Critical Week: Feeling grinchy

As movies get increasingly heartwarming, it can be a challenge to ward off that inner Scrooge. Thankfully I have been watching quite a few more disturbing arthouse movies alongside the more warmly emotional wide-audience titles. And then there's A Man Called Otto, the engaging forthcoming Tom Hanks comedy that's a sentimental remake of the much edgier Swedish hit A Man Called Ove. Blockbuster sequel Avatar: The Way of Water also adds an undercurrent of emotion to its visually stunning action violence, as James Cameron creates another epic that entertains on various levels. 

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More offbeat movies contending for awards included, appropriately, the UK's international film entry Winners, an enjoyable romp set about an Oscar statuette that takes its own mini-adventure in rural Iran. Ulrich Seidl's Rimini is a riveting pitch-black comedy about a desperate has-been singer in an off-season seaside resort town. Lukas Dhont's moving drama Close traces a pre-teen's harsh coming-of-age through the disruption of his relationship with his best friend. The hugely involving Polish odyssey EO follows a loveable donkey on an incredible journey that's sweet, challenging and often scary. And last year's crowd-pleasing Oscar nominee Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is set in a gorgeous isolated corner of Bhutan. And outside awards contention were two indie titles: the Italian comedy-drama Marscapone, a warmly intimate look at maintaining your identity within a relationship, and American drama Peridot, an intriguingly loose portrait of a street hustler.

There are still a lot of movies to catch up with as year-end voting deadlines approach, including Will Smith in Emancipation, Lea Seydoux in One Find Morning, Toni Collette in The Estate, Christian Bale in The Pale Blue Eye, the animated adventure The Amazing Maurice, the war epic All Quiet on the Western Front and the David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream.