Critical Week: Aye aye

Now that the key film festivals have taken place, the movie landscape shifts into awards-season mode. I've actually been working on the London Critics' Circle Film Awards since June, but everything kicked up a gear this week, as I've sent our voting roster to studios and for-your-consideration screenings are starting to appear in the calendar. Meanwhile, London Film Festival is revving its gears, and several of these films are already screening two weeks before the festival even starts. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
It Lives Inside
Accused • R.M.N.
PERHAPS AVOID:
Expend4bles
ALL REVIEWS >

As for films I've seen this week, there's the reunion of the fabulous Glenda Jackson and Michael Caine in The Great Escaper, based on a true British story. It's sentimental but also beautifully played by its expert cast. And then there was Expend4bles, nearly a decade after the third movie. But the less starry cast can't explain why the script is so undercooked or the direction so sloppy.

More fun was the breezy crime comedy The Kill Room, starring Uma Thurman, Samuel L Jackson and Joe Manganiello as the art world meets the mob. Accused is a ripping British thriller starring Chaniel Kular as a guy the internet decides is a terrorist, which is something from all of our nightmares. Rhys Darby stars in the goofy time-travel comedy Relax I'm From the Future, which is charming and enjoyably messy. From Northern Ireland, Ballywalter is a comedy with a dry, emotional heart as two unmoored people find a connection. And I also saw the harrowing World War II Poland-set stage play The White Factory at Marylebone Theatre (review up soon).

Films this coming week include the sci-fi epic The Creator, the animated adventure Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, the comedies The Plus One and The Re-Education of Molly Singer, British runway-kids drama I Am Urban and the Hong Kong police drama Where the Wind Blows, plus live events with the Kyiv City Ballet's Tribute to Peace and a street performance called Code of Justice.