The subject of our antepenultimate visit to the BFI London Film Festival, Dear Doctor is a film made with all the grace one would expect of Japanese cinema. However, although its pace may be too slow for hyperactive Western audiences, its message is as relevant here as it is anywhere in the developed world. This is a beautiful film.

Being wealthy and famous, living life to the full, having lots of sex, going to the doctors and discovering you have a malignant tumour on your breast. It happens. Love Life is an award-winning Dutch movie about an adventurous couple that decide who the hell they are when cancer enters their lives.

Our coverage of the Across the Street, Around the World Festival continues with a look at the Best of the West, an event that celebrates West London’s rich filmmaking history and the part it has played in the progression of black British representation. The main event? A special screening of Horace Ové’s 1987 TV comedy, Playing Away, followed by an interview session with both the man himself and young British filmmaker, Kolton Lee.

If you’re looking for Halloween film events, what better way to celebrate than with a super-select screening of An American Werewolf in London at London Zoo on Oct 31st! We have a pair of money-can’t-buy tickets to give away! Competition ends thurs 28 October 2010.

Vampires Suck is a Twilight parody that’s vibrant on the outside and dessicated (sucked dry, indeed) on the inside. However, even a spoof movie as weak as this one does have some surprisingly redeeming features that are almost worth the price of a cinema ticket…

A confident distilling of a brilliant novel, Never Let Me Go manages to capture the haunting beauty of Kazuo Ishiguro’s creation without ever giving in to cinematic indulgence. Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield give mesmerising performances as lovers forced apart by tragic circumstance, and even Keira “act from the chin” Knightley gives that emotion thing a whirl.

Marketed during its Edinburgh Film Festival run as “the Afghanistan war film that renders all others unnecessary”, Restrepo is the work of two war correspondents who’ve seen more action than most. An artfully documented account of 15 months embedded in Afghanistan’s deadly Korangal valley, this film captures the highs and lows of warfare from the viewpoint of the men who were there. An intimate account of friendship and firefights in one of the world’s most dangerous environments.

At one point, drug smuggler Howard Marks was believed to control ten percent of the world trade in hashish. Following a long spell in jail, he wrote a best-selling memoir of his experiences as a twentieth-century pirate – and as if he needed to seem more devil-may-care and elegantly weathered, he’s now being played by legendary waster Rhys Ifans. Mr Nice is enormous fun that you don’t even need to be stoned to enjoy.

One of the highlights of this year’s Raindance Film Festival, Rebels Without A Clue marks the feature-length directorial debut of photographer and short-film maker Ian Vernon. Blending expert cinematography with dark humour and memorable performances, it may be the best teenage sex/drugs/stolen car film set in the Peak District that you ever see.

When the film Adulthood was released in UK cinemas in June 2008, its opening weekend grossed more money than the freshly released Sex and the City. In the wake of its success, a spate of new and gritty urban films has been drawing audiences to cinemas in increasing numbers, with films such as Shank and Dead Man Running bringing new vigor to the UK film industry. Despite their success, though, the issue of black representation is never far away. With a panel debate titled “The New Blaxploitation?” taking place as a part of London’s Across the Street, Around the World festival, Best For Film went to investigate.