Critical Week: Let it all go

I've been working very long hours on a TV crew these days, so haven't had a lot of time to keep up with film releases. So I only managed to see four movies in the past seven days! (But I am very much enjoying working on set each day.) One of the big releases this week, Speak No Evil stars Scoot McNairy and James McAvoy (above) in a hugely unsettling thriller that starts light and almost comical before twisting the suspense to nail-biting levels in the final act. And then Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield came along for a Q&A with director John Crowley for We Live in Time, a powerfully involving emotional drama that feels bracingly authentic. It's bound to get awards-season attention.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
My Old Ass • In Camera
Speak No Evil • Winner
My Favourite Cake
ALL REVIEWS >

The biopic Winner is the third movie in recent years to tell the story of the whisleblower Reality Winner, this time with a snappy comical edge. Emilia Jones is excellent in the title role, and the film properly gets under her skin. And Dead Teenagers is the third scary film in writer-director Quinn Armstrong's Fresh Hell trilogy, this time cleverly twisting the teenage summer movie into something meta and genuinely creepy.

I'll have a little more time to attend screenings this coming week, so I'm planning to see the animated adventure Transformers One, Will Ferrell's documentary Will & Harper, reform school drama Nickel Boys, British comedy-drama Portraits of Dangerous Women, New York comedy Notice to Quit and British horror Inherit the Witch, plus anything else I can find time to see. 

Critical Week: Sibling rivalry

I'm working long days at the moment on a TV crew, so haven't had time for many films. But I still managed to see quite a handful over the long weekend. His Three Daughters is a sharp, involving drama starring Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne as estranged sisters dealing with their fading father. Dennis Quaid takes on the biopic Reagan with an intriguing performance. But the film is far too simplistic to do this complex man justice, relentlessly painting him as a saint.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Mandoob (Night Courier)
Black Dog
PERHAPS AVOID:
Reagan
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British political comedy The Whip is an enjoyable bit of low-key wish-fulfilment as a group of scrappy underdogs take on the government. Mandoob (The Courier) is a beautifully made film from Saudi Arabia about a guy trying to make ends meet and getting into some trouble on the way. And I saw the first two movies in the Quinn Armstrong's Fresh Hell horror trilogy: The Exorcism of Saint Patrick is a thoughtful, provocative, clever exploration of conversion therapy, while Wolves Against the World is a choppier, more experimental take on racism. These of course sat well with the FrightFest movies I watched last weekend!

This coming week, I'm watching Ian McKellen in The Critic, Alicia Vikander in Firebrand, Matt Smith in Starve Acre, Emile Hirsch in Dead Money, comedy-drama Off Ramp and the final Fresh Hell movie Dead Teenagers.