Critical Week: Smile for the camera

It's been a busy week for me, running around town watching movies and stage shows. It was fun to catch up with the hugely engaging characters for Heartstopper Forever, a strongly involving movie that caps the TV series with a nicely grown-up story, even if the writing is a little cute. Joe Locke, Kit Connor and friends are terrific. But basically this entire week has been about Christopher Nolan's massive adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey. I watched it on the huge BFI Imax screen, and it's thunderously entertaining, carrying a powerful thematic kick. The cast is also excellent, particularly Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo and Samantha Morton.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Last First Time • The Odyssey
Heartstopper Forever
ALL REVIEWS >

There were also two superbly made big-budget biopics. From France, De Gaulle: Resistance is the first of two films about the iconic general-turned-politician, and it's a thrilling account of 1940-42 from an angle I'd never seen before. From Romania, The Yellow Tie traces the life of composer-conductor Sergiu Celibidache, another involving story I'd never heard. 

There was also a filmed version of Hadestown: The Musical, a terrific stage production (the original Broadway cast performing in London's West End) based on the myth of Orpheus, with catchy soulful songs. The British romance A Year in London is enjoyable but overwritten. From Nigeria, the action thriller Son of the Soil is rather chaotic, but also very watchable as it dives into a nasty underworld. From Mexico, the beautifully shot Last First Time is an inventive, provocative coming-of-age drama. There were two docs: Synthetic Sincerity is a playful look at the limits of AI, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary is essentially a lavishly produced two-hour advert for the Bruno Cucinelli fashion brand. And I saw two live stage performances: Blue Mist at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and Ali in Wonder(Eng)land at Jackson's Lane.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Hannah Einbinder in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Corey Feldman in Sour Party, the animated adventure Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog and two docs: Ask E Jean and Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie.

Critical Week: Almost paradise

It's the final week of the year, and I'm enjoying the relative silence of my email inbox these days. I'm using this time to catch up on missed movies for my year-end best/worst lists (coming very soon!). And I've also been watching some mindless television and eating rather too much, as you're supposed to do at this time of year. Of course, some of these movies are coming out over the holidays, or soon thereafter. This includes Los Frikis, a beautifully made true drama from filmmakers Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson (The Peanut Butter Falcon) about a group of young Cubans in the early 1990s who made audacious choices to survive and created a rock-n-roll paradise in the process.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
A Complete Unknown
Nosferatu • Better Man
Vengeance Most Fowl • 2073
The Order • Los Frikis
ALL REVIEWS >

Kerry Washington stars in the inspirational true drama The Six Triple Eight, about a platoon of Black women who solved an insurmountable problem during WWII. It's over-egged by filmmaker Tyler Perry, but the story is great. Looney Tunes returns to the big screen with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in The Day the Earth Blew Up, a rather too-silly apocalyptic animated slapstick comedy that only has moments of genuine charm. Asif Kapadia's offbeat documentary 2073 is very pointed, but is packed with urgent reporting about the state of the planet right now. And from Thailand, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is a charming, very sentimental comedy about a teen who learns some important lessons while caring for his feisty, dying grandmother.

This coming week I'll be catching up on a few more year-end titles, including the epic musical The End and the acclaimed documentaries Sugarcane and Grand Theft Hamlet. Press screenings won't start up again until 7th January.

On the Road: Can we talk?

This week my main focus has been on family and friends, hanging out and celebrating Thanksgiving in California. Of course, since I grew up in Ecuador, I've also been keeping an eye on the World Cup! And my family had a full Ecuadorian meal instead of turkey, sitting outside in the sunshine. 

I only watched one movie this week: the powerful drama She Said, which traces the true story of two New York Times journalists (played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) as they investigate stories of abuse surrounding Harvey Weinstein. It's a must-see film - urgent and powerfully well-made. REVIEW >

There was also a trip to the theatre, seeing Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, starring Richard Thomas. It's a terrific approach to Harper Lee's classic novel, packed with present-day resonance that's strongly played.

Still to come are screenings of films like Damien Chazelle's Babylon, Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker and the war drama Devotion, among other awards contenders before my first nominations ballot deadline on 7th December.

Critical Week: The eyes have it

Screenings are beginning to crank up as awards season begins. I'm a member of three groups of critics that give out year-end awards, and there are quite a few films I still need to catch up with before ballots are due, starting in mid-December. I managed to see one this week, the biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye, adapted from a favourite documentary of mine (from 2000), now starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as tele-evangelists Tammy and Jim Bakker. Even if it feels a bit satirical, it's a strikingly well-made, even-handed film with a strong emotional kick. Samantha Morton stars in the Welsh comedy-drama Save the Cinema, based on a true story about a community trying to save their local theatre, with a little help from Steven Spielberg. It's perhaps too warm, but thoroughly engaging.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Power of the Dog • The Feast
Petite Maman • C'mon C'mon
Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
PERHAPS AVOID:
Hide and Seek
ALL REVIEWS >

Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars in Hide and Seek, a thriller remade from a Korean movie. It's slick, but seems to have lost much of its oomph in the translation. Celine Sciamma continues to surprise with the wonderful Petite Maman, an inventive look through a young girl's curious eyes. The Spanish drama Isaac bristles with nostalgia in a knowing story of old friends reconnecting. And the documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time unpicks the life of one of my favourite authors with lots of wit and some seriously amazing archival footage, plus the personal story of a long friendship.

Coming up this week, I'll be watching Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos, Lady Gaga in House of Gucci, Keira Knightley in Silent Night, Lea Seydoux in France, Disney's animated musical Encanto, the animated sequel Sing 2, the double collection of shorts The French Boys and the Nazi legacy doc Final Account. I also have a few stage shows to watch.