Critical Week: Break on through

Awards season continues apace, and I enjoyed being in the room with winners like Timothée Chalamet, Jessie Buckley and Paul Thomas Anderson on Sunday at the 46th Critics' Circle Film Awards on Sunday, attending as a voting member, rather than as chair, for the first time in 15 years (see below). As for watching movies, the comical thriller Cold Storage is a lot of fun, starring Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell as night watchmen who stumble into an alien fungal nightmare, with added Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
My Father's Shadow
Pillion • Twinless • Scarlet
ALL REVIEWS >

I also caught the staggeringly gorgeous Japanese anime thriller All You Need Is Kill, based on the same novel as Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow. The skilful animation and immersive story make it hugely entertaining. And then there was the K-pop concert film Stray Kids: The DominATE Experience, a great introduction to this band's impressive musicality. Although the 4DX screening was a bit exhausting for two and a half hours. I also watched three more documentaries: the Oscar/Bafta-nominated Mr Nobody Against Putin is wonderfully inspiring, powerfully moving and eye-opening; The Librarians is a blood-boiling tale of politically motivated censorship hiding behind religiosity and the important heroes who are fighting it; and Everybody to Kenmure Street covers a momentous 2021 Glasgow standoff in a way that's thrilling, emotive and timely.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, Daphne Keen in Whistle, the animated adventure Goat, Stephen Graham in The Good Boy, horror thriller Jimmy and Stiggs and Cairo-set action in Eagles of the Republic, plus catching up with more docs, including Apocalypse in the Tropics and The Alabama Solution, plus a live performance of Sweet Mambo at Sadler's Wells.

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Critical Week: Sucker punch

There were three big movies screened to critics this week. Liam Neeson takes on the lead role (as the son of Leslie Nielsen's iconic character) for the reboot/sequel The Naked Gun, which is flat-out hilarious. And as wonderfully stupid as we hoped it would be. Pedro Pascal leads the action reboot The Fantastic Four: First Steps, alongside Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bacharach. Groovy visual stylings and superbly character-rooted comedy make it thoroughly engaging. And Sam Rockwell is back for the animated sequel The Bad Guys 2, which is just as funny and action-packed as the first movie. With some terrific new characters and bigger set-pieces. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Dying • The Bad Guys 2
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
ALL REVIEWS >

Further afield, Fiona Shaw and Katherine Waterston are as good as expected in the mother-daughter drama Park Avenue, which is involving but elusive. Even more the evasive, Gazer is a stylised mystery thriller that intrigues but never quite pays off. Slovenian drama Little Trouble Girls is also somewhat slippery in its coming-of-age story about a teen choirgirl. 

Much more gripping is Love, the second chapter in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, which features fascinating characters on offbeat journeys. I also loved watching the 100-year restoration of Eisenstein's silent masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, with a new score by the Pet Shop Boys. I'd never seen it on a big screen, and it looks and sounds gorgeous. It also feels thoroughly modern. Finally, I attended a special 3D premiere of the new trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which looks properly epic. The film itself comes out in December.

This coming week I'll be watching the horror thriller Bring Her Back, British road movie The Ceremony, Dutch coming-of-age drama Young Hearts, the final chapter of the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Sex, and the Ukrainian documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka. I'll also attend the premiere of the second season of the Netflix show Wednesday.

Critical Week: Generations

Awards season is cranking up for anyone who votes in these things, and yet there are still regular releases opening in cinemas that I need to cover, So the week was a combination of films aimed at very different audiences. As for cinema releases, there was the latest film directed by 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, the old-fashioned dramatic thriller Juror #2, starring Nicholas Hoult, and Toni Collette. It's slow and not nearly as complex as it looks, but enjoyably gripping. Hugh Grant is excellent as the charming-but-shifty villain in Heretic, a rather simplistic horror film that's livened up by deeper theological questions. And Liam Neeson's latest action movie is Absolution, a surprisingly thoughtful meditation on mortality and redemption.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
A Real Pain • Emilia Perez
Anora • Super/Man
Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives
ALL REVIEWS >

There were also a few more films that showed at the London Film Festival. Pharrell Williams uses Lego animation to tell his life story in Piece by Piece, an uplifting and delightfully original concoction packed with hilarious gags and lots of great music. Cate Blanchett leads the ensemble cast of Rumours, a nutty satire about G7 leaders lost in the woods. The film is a bit lost itself. From Hong Kong, The Last Dance is a beautifully well-made comedy about the tension between tradition and progress. From Britain, Secrets of a Wallaby Boy is a very scrappy hand-made comedy about a delivery boy. And there were two docs: Christopher Reeve is the focus of the fascinating, moving Super/Man, which has some important things to say about curiosity and compassion, and How to Build a Truth Engine is a fascinatingly detailed exploration of the spread of fake news.

As the big movies keep coming, this coming week I'll be watching Paul Mescal in Gladiator II, the adventure comedy sequel Paddington in Peru, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked Part 1, Dwayne Johnson in Red One, Emma Corrin in Nosferatu and the FrightFest Halloween comedy Time Travel Is Dangerous.

Critical Week: A big bromance

I've been taking it a bit easier this week, catching up after the film festival. But there have been a few screenings to attend. First there was the mammoth sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, screened to the press in Imax. Essentially a cartoon with a few humans running around in the margins, this is a movie that will make die hard fans happy, but others might be wise to steer clear. Meanwhile, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway have a lot of fun layering on insinuating intrigue in Mothers' Instinct, a Hitchcock-style slow-burn thriller that's thoroughly entertaining.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Beautiful Game
Disco Boy
PERHAPS AVOID:
Godzilla x Kong
ALL REVIEWS >

Even better is the British feel-good drama The Beautiful Game, about a homeless football team. Thankfully, the on-pitch action is kept in check for more character-based comedy and drama. Liam Neeson and Kerry Condon are terrific in the gritty thriller In the Land of Saints and Sinners, set during the Troubles in 1970s Ireland. And the French drama Ama Gloria takes a child's eye view for a slice of life with a couple of momentous moments along the way.

This coming week I'll continue catching up on things, and I have screenings of Scoop, The First Omen, Woody Allen's Coup de Chance, If Only I Could Hibernate and Someone Like You.

LFF: How did I get here?

I got to take a break last night from the London Film Festival and head down to the Archlight cinema next to the Battersea Power Station to watch the short film Cognition, which was partly filmed here. It was my first real trip away from my home since the festival began more than a week ago, and it was a relief to do something completely different. I have a theatre press night tonight, so another chance to get out. Meanwhile, the festival films are still screening through the online portal, keeping me busy. Here are a couple of highlights, plus my usual weekly roundup below...

David Byrne's American Utopia

dir Spike Lee; with David Byrne, Chris Giarmo 20/US ****

A filmed version of David Byrne's triumphant 2019 Broadway show, this is a musical and visual extravaganza photographed and edited with precision. Director Spike Lee brings the audience right on-stage to become a part of the performance, drawing out the show's striking exploration of the highs and lows of US society. The film will thrill Byrne's fans, and should also spur newcomers to take a dive into his catalog.

After Love

dir-scr Aleem Khan; with Joanna Scanlan, Nathalie Richard 20/UK ****.

Written and directed with sensitivity by Aleem Khan in his feature debut, this British drama approaches weighty themes with a remarkably light touch. It's a tender, internalised story that pulls the audience in deeply without the need for much in the way of dialog or exposition, skilfully revealing a complex story through observations and reactions. And it compassionately speaks to major cultural issues without ever pushing a message.

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C R I T I C A L   W E E K

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Over the Moon • Time
The Other Lamb • I Am Greta
Martin Eden • Herself 
PERHAPS AVOID:
Honest Thief • War With Grandpa 
FULL REVIEWS >

This week has been mainly about the LFF, so I've only seen four films that aren't part of that: Liam Neeson as good as ever in the tediously cliched action thriller Honest Thief; Paul Bettany in a superbly textured role in the powerful but a little too pushy topical drama Uncle Frank; the Faustian horror thriller Nocturne; and Andrew Scott and Jeremy Irvine in the lavishly produced half-hour sci-fi epic Cognition. I should have watched more, but there just wasn't enough time.

There's an enormous list of releases slated for next week that I need to watch, so we'll see how many of these I can get through, including: Colin Firth and Julie Walters in a new version of The Secret Garden, Malin Akerman in the comedy Friendsgiving, Jamie Dornan in the thriller Synchronic, the cycling drama The Climb, the fantasy adventure Max Winslow and the House of Secrets, the Train to Busan sequel Peninsula, and the short film compilation The Italian Boys.

London Film Fest: Be my neighbour

Well, the 63rd BFI London Film Festival is winding down now, with only one more day to go. Today was a complete washout, with rain all day long. And tomorrow looks similar, which will make the closing night red carpet a bit soggy for Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro and The Irishman. But then wet weather is better for selling movie tickets! I now have a serious backlog of reviews to write, so I'll start catching up on that next week. In the meantime, here are some more comments on things I've been watching...

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
dir Marielle Heller; with Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys 19/US ****
There is a sliver of a Fred Rogers biopic in this warm drama, but director Marielle Heller makes it much more than that, telling a specific story that can't help but resonate even with viewers who have never seen his classic TV show. For those of us who grew up with it, the nostalgia is sometimes overpowering. But the film manages to be sentimental without the schmaltz. And it will speak to audiences on levels much deeper than the obvious themes.

Deerskin
dir-scr Quentin Dupieux; with Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel 19/Fr ***.
Cheeky French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux comes up with another bonkers idea for a grisly thriller that is thoroughly infused with wry comical overtones. This one's about a jacket that announces that it wants to be the only jacket on earth. And it's brought to life with the help of ace costar Jean Dujardin. The movie is relentlessly ridiculous, but it also has enough heart to hold the viewer's sympathy, even as we laugh and cringe at the escalating body count.

Just Mercy
dir Destin Daniel Cretton; with Michael B Jordan, Jamie Foxx 19/US **.
This drama recounts powerful true events in a rather straightforward style. The writing and direction are so standard that it's possible to predict every single thing that happens in the story, including lines of dialog before they're spoken. It's a surprisingly unambitious movie from the talented filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton. But cast members dive in to the roles with plenty of passion, creating a strong sense of tension in this story of real-life racial injustice.

Ordinary Love
dir Lisa Barros D'Sa, Glenn Leyburn; with Lesley Manville, Liam Neeson 19/UK ***.
Sensitive and honest, this quiet drama from Northern Ireland captures the earthy interaction between a couple as one of them goes through a round of cancer treatment. Thankfully, the film focusses on the people and their connection rather than the illness. It's a remarkably grounded, often downright matter-of-fact look at everyday life, with plenty of added detail in the writing and acting. So even if it's never revelatory, it's involving and moving.

Martin Eden
dir Pietro Marcello; with Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy 19/It ****
Taking an ambitious approach to adapting the Jack London novel, this Italian drama is an artful odyssey packed with political and artistic themes. Eerily timeless, the film references Italian movie classics as director Pietro Marcello playfully stirs in eclectic music and archival footage cutaways. As it encompasses the entire 20th century, there's also a strikingly 21st century finale that makes the story almost unnervingly current.

Invisible Life [A Vida Invisível de Eurídice Gusmão]
dir Karim Ainouz; with Carol Duarte, Julia Stockler 19/Br ****
Gorgeously filmed in rich, deep colours and infused with even stronger emotions, this Brazilian drama tells the epic story of a family connection with a narrative that spans nearly 70 years. This is a beautiful depiction of the lingering connections between siblings, parents, children and lifelong friends. And it's also a reminder that the expectations and assumptions we make about the people we love probably aren't very accurate or helpful.

Links:
Shadows LONDON FILM FEST homepage (full reviews will be linked here) 
Official LONDON FILM FEST site 

Critical Week: Cold shoulder

It was Liam Neeson's turn this week to bear the full brunt of self-righteous internet rage, as he told a too-candid story from his distant past, which was then wrenched horribly out of context. He wasn't racist back then; he was just stupid. He said so before telling the story in ill-chosen words as an explanation of how he could identify with the irrational urge for revenge, which he had to play in his new film Cold Pursuit. The film was screened for the press this week, an odd remake made by the original Norwegian director. It's watchable, but lacks the nuance that made the original, 2014's In Order of Disappearance, so memorable.

Asghar Farhadi got Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darin to headline his Spanish drama Everybody Knows, which is a bit overwrought but still finely observes human behaviour in extraordinary situations. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World wraps up the trilogy with an involving, often exhilarating adventure fans of the franchise will love. And Christopher Abbot and Mia Wasikowska star in the bonkers horror Piercing, which seems more interested in effects than creating a coherent story. But it's properly freaky.

A little further afield, Christophe Honore's personal French drama Sorry Angel is involving and moving, and bracingly honest. A pair of documentaries are notable for their willingness to embrace conflicting viewpoints: The Sunday Sessions follows a young man as he tries to eliminate his homosexuality, while The Gospel of Eureka profiles a town where a Christian pageant and a lively LGBTQ community coexist and thrive together. I also saw Desire, a collection of six shorts by Thai photographer Ohm Phanphiroj: half are evocative narrative films, while the other three are bracingly honest docs about his work and connections.

Coming up this week, we have Florence Pugh and Dwayne Johnson in Fighting With My Family, Willem Dafoe's Venice-winning/Oscar-nominated turn in At Eternity's Gate, Andrew Garfield in Under the Silver Lake, Dev Patel in The Wedding Guest and Carlos Acosta in Yuli.

Critical Week: Stop and smell the flowers

It was pretty daring of Fox to release the animated movie Ferdinand this week, but for critics it was a welcome respite from Star Wars mania. The warm-heated core story is still there the beloved 1930s book and short, although it has been expanded with mindless action-comedy chaos. Meanwhile, the big news of course was the single press screening on Monday night of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, introduced by writer-director Rian Johnson. It's a massive, slightly over-intense two and a half hour battle epic packed with excellent characters and surprising connections.

I also caught up with Margot Robbie's excellent performance in I, Tonya, a bitterly comical take on disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding. But there's an important point to the tone. Hugh Jackman stars in the colourful musical The Greatest Showman, which tells the story of circus founder PT Barnum with great songs and elaborate choreography. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart reteam for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, a somewhat pointless reboot to the franchise, although it's at least energetic. And Liam Neeson continues in mindless action mode for The Commuter, a contrived thriller set on a train.

Further afield, we had the offbeat British indie drama Beast, which tells a twisted story that's part romance and part thriller. And Peccadillo put out their latest compilation Boys on Film 17: Love Is the Drug, nine short films about desire. It's a very strong collection this time, with films made over the past five years.

I only have a couple of screenings over the next couple of weeks, including Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World and Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel. But I still have quite a few awards-season screeners to catch up with as time allows. I'll prioritise the ones that pick up nominations.

Critical Week: Pray for mercy

London critics caught up with Martin Scorsese's new film Silence  this past week. It's a strikingly thoughtful movie, a quest for faith for Portuguese priests in 17th century Japan - a bit academic perhaps, but powerful. And then there's the biggest movie of the year: Gareth Edwards' stand-alone Star Wars story Rogue One, which is a startlingly edgy war thriller with complex characters and situations that don't go as expected. It's a properly grown-up movie unafraid to embrace its darker elements.

There were two starry year-end dramas: Taraji P Henson and Octavia Spencer lead the ensemble in Hidden Figures, about the women whose mathematics expertise got Nasa into space in the early 1960s. And Michael Keaton stars in The Founder, about McDonald's ruthless entrepreneur Ray Kroc. Both films are solidly made, finely acted and worthy of acclaim, if not actual Oscars.

Further afield, The White King is a strikingly well-made dystopian thriller with a somewhat murky plot; The Eyes of My Mother is an inventively harrowing monochrome drama with elements of grisly horror; and London Town is an enjoyable riff on the music scene of the late 1970s. I also watched the rather uneven TV spectacular Hairspray Live!, which had a great cast but struggled to maintain this fantastic musical's energy levels. And there were two films I hadn't covered on their UK releases...

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Chicken
dir Joe Stephenson; scr Chris New; with Scott Chambers, Yasmin Paige, Morgan Watkins 15/UK ***.
Based on the Freddie Machin play, this British indie drama tells a very dark story in a remarkably breezy way. It's a skilful feature directing debut for Joe Stephenson, anchored by fierce performances from the three main cast members. The story centres on Richard (Chambers), a mentally disabled 15-year-old whose best pal is a chicken named Fiona. He lives in a caravan in a field with his big brother Polly (Watkins), a hothead who simply can't hold his temper long enough to keep a job. Then new landowners arrive, threatening their already fragile existence. And Richard befriends their annoyed daughter Annabell (Paige). The shifting dynamics between the characters are fascinating, helping add some deeper feelings to a rather gimmicky plot. In the end, the twists and revelations are so big that they leave the film feeling oddly distant. But it's still powerful stuff, beautifully written, directed and acted.

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Don't Think Twice
dir-scr Mike Birbiglia
with Gillian Jacobs, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Birbiglia, Chris Gethard, Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher 16/US ***
Not only is this a serious drama about comedy, but it's also a scripted story about improv, and both of these things make the film difficult to go along with. The central theme is a strongly involving one, that this six-person improvisational team is like a family that has a strong bond even as circumstances pull them apart. When one member (Key) gets his break on a live TV show and their theatre faces closure, all of them are forced to reconsider their career and life choices. Most of this is a little simplistic, but it's very nicely played by likeable actors who bring out strong details in their roles. And some clever cameos and side roles add a bit of spice here and there. Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in the rather grim realities of life as a comedian, but not great if you're looking for a laugh.

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This coming week I'll be seeing the James Franco/Bryan Cranston comedy Why Him?, the Will Smith drama Collateral Beauty, Michael Fassbender in Assassin's Creed, Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and the adventure romp Monster Trucks, plus various last minute screeners to watch in time for voting deadlines.

LFF 1: Unroll the carpet

The 60th London Film Festival kicked off last night with the UK premiere of Amma Asante's biopic A United Kingdom. Rosamund Pike (above) ruled the red carpet, making the most of a wardrobe malfunction. And her costar David Oyelowo hit the headlines today as host of a symposium on race issues in movies. And so it begins, with an exhausting schedule of nearly 250 movies over the next 12 days. I'm packing as many in as possible, and still will be missing several big titles on my list simply because there isn't time. Here are some highlights for today...

A United Kingdom
dir Amma Asante; with David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike 16/UK ***
This is a great true story with a huge present-day relevance, and it features robust, engaging performances from both David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. So it's a shame that the screenplay lets it down so badly. Not only are characters painted with broadly cartoonish strokes, but the structure drains any sense of momentum from the narrative. So if it's not hugely compelling, at least it's still a worthy biopic packed with important themes.

A Monster Calls
dir JA Bayona; with Lewis MacDougall, Liam Neeson 16/UK ****.
This may look like a fantasy adventure, but it's actually a staggeringly resonant emotional journey that will connect with audience members of all ages. As it explores enormous themes from loneliness to grief, the film builds an earthy authenticity that even carries through its big effects sequences. Not only is it shot with skill and care, but it's anchored by a terrific performance from the young Lewis MacDougall.

Into the Forest
dir Gilles Marchand; with Jeremie Elkaim, Timothe Vom Dorp 16/Fr ***
Clearly a riff on Zvyagintsev's The Return by way of Kubrick's The Shining, this dark thriller evokes considerable dread, mainly in its sound mix. But director Guy Marchand also has some visual tricks up his sleeve to freak out the audience. There doesn't seem to be much to the film beyond insinuated nastiness, but it's enjoyably spooky.

Ma' Rosa
dir Brillante Ma Mendoza; with Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz 16/Ph ****
Shot with handheld urgency and extended real-time sequences, this Filipino drama grabs hold of the audience from the start and never lets up. Filmmaker Brillante Mendoza skilfully immerses us in the rain-soaked bustle of Manila, focussing on a low-level drug dealer whose concern for her family makes her enormously sympathetic. And while the drama is more than enough to hold the attention, the film also has some harrowing things to say about justice in the Philippines.

And two films I saw in Venice were also screening in London today: the French drama Heal the Living and the Italian drama Indivisible.

Critical Week: Well well well...

UK critics had a chance to catch up with Russell Crowe's directing debut The Water Diviner this past week. It's a moving true story set in the aftermath of World War I, but its earnestness tries the patience. As does a somewhat gratuitous romantic subplot involving Olga Kurylenko as an impossibly gorgeous Turkish hotelier. The biggest film of the week was Insurgent, which held its world premiere in London before the only press screening on Monday. It's an improvement on the original, with stronger characters, terrific acting and even more impressive visuals.

Critics were also treated to a lively morning screening of the hilarious DreamWorks animated romp Home, and an evening screening of Liam Neeson's latest action movie Run All Night, which was better than expected. Stonehearst Asylum is a nutty mental institute thriller by Brad Anderson with an all-star cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Kate Beckinsale and Jim Sturgess. Listen Up Philip is a funny and awkward comedy about writers starring Jason Schwartzman, Jonathan Pryce and the amazing Elizabeth Moss. Still is a low-budget British film that majors in moody set design and intense characters at the expense of personal involvement. And 3 in a Bed is an even smaller-budget British romance that proves that anyone can make a movie, including amateurs.

We also had some press screenings for the British Film Institute's Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday night at BFI Southbank. The opening film is I Am Michael, a bracingly open-handed drama starring James Franco and Zachary Quinto that's bound to spark a lot of discussion. And we also watched the director's cut of 54, Mark Christopher's 1998 disco-era drama that was eviscerated by the studio at the time and makes a lot more sense with key narrative elements reinstated. Great performances too from Ryan Philippe, Salma Hayek, Breckin Meyer and Mike Myers, plus a glimpse of a young Mark Ruffalo. I've seen a lot more BFI Flare movies already, and will be covering the festival here as usual.

Over the next week, BFI Flare will take up most of my time, but I also have screenings of Will Ferrell's Get Hard, the true thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken and a pair of somewhat self-explanatory docs: Altman, about the filmmaker, and I Am Big Bird, about the Sesame Street performer.

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: Groovy baby

One of the more anticipated films of the year is Jimi: All Is By My Side, a biopic about Jimi Hendrix written and directed by 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley. The film actually premiered in Toronto last year (alongside 12 Years a Slave), but it was only shown to the UK press this past week. It's bold approach is bound to get an intriguing response when it opens, and not just because the then-25 Hendrix is played by 40-year-old Andre Benjamin.

The other big-name film screened this week was A Walk Among the Tombstones, a gritty mystery thriller starring Liam Neeson an Dan Stevens (comments are embargoed for now). We also caught up with two more festival films: Mr Turner is Mike Leigh's astonishingly fresh and inventive painter biopic starring the Cannes-winner Timothy Spall, and '71 is an episodic but riveting Northern Ireland thriller that's also the latest in Jack O'Connell's full-on assault on cinema, following Starred Up and preceding Angelina Jolie's Unbroken.

With London's FrightFest coming this weekend, there have also been a few horror movies to watch. Life After Beth is a superb comical twist on the zombie genre starring Aubrey Plaza as a teen who doesn't know that she's come back from the dead. Allelulia is a chillingly involving take on the Lonely Hearts Killers from Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz starring Lola Duenas and Laurent Lucas. And Found is an unnerving and oddly moving hybrid between the coming-of-age and slasher horror genres. Finally, as part of the terrific Dennis Hopper photographic exhibition at the Royal Academy, we had a chance to catch one of his films on the big screen. So I of course chose his lesser-known The Last Movie (1971), a crazed collage set among a film crew shooting a Western in Peru. It's challenging and seriously worth a look for cinephiles.

This coming week we have a very late screening of Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Marion Cotillard in the Dardenne brothers' Two Days One Night, Helen Mirren in The Hundred-Foot Journey, the British football movie United We Fall and more horror in The Mirror, among other things.

Critical Week: Who wants off this crazy plane?

The big screening last week was Liam Neeson's latest action blockbuster Non-Stop, costarring Julianne Moore, Downton's Michelle Dockery and Oscar-nominee Lupita Nyong'o. I also caught a very late screening for I, Frankenstein, the rather murky action romp starring Aaron Eckhart as an unusually muscly version of the famous monster battling Bill Nighy's demon prince. And there was also a screening for the 3D animated romp Mr Peabody & Sherman, based on the 1960s cartoon, which is a very different kind of fun for adults than for the kids, thanks to the non-stop visual and verbal gags and riotous pacing.

A bit off the beaten path we had a complete re-imagining of the Mexican cannibal freak-out We Are What We Are - this American version is a horror art-film, extremely well made and very creepy, but are genre fans ready for something this subtle? The Rocket is a gorgeous crowd-pleaser that takes a fable-like turn in its lively story about a cheeky, clever boy in Laos. Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia is, like the man himself, no-holds-barred as it explores of Vidal's outspoken approach to art, politics and religion. We don't learn much about the man himself, but we can see why his views are so important. And Beyond the Edge is a strikingly well-shot 3D documentary about the first men who made it to the top of Everest.

This coming week, we have the remake RoboCop, the romance Endless Love (which is not a remake of the notorious 1980s romance), the acclaimed festival film The Motel Life, and a stack of things to catch up with on screener discs. I also have a launch for the TV series Viking. More on that next time...

Critical Week: For the boys

One of the most enjoyable films screened to London critics this past week was the Aussie crowd-pleaser The Sapphires, anchored by a terrific performance from Chris O'Dowd. It's the true story of a quartet of aboriginal singers who sing for the troops in Vietnam in 1968, and it's shot and played with a lot of infectious energy. We also had a musical drama from America, the less enjoyable but still watchable Sparkle, featuring the last film role for Whitney Houston. And a lively audience of critics on Friday night laughed all the way through Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis' The Campaign, even though it loses its satirical edge along the way.

With press screenings underway for the London Film Festival (10-21 Oct) and the Raindance Festival (26 Sep-7 Oct) in full flow, the screening schedule is busier than normal. Other mainstream titles included Mike Newell's new version of Dickens' Great Expectations, Liam Neeson's return to the action-revenge genre in the preposterous Taken 2, the energetic and engaging animated monster romp Hotel Transylvania, and Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg in the nicely observed relationship comedy-drama Celeste & Jesse Forever.

Further off the beaten path were the British independent dramas Shell, an atmospheric film set in the Highlands, and Love Tomorrow, a downbeat London romance. There was also the cheesily low-budget American thriller Into the Lion's Den, the provocative and controversial Cannes-winning Danish drama The Hunt, and Poland's gritty and rather insular true rap-group drama You Are God.

This coming week we have the Irish musical drama Good Vibrations, the British wedding comedy The Knot, Stephen Dorff in Zaytoun, the acclaimed Swiss drama Sister, the horror film Excision, the indie drama Laurentie, clown horror in Stitches, the French animation Ernest & Celestine, and the documentaries Everything or Nothing (about James Bond) and West of Memphis (about a miscarriage of justice). Among other things...