Critical Week: Love is all around

As the year-end holidays get closer, more and more awards bodies are presenting their nominations. Monday it was the Golden Globes, which I am voting in for the second year. The new collection of 300 international critic voters has seriously shifted the nominations into something very interesting this year. Meanwhile, there's a new romantic comedy in the cinema: What Happens Later, directed by Meg Ryan, who stars alongside David Duchovny as exes who cross paths in an airport. There are no other actors on-screen, and their charisma makes the movie enjoyable if corny. Another actor-turned-director, Eva Longoria shows serious skill with the whizzy, hugely entertaining biopic Flamin' Hot, which tells the story of the janitor who rebooted Frito-Lay, from his colourful perspective.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
American Fiction • Wonka
The Zone of Interest • Every Body
The Lost Boys • The Taste of Things
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
ALL REVIEWS >

More serious fare came from Michael Winterbottom, whose 1940s Israeli drama Shoshana feels almost painfully timely and informative. It's a sometimes odd mix of politics and romance, but is hugely involving. From Poland, Agnieszka Holland's terrific drama Green Border has courted controversy for its honest depiction of heartless right-wing immigration policies, simply by telling an honest story from three wrenching perspectives. From Germany, the drama The Teachers' Lounge skilfully follows a young teacher as her optimism is dealt a blow from a flurry of rumours and accusations. It's riveting and rather scary. From Romania, Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. And I was in the theatre for another panto this week, Puss in Boots at Wonderville.

Movies this week include a trip to the cinema to catch The Three Musketeers: Milady, since I missed the only press screening. And there's more catching up needed to see films before the next voting deadlines. The London Critics' Circle announces our nominations next Wednesday...

Critical Week: Take my breath away

In the cinema this week, I had two sequels that were made decades after the original films. One of the biggest blockbusters of the year, Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick comes 35 years after Top Gun. The script isn't very good, but the action is so visceral that it's bound to be a mammoth hit. And then there's the 50-years-later sequel The Railway Children Return, which again stars Jenny Agutter, a teen in the original and a grandmother this time. It's a gently warm family film with lots of child-based adventures, although it's unclear who the audience will be for this one.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Men • Emergency • Benediction
ALL REVIEWS >

And then there was Men, Alex Garland's unhinged horror movie starring Jesse Buckley as a woman who goes on a very nasty odyssey fuelled by grief. It's heavy symbolism a little unclear, but the film is challenging and provocative. Eugenio Derbez stars in a remake of The Valet, an enjoyably unchallenging romantic comedy. Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude ambitiously takes on his nation's dark past in the inventive dramatised documentary collage Uppercase Print. And I also attended one of the in-person screenings that are part of Odyssey: A Chinese Cinema Season, a month-long festival featuring more than 60 films and events in various UK venues and online... 

River of Salvation
dir-scr Gao Qisheng; with Li Yanxi, Zhu Kangli 21/Chn ****

Chinese filmmaker Gao Quisheng takes an observant approach with this drama, which traces a young woman's heart-stopping journey into accepting her long-hidden truth. Shot in an up-close documentary style, the story centres on 32-year-old Rong (Li Yanxi), a masseuse who lives with her layabout 18-year-old brother Xiaodong (Zhu Kangli). They barely connect, but are both going through identity-shaping events: while she worries about a shifting situation at work, his free-spirited girlfriend (Yang Peiqi) has just announced that she's pregnant. The plot seems to meander between them, then shifts as they find common ground and make some big decisions. What emerges is a startlingly insightful exploration of the pressures of modern life. Ultimately, Rong finally feels ready to face up to her distant past by heading back to her snowy hometown. This startling epilogue adds new context to the story and offers a moving sense of catharsis.

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This coming week, films to watch include Juliette Binoche in Between Two Worlds, Romain Duris in the biopic Eiffel, the Watergate thriller 18½ and the horror thriller Frank & Penelope.

LFF: Find inspiration

More disappointment today, as long queues meant that I missed another film's press screening. The BFI is putting on about 300 seats for more than 2000 accredited journalists, so even arriving an hour early isn't a guarantee of getting in. It certainly makes properly covering their festival almost impossible. But we critics forge ahead, see what we can see, and work around the system by speaking to distributors about seeing their films in another way. Maybe next year I'll save the accreditation fee and simply stop standing in queues all day! In the meantime, there are great movies to see...

The Souvenir Part II
dir-scr Joanna Hogg; with Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton 21/UK ****
Incisive filmmaker Joanna Hogg continues to mine her own backstory in this astonishing sequel to 2019's The Souvenir. It continues the narrative in the same short, sharp scenes, but expands to be funnier, darker and much more boldly inventive. And since much of it takes place on a movie set, it features some gorgeously surreal touches as well, all while maintaining that middle-class effort to bury anything unpleasant... FULL REVIEW >

Encounter
dir Michael Pearce; with Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer 21/US ***
An inventive visual approach and strong performances make this somewhat under-plotted thriller far more involving than it should be. Filmmaker Michael Pearce wisely hones in on the complex characters rather than the standard action story points, which have an odd flattening effect on the film's more intriguingly ambiguous elements. But it looks terrific, especially in the clever ways it nods to classic alien invasion adventures.

Titane
winner: Cannes Palme d'Or
dir-scr Julia Ducournau; with Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle 21/Fr ***.
An intense, Cronenberg-style provocation, this French odyssey pushes several buttons in its bracingly complex depictions of female empowerment and toxic masculinity, and vice versa. It's relentlessly pungent, as filmmaker Julia Ducournau challenges the audience to invest in the characters and consider seemingly random things that are happening in the context of a much bigger picture. It's too scattered and loose to narrow its target, but thoughts it raises are haunting... FULL REVIEW >

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
winner: Berlin Golden Bear
dir-scr Radu Jude; with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia 21/Rom ****
Fiendishly clever and endlessly provocative as it explores the messiness of humanity at this point in history, this satirical Romanian comedy starts with an explicit sex tape then proceeds to unpack and then challenge our reactions to it. Writer-director Rade Jude's approach is endlessly playful and also very pointed, rummaging around in culture and history while allowing a wide range of opinions to surge within the narrative... FULL REVIEW >

Full reviews of festival films will be published as possible and linked at Shadows' LFF HOMEPAGE
For full information, visit BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL