Critical Week: When the night falls

It's been a very quiet week, so I've spent some time catching up on movies and television shows (I am still far behind on the small screen!). One film I saw in a cinema was I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the Whitney Houston biopic that's rather straightforward but livened up by a terrific performance by Naomi Ackie. Lena Dunham's Catherine Called Birdy is a delightful modern-minded comedy set in medieval England, starring the wonderful Bella Ramsey. And Toni Collette lends some badly needed earthiness to the goofy black comedy The Estate, about cousins circling around their dying wealthy aunt (an up-for-it Kathleen Turner). 

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A bit further afield, All Quiet on the Western Front is a staggeringly well-made German drama about World War I. It may have the usual war-is-horrific message, but its perspective and first-rate production values make it worth a look. From Japan, Inu-oh is an extremely offbeat historical drama that's worth a look for its originality and dazzling animation, even if the storytelling is messy. And there were three docs: the absolutely gorgeous Moonage Daydream recounts the life and work of David Bowie using a swirling collection of archival footage; the deeply engaging Wildcat follows a damaged young man to the Peruvian Amazon to find a sense of purpose; and the chilling Navalny exposes the Russian government's ruthless attempt to murder an opposition politician.

This coming week I still have quite a few awards-worthy films to catch up with at home, plus some things I've been putting off like the sequel Disenchanted and the Disney animation Strange World. Actual press screenings won't be back until 9th January. I'm also still way behind on my television viewing - I've only just begun this last season of The Crown, and I haven't yet started the last season of A Handmaid's Tale or indeed House of the Dragon.

Critical Week: When the night falls

London critics caught up this week with Whitney, Kevin Macdonald's well-assembled documentary about Whitney Houston, which tells the same story as last year's Nick Bloomfield doc, but with a bit more focus on her family (including one dark new revelation). This week's blockbuster was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth film in the franchise, which breaks the formula in that it takes place largely on the mainland, in a gothic mansion no less. Otherwise, it's still dinosaurs chasing people, and it's rather good fun thanks to an up-for-it cast and strong filmmaking.

Further afield, we had the Paraguayan drama The Heiresses, a strikingly well-made film about a middle-aged woman discovering that there's more to her than her ancestral home and long-time companion. From France, The Apparition is a fascinating if somewhat rambling mystery that grapples with faith and traumatic stress. And the low-budget indie Sunset Contract is a sharply made, stage-like thriller about a man who begins to realise that he's made a deal with the devil herself.

This coming week we have Sandra Bullock leading the charge in Ocean's 8, Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin in Adrift, Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper in The Escape, Murray Bartlett in Beach House, Pawel Pawlikowski's Cannes winner Cold War and the Portuguese drama Al Berto.

Critical Week: Man's best friend

Press screenings went to the dogs, literally, this week as critics were invited to bring their pets to the screening of A Dog's Purpose. They were surprisingly alert audience members, actually. And the humans enjoyed it too, especially since it wasn't the expected schmaltz-fest. Louder thrills were had at the Imax press screening of The Fate of the Furious (or Fast & Furious 8, as it's known in the UK). Loud and flashy, funny and preposterous, it's exactly what you expect from this franchise: mindless entertainment.

Off the beaten path, there was the sensitive, resonant indie drama Bwoy, starring Anthony Rapp as a married man in New York who gets into an internet relationship with a guy in Jamaica; the cleverly inventive true story The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki, about a Finnish boxer trying to balance romance with his career; and Nick Broomfield's strikingly well-made documentary Whitney: 'Can I Be Me', which has its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this month.

It's a very short week ahead (with a four-day weekend in it!), so there are only a few films in the diary at the moment, including Rachel Weisz in My Cousin Rachel, Katherine Heigl in Unforgettable and Michael Shannon in Salt and Fire. Happy Easter!

Critical Week: For the boys

One of the most enjoyable films screened to London critics this past week was the Aussie crowd-pleaser The Sapphires, anchored by a terrific performance from Chris O'Dowd. It's the true story of a quartet of aboriginal singers who sing for the troops in Vietnam in 1968, and it's shot and played with a lot of infectious energy. We also had a musical drama from America, the less enjoyable but still watchable Sparkle, featuring the last film role for Whitney Houston. And a lively audience of critics on Friday night laughed all the way through Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis' The Campaign, even though it loses its satirical edge along the way.

With press screenings underway for the London Film Festival (10-21 Oct) and the Raindance Festival (26 Sep-7 Oct) in full flow, the screening schedule is busier than normal. Other mainstream titles included Mike Newell's new version of Dickens' Great Expectations, Liam Neeson's return to the action-revenge genre in the preposterous Taken 2, the energetic and engaging animated monster romp Hotel Transylvania, and Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg in the nicely observed relationship comedy-drama Celeste & Jesse Forever.

Further off the beaten path were the British independent dramas Shell, an atmospheric film set in the Highlands, and Love Tomorrow, a downbeat London romance. There was also the cheesily low-budget American thriller Into the Lion's Den, the provocative and controversial Cannes-winning Danish drama The Hunt, and Poland's gritty and rather insular true rap-group drama You Are God.

This coming week we have the Irish musical drama Good Vibrations, the British wedding comedy The Knot, Stephen Dorff in Zaytoun, the acclaimed Swiss drama Sister, the horror film Excision, the indie drama Laurentie, clown horror in Stitches, the French animation Ernest & Celestine, and the documentaries Everything or Nothing (about James Bond) and West of Memphis (about a miscarriage of justice). Among other things...