Critical Week: It wasn't me

It's been a momentous week in the UK, with a general election on Thursday that delivered on its expectations to completely upend the nation's government. On the 4th of July, no less. Meanwhile in the movies, Eddie Murphy returned for a fourth time for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, an overly retro sequel that feels like a movie we saw 40 years ago (we did). But Murphy is still great on-screen in this role. Also on Netflix, Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron reteamed for A Family Affair, which is as silly as it looks, and also an amusing guilty pleasure.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kill • The Conversation
Orlando, My Political Biography
Unicorns • The Nature of Love
ALL REVIEWS >

I saw two horror creep-outs: Mia Goth is back for MaXXXine, the third film in Ti West's series about young women seeking fame, this time a pornstar going mainstream while yucky violence breaks out all around her. Also very yucky, Longlegs stars Nicolas Cage in perhaps his most bonkers role yet (which is saying a lot). It's a relentlessly unsettling freak-out. And I was also delightful stressed out revisiting one of the finest thrillers ever made, Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 gem The Conversation, followed by a terrific Q&A with legendary sound and film editor Walter Murch.

Three films use surrealism to address big themes: Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars in the eerie dark drama Tuesday, as a mother confronting death (in the form of a parrot) about her daughter's life. Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn lead the offbeat and intense Mother Couch, about a woman who forces her adult children to grapple with her mortality. And Paul Raci is a guru teaching The Secret Art of Human Flight in an quirky comedy-drama that's bleakly emotive. And then there were father and son Stellan and Gustaf Skarsgard teaming up for the gloomy and haunting Scandinavian mystery What Remains, and fiercely inventive Chinese drama Black Dog, which deservedly won a couple of prizes at Cannes. I also attended Carlos Acosta's breathtaking stage production of Carmen at Sadler's Wells.

This coming week isn't looking quite as crazy as this one was. I'll be watching Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in Fly Me to the Moon, Sandra Huller in Sisi & I, Korean thriller Sleep, Iranian drama My Favourite Cake and the British animated adventure Kensuke's Kingdom. In live theatre, I'm attending Dorian: The Musical and the opening cabaret for Soho Theatre's Clown Festival.

Bifan: Fun in the sun

After rain and clouds on the first two days, which I'm told is normal for Seoul this time of year, Saturday was clear blue sky, which made it even hotter (but thankfully a but less humid). I'm enjoying the brief windows between films, usually around two hours, to explore the streets of Bucheon and try out the local food, which is delicious. These days are perfect for big bowls of cold noodles. Meanwhile, Bifan continues to offer up films from around the world - our international jury has been travelling quite a bit. Three more competition films are below, after another film I'd seen earlier...

Infinity Pool
dir-scr Brandon Cronenberg; with Alexander Skarsgard, Mia Goth 23/Canada ***
Gleefully gruesome, this bonkers horror thriller touches on serious ideas that give it a wonderful sense of something much bigger. Although writer-director Brandon Cronenberg is more focussed on visually arresting imagery than mining the material for something unnervingly resonant. That said, there's a terrific sense of menace, and it's all so personal and internalised that it can't help but work its way under the skin. As it were... FULL REVIEW >

The Seeding
dir-scr Barney Clay; with Scott Haze, Kate Lyn Sheil 23/US ***.
Skilfully creating an atmosphere of claustrophobic dread, writer-director Barney Clay echoes a range of wilderness horror classics to create a modern-day folk tale. Nothing is terribly original here, but the movie has a confident sheen, building sympathetic characters against the odds as it cautions against venturing into isolated, and insulated, parts of the American West.

Bad Education
dir Kai Ko; with Kent Tsai, Berant Zhu 22/Taiwan ****
An electrically charged sense of pitch-black humour runs through this genre mashup from Taiwan, which throws three teens into a series of unspeakable situations. While sending their characters on an odyssey that mixes high school comedy with Tarantino-style violence, director Kai Ko and writer Giddens Ko continually examine what it means to be a good or bad person. Full of prickly dialog and unexpected nastiness, the film's wry sense of humour makes it worth a look.

Superposition
dir Karoline Lyngbye; with Marie Bach Hansen, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard 23/Denmark ***.
Strikingly well shot and edited, this Danish thriller has a premise that's intriguing and entertaining, tapping into some pungent themes relating to identity and gender politics. So it's a bit frustrating that the writing and direction leave absolutely nothing to chance, carefully identifying every plot nuance and therefore eliminating most of the possible surprises. This tidy approach also leaves the deeper ideas feeling oddly undercooked.

Venezia79: Staring at the sky

The 79th Venice Film Festival is holding its final screenings today before handing out awards tonight. I'll report those here tomorrow, along with my own best films of the festival and a report on my immersive/virtual reality experience here. But I'm now done with screenings, and I certainly won't miss having the opening of each movie interrupted by restless and late-arriving audience members who clamber over you right when the lights go out without warning (I have actual bruises) then refuse to settle down or sometimes carry on chatting at full voice. While the ushers shine flashlights in your eyes. In other words, it will be nice to once again be able to settle in and watch how a movie starts. Here are my final films...

The Listener
dir Steve Buscemi; with Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Hall 22/US ***
Anchored around a sensitive performance by Tessa Thompson, with no one else on-screen at all, this is an engaging look at the life of a helpline operator. It's also directed by Steve Buscemi to be achingly picturesque, while Alessandro Camon's script is somewhat overwritten, making each character perhaps too articulate. Combined with the film's cozy production design, this makes everything feel somewhat artificial. But even if the big emotional beats in a series of phone calls are perhaps too tidy, there are continual points of resonance. [Closing film of Venice Days]

The Hanging Sun
dir Francesco Carrozzini; with Jessica Brown Findlay, Alessandro Borghi 22/UK ***.
Based on a Jo Nesbo novel, this British-Italian production is a dark drama with subtle undertones of a thriller. A solid cast brings intriguing textures to the characters and situations, while director Francesco Carrozzini maintains some gently gnawing tension and an earthy sense of connection between people in a community that seems to sit right on the edge of the world. So it's a bit frustrating that Stefano Bises' script never digs very deeply, and also simply abandons at least one major plot thread along the way. [Closing film of Venezia79]

Pearl
dir Ti West; with Mia Goth, David Corenswet 22/US ***.
There's an outrageously heightened style to this bonkers horror comedy, which is a prequel to filmmaker Ti West's previous movie X, this time cowritten with star Mia Goth. The film harks back to classics from The Wizard of Oz to Psycho, but everything is drenched in Technicolor hues. As a story of a young woman who feels trapped by her life, there's some emotional resonance along the way, but the seriously grisly nuttiness continually undercuts this. What remains is an entertainingly nasty tale about the birth of a killer.

No Bears
dir-scr Jafar Panahi; with Jafar Panahi, Vahid Mobasheri 22/Irn ****.
Despite being banned from making movies, master filmmaker Jafar Panahi continues to tell powerful stories about life in Iran. This hugely involving film uses wry humour to capture the absurdities of culture as they have an enormous impact on two love stories. It's also a knowing glimpse into the art of making a movie in such a convoluted place, as well as a deeply personal exploration of the situation for people who are struggling to survive when traditions and borders turn them into desperate refugees.

Full reviews will be linked at Shadows VENICE FILM FESTIVAL page, eventually!  It may take awhile to catch up.