Critical Week: Chart a course

Britain is slowly emerging from lockdown after five very long months, and next week's shift includes reopening cinemas. It'll take awhile to get back up to full-speed, but it feels hopeful to be moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, I'm still watching everything on links, with the biggest film this week being the thriller Voyagers stars Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp and Colin Farrell in an oddly dull and timid riff on Lord of the Flies in space. Melanie Laurent is terrific in the claustrophobic thriller Oxygen, which has a lot of enjoyable twists and turns, even if it begins to feel a little silly. Kelvin Harrison Jr once again shines in Monster, a powerful legal drama that got stuck in distribution chaos for three years. And Robin Wright makes her feature directing debut with the beautiful but thin back-to-nature drama Land, in which she also delivers a terrific central performance.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Never Gonna Snow Again
The Perfect Candidate
Servants • End of Sentence
The Crime of the Century
PERHAPS AVOID: The Reckoning
ALL REVIEWS >

From the Czech Republic, Servants is a visually stunning, thematically powerful drama set in a Catholic seminary during Soviet occupation. From Romania, Two Lottery Tickets is the dryly amusing story of three hapless friends trying to improve their aimless lives. The horror pastiche Psycho Goreman is packed with hilariously big characters and riotously grisly effects. And Alex Gibney's riveting, engaging two-part documentary The Crime of the Century is a must-see portrait of the opioid crisis from a variety of pointed perspectives.

With cinemas opening on Monday, I actually have a physical screening in the diary for next week, the first since early December, for the Emily Blunt thriller A Quiet Place Part II. Otherwise I have links to watch for various things, including Amy Adams in The Woman in the Window, Angelina Jolie in Those Who Wish Me Dead, Fionn Whitehead in Port Authority, the Austrian drama Why Not You and the short film collection The Dutch Boys. 

Critical Week: Hearing voices

Another week of lockdown, another unusual collection of movies released into the streaming networks. At least the weather has been glorious, tempting me outside in between the films. The best thing I've seen in several weeks, The Vast of Night is a low-budget sci-fi thriller by first-time filmmaker Andrew Patterson that skilfully nods to 1950s classics while echoing present day issues.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Guest of Honour
The Vast of Night • You Don't Nomi
The Uncertain Kingdom
PERHAPS AVOID:
A Clear Shot • The Accompanist
The Dinner Party

The highest profile film was The High Note, starring Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross and Kelvin Harrison in an enjoyable but trite romantic comedy-drama set in the music world. The Last Full Measure has a powerhouse cast and an inspiring story, but is belittled by its over-worthy tone. David Thewlis is superb in Guest of Honour, Atom Egoyan's perceptive drama about identity and connection. And Willem Dafoe gives a full-bodied performance in Tommaso, Abel Ferrara's Rome-set dark drama about a filmmaker who's losing the plot.

Steven Berkoff puts his one-man-show version of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell Tale Heart on the screen as a moody freak-out. Three micro-budget indies are somewhat underpowered: The Departure is a sharp but abrasive dating drama, The Dinner Party is a bonkers cultish horror romp, The Accompanist is a quirky overserious romantic drama. And for Pride month, HomoSayWhat is a fascinating, provocative doc about the origins of societal homophobia.

Coming up this next week, there's another offbeat collection of movies, including the British comedy Dating Amber, the futuristic thriller The Last Days of American Crime, the award-winning Chilean drama The Prince, the Italian comedy Citizens of the World and the football doc The Australian Dream.

Critical Week: A warm embrace

Press screenings are slowing down as usual for this time of year, as journalists try to catch up with things they haven't seen yet. Attending the London Film Festival put be ahead of the curve, but there are some late-season releases I'm still chasing. I only had four screenings this past week: the staggeringly powerful drama Waves with Kelvin Harrison Jr and Alexa Demie (above), plus Lucas Hedges, Sterling K Brown and rising star Taylor Russell. The Brazilian drama Greta is dark and sometimes a little too serious, but has some strong things to say about people on the fringe of society. Starring Steven Berkoff and Martin Hancock, The Last Faust is basically a museum piece, an ambitiously artistic telling of both parts of Goethe's epic story, accompanied by paintings, sculptures, photographs and a novella. And I finally caught up with the devastatingly emotional doc For Sama, a deeply personal account of life in wartorn Aleppo.

Outside the screening room, it was a privilege to attend an event at which Peccadillo Pictures placed its archive at Bishopsgate Institute. Peccadillo has released a number of seriously notable films over its 20 year history, with more to come. Their releases over the years have included Embrace of the Serpent, Weekend, The Shiny Shrimps. I'm interviewing the director and lead actor from their upcoming Georgian drama And Then We Danced tomorrow.

Coming up this next week: Sam Mendes' already acclaimed war drama 1917, Todd Haynes' drama Dark Waters, Clint Eastwood's Atlanta Olympics bombing drama Richard Jewell, Daniel Kaluuya in Queen & Slim, and the John Cena comedy Playing With Fire. We also have our annual meeting with the Critics' Circle and the BBFC, always enjoyably informative as they tell us about the year's knife-edge ratings decisions.

London Film Fest: Heavy is the head

As the 63rd BFI London Film Festival heads into its first weekend, the range of films continues to be astonishing - from children's adventures to freak-out horror, experimental art films, indie comedies and even a blockbuster or two. This doesn't actually feel so much like a festival as a particularly condensed film season at the British Film Institute. Basically, it's the greatest hits from Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto, with a number of world premieres thrown in for fun. Critics are already run ragged by Day 2, with so many movies that it's impossible to even see half of our wish lists. But we'll give it a go. Here are Friday highlights...

The King
dir David Michod; with Timothee Chalamet, Joel Edgerton 19/UK ****
The gloomy intensity that floods through this British historical drama very nearly swamps the screen, leaving it rather murky and brooding. But the script is so sharp, and the actors so good at finding the textures of their characters, that the story comes to life with some surprising moments of modern-day resonance. And filmmaker David Michod stages both the tense conversations and muddy battles with gusto.

Luce
dir Julius Onah; with Kelvin Harrison Jr, Naomi Watts 19/US ****
Strikingly well written and directed, this drama has a powerhouse cast that brings huge themes strongly to life. Based on JC Lee's play, the film uses barbed dialog to grapple with a powerful issue, which makes it intimate and deeply unsettling. Director Julius Onah skilfully cuts through the heavily weighted story to focus on personal reactions and relationships, which helps the film deliver a number of pungent kicks... FULL REVIEW >

Little Joe
dir Jessica Hausner; with Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw 19/Aut ***
There's a cleverly unnerving tone to this subtly artful thriller, which combines science-fiction elements with the undercurrents of an old-fashioned monster movie. Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner keeps the lights bright and the colours garish all the way through, yet still creates a relentless sense of tension as characters try to work out if something truly horrible is afoot.

Wounds
dir-scr Babak Anvari; with Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson 19/UK ****
Following on from his inventive Iranian horror Under the Shadow, filmmaker Babak Anvari breathes fresh life into an American-set scary movie. There's a energising, realistic scruffiness to this bonkers story of an everyman who discovers the hard way that there's nothing of depth in his life. This attention to darker themes marks this as much more than a gonzo freakout. But it's that too.

I Lost My Body [J'ai Perdu Mon Corps]
dir Jeremy Clapin; voices Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois 19/Fr *****
With a spectacular visual sensibility, this animated French thriller tells a strikingly original tale that inventively sparks the viewer's imagination. Offbeat and fiendishly clever, the film has been designed in a way that looks fully cinematic, offering vivid perspectives and a fully formed experience that appeals to all the senses. It's also a refreshingly grown up movie that will connect with the childish dreamer inside... FULL REVIEW >

Bacurau
dir-scr Kleber Mendonca Filho, Juliano Dornelles; with Barbara Colen, Thomas Aquino 19/Br ****
A staggering exploration of Brazil's past and present, this darkly satirical fable is witty, engaging and deeply disturbing. Filmmakers Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles capture the matter-of-fact rhythms of a close community while also unflinchingly tapping into the violent impulses that come both within and from outside. And while there is a continual stream of humour, it's the violence that lingers. Mainly because of what it means.

Links:

Shadows LONDON FILM FEST homepage (full reviews will be linked here) 

Official LONDON FILM FEST site