SXSW London: Lose yourself

The first SXSW London festival kicked off on Monday night with the world premiere of the Eminem fan doc Stans, and it runs through the week until Saturday with a rather blinding range of music gigs, panel discussions, talks, events and, yes, films. They've packed rather a lot into these six days, using venues scattered across East London, with Shoreditch as the epicentre. I also attended a panel this week, hosted by the Golden Globes, exploring the global nature of storytelling. Participants came from Britain, Turkey and Ukraine, and there was a strong interaction with the audience in attendance, talking about what kinds of stories resonate beyond cultural barriers. I'll also be attending a TV series premiere this week, and several more movies. Here are three film highlights so far...

Stans 
dir-scr Steven Leckart; with Eminem, Dr Dre 25/US ****
Rather than tracing the artist's career or personal life, this documentary explores the interaction between Eminem and his most earnest fans, noting that the term "stan" was coined from his eponymous 2000 hit. This approach makes the film unusually intimate, highlighting how music connects into deeper issues. And because Eminem's music is so soul-baring, it has an unusual resonance that can silence critics who don't quite get it.

Cactus Pears
dir-scr Rohan Parashuram Kanawade; with Bhushaan Manoj, Suraaj Suman 25/Ind ****.

Hushed and observational, this beautifully shot Indian drama focusses on a 30-year-old gay man who has escaped his home culture but is now is forced to make peace with it. Packed with local traditions and interpersonal details, the film is powerfully involving as writer-director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade continually finds unexpected layers of resonance. And in a skilfully low-key way, the film offers a strong sense of hope.

Cielo
dir-scr Alberto Sciamma; with Fernanda Gutierrez Aranda, Fernando Arze Echalar 25/Bol ****

Gorgeously shot in spectacular mountain landscapes populated by lively characters, this Bolivian drama opens with a beautiful but darkly disturbing sequence that opens with a young girl swallowing a fish. With vibrant colours, writer-director Alberto Sciamma infuses this fable with offbeat magical realism, pulling us into an odyssey that is packed with moments that are touching, provocative and wonderfully funny.

Full reviews are coming, and will be linked to Shadows' SXSW LONDON PAGE >

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Life of Chuck 
Dangerous Animals • Mountainhead
ALL REVIEWS >

Alongside the festival, I also watched Ana de Armas in the John Wick spinoff Ballerina. It's slickly well-made and entertaining, but oddly unsurprising. Natalie Portman and John Krasinski make an engaging duo in the comical adventure Fountain of Youth. It's a lot of fun, but there's not much to it. Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells star in the black comedy I Don't Understand You, which is enjoyable but never quite bridges the gap between silliness and nastiness.

This coming week I'll be watching the live-action(ish) remake of How to Train Your Dragon, Kerry Washington in Shadow Force, Jonathan Groff in A Nice Indian Boy, the reimagined pop musical Juliet & Romeo and the drama Franklin. I'll also attend the premiere of the third season of Squid Game and the dance show Inside Giovanni's Room.

Critical Week: Walking in a winter wonderland

The holidays are descending upon us, as seen by those out-of-the-office email "gone for Christmas" bouncebacks. But year-end work for film critics is in full swing these days, with a steady stream of awards announcements in the news and best/worst of year pieces beginning to pop up everywhere. In a final flurry of screenings for the year, we had two of this week's big releases: Mufasa: The Lion King is a prequel animated in the photoreal style of the 2019 remake and directed, somewhat surprisingly, by Barry Jenkins. It looks great, but the story and tone feel rather awkward, while the songs are oddly unmemorable. But fans will enjoy it. Fans will properly love the sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which rights several wrongs about part 2 with a funnier script and more clowning goofiness centred around Jim Carrey's nutty Robotnik and, this time, his mad-scientist grandpa (also Carrey). Yes it's very silly.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Count of Monte-Cristo
Vengeance Most Fowl
Babygirl • The Brutalist
ALL REVIEWS >

Because I'm between voting deadlines, I've taken it a bit easier with the awards contenders this week, only seeing three. I've also needed to spend rather a lot of time readying the London Critics' Circle nominations to be announced. My catch-up movies this week: Andrea Arnold's Bird, a strikingly powerful fable that mixes gritty realism with magical realism, with terrific performances by Barry Keoghan and Nykiya Adams as father and daughter. The Count of Monte-Cristo is a lavish new French adaptation of the classic Dumas novel that, at nearly three hours, feels both epic and snappily paced. It's a real treat. From Denmark, The Girl With the Needle is more demanding, but it's a proper stunner, an involving, intensely moving story about a young woman battling the system. It's shot gorgeously in early 1900s period style (silent movie-style black and white, but with sound).

This coming week I have several films to catch up on, and it will depend on the time available to watch them. Movies on this rather eclectic list include The Day the Earth Blew Up, The End, Love Lies, Ghostlight, The Six Triple Eight, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, 2073, Sugarcane and Robert Zemeckis' Here. Happy Christmas!

BFI Flare: The best version of yourself

Heading into the final stretch of the 37th BFI Flare, it's been interesting to see how the films are reflecting a much broader experience of LGBTQIA+ people. Indeed, the formerly titled London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has expanded to tell more complex trans and intersex stories, including this year's centrepiece film Who I Am Not. I can't remember a previous year in which both the opening and centrepiece titles were documentaries, and both of these films recount powerful narratives while highlighting experiences that are rarely if ever put on-screen. Here are some more film highlights from Flare, plus my usual Critical Week below...

Who I Am Not
dir-scr Tunde Skovran; with Sharon-Rose Khumalo, Dimakatso Sebidi 23/SA ****
Intersex babies are normal but rare, and yet many societies seem unable to accept this fact. From South Africa, this film finds honesty, humour and moving emotions as its subjects describe how it feels to be neither male nor female biologically. Romanian actor-turned-filmmaker Tunde Skovran simply watches them as they interact with family members, doctors and each other. She also incorporates art and boldly imaginative imagery to meaningfully explore how society can embrace these special people.

Chrissy Judy
dir-scr Todd Flaherty; with Todd Flaherty, Wyatt Fenner 22/US ****
While this story is told from the perspective of someone who thinks that 30 is old, it's a lovely look at how friendships ebb and flow over the years. Actor-filmmaker Todd Flaherty has an astute ear for dialog and a terrific eye for comedy, shooting in black and white to give this a classic screwball flavour, complete with a series of lovely nods to Some Like It Hot. Yes, the film is that ambitious, even on what is clearly a very small budget. It's also deeply charming.

Lie With Me [Arrête Avec Tes Mensonges]
dir-scr Olivier Peyon; with Guillaume de Tonquedec, Victor Belmondo 22/Fr ****
Surging with deep emotions that are never sentimental, this French drama explores the power of narratives themselves as a writer confronts an unfinished relationship from his past. Writer-director Olivier Peyon deploys gorgeous cinematography and skilful editing to keep scenes grounded in realism while also cranking up some seriously intense feelings. So the film is romantic, sexy and also provocative in the way it challenges us to meaningfully confront our own history.

Narcissism: The Auto-Erotic Images
dir-scr Toni Karat; with Toni Karat, Birgit Bosold 22/Ger ***
Director Toni Karat perhaps takes on a bit too much with this ambitions project, combining a photography book with a documentary film to explore the idea of self-love. While the images are absolutely stunning, they say even more than the talky interviews, which sometimes feel academic and perhaps even strident. Yes, each point made is an important one, especially when commenting on gender disparity in society. But the nuance gets lost in the spoken words.

BEST OF YEAR
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
dir Laura Poitras; with Nan Goldin, Megan Kapler 22/US ****.
With this extraordinary film, documentarian Laura Poitras takes a multifaceted look at a fascinating artist. As a biography of photographer Nan Goldin, this is a clear-eyed look at her life, work and survival. And it seamlessly connects her efforts to raise awareness of the Sackler family's direct responsibility in more than half a million deaths from opioid addiction. All of this is skilfully woven together with a remarkably gentle hand... FULL REVIEW >

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K

I've been struggling to fit in theatrical releases alongside the festival films this week, but I did manage to see Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in A Good Person, a perhaps overlong but strongly resonant drama about human connections. Keanu Reeves returned for John Wick: Chapter 4, which is a vast improvement over the last couple of chapters, feeling fresher, more stylish and dramatically deeper. Supercell is a rather silly storm-chaser thriller with Skeet Ulrich and Alec Baldwin, overloaded with melodrama and cliches, but still entertaining. And from Italy, The Eight Mountains is a spectacular epic about a complex friendship between two very different young men.

As BFI Flare continues until Sunday, I will also be watching next week's action-fantasy blockbuster Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, Ben Affleck's Nike biopic Air, Alexandra Shipp in Space Oddity, the screen-based thriller Missing, horror comedy Summoning Sylvia, Japanese drama Plan 75, political thriller Cairo Conspiracy and Moroccan drama El Houb. And I also have a stage show to see (review here soon).

Critical Week: Shape your reality

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! My special gift today was a positive covid test, despite being triple-jabbed and always wearing a mask, so I'll be isolating through the holidays this year. This won't be much of a change from the past few weeks - but I'll miss being able to meet people in person for a week or so. And I don't have another in-cinema screening until January 5th, so I'll keep watching things at home on screener links. 

This past week, the bigger films I watched included The Matrix Resurrections, a 20-years-later sequel that has some enjoyably brain-bending nonsense in it and a refreshing refusal to take itself seriously. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are superb, plus the always watchable Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick and several returnees.  Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is freeform comedy Licorice Pizza, an enjoyably loose slice of 1970s nostalgia starring Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour) and Alana Haim (of the pop group). Plus starry scene-stealers like Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Parallel Mothers • Sing 2
The Matrix Resurrections
ALL REVIEWS >

Smaller movies included the unsettling, atmospheric British horror Amulet, actor Romola Garai's writing-directing feature debut. The Worst Person in the World is a wonderfully complex drama from Norway following a young woman (the superb Renate Reinsve) over four years as she tries to find herself. From Austria, Great Freedom is a stunning prison drama that traces the lingering legacy of a cruel Nazi law outlawing homosexuality. And the autobiobraphical odyssey HipBeat is a bit preachy but makes some nice observations along the way.

I also caught up with a couple of movies for fun. The hugely entertaining doc Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It traces the astonishing career and personal life of the iconic actress who's still going strong at 90. And the Christmas comedy Single All the Way is an enjoyably silly holiday romance with an above average cast including Michael Urie, Kathy Najimy and Jennifer Coolidge.

And this coming week, as I am in forced isolation, I'll be catching up with a few more awards contenders, including I'm Your Man, The Summit of the Gods, Mandibles and Writing With Fire. And I have a few links to watch as well for films coming out soon, including the thriller Borrego and the shorts collection The Last Days of Innocence.

Critical Week: Nothing but a smile

As a critic, movies come at me at random, so it's very odd when a pattern emerges. This past week, for example, I saw two Belgian movies that were populated by people who were completely naked. And neither was about sex. Set in a naturist campground, Patrick is a quirky black comedy with a compelling mystery at its centre. And it features a global star in Jemaine Clement (above with non-nudist Hannah Hoekstra). Bare documents the production of a dance piece for 11 naked men from auditions to the premiere. It's a striking look at masculinity, including strength, weakness, diversity and unity. But you have to be relaxed about watching naked bodies on screen.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
WolfWalkers • Ammonite
No Hard Feelings • The Climb
 I Am Greta • Bare 
FULL REVIEWS >

Otherwise, the movies this week were the usual eclectic bunch - once Raindance ended on Sunday. There were two family-friendly films: David and Jacqui Morris' eye-catching new take on A Christmas Carol that uses Dickens' text faithfully, accompanied by an ambitious mix of dance and theatricality with an all-star voice cast; and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is the latest adventure for that undersea gang of idiots, silly and also very funny (with added Keanu). There was some rude comedy in the gently engaging Malin Akerman comedy Chick Fight. And from Germany, the moving romance No Hard Feelings has a lot to say about the refugee experience.

Coming up this next week, films to watch include Aubrey Plaza in the drama Black Bear, Gary Oldman in the biopic Mank, Travis Fimmel in the heist comedy Finding Steve McQueen, the Jackie Chan action thriller Vanguard, the Romanian journalism drama Collective and the Shane MacGowan doc Crock of Gold.

Critical Week: Be excellent to each other

As the American political landscape gets uglier, with flagrant lies deployed to stoke fear and division, perhaps we should all be listening to Bill and Ted, who are back on the big screen with their ridiculous but deeply engaging third adventure Bill & Ted Face the Music. It was refreshing to watch something that never pretends to be anything other than optimistic and fun.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Les Miserables • Mulan
Socrates • Unknown Origins
FULL REVIEWS >

Even better this week is Mulan, retelling the folktale from the Disney animated classic as a proper Chinese action epic. It's a powerhouse story told beautifully by director Niki Caro and star Yifei Liu, and it's such a visual feast that it really should have been released on the big screen. Hopefully Disney will see sense and put it into cinemas where it belongs.

I went to the cinema once this past week, to see a film that had no screenings or review links available: The New Mutants had its release delayed by Disney's dismantling of Fox, and it's not as awful as some critics have said. Although it's not great either, a muddled attempt at a terrific idea, combining teen angst and horror in the X-Men universe. There were also two films from Australia: I Am Woman is a likeable biopic about singer Helen Reddy that opts more for politics than depth of character, while Measure for Measure is a clever and somewhat murky adaptation of Shakespeare starring Hugo Weaving as a present-day Melbourne crime boss. Outside the mainstream, Unknown Origins is a terrific comic book movie from Spain that's smart, funny and full of action. Right Beside You is a new collection of five strong short films under the New Queer Visions label, pointed dramas about companionship. And premiering at Fantasia International Film Festival this week, Undergods is a fiendishly clever dystopian parable with a superb pan-European cast in multiple storylines.

I have one actual press screening in the diary for the coming week, the British drama Rocks. Otherwise, as the first physical film festival continues in Venice, I'll be watching online screeners of Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Andrea Riseborough in the sci-fi horror Possessor, the romantic comedy Love Guaranteed, the thriller Up on the Glass and the Thai trafficking drama Buoyancy.

Short Cuts: Death, love and rehab

Here are two Netflix films I caught up with this week, plus another film that hasn't had a UK release but is already streaming from the US...

Murder Mystery
dir Kyle Newacheck; scr James Vanderbilt
with Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Luke Evans, Terence Stamp, Dany Boon,Gemma Arterton, Adeel Akhtar, Luis Gerardo Mendez, David Walliams
19/US Netflix 1h37 **.

Let's be honest: you know you're in trouble when they can't even be bothered to give a movie a title. A bit of breezy entertainment, this energetic comedy is relentlessly dopey, but will just about do the trick when you want no mental stimulation whatsoever. It's about New York cop Nick (Sandler), who takes his frustrated wife Audrey (Aniston) on the European honeymoon he promised her 15 years ago, mainly to cover his continuing failure to pass his detective exam. On the plane she meets Viscount Charles (Evans), who invites them to Monaco for a weekend on a palatial yacht owned by his billionaire Uncle Malcolm (Stamp). The passengers are a who's who of characters from one of Audrey's mystery novels, so when Malcolm is stabbed with the bejewelled family dagger just before signing his new will, Nick steps in to help solve the crime. Of course, he immediately becomes the prime suspect.

The script plays with the stereotypes and genre cliches as the body count grows and the amusingly blustery Inspector Delacroix (Boon) takes the case. From here the writer and director lazily indulge in trite jokes, never creating a coherent plot or characters. Action moments are clumsy, and much of the humour falls flat. But there are witty gags here and there leading to the usual closed-room solution, which of course is followed by twists, turns and some random madcap action amid picturesque scenery. For an Adam Sandler comedy, this means that it's far above average. But by any other measure, this is a stumbling mess of a movie. Even so, it fills the time amiably enough. Aniston invests fully into the role with her enjoyably shrill comical energy. Her chemistry with Sandler even makes him seem almost funny.

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Always Be My Maybe
dir Nahnatchka Khan
scr Randall Park, Ali Wong, Michael Golamco
with Ali Wong, Randall Park, James Saito, Michelle Buteau, Vivian Bang, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Dae Kim, Karan Soni, Charlyne Yi, Susan Park
19/US 1h41 ***.

This romantic comedy has a silly tone that makes it likeable, finding realistic edges to the characters that make them deeply engaging. It's thoroughly obvious where the film is heading, but the characters and story are both witty and involving, so it's never easy to predict how any scene is going to unravel. Sasha and Marcus (Wong and Park) are best buddies from childhood, then share a romantic moment in their teens, which leaves their friendship in an awkward place. Now in Los Angeles, Sasha is a celebrity chef with a hot restauranteur fiance (Kim), but he has just taken an extended job in India. So Sasha decides to start over as she goes to San Francisco to open a new branch. She soon runs into Marcus, who's living at home, working with his dad (Saito) and playing in an indie band. He also has a crazy girlfriend, Jenny (Bang). But Sasha and Marcus begin rekindling their friendship, and they know each other too well to let each other get away with any rubbish.

The dialog is snappy, often with an improvisational feel to it. Park and Wong have terrific chemistry, bouncing off each other with jaggedly perfect timing. Marcus' band plays smart-alecky pop-rap novelty songs that you'll want to download immediately. And there are zinger one-liners scattered through the script for each of the side characters ("I'm an LGBTQIA ally, so thank you for your service," says Soni, as Marcus' bandmate, to Buteau, as Sacha's lesbian assistant). Keanu Reeves' sequence, in which he plays himself as Sasha's new boyfriend, is simply hilarious, as he unapologetically pokes fun at the image people have of him. Thankfully, along with some pointed pastiche about new cuisine, the film also dips a little deeper into celebrity culture as the story develops. It's never provocative or surprising, but it's thoroughly enjoyable, keeping the audience laughing and sighing right to the end. And there are moments that make us hungry too.

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The Beach Bum
dir-scr Harmony Korine
with Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Stefania LaVie Owen, Jonah Hill, Zac Efron, Martin Lawrence, Jimmy Buffett
19/US 1h35 **.

Matthew McConaughey is typecast as a loose-living stoner in this comedy by anarchic filmmaker Harmony Korine. He plays Moondog, a worry-free guy in Key West whose life is a series of hedonistic antics. Then he's called back to Miami to help his equally free-spirited wife Minnie (Fisher) with their 22-year-old daughter's (Owen) wedding. "I forgot how rich we were," Moondog says when he returns to their bayside mansion. His literary agent (Hill) berates him for throwing away his talent. So after a run-in with the law, Moondog checks into a year of court-ordered rehab, hoping he'll find the clarity to finally write his book. There he meets Flicker (Efron), a vaper who's equally irresponsible, so they escape and go on a crime spree.

Unsurprisingly, the film looks gorgeous, thanks to Benoit Debie's deep-hued cinematography, and it's accompanied by a superb collection of 1970s songs. Even so, the film feels like it was made in a marijuana-fuelled haze, full of wacky slapstick and broadly overplayed nuttiness, punctuated by McConaughey's piercing cackle. The film is mainly assembled from disconnected scenes of Moondog's aimless carousing and partying. Stinking rich, he hasn't a care in the world, so he never makes much sense. The open relationship between Moondog and Minnie is rather sweet, so a moment when the perpetually inebriated Moondog seems to feel a pang of jealousy feels downright false. Everyone talks about how his genius outweighs his bad behaviour, but there's little evidence of that. His best friends are his wife's lover (a mellow Snoop Dogg) and a disastrous dolphin tour guide (Lawrence). But aside from his general joie de vivre, there's nothing likeable about Moondog. So it's very difficult to celebrate him as a poetic hero rather than just a rich jerk who has had far more luck than he deserves. But then perhaps that's the vaguely political point Korine is making with this unexpectedly toothless romp.

Critical Week: Locker talk

Amid sunny weather in London, while many critics decamp to Cannes for 10 days of frantic festival action, there has been the usual eclectic collection of press screenings. Olivia Wilde steps behind the camera to direct the hugely entertaining teen comedy Booksmart, as raucous as any high school comedy and comes from a refreshingly female perspective. For contrast, Keanu Reeves is back in killing mode for John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, which starts off with a series of breathtakingly inventive action sequences before settling in for a relatively rote final act.

The week's indie was Funny Story, a comedy with a very dark undercurrent, beautifully played and bravely written. The foreign film was Portugal's frothy ambrosia Diamantino, a surreal and pointed but surprisingly sweet satire of politics and celebrity culture. And there were three docs: Apollo 11 is a gripping archival film with no present-day material, telling the story of the first man on the moon with pristine film footage and a strikingly intimate perspective. From the brilliant mind of Werner Herzog comes Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, which cleverly traces the life of the late writer on an unusual trek through history and geography. And the finely assembled The Lavender Scare recounts a little-known spin-off of the McCarthy hearings, as government workers were hunted down and ruined for being gay from the early 1950s until the law was repealed in the 1990s.

I have two more screenings before I leave London for a couple of weeks: Will Smith in Disney's live-action Aladdin remake and the animated sequel The Secret Life of Pets 2. There may be some films I can catch up with while I'm in the US, not to mention whatever might be on the plane. I'll be updating the blog along the way...

Critical Week: Father knows best

It's been another odd mix of screenings in London this week, with the added distraction of sensational weather over the four-day Easter weekend. Among the films we saw the current No 1 box office hit in the US, The Curse of La Llorona. Made to a very high quality, with a better than necessary performance from Linda Cardellini, it's a rather standard entry in the Conjuring universe: freaky and jumpy but never actually scary. And then there's the film that will be No 1 at the global box office for the near future, Avengers: Endgame. Thrilling, funny and even emotional, it's a massively satisfying climax to the last decade or so of Marvel movies.

Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder reteam for the enjoyably offbeat romantic comedy Destination Wedding, adeptly playing two relentlessly grouchy cynics, the only speaking roles in the film. The involving Just Friends is a Dutch romantic drama gently dealing with a range of social issues, from race to homophobia. And I also saw a range of short films screening this week at Tribeca Film Festival. The best of a strong bunch were by Nick Borenstein: the mother-son zinger 99 and the exuberant lovelorn comedy Sweater.

Finally, I had a chance to catch up with Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 11/9, which is set out as a carefully researched look at Donald Trump, linked to the horrific water crisis in Flint, Michigan. No politicians get off lightly. And after watching the first few episodes of the new series Fosse/Verdon, and seeking tickets to the new London stage production, I watched Bob Fosse's stunning 1969 musical Sweet Charity, featuring a magnificent Shirley MacLaine. I also attended the opening of the Stanley Kubrick exhibition at London's Design Museum - a seriously awesome collection of the filmmaker's notes, tools, props and sets that runs until September...

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A few teaser images from the Kubrick exhibition opening this morning. Serious treasure trove for movie fans #discoverkubrick

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Films screening this coming week include Ryan Reynolds voicing the title character in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Ethan Hawke in The Captor (aka Stockholm), Josh O'Connor in Only You and the new documentary about Halston.

Critical Week: An odd couple

Returning from a film festival, it always takes awhile to catch up, not only writing up a backlog of reviews but also tracing down screenings that were missed. This week I've caught up with The Upside, the remake of the French drama Intouchables, starring Kevin Hart and Bryn Cranston. It's lively and entertaining, and of course overly slick. Carrying on the effects-heavy wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald throws Eddie Redmayne in between Jude Law and Johnny Depp in a film that's an entertaining series of set-ups that leave us waiting for the next movie in the series.

Keanu Reeves does his usual slow-burn performance in Siberia, a stylish romantic thriller that's neither romantic nor thrilling. The British horror film Await Further Instructions has a clever premise and solid cast, but an unfocussed script. The documentary Three Identical Strangers traces the amazing story of triplets separated at birth, although the filmmakers indulge in some manipulative editing. And then there's this film, marking a century since the end of the First World War...

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They Shall Not Grow Old
dir Peter Jackson; prd Peter Jackson, Clare Olssen
release UK 9.Nov.18, US 17.Dec.18 • 18/UK 1h39 ****
Deploying the remarkable archive of film and audio recordings held by the Imperial War Museum and the BBC, Peter Jackson uses digital technology to tell the story of the Great War in a way we've never seen it. Most impressive is his transformation of vintage battlefield footage by adding colour and normalising the frame-rate, making it feel startlingly present. This is then edited together into a chronological narrative that pulls us right into the experience, starting with untouched news footage of the outbreak of war, enlisting, training, shifting to colour for the battlefield scenes and then returning to black and white for a pointed post-war sequence. This is adeptly accompanied by the moving first-hand reminiscences of soldiers on the soundtrack. The sense of detail, including vivid descriptions of sights, sounds and smells, puts us right in the trenches with these very young men, vividly experiencing events from a century ago. And their comments about how Britain reacted to them when they came home after the war gives the film a provocative kick. This is a notable achievement both for its technical and artistic skill and for how it honours more than a million British and Commonwealth men who died in this conflict. And with the voices of men who were there, it expresses a powerful view of pointless nature of such barbaric warfare.

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This coming week we have, among other things, Taron Egerton as a new take on Robin Hood, Michael B Jordan in Creed II, Steve McQueen's heist thriller Widows, Robert Redford in The Old Man & the Gun, Hirokazu Koreeda's Cannes winner Shoplifters and the performance art documentary Being Frank.

Critical Week: Taking care of business

I'm in Southern California visiting my family this week, so haven't exactly been trying to keep up with movies. I didn't even get to watch the Baftas - I had to read about them instead. I managed to catch one film that needed to be reviewed: John Wick: Chapter 2 sees Keanu Reeves return as the weary expert hitman dragged back from retirement to clean up another mess. It's a bit more reliant on the mythology this time, which makes it a little less fun. But the film is still slick and clever, and dares to pay attention to its plot and characters.

There were also a few films on the airplane. Keeping Up With the Joneses is a lively but inane action comedy with an ace cast led by Zac Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher. It's a nicely made, engaging romp about discovering that the new neighbours are spies, but it's also preposterous fluff. The Little Prince is an odd adaptation of the children's classic, which wraps it into the story of a little girl fantasising about the adventures of her old neighbour. While most of it looks great, some of the animation is simplistic and plasticky. And some of the story's gyrations lose the point. Morgan is a terrific little thriller starring Kate Mara as a corporate officer sent in to evaluate an experiment that might be going wrong. This involves the creation of an artificially engineered human-like being (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her nervous minders. Sharply well-made and seriously unnerving.

My holiday visiting friends and family in Los Angeles and nearby continues over the next week - doing my work remotely, but not in press screening mode. A couple of films opening here this weekend might be worth a look, including The Great Wall, A Cure for Wellness and Fist Fight. And I will attend the Galeca Dorian Awards winner's toast on Saturday - watch this space for a report.

Venezia 73: It's a battle on days 6 & 7

Working at a film festival can be exhausting. Not only do you see three or four films every day, but you need to find time to write about them all as well. And also perhaps meet your normal work deadlines at the same time. Plus, you're in a strange city, searching for food! And also since it's a new place you want to take some time off and explore. Well, here at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, on Tuesday I finally had a chance to take the water bus over to the city's famous main islands - my first visit ever. I've travelled all over the world, but nothing prepared me for the thrill of Venice! After a three-hour walk in a rather enormous, convoluted circle, I'm in love with this city (and happy that it's only a cheap flight rom where I live). Then I was back on the boat across the lagoon to see more movies on the Lido. Here's what I saw yesterday and this morning (that's Andrew Garfield, above)...

Hacksaw Ridge
dir Mel Gibson; with Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington 16/Aus ****
With this big-hearted war epic, Mel Gibson uses warm, glowing drama and smiley corniness to distract from the harrowingly gruesome battle sequences. This means that most scenes are hard to watch for a variety of different reasons. But at the centre, this is a genuinely rousing story of real-life courage. And the war scenes are unusually riveting.

The Bad Batch
dir-scr Ana Lily Amirpour; with Suki Waterhouse , Jason Momoa 16/US **
For her second feature, Ana Lily Amirpour has a big, bold idea that's like Mad Max descending on Burning Man. But it isn't post-apocalyptic: it's a reflection of right-wing attitudes that are sweeping the globe, marginalising anyone who doesn't fit the status quo. So it's frustrating that the film is so difficult to engage with. Characters are cool and dispassionate, dialog is stiff and the pacing is uneven.

Tommaso
dir-scr Kim Rossi Stuart; with Kim Rossi Stuart, Camilla Diana 16/It **.
Like a cinematic mid-life crisis, this is an almost overpoweringly self-indulgent comedy-drama from Italian filmmaker Kim Rossi Stuart.  Not only is his central character an annoying, infantile jerk, but the film itself is simplistic in its themes and obvious in its metaphors. It's breezy enough to be watchable, but only just.

Heal the Living [Réparer les Vivants]
dir Katell Quillevere; with Tahar Rahim, Anne Dorval 16/Fr ****
Openly emotive and darkly resonant, this French drama quite literally centres on matters of the heart. It's beautifully assembled and acted on various fronts. And even if filmmaker Katell Quillevere  sometimes drifts closely toward sentimentality, the movie remains a clear-eyed portrait of a group of people facing various sides of a life or death battle.

A Woman's Life [Une Vie]
dir Stephane Brize; with Judith Chemla, Jean-Pierre Darroussin 16/Fr ***.
An intriguingly deconstructed life story, this 19th century adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant novel plays out over some 25 years pivoting on emotions rather than plot. This makes it intriguingly compelling, even if the loose filmmaking, cool performances and impressionistic editing keep everything somewhat aloof. But it has powerful things to say about human nature, especially how we as individuals perceive the world around us.

Upcoming films include Pablo Larrain's Jackie, Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time: Life's Journey, Andrei Konchalovsky's Paradise and Nick Hamm's The Journey.

Critical Week: Teen spirit

A highlight this week was the Oscar-nominated Mustang, a pointed Turkish drama about five sisters whose strong personalities are at odds with their restrictive culture. It's beautifully made by first-time feature filmmaker Deniz Gamze Erguven (she's a Turk based in France, so it's the French entry for the Academy Awards). The film has such a striking point of view that it's impossible not to be caught up in its earthy, honest narrative. And what it has to say is remarkably timely.

Other movies screened this week include Ryan Reynolds' entertainingly snarky superhero romp Deadpool, which is perhaps too snarky for its own good but will have genre fans overflowing with praise. Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann and Alison Brie grapple with sex and the city in the comedy How to Be Single. Keanu Reeves investigates a perplexing, possibly supernatural-tinged murder in the choppy mystery Exposed. Natalie Dormer seeks her twin in the horror movie The Forest, which is unsettling and creepy until it turns silly. The creepy Austrian drama Goodnight Mommy, which morphs into an original but over-the-top horror thriller as it goes along. And a young junkie throws his life away on the streets of Montreal in the murky, meandering arthouse drama Love in the Time of Civil War.

Coming up over the next week we have a very late screening of Ben Stiller's comedy sequel Zoolander 2, Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups, Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind, Aidan Gillen in John Carney's Sing Street, and the Belgian comedy The Brand New Testament.

Critical Week: Purging the underworld

Aside from films I saw as part of BFI Flare, I caught up this past week week with Keanu Reeves' latest career boost movie John Wick, a rippingly stylish revenge thriller that's far better than it has any right to be. Also enjoyable, but not quite as artistically ambitious, Fast & Furious 7 (aka Furious 7) is a thunderously entertaining step in the franchise, including a lot more emotion than these actors have attempted before. And they just about get away with it. The action stuntwork looked pretty cool on the Imax screen.

Further afield there was the superb Cliff Curtis in the dark and intense true story The Dark Horse; the astonishingly grim and unnerving Belgian thriller The Treatment, which compares chillingly with The Silence of the Lambs and Seven (yes it's that good); and the raucous documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, a mist-see for movie fans tracing the Hollywood career of Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who produced an outrageous run of films over about 15 years.

We now have two short weeks with the four-day Easter weekend in between. Film screenings on the schedule include Anna Kendrick in The Last Five Years, Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria, Jack Reynor in the Sundance-winner Glassland, the German thriller The Samurai, the comedy Undocumented Executive and the documentary Lambert & Stamp.

Critical Week: Welcome to digital

London critics got a look at the documentary Side by Side this week, in which Keanu Reeves chats with a series of a-list directors and cinematographers about the shift from using film to digital cameras. It's fascinating for any audience - perhaps too academic for mainstream viewers and too simplistic for serious film fans. But the line-up of interviewees makes it unmissable.

Otherwise, we had a rather low-key start to the year, with screenings of the creepy indie horror movie Midnight Son, an uneven twist on the vampire genre, and the riveting, award-winning sushi chef doc Jiro Dreams of Sushi. There were also two low-budget American gay films: the smart, sharply written and played New York comedy Gayby, and the introspective, sensitive Mormon missionary drama The Falls. Both avoid cliches to deal with some big issues in inventive ways.

Tonight I'm catching up with Ryan Gosling's Gangster Squad, which opens later this week. We also have screenings of Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand, Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe in Broken City, the sleeper awards-season darling Compliance and, finally, a chance to see Monsters Inc in 3D.