Critical Week: Look over there

While critics have had plenty to watch, the cinemas still feel oddly quiet this summer, with fewer big releases than usual due to last year's strikes. And longer-gestating blockbusters are also still caught in the fallout from the pandemic. But there were two studio films screened this week. Zachary Levi stars in the lively kids' movie Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is colourful, funny and very silly. Also pretty silly, Deadpool & Wolverine teams up Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman for more fast-talking, hyper-violent, highly referential meta-jokiness. It's a lot of fun, but a bit uneven.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Echo • Didi
Mothers' Instinct
Deadpool & Wolverine
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Further afield was the offbeat comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in a quirky crisis of the Jewish faith. Christianity features heavily in Mysterious Ways, a moving and intimate Kiwi drama about a vicar and his rugby coach boyfriend. The bracingly authentic Swedish drama Paradise Is Burning focusses on three sisters trying to survive on their own. Gorgeously shot and edited, the Mexican doc The Echo is so beautifully assembled that it feels like a narrative drama about agrarian life in a small village. And the powerful, urgently important narrative doc No Other Land follows two journalists, Palestinian and Israeli, as they cover the harrowing destruction of homes and lives in the occupied West Bank.

This coming week I'll be watching animated adventure Oz: Voice of the Forest, psychological thriller Detained, French coming-of-age drama Red Island, Finnish drama Sebastian, Chinese mystery thriller Only the River Flows and the Saint Helena doc A Story of Bones. I also have stage shows Amaze and Frankie Goes to Bollywood this week.

Critical Week: Baby you're a firework

While most London critics decamp to the South of France for 10 days, I prefer to avoid the chaos of the Cannes Film Festival if I can, as screening rooms get a bit quieter here. But it's not easy to read about all the intriguing films screening over there. While I have a bit more free time, there are still movies to watch! This week's films included the warm and properly inspiring biopic Young Woman and the Sea, starring Daisy Ridley as groundbreaking swimmer Trudy Ederle. This week's big release is IF, a child-friendly movie from actor-filmmaker John Krasinski that's remarkably sweet, warm and funny. And next week's kids' movie is The Garfield Movie, a frenetic animated romp that will keep very, very young children happy.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Tiger Stripes • IF
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A bit more high-brow is the fact-based action romcom Hit Man, starring the terrific Glen Powell as a teacher pretending to be an assassin to help a police sting operation. It's a great story, very well-told by Powell and director-cowriter Richard Linklater. Elizabeth Hurley stars in the sudsy erotic thriller Strictly Confidential, which is so camp that it's hilarious. JK Simmons goes all-in to play a ruthless killer menacing a nice family in the harrowing and rather harsh thriller You Can't Run Forever. From Pakistan, In Flames is an inventive dramatic horror film about women confronting the patriarchy. And I also caught up with Guy Ritchie's new film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a snappy WWII adventure based on a true story. A terrific cast led by Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez, Alan Ritchson and Henry Golding keeps it funny and sometimes thrilling. There was also a live performance by musical stand-up comic Dave Hill with his riotously hilarious Caveman in a Spaceship at the Soho Theatre.

This coming week I'll be watching Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Greg Kinnear in both The Present and Sight, the Canadian drama Solo and the animated adventure Deep Sea. Plus on stage I have Pieces of Me at Camden People's Theatre.

Critical Week: Hyper-masculinity

For some reason, I only had one press screening this past week. Film criticism has been contracting for about a decade now, and I am getting increasingly exhausted chasing screenings of big Hollywood studio movies, which are about the only ones that get wide releases. It's easier to keep up with smaller films, both with press screenings and viewing links. I've never needed to watch everything (that would be impossible anyway), and I will no longer relentlessly pursue screenings. I'd rather spend my evenings watching stage performances anyway, and hope to do more writing about these.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Charli XCX: Alone Together
The Northman • The Lost City
ALL REVIEWS >

As for that one screening, it was a good one. Robert Eggers' astonishing Viking action epic The Northman is a wildly thrilling film with full-bodied performances from Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang and Anya Taylor-Joy. I also watched The French Boys 4, another collection of terrific French short dramas about complex masculinity from the folks at NQV. And that left me with a bit of time to catch up with three very different movies I'd missed along the way...

The Adam Project
dir Shawn Levy; with Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo 22/US ***
This time-travel romp isn't nearly as smart as it tries to be, but it's definitely entertaining. The reliably witty Reynolds plays a fast-talking jerk who travels back from 2050 to the present, where he needs help from his annoying 12-year-old self (the sharp Walker Scobell) to save the timeline. As Adam's dad, Ruffalo brings some terrific attitude, as do Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener and Zoe Saldana. And the effects are first-rate. While the usual time-twisting chaos adds plenty of interest, it's a shame the story and characters are never much deeper than a warm hug.

Studio 666
dir BJ McDonnell; with Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel 22/US **.
Goofy humour and terrific old-school effects infuse this horror romp in which the Foo Fighters play themselves, recording their 10th album in a properly creepy rock-n-roll Encino mansion that was the site of a grisly murder. In the grip of writer's block, Dave Grohl is convinced he's already composed all of his original songs, then he's possessed by a demonic spirit. Slasher movie antics follow. The film tries to be funny and scary, but ends up merely silly and grisly. Although there are hilarious moments (and cameos) along the way, plus lots of fun for the band's fans.

Loev
dir Sudhanshu Saria; with Dhruv Ganesh, Shiv Pandit 15/Ind **** 
I missed this Indian drama six years ago at BFI Flare, then re-met the filmmakers at this year's festival and caught it on Netflix just before it disappears. It's an unusually nuanced drama about a complex romantic triangle, as Sahil (Ganesh) takes old friend Jai (Pandit) on a weekend trip. But Sahil is also preoccupied about his relationship with his boyfriend Alex (Siddarth Menon). The characters have big personalities that aren't always likeable, so the way they interact is both sharp and sometimes provocative. It's also made in an earthy style that finds unexpected wit and emotion while never overstating the themes.

This coming week, I have a number of films to watch, including Gaspar Noe's Vortex and the shorts collection Upon Her Lips: Butterflies. And I have two theatre press nights as well.

Critical Week: We need a hug

After a film festival, I enjoy things quieting down a bit. But we're now in awards season, which means that the for your consideration screenings have started up. At least this means that movies are generally of a much higher quality than usual. So it's the weekly releases that bring us back to earth and remind us what the public is more used to watching than fabulous foreign masterpieces. Speaking of which, I watched Pedro Almodovar's latest festival darling Parallel Mothers, a glorious melodrama about mothers and daughters that has witty and darkly emotional elements, plus a hint of Hitchcockian intensity. And at the centre, Penelope Cruz is fantastic.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Mothering Sunday • Belfast
Keyboard Fantasies
PERHAPS AVOID:
Cry Macho • Red Notice
ALL REVIEWS >

I also enjoyed the retro joys of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a nearly 40-years-later sequel that includes cameos from the original cast alongside a likeable new ensemble led by Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon and the irresistible Paul Rudd. Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson are also fairly irresistible, but their new action comedy Red Notice is so derivative and lazy that it's hard to like. Tom Hanks is as great as always in Finch, a watchable post-apocalyptic drama that feels somewhat underpowered. And Clint Eastwood's waning steely charisma helps make Cry Macho bearable because its script is frankly awful.

A bit off the beaten track, Joaquin Phoenix is relaxed, warm and wonderful opposite staggeringly gifted young newcomer Woody Norman in the gently comedy-drama C'mon C'mon. Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer and Steven Yeun shine among the excellent six-person cast of The Humans, a stagey drama that roots around in the concept of being a family in America. And the engagingly bristling German drama Blurred Lines sends its two energetic teen protagonists on a momentous trip to Istanbul.

This coming week, I'll be watching Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Andrew Garfield in Tick Tick Boom, Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Hide and Seek, Spanish romance Isaac, Celine Sciamma's Petit Maman and the doc Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time.

Critical Week: Ray of light

I took thinks a bit easier this week, recovering from last week's intense film festival screening programme. But it's been cinema weather in London, so I've watched films both at home and at press screenings anyway. Two films this week were animated, both far from Hollywood. The Japanese drama Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is actually a remake, but has a fresh visual approach that blends traditional anime with simply gorgeous digital artwork to tell a remarkably grown-up story about friendship and love. And from Germany, Moonbound is also beautifully animated with an eye-catching attention to detail in its wacky space adventure story. But an over-complicated script lets it down.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Pray Away • Sabaya
Never Gonna Snow Again
Ema • The Fever
PERHAPS AVOID:
Playing God • Moonbound
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As for the blockbusters, Ryan Reynolds is as charming as ever in Free Guy, a wildly entertaining action comedy that packs a nice punch. James Gun reboots The Suicide Squad, bringing back Margot Robbie and Joel Kinnaman plus Idris Elba for a riotously busy, loud, overlong and gleefully grisly caper. The perhaps too hushed coming-of-age thriller John and the Hole stars Charlie Shotwell as a tween who locks his family in an unfinished bunker to get some peace. Michael McKean and Alan Tudyk liven up the far too serious con-artist caper Playing God. And from Brazil, The Fever is a gorgeous observational drama about an indigenous man in an Amazon city facing big changes in his life.

Films I'll be watching this coming week include Benh Zeitlin's riff on Peter Pan with Wendy, Richard Dreyfuss in Crime Story, Kelsey Grammer in Charming the Hearts of Men, the Canadian drama Underground, the Norwegian comedy-drama Ninjababy and the shorts collection Boy Feels: I Love Trouble.

Critical Week: Put that thing down

As Britain enjoyed a sunny heatwave, we were clobbered with the news that pandemic restrictions won't be further lifted on 21st June as planned: we have another month to go before things will get back to a semblance of normality. Most things are open now with distancing regulations, which means that press screenings are few and far between (literally!). I only had one this week, a special celebrity packed screening of the sequel Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, introduced by the always lively Salma Hayek in person. The film is messier than the first one, too busy and distracted to really hold together, but it has quite a few hilarious moments along the way. Meanwhile, Disney is bypassing cinemas with Pixar's latest minor masterpiece Luca, a gorgeous story about friendship and the importance of diversity set on the sunny Italian coast (and under the seas around it). 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Luca • The Reason I Jump
It Must Be Heaven
Summer of 85
Truman & Tennessee
ALL REVIEWS >

The rest of the films I watched this week were an eclectic mix: Untitled Horror Movie is a computer-screen based comedy-thriller that's very well put together, with a terrific cast, but isn't very scary; from Brazil, Half Brother is a naturalistic, moving drama about two people finding themselves; and premiering at Tribeca Film Festival, Pray Away is a straightforward, expertly shot and edited doc about gay conversion therapy, as seen through the eyes of the people who ran those programmes and are now trying to make amends.

Finally, I revisited Stephen Frears' 1985 classic My Beautiful Laundrette, starring breakout young actor Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm hosting a conversion with the film's writer Hanif Kureishi on-stage before a screening of the film on Friday night at BFI Southbank as part of the London Indian Film Festival. It's a remarkably timely story about connections between communities, adeptly touching on ethnicity, culture, class and sexuality. And it's depictions of right-wing bigotry are eerily current.

Coming up this next week are the latest entry into the Fast & Furious franchise, F9: The Fast Saga, as well as Isabelle Huppert in Mama Weed, 1980s-set horror comedy Vicious Fun, the action thriller Unchained, the Argentine comedy thriller Rock Paper & Scissors and the Roma drama Carmen and Lola.

Critical Week: Meet the neighbours

After nearly a year of on-off lockdown, it's beginning to feel like I'll never get to make a new friend again. Everyone is feeling the ongoing boredom of staying home all day during this third London lockdown, only getting out for a bit of exercise each day. This may be great for catching up on movies and binge-watching series, but it's also wearing us down. At least I'm keeping busy, which is perhaps much of the battle. But with a drastic reduction in work for self-employed people like me, the strain is getting much more serious.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Days of the Bagnold Summer
Nomadland • The Mauritanian
ALL REVIEWS >

So it helps to watch mindless rubbish like The Croods: A New Age, the enjoyably bonkers sequel to the much more coherent 2013 animated romp about a caveman family, this time with added eco-farmers voiced by Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann. Also disappointing was Nicholas Jarecki's ambitious opioid thriller Crisis, interweaving three important plots headlined by Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer and Evangeline Lilly. Doug Liman's Locked Down was also uneven, a cleverly made but over-egged British pandemic heist comedy with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway. 

I connected much more strongly with some films from off the beaten path. Sh*thouse (UK title: Freshman Year) is a scrappy university comedy, written and directed with offhanded charm by its young star Cooper Raiff. From Ivory Coast, Night of the Kings is a bracingly original prison drama with some stunning mystical touches. From Hong Kong, Twilight's Kiss recounts a sensitive, secertive romance between two fathers in their late 60s. And the shorts collection Boys Feels: Desire in the Dark features five intense European mini-dramas exploring angles on masculinity.

I have a list of films to watch over the coming weeks, including Dylan Sprouse in Tyger Tyger, Olivia Cooke in Pixie, Quentin Dupieux's comedy Keep an Eye Out, the British drama Justine, and two more collections of male-oriented short films: The Latin Boys Volume 2 and Boys on Film 21: Beautiful Secret. There's also the programme launch event for this year's BFI Flare film festival, which runs 17-28 March.

Critical Week: Kitties for Christmas

On Tuesday evening I was able to get into two huge press screenings, easily the most surreal double bill of the year. First up was Cats, Tom Hooper's bizarrely imagined adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's already bizarre musical. It looks like nothing you've seen before, awful and brilliant at the same time. Immediately after that, the critics shuffled across Leicester Square for the only press screening of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth film in the 42-year-long movie saga. It's very entertaining, but a little too carefully concocted to be the masterpiece we were hoping for.

Being busy planning the announcement of the London Critics Awards nominations, I didn't have a lot of time for screenings this week. But I did catch up with Ryan Reynolds in 6 Underground, a massively colourful action romp directed by Michael Bay with little concern for plot or character or coherence. The Courier is an odd patchwork action thriller, as it seems like stars Gary Oldman, Olga Kurylenko and William Moseley never met each other. But it's slick and fast. And Daniel Radcliffe continues to defy expectations, playing a real-life 1970s South African hippie activist in Escape From Pretoria, a grippingly straightforward prison-break movie with a political angle.

Over Christmas I'll be catching up with some late-season awards movies, and also binging on the TV series I've fallen behind on. I'm definitely looking forward to some down time, especially a slowdown in the glut of emails relating to the three film awards I vote for.

Critical Week: Just sit right back...

London critics had a bit of glamour this week at the press screening of Halston, a new documentary about the iconic 1970s designer. It's a beautifully made film, although it essentially skips his personal life. At the other end of the spectrum is Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, the new live-action action-comedy based on the Japanese game. It's energetic and silly, and rather good fun.

Emma Thompson gets yet another fabulous character in Late Night, as a long-time chat show working with a new staff writer (Mindy Kaling, who also wrote the screenplay) to save her show. And Ethan Hawke chomps the scenery superbly as a hapless bank robber in the comical thriller The Captor (aka Stockholm), based on the true story that coined the term "Stockholm syndrome".

There were also a wide range of indie films this week. The sweet, involving and ultimately wrenching Only You stars Josh O'Connor and Laia Costa as a young couple trying to start a family against the odds. Karen Gillan and David Dastmalchian are terrific in the haunting, emotional road movie All Creatures Here Below. Lin Shaye stars in Room for Rent, a low-key horror about a landlady who becomes scarily obsessed with her tenant. Thunder Road is a seriously offbeat Texas drama about a cop with multiple issues, underscored with dryly pitch-black comedy. Beats is a scruffy, energetically engaging Scottish film about young people trying to get to their first rave. The colour-drenched LA social media romance Daddy Issues takes some offbeat, inventive twists and turns. And there was this unusual doc, which is now streaming everywhere...

The Gilligan Manifesto
dir-scr Cevin Soling; with Sherwood Schwartz, Dawn Wells, Russell Johnson, Don Ostrowski , Loren Graham, Dan Albright; narr Rennie Davis 18/US 1h25 ***

The premise of this rather academic documentary is that the classic TV sitcom Gilligan's Island was created with a specific underlying message about communism to counter Cold War fears. Filmmaker Soling takes a sparky approach, mixing in extensive archival footage and witty music along with interviews, all of which bolster his thesis to a degree. The film opens with rather long and lively outline of the Cold War and the fear that grew in the wake of the atom bomb. A year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, production began on the sitcom, which Solving describes as a story of seven disparate people trying to rebuild society in a virtual post-apocalyptic wasteland using Marxist communism as a template. (Soling observes that only the two working class characters are introduced by name in the famed title song.) As series creator Sherwood Schwartz says, there was a deep philosophy beneath the show's premise, bringing different people together and forcing them to help each other. While most movies addressed the Cold War using tragedy or disaster, he decided to use comedy instead. And stars Johnson and Wells (the Professor and Mary Ann) chat about how they understood that there was something serious under the resolutely silly surface. This doc is a terrific collection of period movie clips and anti-commie propaganda reels, plus overlong sideroads into things like the McCarthy hearings. This makes it feel like a jokey college essay about the nature of Marxism, making a series of rather spurious arguments about a 1960s sitcom. Clips from the show remind us that it was a satirical critique of all kinds of human ideologies (not just capitalism and democracy) and an escape from the rat race. The characters also reveal uncomfortable, often ridiculous truths about ourselves. That's what makes it so indelible. But this doc has other things on its mind.

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It's another long weekend in Britain (I could get used to these), but the weather isn't supposed to be quite as nice as the last one. Film screenings in the diary over the next week include Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson's comedy The Hustle, Russell Crowe in The Professor and the Madman, Peter Strickland's In Fabric, the teen drama Just Say Goodbye, the 1970s Welsh drama Last Summer and the Chelsea Manning doc XY Chelsea.

Critical Week: Ladies who lunch

While many of my colleagues are in Cannes, I've been here in London catching up on lots of movies. Bigger titles included Book Club, which stars Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda and Mary Steenburgen as women who find new spark when they read Fifty Shades of Grey together. It's lazy but amiable enough. And then there was Deadpool 2, in which Ryan Reynolds reprises his irreverent superhero for another anarchic adventure. It's a lot better than the overrated first film, very funny but less smug and more complex.

Nicole Kidman goes enjoyably punk in John Cameron Mitchell's How to Talk to Girls at Parties, a punk sci-fi romance that's bursting with scruffy energy but struggles to maintain its oddball plot. The Sundance hit The Miseducation of Cameron Post stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a teen sent to gay therapy camp. It's strikingly realistic with terrific performances and an important theme. The American indie caper romp Carter & June is energetic but far too misogynistic for its own good. And the British indie thriller Welcome to Curiosity weaves a few plot strands together in ways that are colourful but ultimately flimsy.

There were also two films from Mexico: A Place to Be is a sensitive fact-based drama that explores immigration issues from unexpected angles, while Boy Undone is a gripping amnesia thriller with a romantic emotional core. And there were also two star-packed docs: in McKellen: Playing the Part, Ian McKellen recounts his life and career with honesty and insight, while 50 Years Legal features a range of noted figures (including McKellen of course) talking about the history of gay rights in Britain.

The big screening this coming week is, of course, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Looking forward to that. Also in the diary: Travis Mathews' drama Discreet, the street-life doc Hooked, Paul Wright's collage doc Arcadia, the film producer doc The Fabulous Alan Carr, the Mongol Derby doc All the Wild Horses and a restoration of The Beatles' animated romp Yellow Submarine.

Critical Week: Nuns on the run

There were a few big blockbusters screened to the London press this past week. The Hitman's Bodyguard is a riotous action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson; Spider-Man: Homecoming is the hugely entertaining and surprisingly hilarious Marvel movie that finally puts the gifted Tom Holland front and centre; War for the Planet of the Apes concludes the prequel trilogy starring the awesome Andy Serkis with a remarkably thoughtful and involving thriller; and Despicable Me 3 is the manic continuation of the entertaining animated action-comedy series featuring Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig.

Less tentpole-ish: The House is a feeble comedy starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler that only has a few amusing touches. Final Portrait is a riveting but over-stylised true story anchored by a career-best performance from Geoffrey Rush; and Hotel Salvation is a remarkably sensitive Indian comedy-drama that knowingly tackles issues of religion and mortality.

Coming up this next week, we've got screenings of the Pixar sequel Cars 3, Tilda Swinton in Okja, Joel Edgerton in It Comes at Night and Luke Hemsworth in Hickok, plus a few catch-up films to watch at home. Meanwhile, both the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the East End Film Festival in London come to a close this weekend.

Critical Week: Teen spirit

A highlight this week was the Oscar-nominated Mustang, a pointed Turkish drama about five sisters whose strong personalities are at odds with their restrictive culture. It's beautifully made by first-time feature filmmaker Deniz Gamze Erguven (she's a Turk based in France, so it's the French entry for the Academy Awards). The film has such a striking point of view that it's impossible not to be caught up in its earthy, honest narrative. And what it has to say is remarkably timely.

Other movies screened this week include Ryan Reynolds' entertainingly snarky superhero romp Deadpool, which is perhaps too snarky for its own good but will have genre fans overflowing with praise. Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann and Alison Brie grapple with sex and the city in the comedy How to Be Single. Keanu Reeves investigates a perplexing, possibly supernatural-tinged murder in the choppy mystery Exposed. Natalie Dormer seeks her twin in the horror movie The Forest, which is unsettling and creepy until it turns silly. The creepy Austrian drama Goodnight Mommy, which morphs into an original but over-the-top horror thriller as it goes along. And a young junkie throws his life away on the streets of Montreal in the murky, meandering arthouse drama Love in the Time of Civil War.

Coming up over the next week we have a very late screening of Ben Stiller's comedy sequel Zoolander 2, Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups, Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind, Aidan Gillen in John Carney's Sing Street, and the Belgian comedy The Brand New Testament.

LFF 1: Kick it off

The 59th BFI London Film Festival kicks off tonight with the red carpet European premiere of Sarah Gavron's Suffragette. Over the next 10 days, a busy programme of acclaimed films floods cinemas across the city, largely drawn from the premiere festivals Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and Venice. So this is a great chance for Londoners to see many of this year's awards hopefuls before they arrive in cinemas, plus a lot of superb smaller independent and foreign titles that will sadly never get UK distribution. Here are some highlights from the first two days...

Suffragette
dir Sarah Gavron; with Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter 15/UK ****
With a smart script by Abi Morgan, this drama about the British suffrage movement is challenging and deeply moving, avoiding cliches to find present day relevance in a fight that took place a century ago. And it's elevated by a full-throated performance from Carey Mulligan that never hits a false note... MORE >

Beasts of No Nation
dir Cary Joji Fukunaga;
with Abraham Attah, Idris Elba
15/US ***.
Strikingly well shot and edited, with rumbling, raw performances from its cast, this dark thriller immerses its audience in the chaotic horror of civil war in Africa, where young boys are pressed to participate in atrocities. And filmmaker Fukunaga's remarkable attention to detail just about sustains the story when it loses focus in the final third... MORE >

Grandma
dir Paul Weitz; with Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner 15/US ****
A sharp script and another beautifully measured performance from Lily Tomlin seamlessly mix comedy and pointed drama to tell an engaging story that isn't afraid to ruffle a few feathers along the way. It may feel both constructed and slight, but between the lines there's plenty of gristle to chew on... MORE >

James White
dir Josh Mond; with Christopher Abbott, Cynthia Nixon 15/US ***.
This is an unusually focussed character study, both in terms of script and camerawork, offering a seriously complex role for likeable actor Abbott. It sometimes gets bogged down in its central melodrama, almost sidelining the eponymous character's journey, but it continually catches the audience with its resonant themes and emotions... MORE >

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C R I T I C A L    W E E K

Non-festival films screening to London critics this week included Ryan Reynolds in the entertaining but thin Mississippi Grind; Patrick Stewart in the moving but melodramatic Match; Gaspar Noe's controversial and rather brilliant Love; nutty British animation for adults in The Big Knights; and the engaging astronomer doc Star Men. Everything else was festival related, as is my intensely overcrowded screening schedule over the next 10 days. The only two non-LFF titles are Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak and the circus acrobat doc Grazing the Sky.

Critical Week: The homecoming queen's got a gun!

It's been another eclectic week for London-based film critics. One of the more offbeat films was Barely Lethal, starring Hailee Steinfeld (above) as a teen who was raised to be a ruthless spy, then runs away to see what going to high school is like. It's a likeable pastiche of teen movies, although it oddly seems both too safe and too gun-happy. A much more anticipated family movie was a late screening of the already acclaimed new Pixar-Disney animation Inside Out, which had a gala Sunday morning screening introduced by director Pete Docter and cast members Amy Poehler and John Ratzenberger. The lovely film is both a comical adventure and a strikingly honest look at growing up. And it screens with the simply gorgeous short film Lava.

Other big-name films this week included the Ryan Reynolds thriller Self/Less, which starts well but opts to ignore its themes in lieu of a contrived action-thriller plot. And Michael Douglas hunts Jeremy Irvine in the New Mexico desert in Beyond the Reach, which is utterly preposterous but has its moments thanks to the actors and the landscapes.

A bit further afield, we had the indie mob drama 10 Cent Pistol, which is sharply made but waits too long before it lets the audience into the story; the clever, jaw-dropping reality TV romp Shooting the Warwicks, which is one of the blackest comedies you'll ever see; the floaty-whiny indie drama Buttercup Bill, which spends so much time being achingly cool that it forgets to properly tell its story; and the well-made eye-opening doc Bolshoi Babylon, which digs into the controversial workings of the world's top ballet theatre.

This coming week, we have the lean-mean Jake Gyllenhaal in a late screening of Southpaw, Tom Cruise back in action for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation,  Reese Witherspoon and Sofie Vergara in the action-comedy Hot Pursuit, Emily Blunt in the dark drama Sicario, Josh Hutcherson in the drug cartel drama Escobar: Paradise Lost, Danny Huston in the underwater thriller Pressure, and the military dog drama Max.

Critical Week: Take it to the Supreme Court

I finally caught a late press screening this week for Woman in Gold, the true drama that opened in US cinemas last week and hits the UK this Friday. It's the superb story of a woman fighting for restitution after Nazis stole her family's possessions, and it has a terrific central performance from Helen Mirren, plus strong support from Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Bruhl. Another late screening was for Ryan Gosling's directing debut Lost River, a surreal recession-era drama about a struggling family. Meandering and essentially plotless, it struggles to engage despite notable performances from Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker and Ben Mendelsohn.

Also this past week we had screenings of The Last Five Years, an engaging but fragmented and downbeat romantic musical starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan; the award-winning Clouds of Sils Maria, Olivier Assayas' clever but elusive exploration of celebrity beautifully played by Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart; the dark Irish drama Glassland, which features a turn by Jack Reynor that won the Sundance acting award for his excellent work opposite Toni Collette and Will Poulter; the mesmerising German freak-out thriller The Samurai, about a young cop confronting a cross-dressing, sword-wielding psycho; and Undocumented Executive, a witty, scruffy comedy playing with immigration and class issues in America.

And there were two documentaries that are a must for fans: Lambert & Stamp explores the two guys responsible for The Who, tracing both the band's history and the music, film and art scenes along the way; and A Fuller Life is a remarkable look at the life of iconic filmmaker Sam Fuller in his own words and as reflected in his films.

This coming week we have Tom Hardy's thriller Child 44, Nia Vardalos' comedy Helicopter Mom, the Iranian festival favourite A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the Chinese drama Exit, Mia Hansen Love's rave scene drama Eden, and the acclaimed USSR hockey doc Red Army.

Sundance London 4: Peace and quiet

The 3rd Sundance London Film & Music Festival wrapped up on Sunday night with a flurry of film screenings and musical performances. The whole event felt much more subdued this year, and not just because it was a day shorter. The main change was the lack of a place to properly hang out - the press and filmmakers' lounge was gone, as was the more intimate club space, replaced by a sprawling and rather amorphous bar/bowling alley/dance venue. There was nowhere to sit, chat or work. And the O2 isn't known for its friendly spaces. Still, the films were superb, and all were accompanied by Q&As with the filmmakers and actors. My last screening (The Voices, pictured above and reviewed below) on Sunday night featured Marjane Satrapi, Ryan Reynolds and Gemma Arterton in a lively and unhurried Q&A - that doesn't happen at most festivals. Here are comments on three final films...

The Voices
dir Marjane Satrapi; with Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick 14/US ****
It's tricky to categorise this offbeat horror comedy, which maintains a playful tone even as things get genuinely dark and disturbing. But director Satrapi maintains a wonderfully witty visual vibe even as Michael R Perry's viciously clever script explores the pitch-black corners of mental illness. It's the story of Jerry (Reynolds), a tormented young man trying to get on with life after being instituted. He has a job in a bathtub factory and a helpful therapist (Jacki Weaver), and he has his eye on a girl in accounting (Arterton), although her colleague (Anna Kendrick) is the one who really likes him. But Jerry has also gone off his meds, and is hearing the voices of his loveable dog Bosco and bitter cat Mr Whiskers. And what they tell him to do is pretty horrific. The film touches on so many sub-genres that we never have a clue where it's going next. Is this a black comedy about a serial killer? A sharp tragedy about a guy who's criminally insane? A creepy fable about a murderer's inner turmoil? This complex layering makes the film far more involving than it should be, and also far scarier than expected for a comedy. So even if performances are a bit broad and uneven, the film exerts a strong grip on the audience, provoking laughter and nervous horror in all the wrong places.

Hits
dir-scr David Cross; with Meredith Hagner, Matt Walsh 14/US ***.
Actor-comedian Cross makes his feature directing debut with this offbeat ensemble comedy about instant fame. It's a sharply written script with a terrific cast that includes both newcomers and established stars. And even if Cross' direction wobbles, the film keeps us laughing as it makes some rather astute commentary on growing up in the reality TV era. Set in Upstate New York, the key figures are Katelyn (Hagner), a teen who believes that fame is an inherent right, and her father Dave (Walsh), who is pushed into prominence when he complains to the town council about their shoddy service. Swirling around them are another teen (Jake Cherry) who also believes he has the talent to make it big and has a crush on Katelyn, and three ridiculous hipster bloggers from New York (James Adomian, Wyatt Cenac and Derek Walters) who descend on Dave in the hopes that his cause boosts their profile. Yes, everyone in this film wants to get noticed, and no one wants to do the work. It's all a bit caustic and obvious, and scenes play out without much sense of momentum, but the brave actors make the most of the witty, telling dialog. And this often hilarious film carries an important kick.

Little Accidents
dir-scr Sara Colangelo; with Boyd Holbrook, Elizabeth Banks 14/US ****
Expanding her 2010 short into a feature, filmmaker Colangelo beautifully captures a small-town community in the grip of a series of tragedies that may or may not be accidental. Watching these characters grapple with the ambiguity of the situation is riveting, especially as each must muster the courage to tell the truth. It's a powerful drama that envelops us in its world and doesn't go easy on us. The main characters are Amos (Holbrook), injured in a recent mining accident and trying to get his life back on track; Bill and Diane (Josh Lucas and Banks), the manager of the mine and his wife, who live in relative splendour in the working-class West Virginia town; and Owen (Mud's Jacob Lofland), whose father died in the accident and who has a secret that is not easy to keep. These people circle around each other in ways that sometimes feel a bit contrived and scripted, but push the characters into fascinating corners, drawing out breathtaking a range of emotions. Performances are subtle and understated, and the setting adds beautifully to the film's overall tone of tense uncertainty. It's also a striking drama with themes so deep that the film is very hard to shake afterwards. Keep an eye on Colangelo.

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K :
I only saw two non-Sundance films last week, but both were terrific. Roman Polanski's Venus in Fur stars Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric as an actress and director during a stage audition. As the power shifts between them in subtle, complex ways, both actors deliver powerhouse performances, captured with wit and invention by Polanski. But it's the script (by Polanski and David Ives, based on Ives' play) that is the main show: astoundingly clever. Less sophisticated, Advanced Style is a documentary about over-50 women in New York who are almost ridiculously glamorous. They're also fantastic movie characters, and we feel like we could follow them around all day long. A lot of fun, with some emotional moments as well.

Critical Week: Summer's last hurrah

London had a flurry of hot summery sunshine last week before the much cooler weekend arrived with rainstorms and more typically chilly autumnal weather. All hope isn't gone for a bit more warmth, but the effect is likely to be pretty dramatic at the box office! Meanwhile, I caught up with the summery Adore, a beach-town drama from Australia starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as lifelong friends who fall for each others' sons (Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville). It's a strikingly grown-up, startlingly involving movie by French filmmaker Anne Fontaine.

Not only did it open in the US last week, but it features in the line-up for the forthcoming 57th London Film Festival, which was announced last week at a gala launch event attended by Paul Greengrass, director of the opening night film Captain Phillips. The LFF is a festival of festival, with no significant world premieres but lots of amazing movies from other festivals. It runs 9-20 October, but press screenings begin on 23 September.

Other films viewed by UK press last week include: 42, a hugely involving biopic about groundbreaking baseball icon Jackie Robinson; R.I.P.D., a derivative and unfunny ghostly action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges; Like Father Like Son, a masterful Japanese drama about parenthood from the gifted Hirokazu Kore-eda;  Cal, a darkly dramatic sequel to the Bristol gang-drama Shank; The Broken Circle Breakdown, a gorgeously made and bleakly emotional Belgian drama infused with bluegrass music; and Fire in the Blood, an urgently important documentary about the injustices of Big Pharma when dealing with the global impact of Aids. I also caught up with two stunning restorations: the trippy 1969 ancient Rome odyssey Fellini-Satyricon and the magisterial 1924 expedition doc The Epic of Everest - watching each of these was like having a mystical experience. Very different ones, I should add.

This coming week, we have screenings of: Naomi Watts in the already notorious Diana biopic, Anna Kendrick in the comedy Drinking Buddies, the Danny Trejo in the B-movie sequel Machete Kills, Brie Larson in the acclaimed drama Short Term 12, the Glasgow rom-com Not Another Happy Ending, the British thriller Harrigan, the thriller The Conspiracy, and a restoration of Herzog/Kinski's gonzo classic Nosferatu.

Requisite Blog Photo: Crood awakening

Slightly too early for a sugar-fuelled press screening this morning. But bring it on...