Critical Week: Hang in there

I've taken it a bit easier this week, film-wise, only watching three movies. Charlize Theron faces off against a villainous Taron Egerton in Apex, a properly ripping guilty-pleasure wilderness survival thriller that Netflix really should have released in cinemas. And then there were two films starring Anne Hathaway: she reteams with Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci in the 20-years-later sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is entertaining even if it's let down by an inconsistent script. And she also stars alongside Michaela Coel in David Lowery's offbeat two-hander Mother Mary, which looks and sounds amazing but kind of loses us with an overly blurred narrative. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Last One for the Road
Departures • Wild Foxes
ALL REVIEWS >

I also ventured out of London for the first time this year, taking the train a few hours north to Stratford-upon-Avon for a live performance of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the RSC's Swan Theatre, starring Mark Gatiss. Set in 1930s gangland Chicago, it's a shattering parody of Hitler's rise to power, staged and performed in a way that feels unusually engulfing.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching the animated adventure Swapped, Leo Woodall in Tuner, Karl Urban in the sequel Mortal Kombat II, the British drama Ish, the Billie Eilish concert doc Hit Me Hard and Soft and two live performances: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Sadler's Wells and Bullyache's A Good Man is Hard to Find at Sadler's Wells East.

On the road: Take the plunge

Being away for the holidays, I've prioritised hanging out with family and friends over work - so I'm a bit behind with everything apart from food! But I've managed to watch a few films here and there. Just out in cinemas here in the US, The Plague stars Joel Edgerton as a boys' water polo coach who seems either unable or unwilling to tackle the horrific bullying on the team. It's strikingly well made, with a terrific central performance by young Everett Blunck. 

The gentle drama Rebuilding features yet another excellent role for Josh O'Connor as a Colorado rancher trying to start over after a wildfire. It's quietly powerful. Ron Howard's Eden tells the true story of Europeans trying to find paradise in the Galápagos in the 1930s, with a cast that includes Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas. The cast makes it watchable even when it gets rather soapy. The documentary The Perfect Neighbor is assembled from body-cam footage as Florida cops teal with a messy situation that escalates until someone dies. It's hard to watch, but important. I also caught up with a few pulpy movies from recent years, including the cat-and-mouse thriller Carry-On in which Jason Bateman terrorises security agent Taron Egerton in Los Angeles airport. It's seriously stupid, but fun. Mel Gibson plays an action-oriented Santa in Fatman, an uneven mix of comedy and violence that never comes together. Walton Goggins is seriously intense as the baddie; Marianne Jean-Baptiste (yes, really) shines as Mrs Claus.

Over this next week, I'll be watching a few more contenders before ballots are due in various awards. I'm also flying back to London, so will no doubt catch up with some gems (!) on the flights. Before that, I will be finalising year-end lists of my best and worst from 2025 - watch this space...

Screen: September TV Roundup

Because I watch most of these shows on press links, I have already jumped ahead to series that aren't out yet, most notably advance episodes in new seasons of Only Murders in the Building, The Morning Show and Peacemaker. I'm loving these shows, although I am waiting impatiently to get the rest of the episodes. I'll start here with this summer's new series...

Chief of War
Jason Momoa stars in and cowrote this epic Hawaiian historical series. Set in the late 1700s, the thunderous plot centres around Momoa's Maui warrior Ka'iana, caught between two outrageously violent kings (Temeura Morrison and Cliff Curtis) and the benevolent Kamehameha (Kaina Makua). It's a robust show with hugely thrilling moments and beefy dramatic beats. Characters are vivid, including some superbly strong women (especially Luciane Buchanan and Te Ao o Hinepehinga). There's also a lot of grisly violence, although the show flinches away from romantic elements, leaving some sequences rather unfinished. This series leads to a staggeringly intense battle on an active volcano. And plenty of nastiness is still lurking for season 2. (Apple)

The Institute
Based on the Stephen King novel, this conspiratorial mystery series centres on a top-secret facility run by the creepy Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), who kidnaps, exploits and possibly kills children with telepathic abilities for some nefarious reason. Meanwhile, drifter Tim (Ben Barnes) takes a job in a local police station and begins investigating. The intrigue levels are high, largely because the scripts give so little away, centred on the smart teens (including Joe Freeman, Fionn Laird, Simone Miller and Viggo Hanvelt) trying to escape from this shady prison-like facility. The scrappy filmmaking approach makes it riveting to watch, because it feels so unpredictable. Although it takes a long time to get around to supplying the answers. (MGM)

Smoke
This is about as Dennis Lehane as a TV show can be, a thriller packed with conflicted and often downright loathsome characters that give the actors a lot to chew on. Taron Egerton stars as an arson investigator teamed with a local cop (Jurnee Smollett) to solve two sets of serial fires. Meaty support comes from Rafe Spall, Greg Kinnear and John Leguizamo. Each of these tough-talking characters has at least one key moral failing, and they interact in ways that are as fiery as the blazes that are burning everything down around them. The plot takes a series of seriously grim twists and turns. And not a moment of what's on-screen feels remotely plausible. If you don't get too frustrated by this, the show is still entertaining. (Apple)

Leanne
Comedian Leanne Morgan leads this sitcom about a Southern woman who is thrown when her husband (Ryan Styles) suddenly leaves after three decades of marriage, children and grandchildren. She puts her life back together with the help of her tearaway sister (Kristen Johnson), two hilariously sparky siblings against the world. It's fairly standard TV stuff, with the usual children (Graham Rogers and Hannah Pilkes), parents (Blake Clark and Celia Weston) and nosey neighbour (Jayma Mays) on hand to spike the one-liners. Plus a new suitor (Tim Daly) for Leanne. It's also warm and funny, with strong characters and a steady stream of laugh-out-loud moments. But the laugh track feels oddly old fashioned, and more than a little distracting. (Netflix)

Stick
With heavy Ted Lasso vibes, but a more formulaic story arc, this sports comedy-drama stars Owen Wilson as disgraced golf pro Pryce who finds new purpose in life when he discovers talented 17-year-old Santi (Peter Dager) and offers to help launch his career. The character-based storytelling is hugely engaging, most notably in the long-time relationship between Pryce and his caddy Mitts (Marc Maron). And Mariana Trevino (as Santi's mother) and Lilli Kay (Santi's love interest) add superb textures as this offbeat makeshift family travels around middle America in an RV. Big story elements arrive with a thud, mainly in the form of unnecessary conflicts, but the show maintains its warm, brittle sense of humour. (Apple) 

Olympo
From the producers of Elite, here's another show about an exclusive school, this time an academy for, yes, elite athletes. It's of course populated by sex-obsessed students and over-serious teachers, all of whom who are stupid or vile, often both. Of course, this makes it just as watchable as Elite, because all of these absurdly super-fit, clothing-averse people are deeply conflicted about the contrived nastiness the writers continually throw at them. With multiple mysteries, scandals and conspiracies for these eye-catching hotties to grapple with over the course of eight episodes, the show is a full-on guilty pleasure. It also makes some gestures toward confronting big issues in sport, such as doping, homophobia and corporate sponsorship. (Netflix)

Adults
While it's snappy and engaging, there's an annoying whiff of artificiality running through this comedy about five lively 20-somethings, starting with the fact that they live rent-free in a friend's house in Queens. This makes their whiny complaints about adult life feel astonishingly shallow and self-indulgent. The dialog is edgy and entertaining, well delivered by the central ensemble even if they're overplaying these likeable idiots. Frankly, there isn't one person on-screen who doesn't seem in dire need of a firm slap. And it doesn't help that every twist of the plot is painfully contrived, while the issues the show pretends to explore are little more than cliches addressed with jokes that aren't particularly funny. (FX)

The Wild Ones
Former commando Aldo Kane and intrepid camera operators Declan Burley and Vianet Djenguet take on some jaw-droppingly intense projects in these six episodes. They travel into inaccessible spots around the globe in an effort to document endangered species and help make sure they don't go extinct. Looking for tigers in Malaysia, bears in Mongolia and whales in the North Atlantic, these guys come up with ingenious ways to capture footage of seldom-seen animals. The situations they get into are astonishing, beautifully filmed to reveal the rarely seen settings and wildlife. It's also a little surreal to realise that they are accompanied by an equally intrepid camera crew that's filming this series, and perhaps could have a show of their own. (Apple) 

C A T C H I N G   U P

Wednesday: series 1-2
Having never watched this Addams Family reboot before, I binged the first season before the second arrived. This is a wonderfully deranged and stylised comedy from the mind of Tim Burton, centred around Jenna Ortega as a dark-minded teen in a nutty boarding school for outcasts. The second season is instantly gloomier, with a stronger sense of violent nastiness woven into the storylines. Thankfully, it's also still hilarious, with the added nuttiness of Steve Buscemi's over-eager headmaster. Everything about this show is delightfully ghoulish, from the bonkers plotting to the thoroughly up-for-it cast. These could easily be one-note characters, but they're full of witty nuance. And at its core this is a terrific celebration of individual quirks and offbeat family bonds. (Netflix)

Fisk: series 1-3
As a Kath & Kim fan, this show has often been recommended, but it took me awhile to catch up with it ahead of the recently dropped third season. This is another riotously bone-dry comedy from Melbourne, populated by amusing characters who are instantly unforgettable. In the title role, Kitty Flanagan has impeccable timing as the intelligent but vaguely clueless probate lawyer Helen Fisk, whose colleagues (Jilia Zemiro, Marty Sheargold and deadpan genius Aaron Chen) never say or do anything that isn't ridiculous. There's even an outrageous recurring role for Glenn Robbins (Kath & Kim's Kel). Each season pushes these people to the breaking point, but they hang on resiliently. And hilariously. Unmissable. (Netflix) 

T H E Y ’ R E   B A C K !

Dexter: Resurrection
The killer who can't be killed returns once more for another gritty series of episodes. Michael C Hall is back in his signature role, as Dexter now moves to New York to keep an eye on his son Harrison (Jack Alcott), who has some demons of his own. But of course, Dexter can't resist getting caught up in murderous shenanigans of his own. After tracking down a serial killer, he finds himself on a collision course with deadly puppet-masters (Uma Thurman and Peter Dinklage) who run a club for murderers. Fabulous cameos liven things up considerably, including Neil Patrick Harris, Krysten Ritter, David Dastmalchian and Eric Stonestreet. And the tension between Dexter and Harrison is beautifully well-played. (Showtime)

Single, Out: series 3
Still endearingly awkward, this low-budget queer series set in Melbourne continues the adventures of magazine photographer Adam (Will Hutchins), with new wrinkles provided by younger brother Ethan (Joel Nankervis). Even if the direction is rather clumsy, series creator Lee Galea continues to have fun with an ensemble of lively characters who are likably played by a bright young cast. Everyone falls in and out of love in an instant, slutty one day and chaste the next. But it's easy to ignore the corny plotting and implausible details (can any free gay magazine support such a large staff?), thanks to thoughtful issues that pop up here and there. And it's especially nice to see characters who are so relaxed about sexuality. (Cinephobia)

Long Way Home
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back for a fourth epic motorbike odyssey, this time riding reconditioned 50-year-old vintage bikes in a huge arching circle around Europe from Ewan's Scotland hometown to Charley's house outside London. They spend much of this series in Scandinavia, which is particularly fascinating as they discover glorious scenery, offbeat sports and several astounding places to camp or rent an unusual room. Their camaraderie is infectious, because they come across as endearing chuckleheads who are simply enjoying the unexpected things they discover along the road. And their families feature as well this time, which makes it even more involving. We'd love to go travelling with them. (Apple) 

O V E R   A N D   O U T

The Sandman: series 2
Grim and almost oppressively dark from the opening moments, this show digs further into its elaborate mythology while majoring in shadowy sets and black-intensive costumes. The overwhelmingly grey imagery and tone are hugely indulgent and not terribly original. But there are a huge crowd of terrific characters along the way, and some churning surprises in the way the story unfolds its tale of gods and spirits and faeries and such. Best of all are the evolving relationships between the mopey Dream (Tom Sturridge) and his friends, siblings, parents and foes. This offers beefy roles for superb actors who manage to hold things together despite seemingly being directed to do everything in slow motion. (Netflix)

Acapulco: series 4
For its final season, this refreshingly bilingual series doubles down on its fractured narrative approach, excessively spinning out sideplots for supporting characters while stretching out the present-day framing device into a separate story strand of its own. And visually, current scenes and those set 40 years ago look increasingly similar, which oddly blurs everything, lowering the stakes because the storylines seem to be warring with each other for our attention. Still, the writers have fun with versions of the characters while also tying up the various threads. The show continues to have plenty of Latin-fuelled charm, with hilarious gags peppered throughout the script. And Eugenio Derbez is engaging as always. (Apple)

Upload: series 4
There are only four half-hour episodes in this final season, and it feels much more plot-driven than before, rushing to tie up a range of loose threads in thankfully unexpected ways. While the tone leans further into the more slapsticky elements, the story itself is surprisingly dark, touching on issues of grief and loss in intense ways that sit at odds with the silly comedy. It helps that Robbie Amell is as charming as always in his now-dual role as two versions of Nathan, even if one of them is very mopey this time around. And as before, he's ably supported by Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards, Kevin Bigley and Zainab Johnson, plus Owen Daniels as the mass-produced AI Guy. Hopefully we'll see these actors in new gigs soon. (Prime)

GUILTY PLEASURES: The Great British Bake Off, Last Week Tonight, The Late Show, Destination X, Battle Camp, Final Draft, South Park.

NOW WATCHING: The Paper, Peacemaker 2, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3, The Morning Show 4, Only Murders in the Building 5

COMING SOON: Black Rabbit, The Savant, Chad Powers, Boots, Gen V 2, Loot 3

Previous roundup: JULY 2025 >

Critical Week: The horse and his boy

I'm definitely enjoying the calm following the storm of awards and festival season, deliberately taking on less. Perhaps this is a way forward permanently! But we'll see how that goes, as I have a couple of events and trips planned over the coming months. Films I saw this week included Jackie Chan's Chinese action comedy Ride On, in which he plays a has-been stuntman whose friendship with his horse leads to a comeback that forces him to confront his age. Yes, there's a lot going on, and it's very engaging, even if the sentimentality gets rather corny. One of the year's best surprises so far, Jon S Baird's new film Tetris chronicles the birth of the iconic video game with another terrific lead role for Taron Egerton.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Joyland • Air • Tetris
Lola • Godland
ALL REVIEWS >

The anime epic Suzume is visually spectacular, and its mind-bending story about an unexpected relationship, childhood memory and parallel worlds is remarkably involving. The Dutch drama El Houb recounts a story about a Moroccan family confronting the eldest son's homosexuality. It's tough and unflinching, and very moving. The British doc Blue Bag Life artfully explores issues of addiction and motherhood from a sometimes startlingly intimate perspective. And the biographical doc Little Richard: I Am Everything is a skilfully assembled portrait of the artist who essentially created rock 'n' roll, then influenced everyone who came after him, from Elvis to Lil Nas X. Does racism and homophobia explain why it took so long for him to get the recognition he deserves?

I also attended the press view at the Design Museum for Ai Weiwei's new exhibition Making Sense, which is another superb provocation about human history, taking a sharp new perspective on everyday objects (review up soon). And I was at the press night for Akram Khan's Jungle Book Reimagined, a visceral take on Kipling's stories about the connection between humans and nature. It's dazzlingly staged with inventive dance, music and projected animation, although the message is a bit overstated (review is already up).

This coming week includes the four-day Easter weekend, and I'll be watching Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in Renfield, Henry Golding in Assassin Club, Shailene Woodley in To Catch a Killer, Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Teyana Taylor in A Thousand and One and the action thriller Once Upon a Time in Ukraine.

Critical Week: I'm tired

I'm on a family weekend in the California desert, and we watched a time-honoured favourite together: Mel Brooks' 1975 classic Blazing Saddles, starring the iconic Madeline Kahn, Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little and Harvey Korman. Its rhythms are rather dated for today's rapid-fire comical style, and a lot of the film is deeply uncorrect politically, but I still adore its absurd sense of humour, raucous pastiche and some unforgettable gags. We also took a trip to the local cinema to see Rocketman, the Elton John biopic that's rendered as a musical fantasy. It's surprisingly dark at times, cleverly using the iconic songs out of sequence to generate strong emotional kicks here and there. And Taron Egerton is superb in the lead role.

There are also other films out this week in the US that I want to see, including Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Brightburn, Ma, plus X-Men Dark Phoenix next week, and perhaps I can catch Gloria Bell out on home entertainment release in North America (it opens in UK cinemas next week). It just depends when I can sneak out to a cinema...

Critical Week: Eye on the prize

As awards season arrives, I have a lot of for your consideration screenings alongside the regular upcoming releases, which creates a rather offbeat mix. This week we saw Otto Bathurst's ambitious new take on Robin Hood, starring Taron Egerton and Eve Hewson (above), plus Jamie Foxx and Ben Mendelsohn. Pity it's such a predictable, uneven movie. Creed II was also a disappointment, especially after the high point of Creed. This one should probably have been titled Rocky VIII, because it falls back on the old formula.

Far more satisfying were Steve McQueen's Widows, a wonderful reinvention of the heist movie starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki. The Old Man & the Gun is a terrific true drama starring Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek on top form. And the Cannes winner Shoplifters is another masterpiece by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda. There was also the scruffy, rather awkward micro-budget gay wedding comedy The Rainbow Bridge Motel, plus two documentaries: the fascinating and beautifully assembled Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, and this one...

---

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
dir Matt Tyrnauer; with Scotty Bowers, Stephen Fry
release US 27.Jul.18 • 18/US 1h38 ****
As legendary Hollywood party boy Scotty Bowers turns 80, he spills the beans on his decades of procuring men and women for the stars. These stories may be salacious, dropping some of the biggest names in cinema history, but they humanise these celebrities and finally open a door on the industry's long-hidden secrets. After serving in the Marines during the war, Scotty worked as a gas station attendant in Hollywood, where he stumbled into a network of closeted gay and bisexual men for whom he organised discreet trysts. While managing a team of rentboys, he met George Cukor then the likes of Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Cole Porter, Cecil Beaton and on and on. They had to hide their true natures due to morals clauses in their contracts, so they created myths and entered arranged marriages. When questioned about outing dead people, Scotty comments rightly that there's nothing negative about being gay, and it's no longer breaking any contractual agreements. In addition, the film outlines Scotty's childhood, including trading sex for cash from a very young age and being part of Kinsey's research study. It's fascinating to see Scotty now, chatting openly about his experiences and living amid mountains of memorabilia without any regrets at all. So the film becomes an important exploration of culture and history, as well as attitudes toward sexuality then and now.

---

This coming week's screenings are an eclectic mix, including Disney's sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet, Mahershala Ali in Green Book, Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns, Christian Bale in Vice, Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots, Felicity Jones in On the Basis of Sex, Alicia Vikander in Tulip Fever and the Sundance hit Eighth Grade.

Critical Week: Old friends

As the weather finally broke, giving us relief from this relentless heatwave, screenings this week for London-based critics were led by Christopher Robin, which was a nice surprise: a sensitive live-action Winnie-the-Pooh sequel starring Ewan McGregor. Although it might be a little slow for children. Much livelier but not nearly as engaging, The Festival has a bright young cast and superb real-world setting, but the story is thin and the jokes simply aren't funny. Featuring an even starrier young cast, including Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton and Jeremy Irvine, Billionaire Boys Club is a slick money-based thriller that feels eerily over-familiar.

A little further afield, there was the superb Irish thriller Black '47, set during the devastating 19th century potato famine and featuring terrific characters in a riveting story. David Tennant chomps on the scenery as a killer in Bad Samaritan, a nasty little thriller with very little in the way of subtext. We the Animals is a simply stunning coming-of-age drama, gorgeously shot and played on every level. And Memoirs of War is a wrenching, slow-burn WWII epic starring Melanie Thierry as author-filmmaker Marguerite Duras.

Still further off the beaten path, Redcon-1 is a crazed British zombie apocalypse adventure that makes very little sense on any level. From Norway, Revenge is a, well, revenge thriller that's insinuating and involving as its story twists and turns. The sensitive German drama Paths traces the dissolution of a long-term relationship in a quietly meaningful way. And the documentary Nureyev is perhaps a little too ambitious for its own good, with a lot going on with the imagery, sound and voiceovers, but a too-"official" narrative.

This coming week we have Idris Elba's directing debut Yardie, Australian thriller I Am Vengeance, acclaimed Italian drama Dogman, the German thriller The Year I Lost My Mind and three documentaries: Hot to Trot about ballroom dancing, Gun No 6 tracing the life of a firearm and the, ahem, self-explanatory American Circumcision.

Critical Week: Take a break

Press screenings for the 61st BFI London Film Festival started on Monday, and first out of the block were films that have a UK release coming up soon after the festival ends (it runs 4-15 Oct). I'll write more about these movies during the festival itself, including full reviews of many of them. But this week I saw Luca Guadagnino's exquisite Call Me By Your Name starring Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet (above), Aubrey Plaza in the snappy black comedy Ingrid Goes West, Russian master Andrey Zvyagintsev's excellent Loveless, Japanese master Takashi Miike's gritty and layered samurai epic Blade of the Immortal, the quirky Zambian satire I Am Not a Witch, and the fascinating doc The Prince of Nothingwood about an outrageous Afghan filmmaker.

As for non-festival movies, since there were no press screenings I could attend, I had to buy a ticket to see Kingsman: The Golden Circle at my local cinema on Wednesday morning. It's good fun, in a nutty sort of way, but pales in comparison to the transgressive original. Reese Witherspoon and Michael Sheen showed up in person (pics on Instagram!) to introduce their new film Home Again, along with writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer and producer Nancy Meyers. It's the perfect film for people who love sappy movies about perfect white people. Much scruffier, Big Bear is a rather clunky Hangover-style bachelor party movie that turns violent. Shot is a riveting drama tracing the impact of a gunshot from a variety of angles. The Ritual is a twisty and atmospheric thriller about a group of Brits lost in a very creepy Swedish woodland. And In Between is the terrific Israeli comedy-drama that has caused all kinds of controversy in its homeland for its depiction of free-thinking Palestinian women.

Coming up this next week, we have the AA Milne biopic Goodbye Christopher Robin, Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories and the nature doc Earth: One Amazing Day. London Film Festival screenings include Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger, Claire Foy in Breathe, Michael Haneke's Happy End, Robin Campillo's 120 BPM, the black comedy Brigsby Bear, the Aussie thriller 1%, the Israeli drama Foxtrot, and the Chilean drama A Fantastic Woman. Yes, it'll be another busy one!

Critical Week: All hands on deck

London critics caught up this past week with Ron Howard's watery epic In the Heart of the Sea, starring Chris Hemsworth. It's an impressive film, based on the story that inspired Moby Dick and plotted like a small indie film rather than the blockbuster it looks like, which may not help its box office prospects. Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell star in Daddy's Home, a comedy pitting a father against a stepdad. It's funny and rather lightweight. Taron Egerton stars in a biopic about Britain's most notorious Winter Olympian Eddie the Eagle, a crowdpleaser costarring Hugh Jackman. And Matthias Schoenaerts continues his stream of superb performances this year in the creepy Belgian PTSD drama Disorder.

And there was just one press screening of the year's most anticipated movie, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the 30-years-later sequel to 1983's Return of the Jedi reuniting stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, plus a terrific collection of young actors including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson. It's a rousing adventure that harks back constantly to the original trilogy. And it relaunches the franchise in energetic style.

Between screenings, most of my week has been spent organising the nominations announcement for the London Critics' Circle Film Awards on Tuesday 15th December (see the FULL LIST OF NOMINEES). This coming week I'll catch up on nominees I may have missed, plus the Jason Sudeikis comedy Sleeping With Other People and two Zac Efron movies: the comedy Dirty Grandpa with Robert DeNiro and the drama At Any Price with Dennis Quaid.

Critical Week: Manners. Maketh. Man.

Easy: the press screening of this past week was Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service, the Kick-Ass style James Bond spoof that's sure to have fans clamouring for more. It stars Colin Firth and rising-star Taron Egerton, plus the likes of Mark Strong, Michael Caine and Samuel L Jackson. The other high-profile screening this week was for Ex Machina, Alex Garland's debut as a director, a surprising artificial intelligence-themed sci-fi thriller starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and the increasingly unmissable Oscar Isaac.

Also: The Turning is an anthology film from Australia, mercifully cut in half for its international release. It features engulfing, emotional stories starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne and Miranda Otto. Black November is a Nigerian drama re-edited for global release with new footage featuring stars including Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Wyclef Jean and Akon. A great story, awkwardly told. It Follows is a freak-out horror movie that makes up for its essential simplicity with movie-style scares. And Snow in Paradise is yet another East End crime drama, tired but at least it takes an engagingly emotional approach.

This coming week we have Oscar nominations on Thursday and I am chairing the London Critics' Circle Awards on Sunday - always one of my busiest projects of the year as I put the event together and grapple with celebrities and their publicists. But Sunday night will be a lot of fun - look for the usual full report. As for screenings, there's Johnny Depp in Mortdecai, Daniel Bruhl in Michael Winterbottom's Face of an Angel, Stephen Daldry's Trash, Simon Helberg's We'll Never Have Paris, and the documentaries Dior and I, about the design house's new creative director, and Maidan, about the Ukrainian revolution.