Critical Week: It's just so hilarious

Judging by the poster image, Hollywood veterans Susan Sarandon, Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton and Robin Williams clearly found their new movie The Big Wedding absolutely hilarious. And there was plenty of laughter at last week's UK press screening, although reviews are embargoed until next Friday. Reviews are also embargoed for Iron Man 3, which was screened to us on Wednesday night with director Shane Black and his cowriter Drew Peace on hand to do a stand-up style introduction. They certainly got us in the right mood for the film.

Off the beaten path: we also saw Olivier Assayas' ambitious but somewhat dry youth-in-revolt drama Something in the Air and the very nicely written and played Spanish drama The Sex of Angels (released this week as The Angels of Sex in the USA), which dares to take a complex and offbeat approach to romance. I also attended the opening night of "The Film That Changed My Life" at the Barbican Centre, which is celebrating the centenary of the Critics' Circle with 14 special screenings at which critics introduce a key film. Friday's launch film was Gillo Pontecorvo's urgent and stunningly relevant 1966 uprising thriller The Battle of Algiers, presented by David Gritten. And from the sublime to the ridiculous, I also had to watch nine episodes of the latest series Spartacus: War of the Damned, in all its ludicrous, bombastic, macho-posturing glory.

This coming week, we'll be seeing Jason Statham in Hummingbird and the Italian drama Shun Li and the Poet. And we also have press screenings all week as part of the Sundance London Film and Music Festival, including Lynne Shelton's Touchy Feely, Sleepwalk With Me, A.C.O.D., Upstream Color, In Fear, In a World, Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, The Kings of Summer, The History of the Eagles (with an appearance by the band), Metro Manila, The Summit and God Loves Uganda. Full coverage of the festival starts here on Thursday....