Critical Week: Eavesdropping

During our second short work week in a row, there were once again fewer press screenings than usual. But I still kept busy, and caught several things. Most notable perhaps is last year's acclaimed Belgian drama Julie Keeps Quiet, a powerfully well-observed film about a teen girl (Tessa Van den Broeck, above) navigating a very tricky situation. On a much larger scale, Ben Affleck is back with the action sequel The Accountant 2, which features more sparky sibling banter between the autistic finance/battle savant and his live-wire brother (Jon Bernthal). It's a lot of fun, even more engaging this time around, and still preposterous.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Treading Water • Julie Keeps Quiet
Wind, Tide & Oar
ALL REVIEWS >

Lily Collias is excellent in Good One, a relaxed drama about a teen girl on a hiking trip with her dad (James Le Gros). It's a stunner of a film from first-time feature writer-director India Donaldson. David Mamet is back with the talky but intriguing drama, Henry Johnson, starring Evan Jonigkeit as a young lawyer who has a series of very pointed conversations with various men as his life goes off the rails. Christopher Abbott has lots of internal angst in the moody, mopey drama Swimming Home, beautifully filmed in Greek locations. Sandra Huller has fun in the engaging but overlong German caper comedy-drama Two to One, based on a true story set in newly post-communist East Berlin. I also attended a big-screen preview of Apple's new adventure/conservationist series The Wild Ones, and am now looking forward to further episodes in the summer. And I saw the stage shows Snow White: The Sacrifice at Sadler's Wells and Neil LaBute's How to Fight Loneliness at the Park.

This coming week, I'll be watching Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan in Thunderbolts, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in Another Simple Favour, Nicolas Cage in The Surfer, Jack Lowden in Tornado, Charlie Tahan in Things Like This, Karim Ainouz's Motel Destino and Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope.

Sundance London: Make a connection

Sundance Film Festival: London may only last four days, but the 15 films in the lineup are all buzzy titles that audiences and critics have an appetite for. And one of the best things about this festival is that every screening includes a Q&A with filmmakers and/or cast members. Even if someone can't attend, such as Lena Dunham with her new drama Sharp Stick (above), she shows up in a zoom call, interviewed about the film specifically for those of us who had just watched it. Of course, this means that the lovely spaces at Picturehouse Central are all taken over by VIP or press events (I can at least get into the press ones). Here are some more highlights...

Sharp Stick
dir-scr Lena Dunham; with Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal 22/US ****
After a 12-year break from filmmaking Lena Dunham is once again inventively challenges the way women are depicted on screen. She cleverly spins a lightly fantastical tale about a young woman's coming of age that's so defiantly complex and thoughtful that it often feels shocking. But it shouldn't be, and that's the point. Packed with layered, frankly amazing characters, it's the kind of film that should start important conversations.

Hatching [Pahanhautoja]
dir Hanna Bergholm; with Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkila 22/Fin ***.
Cleverly mixing over-the-top beauty with insidious nastiness, this Finnish thriller remains sunny and smiley even as scenes become very grisly indeed. Blackly comical touches combine with underlying emotions to pull the audience in, as director Hanna Bergholm draws out important themes and thoroughly freaks out the audience. As it warps into gleefully yucky body horror, the film also finds surprising meaning in the personal drama, including some moving emotions.

Brian and Charles
dir Jim Archer; with David Earl, Chris Hayward 22/UK ****
With disarming charm that sneaks up on the audience, this offbeat British comedy-drama is packed with wonderfully quirky characters who bring a relatively simple narrative to sparkling life. Director Jim Archer takes an amusingly deadpan approach that adds an involving kick to the script, which was written by lead actors David Earl and Chris Hayward. So even if the story is rather silly, it's underscored with real heart.

Fire of Love
dir Sara Dosa; with Katia Krafft, Maurice Krafft 22/Can ***.
With a wealth of amazing footage, this documentary follows intrepid volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who skilfully filmed their adventures around the world. Filmmaker Sara Dosa assembles this material to vividly capture their passion for both molten lava and each other. Much of the imagery is so astonishing that it leaves us gasping for breath. But it's the likeable couple at the centre that holds the interest.

Full reviews will be on the site soon. For more information, visit SUNDANCE LONDON >

Critical Week: Fairy dust

London finally enjoyed a late-summer heatwave this past week - not baking hot, but sunny skies and warm weather lured what looked like everyone out into the city. That'll likely have a knock-on effect on cinema box office if it continues through this weekend. Otherwise, things have been a bit quite for critics, as the Venice Film Festival continues and Toronto Film Festival kicks off. The programme for October's 65th London Film Festival was launched this week, and there are several bit titles from Venice, Toronto and Cannes in there. Meanwhile, here in London I caught up with two high-profile Amazon releases: Camila Cabello makes a strong acting debut in Cinderella, a musical comedy that's silly but entertaining. And Justice Smith gives a welcome grown-up performance in The Voyeurs, which starts as a Hitchcockian thriller but contrives itself into something unnervingly bleak.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Servant • Respect • Boy Meets Boy
The Collini Case • The Capote Tapes
ALL REVIEWS >

Smaller films includes Small Engine Repair, John Pollono's adaptation of his own play about three men on a mystery mission that swerves from edgy comedy to pitch-black thriller; Dating & New York is a twinkly romantic comedy about millennials trying not to fall in love (no surprise what happens); Iceland Is Best is a quirky and strangely muted British-made, Iceland-set comedy about teens with dreams; Death Drop Gorgeous is a messy but rather hilariously grisly slasher comedy set in a drag club; and The Collini Case is an excellent German courtroom drama that uses a fictional story to explore a shockingly true situation.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the filmed stage musical Come From Away, British drama A Brixton Tale, British comedy Pirates, horror thriller The Djinn, social media satire The Influencer, Norwegian comedy Ninjababy, Second World War drama Natural Light and Bruce LaBruce's Saint-Narcisse.

Critical Week: Jailyard blues

Films were a little more low-key this week, as studios continue their current trend of simply not screening the biggest releases (including Geostorm, The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Snowman, Flatliners, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the forthcoming A Bad Moms Christmas). With some of these, I buy a ticket to see the movie so I can review it. Others I skip even though they feature favourite actors and filmmakers (perhaps I can catch up with The Mountain Between Us on a flight). Either way, it's rather frustrating that distributors are now telling us how to do our job, and sometimes forcing us to lose paying work. Basically, they have forgotten that we are part of the industry and treat us instead as one element in their PR plan. I'm afraid this is only going to get worse.

Anyway, I only saw two films this week that featured mainstream stars. One was the gritty thriller Shot Caller, in which Game of Thrones' Nicolaj Coster-Waldau plays a banker sent to prison, where he becomes a criminal with the help of gang member Jon Bernthal (above). The other was the comedy Crash Pad with Domhnall Gleeson, Thomas Haden Church and Christina Applegate, corny but enjoyably silly.

From Australia, Teenage Kicks is a dark coming-of-age drama with very realistic characters. The offbeat British drama Palace of Fun is an intriguing story of obsession. From Congo, Felicite is a gorgeously made odyssey about a fiercely strong woman. Belgian ensemble romance Even Lovers Get the Blues features a cast of good-looking 30-somethings wrestling with issues of sex and love. And the web series I'm Fine follows a group of cliched but likeable gay men in West Hollywood. Then there was a festival that held its opening night...

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12th LONDON KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL 26 October - 19 November
The Day After
dir Hong Sangsoo; with Kwan Haehyo, Kim Minhee 17/Kor ***.
With a blackly comical tone, Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo tells a witty tale of relational chaos centring around a man caught between the three women in his life. With its improvised dialog and extended takes shot in striking monochrome, this is a loose, entertaining film that continually surprises the audience with its tricky pacing and an elliptical style of storytelling that makes it feel like we've been here before. And the characters are hilariously messy.

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Coming up this next week, we have the eagerly awaited sequel Paddington 2, the star-packed remake Murder on the Orient Express, supernatural thriller Sightings, horror action movie Mayhem, Norwegian thriller Thelma, Cuban drama Santa & Andres,  and the Psycho shower scene doc 78/52.

Critical Week: Teenage kicks

It's been a slow week for screenings, perhaps a brief intake of breath before the awards season kicks off in earnest. My first awards-consideration screenings are late next week. In the meantime, this weeks' screenings included The Edge of Seventeen, an unusually edgy teen drama starring Hailee Steinfeld with fine grown-up support from the likes of Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick. The other big movie was The Accountant, the slick but preposterous Ben Affleck autism-gangster thriller that's entertaining only if you don't think about it.

Further afield was the micro-budget British thriller The Darkest Dawn, which makes up for a simplistic script with some sharp acting and inventive effects. Ron and Laura Take Back America is an extended sketch-style comedy-doc lampooning head-in-the-sand right wing politics. And I also finally caught up with Clint Eastwood's 1997 southern gothic melodrama Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, starring baggy suited John Cusack and a scene-nibbling Kevin Spacey, plus a notable cameo from a young Jude Law.

Things are still slow over the coming days, with just three press screenings: Gael Garcia Bernal Pablo Larrain's biopic of the poet Neruda, the Italian drama One Kiss, and the UK premiere of the Korean thriller The Truth Beneath. I also have several screeners to watch at home....

LFF 10: At the end of the war

Brad Pitt invaded London to wrap up the 58th London Film Festival tonight with his World War II batttle epic Fury. He was accompanied by his entire tank team (around Pitt above: Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal) as well as filmmaker David Ayer, and their press conference following the morning screening was a combination of reverence for veterans and brotherly camaraderie developed over the shooting process.

Meanwhile, journalists feel like we've been through a war since press screenings started in mid-September - averaging three or four movies a day since - but it's all over now, and hopefully we can get back to full nights of sleep. Although on Wednesday, I'm heading to Abu Dhabi to serve on the jury of their film festival 23-31 October. But that will feel like a holiday compared to London! Until then, here are some final highlights....

Fury
dir David Ayer; with Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf 14/UK ***
Writer-director Ayer makes no attempt to update the rah-rah bombast of the WWII genre, indulging in big action, the usual plot points, faux heroism and "war is hell" rhetoric. The film is sharply assembled and very nicely acted by a terrific cast, but it ultimately feels oddly pointless.

3 Hearts
dir Benoit Jacquot; with Benoit Poelvoorde, Charlotte Gainsbourg 14/Fr 1h46 ***.
A twisty love story shot and edited as if it's a dark thriller, this odd film is utterly riveting mainly because it's impossible to predict what the characters are going to do next. At its core, this is a love triangle. But the film is assembled with attention to the most insinuating, creepy detail, confident enough to allow the characters to slip in and out of sympathy along the way.

Second Coming
dir Debbie Tucker Green; with Nadine Marshall, Idris Elba 14/UK **
Beautifully shot with an attention to internal intensity, this low-budget British drama should carry an emotional wallop. But filmmaker Tucker Green infuriatingly refuses to fill in any details, leaving dialog incomplete, the plot blurry and the characters' feelings as mere hints of something bigger. The acting feels raw and very personal, but without having a clue what's happening the film remains maddeningly elusive.

President

dir Mohsen Makhmalbaf; with Misha Gomiashvili, Dachi Orvelashvili 14/Geo 1h45 ****

Now based in London, exiled Iranian filmmaker Makhmalbaf pulls no punches in this blackly comical political adventure. Set in an "unnamed country" (it was filmed in Georgia), it's a story of political oppression told from perspectives that are rarely represented on screen with this much honesty and warm humour, forcing the audience to consider the themes from unthinkable angles.