Critical Week: Head over heels

The weather warmed up considerably in London during the week, but has reverted back to near-wintry just in time for the long weekend, which perhaps will drive up cinema attendance. There was a big romcom this week, with Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine in The Idea of You, an unusually well-written movie that's smart and very sexy. But we're now officially in blockbuster season, with a major release each week for the next few months. This week's big movie was The Fall Guy, a meta-action comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. It's hugely entertaining, even if it's not quite as funny as it should be.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Love Lies Bleeding • The Idea of You
The Lost Boys • Evil Does Not Exist
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
Blue Giant • Jeanne du Barry • Drifter
ALL REVIEWS >

I also caught this week's big online release Unfrosted, Jerry Seinfeld's outrageously silly retelling of the birth of the Pop Tart, which is riotously packed with enjoyable cameos. Josh O'Connor stars in the offbeat Italian drama La Chimera, which is magical in the way it plays with the past and present. Lea Seydoux and George MacKay are terrific in The Beast, a freak-out with several fiendishly clever futuristic twists. There was also the photogenic German romp Lassie: A New Adventure, which is enjoyably predictable. From Argentina, the tango-infused Adios Buenos Aires tells an involving story about personal connections. And from England, the observant, charming doc Much Ado About Dying traces the final four years in the life of an eccentric actor.

I've got several films to watch over the coming week, including an Imax screening of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Rebel Wilson in The Almond and the Seahorse, Ashley Judd in Lazareth, Mira Sorvino in The Image of You, the Hong Kong action thriller Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, the action-comedy Hazard and the Guatemalan drama Our Mothers.

Critical Week: Make a wish

Awards season is in peak flow, with multiple screenings and Q&As every day, forcing us to choose carefully. One easy choice was attending the world premiere of Wonka, attended by filmmaker Paul King and the entire cast. The party was astonishing (so much candy!), and the film is a lot of fun too. There was also the musical remake of The Color Purple, a finely made film even if the songs create an uneven tone. Eddie Murphy takes on Christmas in Candy Cane Lane, an enjoyably goofy comedy fantasy that's slight but watchable. That's pretty much the same way to describe Melissa McCarthy in Genie.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
May December • Femme
Fallen Leaves • Totem
We Dare to Dream
ALL REVIEWS >

A bit more high brow, there's Jeffrey Wright in the fiercely intelligent comedy American Fiction, taking on cancel culture with complexity and nuance. George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett are excellent in the dark British drama Femme, a provocative exploration of masculinity. Isabelle Huppert is as good as always in The Sitting Duck (La Syndicaliste), an otherwise rather dry and talky drama. The slickly made Hong Kong crime thriller The Goldfinger reunites the great Tony Leung and Andy Lau, although the film gets bogged down in details. And there were two riveting docs: High and Low traces the life of disgraced fashion icon John Galliano, while We Dare to Dream is an intimate journey with members of the Olympic refugee team.

And as voting deadlines get closer, screenings are getting even busier. Movies this week include Pierce Brosnan in Fast Charlie, acclaimed foreign films The Taste of Things, The Peasants, Monica and Green Border, plus on-stage performances of Lunar Halo at Sadler's Wells, Tossed at Royal Vauxhall Tavern and Gary Starr at Southwark Playhouse.

Critical Week: Looking for answers

With so many critics away in Cannes this week, you'd think it would have been a quiet one back here in London. But screenings have continued as usual, and will get even busier after the holiday weekend. For the next few months, there will be the blockbuster of the week to track down, plus whatever movies intrepid distributors decide to put up against them, either as counter-programming or to give audiences something else to feed their hunger for big-screen spectacle. For a critic, this can feel rather exhausting, as the smaller, more intriguing movies get lost in the shuffle. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sisu • Being Mary Tyler Moore
ALL REVIEWS >

But there are some guilty pleasures lurking in the studio output, such as Robert Rodriguez's twisty thriller Hypnotic, starring Ben Affleck and Alice Braga. It's brainy enough to feel smart, even if it isn't. But it's thoroughly entertaining. Disney's remake of The Little Mermaid is still largely animated, now with the heads of ace human stars like Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy grafted to the digital fish-bodies. Halle Bailey is likeable as Ariel, the story and songs are engaging, but the visuals are murky and the tone feels rather grim.

Off the beaten path, Breaking Infinity is a small-budget British thriller that plays around with time travel. It's choppy but involving, and Neil Bishop is a terrific leading man. From China, the animated adventure Boonie Bears: Guardian Code is funny and silly, and also rather chaotic. And Mark Cousins' documentary My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock has some fun with the filmmaking master, to the delight of fans. There were also two stage shows: the prickly romantic drama The Misandrist the Arcola and the dazzlingly acrobatic dance piece Corps Extrêmes at Sadler's Wells.

This next week I'll be watching two highly anticipated comic book blockbusters: The Flash and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, plus Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera in Carmen, Chris Messina in The Boogeyman, French drama The Innocent, Italian drama The Neighbour and International Male documentary All Man. I'll also attend live performances of The Ruggeds: State Shift at Sadler's Wells (review here soon), and the immersive revival of Guys and Dolls at the Bridge.

Critical Week: Family time

These are busy days in the screening rooms, with festival films as well as the usual forthcoming releases. And the awards season has also begun to rear its head with for-your-consideration screenings. It'll be like this for the rest of the year! This week I caught up with the Cannes-winning Parasite by Bong Joon-ho, a staggering drama about a family of con-artists that continually twists and turns to keep the audience gasping. There was the second Shaun the Sheep Movie, Farmageddon, which is just as sweet and hilarious, if a bit more madcap, than the first. Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss all go against type in the thriller The Kitchen, which struggles to find its tone. And Ready or Not is a horror comedy that's funny and very grisly, but not scary at all.

Awkwafina is terrific in a dramatic role in The Farewell, a charming and involving drama set in China. The gifted Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is back with the important, unnerving and rather long dramatic thriller The Nightingale, set in 19th century Tasmania. Celine Sciamma (Girlhood) is back with the staggeringly good, utterly unmissable period romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Richard Kind gets a rare serious role in the gentle, uneven virtual reality drama Auggie. The inventive but messy black comedy Groupers takes on homophobia in ways that will make everyone feel uncomfortable. And this beautiful documentary opens this week...

Mother
dir Kristof Bilsen; scr Kristof Bilsen, Xan Marquez Caneda
with Chutimon "Pomm" Sonsirichai, Maya Gloor, Elizabeth Rohner, Martin Woodli,
Walter Gloor, Joyce Gloor, Sara Gloor, Tanja Gloor
release UK 20.Sep.19 • 19/Belgium 1h22 ****

Reflective and intimate, this understated documentary simply follows women who initially seem completely different but reveal layers of common ground between them. Filmmaker Kristof Bilsen cuts between Thailand and Switzerland, quietly observing mothers and children as they connect to each other in unexpected ways. This gives the film a gently involving narrative, allowing the audience to experience these situations and emotions in a vivid way.

Pomm is a care worker from an isolated Thai village. She only gets to see her children when she's on holiday, and feels guilty that she isn't there all the time. Her job is to work with the Western patients at Baan Kamlangchay, an Alzheimer's care centre in Chiang-Mai. One of these is Elizabeth, a smiley woman who occasionally wonders where she is. "You're on holiday in Thailand," Pomm cheerfully reminds her, calling her "granny". Pomm feels that her patients are family, and she uses emotions to communicate with them. Meanwhile in Switzerland, Maya has early onset Alzheimer's at 57, and is being readied by her family to travel to Chiang-Mai. Maya's husband and daughters are sensitive to criticism that they are sending her away, but from their perspective this is a sacrifice, giving up their time with her so she can have a better life and proper care. As Pomm is grieving Elizabeth's death, Maya moves in, and they begin a new relationship.

The film is beautifully shot without ever being pushy about themes, offering remarkable insight into a variety of issues, including a young woman who needs to work two jobs to support a family she rarely sees and also the importance of providing dignified care for Alzheimer's patients. It's fascinating to see how Pomm identifies with women who have lost their past lives. She longs to hug her mother, who takes care of her kids, but the culture forbids it, so she lavishes affection on her patients instead. She's also well aware that if she needed this kind of care, she could never afford it. Yes, this is the kind of doc that makes us think.

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Much of my time at the moment is being taken up with festival screenings. The Raindance Film Festival is running right now (18-29 Sep), and press screenings have already begun for the London Film Festival (2-13 Oct). I'll of course have more updates on both of those! And there are also regular movies screening for the press these days, including Naomie Harris in Black and Blue, Juliette Binoche in Non-Fiction, Jamie Bell in Skin, Mathieu Amalric in Sink or Swim and the horror movie The Birdcatcher

LFF: Fancy footwork

The 62nd London Film Festival wrapped up tonight with the world premiere of Jon Baird's Stan & Ollie. It seems to have gone by in a blur for me this year, mainly because I missed about two thirds of the festival due to my travels. Although I still managed to see 35 of the films! And I am catching up with a few more over the coming weeks. There are eight more films listed below, beneath the award winners (none of which I've seen) and my own best of the fest.

2018 LFF AWARDS
Best Film: JOY
Sutherland Award - First Feature: Lukas Dhont (GIRL)
Grierson Award - Documentary:
WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD'S ON FIRE?

RICH'S BEST OF THE FEST

1. If Beale Street Could Talk
2. Colette
3. The Favourite
4. Won't You Be My Neighbour?
5. A Private War
6. Dogman
7. Border
8. Shadow
9. The Breaker Upperers
10. Stan & Ollie

Stan & Ollie
dir Jon S Baird; with Steve Coogan, John C Reilly 18/UK ****
With a gentle tone, this biopic traces Laurel and Hardy's final stage tour. The focus is on their relationship, and Jeff Pope's script beautifully captures their rivalry and deep affection. Director Jon Baird stages the film as a loving homage to the iconic duo, replaying their best bits and thankfully resisting the temptation to over-egg them for a modern audience. So the film remains warm and, yes, funny.

A Private War
dir Matthew Heineman; with Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan 18/UK ****.
Filmmaker Matthew Heineman (City of Ghosts) brings his documentarian's eye to this biopic about noted war reporter Marie Colvin. Played with earthy intensity by Rosamund Pike, Colvin was a powerhouse who shined light on people caught in the crossfire. This film is sharply well-assembled to throw the audience into both her life and her perspective... FULL REVIEW >

Can You Ever Forgive Me
dir Marielle Heller; with Melissa McCarthy, Richard E Grant 18/US ***
Based on an extraordinary true story, this low-key comedy-drama is a terrific showcase for Melissa McCarthy's acting skill, something lost in the silly mayhem of her usual projects. It's a punchy tale about artistic frustration and the need to find an outlet for expression, even if it might be an illegal one. And while the events are actually rather serious, they unfold with plenty of offbeat wit and warmth.

Sorry to Bother You
dir-scr Boots Riley; with Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson 18/US ***
There's a loose, surreal nuttiness to this film, which mixes topical drama and edgy comedy to create something bracingly original. It starts out as an office satire, but shifts gears along the way as writer-director Boots Riley plays with fantastical imagery and thematic parody. Sometimes, the pastiche becomes a little too insane for its own good, and where the story goes is deliberately confrontational... FULL REVIEW >

The Hate U Give
dir George Tillman Jr; with Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall 18/US ***
Despite an oddly simplified script and glossy mainstream direction, this film tackles a huge issue in a way that will engage a wide audience. It's a take on Black Lives Matter that helps illuminate the issue with a warmly involving story packed with solid characters. So even if the ideas are obvious, the film may help audiences understand the topic with more clarity... FULL REVIEW >

Sauvage
dir-scr Camille Vidal-Naquet; wtih Felix Maritaud, Eric Bernard 18/Fr ***.
Observed in an offhanded, almost documentary style, this French drama traces the day-to-day experiences of a French prostitute who is looking for love. Filmmaker Camille Vital-Naquet takes an unflinching approach that catches details in the characters and the relationships between them. With minimalistic dialog, the film features skilful naturalistic performances from a cast of brave rising stars.

Utøya - July 22
dir Erik Poppe; with Andrea Berntzen, Aleksander Holmen 18/Nor ***.
This film explores the events of 22 July 2011 in Norway. After CCTV footage of the Oslo car bomb, filmmaker Eric Poppe traces the right-wing extremist's subsequent attack on a summer camp outside the city. Shot as a single take matching the 72-minute attack, events unfold in real time through the eyes of the (fictionalised) young people. It's a harrowing film that vividly puts the audience into an unthinkable situation.

Burning
dir Lee Chang-dong; with Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun 18/Kor ***
It wouldn't be too difficult to cut an entire hour out of this dramatic thriller. While the meandering approach does add some realism and earthiness, plus a lot of fascinating detail, it also leaves the audience unable to piece together disparate, seemingly irrelevant elements into something coherent. Still, it's finely written, directed and played, and it's packed with superb moments.

Critical Week: To new friends

It's been another eclectic week in London screening rooms. We had the genre mash-up A Simple Favour, starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in a story that includes suburban comedy, buddy drama and Hitchcockian mystery. Another odd mix, The Happytime Murders stars Melissa McCarthy and a cast of puppets as a serial killer is on the loose. It's misguided but has its moments. And Action Point is a Jackass-style comedy from Johnny Knoxville about a perilous theme park. The stunts are sometimes funny, but nothing else is.

Gaspar Noe was in town to unleash his new film Climax on British audiences at FrightFest last weekend. It's a brilliantly swirling dance-based descent into hellish confusion. And I had a chance to talk to Noe about it. Other FrightFest titles I caught: Upgrade is a futuristic thriller starring Logan Marshall-Green as a guy who has his body rebuilt by technology, which of course goes awry. The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot is surprisingly nothing like its trashy title; it's an involving drama about an old man (Sam Elliott) coming to terms with the things he did as a young man (Aidan Turner). The Australian romp Boar, refreshingly uses puppets instead of digital effects to send a gigantic wild pig on a hyper-violent killing spree in the Outback. And The Cleaning Lady is eerie horror about a silent cleaner with a secret agenda.

Three more offbeat movies: From Germany, The Year I Lost My Mind is about a young man who begins stalking his own robbery victim in unsettling, underdeveloped ways. The documentary George Michael: Freedom was directed by the man himself just before he died, tracing his life with sensitivity and lots of amazing interviews and music. Shown on British TV last year, it's coming to cinemas as a director's cut. And Ruminations documents the life of Rumi Missabu, one of the original Cockettes. It's colourful and essential for fans of the late-60s gender-blurred performers.

Coming up this next week we have Jack Black and Cate Blanchett in The House With a Clock in its Walls, Annette Bening in The Seagull, Paul Dano's directing debut Wildlife, Jeremy Irons in An Actor Prepares, South African drama Five Fingers for Marseilles and the artist-activist doc I Hate New York.

Critical Week: Fashion victim

This past week, I caught up with Elle Fanning in Nicolas Winding Refn's new horror drama The Neon Demon, the latest slick, lurid, fascinating, infuriating film from the Danish filmmaker. Another stylish thriller, Nerve, stars Emma Roberts and Dave Franco (sorry, comments are embargoed). And then there was some comedy: Ghostbusters entertainingly reboots the franchise with a terrific quartet of comedic actresses, while Ice Age: Collision Course carries on the ridiculous antics of that growing herd of loveable but random prehistoric critters.

Further afield, Pedro Almodovar's Julieta is a fluid, beautifully emotive drama with a twisty story and a terrific cast. The acclaimed Greek comedy-drama Chevalier is a fiercely clever dissection of masculine bravado. K-Shop is a solidly made British horror thriller with blackly comical overtones. And the latest collection from Peccadillo, Boys on Film 15: Time & Tied, features nine strikingly well-made short films addressing issues of gender and sexuality from a variety of astute, personal angles.

This coming week we have the long-awaited Matt Damon-starring sequel Jason Bourne, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG, Disney's remake of Pete's Dragon, Chris Pine in Hell or High Water and the oddly titled journalist doc Jim: The James Foley Story.

Critical Week: Welcome to the club

UK critics had a chance to screen Richard Linklater's new comedy Everybody Wants Some!!, a spiritual follow-up to two of his earlier films: Dazed and Confused and Boyhood. It's clever, funny and very sharp. Jake Gyllenhaal is simply terrific in Jean-Marc Vallee's Demolition, a parable that is a bit obvious in its metaphors but still wrenchingly powerful. By contrast, Melissa McCarthy's The Boss has a lot of potential, but it's squandered with filmmaking that's based on pratfalls instead of the vivid central character.

John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson find more intriguing characters than expected in the horror thriller Cell, a freaky twist on the zombie genre from Stephen King. Rio I Love You is the latest collection of shorts in the Cities of Love series, and a much more coherent, warm and involving film as a whole. Arabian Nights: The Desolate One is the second in Miguel Gomes' inventively surreal trilogy. This one's drier than the first one, but has a terrific dog at the centre of the third set of shorts.

Further into indie movie land, Daddy is a well-made and sharply acted American film that shifts uneasily from a lively rom-com into a very, very dark drama. And there were two low-budget British crime dramas: The Violators is a compelling story of siblings in crisis, while the fact-based Hard Tide follows a guy who discovers something valuable in himself. Both give in to cliches and underpowered filmmaking.

Of course, proper reviews will follow in each film's week of release - some are already up on the site.

Screening this next week: Tom Hanks in A Hologram for the King, Ricky Gervais in Special Correspondents, Susan Sarandon in Mothers and Daughters, the apocalyptic Aussie drama These Final Hours, the final episode in the trilogy Arabian Nights: The Enchanted One, Michael Moore's sociological doc Where to Invade Next and the British public unrest doc The Hard Stop. We also have a three day weekend ahead!

Critical Week: Into the wild, wild west

There were several starry films shown to critics in London this past week, as many of our colleagues were still in Cannes watching things we won't see here for a few months. The best one was Slow West, a beautifully shot, cleverly paced drama set in the Wild West and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender (above). Melissa McCarthy reunites with The Heat filmmaker Paul Feig for Spy, a raucous action comedy that's profane, violent and utterly hilarious. I see a franchise brewing. Dwayne Johnson tackles the biggest earthquake ever in the rather ridiculously over-the-top disaster movie San Andreas, which opens this week. Rosamund Pike is terrific in the rather underdeveloped post-attack drama Return to Sender. And Guy Pearce and Coby Smulders play duelling personal trainers in the witty but ultimately thin Results.

Off the beaten path, we had the beautifully shot Eden, which traces France's club music scene authentically but without much in the way of character or plot. Also from France, the even more loosely structured Love at First Fight (Les Combattants) at least traces a strongly involving personal journey in two young people who join the army to get away from their boring homes. From China, Black Coal, Thin Ice is a gorgeously artful police thriller that leaves its twisty, surprising mystery plot in the background where it belongs. Oriented is a groundbreaking documentary about three gay Palestinians in Tel Aviv that has a lot to say about Israel's political situation. And finally, The Human Centipede 3 (Final Segment) is the conclusion of Dutch filmmaker Tom Six's insane gross-out trilogy, this time set in an American prison. It's over-the-top, clumsy and frankly awful, but makes some strong points with its satirical-comedy tone.

I also caught up with Bessie, the biopic about the iconic blues pioneer Bessie Smith, played beautifully by Queen Latifah. It's a remarkably tough story, directed with flashes of real insight by filmmaker Dee Rees and featuring superb supporting turns by the unstoppable likes of Khandi Alexander, Mo'Nique, Michael Kenneth Williams and Mike Epps, all of whom make their characters startlingly complex. In the end, the structure is a bit tricky to make much sense of, but the characters are so strong that we don't mind much. And the music is simply divine.

This coming week, screenings include Insidious Chapter 3, Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal in Accidental Love, Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courteney in their Berlin-winning roles in Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, the horror thriller Cub, the aristocrat doc Lord Montagu, and the Open City Docs highlights Before the Last Curtain Falls and Daniel's World.

Critical Week: Everybody wants to be a star

Two high-profile press screenings in London this past week were for buzzy festival hits. Nightcrawler is the blackly comical thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as an ambitions crime-scene photographer. It's a stunner. And the crowd-pleasing St Vincent gives Bill Murray his best role ever as a grouchy old man who takes a young boy under his wing.

We also caught up with the next teen dystopia franchise launcher, the nicely made and well-acted but slightly thin thriller The Maze Runner; the wonderfully atmospheric and slightly undercooked 1970s British drama Northern Soul; the slick and unsettling drama A Good Marriage, starring Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia; and the documentary Corpus Christi: Playing With Redemption, about how the controversy surrounding the notorious play is largely misplaced.

I took it a bit easier on London Film Festival screenings this past week - just three: the searing British drama Bypass with George MacKay; the haunting American ghost story Jamie Marks Is Dead; and the Australian aboriginal drama Charlie's Country with David Gulpilil. And I got away from screening rooms for music (my first Kylie concert), theatre (a fringe comedy) and a set visit with Drew Barrymore. I was also elected vice chair of the London Film Critics' Circle, and had a power cut for 16 hours on Wednesday. Quite a week.

Films this coming week include the all-star ensemble comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You and Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall in The Judge. As for London Film Festival, screenings in my diary over the first six days include: The Imitation Game, Rosewater, Wild, The Drop, My Old Lady, Kung Fu Jungle, The Falling, Return to Ithaca, Pasolini, The Salvation, Silent Storm, 1001 Grams, Second Chance and The Goob. Daily blog entries start on Thursday...

Shadows on the Screen: Spring TV roundup

Yes, sometimes a bit of television can help clear my head after a day at the movies (ie, work). And I've been following several series over the past few months. The granddaddy of them all is the most expensive TV show ever made...

Game of Thrones: series 3
created by David Benioff, DB Weiss; with Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams, Kit Harington, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau HBO/US ****
Honestly, this is one of the most thrillingly infuriating TV series ever, as it skips around its array of storylines tantalising the audience with tidbits of narrative, about half of which is hugely engaging. By far, the best characters in the show are Dinklage's Tyrion (above) and Clarke's Daenerys, and both had gripping journeys this year, ending up in unexpected emotional places. And Williams' Arya is proving to be the show's dark horse. There was also the usual series of nightmarish battles and sudden deaths for various central characters. Few TV shows have ever tried something on this scale, and while the fragmented narrative keeps it from being completely involving, each episode is packed with moments that take the breath away.

Mad Men: series 7
created by Matthew Weiner; with Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, John Slattery, Christina Hendricks, Robert Morse AMC/US *****

The final season of this already iconic show has been split into two - so actually this is the penultimate series, and we'll have to wait until next year to see how it all ends. This astonishingly well written and acted drama has now arrived in 1969, where things are rather tumultuous for both America and the characters. Some of the story threads feel a little obtuse (January Jones has so little to do now), while the New York/California split made the show sometimes feel a bit schizophrenic. But everything dovetails together cleverly without answering every question, which forces the audience to engage with the moral complexities and interpersonal dramas. It's time for it to come to an end, but we'll hate to see it go.

Veep: series 3

created by Armando Iannucci; with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons HBO/US ****

Nurse Jackie: series 6

created by Evan Dunsky, Linda Wallem, Liz Brixius; with Edie Falco, Merritt Wever, Adam Ferrara, Peter Facinelli, Paul Schulze, Anna Deavere Smith Showtime/US ****
Two cable series pushed boundaries with female-led, dark-edged comedies. Louis-Dreyfus continues to be the best comic performer on television; her impeccable timing makes Selena both formidable and rather endearingly pathetic. Selena's campaign for the presidency sometimes drifted over the lines into corny slapstick, but was consistently hilarious. By contrast, Falco's equally impeccable performance as Jackie made her show unmissable, thanks to some of the best writing in all six seasons. As a high-functioning addict, Jackie's link to reality drifted very slowly this season, so the laughter tended to be of the bitter, nervous sort. Both shows offered terrific season-long arcs that were packed with surprises and left things in a whole new place for next year.

Modern Family: series 5
created by Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd; with Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet ABC/US *****

Parks and Recreation: series 6

created by Greg Daniels, Michael Schur; with Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt NBC/US *****

Community: series 5

created by Dan Harmon; with Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong NBC/US ****
I don't watch very many network sitcoms, but these three single-camera shows are mercifully free of laugh-tracks (I tried to watch Mom because I love Allison Janney and Anna Faris, but the inane guffawing wore me out). These three, on the other hand, are not only very funny but are blessed with some of the best writing and acting on TV. Has another show ever maintained such high quality over five seasons as Modern Family? When I met Ty Burrell at a press event in January I asked him why, and he said it's simple: they have the same team of writers they started with. Which also explains why the children have grown into sharply complex characters all their own. Another show that gets funnier year by year, Parks has a cast of hilarious scene-stealers who continually add layers to their characters. Losing Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones would have doomed a lesser show, but these guys more than filled the gap. And in its final season, Community bounced back to the wacky unpredictability of earlier years. The scattershot approach was a little disorienting (as are many of the brainy jokes and subtle references), but it's a rare show that actually talks up to its audience.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: series 1
created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen; with Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge ABC/US ***

Scandal: series 3

created by Shonda Rhimes; with Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn, Jeff Perry, Darby Stanchfield, Katie Lowes, Guillermo Diaz ABC/US ****

Arrow: series 2

created by Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim; with Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Caity Lotz, Manu Bennett, Susanna Thompson Warner/US ***

These three series are guilty pleasures: not particularly great but a lot of fun. Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. series often feels like either an X-Files rip-off or a craven tie-in to their big-screen movies, but the character interaction is a lot of fun, and the season arc led the team into some intriguingly perilous situations. Scandal was a blast of fresh air in its first short season, then became bogged down in soapy melodrama in the second year. This third series was a lot sharper, with more political edge and some strong moral dilemmas. It also features the most fabulous cliffhangers imaginable - even the lead-ins to the ad breaks leave the audience breathless with anticipation. By contrast, Arrow suffers from painfully clumsy plotting that feels badly contrived at every turn, while the dual-timeline structure is straining at the seams. But the often startlingly fit actors are magnetic, drawing us into the action even though we know it's utterly ridiculous.

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CRITICAL WEEK: Here's Tammy!
Since I was on holiday last week, I saw no films at all. But I returned to work on Monday (my birthday, no less) and caught up with two: Melissa McCarthy's comedy Tammy isn't quite sure if it's a silly slapstick comedy or a sentimental road movie - so isn't really either one. And the festival-favourite comedy Obvious Child is a seriously endearing rom-com that avoids the usual structure and is packed with spiky characters and humour. I've got several things in the pipeline over the next week, including catch-up screenings of this summer's Transformers, How to Train Your Dragons and Planet of the Apes movies. But first things first: I mustn't let my tan fade away...

Critical Week: Manly men in skirts

There were two memorable screenings in London this week, including Hammer of the Gods, the corny ancient-Britain 300/Braveheart romp, and Hugh Jackman's valiant attempt to revive the reputation of The Wolverine. Both films value chaotic action over plot or characterisation, and both also know that audiences love nothing more than gratuitous bare male torsos. Although at least Jackman himself turned up to introduce his film at the screening, eliciting crazed cheers from the crowd and laughter from director James Mangold and the screening's host Alex Zane, who couldn't get a word in edgeways.

We also had two action comedies this week: Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy were a terrific double-act in the hilarious but over-violent buddy cop movie The Heat, while veterans Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich were back for more underdeveloped comical spy antics in RED 2. Much darker and more interesting, Only God Forgives stars Ryan Gosling as a hapless guy caught in a nasty spiral of revenge partly orchestrated by his mother Kristen Scott Thomas, who's on blinding form. And The Great Hip Hop Hoax documents the jaw-dropping true story of rappers Silibil n' Brains, who hit the big time when they claimed to be from California. But they were actually guys from Scotland. A terrific story.

This coming week we have Matt Damon in Neil Blomkamp's Elysium, the all-star comedy-drama The Way Way Back, the festival favourite Like Father Like Son, the Gilberto Gil doc Viramundo and Ferzan Ozpetek's A Magnificent Haunting.

Critical Week: Don't read that book!

The week's biggest screening was Evil Dead, a remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 classic about a group of young people who find a sinister book in a cabin in the woods and unleash all sorts of nasty horror. This version has some very nice touches, and gore-hounds will absolutely adore it. We also caught up with Danny Boyle's twisty, gleaming, enjoyably over-complicated hypnosis thriller Trance, starring James McAvoy; Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy in the amusing but pointlessly overcomplicated comedy Identity Thief; Bryan Singer's epic-sized fairy tale action movie Jack the Giant Slayer, in which a lively cast rescues us from digital overload; and Jim Sturgess and Kirstin Dunst in the fantasy-romance Upside Down, which is strong on ideas but short on logic and story.

A bit further off the beaten path were Bernardo Bertolucci's perceptive and remarkably youthful Italian drama Me and You; the astonishing, essential British doc We Went to War, which catches up with Vietnam veterans after filmmaker Michael Grigsby (who sadly died last week) first documented them in 1970; and an intriguing but annoyingly indulgent French actor-director encounter in Unfaithful.

This coming week we have the action sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the comedy 21 and Over, Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan in Byzantium, Eric Bana and Olivia WIlde in Deadfall, the American indie Four and the Filipino-Malaysian drama Bwakaw.