Critical Week: I think I love you

Last week's big press screening in London was of Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book Where the Wild Things Are, which proved to be an intriguing combination of the two men's imaginations. With Jonze's loose, free-spirited filmmaking and Sendak's darkly clever insights, it's the kind of film that feels a bit too strange on first viewing - but it will no doubt become a favourite in years to come.

I also saw Sandra Bullock's involving true drama The Blind Side, another great performance from Thomas Turgoose in the unsettling British drama The Scouting Book for Boys, and the offbeat but nicely original sci-fi animated 3D adventure Battle for Terra.

This slow stretch looks like it's coming to an end, as awards-consideration screenings start to get much busier over the coming weeks - along with regular press screenings for some of the big year-end blockbusters. Over the next seven days, we'll be seeing the Jeff Bridges Oscar-contending Crazy Heart, Michelle Monaghan's acclaimed performance in Trucker, the starry Hollywood remake of the Danish war drama Brothers, Robert DeNiro in Everybody's Fine, and a trio award-buzzy of British docs: Afghan Star, Only When I Dance and Mugabe and the White African.

Critical Week: No shirts required

OK, no one's hugely surprised at the massive success of the Twilight sequel New Moon - especially since they have so blatantly pandered to their pre-teen girl audience by having all of the boys continually remove their shirts and flex their abs. They finally showed it to the press a few days before its release, and while it's much soapier and mopier than the first film, it at least builds a great sense of moody atmosphere. And the third film is bound to be better simply because David Slade is directing it. But we'll have to wait until the summer to find out.

Also screened this past week were the colourful and cluttered Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Michael Moore's entertaining and blood-boiling Capitalism: A Love Story, the surprisingly involving biographical doc Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, and the surprisingly enjoyable Depeche Mode fan doc The Posters Came from the Walls.

This week I've got Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, Sandra Bullock in the true drama The Blind Side, Thomas Turgoose in the British drama The Scouting Book for Boys, and the 3D sci-fi animation Battle for Terra.

Critical Week: Push the button

It was another slow movie week for London critics - I only saw seven films. One of the biggies was Richard Kelly's new Donnie Darko-esque thriller The Box, with Cameron Diaz facing a moral dilemma about whether or not to push that button. Alas, Kelly dodges the morality fable to instead dive down another of his bizarro sci-fi rabbit holes. The result is fitfully entertaining but ultimately a little annoying.

The week's other major film was another disappointment: Mira Nair's biopic Amelia, starring Hilary Swank as aviation pioneer Amelia Earhardt, should have been a riveting story of a maverick who pushed every boundary she came up against. Instead, it's an earnest, worthy, way over-designed period piece that fails to give its strong cast material they can run with.

Last week I also saw the enjoyable animated sci-fi romp Planet 51, the riveting if a little dry Battlestar Galactica movie The Plan, the silly but ultimately charming holiday comedy Make the Yuletide Gay, the rather aloof Korean childhood drama Treeless Mountain, the entertaining philosophy doc Examined Life.

Next week looks just as light - things won't heat up until awards contenders start crowding the calendar (although I already caught a lot of them at film festivals this year). This week's films include the Twilight sequel New Moon, Michael Moore's new provocation Capitalism: A Love Story, the British rock-scene drama Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, the British rock-fan doc The Posters Came From the Walls, the acclaimed drama The Stoning of Soraya M, the Eddie Izzard doc Believe, and I'm catching up with Percy Adlon's 1991 cult classic Salmonberries, just being released for the first time in the UK.

Critical week: Bump in the night

After weeks of hype, Paranormal Activity was finally screened to UK critics this past week. (One day they'll learn to show us films before the buzz starts so we have a better chance of actually enjoying them.) It's very cleverly made but, needless to say, it doesn't live up to to expectations, possibly because the now-familiar home-video thriller genre isn't new anymore. But there's also the fact that this film doesn't really set up suspense properly.

Much better was the independent drama Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. Despite that mouthful of a title, this is a lean, powerfully involving drama that really grapples with some big issues and features a wonderful performance from newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, plus very strong against-type roles for Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz.

Also last week, we had John Malkovich in the searing South African drama Disgrace, the edgy chucklehead stag-night comedy I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, and the clever 1960s French superspy spoof sequel OSS 117: Lost in Rio.

After the rush of movies during the film festival season, this feels like a holiday. And this coming week even more sparse, with Hilary Swank in the aviatrix drama Amelia, Cameron Diaz in the thriller The Box, the animated sci-fi comedy Planet 51, the Korean drama Treeless Mountain and the education doc Examined Life.

Critical Week(s): Christmas is coming

Over the past two weeks during the London Film Festival, I still had to see all the normal film releases along with the festival things. And it's clear that the studios are preparing for the holiday season as usual, with such offerings as: Robert Zemeckis' eye-popping motion-capture animated version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, starring a very recognisable Jim Carrey as Scrooge, plus Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Robin Wright - plus 3D effects that are among the best I've ever seen. Rather less thrilling was the British comedy Nativity!, with a decent cast that includes Martin Freeman, Mark Wootton and Ashley Jensen but a script that's pretty much bereft of sense or humour until the rousing finale sends us out smiling.

Other movies screened to critics outside the festival included the enjoyable but lacklustre kids' thriller Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant; the thoroughly engaging all-star Tolstoy drama The Last Station, with Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy; the wacky blurred sexuality comedy Mr Right; the astonishingly good four-hour Japanese rom-com Love Exposure; and one of the most shamelessly raucous entertainments I've seen in ages in the world-destroying mega-disaster epic 2012. As for the Michael Jackson concert-rehearsal documentary This Is It, there were no press screenings at all, so we had to go buy a ticket - imagine that!

LFF16: That's a wrap

For the closing night of the 53rd London Film Festival, the glitterati took to the Leicester Square red carpet in droves at the world premiere of Nowhere Boy. The charge was led by the film's director and star, Sam Taylor-Wood and Aaron Johnson (pictured), and virtually the entire cast was on hand along with all of London's celebrity community it seems, from Joe Wright to Alison Goldfrapp.

Meanwhile, the awards have been handed out, and the winners are...

• Film: A Prophet
• Documentary: Defamation
• British Newcomer: screenwriter Jack Thorne (The Scouting Book for Boys)
• First Feature: Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani (Ajami)
• BFI Fellowships: John Hurt (44 Inch Chest/The Limits of Control), Souleymane Cisse (Tell Me Who You Are)

The winners (left to right): Yaron Shani, A Prophet star Tahar Rahim, John Hurt, Jack Thorne, Defamation director Yoav Shamir and Souleymane Cisse.

And finally, here are three film highlights from the last day of the festival...

Nowhere Boy

dir Sam Taylor-Wood; with Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas 09/UK *****

With a plot that's scruffy and chaotic, and remarkably like real life, this biopic of a couple of years in the life of the teen John Lennon (Johnson) is thoroughly engaging on several levels. Not only is it an entertaining film, packed with lively characters and astonishing events, but it also shines a light on a little-known chapter in the life of a young man who had no idea he would go on to change the world. And for a directing debut, it's also a remarkably well-made film, shot with skill and unafraid to go into some very dark places. And if Scott Thomas' role as Lennon's aunt and guardian feels a little one-note, there are some terrific moments later on, and the entire cast is seriously strong.

Don't Worry About Me

dir David Morrissey; with James Brough, Helen Elizabeth o9/UK ***

For his feature directing debut, Morrissey returns to his hometown Liverpool to adapt the stage play by costars Brough and Elizabeth. The result is an interesting story, but it's very difficult to engage with ... REVIEW >

Persecution

dir Patrice Chereau; with Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg 09/Fr ***

Adeptly capturing a sense of urban angst, this film follows a very angry young man (Duris) whose world seems to be collapsing around him - although he doesn't think anything is remotely his fault. The problem, really, is why he has any friends at all, since the only thing he does is grump and moan about everyone else. Meanwhile, a stranger is stalking him, vandalising his flat and professing his undying love. Chereau is a very good filmmaker, and he gets the moody tone exactly right, but it's also intensely close-up yet enigmatic . So it's difficult to feel any sympathy for anyone. And even though it's constantly watchable, it feels like a relief when the film ends.

LFF15: Rising stars

It's the penultimate night of the 53rd London Film Festival, and today Leicester Square was being dressed for tomorrow's closing night event, even though there are two days of movies still to go. The big event tonight was the awards ceremony, attended by a range of actors and filmmakers who had their work on here - Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) is pictured above, with Dominic Cooper (An Education) below. Other guests included Charlotte Rampling (Life During Wartime), David Morrissey (Don't Worry About Me), Stephen Poliakoff (Glorious 39), J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), John Hurt (44 Inch Chest), Hugh Bonneville (From Time to Time), Jordan and Ridley Scott (Cracks), Jarvis Cocker (Fantastic Mr Fox) and Paul King (Bunny & the Bull). The actual award winners aren't announced until tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are some films shown today...

A Serious Man

dir Joel & Ethan Coen; with Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind 09/US *****

The Coen Brothers are back with yet another shift of gear. And this is just about as unexpected as you can get from them - a star-free drama about a Jewish guy in 1967 Minnesota trying to figure out why his life seems so out of control. The film is absolutely wonderful, packed with dry wit and laugh-out-loud absurdity, plus excellent performances from the ensemble case, led by the marvellous Stuhlbarg. And as it progresses, it actually grapples with some extremely profound issues without ever getting heavy about it - right up to the big questions about the meaning of life. Their conclusions may seem a bit snarky, but the film really gets our heads spinning, even as it tells a terrific story.

Taking Woodstock

dir Ang Lee; with Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton 09/US ***

While this feels like an oddly light film from Ang Lee, there's actually quite a bit of serious subtext throughout this light comedy tracing the local side of the story behind the Woodstock festival. The oddest thing about the film is the way it centres around a young guy (Martin) who's not hugely interesting but plays the pivotal role in getting the event up and running. Much more fun are characters who are way over the top (Staunton and Eugene Levy), comically zoned out (Paul Dano and Kelli Garner) or just plain hilarious (Emile Hirsch and Liev Schreiber). The 1960s vibe is extremely effective, which is probably why the film feels so loose and groovy, but a bit more edge might have made it important as well.

Starsuckers

dir Chris Atkins; with Max Clifford, Wesley Aubrey 09/UK ***

While this doc is packed with terrific material, it takes a far too scattershot approach, linking the material together with a magician/showman motif that never works and actually feels condescending. The focus is society's obsession with celebrity - both reading about them and becoming one - and Atkins makes some startlingly important observations along the way. The film is full of extremely clever and telling pranks, such as planting false stories that are picked up across the newspapers with no fact-checking. But the film feels fragmented and directionless - and many of the small stories could use their own documentary (such as a look at getting onto reality TV and the harsh analysis of Live 8). In the end, we have learned a lot, but feel unsure what to make of it all. Perhaps this would work better as a multi-part TV series with each chapter fleshed out more meaningfully.