Critical Week: Reach out and touch me

There have been a flurry of screenings this week, as studios try to make sure critics see their films before the Cannes Film Festival gets underway next week. Two films opening this week were screened a bit late to the press. Billie Eilish's July 2025 Manchester concert has been filmed in 3D in Hit Me Hard and Soft, directed by Eilish herself, working with 3D aficionado James Cameron. The concert footage is stunning, remarkably immersive and intimate; the backstage doc material is rather thin. And then there's the videogame action sequel Mortal Kombat II, this time starring Karl Urban as fan-favourite Johnny Cage. He's hilarious, and helps non-fans get through two hours of dense mythology and astonishing grisliness. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kokuho • Romeria
PERHAPS AVOID:
Mortal Kombat II
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Wider audiences will enjoy the straight-to-streaming animated adventure Swapped, a colourful and very nutty body-swap romp with a terrific voice cast led by Michael B Jordan and Juno Temple. Leo Woodall puts his likeable charisma to fine use in Tuner, a mashup of drama, romantic comedy and crime thriller. Costars Dustin Hoffman and Havana Rose Liu help make it thoroughly entertaining. Sam Nivola ably leads the cast of the enjoyable teen road-trip comedy Driver's Ed, with ace support from Kumail Nanjiani and Molly Shannon. And Pedro Almodovar's new drama Bitter Christmas is another gorgeously layered tale about creativity. I also saw three live performances: the fabulous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Sadler's Wells, the immersive dinner theatre Chat Noir at the Lost Estate, and Bullyache's challenging A Good Man Is Hard to Find at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Allison Janney in Miss You Love You, Sally Field in Remarkably Bright Creatures, Emilia Jones in Fairyland, Curry Barker's horror thriller Obsession and a live performance of Remachine at Sadler's Wells East.

Critical Week: The stars came out

Sunday was the 76th Bafta Film Awards, with a new venue at the Royal Festival Hall and a new host in the charmingly British Richard E Grant (with contributions from a lively but distracting Allison Hammond). It was a star-packed event, with a glittering audience of nominees and special guests, which allowed for the usual offbeat presenting duos (Eugene Levy with Cynthia Erivo?). Among the winners, the biggest surprise was Austin Butler being named Best Actor, which bodes well for Oscar night. And Barry Keoghan was a popular surprise winner for Supporting Actor, although perhaps Ke Huy Quan has the edge for Oscar. And then there was All Quiet on the Western Front with its unprecedented seven huge wins, including film and director over Tár and Everything Everywhere All at Once, top nominees that had to settle for just one prize each. But the issue of inclusivity still needs to be discussed, when awards like these (and the London Critics' Circle) opt for overwhelmingly white winners even with a superbly diverse set of nominees.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Joyland • Broker • Juniper
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As for the movies I've been watching, the biggest one was a very late press screening of Elizabeth Banks' crazed action thriller Cocaine Bear, a riotously grisly throwback to '80s nature-gone-wild mayhem movies. It took me awhile to catch up with Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker, another wonderfully humane drama that sympathises with people on the moral fringes. How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an entertaining caper adventure about a group of young people taking on Big Oil. The twisty antics kind of overshadow the serious themes, but it's good fun. From Argentina, Wandering Heart is a superbly naturalistic drama about a man trying to pull himself together after a breakup. And the Oscar-nominated doc A House Made of Splinters highlights a situation in war-torn Ukraine with a hugely resonant kick.

This coming week I'll be watching Michael B Jordan's Creed III, Lily James in What's Love Got to Do With It, Michael Shannon in A Little White Lie, the Aussie drama Lonesome and the French drama Love According to Dalva, plus a couple of theatre shows.