LFF3: Old-world glamour

Peter O'Toole brought his starry presence to the festival red carpet last night, attending the premiere of his new film Dean Spanley with cast members Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam and Judy Parfitt, as well as director Toa Fraser. And elsewhere last night, we had Laura Linney, Liam Neeson and Romola Garai out for The Other Man, and James Toback for Tyson.

Alas, I had another engagement on the other side of Leicester Square: to attend the first screening in the world of the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, which premieres at the festival next week. It's a superb film, even darker and more complex than Casino Royale, shifting the focus away from the megalomaniac villian to focus on Bond's internal journey and deeply personal mission. The action is utterly exhilarating, and the side characters are surprisingly textured, but the best thing is seeing how Daniel Craig has has become Bond inside and out - it's a seriously great performance. (Full review next week.)

Meanwhile, today at the 52nd London Film Festival...

Religulous ****
Bill Maher teams with the director of Borat for a similar style of documentary that sets out to examine religion. The result is mixed on that front, as the people Maher talks to are all pretty ridiculous, but the film is hugely entertaining, often laugh-out-loud hilarious, and underscored with some extremely serious ideas that make us think.

Of Time and the City *****
Terence Davies' ode to his home town of Liverpool is a swirling collage of images and memories that's simply gorgeous. He draws us in with intensely personal observations, expressing his opinions and experiences in an almost poetic way that pulls no punches. And beyond a portrait of a city, the film is a sublime look at age and nostalgia.

Incendiary ***
Michelle Williams stars in this rather uneven drama about a horrific terrorist act in London that changes her life completely. Her performance is the reason to see the film, as her reactions are dark and complicated, and her interaction with two men - Ewan McGregor and Matthew Madfadyen - is brittle and very realistic. But the film itself is far too maudlin to really work.

The Class *****
Laurence Cantet's Palme d'Or winner is a stunning observational tale about a year in the life of a teacher in a Paris high school and his classroom of raucous 13- to 15-year-olds. Bracingly realistic, the film takes a look at teens that we rarely see on screen: smart, opinionated and just as conflicted by what life is throwing at them as the adults around them. Simply brilliant.

LFF2: Red carpet statements

More star power descended on Leicester Square last night. Spike Lee was in town to present his new film Miracle at St Anna (right), wearing a rather unsubtle hoodie - no surprise. Meanwhile, at the premiere screening of the British thriller Franklyn, the film's cast members Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green (pictured) plus Sam Riley made a very different statement as they strolled down the red carpet: namely that a bit of youthful global movie glamour was in town.

My day was a bit removed from all of this though - I had my brain stretched in the morning by Charlie Kaufman's bewildering but rather wonderful Synechdoche, New York, then took a witty and enjoyable journey from Turkey to Azerbaijan in The Market, then escaped the festival briefly for a regular press screening of Samuel L Jackson's underwhelming thriller Lakeview Terrace. In between, I interviewed Kiwi director Toa Fraser and actor Jeremy Northam about their work with Peter O'Toole on Dean Spanley, and then talked with James Toback about his frankly gobsmacking bio-doc Tyson. Which brings us to today's festival highlights...

Tyson ****
Rather than take an objective, documentary approach to the life of perhaps the most notorious sportsman ever, filmmaker James Toback takes us on a trip into Miky Tyson's mind. And the result is strikingly cinematic - as well as revealing and even emotional. On seeing the film, Tyson himself said it was like watching a Greek tragedy.

Better Things ****
British filmmaker Duane Hopkins creates a new cinematic language for this unusual drama about teens in an English village. The result is absolutely stunning - but it's not an easy film to watch.

Dean Spanley ****
This quirky period film centres on the idea that a local priest (Sam Neill) just might be the reincarnation of a dog. But this is actually just a distraction from the central plot, which is a moving and insightful look at the brittle relationship between a son (Jeremy Northam) and his father (Peter O'Toole). Brilliant performances and a light touch make this worth seeing.

1 2 3 4 ***
This shaggy British comedy-drama is about a geeky singer-guitarist who puts together a band and then struggles to make it. The characters are vividly spiky, and their interaction is both hilarious and a bit scary. Sadly, the plot kind of drifts away in the final act.

LFF1: The kick-off

The 52nd London Film Festival kicked off in high style last night with the world premiere of Frost/Nixon, based on Peter Morgan's award-winning play. Cast and crew arrived by red carpet in Leicester Square, including (left to right) Kevin Bacon, Toby Jones, Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Ron Howard, Oliver Platt and Matthew Macfadyen. And David Frost was even there to see himself portrayed on screen.

In the festival today:

Frost/Nixon ****
Michael Sheen and Frank Langella make the most of Peter Morgan's astute script, which draws subtle parallels between the White Houses of 1974 and 2008. Absolutely riveting.

La Belle Personne ****
Christophe Honore's latest slice of Paris life, looking at a series of exceptionally well-played love triangles in a high school. Funny and surprisingly emotional.

Three Blind Mice ***
Intriguing Australian drama about three young soldiers who take an allnight odyssey before going back into service. Strong stuff, but feels a bit stagey.

Flame & Citron ***
Epic WWII drama about two hitmen in the Danish resistance who are caught in a murky situation between the Allies and the Nazis. A little over-ambitious, but a superb true story.

Reviews of films I've seen will be posted at the Shadows Festival, and I'll continue to add thumbnails like this between now and closing night on 30th October.

Critical Week: Screen goddess

Sorry this is late this week - I am in the middle of an annual vortex where the London Film Festival, Raindance and my regular work all collide and send my life completely out of control. I saw 13 films this week. But easily the most fun was last night at Raindance, where I attended a screening of the British zombie-rockabilly mash-up Flick, attended by most of the cast, including movie legend Faye Dunaway, who was clearly loving every minute of being here (and being in such an outrageously silly movie).

Raindance is the big independent movie festival here in London, and it continues through next weekend. Meanwhile, press screenings started for the 52nd London Film Festival (15-30 Oct). And I also saw several films that will open over the next few weeks, including big tickets like Inkheart (a lively fantasy with Paul Bettany, Brendan Fraser, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent); High School Musical 3 (Zac Efron and gang are back for more colourful choreography); Burn After Reading (the Coens' latest comedy of idiocy); and Eagle Eye (Shia LaBeouf's latest action thriller). There have also been a lot of smaller things from countries like Italy, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Korea.

This coming week will carry on the globe-hopping, with more festival films from all over the world, plus mainstream releases like the animated comedy Igor, the British drama Summer, the sci-fi adventure The Mutant Chronicles and the fantasy film City of Ember. I'll also try to get back on schedule here - and of course during the London Film Festival this blog will go daily. Exciting, eh?

Critical Week: Let love rule

Well, it's pretty easy to know which cinematic event was the biggest of the past week for me. I was invited to the Peace One Day celebration at the Royal Albert Hall last night, including a special screening of the new documentary The Day After Peace, in which filmmaker Jeremy Gilley tracks his 10-year process to try to get the UN to back a global cease fire for one day every year (aka Peace Day, 21 Sep). The film's climax is a trip with Jude Law to Afghanistan to begin the process of brokering peace there - with astonishing results. Before and after the film, the night was hosted by Law and Gilley live on stage, with acoustic sets by Peter Gabriel (low-res picture courtesy my phone), Annie Lennox, Lenny Kravitz and Bryan Adams, as well as John Legend and his 10-piece band. Visit the Peace One Day site for more info.

Back to the regular movies now, and it was a very mixed bag: from the tribal rhythms of Chiwetel's fierce performance in David Mamet's Redbelt to the hysterical French spy spoof OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies; from Ulrich Seidl's harrowing Ukraine-Austria drama Import Export to the utterly ridiculous and surprisingly charming The House Bunny; from the grisly horror of Quarantine, a shot-for-shot remake of Spanish cult gem Rec, to gorgeous Imax 3D animation with a corny story in Fly Me to the Moon. Honestly, it's amazing that I haven't developed some sort of split personality.

And this coming week is more of the same, with a couple of things I'm looking forward to for very different reasons: DeNiro and Pacino squaring off in Righteous Kill, likeable action musclehead Jason Statham in Death Race, Richard Gere and Diane Lane reuniting for Nights in Rodanthe, Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen riding the Wild West in Appaloosa, and Brendan Fraser joined in Inkheart by an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent. Plus I have a little trip around Europe with Richard Jenkins in British freak-out thriller The Broken, Italian political intrigue in Il Divo, 1960s German terrorists in The Baader Meinhof Complex, and Manoel de Oliveira's 40-years-later Belle de Jour sequel Belle Toujours.

Critical Week: My eyes!

It was another busy week in filmland! As the Toronto and Venice film festivals overlapped, I was here in London sitting in darkened screening rooms. A nice place to be while the weather was as gloomy as that - although it perked up nicely for a sunshiny weekend.

Big films for me this past week included the new Fernando Meirelles movie Blindness, with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo navigating a seriously freak-out apocalypse - and a seriously haunting film. The Women featured Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and a cast of only females in a rather light version of Sex and the City. Choke, based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel, gave Sam Rockwell another outrageously hilarious role to sink his fangs into. And Barry Levinson's What Just Happened is a savvy, entertaining look under the veneer of Hollywood.

Further under the radar were Partition, with Jimi Mistry, Neve Campbell and Kristin Kreuk telling a Romeo & Juliet tale on the India-Pakistan border in 1947. Gonzo is a terrific doc about Hunter S Thompson, as examined by the filmmaker who gave us the masterful Oscar winner Taxi to the Dark Side. Zombie Strippers is an utterly unapologetic exploitation B-movie - and it's pretty funny too. And House of Usher is a shockingly inept made for cable movie written by a friend of mine - the script is genius, but the acting and directing are, erm, diabolical. And I also found time to rewatch one of my all-time favourites, Hitchcock's Rear Window, which features Grace Kelly at her most drop-dead gorgeous.

This coming week's delectable delights include Chewitel Ejiofor in David Mamet's Redbelt, Ulrich Seidl's Austria-Ukraine odyssey Import Export, the American remake of the cult Spanish film Rec, Quarantine, the 3D Imax animation Fly Me to the Moon, an arthouse oddity called OSS-117 Cairo Nest of Spies and the Peace Day doc The Day After Peace. It's not a bad job to watch all these things - the work comes in figuring out what to write or say about them when the time comes....

Critical Week: Well are you?

The big event for me last week was the RocknRolla junket, presented in fine style on the Southbank with Guy Ritchie, Joel Silver and the whole cast. I even got the t-shirt to prove I was there. (For the full story, read the feature.) Other press events last week included the launch of the British Film Institute's 75th anniversary celebrations this month, and the launch for the upcoming Raindance Film Festival.

But the film screenings were a mixed bunch. Here's what I learned: Disaster Movie was a true disaster; Incendiary demonstrated the danger in letting your story get too heavy; Outlanders showed how difficult it is to make a film about a serious social issue; Bangkok Dangerous proved that Nicolas Cage should avoid po-faced action; 88 Minutes proved that Al pacino should read the script before he accepts the paycheque; and Scar showed that a decent premise and 3D effects aren't enough to rescue the torture porn genre.

Much better news was provided by the ripping Icelandic thriller Jar City, the outrageous Korean black comedy A Bloody Aria, the simply excellent Italian mob drama Gomorrah, and the hilarious Seth Rogen comedy Pineapple Express.

This coming week is another minefield. I've got the Hunter Thompson doc Gonzo, The Chuck Palahniuk adaptation Choke, the Barry Levinson political comedy What Just Happened, Fernando Meirelles' controversial Blindness, and the Canadian-Indian drama Partition.

I'm also looking forward to the launch party for this year's London Film Festival on Wednesday. At screenings we've been trying to guess which films are going to be in their lineup - and they always have lots of surprises in store. Plus a decent goodie bag. And maybe even a t-shirt.