Critical Week: Tea, biscuits and a spot of murder

Cinemas are a bit busier, as a bunch of high-profile movies arrive in the weeks before the autumn festival season kicks off awards season. This time of year also signals the return of London's FrightFest, which plays out over this long weekend. I've been watching those scary movies all week, and have many more to see between now and Monday night. As the festival kicked off tonight in Leicester Square, I was across the way attending the UK premiere of the all-star British whodunit The Thursday Murder Club, starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie (above). Unsurprisingly, it's warm and funny, perfectly cosy entertainment.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sorry, Baby • Battleship Potemkin
Eddington • Dongji Rescue
ALL REVIEWS >

We finally got to see The Toxic Avenger, shot three years ago and now being released uncut. Peter Dinklage has a lot of fun as Toxie in this hilariously messy remake, which is packed with pointed satire and gleefully excessive gore. Danny Power gives a terrific debut performance in the intimate Irish drama Christy, the involving story of a teen discovering who he is. From China, Dongji Rescue is a thrilling true WWII action story told on a grand scale. Its set pieces are seriously heart-pounding, and the characters are great. And from Germany, the animated romp Grand Prix of Europe sends animals on a racing tour, punctuating every scene with nutty slapstick silliness.

This coming week I'll be watching several more FrightFest movies (quick reviews will be here over the weekend), plus Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Roses, Austin Butler in Caught Stealing, the Japanese drama Happyend and the restored 1980 thriller Night of the Juggler.

Critical Week: Scary movies

It's been a busy week at the movies for me, even if the cinemas are a bit hit and miss at the moment, with a bunch of releases that look unlikely to threaten Barbie's dominance of the box office. I finally caufht up with Disney's remake of Haunted Mansion, which is as much of a limp mess as the 2003 film was, abandoning characters for corny references and mindless action. Much better was Aporia starring Judy Greer, an inventive and involving time-bending drama with no special effects at all. I also enjoyed Ben Kingsley teaming up with Jane Curtin and Harriet Sansom Harris in the stranded-alien caper Jules, which is simple and charming.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Red, White & Royal Blue
Aporia • Dreamin' Wild
L'Immensita • Medusa Deluxe
PERHAPS AVOID:
Haunted Mansion
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A bit further afield was the gorgeous stop-motion animation in The Inventor, which recounts the story of Leonardo da Vinci with wit and colour. Lucy Hale and Grant Gustin star in the cute romcom Puppy Love, which is fine for those looking for something unsurprising. Jeremy Allen White is terrific in a supporting role in Fremont, a clever and very quirky arthouse movie about Afghan immigrants. The superb Japanese drama Love Life remains remarkably sunny as it explores some very dark themes. And the Romanian drama RMN takes no prisoners in its exploration of xenophobia in a rural community.

This coming week I'll be up in Edinburgh watching shows at the Fringe and covering them here. I also have a couple of films to catch up on if there's time. I also hope to reattend the new staging of La Cage Aux Folles at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, as the press night was rained out after about an hour of the show on Tuesday.

Critical Week: If looks could kill

Yes, it's been yet another eclectic week in the screening rooms, as film critics scavenged for press previews of movies so we could write about them. Films this week were relatively low-key, a gasp of breath between the summer blockbusters and the early trickle from the autumn film festivals. There was the moody police procedural Night Hunter, starring Alexandra Daddario and Henry Cavill (above) as cops, along with Ben Kingsley as a vigilante. The week's biggest movie was screened to us in nearly three hours of Imax, namely It: Chapter Two. The original kids are back in flashbacks with the likes of James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader playing them as adults. It's grislier than the first film, and a bit more grown-up in its themes, but more fun than scary. And Sarah Hyland stars in the rom-com The Wedding Year, which feels fluffy and genuinely witty as it mixes some deeper ideas into the usual formula.

Off the beaten path there was the sleek, low-budget thriller Empathy Inc, shot in black and white and full of big ideas, some of which go somewhere. Seeds is a brainy freak-out in which yucky monsters menace a flawed man in his old-money family home. Bathroom Stalls & Parking Lots is a lively, raucous night in the streets with two gay buddies. It feels scruffy and a little unfinished. From Argentina, Rojo is a strikingly clever drama exploring 1970s politics with a very dark story. And ee also had the programme launch for next month's London Film Festival, which as always will be a glut of great movies across the city's cinemas.

Coming up this next week, awards contenders are starting to rear their heads, as well as some autumn crowd-pleasers: Renee Zellweger is Judy, Brad Pitt goes into space for Ad Astra, the entire Downton Abbey cast reassembles on the big screen, Jennifer Lopez leads a pack of Hustlers, and Sea of Shadows documents environmental issues surrounding fishing.

Critical Week: A horse and his boy

We seem to be in the dog days of summer, as distributors unload festival titles that they couldn't figure out what else to do with. It's a glut of variable quality, some very good, some only OK (I've seen half of the 16 titles opening in the UK this week). At least there are intriguing things at arthouse cinemas beyond the dregs of the blockbusters. This week's press screenings featured the drama The Mustang starring Matthias Schoenaerts (above), terrific as an inmate at a Nevada prison who begins to find himself through working with a horse. It's beautifully shot, and very moving, but nothing terribly new. A great supporting role for Bruce Dern makes it worth a look.

The eclectic mix includes Scarborough, a strikingly well-made, darkly involving adaptation of a four-person play nicely adapted for the big screen with Jessica Barden, Jodhi May, Edward Hogg and Jordan Bolger. The Belgian thriller Spider in the Web rides on an effortless performance by Ben Kingsley as a veteran Mossad agent who simply gets on with the job despite all kinds of murky goings-on. Monica Bellucci costars in an underwritten role. A fiercely unflinching autobiographical drama from actor-filmmaker Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Farming tackles a thorny historical topic in a personal way. It's provocative and intense, but almost misses the best part of the story. From Norway, Phoenix is a relentlessly grim story about a 14-year-old grappling with family issues. It's not easy to watch, but is very well made. And then there was the documentary sequel All Male, All Nude: Johnsons, which again takes a homemade approach as it looks at world of male strippers at Johnsons in Ft Lauderdale. It's not very deep, and includes far too much footage from the first film (about an Atlanta club).

This coming week, while many of my colleagues are in Venice, I'll be watching the anticipated sequel It: Chapter Two, the South African drama Cargo, the sci-fi thriller Empathy Inc, and the queer comedy-drama Bathroom Stalls & Parking Lots. And I'm chasing screenings of Downton Abbey, Judy, The Farewell and Hustlers, among others.