Critical Week: Who runs the world

It's been another busy week at the movies. As the Cannes Film Festival continues in the South of France, there have been plenty of screenings, events and films to watch online here in London. Warm weather is coming back too, which won't be great for cinemas that are reopening to full capacity next week - but people may want to escape the heat and get back to big-screen movies after such a long break. There were two big movies to watch this past week: on a screening link, I enjoyed the stylised chaos of the female-powered action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, featuring the starry lineup of Carla Gugino, Lena Headey, Karen Gillan, Angela Bassett and Michelle Yeoh (above). On a big screen, I only mildly enjoyed the stylised chaos of Space Jam: A New Legacy, which looks amazing but feels rather random and cynically packaged. But fans will love it.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Summer of Soul • Two of Us
Gunpowder Milkshake
Deerskin • Toofaan
PERHAPS AVOID:
The Birthday Cake
Space Jam: A New Legacy
ALL REVIEWS >

Another starry lineup populates the offbeat mob thriller The Birthday Cake, which stars Shiloh Fernandez alongside Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, William Fichtner and Lorraine Bracco. But the plot doesn't hang together. An eclectic cast featuring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong and Bill Skarsgard leads Nine Days, an existential fantasy that's intriguing and only sometimes moving. In an uneven French comedy, Isabelle Huppert has a lot of fun as Mama Weed, a police translator turned drug kingpin. Bollywood megastar Farhan Akhtar goes for a full body transformation in the thrilling and enjoyably soapy boxing epic Toofaan. And the acclaimed French farce Bye Bye Morons throws three random people together for a madcap quest that turns out to be unsettlingly bleak.

As a member of the UK Critics' Circle council, I also attended a lunch to present our top honour for distinguished services to art to playwright-novelist Michael Frayn. And I had a press night for a lively pub garden production of Love's Labour's Lost as well. It's great to see live theatre coming back.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Matt Damon in Stillwater, M Night Shyamalan's Old, Mark Wahlberg in Joe Bell, Ben Platt in Broken Diamonds, offbeat French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux's Mandibles and the French horror thriller Kandisha.

Critical Week: Fly away

I'm getting ready to get on a plane today and head off to Los Angeles. With this timing, it probably sounds like a glamorous Oscar trip, but actually I'll be there to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday! And as a side benefit I get to watch the Oscars during the day time, instead of staying up all night in London.

This week's screenings included Willem Dafoe's Venice Best Actor winning role as Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate, Julian Schnabel's beautifully artful biopic. The awesome Florence Pugh holds her own opposite Dwayne Johnson (grandstanding as himself) in the quirky British comedy-drama Fighting With My Family, based on the true story of a young woman from Norwich who became a WWE champion. Rebel Wilson has a lot of fun in the romcom pastiche Isn't It Romantic, although the lazy script almost scuppers her chances. Still, it's mindless good fun.

What They Had is a dark drama with a powerhouse cast including Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster and Blythe Danner. It's a bit heavy, but also moving as it explores a family dealing with ageing parents and Alzheimer's. Under the Silver Lake stars Andrew Garfield as a slacker in Los Angeles who gets caught up in an absolutely bonkers mystery. And the Carlos Acosta biopic Yuli is a sweepingly artful exploration of Cuba an dance, with Acosta playing himself in the framing scenes.

Sunday night's Bafta ceremony (or to give it its proper title: The British Academy Film Awards) continues to ripple, with people wondering how it might impact Oscar in just over a week's time. The wild cards now are Rami Malek and Mahershala Ali, clearly loved by their peers as they upset the favourites in their categories (Christian Bale and Richard E Grant). The other question is whether Roma can walk off with the big title, or if they'll go for something more mainstream. No one seems to have a clue, which makes this year's show more interesting than usual.

I have no idea if I'll see any films while I'm away. I have a few streaming links I need to watch, but if past trips are anything to go by, those are doubtful (if I could stream on the plane it would be perfect!). There's nothing in American cinemas I particularly want to catch up with - perhaps Miss Bala or What Men Want.