Critical Week: Stay cool

This is an almost comically hyped-up cinematic week, as #Barbenheimer heralds the release of two of the year's most anticipated releases, Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Annoyingly, Universal refused to let me attend any Oppenheimer press screenings, but I'll still see it. Of course, Warners launched Barbie in a big splash of pink, and it's a hugely enjoyable film, far smarter than expected, with a strong point underpinning its candy-coloured hilarity. Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx and John Boyega (above) star in the funky comedy-thriller They Cloned Tyrone, which oozes style as it tells a bonkers story that also has a much more serious edge to it. More gleefully ridiculous, Joy Ride is an entertaining and perhaps too-riotous romp following Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu into various crazy situations in East Asia.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Oppenheimer • Barbie
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Much more subtle films included Julia Louis-Dreyfus reteaming with writer-director Nicole Holofcener for the comedy You Hurt My Feelings, which astutely observes relationship issues from a knowing perspective. The stunningly well written, directed and acted drama Mutt follows a young trans man as he reconnects with three people from his past. The literally breathtaking thriller The Dive remains contained around two sisters who have a terrifying underwater crisis. There were also two docs: the sassy and profoundly moving Kokomo City, about Black trans sex workers caught between their various communities, and Bobi Wine: The People's President, a riveting portrait of a populist politician standing up against corrupt rule in Uganda. I also caught two superbly masculine shows at the end of Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival.

Tomorrow I'll buy a ticket to see Oppenheimer in 70mm but not Imax, as those are all sold out. In addition, I'll be watching the romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue, plus the French drama Smalltown Boys, the Malaysian thriller Walid, the animated adventure Mavka: The Forest Song, the Tibetan doc Baato, and the 23rd Boys on Film shorts collection Dangerous to Know.

On the Road: Where's the party

Another week of sunshine in Southern California, spending rather too much time in the car driving up and down the 5 from Orange County (where I'm staying with family) and Hollywood (where awards-consideration screenings take place). My main purpose for this trip is to see friends and family, so it's a bonus to be able to take them to screenings with me. The biggest movie this week, screened right on the Paramount lot, was Damien Chazelle's 1920s Hollywood epic Babylon. There's so much going on that it's understandably uneven, but it's also dazzling, with a series of breathtaking set-pieces that need to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

Steven Spielberg is also exploring the nature of filmmaking in The Fabelmans, his autobiographical film about growing up in a messy family while developing a love of storytelling. There's a lot to love about this film. Florence Pugh gives yet another powerfully involving performance in The Wonder, a provocative period drama set in Ireland and directed with style by Sebastian Lelio. The often outrageously over-the-top adaptation Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is a lot of fun, with some darkly pointed themes and a scene-stealing Emma Thompson. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a little more difficult to love, even if its stop-motion animation is wonderfully designed. As artful and passionate as it is, the dark story and dull songs are tricky to engage with. And Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider is far more than a scary thriller based on the true story of a serial killer in Iran's holiest city; it's also a knowing, almost terrifyingly timely look at power dynamics in a nation where women are sidelined.

Films coming up this week include Noah Baumbach's White Noise, the spinoff-sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Disney's Strange World and the doc All That Breathes. I'm also travelling back to London next week - annoyingly missing the Avatar 2 screenings both in London (on Sunday) and Los Angeles (on Tuesday). I'll catch up with it later...

Critical Week(s): A girl's best friend

The week of the London critics' awards, I only had two screenings, so I'm rolling that into this past week here. Films at the moment are mainly arthouse movies, because I've seen all of the big ticket movies either at festivals or during awards-voting periods last year. Then this week we had 2020's first big title, the DC Comics' action romp Birds of Prey. To be honest, I was dreading it, because I'm not the biggest fan of 2016's Suicide Squad. But director Cathy Yan rights everything David Ayer did wrong with that film: this one has deeper characters, coherent action, a plot that actually develops the situations and people in interesting directions. Margot Robbie is still over-the-top as Harley Quinn, but she has layers of interest this time, and is never sexualised. In other words, the film is a refreshing blast of bonkers energy.

There were also two powerfully involving low-key independent dramas. From Ireland, Calm With Horses is a dark and punchy drama about a hulking young ex-boxer (the terrific Cosmo Jarvis) struggling to balance his work as a henchman with his love for his young autistic son. And from England, County Lines is a pointed, often harrowing drama about a 14-year-old (astonishing newcomer Conrad Khan) groomed into a life of crime by a charismatic stranger (Harris Dickinson). Two Scandinavian movies were unnerving for very different reasons: The Icelandic drama A White, White Day is a slow, moving exploration of grief, while the Swedish horror Koko-Di Koko-Da is surreal, unhinged and breathtakingly original. And then there was the 3D documentary Cunningham, which inventively chronicles the career of groundbreaking dancer-choreographer Merce Cunningham.

This coming week's screenings include Jim Carrey in Sonic the Hedgehog, Anya Taylor-Joy in Emma, Tiffany Haddish in Like a Boss, Keira Knightley in Misbehaviour and the British thriller Rose Plays Julie.

And in the wake of the always rather predictable Baftas last weekend, which were as usual broadcast in the UK heavily edited and several hours after they took place, I'll be staying up all night on Sunday to watch the Oscars handed out live. In the UK the show starts at 1am. I'll take a nap beforehand...

A Year in Shadows: 2019

TRIVIA ALERT!

Only one star had two covers to herself: Keira Knightley. Two had one solo cover and a shared one: Brie Larson and Margot Robbie. And these appeared on two shared covers: Christian Bale, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Nicole Kidman, Florence Pugh, Charlize Theron and Bradley Cooper (once as an animated character).

These appeared by themselves on a cover: Antonio Banderas, Jessie Buckley, Judi Dench, Taron Egerton, Idris Elba, Adele Haenel, Linda Hamilton, Nicholas Hoult, Zachary Levi, Ewan McGregor, Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sophie Turner, Renee Zellweger and Letitia Wright (the only person who appeared on a cover as herself).

Twice on one cover: Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis and James McAvoy. And McAvoy is on another shared cover as well, the only actor appearing three times.

On one shared cover: Evan Alex, Mahershala Ali, Yalitza Aparicio, Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Steve Carell, Jessica Chastain, Emilia Clarke, Toni Collette, Olivia Colman, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert De Niro, Danny DeVito, Michelle Dockery, Robert Downey Jr, Colin Farrell, Lady Gaga, Henry Golding, Richard E Grant, Eva Green, Danai Gurira, Bill Hader, Laura Harrier, Finley Hobbins, Anthony Hopkins, Lily James, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Scarlett Johansson, Don Johnson, Dwayne Johnson, Viveik Kalra, Michael Keaton, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Rami Malek, Leslie Mann, Melissa McCarthy, Viggo Mortensen, Jeanelle Monae, Isaiah Mustafa, Kumail Nanjiani, Lupita Nyong'o, Al Pacino, Nico Parker, Himesh Patel, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, James Ransone, Jeremy Renner, Daisy Ridley, Seth Rogen, Saoirse Ronan, Jay Ryan, Eliza Scanlen, Michael Shannon, Justice Smith, Maggie Smith, Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, John David Washington, Emma Watson, Rachel Weisz, Nell Williams.

On one shared cover, but unrecognisably (wearing a mask or voicing an animated character): Tim Allen, Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Bell, Chadwick Boseman, Blake Clark, Joan Cusack, Adam Driver, Justin Fletcher, Karen Gillen, Tony Hale, Tom Hanks, Tom Holland, James Earl Jones, Ally Maki, JD McCrary, Idina Menzel, Jeff Pidgeon, Annie Potts, Chris Pratt, John Ratzenberger, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd, Wallace Shawn, John Sparkes.

Voiced animated or masked characters include lions, Legos, princesses, toys, superheroes, sheep, a farmer, a dog, a Sith lord and a Pokemon. Unvoiced characters: an Oscar, a Bafta, a dog, some plasticine sheep and a flying elephant.

Most crowded cover: Oscar (12), with a three-way tie for second place: Endgame, Toy Story 4 and Knives Out (11 each).

Critical Week: No longer silent

Having survived the film festival, I'm looking out for awards-season screenings before voting deadlines. This week there were three of these: Bombshell stars Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie (with Kate McKinnon, above) in a true drama about the scandal surrounding Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) at Fox News. Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins are brilliantly cast in The Two Popes, based on the true story of the transition from Benedict to Francis. And I caught up with Chiwetel Ejiofor's writing-directing debut The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, an inspirational true story from Malawi.

Back to films out soon (or now), I had to buy a ticket to see Terminator: Dark Fate, because there were no press screenings. It's not bad, and has a nice trio of strong women at its centre. Ewan McGregor stars in Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining faithfully adapted from Stephen King's novel with lots of added Stanley Kubrick. The new animated comedy romp based on the iconic The Addams Family is silly and a bit frantic. Cousins is a lovely, loose-limbed romance from Brazil. And These Peculiar Days is a witty, sexy ensemble piece from Mexico.

There aren't many screenings in the diary for this coming week for some reason, but I've got these films lined up: the Dutch action-thriller Bloody Marie, the steamy Brazilian drama Copa 181, Ecuador's Oscar hopeful La Mala Noche, plus finally catching up with Octavia Spencer in Ma and Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

Critical Week: Me and my shadow

It's been a busy week at the movies, with three much-anticipated press screenings. The best of the lot was Pain and Glory, which reteams writer-director Pedro Almodovar with actor Antonio Banderas (above) for a remarkably intimate, lushly produced exploration of cinema and creativity. I also really enjoyed Quentin Tarantino's ode to the heyday of 1960s cinema with Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood. The cast is excellent (anchored ably by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt), and Tarantino feels effortlessly in control of the story through each astonishing sequence. And then there was Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, the franchise spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. It's just as noisy and packed with action as you'd expect, and a lot funnier too.

Being the summer, there were three animated movies as well. The biggest is The Angry Birds Movie 2, which carries on in the same goofy style as the original, mixing chaotic slapstick with deranged adult-aimed humour. Charming is a decently animated low-budget Canadian production with a great premise that starts out undermining the fairy tale genre before giving in lazily to every cliche. Leo Da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa is an Italian-Polish production that looks rather cheap, but has a certain charm as it sends the teen inventor on a ridiculous treasure hunt adventure.

Foreign films included The Operative, a quietly tense German-Israeli production starring Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman. From Spain, The Candidate is a fast-paced labyrinthine political thriller with a clear-eyed perspective on endemic corruption. The French-German drama Transit sets a WWII story in modern-day Marseilles. It's finely produced and acted, but strains to connect the eras. And from Argentina, End of the Century is a twisty personal drama set in Barcelona, where two men remember meeting before. What follows skilfully plays on both memory and expectations.

There will be more family-friendly summer movies this next week, with the adventure Dora and the Lost City of Gold, the Kevin Costner comedy The Art of Racing in the Rain, and more animation with both UglyDolls and Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion. Other films include Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson in The Peanut Butter Falcon, the spy thriller Ecco and the horror movie Wicked Witches.

Critical Week: Level the playing field

As the critics groups start handing out their awards, it's clear that we're well into the prestige movie season. And indeed, many of my screenings have been awards-consideration screenings aiming to get my votes as I participate in four awards over the coming months. This week's highest profile films included Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer (above) in the clever, involving Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex, Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen in the rightfully acclaimed true road movie Green Book, and Elsie Fisher in Bo Burnham's astonishingly realistic adolescent drama Eighth Grade.

Others are both aiming at popular audiences and awards voters. Mary Poppins Returns strains to match the 1964 classic, and at times manages that nearly impossible feat, thanks to Emily Blunt. Ralph Breaks the Internet is as messy but feels even funnier than Wreck-it Ralph. Andy Serkis does a nice job keeping Mowgli faithful to Kipling's The Jungle Book, although it also looks a little cartoonish.

Saoirse Ronan is fierce in Mary Queen of Scots, a slightly over-produced historical drama costarring Margot Robbie as the pox-ridden Queen Elizabeth I. Alicia Vikander leads the all-star cast of another true historical drama, Tulip Fever, which is intriguing but awkwardly edited. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's epic Turkish drama The Wild Pear Tree is a riveting exploration of existence and connection. And Chilean drama Cola de Mono is a strikingly bold exploration of brotherhood and sexuality.

This coming week, we have screenings of the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Hugh Jackman in The Front Runner,  Nicole Kidman in Boy Erased, Jacques Audiard's Western The Sisters Brothers, the indie black comedy Newly Single, Milo Gibson in the British thriller All the Devil's Men, Jason Mitchell in the American indie thriller Tyrel, and the Kosovo drama The Marriage.

Critical Week: Stop and smell the flowers

It was pretty daring of Fox to release the animated movie Ferdinand this week, but for critics it was a welcome respite from Star Wars mania. The warm-heated core story is still there the beloved 1930s book and short, although it has been expanded with mindless action-comedy chaos. Meanwhile, the big news of course was the single press screening on Monday night of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, introduced by writer-director Rian Johnson. It's a massive, slightly over-intense two and a half hour battle epic packed with excellent characters and surprising connections.

I also caught up with Margot Robbie's excellent performance in I, Tonya, a bitterly comical take on disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding. But there's an important point to the tone. Hugh Jackman stars in the colourful musical The Greatest Showman, which tells the story of circus founder PT Barnum with great songs and elaborate choreography. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart reteam for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, a somewhat pointless reboot to the franchise, although it's at least energetic. And Liam Neeson continues in mindless action mode for The Commuter, a contrived thriller set on a train.

Further afield, we had the offbeat British indie drama Beast, which tells a twisted story that's part romance and part thriller. And Peccadillo put out their latest compilation Boys on Film 17: Love Is the Drug, nine short films about desire. It's a very strong collection this time, with films made over the past five years.

I only have a couple of screenings over the next couple of weeks, including Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World and Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel. But I still have quite a few awards-season screeners to catch up with as time allows. I'll prioritise the ones that pick up nominations.

Critical Week: Into the woods

It's been another very long week for me, with screenings of films both heading for regular cinemas and featuring in the forthcoming London Film Festival. Some movies fit in both categories, of course. One of the bigger ones was Goodbye Christopher Robin, the AA Milne biopic starring Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie. It's gorgeously produced and thankfully much grittier than expected. Another surprise was Stronger, the biopic starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a man injured in the Boston Marathon bombing. Completely lacking in rah-rah patriotism, the film is a gruelling, expertly told story of a flawed man everyone called a hero.

Also heading for cinemas are the documentary Earth: One Amazing Day, which puts stunning footage from the BBC's Planet Earth II up on the big screen, with some added scenes. The Unseen is a British film set up as a Hitchcockian thriller about a couple haunted by the death of their son. Double Date is a British comedy thriller that's gleefully grisly and funny without being scary. And Furious Desires is a collection of lusty short films from Brazil, Mexico and Italy.

London Film Festival offerings included Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in the surreal thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the witty and pointed black comedy Brigsby Bear, Michael Haneke's offbeat comical drama Happy End, Aidan Gillen in the improvised comedy-drama Pickups, the simply gorgeous Chilean drama A Fantastic Woman, the powerfully moving French drama 120 Beats Per Minute, the cleverly scary Icelandic thriller Rift and the thoughtful Finnish romance A Moment in the Reeds. There were also two Israeli films: the sharply inventive Foxtrot and the gently moving romance The Cakemaker. More on those coming soon.

Up this week are Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, Kate Winslet in The Mountain Between Us, Jessica Chastain in Molly's Game and Josh Hartnett in 6 Below. The 61st BFI London Film Festival officially kicks off on Wednesday, and press screenings include Julianne Moore in Wonderstruck, Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes, Cate Blanchett in Manifesto, Carey Mulligan in Mudbound, Clio Barnard's Dark River, Sean Baker's The Florida Project and Michel Hazanavicius' Redoubtable. My daily LFF updates will start next Thursday.

Critical Week: I'm with the band

David Brent makes the jump from the BBC TV series The Office to the big screen for Life on the Road, the continuing mock-doc adventures of a man whose every word and action makes the audience squirm uncomfortably. It's sometimes funny, and has some unexpected emotion too. I caught up very late with both the DC Comics all-star supervillain action romp Suicide Squad and the Zac Efron-Adam Devine comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - neither are very good, but they're probably just what their target audiences want. Jamie Dornan stars in the involving, creepy Hitchcockian thriller The 9th Life of Louis Drax. And the must-see documentary Tickled follows a New Zealand journalist down a jaw-dropping rabbit hole as he investigates a secret society. Or maybe it's something else entirely.

I also caught two stage productions over the weekend. Groundhog Day at the Old Vic is a new musical based on the 1993 comedy movie classic, with a book by the original screenwriter Danny Rubin and songs by the genius Tim Minchin. It's visually a bit too busy, but the story is told with jaw-dropping invention and energy, a passionate, seriously gifted cast and fantastic music. It's also funny and surprising, and it carries a powerful emotional and thematic kick at the end. • A much smaller production, The Past is a Tattooed Sailor is on at the Old Red Lion Theatre. It's a story of a 20-something orphan exploring his past through his great-uncle's celebrity-filled anecdotes plus a few ghosts wandering around the family's country manor. It's a bit fragmented, with lots of short, sharp scenes that rely on brainy dialog. But it's darkly fascinating and ends up thoughtfully provocative.

Among the films coming up this next week, we have screenings of Jonah Hill and Miles Teller in War Dogs, Bryan Cranston in The Infiltrator, Gemma Arterton in The Girl With All the Gifts, and the doc In Pursuit of Silence.

Critical Week(s): With a little help from my friends

I'm catching up on two weeks of film-watching here, since I took last week to write about theatre and TV instead, and also because screenings have been rather thin. There were two big sequels shown to UK critics: Finding Dory is an enjoyably colourful and slightly less satisfying follow-up to Disney/Pixar's 2003 hit, while Now You See Me 2 is an entertaining and somewhat convoluted continuation of the 2013 heist thriller about magicians. 

And then there are the pre-established properties: Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie brings the beloved sitcom characters to the big screen more than 20 years after they first appeared for a film that's better than anyone expected. And The Legend of Tarzan is an odd hybrid of a sweeping period epic and a silly action blockbuster, with an unusually strong cast. As for original stories, Ira Sach's Little Men is an exquisitely observed family drama, and Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune is a complex look at relationships in 1970s Denmark. I also caught up with the seriously stunning, unmissable Italian immigration doc Fire at Sea and the offbeat, segmented arthouse drama Like Cattle Towards Glow, exploring the link between lust, love and violence.

Coming up this week: the Ghostbusters remake starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, the animated sequel Ice Age: Collision Course, Dave Franco and Emma Roberts in Nerve, Pedro Almodovar's new drama Julieta and Michel Gondry's Microbe and Gasoline.