Critical Week: Double trouble

Tom Hardy himself popped up at the press screening for his stylish and entertaining movie Legend, in which he delivers two astonishing performances as the Kray twins, who ran London's gangland in the 1960s. Ed Helms stars in Vacation, a next-generation sequel to the Chevy Chase comedies that's just as rude but more silly than edgy. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte star in the enjoyably earthy comedy A Walk in the Woods, based on the Bill Bryson book. Marcia Gay Harden heads to Costa Rica in the warm comedy-drama After Words, and has a life-altering encounter with a cheeky local. And Josh Hutcherson heads to Colombia in the realistic, gritty thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost, where he becomes entangled with the 1990s drug kingpin, played with disarming charm by Benicio Del Toro.

A little further afield, we had the sequel Sinister 2, which has an extreme embargo on it: until the day it opens. We also saw the beautifully made gentle Los Angeles drama Brahmin Bulls, with Sendhil Ramamurthy and Roshan Seth as father and son; actor-turned-filmmaker Craig Roberts' perhaps too audacious,but skilfully made British coming-of-age movie Just Jim; actor Steve Oram's even more experimental, and rather genius, sociological pastiche Aaaaaaaah!; the rather bleak but moving Australian homophobia drama Drown; and Dishonoured Bodies, a collection of nine somewhat preachy but very cleverly assembled experimental shorts by Spanish filmmaker Juanma Carillo.

This coming week we have the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton, Zac Efron in We Are Your Friends, Kevin Costner in McFarland, Rupert Friend in Hitman: Agent 47 and M Night Shyamalan's The Visit.

Critical Week: Full of sound and fury

Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender bring their A-game to Macbeth, the visceral new film screened this week to London critics. It's emotional and strikingly visual, but much of Shakespeare's language is muffled in the process. Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer are suave, bickering partners in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a groovy, stylish action romp without a whiff of meaning. The new version of Fantastic Four is a lot more enjoyable than the recent social media storm would suggest, although its final act is deeply flawed. And the surviving members of Monty Python reteamed for the wacky and rather astonishingly terrible sci-fi comedy Absolutely Anything, starring Simon Pegg and the voice of the late Robin Williams.

Even the smaller films were pretty high-profile this week. The Program is Stephen Frears' take on the Lance Armstrong scandal, and Ben Foster's central performance is the best thing about it. War Book is a riveting boardroom-roleplay drama pondering the fallout from nuclear war. Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism is a frantic and rather annoying British kids' romp with an all-star cast including Emily Watson, Lesley Manville and Dominic Monaghan. And The Curse of Downers Grove Air, cowritten by Bret Easton Ellis, is a bleak teen drama that never quite makes its point.

Coming up this week, we have Tom Hardy as both Kray brothers in Legend, Ed Helms in the Vacation sequel/reboot, Josh Hutcherson in Escobar: Paradise Lost, Marcia Gay Harden in After Words, more horror in Sinister 2, dark drama in Drown, family comedy-drama in Brahmin Bulls and a gonzo freak-out in the beautifully titled Aaaaaaaah!

Critical Week: I'll be right here

It was a bit of a mixed bag of screenings this past week, with a variety of expectations leading to so-so movies. Paper Towns has a terrific lead in Nat Wolff, with plenty of presence from Cara Delevingne, but the story never quite develops into anything truly meaningful. Amy Schumer brings her distinct brand of comedy to the big-screen in Trainwreck, with a superior leading-man performance from Bill Hader, but the script hedges too many bets, ultimately winding up as a standard rom-com. And Pixels proves that Adam Sandler needs to take a long break and work out if he wants to make movies anymore. According to this evidence, he gave up long ago.

More intriguing, The Lobster is the latest bit of amazing weirdness from Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth), a pointed relationship satire with Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Ben Whishaw. Max is a predictably slushy boy-and-his-dog movie sideswiped by an unnecessary arms-trade thriller subplot. Captain Webb is an enjoyably quirky low-budget British drama about the first man to swim the Channel, in 1875, but the narrative is pointlessly fragmented. From Ukraine, Stand is a harrowing Moscow-set drama about the result of government-sponsored bigotry against gay men. And the documentary Unity blends 100 starry narrators into a swirling collage about the meaning of humanity, concluding that we should all be vegetarians.

This coming week we have Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong in The Program, and very, very late press screenings for the superhero remake Fantastic Four, the 60s-TV inspired action romp The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the Monty Python gang's alien-invasion comedy Absolutely Anything.

Requisite Blog Photo: Bite me!

Critical Week: Never grow up

I took it relatively easy this week - only six films! And I neglected all of my screener discs and links to escape London for the rainy weekend. So this coming week will be a bit of a catch-up movie marathon. At screenings, there were several enjoyable surprises. Meryl Streep (above) is of course terrific as an ageing rock chick in the snappy family drama Ricki and the Flash. Tom Cruise (below) is lean and ready for action in the dark and involvingly gritty Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. And the terrific Emily Blunt is lean and tough in the riveting drug cartel thriller Sicario, ably supported by Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro on top form.

Less a horror movie than a dark drama about bullying, The Gift is a solid freak-out starring Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and actor turned promising writer-director Joel Edgerton. Danny Huston, Matthew Goode and Joe Cole do what they can with the waterlogged script of the underwater thriller Pressure. And Ian Ziering and Tara Reid are back for another silly romp in Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No, which sees the budget increase but not the filmmakers' skills. At least they keep finding new ways to make us laugh.

Coming up this week, we have Amy Schumer in Trainwreck, Adam Sandler in Pixels, the teen romance Paper Towns, the star-packed doc Unity, the historical British drama Captain Webb and the Russian drama Stand. Plus the aforementioned catching up.

State of the Art Cinema: 2015

The UK Film Distributors' Association launches its annual summer State of the Art Cinema exhibition today, which is free to visitors over six weeks this summer. On display are a series of movie artwork including posters beautifully printed on aluminium, stills from upcoming productions and a few other objects. Essentially the goal is to provide a snapshot of cinema poster design, grouped into such categories as British films, family releases, coming-of-age stories, action, thrillers, biography and documentary. (Several are in the image here.)

The centrepiece of the exhibition is a stunning Lego cinema (right), built using more than 25,000 bricks. It's astonishingly detailed, from the art deco exterior, bustling lobby, detailed snack bar, projection booth and 200-seat cinema with a working screen on which visitors can watch trailers, shorts and even The Lego Movie. It's also populated with hundreds of lego people, including wizards, rock stars and pirates.

Filling just two rooms, the exhibition isn't huge, and is a nice respite while walking the mobbed streets of London over the summer months. It reminds us of favourite films and those we're looking forward to, and fans of the art of poster design will enjoy spotting this year's trends and innovations. (Robert Zemeckis' The Walk certainly breaks some rules - just looking at the poster can induce vertigo!)

State of the Art Cinema is at the Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Street W1T (Goodge Street) 21 July to 7 August, and then moves to the Strand Gallery, 30 John Adam Street WC2N (Charing Cross) 11-28 August. MORE DETAILS >

Critical Week: The homecoming queen's got a gun!

It's been another eclectic week for London-based film critics. One of the more offbeat films was Barely Lethal, starring Hailee Steinfeld (above) as a teen who was raised to be a ruthless spy, then runs away to see what going to high school is like. It's a likeable pastiche of teen movies, although it oddly seems both too safe and too gun-happy. A much more anticipated family movie was a late screening of the already acclaimed new Pixar-Disney animation Inside Out, which had a gala Sunday morning screening introduced by director Pete Docter and cast members Amy Poehler and John Ratzenberger. The lovely film is both a comical adventure and a strikingly honest look at growing up. And it screens with the simply gorgeous short film Lava.

Other big-name films this week included the Ryan Reynolds thriller Self/Less, which starts well but opts to ignore its themes in lieu of a contrived action-thriller plot. And Michael Douglas hunts Jeremy Irvine in the New Mexico desert in Beyond the Reach, which is utterly preposterous but has its moments thanks to the actors and the landscapes.

A bit further afield, we had the indie mob drama 10 Cent Pistol, which is sharply made but waits too long before it lets the audience into the story; the clever, jaw-dropping reality TV romp Shooting the Warwicks, which is one of the blackest comedies you'll ever see; the floaty-whiny indie drama Buttercup Bill, which spends so much time being achingly cool that it forgets to properly tell its story; and the well-made eye-opening doc Bolshoi Babylon, which digs into the controversial workings of the world's top ballet theatre.

This coming week, we have the lean-mean Jake Gyllenhaal in a late screening of Southpaw, Tom Cruise back in action for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation,  Reese Witherspoon and Sofie Vergara in the action-comedy Hot Pursuit, Emily Blunt in the dark drama Sicario, Josh Hutcherson in the drug cartel drama Escobar: Paradise Lost, Danny Huston in the underwater thriller Pressure, and the military dog drama Max.