Critical Week: Reach out and touch me

There have been a flurry of screenings this week, as studios try to make sure critics see their films before the Cannes Film Festival gets underway next week. Two films opening this week were screened a bit late to the press. Billie Eilish's July 2025 Manchester concert has been filmed in 3D in Hit Me Hard and Soft, directed by Eilish herself, working with 3D aficionado James Cameron. The concert footage is stunning, remarkably immersive and intimate; the backstage doc material is rather thin. And then there's the videogame action sequel Mortal Kombat II, this time starring Karl Urban as fan-favourite Johnny Cage. He's hilarious, and helps non-fans get through two hours of dense mythology and astonishing grisliness. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kokuho • Romeria
PERHAPS AVOID:
Mortal Kombat II
ALL REVIEWS >

Wider audiences will enjoy the straight-to-streaming animated adventure Swapped, a colourful and very nutty body-swap romp with a terrific voice cast led by Michael B Jordan and Juno Temple. Leo Woodall puts his likeable charisma to fine use in Tuner, a mashup of drama, romantic comedy and crime thriller. Costars Dustin Hoffman and Havana Rose Liu help make it thoroughly entertaining. Sam Nivola ably leads the cast of the enjoyable teen road-trip comedy Driver's Ed, with ace support from Kumail Nanjiani and Molly Shannon. And Pedro Almodovar's new drama Bitter Christmas is another gorgeously layered tale about creativity. I also saw three live performances: the fabulous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Sadler's Wells, the immersive dinner theatre Chat Noir at the Lost Estate, and Bullyache's challenging A Good Man Is Hard to Find at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Allison Janney in Miss You Love You, Sally Field in Remarkably Bright Creatures, Emilia Jones in Fairyland, Curry Barker's horror thriller Obsession and a live performance of Remachine at Sadler's Wells East.

BFI Flare: Let your light shine

The 40th BFI Flare kicked off on Wednesday night with a lively world premiere for Hunky Jesus at BFI Southbank, attended by many of the cast and crew, including several of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who ceremoniously conferred sainthood on the film's director on-stage. This was followed by a terrific party, as always running very late on a school night! And now the festival is up and running at full speed. This is my 30th year covering this event, and here is the first handful of notes about films I'm watching (Critical Week is below)...

Hunky Jesus
dir-scr Jennifer M Kroot; with Sister Roma, Sister Vish Knew 26/US ****
Recounting the story of San Francisco's iconic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, this documentary is hugely entertaining on a variety of levels. Aside from being riotously funny and drenched in vibrant colours and joyous sunshine, the film is also remarkably informative as it both chronicles the sisters' history and explores their approach to life. Even more important is the way filmmaker Jennifer Kroot provides a series of pointed kicks.

Maspalomas
dir Aitor Arregi, Jose Mari Goenaga; with Jose Ramon Soroiz, Nagore Aranburu 25/Sp ****
With a pointed premise that's rarely depicted on screen, this Basque drama continually catches our attention with honest drama and realistic emotions surrounding an older gay man. Filmmakers Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga take a superbly offhanded approach to the narrative and characters. Shot in an almost documentary style, the film relies more on unspoken interaction than dialog, which encourages the audience to engage more deeply.

10s Across the Borders
dir Chan Sze-Wei; with Xyza Pinklady Mizrahi, Teddy Oricci 25/Ph ****
Covering the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, this documentary captures the exuberant spark of queer young people who find a sense of belonging at voguing balls, carrying on the iconic New York tradition. Using fly-on-the-wall camerawork, filmmaker Chan Sze-Wei allows these bright stars to reveal their hopes and aspirations in conversation with each other. Their big personalities come through in everything they do, especially when they're striking provocative poses.

Uchronia
dir Fil Ieropoulos; with Kristof Lamp, Flomaria Papadaki 26/GR ***
Inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's poem A Season in Hell, experimental Greek filmmakers Fil Ieropoulos and Foivos Dousos take an outrageously surreal look at queer identity and legacy. Their multi-lingual approach inventively mixes documentary and drama, using a kaleidoscopic range of film clips. It's a bold film that continually takes jabs at how society pushes damaging ideas while compromising and commodifying messages. It's a hypnotic philosophical romp through history.

Full reviews will be linked to the SHADOWS @ BFI FLARE page.

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

Watching Oscars live in London on Sunday night, I enjoyed the show for the most part, even if it lacked the surprises I always love. At least there was a very rare tie (for live-action short). Michael B Jordan was a worthy winner, the largest cheer of the night, while Jessie Buckley gave far and away the best speech. And it was great to see Autumn Durald Arkapaw claim a trophy. Conan O'Brien was a funny but uneven host. Some gags were inspired, others felt corny. Reunions are fun: those Bridesmaids girls are hilarious, and it was lovely to see Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor mark 25 years since Moulin Rouge. On the other hand Avengers Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans were less fun. Highlights were the two big musical moments, with the dazzling Sinners extravaganza and a Golden K-pop moment. The extended in memorium segment went on a bit, but reminded us of the huge figures we lost last year. 

As for movies, I watched Aneurin Barnard and Jeremy Piven in the uneven thriller Past Life, the warm and scrappy five-strand Irish drama Abode, Christian Petzold's gorgeous German drama Mirrors No 3 starring Paula beer, the gorgeous and inventive Marianne Faithfull doc Broken English, and two excellent docs that were up for Oscars: Iran's moving Cutting Through Rocks and the blood-boiling The Alabama Solution. There was also a live performance of the drama Where There Is No Time at Seven Dials Theatre.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Zazie Beetz in They Will Kill You, Jude Law in The Wizard of the Kremlin, Miriam Margolyes in Holy Days, Gianfranco Rosi's Pompei: Below the Clouds, and the premiere of Riz Ahmed's new TV series Bait. Plus of course quite a lot more movies at BFI Flare.

Out on a Limb: Oscar picks & predictions

This has been considered one of the most volatile awards seasons in memory, as the buzz has been continually shifting around who might be in line to take home Oscars. There are a couple of sure things for the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night, but the most important precursors -- Bafta, PGA, SAG -- didn't agree in many categories. Watching the ceremony, I always love an upset, so those will get my loudest cheers. Here's who I think will, should and could win [with winners in bold after the fact]...

PICTURE
Will/should win: Sinners
Could win: One Battle After Another

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Will win: Sentimental Value
Could win: It Was Just an Accident
Should win: Sirat
Dark horse: The Secret Agent

ANIMATED FEATURE
Will/should win: KPop Demon Hunters
Could win: Zootopia 2

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Will win: The Perfect Neighbor
Could win: Mr Nobody Against Putin
Should Win: Come See Me in the Good Light
Dark horse: The Alabama Solution

ACTRESS
Will/should win: Jessie Buckley - Hamnet

ACTOR
Will/should win: Michael B Jordan - Sinners
Could win: Timothee Chalamet - Marty Supreme
Dark horses: Ethan Hawke - Blue Moon / Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Will/should win: Amy Madigan - Weapons
Could win: Teyana Taylor - One Battle After Another 

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Will win: Sean Penn - One Battle After Another 
Could win: Delroy Lindo - Sinners 
Should win: Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value  

DIRECTOR
Will win: Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
Could/should win: Ryan Coogler - Sinners

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Will win: One Battle After Another - Paul Thomas Anderson
Could/should win: Hamnet - Chloe Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Will/should win: Sinners - Ryan Coogler
Could win: Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt

CASTING
Will win: Sinners - Francine Maisler
Could/should win: The Secret Agent - Gabriel Domingues
[Winner: One Battle After Another - Cassandra Kulukundis]

ORIGINAL SCORE
Will win: Sinners - Ludwig Goransson
Could win: One Battle After Another - Jonny Greenwood
Should win: Hamnet - Max Richter

ORIGINAL SONG
Will/should win: Golden - KPop Demon Hunters - Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, Teddy Park

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Will win: One Battle After Another - Michael Bauman
Should win: Sinners - Autumn Durald Arkapaw

FILM EDITING
Will win: Sinners - Michael Shawver
Could/should win: One Battle After Another - Andy Jurgensen

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Will/should win: Frankenstein - Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau

COSTUME DESIGN
Will win: Frankenstein - Kate Hawley
Should win: Sinners - Ruth E Carter

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
Will win: Frankenstein - Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey
Should win: Kokuho - Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino, Tadashi Nishimatsu

VISUAL EFFECTS
Will/should win: Avatar: Fire and Ash - Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett

SOUND
Will win: Sinners - Chris Welcker, Benjamin A Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker
Could win: F1 - Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A Rizzo, Juan Peralta
Should win: Sirat - Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, Yasmina Praderas

Critical Week: Fractured fairy tale

It's the first of two short weeks in the UK, separated by the four-day Easter weekend, so of course they've been screening horror movies for critics. From Norway, The Ugly Stepsister is an inventive body-horror version of Cinderella that's witty and enjoyably ghastly. And then there's Sinners, Ryan Coogler's wonderfully bonkers new thriller with Michael B Jordan as twin gangsters in Jim Crow Mississippi facing racism and vampires. It's an astonishing must-see for fans of nuanced, layered, full-on nastiness.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Wedding Banquet • Warfare
Sinners • Freaky Tales
The Penguin Lessons
Dreamin' Wild • Grand Tour
ALL REVIEWS >

Switching gears, the British drama Treading Water is beautifully made, following an obsessive-compulsive guy (the superb Joe Gill) trying to get his life back on track. It's involving and moving. Lavender Men is adapted from a queer stage play, and retains the theatre setting and dense dialog. It's also provocative and meaningful as it explores our connection to history. From Mexico, Dying Briefly is a low-key and sexy dark romance set in a dance company. And the lovely British documentary Wind, Tide & Oar uses gloriously grainy 16mm film to profile impassioned people who sail without engines. I also saw the live performance Skatepark at Sadler's Wells East.

This coming week, I'll be watching Ben Affleck in The Accountant 2, Sandra Huller in Two to One, the childhood-home doc Where Dragons Live, a big-screen preview of the doc series The Wild Ones, and the stage shows Snow White: The Sacrifice and How to Fight Loneliness.

Critical Week: Cool kids

It's that odd period in the year when cinemas are full of amazing movies that are taking home Baftas and various guild prizes while awaiting Oscar night (coming on 12th March), but the box office champions at the moment are decidedly mediocre fare released by distributors now to cash in on the audience desire for mindless entertainment. Everyone asks me where the good movies are, and I reply that you need to look past the blockbusters that are dominating multiplexes and headlines: good movies are everywhere at the moment. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Close • Wandering Heart
ALL REVIEWS >

Speaking of blockbusters, I saw two this week: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guere is Guy Ritchie's latest snarky action romp, with a terrific cast and gorgeous locations, lively twists and a barely serviceable script. It's thin but fun (largely thanks to a scene-stealing Hugh Grant, opposite Aubrey Plaza, Jason Statham and Bugzy Malone, above). Also suffering from script problems, Creed III is sharply well acted by a superb cast, and Michael B Jordan shows real talent as a director. It's rousing and worth a look, but simplistic the way it deploys toxic masculinity.

I also caught up with the British romantic comedy What's Love Got to Do With It, which adds some South Asian spice into the comfy mix with a snappy story that circles around arranged marriage in Pakistani immigrant families. Colourful cultural touches and strong turns from Lily James, Emma Thompson and Shazad Latif make it engaging. Michael Shannon is a bit too subdued in A Little White Lie, as a handyman posing as a reclusive author. Despite lacking energy, the film does generate some charm, and has a solid supporting cast. And from France, Love According to Dalva centres around a remarkable performance from Zelda Samson as a 12-year-old who believes she's a grown woman. It's a provocative, important take on the realities of child abuse.

Films this coming week include the sequel Scream VI, Woody Harrelson in Champions, horror comedy Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, rural comedy-drama The Middle Man, Australian drama Lonesome, offbeat sci-fi drama Lola, Italian horror Sound of Silence and filmmaking doc Brainwashed.

Critical Week: Say cheese

Covid restrictions are lifting in Britain, but I haven't had many press screenings this week, mainly because many of the films opening this month are ones I saw at a festival last year. Thankfully, this gives me some extra time to work on the forthcoming London Critics' Circle Film Awards - there are less than three weeks to pull everything together for that, even as a virtual event. Bigger films this week included A Journal for Jordan, a sentimentalised true drama starring Michael B Jordan and Chante Adams, directed by Denzel Washington. It's a good story, but feels too gentle and worthy. And then there's the silly fantasy fairy tale The King's Daughter, in which Pierce Brosnan plays Louis XIV, whose daughter (Kaya Scodelario) befriends a mermaid (Bingbing Fan) and refuses to fall for the suitable man. It's ridiculous but fun.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Belfast • Cicada • Torn
Nightmare Alley
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there's the jaunty Spain-set comedy Rifkin's Festival, which has some terrific touches but is another uneven film from the troublesome Woody Allen. From Brazil, The Pink Cloud is eerily prescient, shot in 2019 but expertly capturing the feeling of lockdown in its story about a toxic cloud that traps a new couple in a flat for years. Buzzy Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi skilfully tells three separate stories in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, and their thematic angles dovetail beautifully. And in the documentary Torn, filmmaker Max Lowe recounts the involving, twisty story of his mountain-climbing superstar father and his legacy.

This coming week I have mainly documentaries to watch, including The Real Charlie Chaplin, Taming the Garden, Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster and awards contenders Procession and The Rescue.

Critical Week: On a mission

Well, the 93rd Oscars managed to completely reinvent their ceremony for the pandemic era, although the severely simplified structure left it feeling a bit awkward. A host would have helped provide some humour, context and connectivity. The one comedy bit didn't work at all (aside from Glenn Close's apparently not-so-impromptu jig), and the order shuffle at the end left it ending on a dry note. But the winners were all hugely deserving, and it was great so see people celebrating in one place together.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Limbo • About Endlessness • Laddie
The County • Truman & Tennessee
Heavy Trip • The Outside Story
PERHAPS AVOID:
Without Remorse
ALL REVIEWS >

Back to the movies, the big movie this week was Without Remorse, Michael B Jordan's take on the Tom Clancy franchise-launcher. Jordan delivers the goods, but the film is rather tough going. More intriguing is the sci-fi drama Stowaway, with its low-key approach and philosophical themes, plus a terrific four person cast led by Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick. Much bigger still, Mortal Kombat is a big-scale battle epic that holds the interest in a guilty pleasure way, despite the simplistic plot.

A bit higher brow, Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the Cold War biopic The Courier, a tautly written, directed and acted thriller about a normal guy pulled into the spy game. Bob Odenkirk is solid in the derivative but engaging action thriller Nobody. Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough really go for it in the uneven Americans-in-Greece romance Monday. China's maestro Zhang Yimou brings his stunning visual approach to the riveting 1930s spy thriller Cliff Walkers. Veteran filmmaker Agnieszka Holland finds some superb textures in the fact-based 1950s Czech drama Charlatan. The dryly funny and enormously violent Dutch thriller The Columnist has its moments. And the stylish doc Some Kind of Heaven explores the lives of residents in America's most enormous retirement community, basically Disney World for pensioners. Hint: it isn't heaven for everyone.

Films to watch this coming week include the animated adventure The Mitchells vs the Machines, the marital drama The Killing of Two Lovers, the house party comedy The Get Together, the moviemaking action comedy In Action and the horror comedy Fried Barry.

London Film Fest: Be my neighbour

Well, the 63rd BFI London Film Festival is winding down now, with only one more day to go. Today was a complete washout, with rain all day long. And tomorrow looks similar, which will make the closing night red carpet a bit soggy for Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro and The Irishman. But then wet weather is better for selling movie tickets! I now have a serious backlog of reviews to write, so I'll start catching up on that next week. In the meantime, here are some more comments on things I've been watching...

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
dir Marielle Heller; with Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys 19/US ****
There is a sliver of a Fred Rogers biopic in this warm drama, but director Marielle Heller makes it much more than that, telling a specific story that can't help but resonate even with viewers who have never seen his classic TV show. For those of us who grew up with it, the nostalgia is sometimes overpowering. But the film manages to be sentimental without the schmaltz. And it will speak to audiences on levels much deeper than the obvious themes.

Deerskin
dir-scr Quentin Dupieux; with Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel 19/Fr ***.
Cheeky French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux comes up with another bonkers idea for a grisly thriller that is thoroughly infused with wry comical overtones. This one's about a jacket that announces that it wants to be the only jacket on earth. And it's brought to life with the help of ace costar Jean Dujardin. The movie is relentlessly ridiculous, but it also has enough heart to hold the viewer's sympathy, even as we laugh and cringe at the escalating body count.

Just Mercy
dir Destin Daniel Cretton; with Michael B Jordan, Jamie Foxx 19/US **.
This drama recounts powerful true events in a rather straightforward style. The writing and direction are so standard that it's possible to predict every single thing that happens in the story, including lines of dialog before they're spoken. It's a surprisingly unambitious movie from the talented filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton. But cast members dive in to the roles with plenty of passion, creating a strong sense of tension in this story of real-life racial injustice.

Ordinary Love
dir Lisa Barros D'Sa, Glenn Leyburn; with Lesley Manville, Liam Neeson 19/UK ***.
Sensitive and honest, this quiet drama from Northern Ireland captures the earthy interaction between a couple as one of them goes through a round of cancer treatment. Thankfully, the film focusses on the people and their connection rather than the illness. It's a remarkably grounded, often downright matter-of-fact look at everyday life, with plenty of added detail in the writing and acting. So even if it's never revelatory, it's involving and moving.

Martin Eden
dir Pietro Marcello; with Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy 19/It ****
Taking an ambitious approach to adapting the Jack London novel, this Italian drama is an artful odyssey packed with political and artistic themes. Eerily timeless, the film references Italian movie classics as director Pietro Marcello playfully stirs in eclectic music and archival footage cutaways. As it encompasses the entire 20th century, there's also a strikingly 21st century finale that makes the story almost unnervingly current.

Invisible Life [A Vida Invisível de Eurídice Gusmão]
dir Karim Ainouz; with Carol Duarte, Julia Stockler 19/Br ****
Gorgeously filmed in rich, deep colours and infused with even stronger emotions, this Brazilian drama tells the epic story of a family connection with a narrative that spans nearly 70 years. This is a beautiful depiction of the lingering connections between siblings, parents, children and lifelong friends. And it's also a reminder that the expectations and assumptions we make about the people we love probably aren't very accurate or helpful.

Links:
Shadows LONDON FILM FEST homepage (full reviews will be linked here) 
Official LONDON FILM FEST site 

The Best of 2018: 38th Shadows Awards

These are films I saw in 2018, regardless of their release dates. All were seen by public audiences in cinemas - either on general release, specialty screenings or at festivals, during the past 12 months. These were especially difficult lists to narrow down!

A far more extensive version of this is on the website at 38TH SHADOWS AWARDS, for those who can't get enough of this sort of thing: longer lists, many more categories, trivia-o-rama.

My top film this year is not only a bracingly ripping true story, but it captures and confronts the current cultural mood with skill and invention. It's also a wonderful return to fighting form for filmmaker Spike Lee, who last won my best film prize in 1989 for Do the Right Thing.

BEST FILM:

1. BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)
2. Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski)
3. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
4. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
5. Generation Wealth (Lauren Greenfield)
6. Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)
7. We the Animals (Jeremiah Zagar)
8. Colette (Wash Westmoreland)
9. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)
10. Sofia (Meryem Benm'Barek)

DIRECTOR:

1. Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
2. Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
3. Ari Aster (Hereditary)
4. Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)
5. Nadine Labaki (Capernaum)
6. Bart Layton (American Animals)
7. Chloe Zhao (The Rider)
8. Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
9. Jeremiah Zagar (We the Animals)
10. Meryem Benm'Barek (Sofia)

WRITER:

1. Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)
2. Pawel Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki (Cold War)
3. Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland, Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Colette)
4. Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara (The Favourite)
5. Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy)
6. Bart Layton (American Animals)
7. Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)
8. Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting)
9. Alex Garland (Annihilation)
10. Madeleine Sami, Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers)

ACTRESS:

1. Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
2. Joanna Kulig (Cold War)
3. Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place, Mary Poppins Returns)
4. Agnes Jaoui (I Got Life!)
5. Eva Melander (Border)
6. Toni Collette (Hereditary, Hearts Beat Loud, Madame)
7. Anna Brun (The Heiresses)
8. Natalie Portman (Vox Lux, Annihilation)
9. Claire Foy (Unsane, First Man)
10. Rosamund Pike (A Private War, Beirut, Entebbe)

ACTOR:

1. Michael B Jordan (Black Panther, Creed II, Fahrenheit 451)
2. Brady Landreau (The Rider)
3. Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince)
4. Tomasz Kot (Cold War)
5. Marcello Fonte (Dogman)
6. John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman, Monsters and Men)
7. Zain Al Rafeea (Capernaum)
8. Steve Carell (Beautiful Boy, Vice, Welcome to Marwen)
9. Alex Lawther (Freak Show, Ghost Stories)
10. Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
2. Florence Pugh (Outlaw King)
3. Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place)
4. Sarah Perles (Sofia)
5. Cynthia Erivo (Widows, Bad Times at the El Royale)
6. Sissy Spacek (The Old Man & the Gun)
7. Danai Gurira (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War)
8. Sakura Ando (Shoplifters)
9. Molly Wright (Apostasy)
10. Elizabeth Debicki (Widows, The Cloverfield Paradox)

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. Brian Tyree Henry (Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, White Boy Rick, Hotel Artemis)
2. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Outlaw King)
3. Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther, Widows)
4. Timothee Chalamet (Beautiful Boy)
5. Nicholas Hoult (The Favourite)
6. Jonah Hill (Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot)
7. Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
8. Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place, That Good Night)
9. Barry Keoghan (Black '47, American Animals)
10. Jude Law (Vox Lux, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald)

WORST FILM:

1. Mile 22 (Peter Berg)
2. The Strangers: Prey at Night (Johannes Roberts)
3. Truth or Dare (Jeff Wadlow)
4. Midnight Sun (Scott Speer)
5. Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley)
6. Life Itself (Dan Fogelman)
7. Strangeways Here We Come (Chris Green)
8. The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood)
9. Venom (Ruben Fleischer)
10. Action Point (Tim Kirkby)

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N O N - F I L M   D I V I S I O N

TV SERIES:

1. Pose (FX)
2. Schitt's Creek (CBN)
3. Fleabag (BBC)
4. Everything Sucks! (Netflix)
5. Killing Eve (BBC)
6. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Prime)
7. Patrick Melrose (Showtime)
8. A Very English Scandal (BBC)
9. Atlanta (FX)
10. Trust (FX)

SINGLE:

1. This Is America (Childish Gambino)
2. Nothing Breaks Like a Heart (Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus)
3. One Kiss (Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa)
4. Shallow (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
5. Promises (Sam Smith & Calvin Harris)
6. Happier (Marshmello & Bastille)
7. Make Me Feel (Janelle Monae)
8. Better Now (Post Malone)
9. Ruin My Life (Zara Larsson)
10. This Is Me (Keala Settle)

Critical Week: Eye on the prize

As awards season arrives, I have a lot of for your consideration screenings alongside the regular upcoming releases, which creates a rather offbeat mix. This week we saw Otto Bathurst's ambitious new take on Robin Hood, starring Taron Egerton and Eve Hewson (above), plus Jamie Foxx and Ben Mendelsohn. Pity it's such a predictable, uneven movie. Creed II was also a disappointment, especially after the high point of Creed. This one should probably have been titled Rocky VIII, because it falls back on the old formula.

Far more satisfying were Steve McQueen's Widows, a wonderful reinvention of the heist movie starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki. The Old Man & the Gun is a terrific true drama starring Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek on top form. And the Cannes winner Shoplifters is another masterpiece by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda. There was also the scruffy, rather awkward micro-budget gay wedding comedy The Rainbow Bridge Motel, plus two documentaries: the fascinating and beautifully assembled Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, and this one...

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Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
dir Matt Tyrnauer; with Scotty Bowers, Stephen Fry
release US 27.Jul.18 • 18/US 1h38 ****
As legendary Hollywood party boy Scotty Bowers turns 80, he spills the beans on his decades of procuring men and women for the stars. These stories may be salacious, dropping some of the biggest names in cinema history, but they humanise these celebrities and finally open a door on the industry's long-hidden secrets. After serving in the Marines during the war, Scotty worked as a gas station attendant in Hollywood, where he stumbled into a network of closeted gay and bisexual men for whom he organised discreet trysts. While managing a team of rentboys, he met George Cukor then the likes of Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Cole Porter, Cecil Beaton and on and on. They had to hide their true natures due to morals clauses in their contracts, so they created myths and entered arranged marriages. When questioned about outing dead people, Scotty comments rightly that there's nothing negative about being gay, and it's no longer breaking any contractual agreements. In addition, the film outlines Scotty's childhood, including trading sex for cash from a very young age and being part of Kinsey's research study. It's fascinating to see Scotty now, chatting openly about his experiences and living amid mountains of memorabilia without any regrets at all. So the film becomes an important exploration of culture and history, as well as attitudes toward sexuality then and now.

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This coming week's screenings are an eclectic mix, including Disney's sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet, Mahershala Ali in Green Book, Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns, Christian Bale in Vice, Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots, Felicity Jones in On the Basis of Sex, Alicia Vikander in Tulip Fever and the Sundance hit Eighth Grade.

Requisite Blog Photo: Crimson Fury

For the action-packed video version, visit INSTAGRAM.

Critical Week: A hot topic

It's been a busy week screening-wise, as I have packed in films in preparation for taking next week off. There was a new adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, one of my very favourite novels, although the film changes the plot and kind of loses the focus, despite strong performances from Michael B Jordan and Michael Shannon. And I managed to catch two screenings of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Han Solo origin movie, which ticks a lot of entertaining boxes to take the audience on a fun ride.

A little off the beaten path, Travis Mathew's evocative Discreet is a swirling experimental drama about past wounds, regrets and the pointlessness of revenge. Hooked is a slightly over-obvious drama about a young rentboy on a dangerous trajectory. Freelancers Anonymous is a refreshing if silly comedy about a woman trying to start over in a tough economy. And Astro is an amateurish sci-fi thriller with a couple of decent performances and laughably overserious dialog.

There were also three docs: The Fabulous Allan Carr is a lively and moving trip through the life of the iconic, life-loving but lonely producer of Grease; All the Wild Horses is a spectacularly shot trip across Mongolia on the world's longest horse race; and Arcadia uses a lot of amazing archival footage to try and say something odd about Britain's relationship with the land. And finally, I had a chance to catch the restored Yellow Submarine on the big screen as it gets a 50-year reissue. It's simply delightful - great animation and a thoroughly whimsical story.

I'm on holiday over the next week, so am avoiding films altogether! I return home just as the Sundance Film Festival: London kicks off, and will catch up with the anticipated horror Hereditary, Leave No Trace, Generation Wealth and Skate Kitchen, plus a programme of short films. Then the following week, it's time for Jurassic Park: Fallen World.

Critical Week: Stardust memories

It's been another random week of screenings, topped by a surprise Netflix release and a starry film premiere. The surprise was The Cloverfield Paradox, the latest loosely connected film in JJ Abrams' franchise. This one's a sci-fi thriller with some nicely deranged touches but a general air of randomness about it. The premiere was for Black Panther, Marvel's latest game-changer, a thumpingly entertaining adventure with a properly African sensibility and some wonderfully pointed themes. It's also swamped with too much digital extravagance.

Clint Eastwood's new film The 15:17 to Paris stars the actual three heroes who thwarted a gunman's attack on a train in 2015. They have presence, but the film feels meandering and pointless apart from the momentous 10 minutes. Becks is a beautifully written and performed story about a musician trying to rebuild her life, although it kind of chickens out in the final act. Just Charlie is a gorgeous British drama about a pre-teen who begins a male-to-female transition that's never simplistic or preachy. Revenge is a gleefully blood-soaked thriller about a woman turning the tables on three tough guys, although it kind of mixes its messages by fetishising her. The Canadian drama Sebastian has some charm, but is undermined by inexperienced filmmaking. And Ingmar Bergman's underrated, remarkably complex 1971 romantic drama The Touch gets a stunning digital restoration. And then there were these two...

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Fifty Shades Freed
dir James Foley; scr Niall Leonard; with Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eric Johnson, Eloise Mumford, Rita Ora, Luke Grimes 18/US *.
Shot back-to-back with the second movie, this trilogy finale features the same dopey writing and directing, remaining resolutely superficial as a preposterous thriller without even a hint of suspense. It's a bit sexier, structured like a soft-porn romp as our heroes can't keep their hands off each other whenever the music kicks in. But the characters are so limp that the actors look like they were drugged and forced to speak this laughably awful dialog. The film opens as Christian and Ana (Dornan and Johnson) have a fantasy wedding, then bicker on honeymoon about going topless on a French beach. As a married couple, their biggest challenges are Ana's hot security guard (Brant Daugherty) and Christian's flirty architect (Arielle Kebbel), before Ana's surprise pregnancy causes some overwrought his-and-her melodrama in between the belt buckles, bubble baths and Ben & Jerry's. Meanwhile, Ana's psychotic ex-boss (Eric Johnson) launches a series of attacks that get increasingly ludicrous until a climactic showdown. All of this is so flimsy that it's difficult to remember why EL James' books created such a fuss in the first place. There's certainly no sense that these two people are in any sort of real-world relationship. In the original film, director Sam Taylor-Johnson and writer Kelly Marcel captured a zing of tension and a bit of deranged fun in the characters. But these sequels are wet noodles.

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Dropping the Soap
dir Ellie Kanner; with Paul Witten, Jane Lynch 16/US ****
The nutty backstage comedy is set among the cast and crew of the camp soap opera Collided Lives, and features as much bickering off-camera as on it. New producer Olivia (Lynch) is rattling everyone, manly lead actor Julian (Witten) is so deep in the closet that his leading lady (Suzanne Friedline) thinks they're engaged. The show's other female star (Kate Mines) is plotting to out him, but everyone is so caught up in their own worries that they barely notice. The scripts for these 10 episodes (each around 10 minutes long) are hilarious, packed with witty verbal gags and riotous interplay between the actors and their soap characters. It's also made with a snappy pace, a steady stream of funny cameos and a refreshing willingness to under-explain everything that happens. It's out on DVD/VOD, and well worth a look.

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There aren't many screenings next week, but I will catch up with Owen Wilson in Father Figures, the British horror The Lodgers, the Brazilian drama About Us and the documentary Saving Capitalism. It's also the run-up week for the Baftas on Sunday 18th February.