Critical Week: Iconic

Press screenings last week were a bit unusual, as I caught up with several things that are far off the beaten path. The most, erm, iconic film was Chevolution, a fascinating documentary about that ubiquitous photograph, which has become the global logo for people power. The thoroughly entertaining film also tells the story of Che Guevara and the photographer who snapped the pic in 1960.

Also last week, I saw one of my favourite films of the year so far: Tricks, a disarmingly well-made little film by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Jakimowski. There was also Steven Soderbergh's experimental sex/money drama The Girlfriend Experience; the award-gobbling and rather gorgeous French painter biopic Seraphine; the well written and played coming out drama Mulligans; and the surfing doc Bustin' Down the Door, which is fun to watch but pretty much like most surfing docs. And I also caught up with Michael Winterbottom's astonishing debut feature Butterfly Kiss (just reissued on dvd), an unforgettable road movie with a fierce central performance from Amanda Plummer.

In addition, I had time for two theatre nights: Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a rowdy and colourful musical version of the film, and I Bought a Blue Car Today is a one-man show with Alan Cumming singing songs and telling witty stories from his life in film and theatre. Both were great nights out!

And now I'm on holiday for a week - not even taking the laptop - so the blog will take a break next week as well. I'm not even sure what I'll be watching when I get back - I only have two screenings in the diary: the festival favourite Unmade Beds and the animated monster movie 9.