Critical Week: It's only a cartoon

For London critics, last week's blockbuster was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a mind-bogglingly noisy cacophany of state-of-the-art animation and sound mixing. After the rather enjoyable 2007 film, this felt oddly soulless, and you had to keep reminding yourself that there were human characters in it at all. Much more human were the week's smaller movies, including the lovely Irish odyssey Kisses and the hilariously fascinating Vogue documentary The September Issue. Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is yet another gritty Iraq drama, but it's also more harrowing than most, and anchored by an amazing performance from Jeremy Renner. And Mid-August Lunch is a wonderful surprise from Italy about a man trying to cope with an invasion of old ladies.

A small film that should have been more likeable was Adam, a relentlessly quirky romance that's also the closing night film at the imminent Edinburgh Film Festival. I'm actually writing this from Scotland, where press screenings have started - the festival kicks off with Sam Mendes' Away We Go on Wednesday.

I'll be blogging daily about this festival as well as the equally imminent Los Angeles Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday (I'm flying over there next Tuesday). Yes, I'm covering two simultaneous festivals separated by an 11-hour flight - call me crazy...