Critical Week: A warm embrace

Press screenings are slowing down as usual for this time of year, as journalists try to catch up with things they haven't seen yet. Attending the London Film Festival put be ahead of the curve, but there are some late-season releases I'm still chasing. I only had four screenings this past week: the staggeringly powerful drama Waves with Kelvin Harrison Jr and Alexa Demie (above), plus Lucas Hedges, Sterling K Brown and rising star Taylor Russell. The Brazilian drama Greta is dark and sometimes a little too serious, but has some strong things to say about people on the fringe of society. Starring Steven Berkoff and Martin Hancock, The Last Faust is basically a museum piece, an ambitiously artistic telling of both parts of Goethe's epic story, accompanied by paintings, sculptures, photographs and a novella. And I finally caught up with the devastatingly emotional doc For Sama, a deeply personal account of life in wartorn Aleppo.

Outside the screening room, it was a privilege to attend an event at which Peccadillo Pictures placed its archive at Bishopsgate Institute. Peccadillo has released a number of seriously notable films over its 20 year history, with more to come. Their releases over the years have included Embrace of the Serpent, Weekend, The Shiny Shrimps. I'm interviewing the director and lead actor from their upcoming Georgian drama And Then We Danced tomorrow.

Coming up this next week: Sam Mendes' already acclaimed war drama 1917, Todd Haynes' drama Dark Waters, Clint Eastwood's Atlanta Olympics bombing drama Richard Jewell, Daniel Kaluuya in Queen & Slim, and the John Cena comedy Playing With Fire. We also have our annual meeting with the Critics' Circle and the BBFC, always enjoyably informative as they tell us about the year's knife-edge ratings decisions.

Critical Week: Sleep tight

It's been a relatively quiet week, screening-wise, partly because the bigger studios have decided to stop showing their larger releases to the press. For example, this week's remake of Hellboy had no press screenings at all. And we're beginning to wonder what will happen with some rather important upcoming blockbusters. Thankfully, the smaller films and mid-sized ones are still available for us write about. This week I caught up with Neil Jordan's bonkers horror thriller Greta, starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloe Grace Moretz (above). It's nutty and entertaining. I also watched Tessa Thompson and Lily James in the gritty, powerful rural drama Little Woods.

My favourite film this week was the concert doc Amazing Grace, filmed in 1972 and only just released, revealing the awesome Aretha Franklin in all her gospel-infused glory. Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is a riotously grisly 80s-style slasher movie about an army of killer Nazi puppets. It's both hilarious and seriously nasty. No Chocolate, No Rice is a micro-budget comedy from Washington DC, a bit clunky but full of great ideas and likeable characters. And the sparky, beautifully assembled German documentary Beauty & Decay, catches up with three punk-art stars from the early 1980s in Berlin today.

This coming week we have Zac Efron in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Julianne Moore in Bel Canto, Robert Pattinson in High Life and the offbeat animation Doozy. I've also got a couple of events, and possibly another stage performance to cover.