Critical Week: It's party time

The 68th BFI London Film Festival kicked off this week, just as my two-month stint on a television series wrapped, so there's been no time to kill! But I'm taking the festival more lightly this year, with just one or two films per day. I'll catch up with other movies later. Meanwhile, awards season is fully underway in London, with Q&A screenings most evenings. And over the next week many of these are also in the festival. This week's screenings included Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner Anora, a lively romantic comedy that spins into something even more interesting as it goes along. It's a proper stunner.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Transformers One
We Live in Time
ALL REVIEWS >

LFF opened with Steve McQueen's Blitz, a gorgeously produced recreation of 1940 London under attack, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan. The story doesn't quite work, but it looks astonishing. Ralph Fiennes leads a strong cast in Conclave, Edward Berger's drama about the selection of a new Pope. It's smart, nuanced and riveting. John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler lead an adaptation of August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson, which is beefy and intense, but remains rather stagebound. Mike Leigh is back with Hard Truths, an edgy family drama starring the terrific Marianne Jean-Baptists and Michele Austin. And apart from LFF/awards season, the lively Hong Kong action movie Stuntman pays playful and sometimes melodramatic homage to the stunt performing community. I also caught Chicos Mambo's amusing live show Tutu at the Peacock. 

Most films I'm watching this coming week are also screening at LFF, including the animated adventure The Wild Robot, the SNL romp Saturday Night, Angelina Jolie in Maria, Amy Adams in Nightbitch, Thomasin McKenzie in Joy, Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain, the Indian comedy Superboys of Malegaon and the psychic doc Look Into My Eye. There's also Alex Wolff in The Line, Mark Cousins' A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things and the doc Studio One Forever, plus Fillibuster at Jackson's Lane. 

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: Reject oppression

It's been a busy week for me, as I chair the London Film Critics, and we announced our nominations on Tuesday.  Meanwhile, I keep watching movies in lockdown, all send virtually through a variety of streaming systems, usually with my name and/or email address watermarked across the screen (which can sometimes be distracting). There were a few heavy-hitters this week, including the great Daniel Kaluuya in the ripping true drama Judas and the Black Messiah, about the political machinations within the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers in 1968. Oscar powerhouses Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto lend their considerable skills to the rather straightforward serial killer thriller The Little Things. And John David Washington and Zendaya have an extended tense conversation in the stylish and fascinating stage-like drama Malcolm & Marie.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
MLK/FBI • Blithe Spirit
Boys Feels: High Tide 
ALL REVIEWS >

Smaller films included the warm comedy-drama Love Sarah, starring Celia Imrie and a lot of delicious baked goods. The superb Shahab Hosseini stars in The Night, about an immigrant family that checks into a freak-out hotel. The surreal Greek drama Apples is about a world inflicted by a pandemic that causes amnesia, and the story is packed with clever insight. There were two award-worthy docs: The Truffle Hunters is the utterly delightful story of the old Italians who guard their old world profession, while MLK/FBI is a blood-boiling look at how J Edgar Hoover ruthlessly harassed Martin Luther King and smeared his name in the 1960s. Finally, there was a collection of four short films in Boys Feels: High Tide - each of them is an astute look at youthful yearning.

This coming week I'll be watching Anthony Mackie in Outside the Wire, the Indian biopic The White Tiger, Nahuel Perez Biscayart in Persian Lessons, the Danish thriller The Exception and still more awards contenders.

A Year in Shadows: 2020

52 films, in order of appearance: The Gentlemen, 1917, Waves, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Queen & Slim, Parasite, Emma, Greed, True History of the Kelly Gang, Onward, The Wolf Hour, Uncorked, Trolls World Tour, Love Wedding Repeat, Extraction, Bad Education, The Half of It, Capone, Scoob, Snowpiercer, A Rainy Day in New York, Days of the Bagnold Summer, Da 5 Bloods, Fanny Lye Deliver'd, Eurovision Song Contest, The Old Guard, Palm Springs, Stage Mother, Summerland, An American Pickle, Waiting for the Barbarians, Tesla, Tenet, Mulan, The Roads Not Taken, The Devil All the Time, Monsoon, The Glorias, Mangrove, Supernova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, WolfWalkers, The Human Voice, Ammonite, Small Axe, Happiest Season, Nomadland, The Prom, WW84, Soul.

TRIVIA ALERT!

• Two solo covers: George MacKay and Tilda Swinton.
• Twice on one cover: John David Washington.
• One solo and one shared cover: Henry Golding, Letitia Wright, Robert Pattinson and the film Mangrove.
• Two shared covers: Elle Fanning.
• Two shared covers, one as himself and one as an animated character: James Corden.
• Most crowded: Trolls World Tour (11), The Gentlemen (7).
• Most films on one cover: Small Axe (5).

Solo on one cover: Bong Joon Ho, Chris Hemsworth, Dev Patel, Frances McDormand, Gal Gadot, Mamoudou Athie, Maxine Peake, Naomi Watts, Rosamund Pike, Sacha Baron Cohen, Seth Rogen, Steve Coogan, Tom Hardy, Yifei Liu.

Sharing one cover: Alexa Demie, Alicia Vikander, Allison Janney, Amarah-Jae St Aubyn, Andy Samberg, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Hunnam, Charlize Theron, Clarke Peters, Colin Farrell, Colin Firth, Cristin Milioti, Dan Levy, Daniel Diemer, Daniel Kaluuya, Delroy Lindo, Earl Cave, Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Hugh Grant, Hugh Jackman, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Jacki Weaver, Jeremy Strong, Janelle Monae, Javier Bardem, Jessie Buckley, John Boyega, Johnny Depp, Johnny Flynn, Jodie Turner-Smith, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Kenyah Sandy, Khali Best, Kristen Stewart, Leah Lewis, Luca Marinelli, Mark Rylance, Matthew McConaughey, Matthias Schoenaerts, Meryl Streep, Micheal Ward, Michelle Dockery, Monica Dolan, Norm Lewis, Olivia Munn, Oscar Moreno, Rachel McAdams, Sam Claflin, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, Timothee Chalamet, Will Ferrell.

As the voice of an animated character: Amanda Seyfried, Anna Kendrick, Anthony Ramos, Chris Pratt, Eva Whittaker, Frank Welker, Gina Rodriguez, Gustavo Dudamel, Honor Kneafsey, Jamie Dornan, Jamie Foxx, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Kenan Thompson, Kunal Nayyar, Rachel Bloom, Ron Funches, Tina Fey, Tom Holland, Will Forte, Zac Efron ... as elfs, trolls, souls, wolf-girls, a cat and a dog.

And for the first time, here are the covers that were drafted but never used, mainly due to shuffling pandemic release schedules: Just Mercy, Oscar/Parasite, A Quiet Place Part II, All Day and a Night, Can You Keep a Secret, Arkansas, The Wrong Missy, Da 5 Bloods (alternate version), Greyhound, Animal Crackers, The Boys in the Band, The War With Grandpa, Black Box, County Lines. (Note that Mulan was originally designed for 27th March, then revised for 4th September.)

Critical Week: Secret admirerer

Lockdown continues to loosen here in Britain, with more people taking advantage of the government's August half-price eating out bargain. I even took a three day trip out of London. But the big news (for me at least) was the first major studio blockbuster coming to cinemas in five months: Christopher Nolan's Tenet. I saw the film at a press screening at the BFI Imax on Monday, and then went again to a multiplex on Wednesday with a friend - my first public screening since March. The film isn't the knock-out masterpiece we were hoping for, but it's hugely entertaining and made on a gloriously ambitious scale. For the record, the picture was of course better in Imax, the sound was better in the multiplex, and the movie itself is even more fun the second time around.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Garden Left Behind • Tenet
She Dies Alone • Away
Breaking Fast • Nomad
FULL REVIEWS >

I also saw some films on streaming links. The moody teen drama Chemical Hearts, with Lili Reinhart and Austin Abrams (above), looks great but falls apart. The One and Only Ivan is a Disney family movie with above-average effects and a surprisingly witty script. Jessica Chastain turns to action as an assassin in Ava, which is let down by a barrage of cliches. She Dies Tomorrow is a fiercely clever horror movie that plays on some very deep human fears. A Latvian filmmaker working almost on his own reveals impressive talent with Away, an evocative animated fable. And from Greece, the dark fairy tale Entwined is intriguing but somewhat uneven. I also got to attend an online reading of a new play...

Star Man
by James Cole • with Jasper William Cartwright, Harry Edwin, Kim Tatum, Neil Summervile, Jaymes Sygrove, David E Hull-Watters

A hugely emotional drama told with some properly inventive storytelling tricks, James Cole's darkly powerful play centres on Ben (Cartwright) and his step-brother Tony (Edwin), who's also his boyfriend. Ben is struggling to recover from a past trauma, and the audience follows him as he interacts with a variety of people who trigger memories in painful ways. It's a remarkably effective exploration of the reverberations of abuse on the victim as well as everyone around him. Watching this in a zoom performance makes everything feel very serious indeed, leaving us to imagine what sounds like some intricate and very clever staging (described by narrator Hull-Watters). So I'm really looking forward to seeing this in a real theatre at some point.

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No press screenings in the diary this week, but I will probably buy a ticket to see the X-Men spin-off The New Mutants in a cinema this weekend. Streaming films to watch include Disney's epic remake of Mulan, Hugo Weaving in the Shakespeare riff Measure for Measure, the British fantasy Undergods, the Spanish thriller Unknown Origins and the short film collection Right Beside You.

Critical Week: Chasing monsters

It's been another eclectic week in the screening rooms around London. First up, there was Slaughterhouse Rulez, a blackly comical horror romp that mixes pastiche with nastiness. The idea is great, but the film is a little choppy. Juliet, Naked is a gently engaging British comedy-drama with romantic inclinations featuring nicely understated turns from Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O'Dowd. And Monsters and Men is a provocative American drama about three young men in Brooklyn who are pushed into a corner regarding white-on-black police violence. Its light touch makes it notable.

We had a festive Halloween screening of Hell Fest, a throwback teen horror romp so bog-standard that it's neither scary or funny. Lars Von Trier's The House That Jack Built is an epic-length exploration of a serial killer (a superb Matt Dillon), expertly made and fiercely provocative. And from France, Boys [Jonas] is a finely acted low-key drama about a young man confronting an event in his past through a series of encounters that won't let him go.

Over the next 10 days, I'll travel to Greece to be on the international critics' (Fipresci) jury at the 59th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. While there, I'm also planning to catch some festival films I've missed so far, including Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, Berlin winner Touch Me Not, London winner Joy, Lazlo Nemes' Sunset and Ben Wheatley's Happy Birthday, Colin Burstead.