Critical Week: Anger issues

It's a busy Valentine's Day weekend for new movies, as British audiences have the hers-and-his double whammy of Bridget Jones and Captain America to choose from. I caught up with Captain America: Brave New World this week, and enjoyed it more than expected. It's a bit more focussed than previous Avengers movies, grittier and less bombastic, so of course most critics are complaining that it's not big enough. It's all very blunt, but I enjoyed the more nuanced performances from Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford (who red-hulks out!).

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
To a Land Unknown • Bonus Track
Memoir of a Snail • Desire Lines
ALL REVIEWS >

I liked the slightly pushy comedy-drama My Dead Friend Zoe, which stars Sonequa Martin-Green as a veteran grappling with trauma. Solid acting all around, plus knowingly complex characters bring it to life. I also really enjoyed Bonus Track, a gentle British coming-of-age drama about two outcast teen boys who find each other. It has some terrific stars in side roles, including Josh O'Connor, who came up with the story. 

The Sloth Lane (aka A Sloth Story) is a lively Aussie animated adventure about a family of Latin American sloths. It's silly but sweet. From France, Holy Cow is a wonderfully loose, full-of-life comedy drama that follows a tearaway teen as he tries to become a cheesemaker. And from Greece, To a Land Unknown is an engaging and powerful drama about two Palestinian migrants trying to catch a break. I also caught the hilarious stage show Miss Brexit at Clapham's Omnibus.

The Bafta Film Awards take place this Sunday, the biggest precursor to the Oscars two weeks later. I have rather a lot going on around that event, but also a few films to watch, including the British vampire movie Drained, the Dutch action thriller Invasion, the Chinese animated epic Chang'An and the documentaries Ernest Cole: Lost & Found and I Am Martin Parr.

BFI Flare: The best version of yourself

Heading into the final stretch of the 37th BFI Flare, it's been interesting to see how the films are reflecting a much broader experience of LGBTQIA+ people. Indeed, the formerly titled London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has expanded to tell more complex trans and intersex stories, including this year's centrepiece film Who I Am Not. I can't remember a previous year in which both the opening and centrepiece titles were documentaries, and both of these films recount powerful narratives while highlighting experiences that are rarely if ever put on-screen. Here are some more film highlights from Flare, plus my usual Critical Week below...

Who I Am Not
dir-scr Tunde Skovran; with Sharon-Rose Khumalo, Dimakatso Sebidi 23/SA ****
Intersex babies are normal but rare, and yet many societies seem unable to accept this fact. From South Africa, this film finds honesty, humour and moving emotions as its subjects describe how it feels to be neither male nor female biologically. Romanian actor-turned-filmmaker Tunde Skovran simply watches them as they interact with family members, doctors and each other. She also incorporates art and boldly imaginative imagery to meaningfully explore how society can embrace these special people.

Chrissy Judy
dir-scr Todd Flaherty; with Todd Flaherty, Wyatt Fenner 22/US ****
While this story is told from the perspective of someone who thinks that 30 is old, it's a lovely look at how friendships ebb and flow over the years. Actor-filmmaker Todd Flaherty has an astute ear for dialog and a terrific eye for comedy, shooting in black and white to give this a classic screwball flavour, complete with a series of lovely nods to Some Like It Hot. Yes, the film is that ambitious, even on what is clearly a very small budget. It's also deeply charming.

Lie With Me [Arrête Avec Tes Mensonges]
dir-scr Olivier Peyon; with Guillaume de Tonquedec, Victor Belmondo 22/Fr ****
Surging with deep emotions that are never sentimental, this French drama explores the power of narratives themselves as a writer confronts an unfinished relationship from his past. Writer-director Olivier Peyon deploys gorgeous cinematography and skilful editing to keep scenes grounded in realism while also cranking up some seriously intense feelings. So the film is romantic, sexy and also provocative in the way it challenges us to meaningfully confront our own history.

Narcissism: The Auto-Erotic Images
dir-scr Toni Karat; with Toni Karat, Birgit Bosold 22/Ger ***
Director Toni Karat perhaps takes on a bit too much with this ambitions project, combining a photography book with a documentary film to explore the idea of self-love. While the images are absolutely stunning, they say even more than the talky interviews, which sometimes feel academic and perhaps even strident. Yes, each point made is an important one, especially when commenting on gender disparity in society. But the nuance gets lost in the spoken words.

BEST OF YEAR
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
dir Laura Poitras; with Nan Goldin, Megan Kapler 22/US ****.
With this extraordinary film, documentarian Laura Poitras takes a multifaceted look at a fascinating artist. As a biography of photographer Nan Goldin, this is a clear-eyed look at her life, work and survival. And it seamlessly connects her efforts to raise awareness of the Sackler family's direct responsibility in more than half a million deaths from opioid addiction. All of this is skilfully woven together with a remarkably gentle hand... FULL REVIEW >

~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~
C R I T I C A L   W E E K

I've been struggling to fit in theatrical releases alongside the festival films this week, but I did manage to see Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in A Good Person, a perhaps overlong but strongly resonant drama about human connections. Keanu Reeves returned for John Wick: Chapter 4, which is a vast improvement over the last couple of chapters, feeling fresher, more stylish and dramatically deeper. Supercell is a rather silly storm-chaser thriller with Skeet Ulrich and Alec Baldwin, overloaded with melodrama and cliches, but still entertaining. And from Italy, The Eight Mountains is a spectacular epic about a complex friendship between two very different young men.

As BFI Flare continues until Sunday, I will also be watching next week's action-fantasy blockbuster Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, Ben Affleck's Nike biopic Air, Alexandra Shipp in Space Oddity, the screen-based thriller Missing, horror comedy Summoning Sylvia, Japanese drama Plan 75, political thriller Cairo Conspiracy and Moroccan drama El Houb. And I also have a stage show to see (review here soon).

Critical Week: Fly away

It's been another eclectic collection of screenings this week for London-based critics. My Life as a Courgette is the wonderful, resonant Oscar-nominated French animated drama. Going in Style is a fluffy comical remake starring Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin and Ann-Margret. The Sense of an Ending is a thoughtful, enjoyable British drama with Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter and Michelle Dockery.

And then there was the far too sunshiny and simplistic Christian parable The Shack with Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer; the far too gloomy but provocative post-tragedy drama Aftermath with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Scoot McNairy; the nihilistic and point-free murder-fest of The Belko Experiment; the gripping, nasty kidnapped-tourist thriller Berlin Syndrome with Teresa Palmer; and the awkward, goofy British Muslim rom-com Finding Fatimah.

This coming week we have The Fate of the Furious, A Dog's Purpose, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki, Slack Bay, Suntan and the doc Whitney: Can I Be Me.

Critical Week: Mommy issues

It was a busy week for UK critics, with another head-spinning collection of screenings. Robert Carlyle stars in and makes his directing debut with The Legend of Barney Thompson, an uneven black comedy costarring a scene-stealing Emma Thompson (as his mum, above) and Ray Winstone. It never quite gets the tone right. Also struggling with its tone, True Story recounts a fascinating real-life mystery starring Jonah Hill, James Franco and an almost-not-there Felicity Jones. Fascinating but too mopey to come to life properly. And Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman are terrific in Ruth & Alex (aka 5 Flights Up) as a long-married couple planning a move from their beloved Brooklyn apartment. It's engaging but slight.

I took a break from the cinema to catch A Deadly Adoption on Channel 5. Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig star in this hilariously overwrought thriller that is either a raucous spoof or just another ridiculous Lifetime movie. You be the judge. Either way, it's very funny as it follows a damaged couple hoping to save their marriage by adopting a baby from an apparently sweet young pregnant woman. But of course it all turns nasty. Full credit to Ferrell and Wiig for never winking at the camera.

Further afield, we had the Aussie animation Maya the Bee, a charming and energetic little adventure; the found-footage horror The Gallows, which should really put an end to the genre with its utter lack of originality; and the riotous 1980s slasher movie spoof Dude Bro Party Massacre III, which manages to maintain the joke perfectly right to the very end. And there were also two docs that both rely far too heavily on talking heads: Misery Loves Comedy is an intriguing all-star exploration of the life of a stand-up, while Looking for Love explores romance in London's Afro-Caribbean community with insight and lots of personality.

Coming up this week: the new Disney-Pixar hit Inside Out, Ryan Reynolds in Self/Less, Jessica Alba in Barely Lethal, Michael Douglas in Beyond the Reach, Jena Malone in 10 Cent Pistol, the American indie drama Buttercup Bill, and two docs: exploring the Russian ballet company in Bolshoi Babylon and an acclaimed profile of six teen brothers in The Wolfpack.

Critical Week: Chasing the rat pack

Post-London Film Festival, UK-based critics are now in catch-up mode with current releases, upcoming films and movies that are vying for our votes in year-end awards. Possibly the most starry movie screened to us this week was Last Vegas, featuring five Oscar winners: Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Kevin Kline (pictured above) and Mary Steenburgen. Comments are embargoed until next week on this one. We also finally got to see Harrison Ford's new movie Ender's Game, which opens this week and is a pretty thrilling ride for 12-year-old boys in the audience. It's very watchable for everyone else too.

The rest of the week was pretty eclectic. Idris Elba is impressive in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which is a little too clearly designed to be the definitive movie about the great man. And his story is genuinely moving. Ralph Fiennes stars in and directs another biopic, The Invisible Woman, about Charles Dickens' secret romance. It's eye-catching but a bit dull and wilfully repressed. Two other films were the polar extreme: the insanely lively and colourful, but unimaginatively titled Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is a lot of fun but a bit less satisfying than the first film. And the oddly gentle Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa is packed with rude humour and raucous pranks, then surprises us with its sentimentality.

This coming week we will see the next Marvel movie, Thor: The Dark World, the animated adventure Free Birds, Lee Daniels' presidential drama The Butler, the Israeli comedy Cupcakes, the filmmaker doc Milius, and the nuclear power doc Pandora's Promise. And for awards consideration we have Mark Wahlberg in Lone Survivor and the Sundance winner Fruitvale Station. Among others....