One of the best comic adaptations you've not heard of

In 2010, comic book movies were already big, but it would be two years before the first Avengers movie would hit theaters and they became an unstoppable force. So it was an ideal time for Tamara Drewe, a movie that was, and still very much is, an exception to the rules of the genre.

Margaret Thatcher is still the butt of many jokes

Handbagged has opened in London. Moira Buffini's playful drama started out as a half-hour short as part of the Tricycle Theatre's Women, Power and Politics season.

Frears and screenwriter Moira Buffini make a funny, touching and witty film out of Posy Simmonds' marvellous cartoon strip that spatchcocks awful middle-class country life. Gemma Arterton is a delightful Tamara Drewe, the young woman who returns to her native west country village with a nose-job, micro-shorts and an ambition to write a chicklit blockbuster; she understandably stirs up the passions of ex-boyfriend Andy (Luke Evans), pop star Ben (Dominic Cooper) and slimy middle-aged philanderer Nicholas (Roger Allam).