Critical Week: Up against the wall

London is gearing up for Sunday night's Baftas (aka the British Academy Film Awards), which sends awards season into its final lap before Oscar night in three weeks. I still have a few nominees to catch up with (namely documentaries), and I will be rooting for underdogs while watching the ceremony on TV on Sunday ... then congratulating them in person at the after-party. As for movies watched this past week, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is an energetic and very scrappy sci-fi action comedy starring Sam Rockwell as a man from the future trying to recruit a team of sceptics to prevent an AI apocalypse. It's a lot of messy fun even if it doesn't quite hang together.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Kokuho • The Secret Agent
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Wasteman • Cold Storage
A Private Life
ALL REVIEWS >

Even messier is the crazy alien invasion mayhem of Jimmy and Stiggs, which was home-made by actor-filmmaker Jeff Begos. It's riotously yucky. And then there were the slick thrills of Scare Out, a spy thriller from China that has too much choppy dialog for its own good. But Jackson Yee and Zhu Yilong are terrific leads. From North Macedonia, DJ Ahmet is a wonderfully involving comedy-drama about the collision between sparky youth and old world tradition. And the gorgeously shot documentary Underland explores human fascination with travelling below Earth's surface. Speaking of underground, I also attended an immersive premiere for the second season of the Disney TV series Paradise, elaborately held in a network of caverns under Waterloo station (see below). And I was at the programme launch party for the 40th BFI Flare, a favourite festival that I have covered for 30 years.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Neve Campbell in Scream 7, the Lithuanian drama The Activist, the acclaimed one-man psychological thriller Disremember and the documentary Palestine Comedy Club. I'll also attend Netflix's big party after the Baftas on Sunday night and a special screening premiering Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2.

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Critical Week: Do some digging

Awards season continues to surve forward, as I work to catch up on contenders. Jodie Foster stars in the French-language comedy-thriller A Private Life, an engaging mystery with a terrific all-star French supporting cast. Josh O'Connor leads Kelly Reichardt's delightful comedy-drama The Mastermind, about a quirky art theft and the unexpected fallout from it. And Wagner Moura leads the Brazilian offbeat thriller The Secret Agent, an involving epic packed with comical moments and wonderfully colourful characters.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Hamnet • Pillion
Wake Up Dead Man
The Secret Agent • Eternity
The Thing With Feathers
Zodiac Killer Project
ALL REVIEWS >

Even more epic, Filipino master filmmaker Lav Diaz's gorgeous biopic Magellan traces the life of the 16th century Portuguese explorer (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) from a surprising point of view. And then there was Oliver Laxe's Spanish adventure Sirat, which takes us far into the North African desert and leaves us changed. Yes, it's that good. I also caught two animated films: this week's release Zootropolis 2 (aka Zootopia 2) is another extremely lively madcap, action-packed romp; and Little Amelie is a beautifully bright-hued trip into the mind of a cheeky little Belgian girl growing up in Japan. I also somehow found time to attend three live performances: Ballet Black: Shadows at Sadler's Wells, Growled at the RVT and The Magic of Christmas at Brick Lane Music Hall.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the mega-sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Square Pants, Jim Jarmusch's Venice-winning Father Mother Sister Brother, Fred Hechinger in Preparation for the Next Life, Agniezka Holland's Franz, Brazilian drama Manas, the documentary Cover-Up, and the premiere of Fallout season 2, plus three live holiday-themed stage performances: Ebony Scrooge at Sadler's Wells East, Beauty and the Beast at Charing Cross Theatre and The Great Christmas Feast in West Kensington.

Critical Week: On the front line

I've missed several big films recently simply because studios are not notifying me about press screenings. Screenings are taking place, but they tend to only invite influencers; in other words, studios just want an Insta post, not a full review. It's been frustrating to watch distributors undermine the entire industry like this, but I have stopped chasing these things. So if it's something I want to see, I'll watch it later. It took me a week or so, but I finally saw Alex Garland's new film Civil War at my local cinema. It's a strikingly well-made, involving thriller that feels oddly hollow in the middle, where a thoughtful exploration of the story's political reality should be. The terrific cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny (above), plus a nerve-jangling cameo from Jesse Plemmons. I'll try to catch up with others I missed, like Monkey Man and Kung Fu Panda 4, as well.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Infested • Challengers
Kidnapped • Omen
Drifter • Nowhere Special
ALL REVIEWS >

As for upcoming movies, I watched the satirical fantasy The American Society of Magical Negroes, a fascinating approach to a complex racial theme starring Justice Smith and David Alan Grier. It's entertaining, but the plot abandons pointed comedy for a simple romcom. Nikki Amuka-Bird is excellent in the contained and rather thin thriller Jericho Ridge, which is relentless enough to hold the attention. 

Marco Bellocchio's historical drama Kidnapped recounts a jaw-dropping story from 18th century Italy. The film is overlong, but gripping. From Germany, the involving but uneven drama Elaha is set in the Kurdish subculture as a young woman struggles with her heritage. And it felt like spider week for me as I faced off against the insanely intense, brilliantly well-made Infested from France and it's an alien spider that causes blackly hilarious mayhem in Sting, set in Brooklyn but made in Australia

There were also two press nights for stage shows. Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England at Southwark Playhouse Borough is a ripping one-man show, both hilariously raucous and darkly moving as it explores Britain's lad culture. And Roy Young's dance piece Out at Sadler's Wells is provocative, playful, demanding and perhaps a bit indulgent.

This coming week I've got: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy, Josh O'Connor in La Chimera, Lea Seydoux in The Beast, Jesse Eisenberg in Sasquatch Sunset, a new version of Lassie, Argentine drama Adios Buenos Aires, British actor doc Much Ado About Dying and a new production of King Lear at Riverside Studios.

Critical Week: Locked in

Having passed the one month mark of being in isolation here in London (plus 10 days in California before that), the days are beginning to blur together. I wanted to cook some food to liven things up, but the shops are still missing some basics - for example, not one of the many grocery stores around me has any flour in stock. I badly need to add some variety to my culinary routine, and am enjoying being creative. Otherwise, the days are a blur of watching movies, writing about them, watching TV shows, then more movies.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Moffie • Circus of Books
PERHAPS AVOID:
Radioactive • Crisis Hotline
We Summon the Darkness

The week's biggest film for me was The Willoughbys, an energetic animated adventure comedy about a quirky group of siblings trying to make up for deadbeat parents. It's colourful, very funny and packed with nice little emotional moments. Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan are terrific in the romantic melodrama Endings, Beginnings, which never quite builds a head of steam as a woman mopes through her indecision about which man is right for her (neither is). Wagner Moura is excellent in the biopic Sergio, tracing the life of an important UN figure with real insight and some skilful filmmaking. And Alexandra Daddario leads the grisly horror romp We Summon the Darkness, which has some fun 1980s nods but little to make it memorable.

For more adventurous viewers, these are streaming: Cuck is well-made, involving and deliberately provocative pitch-black drama about a guy whose right-wing views push him over the edge; Ghost is gorgeously shot on an iPhone to add a thoughtful angle to the usual British crime drama; Crisis Hotline is an uneven but thoughtful dramatic thriller about a helpline caller threatening murder; from Russia, Why Don't You Just Die is a funny-but-pointless wildly violent black comedy about a group of people trying to kill each other for a variety of reasons; and the excellent documentary Circus of Books tells the fascinating, involving story of a traditional Jewish family that ran an unlikely gay porn business.

Films on my list to watch this coming week in lockdown include Sally Potter's The Roads Not Taken with Elle Fanning and Javier Bardem, Jeffrey Wright in All Day and a Night, Jamie Chung in Dangerous Lies, the rodeo drama Bull, the road comedy-drama Vanilla, the horror thriller The Shed and the Israeli drama 15 Years.