1. An Education: Nick Hornby's sensitive adaptation of journlaist Lynn Barber's excellent memoir of her first boyfriend.
2. Tales From The Golden Age: Portmanteau film with five stories about the horrific final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime in Romania.
3. Fantastic Mr Fox: Wes Anderson’s take on Roald Dahl is full of quirky magic — with a sly George Clooney voicing Mr Fox.
4. Bright Star: Jane Campion's imaginative portrayal of the Keats/Brawne love affair.
5. Disney's A Christmas Carol: Starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge.

Critics' Choice

Fay Maschler

quote With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun quote

Babbo Film

Andrew O'Hagan

quote This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection quote

Bright Star Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quote Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off quote

Seize The Day

Reader reviews

Film

Squiz, Islington

quote I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd. quote

An Education Theatre

Joe, London

quote I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre. quote

This Much Is True Restaurants

Hiroshi Sugiyama

quote I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto quote

Aqua Kyoto

This week's DVD reviews

By Steve Morrissey, Evening Standard 23.04.09

Add your view

This week's DVD releases include Yes Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Baader Meinhof Complex.

Yes Man
(Warner, cert 12, rental/retail)
Jim Carrey is the naysayer learning positivity in a Hollywood romcom rework of Danny Wallace's chirpy book about a self-help odyssey. Yes? Now and again.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
(Fox, cert 12, rental/retail)
The aliens are friendly, it's the humans who are the problem in this thrill-free remake of the 1951 classic starring Keanu Reeves.

The Baader Meinhof Complex
(Momentum, cert 18, retail)
Badly drawn and frustratingly mediocre historical drama about the 1970s German terrorist gang.

The Tale of Despereaux
(Universal, cert U, rental/retail)
A Ratatouille-a-like mouse learns to stand up for himself in a twee CGI animation with a “cash-in” motive. Despereaux for the kids, despair for the adults.

Box Set of the Week
All You Need Is Love
(Tony Palmer Films, cert E, retail)
AKA The Story of Popular Music, Tony Palmer's opinionated, reverential 17-part 1977 TV series — Scott Joplin to Bob Dylan, Vera Lynn to Liberace and beyond.