Critical Week: Summer holiday vibes

It's been a very sticky week in Britain, so I've enjoyed the chance to cool off in some air-conditioned cinemas. Screenings are still a bit thin on the ground, seeing as it's holiday season, but there are plenty of things to be watching. Bob Odenkirk is back in action for Nobody 2, in which the violence is perhaps a bit too gleeful. But it's also hilariously entertaining, expecially when a villainous Sharon Stone is chomping on the colourful scenery. Joaquin Phoenix leads the sprawling cast of Ari Aster's epic Eddington, a very dark satire about us-vs-them attitudes set in the pandemic-era Wild West. It's riveting, complex and very important. Costars include Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Together • Materialists
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Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi and Will Poulter lead the cast of the nuanced romantic drama On Swift Horses, a beautifully made film that explores hidden desires in 1950s America. Orlando Bloom is a tough-guy boxer in The Cut, which rather unevenly shifts from gritty drama to psychological horror. Matilda Lutz leads the charge as Red Sonja in a new take on the comic heroine. Even with flashes of wit, it's too serious for its own good. And the adult-aimed animated comedy Fixed has a lot of fun with its raunchy premise about a dog getting the snip, but there's not much else going on.

This coming week I'll be watching Helen Mirren and an all-star cast in the whodunit The Thursday Murder Club, Peter Dinklage in a new take on The Toxic Avenger, the Irish care-system drama Christy, the fact-based epic Chinese WWII action film Dongji Rescue, and the animated racing-mice action romp Grand Prix of Europe.

Critical Week: Always say yes

After wrapping up the first SXSW London festival over the weekend, I had a flurry of screenings to keep me busy this week. This included the action comedy Deep Cover, with Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as improv comics on police business in the London underworld. It's ridiculous but a lot of fun. Even more absurd was the silly action romp Shadow Force, rescued by the sheer charm of Kerry Washington and Omar Sy as parents with secret black ops skills, pulled back into the mayhem. The tired premise nearly sinks it, but the actors make it watchable, including a villainous Mark Strong.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Tornado
Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf
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The week's other big screening was the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon, which looked amazing on a huge Imax screen. While not strictly necessary, the film is still rousing enough to be worth a look. Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff star in the romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boy, which is funny, engaging and delightfully pointed. The French romcom Jane Austen Wrecked My Life takes a low-key approach to its engagingly astute story of a blocked writer. Shakespeare's classic is reimagined as a lavishly produced pop musical for Juliet & Romeo, simplifying things in the process, but remaining entertaining too. And the clearly low-budget independent drama Franklin centres on two aspiring actors in Los Angeles as they navigate career and love-life issues.

I also attended the premiere of the third season of Squid Game, which included a terrific on-stage Q&A with stars Lee Jung-Jae, Lee Byung-hun and Park Gyuyoung, plus creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. And the dance show Inside Giovanni's Room, based on the landmark James Baldwin novel, was simply gorgeous at Sadler's Wells East.

This coming week will be rather busy with the Pixar animation Elio, Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World Rebirth, John Travolta in High Rollers, Harry Melling in Harvest, Naomi Ackie in Sorry Baby, Leonie Benesch in Late Shift and the Tunisian drama Red Path, plus the first week of movies at the 33rd Raindance Film Festival and the annual opening night cabaret for the London Clown Festival.

Critical Week: Eat me

A couple of upstarts are arriving this month to challenge the dominance of Barbie and Oppenheimer at the box office, although it doesn't look like a fair fight. Jason Statham is back for more over-the-top action mayhem in Ben Wheatley's Meg 2: The Trench, a guilty pleasure mashup of shark chaos and thrilling villainy. Meanwhile, Seth Rogen has recharged another franchise with the hugely engaging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mania, a gorgeously animated romp that's funny and thrilling. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Klondike • Shortcomings
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem • Lola
Smalltown Boys • Kokomo City
PERHAPS AVOID:
Til Death Do Us Part
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Also screened this week was Gran Turismo, the hugely crowd pleasing true story of a gamer-turned-racer starring Archie Madekwe, David Harbour and Orlando Bloom. The British comedy-drama The Trouble With Jessica is uneven but has a terrific cast led by Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell. Til Death Do Us Part is a choppy mess of a thriller with Cam Gigandet and Jason Patric. The doc Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed is a surprisingly intimate, important look at the closeted Hollywood icon. And I finally caught up with the exuberant British comedy Polite Society, which uses wildly inventive action to punch its involving story.

This coming week I'll be watching Disney's remake of Haunted Mansion, Judy Greer in Aporia, Ben Kingsley in Jules, Daisey Ridley in The Inventor, Grant Gustin in Puppy Love, Jeremy Allen White in Fremont, the Japanese drama Love Life and the Romanian drama RMN.

Critical Week: Road rage

It's been nearly five months since my normal everyday schedule ended abruptly, and I had a couple of firsts this week that make it feel like there may be light at the end of this long tunnel. I went to a restaurant with table service (outdoors on a gorgeous evening), and on only my third trip into Central London I had my first press screening in an actual screening room (with severe distancing measures). The movie on that big screen was Unhinged, a vicious thriller with Russell Crowe that arrives in cinemas next week.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Most Wanted
Stage Mother • Myth
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Other movies this week were an above-average mix, including the ripping true story Most Wanted, a Canadian drug-case drama starring the excellent Antoine Olivier Pilon and Josh Hartnett; the wrenchingly personal drama Retaliation, about the fallout from child abuse starring a raw Orlando Bloom; the gritty immigrant drama American Fighter; the ambitiously offbeat hybrid of WWII action and a haunted house in Ghosts of War, starring Brenton Thwaites and Skyler Astin; the corny but topical childbirth comedy Babysplitters, starring Community's Dani Pudi; and the clever guerrilla filmmaking comedy-drama Myth.

My list of films to watch over the coming week includes the animated comedy Animal Crackers, Patrick Stewart in Life With Music, Bella Thorne in Infamous, the indie romance Around the Sun, the backstage TV comedy Casting, the horror movie The Vigil, the arthouse film Last and First Men and the intriguingly titled doc Pornstar Pandemic.

Critical Week: What's the point

London critics caught up with the next tentpole this week, namely Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (aka Salazar's Revenge), the fifth in the swashbuckling franchise starring Johnny Depp. While I enjoyed the previous four romps, this one felt overstuffed in every way (too many people, too many rambling plotlines, too many digital effects). I was happy when it finally ended.

Everything else was a bit smaller. Chris Evans is excellent in the sharply well-made drama Gifted, which manages to remain emotionally resonant without tipping into sentimentality. Tommy's Honour is a terrific story of the Scottish father and son who created the modern game of golf, nicely played by Peter Mullan and rising star Jack Lowden. Although the film is a bit uneven. The soapy Spanish comedy Wild Awakenings wins us over with its ridiculous tale of lust on a horse ranch. And the documentary Dying Laughing is a fascinating look at the life of a stand-up comic, as told by rather a lot of people who became very successful at it.

And finally, I revisited the early 1990s cult series Twin Peaks and rewatched the 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me before diving into the two-hour pilot episode for this 25-years-later sequel series. It's all rather bonkers, but sublimely so. And I look forward to the next 16 episodes.

Coming up this week is a very late press screening of Wonder Woman (buzz has been good but for some reason they are holding this one close to their chest), plus a number of films that will be screened at the forthcoming Sundance Film Festival London - watch this space. Meanwhile in France, the Cannes Film Festival winds up with its awards over the weekend. Expect controversy as usual.