Critical Week: The stars came out

Sunday was the 76th Bafta Film Awards, with a new venue at the Royal Festival Hall and a new host in the charmingly British Richard E Grant (with contributions from a lively but distracting Allison Hammond). It was a star-packed event, with a glittering audience of nominees and special guests, which allowed for the usual offbeat presenting duos (Eugene Levy with Cynthia Erivo?). Among the winners, the biggest surprise was Austin Butler being named Best Actor, which bodes well for Oscar night. And Barry Keoghan was a popular surprise winner for Supporting Actor, although perhaps Ke Huy Quan has the edge for Oscar. And then there was All Quiet on the Western Front with its unprecedented seven huge wins, including film and director over Tár and Everything Everywhere All at Once, top nominees that had to settle for just one prize each. But the issue of inclusivity still needs to be discussed, when awards like these (and the London Critics' Circle) opt for overwhelmingly white winners even with a superbly diverse set of nominees.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Joyland • Broker • Juniper
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As for the movies I've been watching, the biggest one was a very late press screening of Elizabeth Banks' crazed action thriller Cocaine Bear, a riotously grisly throwback to '80s nature-gone-wild mayhem movies. It took me awhile to catch up with Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker, another wonderfully humane drama that sympathises with people on the moral fringes. How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an entertaining caper adventure about a group of young people taking on Big Oil. The twisty antics kind of overshadow the serious themes, but it's good fun. From Argentina, Wandering Heart is a superbly naturalistic drama about a man trying to pull himself together after a breakup. And the Oscar-nominated doc A House Made of Splinters highlights a situation in war-torn Ukraine with a hugely resonant kick.

This coming week I'll be watching Michael B Jordan's Creed III, Lily James in What's Love Got to Do With It, Michael Shannon in A Little White Lie, the Aussie drama Lonesome and the French drama Love According to Dalva, plus a couple of theatre shows.

Critical Week: Scary season

It's Halloween week, so the cinemas are packed out with various kinds of horror movies, including big-budget creep-outs (Antlers, above), stylised arthouse offerings (Last Night in Soho) or down and dirty ones (Chuck Steel). And the 29th Raindance Film Festival has also just kicked off, so I'll get a chance to catch up with some indie movies over the next 10 days. I'll add some festival updates along the way.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
A Cop Movie • Wild Indian
The Souvenir Part II
Cicada • Keyboard Fantasies
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As for movies I saw this week, Antlers is an atmospheric monster movie from filmmakers Scott Cooper and Guillermo Del Toro, starring Keri Russell. It's sharply well-made, but feels a little thin. Oscar Isaac is excellent in Paul Schrader's provocative drama The Card Counter, a challenging exploration of the tension between revenge and redemption. The British haunted house horror Barun Rai and the House on the Cliff has a riotously arch tone that's entertaining even if it's clumsy. Using stop-motion animation, the riotous action satire Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires is packed with witty touches and knowing gags, even if it's all rather ridiculous. And the Turkish drama Love, Spells & All That is a lovely look at lingering romantic feelings between two women who haven't seen each other in two decades.

In the coming week, I'll be watching Chloe Zhao's Eternals, Josh O'Connor in Mothering Sunday, the British comedy Pirates, Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God, the black comedy Decrypted and several Raindance movies.