Critical Week: Summer holiday vibes

It's been a very sticky week in Britain, so I've enjoyed the chance to cool off in some air-conditioned cinemas. Screenings are still a bit thin on the ground, seeing as it's holiday season, but there are plenty of things to be watching. Bob Odenkirk is back in action for Nobody 2, in which the violence is perhaps a bit too gleeful. But it's also hilariously entertaining, expecially when a villainous Sharon Stone is chomping on the colourful scenery. Joaquin Phoenix leads the sprawling cast of Ari Aster's epic Eddington, a very dark satire about us-vs-them attitudes set in the pandemic-era Wild West. It's riveting, complex and very important. Costars include Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Together • Materialists
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Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi and Will Poulter lead the cast of the nuanced romantic drama On Swift Horses, a beautifully made film that explores hidden desires in 1950s America. Orlando Bloom is a tough-guy boxer in The Cut, which rather unevenly shifts from gritty drama to psychological horror. Matilda Lutz leads the charge as Red Sonja in a new take on the comic heroine. Even with flashes of wit, it's too serious for its own good. And the adult-aimed animated comedy Fixed has a lot of fun with its raunchy premise about a dog getting the snip, but there's not much else going on.

This coming week I'll be watching Helen Mirren and an all-star cast in the whodunit The Thursday Murder Club, Peter Dinklage in a new take on The Toxic Avenger, the Irish care-system drama Christy, the fact-based epic Chinese WWII action film Dongji Rescue, and the animated racing-mice action romp Grand Prix of Europe.

Critical Week: Battle scarred

There were three big film screenings this week. The filmmakers and much of the cast turned up for the European premiere of Warfare, at which I had chats with Kit Connor (pictured), Will Poulter, Michael Gandolfini and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Depicting an intensely gripping battle during the Iraq War, this is easily the best film I've seen so far this year. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Four Mothers • Freaky Tales
The Most Precious of Cargoes
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I also attended the UK premiere of The Amateur, attended by the filmmakers and Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne and Caitriona Balfe. It's an engaging original thriller, but a little underpowered. And while the stars were at the premiere on the other side of Leicester Square, I was at a lively press screening of the enjoyably dopey A Minecraft Movie.

In addition, I caught up with Miguel Gomes' stunningly lyrical road movie Grand Tour and the entertaining, gripping and very offbeat British bad-neighbour thriller Restless. The 39th BFI Flare also wrapped up over the weekend with a number of films and a big party.

This coming week I have very few screenings in the diary for some reason. But I'll be watching Viola Davis in G20, the documentary One to One: John & Yoko and there are sure to be others.

Critical Week: Cinematic royalty

Pretty much everything in London this week is centred around Saturday's big coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla. I'm avoiding the crowds, and will catch it on TV. Meanwhile, movie queens Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenbergen return for Book Club: The Next Chapter, a much funnier, more engaging sequel to the corny 2018 hit. An even larger ensemble returns for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, which has had better reviews than it deserves. It's funny, and fans will love it, but there isn't a single exciting or thrilling moment.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Pamfir • The Blue Caftan
Chile '76
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Jim Parsons stars in the involving romantic drama Spoiler Alert, which infuses real-life humour into a sad story. BlackBerry stars Jay Baruchel as the man who first combined email and mobile phones. It's a fascinating story, skilfully told. Two decades in the making, the witty and rather overlong autobiographical comedy 5-35-77 traces Patrick Read Johnson's journey into filmmaking, via a preview screening of Star Wars. And Still is a gorgeously well-made documentary chronicling Michael J Fox's acting career as well as his experiences with Parkinson's. 

I also covered two stage shows this past week: the inventive, insightful Supernova at Clapham Omnibus, and the fiendishly entertaining musical comedy Eurovision: Your Decision at Wonderville

This next week I'll be watching Jennifer Lopez in The Mother, Finnish action film Sisu, 1970s British thriller Dead Shot and Anton Corbijn's doc Squaring the Circle. I also have a couple of catch-up movies to watch.

Critical Week: Let's talk about love

Screenings are few and far between at the moment, with most smaller releases running scared from the single big movie that's either coming out this week or is still dominating the box office. But there are still some good things out there - both in cinemas and on streaming services - even as the blockbusters have been merely ok so far this summer. One of the most endearing films of the year is Billy Porter's comedy-drama Anything's Possible, a teen romance that's packed with heart and just enough realistic edge. And the newcomer leads, Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali (above), are terrific. Meanwhile, this week's big release is the animated DC League of Super-Pets, a comically entertaining adventure packed with genuinely smart gags delivered by a scene-stealing vocal cast, even if the superhero formula feels as stale as ever.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Hit the Road • Sharp Stick
Ali & Ava • Hypochondriac
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More intriguing was The Score, an inventive genre mashup starring the terrific Will Poulter, Naomi Ackie and Johnny Flynn that features romance, comedy, violence and musical numbers. Juliette Binoche stars in master filmmaker Claire Denis' Both Sides of the Blade, a boldly complex French drama about relationships and regret. And the horror thriller Hypochondriac finds some original, and deeply unsettling, things to say about mental illness while properly freaking us out.

Screenings remain thin next week, but I'll be watching Brad Pitt in Bullet Train, Charlotte Rampling in Juniper, the Predator spin-off Prey, the animated adventure Luck and the refugee doc Fadia's Tree.

Critical Week: Land of the midnight sun

This week's most anticipated screening was for Midsommar, the new sun-drenched horror from Ari Aster (Hereditary). And it certainly didn't disappoint: terrifying on several layers, Aster gleefully torments the audience without resorting to cliches. And the cast is simply awesome, including Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter. Sylvester Stallone was back for Escape Plan: The Extractors [aka Escape Plan 3], which is more like another Rambo movie than part of this series. Yes, it's rather simplistic, relegating his returning costars (Dave Bautista, Curtis Jackson) to much smaller roles. And the true adventure/tragedy Kursk: The Last Mission also has an all-star cast, including Colin Firth, Matthias Schoenaerts and Max Von Sydow, but it leaves the Russian nature of the story aside for a Euro-pudding production that never quite feels real.

Less starry films included Brittany Runs a Marathon, a Sundance winner featuring Jillian Bell as a woman trying to get her life into shape. Although the plot plays to the usual structure, the film is very, very funny and then engagingly emotional. Germany's stunning Oscar-nominated epic drama Never Look Away is the complex, involving story of an artist who feels the impact of world events in his work. And the documentary/essay Varda by Agnes is a final gem from the masterful Agnes Varda as she traces her career, inspiration and motivation. It should be essential viewing in all film schools. There was also this documentary, which landed in cinemas last Friday...

Penny Slinger: Out of the Shadows
dir-scr Richard Kovitch
with Penny Slinger, Peter Whitehead, Susanka Fraey, Jack Bond, Michael Bracewell, Jane & Louise Wilson, Antony Penrose, Maxa Zoller
release UK 28.Jun.19 • 17/UK 1h38 ***.

A fascinating trip into London's art world in the 1960s and 1970s, this documentary explores Penny Slinger's haunting, surreal work: paintings, photos, collages, sculptures, performance and film. It's packed with her imagery, plus revealing interviews with her, her collaborators, friends and experts. Slinger's work is deliberately provocative, as she rejects the status quo and sets out to shock people with her statements about how women are seen in society. "I'm not necessarily feminist," she says, "but I hope I've been helpful in liberating the feminine." Documentary filmmaker Richard Kovitch traces her life and career chronologically, from painting as a child to attending art school in 1960s London, covering her striking projects over the years, all of which seem far ahead of her time. From the start, she played with faces and bodies in her work, creating a boldly female punk sensibility.

While it may feel a little dry, this doc is loaded with her powerful images, extensive footage from her rare films and clips of her art shows. And everything is accompanied with personal comments from Slinger, as well as collaborative artists like Fraey and filmmakers Whitehead and Bond. It's an eye-catching film, assembled with a reverence to her distinctive style, packed with intriguing observations about both Slinger and the art world in general, including what it says about culture at large. As Slinger says, life itself is a work of art, and her pieces are just an emblem of that. So it's intriguing how in the 1980s, disillusioned with how art had become too proscriptive and academic, she chose to disappear from the public eye. Her art continues to be exhibited, as fresh and resonant as ever. And she continues to evolve as a person engaged to the world around her.

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Coming up this next week, we have Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista in the buddy action comedy Stuber, Jim Jarmusch's star-packed zombie romp The Dead Don't Die, Gurinder Chadha's Springsteen-themed musical Blinded by the Light, the ensemble comedy Summer Night, the shorts collection The Heat of the Night, and Coppola's so-called "final cut" of Apocalypse Now, a movie I never miss a chance to watch on a big screen.

Critical Week: Size matters

There were two rather underwhelming sequels to see this past week, neither of which came with very high expectations. Kickboxer: Retaliation is the middle part of a rebooted trilogy starring Alain Moussi and the original star Jean-Claude Van Damme, plus assorted massive meatheads. It looks great, so it's a shame so little attention was paid to characters or story. And then there's the Maze Runner trilogy finale, The Death Cure, with its somewhat messy mythology and bland characters. The film has its moments, but never quite comes to life.

Two small British films at least tried something original. Lies We Tell is a rather choppy crime thriller set in Yorkshire starring a mopey Gabriel Byrne. And Gholam is a riveting, slow-burning London thriller starring the excellent Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini. Even further afield, I enjoyed seeing a big-screen press preview of the restored version of Ingmar Bergman's witty film of Mozart's The Magic Flute. And I watched all of the episodes for the snappy, clever web series Dropping the Soap, which is out soon on dvd. As the title suggests, it's a backstage soap opera spoof. And I also greatly enjoyed this doc, which I needed to see for awards voting purposes...

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Bombshell
dir-scr Alexandra Dean; with Diane Kruger, Robert Osborne 17/US ****
Based around the discovery of a lost interview recorded on cassette tapes in 1990 when she was 76, this documentary traces the extraordinary journey of movie siren and brainy inventor Hedy Lamarr from her childhood in Austria to her reclusive old age in America. Along the way, she shared the screen with all of Hollywood's biggest stars as the most beautiful woman in movies. But she was always aware that no one took notice of her intelligence. "Any girl can look glamorous," she said famously. "All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." And now it emerges that Lamarr had a secret life of curiosity and scientific ambition, including a working friendship with Howard Hughes and conceiving the idea that would lead to modern communications systems like wifi and bluetooth (the US government never paid her for her patent, which the doc claims would amount to some $30bn today). She also built the first ski resort in Aspen, which was stolen from her by a vindictive ex-husband. Filmmaker Dean assembles this beautifully, using Lamarr's own voice and a wealth of footage and stills. It's a gripping film, packed with emotional kicks and an inspiring final message from Lamarr herself, reminding us that when the world treats us badly, we should give our best anyway.

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Much of my time has been spend working on the impending Critics' Circle Film Awards on Sunday night - I'm the chair, so haven't had much spare time to catch up with press screenings. Maybe next week. I've got the Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon in the diary, as well as the Helen Mirren ghost story Winchester.

Critical Week: Against the law

The big movie screened this week for London critics was Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit, a powerfully riveting drama that, like last week's Dunkirk, unapologetically immerses the audience in a historical event. Plus noteworthy performances from British actors John Boyega (above) and Will Poulter. Lighter fare included the raucous comedy Girls Trip, which is very funny and has a surprisingly soft centre, and the Jack the Ripper style horror whodunit The Limehouse Golem, which is overfamiliar but very well-played.

Slightly outside the mainstream, we had the conceptual underwater horror of 47 Metres Down, which nerve-wrackingly traps two young women at the bottom of the sea surrounded by sharks; Gerard Butler trying to emote in the rather painfully obvious work-life balance drama A Family Man; Michael Winterbottom struggling to find a balance between documentary and fiction in the band tour movie On the Road (Wolf Alice fans should love it); and a sensitive doc tracing a likeable young musician's gender transition in Real Boy.

Coming up this week are the animated comedy The Emoji Movie, Tom Holland in Pilgrimage, Toni Collette in Fun Mom Dinner, Francois Ozon's L'Amant Double, Sundance hit Beach Rats, Berlin winner On Body and Soul, the dark comedy Kept Boy, and the tense drama Insyriated.

Critical Week: Side of beef

London critics caught up with the new Zac Efron/Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors (international title Bad Neighbours) this week, but aren't allowed to talk about the film quite yet. Suffice it to say that Zac doesn't like to wear a shirt, for obvious reasons. Also embargoed (until tomorrow) is the Cameron Diaz/Leslie Mann comedy The Other Women, costarring Kate Upton, Nicolai Coster-Waldau and Nicki Minaj. And I need to wait until next week to review Plastic, a British heist movie starring rising-star young Brits Ed Speleers, Will Poulter and Alfie Allen.

But I can talk about: Transcendence, the achingly slow sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany and Rebecca Hall; Pompeii, the wonderfully preposterous Ancient Roman disaster romp starring Kit Harington and a villainous Kiefer Sutherland; Authors Anonymous, a funny but uneven improv-style comedy starring Chris Klein and Kaley Cuoco; Benny & Jolene, an uneven and awkward improv-style British comedy starring Charlotte Ritchie and Craig Roberts; and Who Is Dayani Cristal?, a clever, powerful dramatic documentary about immigration from Central to North America.

This coming week we've got Paul Walker's thriller remake Brick Mansions, Roman Polanski's theatrical drama Venus in Furs, Ozu's classic An Autumn Afternoon and fashionable pensioner doc Advanced Style. I also have a line-up of screenings this week as part of the Sundance London Festival, which runs next weekend. In my diary are, alphabetically: The Case Against 8, Drunktown's Finest, Finding Fela, Hits, Kumiko, Little Accidents, Memphis, The One I Love, They Came Together and The Voices. I'll be blogging and tweeting about Sundance from Friday.