Critical Week: Hold that thought

I'm even busier this week as the date approaches for the 44th London Critics' Circle Film Awards, which I am organising on Sunday. So much to organise, including the slippery business of wrangling celebrities. But the ceremony and party are going to be great. Meanwhile, the big movie this week was Matthew Vaughn's Argylle, in which Henry Cavill plays a suave super-agent living in the mind of novellist Bryce Dallas Howard. The idea is clever, but the film is far too busy, loud, violent, twisty and long to work properly. Still, some colourful moments and a great cast (Sam Rockwell, Samuel L Jackson, Ariana DeBose) make it almost watchable. The animated adventure Migration is a lot more fun, gorgeously animated and packed with great characters thanks to screenwriter Mike White (of The White Lotus fame).

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Zone of Interest • Skin Deep
American Fiction • Disco Boy
How to Have Sex • Blue Giant
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Further afield, the drama Shayda centres closely on the experiences of an abused Iranian wife seeking shelter in Australia. It's beautifully acted, involving and hugely emotional. The Japanese animated jazz-infused drama Blue Giant is packed with a spectacular imagery and music, and a strongly engaging story. And the dark drama Pornomelancholia is the thoughtful, naturalistic story of a young man who wants to become a pornstar in Mexico. I also got the chance to revisit my best film of 2023, Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers, as it finally opened in UK cinemas last weekend. It hit me in a very different way the second time - astonishing filmmaking that I will revisit again.

This coming week I'll be watching the biopic One Love: Bob Marley, the thriller Out of Darkness and the drama Hoard, among other things and getting some sleep.

Critical Week: Love is all around

As the year-end holidays get closer, more and more awards bodies are presenting their nominations. Monday it was the Golden Globes, which I am voting in for the second year. The new collection of 300 international critic voters has seriously shifted the nominations into something very interesting this year. Meanwhile, there's a new romantic comedy in the cinema: What Happens Later, directed by Meg Ryan, who stars alongside David Duchovny as exes who cross paths in an airport. There are no other actors on-screen, and their charisma makes the movie enjoyable if corny. Another actor-turned-director, Eva Longoria shows serious skill with the whizzy, hugely entertaining biopic Flamin' Hot, which tells the story of the janitor who rebooted Frito-Lay, from his colourful perspective.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
American Fiction • Wonka
The Zone of Interest • Every Body
The Lost Boys • The Taste of Things
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
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More serious fare came from Michael Winterbottom, whose 1940s Israeli drama Shoshana feels almost painfully timely and informative. It's a sometimes odd mix of politics and romance, but is hugely involving. From Poland, Agnieszka Holland's terrific drama Green Border has courted controversy for its honest depiction of heartless right-wing immigration policies, simply by telling an honest story from three wrenching perspectives. From Germany, the drama The Teachers' Lounge skilfully follows a young teacher as her optimism is dealt a blow from a flurry of rumours and accusations. It's riveting and rather scary. From Romania, Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. And I was in the theatre for another panto this week, Puss in Boots at Wonderville.

Movies this week include a trip to the cinema to catch The Three Musketeers: Milady, since I missed the only press screening. And there's more catching up needed to see films before the next voting deadlines. The London Critics' Circle announces our nominations next Wednesday...

Critical Week: Make a wish

Awards season is in peak flow, with multiple screenings and Q&As every day, forcing us to choose carefully. One easy choice was attending the world premiere of Wonka, attended by filmmaker Paul King and the entire cast. The party was astonishing (so much candy!), and the film is a lot of fun too. There was also the musical remake of The Color Purple, a finely made film even if the songs create an uneven tone. Eddie Murphy takes on Christmas in Candy Cane Lane, an enjoyably goofy comedy fantasy that's slight but watchable. That's pretty much the same way to describe Melissa McCarthy in Genie.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
May December • Femme
Fallen Leaves • Totem
We Dare to Dream
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A bit more high brow, there's Jeffrey Wright in the fiercely intelligent comedy American Fiction, taking on cancel culture with complexity and nuance. George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett are excellent in the dark British drama Femme, a provocative exploration of masculinity. Isabelle Huppert is as good as always in The Sitting Duck (La Syndicaliste), an otherwise rather dry and talky drama. The slickly made Hong Kong crime thriller The Goldfinger reunites the great Tony Leung and Andy Lau, although the film gets bogged down in details. And there were two riveting docs: High and Low traces the life of disgraced fashion icon John Galliano, while We Dare to Dream is an intimate journey with members of the Olympic refugee team.

And as voting deadlines get closer, screenings are getting even busier. Movies this week include Pierce Brosnan in Fast Charlie, acclaimed foreign films The Taste of Things, The Peasants, Monica and Green Border, plus on-stage performances of Lunar Halo at Sadler's Wells, Tossed at Royal Vauxhall Tavern and Gary Starr at Southwark Playhouse.

Critical Week: Movie night

With the sunshine blazing across Great Britain, cinema box office is likely to take a hit these days. Although maybe the air conditioning will lure people to escape from the heat. I've certainly enjoyed attending press screenings this week, a cool break from the sweaty sunshine. I caught up with Pixar's new animated feature Elemental, which premiered at Cannes. It's a little uneven plotwise, but the characters are terrific and it looks spectacular. And then there's the return of Chris Hemsworth in Extraction II, an even more confident thrill-ride. It's ripping entertainment, but very violent.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
You Can Live Forever • The Flash
Elemental • Extraction II
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Also at Cannes, Wes Anderson's new slice of whimsy is Asteroid City, in which a vast ensemble of A-listers circle around strange goings on in a desert crater. It's quirky and has moments of genius, but little resonance. Take That's songs were adapted into the British stage musical The Band, which has now become the comedy romp Greatest Days. But the laughs are undermined by several pushy dark plot points.  And I also saw two smaller films centred around addicts: God's Petting You is an offbeat, messy heist comedy about a junkie who teams up with a sex addict to rob a pornstar, while Sunlight is a likeable but contrived Irish drama about an addict trying to have a final connection with his dying sponsor.

This next week I'll be watching Harrison Ford in action in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, British drama To Nowhere, French drama Mother & Son and two documentaries: Baato from the Himalayas in Nepal and The Last Rider about the 1989 Tour de France.

Critical Week: Chart a course

Britain is slowly emerging from lockdown after five very long months, and next week's shift includes reopening cinemas. It'll take awhile to get back up to full-speed, but it feels hopeful to be moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, I'm still watching everything on links, with the biggest film this week being the thriller Voyagers stars Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp and Colin Farrell in an oddly dull and timid riff on Lord of the Flies in space. Melanie Laurent is terrific in the claustrophobic thriller Oxygen, which has a lot of enjoyable twists and turns, even if it begins to feel a little silly. Kelvin Harrison Jr once again shines in Monster, a powerful legal drama that got stuck in distribution chaos for three years. And Robin Wright makes her feature directing debut with the beautiful but thin back-to-nature drama Land, in which she also delivers a terrific central performance.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Never Gonna Snow Again
The Perfect Candidate
Servants • End of Sentence
The Crime of the Century
PERHAPS AVOID: The Reckoning
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From the Czech Republic, Servants is a visually stunning, thematically powerful drama set in a Catholic seminary during Soviet occupation. From Romania, Two Lottery Tickets is the dryly amusing story of three hapless friends trying to improve their aimless lives. The horror pastiche Psycho Goreman is packed with hilariously big characters and riotously grisly effects. And Alex Gibney's riveting, engaging two-part documentary The Crime of the Century is a must-see portrait of the opioid crisis from a variety of pointed perspectives.

With cinemas opening on Monday, I actually have a physical screening in the diary for next week, the first since early December, for the Emily Blunt thriller A Quiet Place Part II. Otherwise I have links to watch for various things, including Amy Adams in The Woman in the Window, Angelina Jolie in Those Who Wish Me Dead, Fionn Whitehead in Port Authority, the Austrian drama Why Not You and the short film collection The Dutch Boys. 

Critical Week: Socially distant

The weather has warmed up again in the UK this past week, which makes staying indoors more annoying - apart from that allowed one-hour walk each day. But there are plenty of films to watch, and I've also binged some TV (loved Ryan Murphy's Hollywood and enjoyed Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever). As for the movies, it was another uneven batch.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Half of It • Spaceship Earth
A Good Woman Is Hard to Find
PERHAPS AVOID:
Cry for the Bad Man
Can You Keep a Secret?

Bigger films included Arkansas, Clark Duke's directing debut. He stars with Liam Hemsworth (above) in a thin but entertaining drug thriller infused with Coen-like comedy. Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer deserve to become stars for their work in The Half of It, one of the finest teen comedy-dramas in recent memory. It upends, and betters, all of the usual tropes of the genre. On the other hand, All Day and a Night gets stuck in its grim, tough portrayal of of a teen (the superb Ashton Sanders) caught in a cycle of drug-fuelled violence.

Some other decent films included the low-key drama Working Man, weaving a witty, involving story following the closing of a small-town factory; and Spaceship Earth is a fascinating doc about biospherians trying to help the planet, but caught up in rumours that they're in a doomsday cult. Guilty pleasures included the bonkers horror movie Reborn, which carefully recreates a 1970s vibe; and Enemy Lines is a standard WWII rescue adventure, but it's nicely shot on location with a solid cast. Less successful were the atmospheric but vacuous fairy tale horror Gretel & Hansel, the intimate but unsatisfying drama Clementine, and the hammy but over-serious home-invasion thriller Cry for the Bad Man.

I have quite a few things to watch over the next week, including Timothee Chalamet in A Rainy Day in New York, David Spade in The Wrong Missy, Kumail Nanjiani in The Photograph, Tamsin Grieg in Days of the Bagnold Summer, Imogen Poots in Castle in the Ground, festival hit Never Rarely Sometimes Always, coming-of-age drama Angelfish, horror anthology Evil Little Things, sci-fi thriller Red Rover, and Italian comedy-drama Fairytale.