Critical Week: So in love

It's been another busy week at the movies, as Cannes announced its programme of films, instantly launching next year's awards season with a bang. Almodovar! Refn! Pawlikowski! Farhadi! Zvyagintsev! Kore-eda! Sachs! Hamaguchi! Dhont! The Javis! Meanwhile, I bought a ticket to see Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in The Drama, because I wasn't invited to the one and only press screening. I really enjoyed it, an unhinged black comedy that pushes the audience to take a side.

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Otherwise, there was the family comedy whodunit The Sheep Detectives, an enjoyably silly Babe-style romp starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson, with the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Bryan Cranston. Keanu Reeves leads Jonah Hill's quirk-filled Outcome, a smart comedy-drama about Hollywood packed with fantastic characters. The cast includes Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Martin Scorsese and Susan Lucci. Gaten Matarazzo, Lulu Wilson and Sean Giambrone star in the riotous stoner comedy Pizza Movie, which is far smarter than it looks thanks to filmmakers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney. The Japanese anime romcom ChaO looks like nothing you've ever seen, and tells an oddly engaging story about a man who marries a fish. And I also attended a special cast and crew screening of the pointed and involving short film Geronto, plus a live performance of Palatable Gay Robot at Udderbelly Boulevard.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the British romcom Finding Emily, Jude Law in The Wizard of the Kremlin, Charli XCX in Erupcja, Bob Odenkirk in Normal, John Magaro in Koln 75, the romantic comedy Almost Us and the French comedy-drama Colours of Time.

Critical Week: Nothing to see here

This has been a very odd month for me, watching my hometown Los Angeles battle such devastating wildfires from afar, while also grappling with the political ramifications of what's happening across that country in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, I have been busy as the chair of the London Film Critics' Circle, as we prepare to present our winners at a starry ceremony in about 10 days. So my movie-watching has been somewhat limited. But I did manage to catch Back in Action, the action comedy starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz in the usual story of former spies whose past catches up with them. The plot is simplistic, but the film is well-made, they have great chemistry, and the cast includes Andrew Scott and Glenn Close, so it's well worth a diverting watch on Netflix.

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A bit more highbrow is Steven Soderbergh's take on the horror genre with Presence, although it's more of a gentle ghost story than a freakout. The pace and introspection might annoy genre fans, but it's strikingly shot and acted with unusual subtlety. From Ireland, Four Mothers is a hugely engaging comedy about a young writer (James McArdle) caring for his sparky mother (the great Fionnula Flanagan) when three of his friends drop off their own demanding mothers for a weekend. It's knowing, funny and thoroughly entertaining. The documentary Luther: Never Too Much is a warm celebration of Luther Vandross' indelible musical talent, packed with terrific performance and backstage footage, but only a brief glimpse into his personal life. And it was great to finally see Peter Weir's haunting and dreamy classic Picnic at Hanging Rock projected on a big screen, pristinely restored for its 50th anniversary.

This coming week, I'll be watching are Companion with Jack Quaid and You're Cordially Invited with Reese Witherspoon, plus a big-screen preview of the TV series Paradise. But most of my time will be spent organising the London Critics' Circle Film Awards ceremony on Sunday 2nd February.

Critical Week: Side of beef

London critics caught up with the new Zac Efron/Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors (international title Bad Neighbours) this week, but aren't allowed to talk about the film quite yet. Suffice it to say that Zac doesn't like to wear a shirt, for obvious reasons. Also embargoed (until tomorrow) is the Cameron Diaz/Leslie Mann comedy The Other Women, costarring Kate Upton, Nicolai Coster-Waldau and Nicki Minaj. And I need to wait until next week to review Plastic, a British heist movie starring rising-star young Brits Ed Speleers, Will Poulter and Alfie Allen.

But I can talk about: Transcendence, the achingly slow sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany and Rebecca Hall; Pompeii, the wonderfully preposterous Ancient Roman disaster romp starring Kit Harington and a villainous Kiefer Sutherland; Authors Anonymous, a funny but uneven improv-style comedy starring Chris Klein and Kaley Cuoco; Benny & Jolene, an uneven and awkward improv-style British comedy starring Charlotte Ritchie and Craig Roberts; and Who Is Dayani Cristal?, a clever, powerful dramatic documentary about immigration from Central to North America.

This coming week we've got Paul Walker's thriller remake Brick Mansions, Roman Polanski's theatrical drama Venus in Furs, Ozu's classic An Autumn Afternoon and fashionable pensioner doc Advanced Style. I also have a line-up of screenings this week as part of the Sundance London Festival, which runs next weekend. In my diary are, alphabetically: The Case Against 8, Drunktown's Finest, Finding Fela, Hits, Kumiko, Little Accidents, Memphis, The One I Love, They Came Together and The Voices. I'll be blogging and tweeting about Sundance from Friday.

Critical Week: James Franco's eyes

Yes, James Franco goes evil for the new Jason Statham thriller Homefront, about a former government agent hiding out in a Louisiana bayou with his young daughter. Comments on the film are embargoed until it opens in a couple of weeks. Comments are also embargoed for Vince Vaughn's new film Delivery Man, Ken Scott's own remake of his 2011 French Canadian comedy-drama Starbuck, about a guy who discovers he has 533 kids due to a mix-up at a sperm bank.

I can however comment on Ridley Scott's new film The Counsellor, a slickly made thriller with an impenetrable story and characters, which leaves it oddly uninvolving. But Michael Fassbender and Penelope Cruz are especially good in a cast that includes Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. Free Birds is the Thanksgiving-themed animation that mixes wildly inane storytelling and some hilariously deranged humour.

A bit further off the beaten path, the British comedy-drama Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson is a charming if somewhat silly farce about a small group of people watching the nailbiting final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. And then there were three Jewish movies: Cupcakes is Eytan Fox's massively entertaining pastiche of Eurovision mania with a terrific cast and great songs; Fill the Void is an involving drama set within an Orthodox Jewish family; Let My People Go is an enjoyably wacky French comedy about the romantic problems of a young gay man and his particularly nutty Jewish family.

This coming week I only have a couple of screenings in the diary: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire screens to the UK press on Friday 8th November ahead of its world premiere in London on Monday night. And I have an awards-consideration screening of Matthew McConaughey's Dallas Buyers Club. I've also got a number of videos to watch before I fly out next Friday for two weeks with family and friends in Southern California, where of course I hope to catch up with a few other things....

Critical Week: Nasty turbulence

Things continue to be a bit odd for London-based film critics at the moment, with a blinding combination of press screenings and awards-consideration screenings - all of which carry differing embargo rules. It's a minefield. The biggest film I saw this past week is also heavily embargoed, despite the fact that it's been in US cinemas for two weeks already. So even though there are more than 500 reviews online for Flight, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemeckis, I can't tell you what I thought of the film until February. I also saw Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in the funny but uneven Gambit; and the action-packed, visually thrilling animated action ensemble Rise of the Guardians.

Further off the beaten path, we had Toni Collette's reunion with Muriel's Wedding director PJ Hogan for the sharply pointed and often very funny Aussie black comedy Mental; Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the slightly unconvincing alcoholism drama Smashed, the effectively icky body modification thriller American Mary, the beautifully made dark Spanish thriller Sleep Tight, and the awkward but endearing American indie romance Elliot Loves.

Awards screenings this coming week include Judd Apatow's Knocked-up spin-off This Is 40, a rescheduled screening of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and Gus Van Sant's reunion with Matt Damon in Promised Land. We also have the retro Disney animation Wreck-it Ralph, the Belgian award-winner Bullhead, the Canadian comedy-drama Starbuck, Chris Smith's Indian drama The Pool (made in 2007 and only just not getting a UK release), the 2012 Olympics doc First and the Japanese horror X Game.