Critical Week: A warm hug

The 70th London Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday evening, and I'll be catching up with movies I missed over the next few months, including Elsinore, A Long Winter, Godzilla Minus Zero, Artificial, Tender Loving Care, the list goes on a bit. Meanwhile, Jordan Firstman's filmmaking debut Club Kid became my favourite film of the fest. It's an unusually engaging film with huge emotional resonance. Firstman and newcomer Reggie Absalom also deliver knock-out performances. As does Julianne Moore in Jesse Eisenberg's comedy The Debut, a riotous odyssey set in a community theatre run by a wonderful Paul Giamatti. Clio Barnard creates an astonishing camaraderie amongst the ensemble cast of the lively drama I See Building Fall Like Lightning. And Harvey Zielinski's superbly written and played Australian drama Sweet Milk Lake was a terrific discovery.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Possible Love
Wildwood • Fatherland
ALL REVIEWS >

Away from the festival, I saw Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie, Ali G: Who Iz I?, which uses the Borat/Bruno style to coax people into revealing their darkest impulses. It's pointed and important, but the connecting plot is very silly. Then there was the first-person action thriller Bad Day at the Office starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell. It's nonstop chaos, and a little exhausting due to the shaky-cam perspective. I also caught an early screening of The Asscher Cut: A Timeless Legacy, a beautiful and remarkably detailed look at the diamond industry over the past two centuries. And it was fun to revisit Ken Russell's astonishing masterpiece The Devils on the big screen, now with censored scenes restored. Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave are unforgettable in this outrageous, pointed historical romp. There was also a live performance of Tellus at Sadler's Wells East.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Andrew Scott in Elsinore, Jack Davenport in Blueberry Inn, Indonesian horror Ghost in the Cell, behind-the-scenes doc Making Marie Antoinette, David Lean doc Maverick and polar bear doc Nuisance Bear, plus live performances of Pia at the Guildhall School and Motionhouse's Hidden at Sadler's Wells.

Critical Week: Where the buffalo roam

As a heatwave sets in around Britain, creating our hottest week of the year so far (in September!), audiences are likely to avoid cinemas in lieu of parks and beaches. So box office data is likely to disappoint come Monday. But there's plenty to see, including one of my very best films of the year, Past Lives. Meanwhile, I finally caught up with Riley Keough and Gina Gammell's award-winning debut War Pony, a strikingly authentic and pointed Native American drama. Nia Vardalos and family are back for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, another charming mess of a movie that wins us over despite ourselves. And Richard E Grant, Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack have a lot of fun with the arch melodrama of The Lesson, an overwrought thriller that doesn't quite hold water but keeps us entertained.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Past Lives • La Ronde
Rotting in the Sun
REVIEWS >

A bit further afield, Carol Morley is back with a bracingly original look at mental illness in Typist Artist Pirate King, which traces an adventurous road trip with under-appreciated British artist Audrey Amiss, powerfully played by Monica Dolan. Rotting in the Sun is a smart and provocatively original mashup of mystery, drama and crime comedy from Sebastian Silva. The British doc A Life on the Farm highlights a true eccentric who made hilariously nutty home movies. And the Australian series (released as a compilation) Single, Out is charmingly awkward as it follows a young guy navigating gay life. I also attended Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at 65 at Sadler's Wells.

This coming week I'll be watching Pablo Larrain's bonkers Pinochet vampire thriller El Conde, Kenneth Branagh's whodunit A Haunting in Venice, British battle epic Gurkha Warrior, Canadian immigration drama Brother, animated adventure Robot Dreams, Spanish drama 20,000 Species of Bees, Laotian monks drama Samsara, Santana doc Carlos, Anselm Kiefer doc Anselm and live shows Deeper and Deeper and Myra Dubois: Be Well.