Critical Week: The horse and his boy

I'm definitely enjoying the calm following the storm of awards and festival season, deliberately taking on less. Perhaps this is a way forward permanently! But we'll see how that goes, as I have a couple of events and trips planned over the coming months. Films I saw this week included Jackie Chan's Chinese action comedy Ride On, in which he plays a has-been stuntman whose friendship with his horse leads to a comeback that forces him to confront his age. Yes, there's a lot going on, and it's very engaging, even if the sentimentality gets rather corny. One of the year's best surprises so far, Jon S Baird's new film Tetris chronicles the birth of the iconic video game with another terrific lead role for Taron Egerton.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Joyland • Air • Tetris
Lola • Godland
ALL REVIEWS >

The anime epic Suzume is visually spectacular, and its mind-bending story about an unexpected relationship, childhood memory and parallel worlds is remarkably involving. The Dutch drama El Houb recounts a story about a Moroccan family confronting the eldest son's homosexuality. It's tough and unflinching, and very moving. The British doc Blue Bag Life artfully explores issues of addiction and motherhood from a sometimes startlingly intimate perspective. And the biographical doc Little Richard: I Am Everything is a skilfully assembled portrait of the artist who essentially created rock 'n' roll, then influenced everyone who came after him, from Elvis to Lil Nas X. Does racism and homophobia explain why it took so long for him to get the recognition he deserves?

I also attended the press view at the Design Museum for Ai Weiwei's new exhibition Making Sense, which is another superb provocation about human history, taking a sharp new perspective on everyday objects (review up soon). And I was at the press night for Akram Khan's Jungle Book Reimagined, a visceral take on Kipling's stories about the connection between humans and nature. It's dazzlingly staged with inventive dance, music and projected animation, although the message is a bit overstated (review is already up).

This coming week includes the four-day Easter weekend, and I'll be watching Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in Renfield, Henry Golding in Assassin Club, Shailene Woodley in To Catch a Killer, Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Teyana Taylor in A Thousand and One and the action thriller Once Upon a Time in Ukraine.

Stage: Animal magnetism

AKRAM KHAN COMPANY
Jungle Book Reimagined
director-choreographer Akram Khan
writer Tariq Jordan with Sharon Clark
dancers Lucia Chocarro, Tom Davis-Dunn, Harry Theadora Foster, Thomasin Gulgec, Max Revell, Matthew Sandiford, Pui Yung Shum, Fukiko Takase, Holly Vallis, Vanessa Vince-Pang, Jan Mikaela Villanueva, Luke Watson
composer Jocelyn Pook • animation Adam Smith, Nick Hillel
sound Gareth Fry • lighting Michael Hulls
Sadler's Wells, London • 4-15.Apr.23

Mixing dance with theatre, this mesmerising physical production takes Rudyard Kipling's classic stories and places them into the near future, redefining both the settings and characters to deliberately add present-day resonance. Akram Khan inventively stirs animation, music and spoken word in with viscerally charged movement to reveal timely themes that carry a powerful punch. So even if the dialog and storytelling are overstated (perhaps to reach a younger audience), it echoes an important message about the connections between humans and nature.

The story is now set when rising sea levels have forced humans to abandon cities, which have been repopulated by animals that have escaped from zoos, circuses and labs. When she falls from a refugee raft, Mowgli washes up in one of these cities and is adopted by a pack of bickering dogs. A human hunter is prowling the landscape, and they need her to help them avoid him. Mowgli also befriends Bagheera, a formerly pampered panther, and ex-dancing bear Baloo. When Mowgli is kidnapped by the Bandar-log, escaped lab monkeys who long to become more human, Bagheera and Baloo turn to the python Kaa to rescue her.

Dressed in red vests and grey harem pants, the dancers become various characters using physical posture, moving in rhythm to their dialog. Khan's demanding choreography is athletic and of course animalistic, mixing acrobatic movement with dance to create a strikingly vibrant atmosphere, shifting through encounters that are tender and violent. Eye-catching and surprising, the scenes feature both individual moments and some particularly gorgeous group numbers. Along the way, some performers emerge as standouts, most notably Thomasin Gulgec's loose-limbed turn as the enthusiastic, warm-hearted Baloo.

A complex audio mix includes music, dialog and media clips, while the on-stage performers are surrounded by strikingly rendered lighting and projection, including animated characters who interact with the dancers. The effect is magical, both dazzling visually and strongly emotional in the way the familiar story emerges from a fresh new angle. This is a beautiful collaboration between a range of talented artists who have found creative ways to work together. So if the voiceover sometimes gets preachy or obvious, there's plenty of beauty to engage with on a variety of levels. And it leaves us with some new thoughts about the impact we have on our planet and how finding common ground is the only hope for a future.

For details, visit SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Ambra Vernuccio • 5.Apr.23

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
ALL REVIEWS >

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).

BFI Flare: Find your tribe

And that's a wrap on the 37th edition of BFI Flare, which I've been covering for 25 years now. The range of films this year was excellent - and as always I missed a lot of things I'd hoped to see. This year I didn't manage to catch many short films, which are often my favourite part of the festival, mainly due to scheduling issues. But I saw 30 features (including best of year movies) and the Five Films For Freedom (see below). My best of fest list is below...

Drifter
dir-scr Hannes Hirsch; with Lorenz Hochhuth, Gustav Schmid 23/Ger ****
This is one of those films that frustrates you while you're watching it, then leaves you feeling like it's oddly unsatisfying, for a variety of reasons. Then on reflection it quickly becomes apparent that filmmaker Hannes has made an extraordinary movie about a young man searching for his identity and connection, and making many of the wrong decisions along the way. So the more you think about it, the film becomes increasingly provocative, involving and even moving. 

Loving Highsmith
dir-scr Eva Vitija; with Patricia Highsmith, Marijane Meake 22/Swi ***.
With this biographical documentary, Swiss filmmaker Eva Vitija film takes an engaging approach that focusses on author Patricia Highsmith's personal life more closely than her work as a writer. This means that the film is packed with lovely firsthand observations and anecdotes that contextualise Highsmith's writings. Cleverly augmented with voiceovers from her diary entries, this is an engaging portrait of how Highsmith's love for a series of women fuelled her books.

Five Films for Freedom
Another extraordinary collection of shorts was made available globally during BFI Flare in cooperation with the British Council, exploring a range of issues and ideas relating to people who identify as LGBTQIA+, especially in places where this is forbidden. From Guyana, Eating Pawpaw on the Seashore is a moving and haunting drama. Shot like a mini-feature, the triumphant Northern Ireland's Just Johnny maintains a comical tone while conveying a powerful message about unconditional love. From Cyprus, Buffer Zone is a wonderfully surreal look at inner yearning. All I Know is a mystery-drama from Nigeria that's quiet and disturbing. And from Korea, Butch Up is a sharply made snapshot of finding a place to fit in.

RICH'S BEST OF THE FEST

1. The Blue Caftan (Touzani, Mor)
2. Unidentified Objects (Zuleta, US)
3. Big Boys (Sherman, US)
4. Chrissy Judy (Flaherty, US)
5. Who I Am Not (Skovran, SA)
6. Drifter (Hirsch, Ger)
7. 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture (Roggio, US)
8. Golden Delicious (Karman, Can)
9. Lie With Me (Peyon, Fr)
10. Egghead and Twinkie (Holland, US)

Stage: Aim higher than the stars

Eugenius!
book, music & lyrics by Ben Adams & Chris Wilkins
with Elliott Evans, Jaina Brock-Patel, James Hameed, Dominic Andersen, Joseph Beach, Laura Denning, Madison Firth, Rhys Taylor, Naomi Alade, Louis Doran, Sebastian Harwood
dir Hannah Chissick
set & lighting Andrew Exeter
musical director Nick Punchbeck
choreographer Aaron Renfree
Turbine Theatre, Battersea • 17.Mar-28.May.23

A buoyant, big-hearted musical with a relentlessly positive message, this show is flooded with 1980s movie references and big power ballads. Written by Ben Adams and Chris Wilkins, it's fast, silly and also rather random in its childish approach, which has no edge to it at all, shying away from anything remotely dark or sexy. Even so, it's so much fun that you may find yourself pumping a fist triumphantly in the air at the end.

Opening in Toledo, Ohio, this is the story of the geeky Eugene (Evans) and his best pals, the brainy Janey (Brock-Patel) and the goofy Feris (Hameed), who enjoy acting out Eugene's riotous comic books about Tough Man, his sidekick Super Hot Lady and evil nemesis Lord Hector. When a Hollywood studio runs a competition for a new idea, Janey submits Eugene's work, and the movie quickly goes into production with a muscle-man German actor (Andersen) as Tough Man and an ambitious actress (Firth) as Super Hot Lady. The problem is that the real Hector (Beach) turns up on set from outer space, intent on mass destruction.

A remarkably big show on a small stage, the energy levels are very high through a series of lavishly choreographed musical numbers (energetic big-hair rock with some disco flourishes) and slapstick action sequences that often spread out into the audience. Catchy choruses abound, even if some of the phrasing is a little clumsy (such as the No Pants Dance or the romantic theme Comic Book Kind of Love). While costumes, effects and the use of video screens is superb, the stage set is distractingly busy. And the plot is equally messy, with spiralling story threads and a strong follow-your-dreams message that gets lost in the rush to a romcom climax. 

Even so, all of this is thoroughly engaging thanks to a cast that's fully committed to the mayhem. As Eugene, Evans has a terrific stage presence and a great voice that soars to the rafters, even if the character gets a bit lost in the chaos of the second act. Oddly, both Hameed's amusing Feris and Brock-Patel's sparky Janey are slightly simplistic. But Denning is uproarious as the Weinstein-like studio boss, while Taylor camps it up superbly as her assistant. His green screen gag is the show's funniest sequence. And the top scene-stealer is Beach, who improvises hilarious asides as the snarling Hector. 

Everyone on stage adds soulful touches to their characters, and they also dive fully into the dance numbers, raising the roof in several rousing moments. So in the end, the audience leaves the theatre empowered to embrace our inner geek and to shoot higher than the stars. We also have a big smile on our faces, and it's unclear when we might stop humming the big final number, Go Eugenius!

For information, visit TURBINE THEATRE >

photos by Pamela Raith • 25.Mar.23

BFI Flare: Take a shot

The 37th edition of BFI Flare holds its closing night film and party tonight, with tomorrow set aside for screenings of the best LGBTQIA+ films of both the festival and the past year. So I'll have a final report to wrap things up - including short films and my personal favourites. I had hoped to include a report on the festival's new Expanded programme of virtual reality projects, but it was only open for three days and was seriously overcrowded. So while I still have a few features and shorts to watch, here's another offbeat collection of highlights...

Golden Delicious
dir Jason Karman; with Cardi Wong, Chris Carson 22/Can ****
Warm and engaging, this Canadian comedy-drama uses strongly sympathetic characters to encourage the audience to explore big issues relating to family and societal expectations. Asian ethnicity and queer sexuality play a role in the various story threads, which remain resonant even when things get a bit melodramatic in the final act. Throughout the film, director Jason Karman maintains a wonderfully light touch, and the gifted, fresh-faced cast members are easy to root for.

Winter Boy [Le Lycéen]
dir-scr Christophe Honore; with Paul Kircher, Juliette Binoche 22/Fr ***
French filmmaker Christophe Honore tells another remarkably intimate story, once again weaving in autobiographical elements that add a powerfully detailed emotionality to the unfolding drama. While the film is overlong and occasionally feels meandering, it has real strength in the way it recounts events from a teen's specific perspective. This offers conflicting thoughts and feelings that force the audience to get involved. And the cast is wonderfully engaging.

Afeminadas [aka: Effeminate]
dir-scr Wesley Gondim; with Igor Willian, Khryz Amusa 22/Br ***.
Compiled from remarkably raw footage, this documentary visits five people around Brazil to explore the experiences of effeminate gay men. While all have their sexuality in common, what's most striking here is that each has such a distinct persona, expressing their thoughts and feelings both in unstructured interviews for the cameras and on-stage as performers on lively stages. The film is infused with life and colour, and it also completely strips away the artifice.

Fierce: A Porn Revolution [Ardente-x-s]
dir Patrick Muroni; with Melanie Boss, Olivia Schenker 22/Swi ***
While this documentary takes on an important topic and is beautifully shot, it never quite seems to get to the story the filmmakers are trying to tell. There's definitely a need for a female gaze in the porn industry, and the Oil collective in Switzerland has developed some clever ways to approach the issue. But the skilled camera crew follows them right off the topic, so the documentary leaves these lively, intelligent women looking like they're merely indulgent. But at least they're having a lot of fun.

BEST OF YEAR
Bodies Bodies Bodies
dir Halina Reijn; with Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova 22/US ****
Gleefully mashing-up genres, this riotous black comedy takes the form of a slasher horror movie, and it's also packed with slapstick mayhem, interpersonal tension and social commentary. It's expertly assembled by the filmmakers and a seriously up-for-it cast to freak us out and make us laugh. But even more intriguing is that the movie pushes us to think about the nature of relationships for today's generation of young people... FULL REVIEW >

FROM THE ARCHIVE
Le Beau Mec [aka: Dude]
dir Wallace Potts; with Karl Forest, Frank Chazal, Philippe Renaud 79/Fr ****
Thought to be a lost film, this vintage French arthouse pornography has been digitally restored, complete with its English overdub narration. Directed by Wallace Potts, Rudolf Nureyev's last lover, it's a sharply well-made movie with eye-catching visual style and some remarkably dark themes. While it's very explicit, the film is also quirky and unexpected, with a range of sequences that catch the viewer by surprise. And it has an unusually personal perspective to even its sexiest moments.

BFI Flare: The best version of yourself

Heading into the final stretch of the 37th BFI Flare, it's been interesting to see how the films are reflecting a much broader experience of LGBTQIA+ people. Indeed, the formerly titled London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has expanded to tell more complex trans and intersex stories, including this year's centrepiece film Who I Am Not. I can't remember a previous year in which both the opening and centrepiece titles were documentaries, and both of these films recount powerful narratives while highlighting experiences that are rarely if ever put on-screen. Here are some more film highlights from Flare, plus my usual Critical Week below...

Who I Am Not
dir-scr Tunde Skovran; with Sharon-Rose Khumalo, Dimakatso Sebidi 23/SA ****
Intersex babies are normal but rare, and yet many societies seem unable to accept this fact. From South Africa, this film finds honesty, humour and moving emotions as its subjects describe how it feels to be neither male nor female biologically. Romanian actor-turned-filmmaker Tunde Skovran simply watches them as they interact with family members, doctors and each other. She also incorporates art and boldly imaginative imagery to meaningfully explore how society can embrace these special people.

Chrissy Judy
dir-scr Todd Flaherty; with Todd Flaherty, Wyatt Fenner 22/US ****
While this story is told from the perspective of someone who thinks that 30 is old, it's a lovely look at how friendships ebb and flow over the years. Actor-filmmaker Todd Flaherty has an astute ear for dialog and a terrific eye for comedy, shooting in black and white to give this a classic screwball flavour, complete with a series of lovely nods to Some Like It Hot. Yes, the film is that ambitious, even on what is clearly a very small budget. It's also deeply charming.

Lie With Me [Arrête Avec Tes Mensonges]
dir-scr Olivier Peyon; with Guillaume de Tonquedec, Victor Belmondo 22/Fr ****
Surging with deep emotions that are never sentimental, this French drama explores the power of narratives themselves as a writer confronts an unfinished relationship from his past. Writer-director Olivier Peyon deploys gorgeous cinematography and skilful editing to keep scenes grounded in realism while also cranking up some seriously intense feelings. So the film is romantic, sexy and also provocative in the way it challenges us to meaningfully confront our own history.

Narcissism: The Auto-Erotic Images
dir-scr Toni Karat; with Toni Karat, Birgit Bosold 22/Ger ***
Director Toni Karat perhaps takes on a bit too much with this ambitions project, combining a photography book with a documentary film to explore the idea of self-love. While the images are absolutely stunning, they say even more than the talky interviews, which sometimes feel academic and perhaps even strident. Yes, each point made is an important one, especially when commenting on gender disparity in society. But the nuance gets lost in the spoken words.

BEST OF YEAR
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
dir Laura Poitras; with Nan Goldin, Megan Kapler 22/US ****.
With this extraordinary film, documentarian Laura Poitras takes a multifaceted look at a fascinating artist. As a biography of photographer Nan Goldin, this is a clear-eyed look at her life, work and survival. And it seamlessly connects her efforts to raise awareness of the Sackler family's direct responsibility in more than half a million deaths from opioid addiction. All of this is skilfully woven together with a remarkably gentle hand... FULL REVIEW >

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K

I've been struggling to fit in theatrical releases alongside the festival films this week, but I did manage to see Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in A Good Person, a perhaps overlong but strongly resonant drama about human connections. Keanu Reeves returned for John Wick: Chapter 4, which is a vast improvement over the last couple of chapters, feeling fresher, more stylish and dramatically deeper. Supercell is a rather silly storm-chaser thriller with Skeet Ulrich and Alec Baldwin, overloaded with melodrama and cliches, but still entertaining. And from Italy, The Eight Mountains is a spectacular epic about a complex friendship between two very different young men.

As BFI Flare continues until Sunday, I will also be watching next week's action-fantasy blockbuster Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, Ben Affleck's Nike biopic Air, Alexandra Shipp in Space Oddity, the screen-based thriller Missing, horror comedy Summoning Sylvia, Japanese drama Plan 75, political thriller Cairo Conspiracy and Moroccan drama El Houb. And I also have a stage show to see (review here soon).