Critical Week: The look of love

It's been a busy week for me, catching up on some awards-season movie-watching. And the Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday, with some nice surprises (Delroy Lindo, Kate Hudson) and surprising omissions (Paul Mescal, Wicked: For Good). As for the movies, I was looking forward to Francois Ozon's take on the Camus classic The Stranger, and the film certainly didn't disappoint. It's a luxuriantly gorgeous exploration of disaffection that feels eerily timely today. And Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder (above) are superb. I also caught up with Cal McMau's impressive directing debut Wasteman, an intentive, involving and ultimately moving British prison movie starring the excellent David Jonsson and Tom Blyth.

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Further off the beaten path, the doc D Is for Distance is an artful cinematic essay by a filmmaking couple exploring their son's health issues with kaleidoscopic skill. It's also a bit indulgent. From Mexico, the observant and mesmerising Copper is an idiosyncratic drama about a man and a moral dilemma. From Germany, Phantoms of July is an enjoyably deadpan comedy that connects characters in unexpected ways. And I caught up with two more documentary contenders: Come See Me in the Good Light is the rightfully acclaimed (and now Oscar-nominated) depiction of a poet's strikingly straightforward approach to mortality, while Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is pretty much what it says: a sparky, hugely entertaining look at the life of Liza Minnelli through her own eyes. 

Beyond movies, I attended the premiere of Ryan Murphy's new grisly, camp, compulsively watchable TV series The Beauty, and chatted with cast members Evan Peters, Ashton Kutcher, Rebeccal Hall, Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope at the appropriately gorgeous afterparty (see below). And there was also a live performance of Gecko's wondrous The Wedding at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Jason Momoa in The Wrecking Crew, Olivia Colman in Jimpa, Riz Ahmed in Hamlet, Milla Jovovich in Worldbreaker, James McAvoy's directing debut California Schemin', the Aussie family adventure Kangaroo and Mark Jenkins' new film Rose of Nevada. And Bafta nominations are out next Tuesday.

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Critical Week: American pride

Even though it was made for the small screen, HBO's The Normal Heart is one of the biggest movies of the year - a fiercely intimate exploration of the 1980s Aids epidemic that not only grips on an emotional level but shows clearly which community of Americans should be proud of the way they approached the situation (hint, it's not the politicians). Thunderous performances by a first-rate cast (Taylor Kitsch and Mark Ruffalo are pictured above), Larry Kramer's sharp script (based on his 1985 play) and clever direction by Ryan Murphy make this a film that really should have been released on the big screen. [Full review on the website]

Films screened to the London press this week include Maleficent, Disney's revisionist take on Sleeping Beauty starring an imperiously fabulous Angelina Jolie as the eponymous no-longer-evil fairy. The tough drama Joe features a nicely against-type performance from Nicolas Cage and another star-making turn from young Tye Sheridan (see also Mud). Last week's costars Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou are back for Chinese Puzzle, a New York-set ensemble piece costarring Cecile De France and Kelly Reilly. It's the third in Cedric Klapisch's decade-long trilogy of silly-sweet rom-coms. And Omar received a deserved Oscar nomination for its complex story about a young Palestinian freedom fighter trying to find love as his world collapses around him.

Coming up this week: Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt live a day of warfare over and over again in Edge of Tomorrow, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill go back undercover for 22 Jump Street, Seth MacFarlane and Charlize Theron go for laughs in A Million Ways to Die in the West, Rosamund Pike and David Tennant have some fun in What We Did on Our Holiday, Karen Gillan faces the horror of Oculus, and a young boy comes of age in 1967 Palestine in When I Saw You.