Critical Week: Have a scary Christmas

There was a late press screening of this week's holiday horror comedy Krampus this week, the fourth film this year about the mythical Anti-Claus who terrorises families on Christmas. More family-style holiday pleasures were found in The Peanuts Movie, which nicely captures the tone of the original Snoopy and Charlie Brown cartoons with an updated animation style and a gently hilarious story that grown-ups and young children will enjoy.

I also caught up with The Big Short, Adam McKay's comedy about the financial crisis starring the superb Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. Matthew Macfadyen plays a filmmaker in the knowing pastiche Lost in Karastan, which kind of loses its way about halfway through. And the acclaimed Icelandic film Rams is a fiercely clever exploration of an estranged brotherhood in a style best appreciated by arthouse fans.

This coming week we have a screening of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy in The Revenant, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Joy, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in the comedy Sisters, Jackie Chan and Adrian Brody in the action movie Dragon Blade, and Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa.