Critical Week: Party season

Well, we're coming up to the end of the year, and awards are pouring in at a rapid pace, with top 10 lists and critics groups announcing their honours. I've been busy with Golden Globes ballots and organising the London Critics' Circle nominations announcement this week (we announce our winners on 4th February). We also announced that we're giving special awards to Jeffrey Wright and Colman Domingo at our 44th ceremony. There have also been a couple of Christmas parties, of course, as we prepare for the holidays this weekend. So I've only seen three films...

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
All of Us Strangers
Society of the Snow
Memory • The Iron Claw
ALL REVIEWS >

The British drama How to Have Sex earned several nominations, and I understood why as I finally caught up with it. Starting as a raucous drunken holiday comedy, it quickly shifts into something much more provocative and important. Debut writer-director Molly Manning Walker is certainly one to watch. And then there was the lavish French swashbuckling adventure The Three Musketeers: Milady, the second part in this all-star adaptation, putting Eva Green's shadowy character at the centre of the mayhem. It looks great, and the cast is terrific, keeping it enjoyable even when the plot bogs down in detail. I also saw the Mexican drama The Trace of Your Lips, a beautifully made and rather intensely erotic drama about isolation and connection.

I won't see many movies this coming week, but I will need to watch the Aaron Eckhart thriller The Bricklayer, the biopic Tchaikovsky's Wife and the immigrant drama Norwegian Dream. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

BFI Flare: Celebrate your roots

Coming into the final weekend of the 36th BFI Flare, I've tried to catch up a bit on sleep, simply because there are parties tonight and tomorrow - followed by the shift to Summer Time on Saturday night and then the Oscars on Sunday night, which runs until dawn here in Britain. I'll sleep next week. In the mean time, I'm enjoying hanging out with colleagues, filmmakers, actors and the friends I've made at this amazing festival over the past 20-some years. And the films just get better each year, with more subtly complex comments on queer themes. Here's another varied collection of highlights...

Wildhood
dir-scr Bretten Hannam; with Phillip Lewitski, Joshua Odjick 21/Can ****
Set in a Mi'Kma'Ki community in eastern Canada, this drama has an electrical charge of energy as it follows a teen trying to work out who he is. Bristling with attitude, the film revels in its youthful characters' loose physicality as they begin feeling freedom for the first time. Skilfully written and directed by two-spirit filmmaker Bretten Hannam, the film grabs hold with sharp characters and knowing details.

The Divide
dir Catherine Corsini; with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marina Fois 21/Fr ****
A blackly comical sensibility infuses this fast-paced French drama set in an overwhelmed public hospital. Set before the pandemic, the narrative is fuelled by personal issues and street demonstrations. Director-cowriter Catherine Corsini masterfully orchestrates complex ripples of relentless action and emotion, cleverly centring on the confused, frustrated, often annoying patients rather than the endlessly adept medical workers. It's so expertly written and assembled that it feels unnervingly real.

The Perfect David
dir Felipe Gomez Aparicio; with Mauricio Di Yorio, Umbra Colombo 21/Arg ****
Dark and insinuating, this fiercely clever Argentine drama explores masculinity through the rather extreme life of a 16-year-old bodybuilder. Much of the film is virtually silent, telling the story with the expressive physicality of the characters. And as a churning intensity rises up from within the narrative, filmmaker Felipe Gomez Aparicio makes some powerful observations about our toxic culture. It's a complex, provocative and ultimately moving story

Being BeBe
dir Emily Branham; with Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa, Dimitra Ngwa 21/US ***.
The veryfirst winner of RuPaul's Drag Race is the subject of this fairly straightforward documentary. Filmmaker Emily Branham outlines 15 years in the life of BeBe Zahara Benet, while also highlighting the way his high profile has changed public perceptions in his home country Cameroon, even as homosexuality remains illegal there. Meanwhile, clips of BeBe's performances over the years remind us what a fabulous star he still is.

BEST OF YEAR
The World to Come
dir Mona Fastvold; with Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby 20/US **.
Hushed to the point of being downright dour, this low-key period drama gets into the mind of a woman who finds unexpected purpose in her life. Norwegian director Mona Fastvold evokes a strong visual sensibility, vividly creating the time and place on-screen while slowly opening up options for the central character. This brings a welcome hint of lightness to the film, although the story structure is mopey and repetitive... REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked to Shadows' BFI Flare ANCHOR PAGE 
For tickets and information, visit BFI FLARE