Critical Week: Under siege

I'm now 90 days into lockdown and, while things aren't great in the UK the rules are beginning to relax a bit. In between watching movies at home (and quite a few TV episodes), I have been getting out into the streets most days. This week the traffic and crowds seem back to normal levels for the first time, even though many shops remain closed. And while the film industry is getting back into production, the question of opening cinemas is still a big one. Frankly, I can't imagine sitting in a press screening room quite yet!

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Dating Amber • The Australian Dream
Days of the Bagnold Summer
The Surrogate • You Don't Nomi
PERHAPS AVOID:
Darkness Falls
The Ascent/Black Ops
FULL REVIEWS >

Bigger movies in my personal screening room this past week included Artemis Fowl, Disney's lavishly produced fantasy adventure with a cast of young newcomers plus Judi Dench (above), Colin Farrell and Josh Gad. It's colourful and far too busy. But it's a gem compared to the epic The Last Days of American Crime, a near-future heist thriller that's simply loud, violent and stupid. Both films will find their audiences.

Smaller fare included the rude, sassy comedy Banana Split, with Hannah Marks and Liana Liberato; the simplistic, cheesy thriller Darkness Falls, starring Shawn Ashmore and Gary Cole; the charming, inventive Irish comedy Dating Amber, with rising star Fionn O'Shea (Normal People); the darkly engaging dramatic horror 1BR; the provocative, thoughtful parenthood drama The Surrogate; and the creative but rather thin surreal British action thriller The Ascent (US title: Black Ops). Foreign options were the breezy, enjoyably pointed Italian comedy Citizens of the World and the lurid Chilean 1970s prison drama The Prince, a remarkable film that won a top award at Venice last year. And finally, from Down Under the doc The Australian Dream explores the experience of football legend Adam Goodes, making pointed and timely observations about systemic bigotry.

Coming up this next week are Spike Lee's Vietnam drama Da 5 Bloods, Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island, the supernatural thriller Driven, the timely doc On the Record, and the French dramas Joan of Arc and Young Ahmed.

Critical Week: Great American hero

This week's screenings featured rather a lot of strong women, starting with Harriet, in which Cynthia Erivo plays the tough-minded slave rescuer Harriet Tubman. The film's a bit too reverent for its own good, but Erivo is terrific. Frozen II reunites sisters Elsa and Anna for an even more thrilling adventure that has huge action beats and some properly developed emotion too. Greta Gerwig offers a new adaptation of Little Women, with a strikingly good cast (Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep) and a refreshingly sharp tone, although the structure is a bit problematic. And then there was the haunting Appalachian drama Them That Follow, starring Alice Englert and Olivia Colman as members of a freaky snake-handling church.

Further afield, there was the offbeat British comedy-thriller Kill Ben Lyk, which amusingly combines a whodunit with a slasher horror romp. The dark British drama Into the Mirror is an involving, internalised exploration of identity and gender. From Hong Kong, Adonis is a fascinating and somewhat over-sexed exploration of fate and art. And Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words creates a strikingly inventive new genre, moving the ballet into real-world sets to recount Shakespeare's timeless story with physicality and music rather than dialog. It's beautiful.

Coming up this next week, we have Chadwick Boseman in 21 Bridges, Aaron Eckhart in Line of Duty, Edward Norton in Motherless Brooklyn, Patrick Schwarzenegger in Daniel Isn't Real, and The Amazing Johnathan Documentary. I'm also chasing several year-end awards-worthy titles before voting deadlines, which are looming less than a month away now...

London Film Fest: Whatever happens, keep smiling

I may have only seen two movies today at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival, but I was in the cinema for five hours and 21 minutes (they were very long films). I also had a couple of filmmaker interviews, which is always good fun - End of the Century's Lucio Castro and Don't Look Down's Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. And both of these involved a 15-min walk to the venue, so I got my steps in today. We've passed the halfway point now, so I can sense light in the end of the tunnel. Although the queues in the rain for 8am screenings are trying my patience. Here are Tuesday highlights...

Little Monsters
dir-scr Abe Forsythe; with Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England 19/Aus ***.
Aussie filmmaker Abe Forsythe manages to find a new take on the zombie genre. With a contained Australian setting, he adds a buoyant sense of humour that takes over the entire movie. It's so disarmingly funny, that the audience is genuinely taken aback by how horrifically violent it gets. And even more impressive is how he also generates some properly sweet moments as well.

Bad Education
dir Cory Finley; with Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney 19/US ****
A terrific balance of smart writing, witty direction and skilfully layered performances elevate this true story into a fiendishly entertaining tale of financial malfeasance. Director Corey Finley cuts through the story without getting bogged down in the finely laid out details. He and writer Mike Makowsky also remember to keep the characters compelling even as their outrageous misdeeds are brought into the light.

Vivarium
dir Lorcan Finnegan; with Jesse Eisenberg, Imogen Poots 19/Ire ***
So overtly allegorical that there isn't much to discover, this enjoyably offbeat Irish thriller is compulsively watchable. Filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan creates such a distinctive look that the audience joins in, even if the story never manages a proper surprise. Still, it couldn't be much freakier, using everyday imagery to unhinged effect. And while it may not have much to say about the topic, at least it leaves us feeling queasy.

Matthias & Maxime
dir-scr Xavier Dolan; with Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas, Xavier Dolan 19/Can ***.
There's a bold, bracingly fresh idea at the centre of this film, and actor-filmmaker Xavier Dolan spends much of the running time avoiding it, just as his  characters do. The film is sharply written to catch the rhythms of a 30-something still working out where to go with their lives. And the central story of two lifelong friends has a strong kick, even if it comes a bit late.

The Painted Bird
dir-scr Vaclav Marhoul; with Petr Kotlar, Harvey Keitel 19/Cz ****
Based on the Jerzy Kosinski novel, this sprawling Czech epic takes the audience in an unforgettable odyssey through World War II. Shot in shimmering black and white, scenes look exquisite, giving the film an instantly classic tone. Each episode of this allegory carries an unexpected kick as it reflects real life in bracingly full-on ways. Writer-director Vaclav Marhoul keeps the explicit stuff off-camera, but he still leaves us shaken.

End of the Century [Fin de Siglo]
dir-scr Lucio Castro; with Juan Barberini, Ramon Pujol 19/Arg ****
Observationally shot and beautifully edited, this delicate drama by Argentine filmmaker Lucio Castro pulls the audience in slowly with its striking imagery and relaxed characters. The film's structure is ambitious, with time periods that overlap and echo in unexpected ways, and the enigmatic style of filmmaking makes it surprisingly involving as it plays with the idea of memory, the passage of time and alternate realities... FULL REVIEW >

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

Critical Week: Boys gone wild

There weren't any kids' movies screened to critics this week, thankfully (it's been a bit much this summer!). But we had some films about kids aimed at grown-ups. The biggest is Good Boys, which is basically a standard rude teen movie featuring tweens in the central roles instead. Jacob Tremblay (above) leads the cast of kids and scene-stealing adults. Lupita Nyong'o plays a smart teacher in Little Monsters, taking her kindergarten class on a tour of local farm when a zombie apocalypse breaks out. Being an Aussie film, it's primarily a comedy, but there's also real gore and emotion too. And Steve Coogan leads Hot Air as a radio host who suddenly has to take care of his teen niece (Taylor Russell). It's snappy is rather predictable.

Two smallish movies benefit from big Hollywood actresses: Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams star in After the Wedding, as two women connected by a long-time secret involving Billy Crudup. Naomi Watts stars in the smart, provocative drama Luce, as a woman coping with possible issues relating to her adoptive teen son's past. Further afield we had the superb Iranian drama Permission, about a fierce, intelligent woman taking on an unjust system; the light, silly romantic comedy One Last Night is set around a struggling cinema; and Tu Me Manques is an artful, devastatingly emotional drama based on a play that links New York with Bolivia.

I've also been watching horror films that will be at the upcoming FrightFest (in London, 22-26 Aug). The quality of these films has been very high; for me horror is the perfect movie genre, because if done well it can truly make you forget the world outside. These include the opening film Come to Daddy starring Elijah Wood, the closing film A Good Woman Is Hard to Find starring Sarah Bolger, Eddie Marsan in Feedback, the teen-killers thriller Extracurricular and the dark psychological nightmare I Trapped the Devil. More to come on the festival next week.

This coming week we have screenings of Sam Taylor-Johnson's A Million Little Pieces, Guillermo Del Toro's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Alexandre Aja's Crawl and Francois Ozon's By the Grace of God. Plus several more FrightFest titles.

Critical Week: You better not pout

It seems rather early, but the holidays kicked off this week with the first festive movie, A Bad Moms Christmas, a sequel to last year's sweetly gross-out comedy with added grandmothers. More of the same, it's kind of the definition of mindless entertainment. There was also a press screening for Paddington 2, which might actually be better than the wonderful original film. It's a pure delight, a great story with superb characters and a range of silly, surreal and razor-sharp comedy.

And I can't remember the last time I was invited to attend a premiere, but tonight I was at the Royal Albert Hall for the world premiere of Kenneth Branagh's remake of the Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express. It's a big, classy whodunit with a nice mix of comedy and emotion stirred in to add weight to the characters. The entire cast was at the premiere, including Branagh, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Olivia Colman, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe and Derek Jacobi.

There was also a spin on the zombie genre with the raucous office block black comedy Mayhem, as well as the remarkably straight-faced B-movie style bigfoot thriller Sightings. Plus two foreign films: the involving, mesmerising thriller Thelma from Norway and the movingly personal drama Santa and Andres from Cuba. And two docs: 78/52 gets into lots of enjoyable detail about how Hitchcock created that iconic shower scene, while The Freedom to Marry explores the activists at the centre of the Supreme Court's decision on marriage equality.

This coming week we have screenings of Josh Brolin in Only the Brave, Colin Firth in The Mercy, Richard Gere in The Dinner, Jon Bernthal in Sweet Virginia, Lee Pace in Revolt and Virginia Madsen in Better Watch Out.

Critical Week: A bit of a giggle

Well, that photo certainly isn't very indicative of Terence Davies' new film A Quiet Passion, the Emily Dickinson biopic that screened for London-based press this week (it also featured in last October's London Film Festival). A gloomy but strikingly realistic period film, it's livened up by the crisp performances of Cynthia Nixon and Jennifer Ehle, and it features lots of Dickinson's wonderfully evocative poetry, but it's pretty grim stuff. There was also a much bigger movie, Disney's remake of the 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast, which stirs live actors into the now photo-realistic animated fairy tale. It's still a hugely engaging story, and the actors and filmmakers add superb subtext, but fans of the original may find it unnecessary.

The best film of the year so far is the Oscar-nominated doc I Am Not Your Negro, which inventively reframes the race issue as the overall history of America. A stunning film, beautifully adapted from James Baldwin's words. We also had the slickly made, action-packed Korean period thriller The Age of Shadows, the grim but inventive British rural drama The Levelling, the astute and moving Chilean drama You'll Never Be Alone, and the serious-themed Italian road comedy A Little Lust.

Coming up this next week, we have Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale in The Promise, Charlie Hunnam and Tom Holland in The Lost City of Z, Dax Shepard and Michael Pena in CHiPs, and the Finnish comedy The Other Side of Hope. Also, the 31st BFI Flare kicks off on Thursday with the world premiere of the true British drama Against the Law. Look for comments on that film and lots of others in regular updates over the next two weeks.

Requisite Blog Photo: Let's get mad

Requisite Blog Photo: Bite me!

Critical Week: Teach a boy to fish...

Critics caught up with Stephen Daldry's Slumdog Millionaire-style adventure Trash this week. It's a lively romp about three teens who make a surprise discovery while scavenging in the Rio dump. It's entertaining even if it feels badly contrived. The Wedding Ringer is a unexpectedly hilarious comedy starring Josh Gad as a groom-to-be who hires fast-talking Kevin Hart to be his best man. Thankfully it has a sharp sense of character and some very funny writing.

Gregg Araki's White Bird in a Blizzard feels oddly tame compared to the filmmaker's previous work, but it has a dark edge to it that holds the interest, even if the teen-girl set up (Shailene Woodley coming of age as her mother Eva Green goes missing) feels a bit overcooked. But it has a terrific sting in the tail. We'll Never Have Paris is an awkward rom-com starring Simon Helberg as an annoying guy trying to win his girlfriend (Melanie Lynskey) back after he botches the proposal. But he's so unlikeable that he clearly doesn't deserve her. And Hinterland is a microbudget British drama about two old friends (Lori Campbell and writer-director Harry Macqueen) who run off to Cornwall for two days to re-bond. Or something. It's so vague that it's hard to tell, but it looks great.

This coming week we have the much-delayed Jupiter Ascending (screening to press only a day before it opens), the Oscar-nominated The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Bernard Rose's The Devil's Violinist, the blackly comical horror Suburban Gothic, the real-life horror The Town That Dreaded Sundown, the topical teen romance Boy Meets Girl and the acclaimed documentary The Overnighters.

Requisite Blog Photo: Falling!