Critical Week: A family portrait

Three big sequels were screened this week for the press. The big one was the world premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, attended by most of the cast and crew. The film is a worthy farewell to this franchise, and there are no surprises. Which makes it even more cosy and comforting. A lot more fun was Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, continuing the hilarious mock-doc comedy antics of the world's favourite fake British heavy metal band. And then there were Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga back for one more time as the ghostbusting Warrens in The Conjuring: Last Rites, which works best when it centres on the characters rather than the rather silly ghostly creep-out.

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We also had Benedict Cumberbatch in The Thing With Feathers, an artful exploration of grief that really gets under the skin. Cooper Hoffman leads The Long Walk, based on a Stephen King novel set in a 1970s American dystopia. It's very dark, but also compelling and thought-provoking. The horror thriller Good Boy skilfully unfolds through a dog's-eye-view, which makes it unusual enough to catch us off guard. And the British drama Brides addresses a very thorny issue with engaging characters and a sharp sense of youthful hope.

There are fewer screenings this coming week, largely due to the week-long Tube strikes, but among films I'll be watching are Emma Thompson in Dead of Winter, Michael Chiklis in The Senior, Adam Bessa in Ghost Trail and Justin Kurzel's Warren Ellis doc Ellis Park.

Critical Week: Watch the hands

Actual in-person screenings were back with a vengeance this week, after a recent slow stretch. And yes, it was great to settle into proper cinemas and screening rooms to watch movies on a big screen where they belong. Especially a film as visually astounding as Everything Everywhere All at Once, which stars Michelle Yeoh as a middle-aged woman thrown into parallel-reality craziness. Thankfully, the filmmakers remember that this is about real human emotions rather than wacky science. The big screen also helped with the lavishly designed Downton Abbey: A New Era, a return to the upstairs-downstairs drama with an enormous ensemble of likeable characters, each of whom somehow gets some good screen time. It's just what's expected, which is both comforting and a bit boring.

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Elsewhere, Mark Wahlberg tells the inspiring true tale of boxer-turned-priest Father Stu. There's only a slight rough edge to what should be a more complex story. Sophie Marceau is terrific in I Love America, a gentle comedy about a French filmmaker who moves to California. And the Moroccan drama Casablanca Beats bristles with life as a rapper teaches a group of lively, politically engaged students to create music.

A little further afield, Nick Cave lets the cameras watch as he and Warren Ellis create music in the gorgeously shot documentary This Much I Know to Be True. Robert Bresson's masterful 1959 morality tale Pickpocket gets a pristine big-screen restoration. And the documentary White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch just about makes sense of the clothing brand's horrible history of employment prejudice, while completely missing the point of why the clothes were so popular (and perhaps aren't so much now).

This coming week features another long weekend, and I'll also be watching a range of films including Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Irish coming-of-age drama The Quiet Girl, the Danish black comedy Wild Men, the chilean romance The Sea, the Iranian drama Atabai, and the Palestinian bombing doc Eleven Days in May.

Critical Week: Turn the tables

The women ruled at this week's press screenings. Jennifer Lopez (with Constance Wu, above) chomps merrily on the scenery all the way through Hustlers, a far-too-energetic retelling of a true story about strippers who con Wall Street clients out of their cash. Renee Zellweger is nothing short of astonishing in the terrific biopic Judy, following a few months near the end of the icon's life with passion and emotional power. And Downton Abbey brings those fabulous grand dames to the big screen. The men are there too, but who cares when Maggie Smith is shooting daggers at Penelope Wilton?

Brad Pitt travels into space, and into his own repressed daddy issues, in the muted and rather odd Ad Astra, a gorgeous sci-fi epic that simply fails to resonate. Peter Sarsgaard leads the charge as a quirky-nerdy house tuner in The Sound of Silence, a nutty little drama that's more intriguing than involving. From Colombia, Monos is a ripping dramatic thriller about a group of teens working for some sort of paramilitary organisation, isolated in the mountains and then jungle. It looks amazing, and packs a punch. And there were two documentaries: the harrowing Sea of Shadows skilfully traces the horrors inflicted by humans on the diverse sea life in the Gulf of California, while Mother is a sensitive, powerfully moving look at a carer who works with European Alzheimer's patients in Thailand.

This coming week, there are no press screenings for Sylvester Stallone's franchise closer Rambo: Last Blood, so we'll be at the cinemas with everyone else to see this swan song. But we do have screenings lined up for the comedy-horror Ready or Not, Awkwafina in the comedy-drama The Farewell, Dev Patel in the true drama Hotel Mumbai, the claymation sequel A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Celine Sciamma's acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire and the British drama Real. Advance press screenings also start next week for the BFI London Film Festival (which runs 2-13 Oct).

Shadows on the Screen: Winter TV roundup

Christmas break is a great time to binge watch things I've banked up for months, alternating them with studio screener discs of movies seeking awards consideration. Most of these are limited series that completed their runs (or at least this season) before Christmas. The other three built to a mid-season cliffhanger and will be back in the spring...

DISCOVERIES 

You, Me and the Apocalypse

This offbeat UK-US hybrid has heavyweight comical brilliance in the cast (Rob Lowe, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman) and a likeable double lead in Matthew Baynton. So there were moments of both comical and dramatic genius in this multi-strand tale of the final month before an asteroid obliterates life on Earth. But the tone resolutely refused to gel, existing somewhere in that space between goofy slapstick and edgy satire. In the end, it managed to entertain right to the awkward ending. Would I watch a second series? Possibly, if I needed something vacuous to fill the time.

Master of None

Aziz Ansari brought his stand-up persona to the TV series format in this intriguing hybrid of sitcom and anthology show. Each episode addresses a single theme,while allowing the characters to deepen engagingly. Even the minor roles had layers of complexity rarely seen in TV comedy, popping in and out of episodes like people do in real life - bringing their individual complications with them. It's also a rare show with a proper gender and ethnic angle that mirrors real life. As a result, the 10 episodes seemed to go by far too quickly. Would I watch a second series? Obviously.

Minority Report

Based on both the Philip K Dick novel and the Steven Spielberg movie, this futuristic series had some clever themes and a sharp visual design to it. On the other hand, it badly simplified the moral issues involved, often reducing the premise to a cheesy cop drama that, despite having a strong female lead in Meagan Good, felt eerily misogynistic (apparently in the future women are required to wear plunging necklines, which men have to oogle). This is probably because, as the series progressed, the writers stubbornly refused to add any proper depth to the characters. Would I watch a second series? I doubt it.

The Man in the High Castle

Also based on a Philip K Dick novel, this Amazon series takes a look at a parallel-reality 1960 in which the Nazis and Japanese won the war, dividing up America between them. The result is an intriguing mix of fantasy and political drama, packed with very big issues. It also boasts a terrific cast of likeable actors in complex, sympathetic roles. On the other hand, the production design was almost comically gloomy, and the plotting sometimes felt badly under-developed. But in the end, the intriguing "what if..." themes add a strong kick. Would I watch a second series? Yes, although I wish they'd let the story end properly this time round.

London Spy

More gloominess, this time in an even more relentlessly dark and grey present-day London, where a hapless young guy (the superb Ben Whishaw) discovers that his beloved late boyfriend was actually a spy. Strong support from Jim Broadbent, with spicy roles for underused stars like Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Kate Dickie and Adrian Lester. The production does a great job of creating a moody, paranoid atmosphere, although a hint of fresh air might have made it more engaging. And a plot that had somewhere interesting to go. Would I watch a second series? Probably. I like moody.

MORE DRAMA

Downton Abbey: series 6

Julian Fellowes managed to keep the quality high right to the end of this final season, even if the show has relentlessly smoothed out every intriguing edge with each successive year. This climactic series, plus the two-hour finale, was never as dark or surprising as we hoped. But it gave all of the characters both narrative intrigue and lots of camp one-liners as it brought every plot thread (and then some) to a close. If anything, this last season was even funnier than the previous years, so perhaps it was a good idea to go out on a high.

Fargo: series 2

Instead of playing it safe, producers took this show back 25 years into a massive gang war. The result isn't quite as likeable as the first season, but it's even more provocative and textured, with a large cast of unforgettable characters, most of whom end up dead. Standouts include Kristen Dunst's blank hairdresser and her helpful butcher husband (Jesse Plemmons), two observant and measured local cops (Patrick Wilson and Ted Danson), a charismatic interloper (Bookeem Woodbine), a tenacious native American (Zahn McClarnon) and a matriarch (Jean Smart) who rules through gritted teeth. What happens is twisty, messy and so sprawling that it constantly requires narration to find the path through it. Fiendishly clever.

Transparent: series 2

Quite simply the most beautiful series in production at the moment, this second season pushed all of the characters much, much further, grappling with enormous issues of gender and sexuality, as well as family connections. All of these people are deeply flawed, which makes them eerily easy to identify with as they struggle to find their way. And the brief explorations of how their family's history echoes down through the decades was seriously haunting.

Homeland: series 5

Claire Danes' now ex-CIA operative Carrie Mathison may have gone off the grid for this series, but the writers cleverly managed to bring her right into the middle of a massive terrorist plot. The Berlin setting gave the show a blast of fresh air, as did the inclusion of Miranda Otto as a shifty US official. Along the way, there was some strong, complex drama and several heart-stopping moments, beautifully staged in intriguing locations. And it concludes on a note that allows the show to reboot again somewhere new next year.

MORE COMEDY

You're the Worst: series 2

One of the darkest sitcoms ever made, this strikingly original show delved into depression this year in a way that was unexpected, honest and powerfully moving. This isn't something comedy series usually do, but the cast and crew managed it here while maintaining the show's hilariously brittle vibe,. They also constantly, inventively push these outrageous characters forward. Unmissable.

Doll & Em: Series 2

Dolly Wells and Emily Mortimer continue their rather silly friendship, this season as they tried to write a play about their lives. The show is fiendishly knowing, dry and witty but more telling and emotional than funny. It constantly catches the audience by surprise with its astute comments on both friendship and show business. But the low-key approach sometimes tests the patience.

Please Like Me: series 3

This Australian sitcom is maturing year-by-year into something unusually observant, as its gang of young characters (led by creator-actor Josh Thomas) navigate their way into the thorny grown-up world of relationships and family. Constantly surprising and packed with unexpected laugh-out-loud moments, the show also had a stronger, more resonant emotional undercurrent this year.

The Muppets

This reboot of The Muppet Show cleverly sets the chaos around a late-night TV show hosted by Miss Piggy, which offers the promise of lots of starry guests sending themselves up. But the style of the show (a mock-doc) and the humour (The Office-style idiocy) utterly fail to catch the singular genius of the Muppets. It simply isn't smart, sweet or funny. I lasted four episodes and gave up.

MID-SEASON BREAKS

Empire: series 2

There's been a strange tonal shift in this second season, as the Lyon family escalate their internal warring. The problem is that this has tipped the series from camp sassiness to real nastiness, leaving none of the characters particularly likeable. If rumours are to be believed, there's a similar level of feuding going on behind the cameras, which doesn't bode well for the future of a show that started off so brilliantly. Hopefully the second half of this season will be more fun. Frankly, it needs to feel the impact of Lee Daniels' involvement a lot more than it does at the moment.

Scandal: series 5

Kerry Washington's Olivia Pope continues to grapple with all manner of controversy, and in this season she's at the centre of the storm herself. The plots are melodramatic and soapy, but the interaction is great fun, as the camp excesses of Olivia's now-public affair with the US President (Tony Goldwyn), which is thankfully balanced by serious, shadowy grisliness. But there are fewer proper cliffhangers this year, as the story settles into a straightforward soapy narrative. Bring back the scandals, please.

Arrow: series 4 / The Flash: series 2

These heroic action series continue to intermingle enjoyably, as they use simplistic scripts to explore hugely overcomplicated plots, with characters visiting each others' shows. And the charismatic actors make them addictive - Arrow's brooding darkness is undercut by edgy comedy and romance, while The Flash's lively comedy is subverted by moments of real emotion. A third series (Legends of Tomorrow) joins them in early 2016. Will it have the same mix of badly choreographed action and compelling characters?

Ongoing series I'm watching at the moment include The Grinder (my favourite new show this year), Modern Family, Galavant, Dickensian, and I'm looking forward to Chelsea Does.

Critical Week: I didn't do it!

Press screenings are slowly starting up again after the holidays, and of the four films I watched in the past week, two featured innocent men on the wrong side of the law. Poker Night stars Beau Mirchoff (above) as a rookie detective whose life takes a horrific twist after he's inducted into the elite cops' secret game. An interesting idea, but the story struggles to hold water amid over-stylised filmmaking and scene-chomping performances. Even wobblier is Taken 3, Liam Neeson's latest work-out as an action star. Everyone on-screen is solid, but the Besson/Kamen script is ludicrous and Olivier Megaton's direction leaves the action scenes incoherent.

The other two films were much more challenging. Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985) is one of cinema's all-time masterpieces, and now he has turned an unused 1975 interview into a new doc The Last of the Unjust, highlighting a side of the Holocaust we've never seen. Low-key and straightforward, it's far too long and academic, but utterly essential. And then there's the Mexican multi-strand drama Four Moons, a sensitive, strikingly honest exploration of four stages of life for men grappling with their own gay identities. The filmmaking is a bit simplistic, but the acting and themes are powerfully involving.

Otherwise I took in some TV, binge-watching to catch up on the current seasons of Scandal (a pure guilty pleasure), Arrow (ridiculous but addictive), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (corny but diverting) and The Walking Dead (starting to wear a bit thin). And then there's the Foo Fighter's doc series Sonic Highways, which inventively delves into the nature of music in society and how songs are written as Dave Grohl and crew travel around America recording songs in key cities. Fascinating, and surprisingly moving too. Plus of course the Christmas finale of Downton Abbey, which was a pure delight, for a change. For a film critic, television is like a great escape: I can actually watch something without working!

This coming week cranks up a bit more with screenings of Cate Blanchett's new film The Turning, Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in the delayed release of the Nigerian drama Black November, Stephen Daldry's Trash, Alex Garland's Ex Machina and the offbeat teen horror thriller It Follows.

Critical week: The game's afoot

I've been deliberately avoiding movies over the Christmas and New Year break, but there's been plenty of television to distract me. The most anticipated holiday show was obviously the return of Sherlock on New Year's Day for a third series - it's been a long two-year wait. Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Rupert Graves are back for another brain-bender that's as engaging as ever, but feels more like a standard TV episode than previous seasons' movie-style instalments. It's also rather gimmicky and indulgent, so let's hope they calm down a bit for Sunday night's second episode.

Meanwhile, there was the annual Downton Abbey Christmas special. Last year they used this as an opportunity to essentially ruin the holidays with a horrific fatality. This year was much less momentous, merely entangling the soapy story-strands further while having a bit of fun with American guest stars Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti. Slightly more prestigious was The Thirteenth Tale, a moody ghost story that pitted acting veteran Vanessa Redgrave opposite the equally gifted Olivia Colman as a dying novelist and her suspicious biographer, respectively. A nicely made film, with another involving turn by Colman, but Christopher Hampton's script was undercooked.

I also finally got caught up with the American version of the rude comedy Shameless - I was behind by a whole season and managed to watch all of series 3 over the holidays. Superb writing, directing and acting from the entire cast pushed these characters much further than we ever would have imagined. Few TV shows can induce squirms like this one, bless it.

I'll be back on the screening circuit starting next week, with a number of interesting things in the diary, including Michael Cera in Crystal Fairy, the post-apocalyptic romp Bounty Killer, the British musical comedy Svengali, the horror romp Devil's Bargain, the Venice-winning thriller Miss Violence, the acclaimed documentary After Tiller and the Formula One doc 1: Life on the Limit.