Critical Week: It's the end of the world (again)

Awards season continues to accelerate, this week with the Bafta nominations giving predictions a good spin. I'm the chair of the London Film Critics' Circle, and our awards are announced on Sunday night, so I've been preparing for that all week. And Oscar nominations come next week. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Worst Person in the World
The Eyes of Tammy Faye • Azor
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Meanwhile, I had: my first experience in the outrageously all-encompassing rollercoaster of 4DX cinema with Moonfall, Roland Emmerich's latest ridiculous disaster epic, this time pitting Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and John Bradley against melodramatic family issues as they try to stop the moon from smashing into Earth. More than a decade after the last movie, Johnny Knoxville is back for Jackass Forever, in which the original crew get up to their usual limb-jeopardising antics, although they leave the most violent stuff to some newcomers.

Set in Britain and Mexico, the romantic comedy Book of Love starring Sam Claflin and Veronica Echegui feels fresh and engaging, even as it plays on the usual formula. The horror thriller The Long Night has lots of atmospherics and some slick filmmaking touches, but is oddly disjointed. From Argentina, Azor is a proper stunner, a slow-burn thriller about a man's journey into pure evil. From Spain, Bringing Him Back is a contained, intriguing drama about four people and the shifting dynamic between them. And the documentary The Tinder Swindler is a riveting account of a dating app con man whose scam was mind-bogglingly huge.

This next week I'll be watching Kenneth Branagh's the all-star sequel Death on the Nile, Tom Holland in Uncharted, Jennifer Lopez in Marry Me, Johnny Depp in Minimata, the Cape Cod drama Give or Take and the Italian drama Small Body.

Critical Week: To new friends

It's been another eclectic week in London screening rooms. We had the genre mash-up A Simple Favour, starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in a story that includes suburban comedy, buddy drama and Hitchcockian mystery. Another odd mix, The Happytime Murders stars Melissa McCarthy and a cast of puppets as a serial killer is on the loose. It's misguided but has its moments. And Action Point is a Jackass-style comedy from Johnny Knoxville about a perilous theme park. The stunts are sometimes funny, but nothing else is.

Gaspar Noe was in town to unleash his new film Climax on British audiences at FrightFest last weekend. It's a brilliantly swirling dance-based descent into hellish confusion. And I had a chance to talk to Noe about it. Other FrightFest titles I caught: Upgrade is a futuristic thriller starring Logan Marshall-Green as a guy who has his body rebuilt by technology, which of course goes awry. The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot is surprisingly nothing like its trashy title; it's an involving drama about an old man (Sam Elliott) coming to terms with the things he did as a young man (Aidan Turner). The Australian romp Boar, refreshingly uses puppets instead of digital effects to send a gigantic wild pig on a hyper-violent killing spree in the Outback. And The Cleaning Lady is eerie horror about a silent cleaner with a secret agenda.

Three more offbeat movies: From Germany, The Year I Lost My Mind is about a young man who begins stalking his own robbery victim in unsettling, underdeveloped ways. The documentary George Michael: Freedom was directed by the man himself just before he died, tracing his life with sensitivity and lots of amazing interviews and music. Shown on British TV last year, it's coming to cinemas as a director's cut. And Ruminations documents the life of Rumi Missabu, one of the original Cockettes. It's colourful and essential for fans of the late-60s gender-blurred performers.

Coming up this next week we have Jack Black and Cate Blanchett in The House With a Clock in its Walls, Annette Bening in The Seagull, Paul Dano's directing debut Wildlife, Jeremy Irons in An Actor Prepares, South African drama Five Fingers for Marseilles and the artist-activist doc I Hate New York.

Requisite Blog Photo: That's bad!

Bad Grandpa photobombed me in Berlin last summer, apparently.