Critical Week: Do a little dance

Awards season continues to crank up with this week's Bafta nominations, a pleasingly accessible set of nods that dares to break the usual mould. But of course the usuals are still in there. As for films I've watched, John Lithgow and Olivia Colman are father and daughter in Jimpa, a warm, mopey, but also astute exploration of family dynamics through the prism of sexuality and gender issues. Riz Ahmed is terrific in a bristling modern-day London adaptation of Hamlet, although the Shakespearean dialog sits at odds with the gritty realism. On the same day, I revisited one of my 2025 favourites, Hamnet. It's gorgeously assembled and powerfully performed, and great to watch it when I wasn't working. Yes, it was fun to see Hamlet and Hamnet so close together, especially with Joe Alwyn popping up in both.

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Other films were deliberately more entertaining, such as Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa playing brothers in Hawaii in The Wrecking Crew. A proper guilty pleasure, it's also a beefy, slick and very dumb action movie. Luke Evans and Milla Jovovich star in the post-apocalyptic thriller Worldbreaker, which maintains a nicely offbeat vibe that's also rather too low-key. More impressive was James McAvoy's directing debut California Schemin', the true story of two Scottish rappers engagingly played by Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley. It's fun to watch them bamboozle the music industry. The Aussie family adventure Kangaroo is packed with adorable joeys (plus the likeable Ryan Corr), even if the true story has been warped into a structured screenplay. And George MacKay and Callum Turner are terrific in Mark Jenkin's Rose of Nevada,  a wonderfully grainy blur of time travel and haunted boat nuttiness set in Cornwall. I also caught up with the sequel Now You See Me, Now You Don't, which is just as entertaining, overcomplicated and implausible as the first two.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Joe Keery in Cold Storage, romantic thriller A Beautiful Breakup and a collection of docs: Oscar and Bafta nominated Mr Nobody Against Putin, fighting book bans in The Librarians and Glasgow protests in Everybody to Kenmure Street. And I'll attend the 46th Critics' Circle Film Awards on Sunday as a voting member, rather than as chair, for the first time in 15 years.

BFI Flare: Family matters

The 38th BFI Flare powers into its final weekend with even more movies and events, including a big closing night party tomorrow. It's been great to have filmmaker Q&As at every public screening I've attended, while having time between films to catchup with them and with my festival friends here in London. Of course, festivals wear us out (we watch too much then have to find time somewhere to work!), so I'll be glad to have my life back on Monday. But until then, there's miles to go. Here are more highlights, plus a brief Critical Week roundup...

Our Son
dir Bill Oliver; with Luke Evans, Billy Porter 23/US ***
While this drama features a new angle on the usual child custody narrative, its script never achieves the complexity needed to bring the situation to life. Instead, it feels more like a TV melodrama in which each conflict happens simply because the formula says it should. Thankfully, the cast rises above the sometimes simplistic dialog to deliver involving performances that knowingly touch on important issues. So even if it isn't memorable, the film is warm and engaging.

Pine Cone
dir Onir; with Vidur Sethi, Sahib Verma 23/Ind ***.
With a sensitive story that's groundbreaking for Indian cinema, this warm gay romantic drama takes a deep dive into its central character's relationship history through a robust flashback structure. Filmmaker Onir finds earthy honesty in scenes that grapple with connections, while eliciting layered performances from an excellent cast of newcomers. It may look a bit flatly digital (it was largely shot on an iPhone), and the music may feel somewhat insistent for Western audiences, but the film is powerfully involving.

Don't Ever Stop
dir Stuart Pollitt; with Fergie, Andy Buckley 24/UK ****
It's appropriate that a documentary about Tony De Vit, Britain's Godfather of Hard House, would pulsate with the thumping rhythms of a sweaty nightclub. This is a knowing and warmly personal portrait of a man whose influence on the music industry has been enormous, and it expands to explore his legacy by also recounting the story of his protege Fergie, one of the biggest DJs in the world. Filmmakers Stuart Pollitt and Phill Smith have poured a lot of love into this film, which makes it powerfully involving.

Commitment to Life
dir Jeffrey Schwarz; with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bruce Vilanch 23/US ****
Centred around the queer community in Los Angeles and its response to the Aids epidemic, this knowing and sensitive documentary chronicles how a range of people took high-profile action that changed attitudes around the world. Master documentarian Jeffrey Schwartz assembles this beautifully, with a superb range of personal interviews offering firsthand commentary alongside the extensive archival material.

B E S T    O F    Y E A R
20,000 Species of Bees
dir-scr Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren; with Sofia Otero, Patricia Lopez Arnaiz 23/Sp ***
From the Basque Country, this loose drama circles around an important issue with honesty and emotion. But writer-director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren makes it difficult to engage with the characters. Not only are there too many ill-defined people on-screen, but the meandering structure never offers a way in. That said, the film looks beautiful, skilfully using the setting and culture. And the cast is excellent across the board... FULL REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked on Shadows' BFI FLARE PAGE >
For festival information, BFI FLARE >

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

I've only caught a couple of non-festival movies this week, namely the franchise continuation Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which feels the strain of too many characters and a distracting plot. But there is still some fun to be had. Kristen Stewart is excellent in Love Lies Bleeding (also at Flare as it happens), the anticipated twisted thriller from Rose Glass (St Maud). It's wonderfully original. And from Australia, Limbo is a gorgeously stylish mystery shot in black and white by the gifted filmmaker Ivan Sen. In the diary for next week, I've got Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, plus In the Land of Saints and Sinners, The Beautiful Game, The Origin of Evil, Ama Gloria and Carnal Sins.

Critical Week: A pie in the face

I caught up with a bunch of films opening this week in the US and UK, including some high-profile ones. Written by Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy is an autobiographical drama about the actor's relationship with his father (whom he plays on-screen). It's seriously gorgeous filmmaking. Last Christmas is a holiday comedy-romance from Paul Feig and Emma Thompson, starring (cool casting alert!) Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. It's charming, funny and ultimately thoughtful. The Good Liar is a guilty pleasure about two old folks (Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren) caught up in a con. The wobbly plot is fun, riding on the actors' charisma. Roland Emmerich directs Midway, an entertaining special-effects action adventure about the pivotal WWII battle, with a strong cast manfully grappling with wooden dialog. And the animated feature Klaus looks a little too digital, but its derivative Christmas origin story is told with spiky humour and some enjoyable twists.

In the arthouse department, Terrence Malick's latest wonder is A Hidden Life, based on a true story, so it has a more forceful narrative than his films usually do, even with minimal dialog. It's the powerful story of a man who quietly stood by his principles in Austria under Nazi rule. From Senegal, Atlantics is a haunting drama about a young woman in love with the wrong guy. And it has a supernatural wrinkle that deepens its themes. From Ecuador, The Longest Night (La Mala Noche) could have been a cliched tale of a hooker with a heart of gold, but it becomes much more than that with its gritty plot and complex characters. And there's a restored rerelease for the 1985 drama Buddies, a beautifully made story of friendship that was one of the first films to address the Aids epidemic.

This coming week is another collection of contenders and other releases, including Greta Gerwig's new take on Little Women, Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, the Hamlet riff Ophelia, the British black comedy Kill Ben Lyk, the dance-musical Romeo & Juliet: Beyond Words, and the acclaimed doc For Sama. I also have a few stage shows to watch, just for some fresh air!

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.

LFF: See the wonder on Day 6

Another busy day at the 61st BFI London Film Festival, with some extra colour in the middle as I attended a meet-the-filmmakers event and got a chance to visit with Takashi Miike (Blade of the Immortals), Anne Fontaine (Reinventing Marvin) and David Batty (My Generation), among others. Here are some more highlights from the festival - note that full reviews will be up on the site as soon as I can get them there. Finding time to write in between films can be a bit tricky...

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
dir-scr Angela Robinson; with Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall 17/US ****
If you've never read about how the Wonder Woman comics were created, you might need to brace yourself for this film. Because in exploring the lives of the Harvard brainiacs behind the first and most popular female superhero, the filmmakers dip into a counterculture lifestyle that would probably have tongues wagging now, let alone in the 1940s. It's also a sharply well written and directed film, with a solid cast that brings depth to the characters.

Thoroughbred
dir-scr Cory Finley; with Anya Taylor-Joy, Olivia Cooke 17/US ***.
Brittle and very bleak, this black comedy takes a rather unnecessary swipe at the vacuous life of privileged teens, as if there's anything else to say on the topic. Even so, it's strikingly written and directed by newcomer Corey Finley, while rising stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke make the most of the twisted dialog. It also explores an aspect of Millennial culture that's rarely depicted on-screen.

Call Me By Your Name
dir Luca Guadagnino; with Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet 17/It ****.
With a sunny dose of nostalgia, this drama traces a pivotal summer in a young man's life. Characters and situations are complex, challenging the viewer to share the experience. And while this may seem to be a film about sexuality, it's actually more potently an exploration of how important it is to embrace our emotions, even the ones that hurt.

Loving Vincent
dir Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman; with Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan 17/UK ***.
Like Richard Linklater's Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, this film was hand animated frame-by-frame from live-action footage, although in this case it was done by some 100 artists working with oil paints. A look into the final days of Vincent van Gogh, the exquisitely rendered imagery is a swirling odyssey through his work, echoing characters and settings while exploring his tragic and mysterious death at age 37 in 1890.

Funny Cow
dir Adrian Shergold; with Maxine Peake, Paddy Considine 17/UK ***
This is a sharply well-made drama about a woman going against the current in her culture. It's beautifully filmed and performed with energy and attitude. On the other hand, for a movie about a stand-up comic, it's relentlessly dour. There are some riotous moments along the way, and the acting is riveting enough to hold the interest all the way through, but the overall tone is seriously grim.

A Prayer Before Dawn
dir Jean-Stephane Sauvaire; with Joe Cole, Pornchanok Mabklang 17/UK ****
Based on Billy Moore's memoir, this is a harrowing true account of a young British man's experience in a Thai prison. There isn't much context, actually no background at all, and therefore no real sense of any of the characters. Still, the film is utterly riveting, as director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire takes the audience on a jarring, unforgettable odyssey that leaves us with some big themes to chew on.

Critical Week: A bit of a giggle

Well, that photo certainly isn't very indicative of Terence Davies' new film A Quiet Passion, the Emily Dickinson biopic that screened for London-based press this week (it also featured in last October's London Film Festival). A gloomy but strikingly realistic period film, it's livened up by the crisp performances of Cynthia Nixon and Jennifer Ehle, and it features lots of Dickinson's wonderfully evocative poetry, but it's pretty grim stuff. There was also a much bigger movie, Disney's remake of the 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast, which stirs live actors into the now photo-realistic animated fairy tale. It's still a hugely engaging story, and the actors and filmmakers add superb subtext, but fans of the original may find it unnecessary.

The best film of the year so far is the Oscar-nominated doc I Am Not Your Negro, which inventively reframes the race issue as the overall history of America. A stunning film, beautifully adapted from James Baldwin's words. We also had the slickly made, action-packed Korean period thriller The Age of Shadows, the grim but inventive British rural drama The Levelling, the astute and moving Chilean drama You'll Never Be Alone, and the serious-themed Italian road comedy A Little Lust.

Coming up this next week, we have Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale in The Promise, Charlie Hunnam and Tom Holland in The Lost City of Z, Dax Shepard and Michael Pena in CHiPs, and the Finnish comedy The Other Side of Hope. Also, the 31st BFI Flare kicks off on Thursday with the world premiere of the true British drama Against the Law. Look for comments on that film and lots of others in regular updates over the next two weeks.

Critical Week: Tell no one

There are a handful of films screened to London critics this past week that we're not allowed to review yet. Insidious: Chapter 2 reunites Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and director James Wan for more ghostly/demonic horror. Riddick reunites Vin Diesel with director David Twohy for a third instalment in the series, 13 years after Pitch Black. And The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones brings a new young-adult franchise about vampires, werewolves and demons to the big screen. That last embargo ends today, and I also attended a press conference yesterday that was much more entertaining than the film, thanks to lively stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan and director Harald Zwart.

There was no embargo needed for the late-in-the-day screening of the entertaining but disappointing sequel Kick-Ass 2, which features original cast members Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse with a new writer-director. Luke Evans plays a shady unnamed guy in No One Lives, a high-energy horror film that gleefully entertains fans with a series of grisly deaths.

After all of that, it was nice to have a few grown-up films: Le Week-end is a marvellously written and played drama starring Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan and Jeff Goldblum. Gloria is a strongly engaging Chilean drama about a middle-aged single woman trying to find love. Call Girl is a strikingly well-made Swedish drama about political corruption and a prostitution ring. And Clio Barnard's The Selfish Giant cleverly re-interprets Oscar Wilde's story as a gritty tale of hapless tearaway kids in Yorkshire. I also revisited Rene Clement's gorgeously restored 1960 thriller Plein Soleil and Gregg Araki's rather nutty teen sci-fi comedy-drama Nowhere. Both still feel eerily contemporary.

This coming week we have Richard Curtis' About Time, Jennifer Aniston in the comedy We're the Millers, Aubrey Plaza in The To Do List, the British internet thriller Uwantme2killhim?, the Cuban adventure Una Noche and a chance to revisit Terry Gilliam's fantastic Time Bandits, restored for a re-release.