Critical Week: Look at yourself

Things should be quieting down this month, but the screening schedule has continued to be fairly busy with an eclectic collection of movies to watch. Making a very strong debut, writer-director Christian Swegal gives the fact-based drama Sovereign an unusually sensitive spin, centred around smart, thoughtful performances by Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay as a father and son with radical views that lead to tragedy. At the other end of the spectrum is James Gunn's witty, colourful new take on Superman, starring a likably human David Corenswet alongside Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult. It's big and entertaining, but never surprising.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Other Way Around
Sovereign • Baby
Hidden Master
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The Dardenne brothers are back with Young Mothers, another riveting doc-like Belgian drama that pulls us deeply into a real-life situation, this time with teen girls who have babies. Jonas Trueba's Spanish comedy-drama The Other Way Around is the engagingly clever story of a couple planning to celebrate their separation, with added witty meta-filmmaking touches. From Brazil, Baby is a sensually shot and played drama about a teen just out of detention as he discovers connections in the tough streets of Sao Paulo. I also had an advance screening of the British drama I Swear, based on the involving true story of Tourette's campaigner John Davidson. It stars the always superb Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan, with remarkable performances from Scott Ellis Watson and Robert Aramayo in the lead role at two ages (it'll be out in October). 

This coming week is also full. I'll be watching the new Smurfs movie, with Rhianna as Smurfette, Celine Song's new drama Materialists, Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan in Four Letters of Love, Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson in Friendship, the German black comedy Dying and the first chapter in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Dreams. 
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Critical Week: Eat me

A couple of upstarts are arriving this month to challenge the dominance of Barbie and Oppenheimer at the box office, although it doesn't look like a fair fight. Jason Statham is back for more over-the-top action mayhem in Ben Wheatley's Meg 2: The Trench, a guilty pleasure mashup of shark chaos and thrilling villainy. Meanwhile, Seth Rogen has recharged another franchise with the hugely engaging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mania, a gorgeously animated romp that's funny and thrilling. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Klondike • Shortcomings
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem • Lola
Smalltown Boys • Kokomo City
PERHAPS AVOID:
Til Death Do Us Part
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Also screened this week was Gran Turismo, the hugely crowd pleasing true story of a gamer-turned-racer starring Archie Madekwe, David Harbour and Orlando Bloom. The British comedy-drama The Trouble With Jessica is uneven but has a terrific cast led by Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell. Til Death Do Us Part is a choppy mess of a thriller with Cam Gigandet and Jason Patric. The doc Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed is a surprisingly intimate, important look at the closeted Hollywood icon. And I finally caught up with the exuberant British comedy Polite Society, which uses wildly inventive action to punch its involving story.

This coming week I'll be watching Disney's remake of Haunted Mansion, Judy Greer in Aporia, Ben Kingsley in Jules, Daisey Ridley in The Inventor, Grant Gustin in Puppy Love, Jeremy Allen White in Fremont, the Japanese drama Love Life and the Romanian drama RMN.