Critical Week: Executive action

This has been a quiet week for press screenings, so I've enjoyed having some time to catch up on other things that have been pressing. It also helps that the weather has been sunny and nice, our first proper London spring in three years. The biggest film I watched this week was a bit of wishful thinking. In the action thriller G20, Viola Davis plays a no-nonsense US president fighting some nasty baddies. Essentially a revamped Die Hard, the movie is familiar and very silly, but also a solid guilty pleasure.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Holy Cow • Warfare
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Other films this week included two offbeat music documentaries: Kevin Macdonald's One to One: John & Yoko follows a couple of pivotal years for the artists in protest-filled New York, adding a skilfully kaleidoscopic context to the music. And The Extraordinary Miss Flower is a beautifully swirling concoction exploring how Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini was inspired by a letters that revealed another woman's passion-filled past.

There were also a few things outside the regular release schedule. I attended a terrific screening and Q&A for the new Black Mirror episode Hotel Reverie, with Charlie Brooker, Emma Corrin and others. It's a gorgeously surreal love letter to classic movie romance. I finally caught up with Pedro Almodovar's involving, beautifully made Western short Strange Way of Life, starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke as cowboys who can't admit they love each other. And I attended two stage shows: lockdown drama Jab at the Park and the raucous Jane Austen adaptation Plied & Prejudice at the Vaults.

This coming week, the films I'll be watching include Michael B Jordan in Sinners, the tennis drama Julie Keeps Quiet, Norwegian horror movie The Ugly Stepsister and the sailing documentary Wind, Tide & Oar.

Critical Week: Too cool

The weather in London has been diabolical this week, more wintry than spring-like with grey skies, rainshowers and weather that's oddly cold for this time of year. So not too bad for moviewatching. I enjoyed Ben Affleck's new film Air a lot more than expected, but then I wasn't expecting much for a movie about trainers. It's a sharply well-written drama about Nike's creation of the Air Jordan brand, and has terrific performances from Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis and more. And the new adaptation of the roleplaying fantasy game, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, was also a pleasant surprise: a rare blockbuster that's colourful, funny and thoroughly engaging. Thankfully it takes its cues more from The Princess Bride than Marvel or DC. I wrote reviews of it for three different outlets.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Chrissy Judy • Summoning Sylvia
Dungeons & Dragons
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Further afield, Summoning Sylvia is a riotously silly horror comedy about a group of camp friends in a haunted house, but it has serious undertones that give it unexpected weight. Missing is a well-made thriller told through computer screens (it spins off from Searching), gripping even if the story holds no water at all. A verbatim adaptation of a recording, Reality is the riveting re-enactment of the arrest of a whistleblower, starring a superb Sydney Sweeney. Cairo Conspiracy is a strikingly involving mystery about government interference in religious leadership in Egypt. Of course, exiled filmmaker Tarik Saleh had to shoot it in Turkey and Sweden. And the lightly futuristic Japanese drama Plan 75 is a thoughtful meditation on mortality that's not particularly easy to watch, understandably. 

This coming week is mercifully slow after the past few months. I'll be watching Taron Egerton in Tetris, the Norwegian black comedy Sick of Myself, the Moroccan drama El Houb, the addiction doc Blue Bag Life, and the biographical doc Little Richard: I Am Everything. I also have a theatre show and museum exhibition to check out (reviews here soon).

Critical Week: Who runs the world

I've only had one actual press screening this week, which seems a bit odd with so many huge movies floating around that need to be seen (to be fair, I saw several of them in Venice). Instead, I managed to catch a special preview at my local Picturehouse of The Woman King, the heavily fictionalised historical epic starring Viola Davis as leader of a 19th century West African all-female army. Even if the film sidesteps some facts, it's a rousing movie that audiences should enjoy, especially with terrific performances from Davis, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega and Thuso Mbedu. And then there were George Clooney and Julia Roberts hamming it up in Ticket to Paradise, a comedy without many actual laughs. But when they're not goofing around, the stars find both chemistry and some surprising dramatic textures.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Blonde • Athena • After Yang
Juniper • In Front of Your Face
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Smaller films this week included the quietly riveting Irish drama It Is In Us All, starring the superb Cosmo Jarvis; the pointed and perhaps a bit contrived New Zealand drama The Justice of Bunny King, anchored by another terrific performance from Essie Davis; Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo's involving, sensitive and unusually perceptive drama In Front of Your Face; and the warmly engaging doc A Bunch of Amateurs, about a 90-year-old movie-making club in the North of England.

Coming up this next week are Francois Ozon's new film Peter von Kant, the horror thriller Smile, the sci-fi thriller Control, the mystery thriller The Razing, the French drama Rodeo, the Icelandic drama Godland.

Critical Week: Learn that dance

It's awards season, so I had two more virtual screenings this week accompanied by cast and crew zoom-style Q&As. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a faithful adaptation of the acclaimed August Wilson play, and it's somewhat overplayed and stagebound. But the actors are superb, including the late Chadwick Boseman (all other actors should abandon Oscar hopes this year) and Viola Davis. And Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes star in The Dig, an unusually earthy period film about a history-changing archaeological discovery. Without the accompanying Q&As, I also caught up with Soul, in which Pixar outdoes even themselves with flat-out awesome animation and a staggeringly deep story, and Steven Soderbergh's Let Them All Talk, in which a starry cast (Streep! Bergen! Wiest!) explores deep themes in an offhanded shipboard comedy.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Stand In • Alex Wheatle
Funny Boy • The Prom
Song Without a Name
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The final two episodes of Steve McQueen's unmissable Small Axe series screened: Alex Wheatle is a superb biopic about the awakening of an acclaimed novelist, while Education is an exhilarating drama that takes on racism in Britain's school system. Riz Ahmed is simply stunning as a drummer dealing with deafness in Sound of Metal. Tessa Thompson transcends the muted period vibe in the romance Sylvie's Love. And Sienna Miller shines in the moody odyssey Wander Darkly. 

I also caught up with two excellent foreign films: Funny Boy is a moving, gorgeously made drama from Sri Lanka by ace filmmaker Deepa Mehta, while Cocoon is a German coming-of-age drama that catches an intimate perspective. And there was also one film screened in a cinema, and the freaky British horror Saint Maud is definitely worth seeing on a huge screen with a rumbling sound system.

This coming week, I have two more screenings in actual cinemas: delayed blockbuster Wonder Woman 1984 and the true conspiracy drama The Mauritanian starring Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch. There's also Diane Lane in Let Him Go, Alicia Silverstone in Sister of the Groom, Alicia Witt in Modern Persuasion, the dance-based romance Aviva and the shorts collection The Boy Is Mine.

Critical Week: Eye on the prize

As awards season arrives, I have a lot of for your consideration screenings alongside the regular upcoming releases, which creates a rather offbeat mix. This week we saw Otto Bathurst's ambitious new take on Robin Hood, starring Taron Egerton and Eve Hewson (above), plus Jamie Foxx and Ben Mendelsohn. Pity it's such a predictable, uneven movie. Creed II was also a disappointment, especially after the high point of Creed. This one should probably have been titled Rocky VIII, because it falls back on the old formula.

Far more satisfying were Steve McQueen's Widows, a wonderful reinvention of the heist movie starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki. The Old Man & the Gun is a terrific true drama starring Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek on top form. And the Cannes winner Shoplifters is another masterpiece by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda. There was also the scruffy, rather awkward micro-budget gay wedding comedy The Rainbow Bridge Motel, plus two documentaries: the fascinating and beautifully assembled Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, and this one...

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Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
dir Matt Tyrnauer; with Scotty Bowers, Stephen Fry
release US 27.Jul.18 • 18/US 1h38 ****
As legendary Hollywood party boy Scotty Bowers turns 80, he spills the beans on his decades of procuring men and women for the stars. These stories may be salacious, dropping some of the biggest names in cinema history, but they humanise these celebrities and finally open a door on the industry's long-hidden secrets. After serving in the Marines during the war, Scotty worked as a gas station attendant in Hollywood, where he stumbled into a network of closeted gay and bisexual men for whom he organised discreet trysts. While managing a team of rentboys, he met George Cukor then the likes of Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Cole Porter, Cecil Beaton and on and on. They had to hide their true natures due to morals clauses in their contracts, so they created myths and entered arranged marriages. When questioned about outing dead people, Scotty comments rightly that there's nothing negative about being gay, and it's no longer breaking any contractual agreements. In addition, the film outlines Scotty's childhood, including trading sex for cash from a very young age and being part of Kinsey's research study. It's fascinating to see Scotty now, chatting openly about his experiences and living amid mountains of memorabilia without any regrets at all. So the film becomes an important exploration of culture and history, as well as attitudes toward sexuality then and now.

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This coming week's screenings are an eclectic mix, including Disney's sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet, Mahershala Ali in Green Book, Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns, Christian Bale in Vice, Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots, Felicity Jones in On the Basis of Sex, Alicia Vikander in Tulip Fever and the Sundance hit Eighth Grade.

Out on a Limb: Oscar picks & predictions

Once again, here are my choices and who I think will win at the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday. My track record on this is a bit spotty, but I am a realist, knowing that Oscar voters often award the wrong people for the right reasons.....

P I C T U R E
Will/should win: La La Land
Dark horse: Moonlight

F O R E I G N   F I L M
Will win: The Salesman
Should/could win: Toni Erdmann
Dark horse: A Man Called Ove

A N I M A T E D   F E A T U R E
Will win: Zootopia
Should/could win:  Kubo and the Two Strings

D O C U M E N T A R Y
Will win: 13th
Should win:  Fire at Sea
Could win: OJ: Made in America

D I R E C T O R
Will win: Damien Chazelle - La La Land
Should win:  Barry Jenkins - Moonlight

A C T R E S S
Will/should win: Isabelle Huppert - Elle
Quite likely: Emma Stone - La La Land
Dark horse: Natalie Portman - Jackie

A C T O R
Will/should win: Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea
Quite likely: Denzel Washington - Fences
Dark horse: Ryan Gosling - La La Land

S U P P O R T I N G   A C T R E S S
Will win: Viola Davis - Fences
Should win/dark horse: Naomie Harris - Moonlight

S U P P O R T I N G   A C T O R
Will win: Mahershala Ali - Moonlight
Should win:  Lucas Hedges - Manchester By The Sea
Dark horse: Dev Patel - Lion

O R I G I N A L   S C R E E N P L A Y
Will/should win: Kenneth Lonergan - Manchester by the Sea
Could win: Damien Chazelle - La La Land

A D A P T E D   S C R E E N P L A Y
Will/should win: Barry Jenkins - Moonlight
Dark horse: Luke Davies - Lion

S C O R E
Will win: Justin Hurwitz - La La Land
Should win:  Mica Levi - Jackie

S O N G
Will win: City of Stars - La La Land
Should win:  Audition (The Fools Who Dream) - La La Land

C I N E M A T O G R A P H Y
Will win: Linus Sandgren - La La Land
Should win:  James Laxton - Moonlight

P R O D U C T I O N   D E S I G N
Will win: David Wasco - La La Land
Should win:  Jess Gonchor - Hail, Caesar!

F I L M   E D I T I N G
Will win: Tom Cross - La La Land
Should win:  Joe Walker - Arrival

C O S T U M E S
Will/should win: Madeline Fontaine - Jackie
Could win: Mary Zophres - La La Land

E F F E C T S
Will/should win: The Jungle Book

M A K E - U P   &   H A I R
Will/should win: A Man Called Ove

S O U N D   
Should win:  Arrival
Will win: La La Land

Critical Week: Find a reason to smile

Denzel Washington's directing debut Fences screened to the press this week, with an eye on awards season. August Wilson's text is simply glorious. Washington reprises his Tony-winning stage role opposite a devastating turn by Viola Davis. And there's more awards-worthy acting in 20th Century Women, with Annette Bening giving a beautifully textured turn in Mike Mills' latest engaging autobiographical drama. And then there's Nicole Kidman as Dev Patel's emotive adoptive mother in Lion, a powerful true story of a young man's search for the past he literally lost.

Other films included the enjoyably camp but rather uneven mystery Kiss Me, Kill Me, the sumptuously animated castaway fable The Red Turtle, Kirsten Johnson's astoundingly revelatory memoir Cameraperson, and a sobering exploration of food waste in the lively doc Just Eat It.

This coming week, as voting deadlines loom for various awards, there are screenings of Office Christmas Party with Jennifer Aniston, Miss Sloane with Jessica Chastain, Certain Women with Kristen Stewart and Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th. I also need to tackle the eight-hour doc OJ: Made in America.