Critical Week: A warm hug

The 70th London Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday evening, and I'll be catching up with movies I missed over the next few months, including Elsinore, A Long Winter, Godzilla Minus Zero, Artificial, Tender Loving Care, the list goes on a bit. Meanwhile, Jordan Firstman's filmmaking debut Club Kid became my favourite film of the fest. It's an unusually engaging film with huge emotional resonance. Firstman and newcomer Reggie Absalom also deliver knock-out performances. As does Julianne Moore in Jesse Eisenberg's comedy The Debut, a riotous odyssey set in a community theatre run by a wonderful Paul Giamatti. Clio Barnard creates an astonishing camaraderie amongst the ensemble cast of the lively drama I See Building Fall Like Lightning. And Harvey Zielinski's superbly written and played Australian drama Sweet Milk Lake was a terrific discovery.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Possible Love
Wildwood • Fatherland
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Away from the festival, I saw Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie, Ali G: Who Iz I?, which uses the Borat/Bruno style to coax people into revealing their darkest impulses. It's pointed and important, but the connecting plot is very silly. Then there was the first-person action thriller Bad Day at the Office starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell. It's nonstop chaos, and a little exhausting due to the shaky-cam perspective. I also caught an early screening of The Asscher Cut: A Timeless Legacy, a beautiful and remarkably detailed look at the diamond industry over the past two centuries. And it was fun to revisit Ken Russell's astonishing masterpiece The Devils on the big screen, now with censored scenes restored. Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave are unforgettable in this outrageous, pointed historical romp. There was also a live performance of Tellus at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Andrew Scott in Elsinore, Jack Davenport in Blueberry Inn, Indonesian horror Ghost in the Cell, behind-the-scenes doc Making Marie Antoinette, David Lean doc Maverick and polar bear doc Nuisance Bear, plus live performances of Pia at the Guildhall School and Motionhouse's Hidden at Sadler's Wells.