Critical Week: Nothing but a smile

As a critic, movies come at me at random, so it's very odd when a pattern emerges. This past week, for example, I saw two Belgian movies that were populated by people who were completely naked. And neither was about sex. Set in a naturist campground, Patrick is a quirky black comedy with a compelling mystery at its centre. And it features a global star in Jemaine Clement (above with non-nudist Hannah Hoekstra). Bare documents the production of a dance piece for 11 naked men from auditions to the premiere. It's a striking look at masculinity, including strength, weakness, diversity and unity. But you have to be relaxed about watching naked bodies on screen.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
WolfWalkers • Ammonite
No Hard Feelings • The Climb
 I Am Greta • Bare 
FULL REVIEWS >

Otherwise, the movies this week were the usual eclectic bunch - once Raindance ended on Sunday. There were two family-friendly films: David and Jacqui Morris' eye-catching new take on A Christmas Carol that uses Dickens' text faithfully, accompanied by an ambitious mix of dance and theatricality with an all-star voice cast; and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is the latest adventure for that undersea gang of idiots, silly and also very funny (with added Keanu). There was some rude comedy in the gently engaging Malin Akerman comedy Chick Fight. And from Germany, the moving romance No Hard Feelings has a lot to say about the refugee experience.

Coming up this next week, films to watch include Aubrey Plaza in the drama Black Bear, Gary Oldman in the biopic Mank, Travis Fimmel in the heist comedy Finding Steve McQueen, the Jackie Chan action thriller Vanguard, the Romanian journalism drama Collective and the Shane MacGowan doc Crock of Gold.

Critical Week: Somebody's watching

There were three high-profile British films screened to the press in London this week. Ghost Stories is Andy Nyman's clever adaptation of a stage pay that merges three horror subplots into a twisty, nasty comedy-thriller. Early Man is the latest claymation romp from Aardman, a hilariously silly adventure set where the stone and bronze ages meet. And Finding Your Feet is a warm and easy-going romantic drama livened up by excellent performances from Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie.

From America, we had more horror comedy in the shape of Mom & Dad, a gonzo twist on several genres, featuring terrifically unhinged performances from Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage in the title roles. Dance Baby Dance is an extremely low-budget comedy about an aspiring tap dancer, charming but amateurish. And from France, the short film collection French Kisses is the usual mixed bag, and features some very strong clips.

There were also two documentaries: The Final Year is an oddly overslick look at Obama's last 12 months in office, fascinating but scrubbed clean. And 100 Men centres on a Kiwi filmmaker who takes an offbeat angle to explores gay culture over the past few decades.

Films this coming week include the trilogy finale Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the British thriller Lies We Tell, the musical biopic Thirsty and a restoration of the Bergman classic The Magic Flute.

Critical Week: A trick of the mind

There haven't been any press screenings in London over the past week, so I've been catching up with things on the small screen. Well, one TV show had a big-screen event opening: Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were back on New Year's Day for Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, a film so relentlessly, almost exhaustingly clever that it felt a bit too much like Inception. But the cast is terrific, and a sharply evocative visual sensibility kept it riveting. Also, I wanted to revisit Star Wars: The Force Awakens when I wasn't working, and it was fun to see it again with a boisterous crowd in a local cinema to watch it again (although I didn't enjoy the boisterous snack-rustling and constant phone-use). Yes, the film holds up to a second viewing, as the box office bonanza is proving.

The only other new film I watched was the Ecuadorian coming-of-age drama Holiday, a sensitive story beautifully shot in the country I grew up in (homesickness alert!). And I also caught up with the final two awards nominees I hadn't yet seen - both British-made docs...

A Syrian Love Story
dir Sean McAllister; with Amer, Raghda, Bob, Shadi 15/UK ****
Beautifully assembled, this strikingly involving documentary follows a Syrian family through four years of upheaval. British filmmaker McAllister first starts videotaping Amer and his children while his wife Raghda is being held in prison in 2011, then follows them as they flee to Lebanon and eventually get refugee status in France. Along the way, they watch their country reduced to rubble by a government willing to massacre its own people rather than allow them to have a democratic vote. But it's the film's personal touch that makes it compelling, tracing Amer and Raghda's difficult relationship, often through the eyes of their precocious young son Bob. (Nominated for Documentary of the Year in the London Critics' Circle Film Awards.)

Palio
dir Cosima Spender; with Gigi Bruschelli, Giovanni Atzeni 15/UK ***.
Gorgeous cinematography and clever editing set this documentary apart. The Palio is a bareback horse race that has been run around Siena's Piazza del Campo since the 14th century, pitting the city's districts against each other. Filmmaker Spender lets the participants tell the story, which seems to make the city properly medieval for two races each summer. Rivalries are out of control, the money passing around is absurd, and both the horses and the jockeys are crowned as heroes or vilified as losers. By having three generations of jockeys narrate the film, it unearths all kinds of fascinating, unexpected details. Although the relevance of all of this outside Siena is rather tenuous, it's a sharply well-observed exploration of one of Europe's most colourful traditions. (Nominated for Documentary of the Year in the London Critics' Circle Film Awards.)

Screenings are cranking up very slowly so far this year, but I have Kristen Wiig's festival film Nasty Baby in the diary, plus the gospel singer documentary Mavis! More are sure to come along soon...

Critical Week: Let the race begin

Awards season officially kicked off this week with a flurry of accolades including the New York Film Critics and the British Independent Film Awards. I've been voting already, and have more to do in the coming weeks. In my last few days in California, I caught up with a few more contenders, including Angelina Jolie's biopic Unbroken, starring Jack O'Connell as Olympic runner Louie Zamperini, who later survived 47 days adrift at sea before being captured by the Japanese during WWII. It's a staggering story of resilience, made with unexpected subtlety. Tim Burton's Big Eyes is another gorgeously made biopic. It stars Amy Adams as Margaret Keane, who painted all of those sad-eyed children in the 60s and 70s while her husband (Christoph Waltz) took the credit. It may look sunnier than most of Burton's films, but it's just as gleefully deranged, and it carries a big emotional kick.

But of course the biggest film screened to the press this past week was Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, another enormous epic of a film, packed with lively characters, first-rate effects and huge, expertly staged action sequences. Frankly, until some engaging personal drama emerges in the second half, it's a bit exhausting. Somewhat smaller films included The Face of Love, a gimmicky, melodramatic romance starring Annette Bening and Ed Harris. And The Great Museum is a riveting fly-on-the-wall doc about the backstage workings of Vienna's national gallery.

Coming this week: Julianne Moore in Still Alice, Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Quevenzhane Wallis in a remake of the musical Annie, Christian Bale in Exodus: Gods and Kings, Aardman Animation's Shaun the Sheep Movie, the acclaimed Spanish anthology Wild Tales and the British drama Wasp. I'll also finally catch up with the sequel Dumb and Dumber To, although frankly I'd rather not.

Critical week: The game's afoot

I've been deliberately avoiding movies over the Christmas and New Year break, but there's been plenty of television to distract me. The most anticipated holiday show was obviously the return of Sherlock on New Year's Day for a third series - it's been a long two-year wait. Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Rupert Graves are back for another brain-bender that's as engaging as ever, but feels more like a standard TV episode than previous seasons' movie-style instalments. It's also rather gimmicky and indulgent, so let's hope they calm down a bit for Sunday night's second episode.

Meanwhile, there was the annual Downton Abbey Christmas special. Last year they used this as an opportunity to essentially ruin the holidays with a horrific fatality. This year was much less momentous, merely entangling the soapy story-strands further while having a bit of fun with American guest stars Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti. Slightly more prestigious was The Thirteenth Tale, a moody ghost story that pitted acting veteran Vanessa Redgrave opposite the equally gifted Olivia Colman as a dying novelist and her suspicious biographer, respectively. A nicely made film, with another involving turn by Colman, but Christopher Hampton's script was undercooked.

I also finally got caught up with the American version of the rude comedy Shameless - I was behind by a whole season and managed to watch all of series 3 over the holidays. Superb writing, directing and acting from the entire cast pushed these characters much further than we ever would have imagined. Few TV shows can induce squirms like this one, bless it.

I'll be back on the screening circuit starting next week, with a number of interesting things in the diary, including Michael Cera in Crystal Fairy, the post-apocalyptic romp Bounty Killer, the British musical comedy Svengali, the horror romp Devil's Bargain, the Venice-winning thriller Miss Violence, the acclaimed documentary After Tiller and the Formula One doc 1: Life on the Limit.