Critical week: Life of the party

Even as this year's condensed awards calendar rockets ahead (how about those dull Oscar nominations?), screenings are slow to kick off this year. I've only seen four films this week. (Full disclosure: I did not chase an invite to the one press screening of Bad Boys for Life, as I'm still scarred from Bad Boys II ... 17 years ago). There are plenty of releases in the cinemas, but these are films I saw during the autumn film festival and awards-qualifying seasons. New movies are coming up, so hopefully screenings will materialise soon.

In the meantime, I caught up with Xavier Dolan's The Death & Life of John F Donovan, which premiered to harsh criticism at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival and has since been re-edited. There are issues with the structure, but Dolan is such a fine writer-director that the characters come alive gorgeously. And what a cast: Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Thandie Newton, Michael Gambon! Another Brit, James Norton, stars in the true historical drama Mr Jones, which recounts a fascinating story just before the Second World War as a brainy journalist tries to get the British government to wake up to the threat of Hitler and the lies of Stalin. The British fact-based drama No Fathers in Kashmir is a moving and important story about two teens uncovering the truth in the nasty political situation in northern India. And then there was this one, already a contender for the worst film of 2020...

Jexi
dir-scr Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
with Adam Devine, Alexandra Shipp, Rose Byrne, Michael Pena, Justin Hartley, Ron Funches, Charlyne Yi, Wanda Sykes, Kid Cudi
release US 11.Oct.19 • 19/US 1h24 *. 

Opening as a playful satire of smartphone culture, it becomes quickly apparent that filmmakers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover/Bad Moms) have nothing clever in mind, merely shouting the most obvious jokes rather than digging into the lively premise or characters. There was a chance to actually make a comedy that was cute and astutely pointed. But amid a flurry of strained in-your-face jokes that are actually embarrassing to watch, the plot is painfully predictable.

Working for a listicle website, Phil (Devine) is a loner whose phone is his only friend. One day he meets local bicycle shop owner Cate (Shipp), and in his excitement accidentally smashes his iPhone. The new one comes with an AI assistant called Jexi (voiced by Byrne) who takes over his life and issues instructions, ignoring anything he says. She bullies him into changing his diet, musical preferences and pretty much everything else. Then when his hugely unlikely romance with Cate begins to take off, Jexi gets jealous.

The idea is that Jexi is programmed to make Phil's life better in any way possible, but she does this primarily through foul-mouthed insults. Meanwhile, the filmmakers fill the brief running time with idiotic slapstick, wacky smut and unwarranted sentimentality. All of which makes it almost impossible to care what happens to Phil, even if Devine and Shipp have some genuine charm in between the lines. It's especially galling that after so much relentlessly inane stupidity, the filmmakers have the nerve to awkwardly try and create some sweet moments. And the simplistic finale is insulting.

13.Jan.20

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In the diary for this coming week, I have George MacKay in True History of the Kelly Gang, Kristin Scott Thomas in Military Wives, the Filipino political drama Quezon's Game and the acclaimed Sudanese documentary Talking About Trees.

LFF 7: Can't take it anymore

The 60th London Film Festival is charging into its final weekend with a flurry of events and premieres. The red carpets outside the various venues are getting a workout, while the press screenings at Picturehouse Central are packed to overflowing. Here are some highlights from Wednesday and Thursday...

The Rehearsal
dir Alison Maclean; with James Rolleston, Kerry Fox 16/NZ ***.
A clever riff on acting, this drama from New Zealand is packed with terrific actors in complex roles. So even if the bare-boned plot gets a little pushy at times, at least the interaction has a raw honesty to it, exploring some enormous themes through the prism of art. Filmmaker Alison Maclean also injects plenty of jagged humour and understated emotion into the story, which makes it hugely engaging even if the pacing is a little slack.

The Ghoul
dir-scr Gareth Tunley; with Tom Meeten, Dan Skinner 16/UK ****
Moody and riveting, this dark British thriller takes the audience on a surreal journey into the human psyche. It's playful and surprising, with a style clearly inspired by David Lynch as it taps into emotions that the audience might not fully grasp. But we feel it all.

There were also a few films I saw at other festivals. From Venice, three female led dramas: Dakota Fanning and Kit Harington (pictured) in the edgy Western Brimstone, Alice Lowe in the fiendishly clever serial killer comedy Prevenge (pictured at the top), Natalie Portman in the offbeat period drama Planetarium. And from BFI Flare: Russell Tovey in the complex, intriguing football drama The Pass.

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K
Along with LFF movies, I've also had to keep up with the regular releases in cinemas. This week's screenings included a double dose of Tom Hanks: the lacklustre second Da Vinci Code sequel Inferno and the strikingly edgy, well-made Sully, about the amazing real-life landing of a passenger jet in the Hudson River in 2009. And then there was Tom Cruise in the thriller sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Plus a couple of punchy British dramas: Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake, a powerful, uplifting drama about taking on bureaucracy; and Starfish, the dark but moving true story of a man who survived sepsis then struggled to rebuild his life.

Venezia 73: Feeling holy on days 4 & 5

The sun has been out in force over the first week of the 73rd Venice Film Festival - not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the blistering high-20s C (mid-80s F) - and it looks like next week will be more of the same. Meanwhile, the cinemas are air conditioned to shivering point. Anyway, I decided to finally take advantage of this beautiful place and visit the beach this weekend. Lovely! Hopefully I can carve out a few hours soon to go visit the main islands of Venice - I still haven't seen them, except from across the lagoon. But then I'm here for the movies, and here's what I saw this weekend (that's Jude Law, above)...

The Young Pope
dir Paolo Sorrentino; with Jude Law, Diane Keaton 16/It ****
The first two episodes of Paolo Sorrentino's controversial TV series were screened as a feature at the Venice Film Festival. It's a ripping drama that dares to take a playful tone as it sets up the tension between this hot new Pontiff and the establishment he is deliberately trying to rattle. So while it's a lot of fun, it's also rather pointed and ultimately chilling in where it ends up.

Brimstone
dir-scr Martin Koolhoven; with Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce 16/Ned ***.
With a cool, clear eye, Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven creates an expansive Western that vividly captures the perspective of a woman in a harshly male-dominated world. It's a ripping tale, told out of sequence in four overly-gruesome chapters that weave into an epic tale of retribution. There are a few niggling plot points, and the brutality sometimes feels almost celebratory, but the characters and themes are provocative and haunting.

Four Days in France [Jours de France]
dir-scr Jerome Reybaud; with Pascal Cervo, Arthur Igual 16/Fr **
There's a great story at the centre of this rambling, indulgent French drama. it has great characters, strong themes and lovely locations, and yet filmmaker Jerome Reybaud never manages to let the audience into his reasons for anything on-screen. Random scenes, unexplained motivations and a generally aimless structure make it feel even longer than its nearly two and a half hours.

The Untamed [La Región Salvaje]
dir Amat Escalante; with Simone Bucio, Ruth Jazmín Ramos 16/Mex ***.
From Mexico, this defiantly original film mixes relational melodrama with an unusual kind of monster movie. As it circles around a group of people whose interconnections are seriously tortured, a primeval creature complicates things in very strange ways. As a result, the film is almost overpoweringly foreboding. But it's strong group of characters and instantly recognisable situations make it impossible not to get sucked into the madness.

Indivisible [Indivisibili]
dir Edoardo De Angelis; with Angela Fontana, Marianna Fontana 16/It ***
A brittle sense of humour drives this offbeat drama set in a gritty seaside town in Italy. The central story is a bit too quirky to believe, but the gimmick provides enough of a hook to hold the audience's interest and provide some emotional resonance as well. But frankly, once things are set in motion, there aren't many places this story can go.

I'm still planning out what I will see on Monday, but I am aiming to kick the day off with Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge.

Shadows on the Tube: Summer TV roundup

Yes, I continue to watch TV to clear my head in my downtime, naturally preferring shows that are guilty pleasures rather than anything difficult or too gritty. Here's what I watched through the spring...

NEW DISCOVERIES

Grace and Frankie
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin were simply divine in this somewhat contrived sitcom about two very different 70-year-old women stuck with each other when they're husbands (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston) marry each other. The entire cast is excellent, making the most of the occasionally goofy situational comedy to inject character depth and some properly emotional moments amid the generally hilarious comedy. Watching it is pure joy.

Dig
This archaeological thriller series clearly wants to be Indiana Jones meets Homeland, but it's more like The Da Vinci Code with its convoluted religious conspiracy and contrived action sequences. Still, it was more than worth watching for Jason Isaacs, Anne Heche and Lauren Ambrose. And the complexities of the setting in Jerusalem at least let the writers hint at some extremely murky themes along the way, even if they kind of chickened out in the end. It's unclear where this can go if it gets a second season.

How to Get Away With Murder
Another twisty thriller/soap hybrid from Shonda Rhimes, this show is enjoyable for its gimmicky scripting and flashy style, but it's also deeply annoying because every character on-screen is essentially repulsive. The worst of the lot is Viola Davis' supposedly fierce Annalise - a great actress saddled with a character who is so reactionary, two-faced and emotionally crippled that it's impossible to believe she's such a high-powered lawyer. And the one supposedly "good" student (Alfred Enoch's Wes) is predictably useless. The cast is excellent across the board, but the writing shows an astonishing lack of insight, and the structure is too choppy to let the audience in. What's left is superficially entertaining, but it's also insidiously misogynistic, racist and homophobic.

Ballot Monkeys
Timed to coincide with the British general election, this improvised series poked fun at the campaign trail of the four main parties, filming on the day of broadcast to keep everything unnervingly timely. It was sharply written and played by a cast of experts, with laugh-out-loud moments all the way through. And while much of the humour is a fairly timeless riff on the inanity of electioneering, most of the pointed gags are already out of date.

THE DRAMA

Mad Men: series 7b
Oddly, instead of just call this the 8th and final season, they called this year's brief collection of episodes the second half of the 7th. Whatever, this remained one of the best written and performed TV series ever right to the final episode. The way each of these characters wrapped up his or her individual story arc was a wonder to behold, masterfully written, directed and played to allow for shattering emotion, black comedy and lingering ambiguity. It's rare for a show to never put a foot wrong from start to finish. And this one is simply exquisite.

Game of Thrones: series 4
Things continue to come back into focus with this badly fragmented fantasy epic, after splintering into so many strands over the 2nd and 3rd seasons that it was almost impossible to keep track. But we're down to just a handful of important plots now centring on the four most engaging actors: Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington and Maisie Williams. Watching two of them meet up along the way provided a thrilling jolt of energy to the show. So it's frustrated that the writers didn't go anywhere with that, leaving all of the (surviving) characters essentially where they started as the season began. Expect massive viewer drop-off next year.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: series 2
Messy and indulgent, there is little reason to watch this show beyond trying to make sense of Marvel's larger universe, and indeed there were references to Avengers: Age of Ultron folded into this season. Still, it's packed with enjoyable characters who bristle with all kinds of tension between them, and while the overarching mythology is murky and annoyingly elusive, that only adds to the show's X-Men/X-Files appeal. And this season's epic confrontation felt remarkably big and punchy for a TV series.

THE LAUGHS

Veep: series 4
Now that she's president, there isn't much left for Selena to do, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus keeps her hilariously flapping around, surrounded by a gang of idiots trying their best not to do something stupid. Thankfully they fail week in and week out. Her presidential campaign seemed oddly rushed (compared to the protracted real thing), and the final cliffhanger felt like a cheat. But it's all so marvellously played that it doesn't matter too much.

Nurse Jackie: series 7
Edi Falco has creates such a vivid antihero in Jackie that it's becoming harder and harder to root for her. Cleverly, in this series she has been forcibly rehabilitated, and yet like everyone around her we don't believe it for a second. Her relationships and feuds continue to take surprising twists and turns, although the strain is beginning to show in both the scripts and the increasingly mannered performances.

Community: series 6
Now on Yahoo, this series feels very different, with a retooled cast and a tone that feels a bit softer and less anarchic. But these episodes were also more meta than ever (which is saying something) as characters continually referenced the fact that this was the sixth season on an online channel, ending with the hashtag #andamovie. And while the absence of Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown was strongly felt, Paget Brewster and Keith David added their own energy to a show that refreshingly refuses to play by any sensible rules.

Episodes: series 4
This gently comical series continues to trundle along without much energy, but the characters get stronger as it goes, and there's a superb sense of consistency in the way it approaches the absurdities of Hollywood, especially as it contrives to keep Sean and Beverly (the superb Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Grieg) stuck in the studio treadmill. Yes, they've checked into the Hotel California and they can never leave. And Matt LeBlanc is riotously funny as the devil himself, even when they pointlessly try to make him likeable.

W1A: series 2
This BBC comedy about the inner workings of the BBC is so improvisational that it sometimes feels like it's treading water, but the characters are vividly well played by Hugh Bonneville, Monica Dolan, Jessica Hynes and company. The continual stream of knowing gags and outrageously straight-faced silliness is inspired enough to keep us chuckling even though David Tennant's subtly insane voice over is way over the top. The scary thing is that the BBC is probably even more ridiculous in real life. Or at least that's how we hope it is.

Critical Week: Up on the roof

Press screenings this past week included Spooks: The Greater Good, the first big-screen adventure for the long-running BBC TV spy series (titled MI-5 in the USA). Comments on the film are embargoed until closer to the May 8th release, but the cast includes Kit Harington (above), Jennifer Ehle, David Harewood and series actors Peter Firth, Tim McInnerny and Lara Pulver. And there were two other action movies this week: Sean Penn is The Gunman, an oddly dull and brutal Euro-thriller with the spark of a topical theme, while Jason Statham leads Wild Card, an oddly dull and brutal Vegas thriller with a jazzy undertone.

There were also four comedies: Noah Baumbach's engaging but contrived While We're Young features Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts facing the early flares of middle age; Mae Whitman is terrific in The Duff, a smartly written and played teen comedy that keeps the audience laughing; from the same producers, the perhaps too-snappy meta-comedy Playing It Cool stars Chris Evans as a screenwriter trying to write a rom-com while resisting romance; and Andrew J West leads a starry cast as Walter, a likeable young guy who thinks he's God's messenger and takes a surprisingly engaging journey back to reality.

And two superbly well-made but essentially plotless art films were a tonic to critics worn out by too-literal commercial movies: the rural British coming-of-age drama The Goob and the Colombian class-clash drama Gente de Bien are both beautifully observed studies of people grappling with life in their specific cultures.

Coming up in the next week, we have screenings of the Divergent sequel Insurgent, Liam Neeson in Run All Night, Russell Crowe in The Water Diviner, Elizabeth Moss in Listen Up Philip, James Franco in I Am Michael, sirs Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine in Stonehearst Asylum, the animated adventure Home, the Swedish drama Something Must Break and the finally uncensored 54: The Director's Cut.

LFF 6: She knows how to pick 'em

Jennifer Lawrence made a witty red carpet appearance at the 58th London Film Festival to promote her new film Serena, costarring Bradley Cooper, which was only showed to selected press (I'll see it next week). At least the rain stayed away today! Also on the red carpet tonight were the cast and crew of Testament of Youth, based on the Vera Brittain memoir. It was the film's world premiere, attended by actors Kit Harington, Emily Watson, Dominic West and more, plus director James Kent and writer Juliette Towhidi. That one I did see, and it's covered below, along with some more highlights...

Testament of Youth

dir James Kent; with Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington 14/UK ***

Vera Brittain's iconic memoir gets the full British period drama treatment, although it's so lovingly crafted that it struggles to spring to life. It's beautifully shot and acted but, especially in the final third, the film is almost painfully worthy, wallowing in its emotions rather than finding something resonant in the story.

Return to Ithaca
dir Laurent Cantet; with Alberto Pujols, Isabel Santos 14/Cub ****
A lively reunion of old friends, this organic drama swirls from comedy to dark drama and back again, refusing to wallow in nostalgia even as this gang of "old farts" can't help but reminisce about the old days. But since it's set in Havana, the film has a lot to say beyond the issues facing five 50-ish pals whose lives haven't gone the way they expected them to.

The Cut
dir Fatih Akin; with Tahar Rahim, Simon Abkarian 14/Ger ***
Shot in Germany, Jordan, Malta, Cuba and Canada, this international production takes on a major historical atrocity that most countries refuse to admit ever happened: Turkey's genocide against the Armenians during World War I. The film goes on to be an epic global odyssey that has a powerful emotional kick, even if the filmmaking feels somewhat contrived.

1001 Grams
dir Bent Hamer; with Ane Dahl Torp, Laurent Stocker 4/Nor ****
Cheeky Norwegian filmmaker Hamer is back with another film that combines black comedy and dark drama. And this time there's also a layer of startlingly warm emotion running just underneath everything. Ostensibly a story about the most immovable technical details about everyday life, the film's ultimate point is that some things can't be measured.

Metamorphoses
dir Christophe Honore; with Amira Akili, Sebastien Hirel 14/Fr 1h42 ****
Based on Ovid's epic 1st century poem, this film is a strikingly involving exploration of how ancient mythology both creates and exposes elements of humanity and culture. Set in modern-day France in which average people take on the roles of gods and mythical characters, the film isn't easy, but its earthy approach makes it unnervingly resonant.

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CRITICAL WEEK: Life goes on
Yes, during all the festival chaos, I still have to keep writing my usual reviews and reports on what's happening in cinemas. All of this is on the website. Non-festival films seen this week include The Maze Runner, This Is Where I Leave You, The Judge and The Secret Path.

Critical Week: Side of beef

London critics caught up with the new Zac Efron/Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors (international title Bad Neighbours) this week, but aren't allowed to talk about the film quite yet. Suffice it to say that Zac doesn't like to wear a shirt, for obvious reasons. Also embargoed (until tomorrow) is the Cameron Diaz/Leslie Mann comedy The Other Women, costarring Kate Upton, Nicolai Coster-Waldau and Nicki Minaj. And I need to wait until next week to review Plastic, a British heist movie starring rising-star young Brits Ed Speleers, Will Poulter and Alfie Allen.

But I can talk about: Transcendence, the achingly slow sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany and Rebecca Hall; Pompeii, the wonderfully preposterous Ancient Roman disaster romp starring Kit Harington and a villainous Kiefer Sutherland; Authors Anonymous, a funny but uneven improv-style comedy starring Chris Klein and Kaley Cuoco; Benny & Jolene, an uneven and awkward improv-style British comedy starring Charlotte Ritchie and Craig Roberts; and Who Is Dayani Cristal?, a clever, powerful dramatic documentary about immigration from Central to North America.

This coming week we've got Paul Walker's thriller remake Brick Mansions, Roman Polanski's theatrical drama Venus in Furs, Ozu's classic An Autumn Afternoon and fashionable pensioner doc Advanced Style. I also have a line-up of screenings this week as part of the Sundance London Festival, which runs next weekend. In my diary are, alphabetically: The Case Against 8, Drunktown's Finest, Finding Fela, Hits, Kumiko, Little Accidents, Memphis, The One I Love, They Came Together and The Voices. I'll be blogging and tweeting about Sundance from Friday.