Critical Week: A walk in the park

London's cinema community is gearing up for this Sunday's British Academy Film Awards, which will be hosted by Richard E Grant at the Royal Festival Hall with all the stars in attendance. And this year the Baftas will air some of the awards live (but only a handful). I'll watch it at home, but I'm attending a few parties over the weekend, which should be fun ... and rather glamorous. More about all that on Monday, after the dust settles.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Inspection • Framing Agnes
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
PERHAPS AVOID:
Devil's Peak
ALL REVIEWS >

Meanwhile, we're starting to see movies released early in the year, far from awards consideration. Sharper is a thriller about con artists, so it's no surprise that it's packed with twists, turns and revelations. All of that is fun, even if it's a bit predictable, but it helps that the film stars Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan and (above) Briana Middleton and Justice Smith. Also sticking to the formula is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest slice of Marvel mayhem. The action largely swamps Paul Rudd's superb sense of humour, but the film does have its moments, and Jonathan Majors is seriously good as the villainous Kang. And then there's Devil's Peak, a backwoods thriller that sinks completely under the weight of its cliches, even as strong actors like Billy Bob Thornton and Robin Wright do what they can.

A little further afield, 88 is a political thriller with a nicely complex plot, although the dialog is overstuffed with lectures. From Italy, Nostalgia is an involving drama about a man trying to return home even as his past warns him to leave. From Spain, 8 Years artfully mixes colourful energy with thoughtful emotion as a man ponders the good and bad in a broken relationship. Chase Joynt's astonishingly inventive doc Framing Agnes works on many levels to explore trans experiences and social justice. And Gaspar Noe has rearranged his shocking 2002 classic as Irreversible: Straight Cut, which becomes something very different chronologically.

In addition to British Academy Film Awards events this weekend, this coming week I'll see the nutty thriller Cocaine Bear, Michael Shannon in A Little White Lie, Kore-eda's drama Broker, the Argentine drama Wandering Heart and the climate activism thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline.

Requisite Blog Photo: They made me choose sides

Abu Dhabi 6: Heroes and villains

At the closing ceremony for the 8th Abu Dhabi Film Festival last night, awards were presented from the series of juries who have been working here for the past nine days. Our Fipresci jury handed out two prizes: Naji Abu Nowar's Theeb (narrative) and Nadine Salib's Um Gayeb: Mother of the Unborn (documentary). As for other feature awards, The festival's Black Pearl Awards were presented to Leviathan (narrative), The Wonders (New Horizons), and Virunga (doc). The Audience Award went to The Salt of the Earth, the Netpac award to Iraqi Odyssey and the Child Protection awards to In Her Place (film) and Sivas (script). There were also a range of jury prizes, acting awards, special mentions and prizes for Arab films and filmmakers. The closing night film was Big Hero 6 (above).

I flew back to London this morning, and was happy to find that it's rather warm here - which means that I never used the coat I carried to Abu Dhabi and back home. So I'm going through a stack of post, running a load of laundry and getting ready to take a short nap so I can stay awake tonight and get back on local time (which is now 4 hours earlier, although it was 3 hours when I left - figure that out!). Here are the last few films from Abu Dhabi...

Big Hero 6 is an animated Disney/Marvel action-comedy about an orphan who teams up with a gentle-giant robot and a gang of techie nerds to stop a nefarious villain from wreaking havoc in San Fransokyo. Yes, the film has an enjoyably mashed-up Japanese/American tone, even if the characters and plot are extremely formulaic. There aren't any surprises in the story, the characters represent the basic types, and the approach to grief feels sentimental and superficial (namely that grief makes us desperate for violent revenge). But then, this probably isn't the kind of film that should close a festival like Abu Dhabi's, which is packed with unusually complex explorations of big topics. Still, it's a lot of fun, with plenty of whizzy action that's animated with terrific energy (this was the world premiere for the 3D version). And boys will especially enjoy the gadgetry.

The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer's companion piece to last year's award-winning Indonesian doc The Act of Killing, and it manages to be an even more harrowing experience. As the title suggests, this is a more introspective approach, as optometrist Adi asks residents of his hometown about the brutal events around the 1965 revolution and purge, during which his big brother was violently killed by men who are still in positions of authority today. Adi's questions are startlingly bold in a culture that would rather let the past lie. Amid efforts to rewrite history, knowing the truth is an urgent priority. And the way Oppenheimer quietly documents a complete lack of regret is seriously shocking. 

Queens of Syria is a relatively simple Jordanian doc about a group of women who are staging a production of Euripides' The Women of Troy. The hitch is that they are all refugees from Syria who fled to Amman for their lives - some running from violence, others forcibly removed from their homes. In other words, they have had the same experiences as the characters they are playing on-stage, and have in some cases integrated their stories into the dialog. Their accounts are seriously wrenching, especially as they talk about lost loved ones. But the film is never quite cracks the topic, perhaps because the filmmakers are understandably unable to get too deep into the lives of these women who are still unsettled and displaced.

Fevers, from France, is a generational drama about a man who discovers that he has a 13-year-old son whom he needs to care for. Where this goes is very dark: the kid is a thug who challenges everyone, leading to a series of harrowing clashes. The filmmaking is somewhat heavy-handed even as it struggles to make its point clear. Is this a film about the making or breaking of an Arab family that moved to Western Europe? It's hard to tell which, although aside from some warm moments most of what happens is pretty grim. But at lead the performances are so sharp that the characters become prickly and rattling. And even if the story gets even more difficult in the final scenes, it's haunting and thought-provoking.

Wolverine attacks!

To tie in with Guardians of the Galaxy, Morph Costumes gave me a chance to test out one of their suits and then offer two Shadows readers the chance to win one for themselves. When the Wolverine costume arrived, I dutifully put it on to see if it lives up to the promises in the advertising copy. 

Amazingly, these photos of me in the suit look pretty cool, not too far from the promotional artwork (below). This is surprising because I generally don't look great in spandex of any kind. But the suit has all kinds of manly contours drawn onto it.

It also covers every single inch of the body, which makes operating things like a smart phone rather tricky (although you can). The main issue is that it's very difficult to see anything. The bit covering the face is rather a lot like having ladies' stockings stretched over your head, bankrobber style. It smashes your features and clings so tightly that even blinking is a bit tricky. Sight is also rather limited, like seeing everything through a dark fog.

But it would be a great costume to wear to a party (eating is impossible, drinking would be messy). There's also a pouch for a smart phone, which will light up the belt buckle and create the illusion of Wolverine claws on a camera screen (other suits have their own tricks).

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C O M P E T I T I O N

Shadows partnered with Morph Costumes to give readers the chance to win one of the most advanced pieces of costume engineering known to man. Congratulations to Angel in Shoreham-by-Sea and Paul in Whiteley - we're sure they'll look great in their Spider-man and Deadpool costumes, plus their custom added superpowers of chainsaw arms and telepathy, respectively.

For more information, follow Morph Costumes on TWITTER or FACEBOOK. Marvel Morph Costumes include: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man and Deadpool.