On the flight, I only watched one movie, the hilariously ridiculous Downton spoof Fackham Hall, which I had missed when it came out in cinemas. Perfectly mindless airplane entertainment. Then I found the latest series of The Traitors US, and watched three and a half episodes from London to Denver and then one and a half from Denver to Orange County. Need to find the rest of the season now.
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Together • Materialists ALL REVIEWS > |
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Dying • The Bad Guys 2 The Fantastic Four: First Steps ALL REVIEWS > |
Much more gripping is Love, the second chapter in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, which features fascinating characters on offbeat journeys. I also loved watching the 100-year restoration of Eisenstein's silent masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, with a new score by the Pet Shop Boys. I'd never seen it on a big screen, and it looks and sounds gorgeous. It also feels thoroughly modern. Finally, I attended a special 3D premiere of the new trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which looks properly epic. The film itself comes out in December.
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Unicorns • Friendship ALL REVIEWS > |
Too Much
Lena Dunham is back as writer-director (and occasional costar) of this sparky London-set comedy starring the awesome Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe. As with Girls, the show explores ambition, friendship and romance in ways most TV series would never dare, remaining honest and jaggedly funny while never shying away from the way real people interact both professionally and personally. Over the course of 10 episodes, Dunham crafts a perfect romcom that breaks every rule in the book. She also pokes fun at the American-in-London trope. And she peppers scenes with top-tier support from Richard E Grant, Naomi Watts, Andrew Scott, Andrew Rannells, Adele Exarchopolous, Rita Wilson, Rhea Perlman and many more. (Netflix)
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Holy Cow • Warfare ALL REVIEWS > |
There were also a few things outside the regular release schedule. I attended a terrific screening and Q&A for the new Black Mirror episode Hotel Reverie, with Charlie Brooker, Emma Corrin and others. It's a gorgeously surreal love letter to classic movie romance. I finally caught up with Pedro Almodovar's involving, beautifully made Western short Strange Way of Life, starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke as cowboys who can't admit they love each other. And I attended two stage shows: lockdown drama Jab at the Park and the raucous Jane Austen adaptation Plied & Prejudice at the Vaults.
The Wedding Banquet
dir Andrew Ahn; with Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone 25US ****
In reimagining of Ang Lee's breakthrough 1993 comedy, director-cowriter Andrew Ahn cleverly updates the topicality while also playing up the plot's farcical entanglements. The resulting film often feels very silly, but it is continually underscored by resonant themes and involving emotions. It's also thoroughly entertaining, with seven complex central characters who are beautifully played by an ensemble cast that's heavily stacked with adept scene-stealers.
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C R I T I C A L W E E K
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Flow • Layla When Autumn Falls • Santosh ALL REVIEWS > |
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: No Other Land Piece by Piece ALL REVIEWS > |
Also this week, I finally caught up with the animated adventure The Wild Robot, which I saw preview footage from in June when I hung out with the creative team at Annecy Animation Film Fest. So expectations were very high, and the film more than lived up to them. It's one of the most gorgeously animated movies I've ever seen, and the story has unusual depth and textures.
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| BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Anora • The Wild Robot The Crime Is Mine The Summer With Carmen In Restless Dreams ALL REVIEWS > |
Outside LFF, there was the always watchable Alex Wolff in rather over-familiar fraternity drama The Line. And there were two docs: Mark Cousins' fascinating collage-style doc A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, about artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, and the lively Studio One Forever, exploring the iconic Los Angeles nightclub.
A quiet, absurdly picturesque corner of the French Alps has become the global epicentre of cinematic animation. The Annecy International Animation Film Festival is apparently now more import to studios than ComicCon for launching new projects, while its market is a buzzing hub for aspiring filmmakers from every corner of the globe. Amid a huge range of adventurous animation across the programme, big studio premieres this year included Pixar's Inside Out 2, Illumination's Despicable Me 4, Paramount's Transformers One and two from Netflix: Ultraman: Rising and The Imaginary. There was also short-format work featuring Pokemon, Snoopy & Charlie Brown, Porky Pig & Daffy Duck, Beavis & Butt-head, and Asterix & Obelix.
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| Sanders on-stage at Annecy |
It was this last title that brought me to Annecy for the first time, offering a chance to spend some time with writer-director Chris Sanders and his creative team. Sanders is an animation veteran involved in writing such Disney classics as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and Mulan. He also wrote and directed Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods. So it's fascinating to hear him and his cohorts call The Wild Robot the film of their career.
The Wild Robot certainly looks unlike anything we've seen before, with its delicately hand-painted brushstrokes layered together using technology. This creates a dazzling visual style that looks like an oil painting come to life.
A small group of journalists sat down to chat with the film's design team over breakfast on a sunny terrace overlooking Lake Annecy. Sanders begins by speaking warmly about the collaborative artists who have been assembled, and how they embody the spirit of this particular film. "I knew everyone's prior work," he says, "and the people we wanted were available! All of us trained as painters, so the computer is a pencil to us. And we gravitated to a story that doesn't have the obvious heroes and villains. It's about shades of emotions."
Visual effects supervisor Jeff Budsberg says this idea is reflected in the looser style of the imagery. "We wanted the endearing qualities of paintings, because they're more immersive," he says. "And it was important to let the animals be animals."
"I asked that the animals have animal eyes," Sanders notes, "because we usually default to human eyes for everything." This idea extends to using real animal skeletons to guide the structure of foxes, geese, bears, otters and more.
"The animation has to disappear, so you don't think about it," adds Jakob Hjort Jensen, head of character animation. "Because we have a lot of experience, we have more restraint. So we resisted throwing everything at the screen."
"It was important to develop a something specific for the movie," says head of look Baptiste Van Opstal, referring to how digital animation has tended to create a sameness in design and texture across many films, especially with skin, fur and water. "The image doesn't need to be a slave to the technology."
Indeed, The Wild Robot is a story about nature and technology finding a way to coexist. "But it has to be seen on a human level," notes producer Jeff Hermann. "And that's why we are all genuinely inspired by this project and Chris' vision for it."
"The crew has embraced the story completely," Sanders agrees, "and that's why the film is so good. It's thrilling to see audiences connect with the preview footage and see its differences."
"The way people react to the footage makes us know that we that we weren't crazy," says Zibach. "And those scenes still get me!"
For a film that features few humans, the premise is unusually resonant, taken from the first in Peter Brown's trilogy of novels about the robot Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), who finds herself in a very unfamiliar place, a deserted island populated by lively animals.
"I love that Roz wakes up and has no idea what's going to happen to her," Sanders says.
"The opening sequence carries so much weight," says head of story Heidi Jo Gilbert. "It has to reveal key things about her journey as well as the dog-eat-dog nature of the forest. Then she's learning to hear and understand the hate the animals have for her, as well as the violence between them."
"That brutality informed the design," Zibach adds. "It's aggressive and sometimes deliberately uneven. It's was a challenge to get the balance right."
"Each sequence in the book has consequences," Hermann notes. "The key message throughout the story is that kindness is a survival skill." Once Roz unlocks their languages, the critters are voiced by an impressive voice cast including Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames, Matt Berry and Mark Hamill.
Set in the future, the time and place are intentionally vague, because they are seen through the eyes of the characters. But when they migrate, the geese see the world beyond the island. "It's just landscape to them," says Sanders. "But there are signposts for the audience about where and when this is taking place." As a teaser, one shot in the trailer reveals a submerged Golden Gate Bridge below the migrating geese.
Working with Lupita to develop Roz was an art, Sanders says. "It involved experimenting, redefining and evolving," he says. "It couldn't be robotic or emotionless, but she starts more cheerful, and then changes as she begins to understand."
"It's like reverse peacocking," notes Jensen. "At the start, Roz is showing off her robotic abilities, but gradually she becomes more natural and connected."
Budsberg agrees that this shift is key to the story. "Roz changes imperceptibly from scene to scene," he says. "At first she looks like an alien metal being, then she gets more and more like the island. She is affected by the island, and she also makes an impact on it."
"They change each other," Sanders says. "It's all about being who they are and being vulnerable."
For more information: ANNECY FESTIVAL >
photos by Marc Piasecki • with thanks to DreamWorks • 10-13.Jun.24
Second was the inspirational true-life drama Ordinary Angels, starring an up-for-it Hilary Swank as a blowsy hairdresser who decides to help a beefy widower (Alan Ritchson) whose young daughter needs a liver transplant. The film thankfully remains grounded in realistic characters and earthy humour, so it's genuinely moving.
T H E S A G A C O N T I N U E S
The Bear: series 2
There's a different energy this season, as the characters rally around a sense of purpose, looking to the future rather than simply trying to stay afloat. But the hope is tinged with a real sense of fear that makes each of the characters powerfully sympathetic. This allows the still-naturalistic performances to feel more relaxed and introspective, with stellar work once again from Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bacharach. Generously, each member of the ensemble (plus astonishing guest stars) is given the chance to shine brightly in a nuanced, specific journey as part of the larger effort to reinvent and relaunch the restaurant in an insanely short period of time. Where this goes is funny, thrilling and unusually bittersweet, as the gifted cast and crew refuse to dodge the difficult stuff. (Hulu)
The Other Two: series 3
Increasingly wacky, this show has been written and performed from the first episode with lightning-sharp wit. The jokes seem to get broader with each episode, heading in sometimes ridiculous or even surreal directions as the writers ramp up their satirical take on the authentically insane world of celebrity and fame. Helene York and Drew Tarver are excellent as the desperate siblings who are unlikably ambitious but still sympathetic. Molly Shannon continues to steal the show as their now uber-famous mother. And a collection of hilarious side characters (including many A-list cameos) livens up scenes with astute gags and exaggerated absurdities. This show often begins to feel like it will spin out of control at any moment, which makes it unmissable. (Max)
The Crowded Room
While series creator Akiva Goldsman works far too hard to obscure the story with a fragmented narrative, this show is involving thanks to lead performances from Tom Holland and Amanda Seyfried as a criminal suspect and the psychiatrist trying to work out how his mind ticks. The plot's big secret is obvious very early on, and it's a mistake to wait until the sixth episode to confront it. If you stay with it, the show gets much better as it begins grappling with bigger themes about childhood abuse and mental trauma, which makes the second half of the series properly resonant and powerful. Holland and Seyfried play their complex roles beautifully, and the production is packed with clever visual touches that add to the internalised impact. (Apple)
Somebody Somewhere: series 1-2
I arrived late to this series and found it to be my kind of vibe. The writing and performances are delightfully unforced, creating characters who bring the audience into each scene so we can laugh with them at the absurdities of their lives. Bridget Everett shines as Sam, whose sardonic wit is a survival mechanism in rural Kansas. Her connections are the heart of the show, played out in mini-adventures that bristle with humour and emotion. Sam's interaction with sister Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison) is played with unusual complexity and texture. And Jeff Hiller is wonderfully bemused as her new best pal Joel. This is a gorgeous show that could run and run. (HBO)
GUILTY PLEASURES: Drag Race All Stars, Too Hot to Handle, Love Island.
NOW WATCHING: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2), Minx (2), Good Omens (2), And Just Like That (2), The Afterparty (2), What We Do in the Shadows (5), Black Mirror (6).
COMING SOON: The Continental, Ashoka, Only Murders in the Building (3), The Morning Show (3), Physical (3), Sex Education (4).
Previous roundup: JUNE 2023 >
