Critical Week: Where the buffalo roam

As a heatwave sets in around Britain, creating our hottest week of the year so far (in September!), audiences are likely to avoid cinemas in lieu of parks and beaches. So box office data is likely to disappoint come Monday. But there's plenty to see, including one of my very best films of the year, Past Lives. Meanwhile, I finally caught up with Riley Keough and Gina Gammell's award-winning debut War Pony, a strikingly authentic and pointed Native American drama. Nia Vardalos and family are back for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, another charming mess of a movie that wins us over despite ourselves. And Richard E Grant, Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack have a lot of fun with the arch melodrama of The Lesson, an overwrought thriller that doesn't quite hold water but keeps us entertained.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Past Lives • La Ronde
Rotting in the Sun
REVIEWS >

A bit further afield, Carol Morley is back with a bracingly original look at mental illness in Typist Artist Pirate King, which traces an adventurous road trip with under-appreciated British artist Audrey Amiss, powerfully played by Monica Dolan. Rotting in the Sun is a smart and provocatively original mashup of mystery, drama and crime comedy from Sebastian Silva. The British doc A Life on the Farm highlights a true eccentric who made hilariously nutty home movies. And the Australian series (released as a compilation) Single, Out is charmingly awkward as it follows a young guy navigating gay life. I also attended Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at 65 at Sadler's Wells.

This coming week I'll be watching Pablo Larrain's bonkers Pinochet vampire thriller El Conde, Kenneth Branagh's whodunit A Haunting in Venice, British battle epic Gurkha Warrior, Canadian immigration drama Brother, animated adventure Robot Dreams, Spanish drama 20,000 Species of Bees, Laotian monks drama Samsara, Santana doc Carlos, Anselm Kiefer doc Anselm and live shows Deeper and Deeper and Myra Dubois: Be Well.