BFI London Film Festival is such a mind-boggling collection of films that it's impossible to see even half of them. In the queues today, we were chatting about the movies we are missing, even though we're desperate to catch them. But the scheduling makes it impossible (not enough press screenings, overlapping showtimes, etc). It's also fun to compare best and worst films we've seen so far. The bad ones are pretty common between us all, but everyone has a different favourite. My favourite so far is the first film listed here. And down at the bottom is this week's Critical Week...

Portrait of a Lady on Fire [Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu]
dir-scr Celine Sciamma; with Noemie Merlant, Adele Haenel 19/Fr *****
With a staggeringly astute screenplay and sharply observant direction, French filmmaker Celine Sciamma breathes inventive life into this period drama. She fills scenes to the brim with subtext, and not only mines her richly layered story for resonant themes but also creates complex characters the audience can fall in love with. So the film's otherworldly beauty becomes a provocative depiction of both art and romance.... FULL REVIEW >

Knives Out
dir-scr Rian Johnson; with Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas 19/US ****
A bit of silly good fun, this play on the whodunit genre has a fiendishly constructed script packed with clever twists and turns, plus an superb ensemble of nutty characters. Some elements are a bit too broad for their own good, but writer-director Rian Johnson makes a film that's consistently amusing as it keeps the audience on its toes and piles on one surprise after another. It also gently brushes on some topical themes just to keep it relevant... FULL REVIEW >

Greed
dir-scr Michael Winterbottom; with Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher19/UK ***
Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom team up for another comedy, although this one is a bit more deliberately pointed then their usual collaborations. Yes, there are still moments of inspired silliness dotted throughout the ambitiously fragmented narrative, and it's expertly played by a strong ensemble cast. Many actors bring their considerable improvisational skills to the screen, although with so many big issues as satirical targets, the film feels heavy handed.

Moffie
dir Oliver Hermanus; with Kai Luke Brummer, Ryan de Villiers 19/SA ****
Strikingly well-made, and carrying a devastating emotional kick, this South African drama tells a deeply personal story that has much wider implications. Writer-director Oliver Hermanus creates gorgeous-looking films, and this one is augmented by beautiful cinematography and clever editing. It gets deep under the skin of a nation still grappling with its past, and offers a remarkably resonant look at issues of racism and homophobia.

Links:
Shadows LONDON FILM FEST homepage (full reviews will be linked here) 
Official LONDON FILM FEST site 

~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~
C R I T I C A L   W E E K

I haven't seen any regular press screenings this past week - only 22 London Film Festival movies! This coming week, after the festival ends, it'll be time for Angelina Jolie back in horns for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Ken Loach's Sorry to Bother You, the political thriller Sons of Denmark and the doc Mystify: Michael Hutchence,

Short Cuts: Death, love and rehab

Here are two Netflix films I caught up with this week, plus another film that hasn't had a UK release but is already streaming from the US...

Murder Mystery
dir Kyle Newacheck; scr James Vanderbilt
with Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Luke Evans, Terence Stamp, Dany Boon,Gemma Arterton, Adeel Akhtar, Luis Gerardo Mendez, David Walliams
19/US Netflix 1h37 **.

Let's be honest: you know you're in trouble when they can't even be bothered to give a movie a title. A bit of breezy entertainment, this energetic comedy is relentlessly dopey, but will just about do the trick when you want no mental stimulation whatsoever. It's about New York cop Nick (Sandler), who takes his frustrated wife Audrey (Aniston) on the European honeymoon he promised her 15 years ago, mainly to cover his continuing failure to pass his detective exam. On the plane she meets Viscount Charles (Evans), who invites them to Monaco for a weekend on a palatial yacht owned by his billionaire Uncle Malcolm (Stamp). The passengers are a who's who of characters from one of Audrey's mystery novels, so when Malcolm is stabbed with the bejewelled family dagger just before signing his new will, Nick steps in to help solve the crime. Of course, he immediately becomes the prime suspect.

The script plays with the stereotypes and genre cliches as the body count grows and the amusingly blustery Inspector Delacroix (Boon) takes the case. From here the writer and director lazily indulge in trite jokes, never creating a coherent plot or characters. Action moments are clumsy, and much of the humour falls flat. But there are witty gags here and there leading to the usual closed-room solution, which of course is followed by twists, turns and some random madcap action amid picturesque scenery. For an Adam Sandler comedy, this means that it's far above average. But by any other measure, this is a stumbling mess of a movie. Even so, it fills the time amiably enough. Aniston invests fully into the role with her enjoyably shrill comical energy. Her chemistry with Sandler even makes him seem almost funny.

---

Always Be My Maybe
dir Nahnatchka Khan
scr Randall Park, Ali Wong, Michael Golamco
with Ali Wong, Randall Park, James Saito, Michelle Buteau, Vivian Bang, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Dae Kim, Karan Soni, Charlyne Yi, Susan Park
19/US 1h41 ***.

This romantic comedy has a silly tone that makes it likeable, finding realistic edges to the characters that make them deeply engaging. It's thoroughly obvious where the film is heading, but the characters and story are both witty and involving, so it's never easy to predict how any scene is going to unravel. Sasha and Marcus (Wong and Park) are best buddies from childhood, then share a romantic moment in their teens, which leaves their friendship in an awkward place. Now in Los Angeles, Sasha is a celebrity chef with a hot restauranteur fiance (Kim), but he has just taken an extended job in India. So Sasha decides to start over as she goes to San Francisco to open a new branch. She soon runs into Marcus, who's living at home, working with his dad (Saito) and playing in an indie band. He also has a crazy girlfriend, Jenny (Bang). But Sasha and Marcus begin rekindling their friendship, and they know each other too well to let each other get away with any rubbish.

The dialog is snappy, often with an improvisational feel to it. Park and Wong have terrific chemistry, bouncing off each other with jaggedly perfect timing. Marcus' band plays smart-alecky pop-rap novelty songs that you'll want to download immediately. And there are zinger one-liners scattered through the script for each of the side characters ("I'm an LGBTQIA ally, so thank you for your service," says Soni, as Marcus' bandmate, to Buteau, as Sacha's lesbian assistant). Keanu Reeves' sequence, in which he plays himself as Sasha's new boyfriend, is simply hilarious, as he unapologetically pokes fun at the image people have of him. Thankfully, along with some pointed pastiche about new cuisine, the film also dips a little deeper into celebrity culture as the story develops. It's never provocative or surprising, but it's thoroughly enjoyable, keeping the audience laughing and sighing right to the end. And there are moments that make us hungry too.

---

The Beach Bum
dir-scr Harmony Korine
with Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Stefania LaVie Owen, Jonah Hill, Zac Efron, Martin Lawrence, Jimmy Buffett
19/US 1h35 **.

Matthew McConaughey is typecast as a loose-living stoner in this comedy by anarchic filmmaker Harmony Korine. He plays Moondog, a worry-free guy in Key West whose life is a series of hedonistic antics. Then he's called back to Miami to help his equally free-spirited wife Minnie (Fisher) with their 22-year-old daughter's (Owen) wedding. "I forgot how rich we were," Moondog says when he returns to their bayside mansion. His literary agent (Hill) berates him for throwing away his talent. So after a run-in with the law, Moondog checks into a year of court-ordered rehab, hoping he'll find the clarity to finally write his book. There he meets Flicker (Efron), a vaper who's equally irresponsible, so they escape and go on a crime spree.

Unsurprisingly, the film looks gorgeous, thanks to Benoit Debie's deep-hued cinematography, and it's accompanied by a superb collection of 1970s songs. Even so, the film feels like it was made in a marijuana-fuelled haze, full of wacky slapstick and broadly overplayed nuttiness, punctuated by McConaughey's piercing cackle. The film is mainly assembled from disconnected scenes of Moondog's aimless carousing and partying. Stinking rich, he hasn't a care in the world, so he never makes much sense. The open relationship between Moondog and Minnie is rather sweet, so a moment when the perpetually inebriated Moondog seems to feel a pang of jealousy feels downright false. Everyone talks about how his genius outweighs his bad behaviour, but there's little evidence of that. His best friends are his wife's lover (a mellow Snoop Dogg) and a disastrous dolphin tour guide (Lawrence). But aside from his general joie de vivre, there's nothing likeable about Moondog. So it's very difficult to celebrate him as a poetic hero rather than just a rich jerk who has had far more luck than he deserves. But then perhaps that's the vaguely political point Korine is making with this unexpectedly toothless romp.