Critical Week: Eye of the tiger

It's a busy but short week here in London, and I've been running around catching the usual eclectic variety of movies at press screenings. I've been a fan of Henry Golding since his excellent work in Crazy Rich Asians and Monsoon, so I was willing to set Snake Eye aside and look forward to Assassin Club. Alas, this one's a generic, poorly written thriller. At least he's good in the first act, before things get truly nutty. Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult are gleefully over-the-top from the start of Renfield, and they're the best thing about the movie, which mashes-up horror, comedy, romance and drama in ways we've seen before. But at least it's good fun.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Suzume • Everything Went Fine
Private Desert • Cairo Conspiracy
PERHAPS AVOID:
Assassin Club
ALL REVIEWS >

Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton are of course excellent in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a very British road movie about a man who decides to walk the length of England. Thankfully, it avoids sentimentality for something darker and more resonant. Teyana Taylor is a force of nature in A Thousand and One, an unusually realistic New York drama that traces a mother and son over a decade that's as tumultuous for the city as it is for them. And the Norwegian pitch-black comedy Sick of Myself, which lampoons how everyone is vying for attention, is so bone-dry that it makes us feel uncomfortable in all the right ways.

This next week I'll be watching Eva Green in The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan, Jim Gaffigan in Linoleum, the Polynesian epic Pacification and the Filipino drama I Love You Beksman, which opens the Queer East Film Fest (reviews here soon).

Sundance London: Keep dancing

Sundance Film Festival: London is back in its usual slot this year, after two disrupted editions. This is a slightly odd festival for the press, as they pack all of the industry screenings into two days before the actual events kick off. Which leaves us feeling like we're finished before anything begins. So I've already seen 10 of the 13 films in the programme, and I'll be catching a couple more at public screenings with cast and crew members in attendance at Picturehouse Central. The actors and filmmakers turned up last night for the opening film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Here are comments about that one, and a few others, plus my usual Critical Week below... 

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
dir Sophie Hyde; with Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack 22/UK ****
If you can get into this film's theatrical vibe, there are several very strong themes woven through the narrative that make it deeply involving. Essentially three scenes featuring two people in a room, the stagey set-up is echoed in the heightened dialog, which pointedly takes on several big issues. The observations are insightful and sharply important, as are the bravely transparent performances from the two lead actors.

Watcher 
dir-scr Chloe Okuno; with Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman 22/Rom ***.
Writer-director Chloe Okuno creates a superbly unsettling atmosphere in this quietly suspenseful thriller about an American in Romania. The film knowingly plays on the feeling of being a foreigner unable to communicate in an unknown place, while generating scares by twisting a range of cinematic cliches in intriguing directions. It's a shame there's not much more to the film, but it definitely gets our hearts pumping a bit faster.

Free Chol Soo Lee
dir Julie Ha, Eugene Yi; with Chol Soo Lee, KW Lee 22/US  ***.
While this documentary traces a true story in a rather straightforward manner, the important subject matter makes it worth a look. Chol Soo Lee's experience was shocking and sad, but also carries elements of redemption and complex humanity. And it highlights a rarely explored aspect of underlying racism in the American justice system. These ideas emerge strongly, even as the filmmakers remain more focussed on the compelling personal narrative.

We Met in Virtual Reality
dir-scr Joe Hunting; with Jenny, Dust Bunny, IsYourBoi, Toaster 22/UK ***
This extraordinary documentary was somehow shot virtually, as filmmaker Joe Hunting takes the audience into various digital environments to meet people who interact there. It's an extraordinary film, and remarkably personal as it hones in on relationships within VR communities, often spilling out into the real world as well. It's a great introduction to a virtual world, although newcomers may find it tricky to engage with the film's perspective.

Full reviews will be on the site soon. For more information, visit SUNDANCE LONDON >

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C R I T I C A L    W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Listen • All My Friends Hate Me
Il Buco • Moneyboys • Swan Song
ALL REVIEWS >

I've only seen four non-Sundance films in the past week - and each is opening this week in the US or UK. I was unable to attend the single press screening of Jurassic World: Dominion, so caught up with it at a local cinema. It's funny, thrilling and packed with witty nods in various directions, a superb summer blockbuster. The award-winning Italian drama Il Buco is a masterfully assembled exploration of historical progress; the doc A Sexplanation is a witty look at why Americans are so obsessed with sex, and also afraid of it; and Baloney documents rehearsals and performances of a San Francisco queer burlesque with warmth and insight.

Aside from Sundance, this coming week I'll be watching the Pixar prequel Lightyear, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz in Official Competition, Ethan Hawke in the horror thriller The Black Phone, the British drama It Snows in Benidorm, the restored Satyajit Ray classic The Big City and the theatrical version of the doc George Michael: Freedom Uncut.

Critical Week: Isolation blues

It's becoming clear that this extended third lockdown is making Londoners a bit loopy, especially as it has no end in sight. Although we keep hoping that as the pandemic numbers improve slightly, relief is on the horizon. But being able to get back into a cinema seems like a distant hope! I've been rather swamped with preparations for the London Critics' Circle Film Awards on Sunday night, which has involved lots of email communication with Los Angeles - something an eight-hour time shift makes rather tricky. As a result, I only watched four movies this past week.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Falling • Another Round
Two of Us • Malcolm & Marie 
ALL REVIEWS >

By far the biggest film I saw was the Russo brothers' Cherry, starring Tom Holland (above) as an Army veteran who becomes a junkie to deal with his post-traumatic stress. It's 2 hours 20 minutes long, and feels like an operatic epic. It would look amazing on a big cinema screen. Ambitiously taking on the same theme in a very different way, Mike Cahill's Bliss stars Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek in a fantasy-style thriller about a parallel reality. It's provocative and engaging. The Australian remake of the Icelandic gem Rams stars the superb Sam Neill, Michael Caton and Miranda Richardson, and finds earthy humour in a dark situation. And the pitch-black Argentine thriller 4x4 traps lead actor Peter Lanzani inside an SUV, becoming a seriously harrowing ordeal.

Coming up this week, I need to catch up on quite a few films, including the true thriller Murderous Trance, the British comedy Running Naked, the Argentine romcom A Skeleton in the Closet, the Chinese drama Twilight's Kiss and the short film collection Desire in the Dark.

And if you want to watch the 41st London Critics' Circle Film Awards, our virtual ceremony goes live at 7pm Sunday night 7th Feb and will also be rewatchable on the CRITICS' CIRCLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL >

LFF: Share a snack on Day 10

The 61st BFI London Film Festival powers into its final weekend with a flurry of world premieres, red carpet galas and lots of great little films packed into the edges of the programme. I have no more press screenings, but there are several movies I'm hoping to catch at public screenings over the weekend, so watch this space. And here are some more highlights...

The Florida Project
dir Sean Baker; with Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite 17/US ****
Loose and lively, this free-flowing comedy-drama is set among people living just outside the main gates of Disney World. And its young cast of mainly non-actors is terrific at creating likeable characters with big attitudes. As he did in Tangerine, filmmaker Sean Baker focusses on engaging people touched by the carelessness of loved ones who think they deserve sympathy, but don't... FULL REVIEW >

Downsizing
dir Alexander Payne; with Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig 17/US ***
Alexander Payne eschews his usual organic style of storytelling for something more pointed and constructed. The premise is ingeniously conceived and thought out down to the (ahem!) smallest details, and as the plot develops a variety of big issues make themselves known. This may provide a connection to present-day issues, but it makes the film begin to feel rather pushy. And the ideas themselves become stronger than the narrative... FULL REVIEW >

Sweet Country
dir Warwick Thornton; with Sam Neill, Hamilton Morris 17/Aus ***.
With a gentle pace that echoes the rhythms of life in turn-of-the-century rural Australia, this slow-burning dramatic Western quietly creeps up on the audience. It offers deep themes and detailed characters, plus a vivid depiction of the clash between the Aboriginals and the European interlopers. The film's setting may echo other movies, but the tone is distinctly more internalised, exploring the true nature of justice in a seriously unfair place... FULL REVIEW >

The Forgiven
dir Roland Joffe; with Forest Whitaker, Eric Bana 17/SA ***
This well-produced drama about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission feels somewhat dated, as this kind of story has been told in plenty of movies over the past 20 years. But strong performances from an international cast raise the interest level, and it's a vivid exploration of forgiveness that transcends some rather sentimental storytelling.

A Sort of Family  [Una Especie de Familia]
dir Diego Lerman; with Barbara Lennie, Yanina Avila 17/Arg **.
From Argentina, this dark drama is intriguing enough to hold the interest, but it loses the audience's sympathy along the way. With a central character whose specific issues are only superficially defined, much of what happens feels infuriating, which is a problem for a movie that's straining so hard to be emotionally wrenching. Even so, filmmaker Diego Luna has an eye for characters and settings, so he draws us in to the dilemma and its implications.

Grain
dir Semih Kaplanoglu; with Jean-Marc Barr, Ermin Bravo 17/Tur ***.
With a gorgeous visual sensibility augmented by expansive monochrome cinematography, this Turkish odyssey explores big issues about the future of humanity through a meandering narrative following a man across a dystopian landscape. It's a bit obtuse at times, dipping into allegorical surrealism and arthouse nuttiness, but it's also utterly riveting, both for its epic plot and its big ideas.

Venezia74: Taking aim on Day 8

Italian films are notoriously hit and miss here at the Venice Film Festival, perhaps because so many filmmakers are friends with programmers. So it was great to see one that was so hugely enjoyable this morning, and met with a big roar of approval from the crowd at the screening. I have now seen all of the films in contention for this year's Queer Lion prize, and our jury will meet tomorrow to hash out who our winner will be. Here's what I saw today - I skipped a fourth film tonight, just for my own personal sanity...

Love and Bullets [Ammore e Malavita]
dir Antonio Manetti, Marco Manetti; with Giampaolo Morelli, Raiz 17/It ****
The Manetti brothers find a fresh angle on the usual Naples crime thriller. The plot may be fairly typical, but it unfolds as a musical comedy with terrific songs and a continual stream of hilarious gags. While many jokes may be limited to Italian viewers, the approach is so witty that it crosses over to wider audiences, with a gleefully entertaining mix of dark drama, broad slapstick, some wonderfully elaborate musical numbers and quite a bit of surprisingly resonant emotion.

Sweet Country
dir Warwick Thornton; with Sam Neill, Hamilton Morris 17/Aus ***.
With a gentle pace that echoes the rhythms of life in turn-of-the-century rural Australia, this slow-burning dramatic Western quietly creeps up on the audience. It offers deep themes and detailed character, plus a vivid depiction of the clash between the Aboriginals and the European interlopers. The film's setting may echo other movies, but the tone is distinctly more internalised, exploring the true nature of justice in a seriously unjust place.

The Prince and the Dybbuk
dir-scr Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski; with Rosemary Mankiewicz, Angelo Manzini 17/Pol ***
This experimental documentary explores notorious Polish filmmaker Michal Waszynski. And its rather slippery since its subject continually reinvented himself, erasing his past to forge ever more glamorous futures as a prince in exile. Clearly he was haunted by something from his past, as evidenced in his iconic 1937 film The Dybbuk, about a close friendship between two Yiddish boys. The film's loose structure is frustrating for audiences who would like to know the full story, but the film has hypnotic charm.

Tomorrow is a quieter day: Matthias Schoenaerts in Le Fidele and Abdellatif Kechiche's three-hour opus Mektoub, My Love.