Critical Week: Shop til you drop

The 34th Raindance Film Fest kicked off Wednesday night with April X, an enjoyably stylised near-future thriller starring Luly Krug and Connor Storrie. Indie films from around the world are on the programme over the next 10 days. Meanwhile, the biggest film in cinemas is Toy Story 5, the latest thoroughly entertaining sequel in the franchise that could easily have just ended years ago. Thankfully, the Pixar team doesn't rest on its laurels.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Cactus Pears • Toy Story 5
Rose of Nevada • Nino
Virginia Woolf's Night & Day
PERHAPS AVOID:
A Murder Between Friends
ALL REVIEWS >

I also saw Voicemails for Isabelle, a romcom that references classic romcoms shamelessly and still wins us over thanks to charming leads Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson. Virginia Woolf's Night and Day is a smart British period comedy-drama with Haley Bennett as a fiercely independent woman in 1910 London, Joan Collins leads the cast of the nutty whodunit A Murder Between Friends, which is watchable even if it's very corny. The British drama Ish is a staggeringly realistic slice of life that grapples meaningfully with big issues. And the American drama Blue Film is a fascinating and finely contained exploration of attraction and sexuality.

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Milly Alcock in Supergirl and the Icelandic vampire movie Thirst. At Raindance Film Festival, I plan to see Think of England, Pescador, My Daughter's Hair and more, and then at Annecy Festival in France there's Minions & Monsters to start with.

Critical Week: Camera ready

It's been a ridiculously busy week, with too many film releases and too many screenings as well, perhaps because Venice Film Festival ended last weekend. Eclectic screenings this week have included the terrific Gael Garcia Bernal in the biopic Cassandro, a colourfully well-made biopic about the exotico wrestler. Ken Loach's latest, and perhaps final, film The Old Oak is a triumph, a staggeringly clear-eyed depiction of ugly British attitudes with an emotive glimmer of hope. And Pablo Larrain's El Conde is a viciously inventive satire that depicts Augusto Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire with a jaw-dropping mentor.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Golden Delicious • Love Life
Cassandro • Fremont
A Haunting in Venice
ALL REVIEWS >

Kenneth Branagh is back this week with another all-star Agatha Christie adaptation, and A Haunting in Venice is the best one yet, a superbly gothic mystery thriller packed with shifty characters. Michael Jai White directs and stars in Outlaw Johnny Black, an enjoyable 1970s style action-comedy Western. Aaron Pierre lights up the screen in the small Canadian drama Brother, a dark drama celebrating tenacious immigrant mothers. And Pablo Berger's animated Robot Dreams is a pure delight, tracing the complex friendship between a lonely dog and his robot friend.

And there were even more: Bolan's Shoes is a melodramatic British drama that's beautifully acted but deliberately enigmatic. The Latent Image is an inventively freaky meta-thriller about storytelling; 20,000 Species of Bees is a moving Spanish drama about an 8-year-old wondering why he feels so uneasy about his gender; Gurkha Warrior is a skilfully made rah-rah celebration of the military prowess of the Gurkhas; and Samsara is an offbeat experimental drama that takes the audience on an inventive trip between lives. There were two docs: Carlos is a chatty visit with legendary musician Carlos Santana, while Summer Qamp profiles an extraordinary retreat centre for queer kids in rural Canada. There were also live shows Deeper and Deeper and Myra Dubois: Be Well.

Films this coming week include the all-star action sequel Expend4bles, Almodovar's Western A Strange Way of Life, Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson in The Great Escaper, Accused, Relax I'm From the Future, Ballywater, Rebel and the live show The White Factory.

Critical Week: You little devil

It's been a busy week in London, as temperatures have become warmer by the day, culminating Friday in what might be the hottest June day on record. Meanwhile, I've seen a few films, including Scott Derrickson's horror thriller The Black Phone, which is hugely violent and unsettling but perhaps not that scary, and the Toy Story spinoff Lightyear, which is a rollicking and very entertaining space adventure.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Everything Went Fine
Brian and Charles • Lightyear
ALL REVIEWS >

Outside the mainstream, I saw the fiendishly clever Spanish satire Official Competition, starring Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas as obsessive filmmakers trying to create a lasting cinematic masterpiece. Also from Spain, Timothy Spall and Sarita Choudhury play offbeat, continually surprising characters in the gentle drama It Snows in Benidorm. Two young women get trapped atop a dizzyingly tall antenna tower in the nerve-jangling thriller Fall. Jemaine Clement is the host of a body-positive retreat in Nude Tuesday, a witty film from New Zealand with dialog in gibberish and even crazier subtitles. Teens try to stage a New Year's heist in Turbo Cola, a comedy that turns into a darker drama along the way. And Satyajit Ray's 1963 female empowerment masterpiece The Big City has been restored and put on the big screen.

There were also a few more unusual things this past week. David Austin gave an interview at a special press screening of the documentary George Michael: Freedom Uncut, which he directed with the iconic musician before his death in 2016. It's finally gets a cinema release next week. On the stage, I got a chance to see Starcrossed, a witty spin on Romeo & Juliet at Wilton's Music Hall. It's smart, playful, moving and wonderfully queer. And I also attended the Critics' Circle's National Dance Awards at the Barbican, and it was great to chat with winners and nominees at the party.

Things are mercifully quieter this coming week, with no press screenings in the diary largely due to the rail strikes that will cripple of the UK transport system all week. I do have some online screenings, including Chris Hemsworth in Spiderhead, Ben Foster in The Survivor, the Sundance winner Cha Cha Real Smooth, the gymnast drama Olga and the Brazilian odyssey Uyra.

LFF: Queen of hearts

It's only day two but I'm already feeling a bit worn out by the 65th London Film Festival, and I'm blaming it on these super-early screenings. While most of the year morning movies start around 10.30am, during the festival it's 8am, which is perhaps a bit early for something violent or sexual, or indeed violently sexual. But we're trained professionals, so we persevere. Alas, limited capacity means that even arriving 45 minutes early was no guarantee of getting in, and I spent more time waiting in queues today than actually seeing films. And I was actually on the red carpet tonight with Kristen Stewart, briefly. Here are highlights from inside the cinemas...

Spencer
dir Pablo Larrain; with Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall 21/Ger ***.
Taking an inventive, ambitious approach to a familiar story, writer Steven Knight and director Pablo Larrain elicit resonant emotions over a few days in the life of Princess Diana. Calling this "a fable from a true tragedy", the film uses surreal touches to get deep under the surface of events depicted. This adds humour, melodrama and even horror, while pulling us down into the rabbit hole.

Red Rocket
dir Sean Baker; with Simon Rex, Bree Elrod 21/US ***.
Pushing his loose, improvisational filmmaking style in a new direction, filmmaker Sean Baker combines comedy with a hint of a thriller for this engagingly unhinged exploration of masculinity and ambition. It helps that the lead character is such a likeable loser, because as he ricochets from one potential crisis to another, we find it eerily easy to identify with him. And the setting becomes another character in the story.

Bergman Island
dir-scr Mia Hansen-Love; with Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth 21/Swe ***.
A textured look at the nature of relationships that's played as a warm homage to all things Ingmar Bergman, this multi-layered drama isn't quite as grim as you'd expect it to be. Writer-directer tinges the story's knowingly sad angles with glimpses of hope and even happiness. This is a provocative depiction of the challenge of balancing a connection with deeper, lingering feelings. And it's gorgeously shot in striking locations.

Cop Secret [Leynilögga]
dir Hannes Thor Halldorsson; with Audunn Blondal, Egill Einarsson 21/Ice ****
Wild and loose, this punchy 1970s-style police thriller from Iceland starts with a bang and never lets up. Hilariously over the top, the film gleefully deploys the tough-guy genre cliches. The film is entertaining both for its gritty crime action and the way it makes the usual homoerotic subtext in a buddy movie much more central to the narrative. But can the nation's toughest cop admit that he's gay?

Full reviews of festival films will be posted when possible and linked at Shadows' LFF HOMEPAGE  
For full information, visit BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 

Critical Week: Founding fathers

It's my birthday week, so I've been a bit off-schedule, spreading celebrations over three days (as you do!). But I still managed to watch a number of films, including two on the big screen. On Netflix, America: The Motion Picture is a wacky animated mash-up of US history and pop culture silliness. It's utterly idiotic, but the barrage of gags means that some of them elicit laughter. On Prime, The Tomorrow War is a bloated action epic thankfully starring the hugely watchable Chris Pratt as a biology teacher (of course with special ops training) sent to the future to save humanity from spike-shooting aliens. It's utterly idiotic, but cheesy enough to keep us entertained. And on HBO Max, No Sudden Move is a gritty mob thriller expertly directed by Steven Soderbergh, with an superb ensemble led by Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro and Jon Hamm. It's snaky and involving, but holds onto its best thematic kick too long.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Man With the Answers
Another Round • Summer of Soul
Freaky • No Sudden Move
PERHAPS AVOID: Voyagers
ALL REVIEWS >

As for cinema screenings, there were The Last Bus, an involving and never sentimental drama with Timothy Spall as a very old man travelling the length of Great Britain on public busses, and Jumbo, an inventively well-made French romance based on a provocatively offbeat true story. I also watched The God Committee, a dark morality drama starring a serious Kelsey Grammer; the Argentine dramatic horror Rock, Paper and Scissors, which scarily pits siblings against each other; and the glorious Summer of Soul, beautifully documenting a shamefully forgotten Harlem concert series from 1969.

I also returned to a West End theatre to finally catch up with the musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, a triumphantly engaging story about a teen who wants to be his colourful self. It has properly great songs too, which bodes well for the film adaptation that's due in the autum.

This coming week, I am looking forward to in-cinema screenings of Black Widow with Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, and The Duke with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent. Other films to watch include Emile Hirsch in Son and Nicolas Cage in Pig. I'm also taking a couple of days off, getting out of London for the first time in a year.

Critical Week: Somebody's watching

There were three high-profile British films screened to the press in London this week. Ghost Stories is Andy Nyman's clever adaptation of a stage pay that merges three horror subplots into a twisty, nasty comedy-thriller. Early Man is the latest claymation romp from Aardman, a hilariously silly adventure set where the stone and bronze ages meet. And Finding Your Feet is a warm and easy-going romantic drama livened up by excellent performances from Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie.

From America, we had more horror comedy in the shape of Mom & Dad, a gonzo twist on several genres, featuring terrifically unhinged performances from Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage in the title roles. Dance Baby Dance is an extremely low-budget comedy about an aspiring tap dancer, charming but amateurish. And from France, the short film collection French Kisses is the usual mixed bag, and features some very strong clips.

There were also two documentaries: The Final Year is an oddly overslick look at Obama's last 12 months in office, fascinating but scrubbed clean. And 100 Men centres on a Kiwi filmmaker who takes an offbeat angle to explores gay culture over the past few decades.

Films this coming week include the trilogy finale Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the British thriller Lies We Tell, the musical biopic Thirsty and a restoration of the Bergman classic The Magic Flute.

LFF: Have a chat on Day 7

OK, this is the point in a film festival when a critic's brain begins to turn to mush, unable to remember what he saw today, let alone what's in the diary for tomorrow. I'm sure the 61st London Film Festival is a starry parade of red carpet premieres and glamorous parties somewhere, but for me it's an endless stream of press screenings. Well, I shouldn't complain too much, today there were two receptions involving free wine and canapes. So at least I'm feeling fed and watered. Some more highlights...

The Party
dir-scr Sally Potter; with Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson 17/UK ****
A pitch-black comedy packed with equal measures of awkward irony and brittle tragedy, Sally Potter's offbeat film is like a stage play filmed for the big screen. Photographed in black and white with expressionistic lighting and editing that makes it feel almost like a feature-length Twilight Zone episode, it's a rampaging trawl through politics and social connections. It's also deceptively light, but carries a piercing sting... FULL REVIEW >

The Shape of Water 
dir Guillermo del Toro; with Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins 17/US ****
Guillermo del Toro lets his imagination run wild with this engaging and also rather dark romantic adventure. It's a riot of clever production design, witty dialog and heartfelt emotion that carries the audience on a journey along with the vivid characters. The whimsical family-movie tone sits a bit oddly alongside the film's resolutely adult-oriented touches, but for grown-ups this is a fairy tale full of wonder... FULL REVIEW >

6 Days
dir Toa Fraser; with Mark Strong, Jamie Bell 17/UK ***
Muscular direction and an insistent tone maintain a sense of urgency all the way through this fact-based account of a terrorist siege. The quality of the production is very high indeed, although the somewhat on-the-nose screenplay and a pulsing musical score leave this feeling more like a quickly produced TV movie than something 35 years in the works. Still, it's a fascinating account that builds to a superbly staged finale... FULL REVIEW >

Foxtrot
dir-scr Samuel Maoz; with Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler 17/Isr ****
Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz takes an audacious journey into grief and guilt in a drama that's made unsettling by the inclusion of sardonic wit, surrealism and dark irony. With characters who are strikingly well-played, travelling through this gorgeously photographed narrative is like taking an epic voyage into the neglected corners of your soul... FULL REVIEW >

I Am Not a Witch
dir-scr Rungano Nyoni; with Margaret Mulubwa, Henry BJ Phiri 17/UK ****
A fascinating mix of allegory and satire, this offbeat tale from rural Zambia is packed with wonderful characters and surreal touches. It's a story about a group of women who are marginalised as witches and treated with voyeuristic reverence. With her feature debut, writer-director Rungano Nyoni has created a marvellous movie that might not always be easy to watch, but it sparks with artistry and originality.

The Wound [Inxeba]
dir John Trengove; with Nakhane Toure, Bongile Mantsai 17/SA ****
A finely observed drama from South Africa, produced with sometimes startling honesty as it depicts ukwaluka, the Xhosa rite of passage into manhood. The film is a bracing depiction of a tribal tradition in modern times, packed with vivid characters who are grappling with a range of big questions. What emerges is a striking depiction of masculinity that transcends cultures.

Critical Week: Don't panic

It's been one of my most eclectic weeks of the year as far as screenings go. And actually, most of these films were watched at home on screening links. The biggest film was the comedy romp Rough Night, starring Scarlett Johansson as a woman on her hen night with a group of friends, having a Hangover-style adventure. It's sharp and nutty and not remotely original. And then there was this year's sequel Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, another cameo-packed barrage of inane action led by Ian Ziering and Tara Reid. Surprisingly, a new screenwriter has breathed some wit into this idiotic franchise.

More highbrow fare included Sally Potter's stylised The Party, a jagged black comedy with political edges and scene-stealing performances from Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Clarkson. Moon Dogs is a smart and endearing Scottish road movie about three misfits travelling from Shetland to Glasgow for darkly resonant reasons. Alex Barrett's London Symphony is an exquisite ode to the city with original music and black and white footage beautifully assembled to catch detail rather than the obvious sites. And The Daydreamer's Notebook is a moody collection of short films by Michael Saul, all of which centre rather pretentiously on light filtering through trees, but there's also a superb sense of nostalgia running through them.

Coming up this week, I'll be seeing Tom Cruise in American Made, Channing Tatum and Adam Driver in Logan Lucky, Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart in The Wilde Wedding, Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen in Wind River and the body-swap comedy Unleashed.

Critical Week: Scary monsters

It's a third short week this spring here in Britain, so there have been fewer than usual screenings. But I did manage to catch up with Colossal, the genre-defying movie starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis. It's funny, scary, harrowing and very well-made. And then there was Sleepless, an almost painfully predictable cop thriller livened up by an adept cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney and Scoot McNairy.

A hybrid crime thriller and arthouse drama, Away is a small British drama starring Timothy Spall and Juno Temple as two desperate people who meet in Blackpool. It's nicely shot and acted, but jarringly edited. And Last Men in Aleppo is the prize-winning documentary about the White Helmets, rescue workers in war-torn Syria. Skilfully shot on the ground during the fighting, it's utterly devastating to watch, and urgently important.

Screenings coming up this week include Ridley Scott's Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant, the comedy The Big Sick, the action movie Stratton, the road movie Folk Hero & Funny Guy, the period drama Interlude in Prague and the animated adventure Spark.

Critical Week: Inconceivable

Some personal comments are required this morning. I stayed up most of last night watching election results roll in from my home country, in disbelief at how it progressed: the majority of US voters have officially said that it's ok to be a white supremacist, a person who assaults women, or someone who hates people based on their gender, economic status, sexuality or ethnicity. This is a vote for hatred, division and inequality that effectively ends centuries of diplomacy and social progress. Although how that plays out is yet to be scene. After the banks crushed the world economy nearly 10 years ago, I knew a revolution was coming, but I never saw it going this way. In just the past few months, for example, voters in the Philippines have affirmed government-condoned vigilante violence and Colombia's people voted against peace there, plus of course the UK's referendum on the European Union, which has tripled the incidence of hate crimes across Britain. Anti-migrant sentiment is rife all over the world, even though every single bit of evidence points to immigrants as adding to society, never draining it. But then facts and compassion don't matter any more. My slim hope is that the rhetoric of the campaign season will be replaced by something more positive and rational. But I won't put my head in the sand.

So back to movies! It's perhaps appropriate that the biggest movie screened to London-based critics this week was Denial, a razor-sharp true drama starring Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall and Tom Wilkinson about a Holocaust denier challenged in a London court. It's powerfully well-made, and a riveting film. Lighter fare included the amusing, enjoyable backstage Broadway musical-comedy Opening Night, starring Topher Grace and Anne Heche; the multi-strand holiday comedy Shared Rooms, a slightly clunky film with some nice touches; and the quietly moving Canadian indigenous drama Fire Song. And there was also the opening movie at the London Korean Film Festival (3-27 Nov)...

The Truth Beneath
dir-scr Lee Kyoung-mi; with Son Ye-jin, Kim Ju-hyuk 16/Kor ***.
Korean filmmaker Lee Yyoung-mi takes an unusual approach to the usual mystery thriller, getting under the skin of her central character while bringing out the inherent corruption in politics. The result is a tangled story that twists and turns, but keeps its focus on the internal shifts in attitude rather than the big surprises. And there are plenty of those. So even if the filmmaking is sometimes deliberately tricky, this is a slick, sharp and thoroughly gripping drama.

Coming up this week, I have the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Ewan McGregor's directing debut American Pastoral, Miles Teller in Bleed for This and the Argentine drama Esteros. There are also awards-consideration screenings of Warren Beatty's Howard Hughes romance Rules Don't Apply and Joel Edgerton in the civil rights drama Loving.

Venezia 73: Holding it together on day 8

We're in the final stretch now, and the lack of sleep, long distances of walking, contrasts between hot sunshine and chilly air conditioning are all taking their toll. But the parties are starting up. Our jury decides on its winner today (still two more films to see), and the weekend will see a range of celebrations. Then next week it's back to work as usual. Anyway, here's what I saw on Tuesday (that's Natalie Portman, above, in my best of the fest so far)...

Jackie
dir Pablo Larrain; with Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard 16/US *****
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain takes a clear-eyed approach to this fictionalised account of the days following JFK's assassination. Anchored by a pungent performance by Natalie Portman, the film digs deep into the complexities of grief, with glancing blows to celebrity culture and political expediency. Never slick or sentimental, its layers of resonance are hard to shake.

The Journey
dir Nick Hamm; with Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney 16/UK ***
Anchored by tremendous performances by Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney, this British drama imagines a real-life political conversation in the style of The Queen or Frost/Nixon. Even though it's simplistic and contrived, Colin Bateman's script is snaky and often very funny as it traps mortal enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness in a car for an hour or so. The resuly is entertaining, although it could have had a lot more bite.

Voyage of Time
dir-scr Terrence Malick; narr Cate Blanchett 16/US ***
Call this the logical next stage in the evolution of Terrence Malick: his swirling approach to natural history has eschewed even a hint of a plot to instead trace time from drifting bits of matter to, well, drifting bits of matter. With all of Earth's existence in between. It's often breathtakingly gorgeous, and there are some very clever touches. But it's also rather corny, and a bit obvious.

Paradise
dir Andrey Konchalovsky; with Yuliya Vysotskaya, hristian Clauss  16/Russia ***.
With a bold visual and structural style, Andrey Konchalovsky gives the Nazi deathcamp movie an eternal twist, exploring the actions and motivations of three distinct people in the face of unspeakable horror. It's a difficult film, somewhat simplistic in its morality and pushy in its themes. But it has a visceral power that can't help but strike a chord.

Critical Week: You shall not pass!

I took a break from screenings this past week, and the only one I attended was the massive Monday night 3D extravaganza of Warcraft, based on the videogaming universe. Alas, I'm not allowed to make any comments about the movie until next week! I'll try to do better at watching some of my backlog of screeners this weekend, although I have several projects to do around the flat.

I also saw three theatre pieces. Harold Pinter's The Caretaker was staged beautifully at the Old Vic, with razor sharp performances from Timothy Spall, George MacKay and Daniel Mays in a clever story about identity and social structure. Also at the Old Vic, Jekyll and Hyde is an astonishing dance-based thriller that tells a riveting story that's funny, sexy, violent and darkly emotional. It's stunningly choreographed, designed and performed. And The Chemsex Monologues at the King's Head tells its story through, yes, monologues from four characters as they trace a year on the drug-infused sex scene in London. It's bracingly honest, told from an intimate, engaging perspectives, and remarkably never preachy.

This coming week, I'll be watching the romance Me Before You, Anthony Hopkins in Misconduct, Billy Crudup in The Stanford Prison Experiment, Michel Gondry's Microbe and Gasoline, the indie British thriller Ghoul, and HBO's MLK/LBJ movie All the Way.

35th London Critics' Circle Film Awards: words & pics

My third year as chair of the London Critics' Circle Film Awards at times felt like it might do me in, but after all the work, the night was another triumphant celebration of the year in cinema. On Sunday 18th January we gathered at The May Fair Hotel for our annual ceremony and party, joined by a smattering of wonderful guests.

Our ceremony hosts this year were Alice Lowe and Steve Oram (below left), who won our Breakthrough Filmmaker award two years ago for their Sightseers screenplay. They set the tone for the ceremony perfectly: irreverent humour mixed with a love of cinema. After the clatter of the red carpet (above with Miranda Richardson and below right with me and Richard Linklater), the ceremony felt intimate and almost conspiratorial because it was so much fun.

After a couple of introductions (from me and from our Film Section Chair Anna Smith), we were straight on to the awards themselves. Winners included Mica Levi (below left), who won the Technical Achievement Award for her score for Under the Skin, and Dirk Wilutzky and Mathilde Bonnefoy (below right), recently Oscar-nominated producers of the Documentary winner Citizenfour.

Three of our Young British Performer nominees were in the house, left to right: Corey McKinley ('71), Daniel Huttlestone (Into the Woods) and the winner Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game).

And we invited some potential future nominees along as well. Below left, that's Toby Sebastian (soon to be seen in Game of Thrones) and his sister Florence Pugh (star of Carol Morley's upcoming stunner The Falling). Below right are Ferdinand Kingsley (Dracula Untold) and Louise Brealey (Sherlock).

Quite a few British filmmakers were on hand, including Breakthrough Filmmaker nominees, left to right, Hossein Amini (The Two Faces of January), James Kent (Testament of Youth) and Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth (20,000 Days on Earth), here flanking director Jonathan Glazer, whose film Under the Skin won the Attenborough Award for British Film of the Year.

Breakthrough British Filmmaker was won by Yann Demange for '71 - he accepted his award by video (below right), as did Andrey Zvyagintsev (below left), whose Leviathan won Foreign-Language Film of the Year.

More video messages were sent by Michael Keaton (bringing down the house with a trouser-free acceptance of Actor of the Year for Birdman), Rosamund Pike (British Actress of the Year), Patricia Arquette (Supporting Actress for Boyhood) and Wes Anderson (Screenwriter for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Actress of the Year winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) sent a generous written speech, while Supporting Actor winner JK Simmons (Whiplash) was conspicuously absent.

And Richard Linklater took to the stage twice for Boyhood, winning Director of the Year and Film of the Year (the award I presented). Finally, Stanley Tucci presented our biggest honour to the gorgeous Miranda Richardson - The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film. Both gave speeches that combined sharp humour, warm friendship and a love of cinema.

Finally, at the after-party I was snapped in perhaps my luvviest picture of all time - with Miranda and our British Actor of the Year winner Timothy Spall. Darlings!

Photos by Dave Bennett

LFF 1: The game's afoot

The 58th London Film Festival got off to a fine British start with The Imitation Game on Wednesday night, a rain-soaked premiere attended by Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley and most of the cast and crew. As a biopic about one of the greatest Brits who ever lived, it's an appropriate enough opening movie, and is likely to land Cumberbatch with an Oscar nomination in January.

For me, the first couple of days have passed in a blur of film screenings, interviews and scrabbling around for time to write up reviews, features and this blog. Here are some film highlights:

The Imitation Game
dir Morten Tyldum; with Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley 14/UK 1h53 ****
Ripping performances add layers of depth to a script that isn't quite as complex as its secrets-within-secrets structure would suggest. Based on declassified documents, the film is a hugely involving account of how British mathematicians cracked the Nazis' Enigma code and turned the tide of the war. Just as importantly, this is the first proper biopic about the world-changing genius Alan Turing. FULL REVIEW >

Men, Women & Children
dir Jason Reitman; with Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner14/US **.
This cautionary tale about social media could only have been made by someone who grew up before it took over the world. Based on the novel by Chad Kultgen (age 38), the film was written by Wilson (50) and director Reitman (36) as a cautionary tale highlighting the dangers of small-screen interaction. But viewers under 30 may find it condescending and simplistic. FULL REVIEW >

Mr. Turner
dir Mike Leigh; with Timothy Spall, Marion Bailey 14/UK ****
At age 71, Mike Leigh continues to prove that he's one of the nimblest filmmakers working today. By avoiding the pitfalls of a formulaic plot, he reinvents both the costume drama and the celebrity-artist biopic as something earthy and real. Packed with humour and sardonic honesty, this exploration of the life of iconic painter JMW Turner is simply gorgeous.

'71
dir Yann Demange; with Jack O'Connell, Paul Anderson 14/UK ****
Set out as one young man's experience in the early days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, this gritty, urgent film has much broader things to say about the impact violent conflict has on individuals and communities. It's a bit relentless in its approach, but it takes the audience on a provocative odyssey that sparks thought rather than trying to explain it all. FULL REVIEW >

Hockney
dir Randall Wright; with David Hockney, John Kasmin 14/UK ****
One of Britain's greatest living painters is the subject of this artful documentary, which swirls together firsthand memories from David Hockney, his friends, family and colleagues. Put together, this is a fascinating exploration of Hockney's art, digging in to see how his work was created and why he has such an obsession with pushing technical boundaries. The film is slightly long and indulgent, but fans will love every moment.