Critical week: Doppleganger

In London screening rooms this week, the most memorable image was of Dominic Cooper demonstrating his serious acting chops in The Devil's Double, the violent true story of Latif Yahia's life as a stand-in for the notoriously violent Uday Hussein. Other festival movies on show were: Lars von Trier's evocative Melancholia with Kirsten Dunst, Jodie Foster's offbeat comedy-drama The Beaver with Mel Gibson, Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer in the moving drama Beginners, and Lee Chang-dong's astonishingly beautiful drama Poetry.

We also had Aidan Gillen's reunion with Jamie Thraves for the quirky South London drama Treacle Jr, James Gunn's enjoyably genre-busting superhero drama Super, Dougray Scott in the scruffy British rom-com Love's Kitchen, and the darkly moving Italian period romance Sea Purple.

This week I'm heading to Scotland for the 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival, which kicks off Wednesday night with the Irish action-comedy The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. Of the 17 films already in my EIFF diary, I have David Mackenzie's Perfect Sense, David Hare's Page Eight, James Marsh's Project Nim, and the thriller Trollhunter. Watch for daily festival blogs starting on Thursday, including observations on this year's revamped and stripped-back EIFF.