Critical Week: Don't even think about it, punk

As many of London's critics decamp to Venice for the next 10 days, I'm kind of wishing I was there again this year, but glad I can relax just a little. Although the month is pretty busy with screenings and theatre press nights. The summer blockbusters are behind us, and now we have the usual oddball mix of autumn movies. A bigger one this week was Denzel Washington's return to his vigilante character in The Equalizer 3, which is well made enough to be watchable, but it's still a celebration of brutality. Much higher brow was the festival favourite Past Lives, a simply gorgeous debut for writer-director Celine Song and one of the best films I've seen all year. Then somewhere in between we had Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose, an entertaining 1930s-set British comedy based on a bonkers true story and starring Simon Pegg and Minnie Driver,

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More offbeat fare included Jennifer Reeder's stylised horror Perpetrator, which inventively explores femininity and gender issues with rather a lot of bloodletting. From Japan, The First Slam Dunk is flat-out one of the best films of the year, an animated basketball drama with great characters and thrilling action. From France, another terrific animated adventure in the lively, music-infused sequel Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia. And I also finally caught up with the 1945 British classic romcom I Know Where I'm Going, which was simply heaven to watch on a big screen. There were also lots of FrightFest films.

This coming week I'll be watching the sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, the Armenian drama Amerikatsi, the British doc A Life on the Farm, and the festival films Big Easy Queens and Summer Qamp.

LFF 7: Can't take it anymore

The 60th London Film Festival is charging into its final weekend with a flurry of events and premieres. The red carpets outside the various venues are getting a workout, while the press screenings at Picturehouse Central are packed to overflowing. Here are some highlights from Wednesday and Thursday...

The Rehearsal
dir Alison Maclean; with James Rolleston, Kerry Fox 16/NZ ***.
A clever riff on acting, this drama from New Zealand is packed with terrific actors in complex roles. So even if the bare-boned plot gets a little pushy at times, at least the interaction has a raw honesty to it, exploring some enormous themes through the prism of art. Filmmaker Alison Maclean also injects plenty of jagged humour and understated emotion into the story, which makes it hugely engaging even if the pacing is a little slack.

The Ghoul
dir-scr Gareth Tunley; with Tom Meeten, Dan Skinner 16/UK ****
Moody and riveting, this dark British thriller takes the audience on a surreal journey into the human psyche. It's playful and surprising, with a style clearly inspired by David Lynch as it taps into emotions that the audience might not fully grasp. But we feel it all.

There were also a few films I saw at other festivals. From Venice, three female led dramas: Dakota Fanning and Kit Harington (pictured) in the edgy Western Brimstone, Alice Lowe in the fiendishly clever serial killer comedy Prevenge (pictured at the top), Natalie Portman in the offbeat period drama Planetarium. And from BFI Flare: Russell Tovey in the complex, intriguing football drama The Pass.

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K
Along with LFF movies, I've also had to keep up with the regular releases in cinemas. This week's screenings included a double dose of Tom Hanks: the lacklustre second Da Vinci Code sequel Inferno and the strikingly edgy, well-made Sully, about the amazing real-life landing of a passenger jet in the Hudson River in 2009. And then there was Tom Cruise in the thriller sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Plus a couple of punchy British dramas: Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake, a powerful, uplifting drama about taking on bureaucracy; and Starfish, the dark but moving true story of a man who survived sepsis then struggled to rebuild his life.

Venezia 73: Feeling holy on days 4 & 5

The sun has been out in force over the first week of the 73rd Venice Film Festival - not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the blistering high-20s C (mid-80s F) - and it looks like next week will be more of the same. Meanwhile, the cinemas are air conditioned to shivering point. Anyway, I decided to finally take advantage of this beautiful place and visit the beach this weekend. Lovely! Hopefully I can carve out a few hours soon to go visit the main islands of Venice - I still haven't seen them, except from across the lagoon. But then I'm here for the movies, and here's what I saw this weekend (that's Jude Law, above)...

The Young Pope
dir Paolo Sorrentino; with Jude Law, Diane Keaton 16/It ****
The first two episodes of Paolo Sorrentino's controversial TV series were screened as a feature at the Venice Film Festival. It's a ripping drama that dares to take a playful tone as it sets up the tension between this hot new Pontiff and the establishment he is deliberately trying to rattle. So while it's a lot of fun, it's also rather pointed and ultimately chilling in where it ends up.

Brimstone
dir-scr Martin Koolhoven; with Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce 16/Ned ***.
With a cool, clear eye, Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven creates an expansive Western that vividly captures the perspective of a woman in a harshly male-dominated world. It's a ripping tale, told out of sequence in four overly-gruesome chapters that weave into an epic tale of retribution. There are a few niggling plot points, and the brutality sometimes feels almost celebratory, but the characters and themes are provocative and haunting.

Four Days in France [Jours de France]
dir-scr Jerome Reybaud; with Pascal Cervo, Arthur Igual 16/Fr **
There's a great story at the centre of this rambling, indulgent French drama. it has great characters, strong themes and lovely locations, and yet filmmaker Jerome Reybaud never manages to let the audience into his reasons for anything on-screen. Random scenes, unexplained motivations and a generally aimless structure make it feel even longer than its nearly two and a half hours.

The Untamed [La Región Salvaje]
dir Amat Escalante; with Simone Bucio, Ruth Jazmín Ramos 16/Mex ***.
From Mexico, this defiantly original film mixes relational melodrama with an unusual kind of monster movie. As it circles around a group of people whose interconnections are seriously tortured, a primeval creature complicates things in very strange ways. As a result, the film is almost overpoweringly foreboding. But it's strong group of characters and instantly recognisable situations make it impossible not to get sucked into the madness.

Indivisible [Indivisibili]
dir Edoardo De Angelis; with Angela Fontana, Marianna Fontana 16/It ***
A brittle sense of humour drives this offbeat drama set in a gritty seaside town in Italy. The central story is a bit too quirky to believe, but the gimmick provides enough of a hook to hold the audience's interest and provide some emotional resonance as well. But frankly, once things are set in motion, there aren't many places this story can go.

I'm still planning out what I will see on Monday, but I am aiming to kick the day off with Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge.

Critical Week: Get out, girl!

London-based critics had a chance to catch a press screening of Effie Gray, the true story of a Victorian woman (Dakota Fanning) trying to get out of a sexless marriage so she can run off with a hot painter (Tom Sturridge). Written by and costarring Emma Thompson, it's refreshingly dark and female-focussed. Another bad marriage is at the centre of David Fincher's Gone Girl, although novelist Gillian Flynn's screenplay leaves no doubt who we're supposed to root for. At least both Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike give marvellously layered performances. Susan Sarandon stars in The Calling, a Fargo-style rural-cop mystery that gets surprisingly, and entertainingly, dark. And Steve Carell leads the family antics in the lively comedy Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. 

A little further afield, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina are terrific as a long-time couple whose life takes a turn in the New York drama Love Is Strange; New Zealand comics Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi are hilarious in the reality-TV style vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows; and the American indie comedy-drama Believe Me takes a knowing jab at organised religion.

I also had several screenings as part of the run-up to the London Film Festival (which begins on 8th October): The Keeping Room is an American Civil War horror drama starring Brit Marling and Hailee Stainfeld; Queen & Country is John Boorman's post-war comedy-drama; The Duke of Burgundy is Peter Strickland's astounding exploration of a relationship; the drug-running thriller El Nino is Luis Tosar and Daniel Monzon's followup to Cell 211; A Girl at My Door is a cleverly unnerving Korean drama; and Bjork: Biophilia Live (codirected by Strickland) is a film of the last night in the Icelandic musician's concert tour.

This coming week we'll be watching Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, Bill Murray in St Vincent, John Cusack in Drive Hard, and Joan Allen in A Good Marriage, plus LFF screenings for Bypass, Charlie's Country, Next to Her, Wild Life, Dear White People and more...

LLF 6: That scene-steaing cat

The big red carpet premiere tonight at the 57th London Film Festival was for the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, attended by Joel & Ethan Coen, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman. But as far as I know, the film's feline scene-stealers weren't in attendance. Here are six more highlights...

Inside Llewyn Davis 
dir Joel Coen, Ethan Coen; with Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan 13/US **** 
In a whimsical mood, the Coens explore a musical movement through the eyes of someone who thinks he should cut his losses and run. On the other hand, he has nothing left to lose. Anchored by a hugely engaging performance by Isaac, the film is a meandering odyssey that's packed with great ideas and wonderful characters, leaving us smiling rather than thinking... FULL REVIEW >

Night Moves 
dir Kelly Reichardt; with Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning 13/US ***. 
Reichardt takes on eco-terrorism with her usual askance, original approach to filmmaking, avoiding big thrills for introspective drama and provocative moral dilemmas. Every layer of this film is subtle, which is remarkable when such a hot-potato topic is involved. But it's also a bit sleepy... FULL REVIEW >

Tom at the Farm 
dir Xavier Dolan; with Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal 13/Can **** 
Dolan once again impresses with his robust filmmaking style, this time with a creepy twist on the Hitchcockian thriller. In addition to creating vivid, enticing characters, he keeps the atmosphere warm and witty, so we're not sure whether the next scene will make us laugh or chill us to the bone... FULL REVIEW >

Afternoon Delight 
dir Jill Soloway; with Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple 13/US ***. 
A comedy that travels to some startlingly dark, bleak places, this film takes an intriguingly messy look at sexuality and relationships. With solid performances, there are no easy resolutions here, as the characters essentially have to work out their own issues in order to get on with each other... FULL REVIEW >

Short Term 12 
dir-scr Destin Daniel Cretton; with Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr 13/US **** 
With documentary-style realism, filmmaker Cretton offers a bracingly honest exploration of the fallout from child abuse. But even though the film visits some extremely dark corners, it remains clear-eyed and hopeful about the future. Which helps us engage as we get deeply involved with the characters... FULL REVIEW >

The Last Impressario 
dir Gracie Otto; with Michael White, Lyndall Hobbs 13/UK **** 
This lively, engaging documentary profiles a dying breed. No, this kind of independent producer doesn't exist in the days of the multinational entertainment industry. But Michael White has changed the face of the arts with his resolutely progressive approach to projects. This hasn't made him rich, but he has scores of amazing famous friends... FULL REVIEW >

Critical Week: Meryl's sex tips

UK critics were screened quite a sequence of big name movies over the past week (comments are embargoed on most of them), including Meryl Streep's post-Oscar role in Hope Springs, about a middle aged couple (she's married to Tommy Lee Jones) trying to put the zing back in their wedding. It's nice to see Hollywood dealing with the sexuality of characters who are over 50 for a change. Also on the sex theme, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy star in Hysteria, a livelier, sillier comedy about the development of the vibrator in Victorian England. And a much more serious romance was Now Is Good, with Jeremy Irvine and Dakota Fanning.

Action-wise, we were finally screened Chris Nolan's trilogy closer The Dark Knight Returns, an epic novel of a movie that takes awhile to sink in. It's certainly not a fluffy, fun summer blockbuster! But it's an amazing film that will no doubt dominate box offices for months to come. We also caught up with another Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie, Premium Rush, in which he plays a bike messenger caught up in a whizzy series of action set pieces. More independently, I saw the micro-budget British ensemble comedy Turbulence, a charming film about struggling musicians trying to save their local pub. And I caught the small, uneven American drama La Mission, starring Benjamin Bratt as a macho homophobe who simply can't cope with his son's sexuality.

This coming week, we'll be seeing the Sundance winner Beasts of the Southern Wild, the British brotherly WWI drama Private Peaceful,the ghostly British horror When the Lights Went Out, the Jurassic Park-alike The Dinosaur Project, and the cooking doc El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. And of course it's only 10 days until the Olympics!