Critical Week(s): A girl's best friend

The week of the London critics' awards, I only had two screenings, so I'm rolling that into this past week here. Films at the moment are mainly arthouse movies, because I've seen all of the big ticket movies either at festivals or during awards-voting periods last year. Then this week we had 2020's first big title, the DC Comics' action romp Birds of Prey. To be honest, I was dreading it, because I'm not the biggest fan of 2016's Suicide Squad. But director Cathy Yan rights everything David Ayer did wrong with that film: this one has deeper characters, coherent action, a plot that actually develops the situations and people in interesting directions. Margot Robbie is still over-the-top as Harley Quinn, but she has layers of interest this time, and is never sexualised. In other words, the film is a refreshing blast of bonkers energy.

There were also two powerfully involving low-key independent dramas. From Ireland, Calm With Horses is a dark and punchy drama about a hulking young ex-boxer (the terrific Cosmo Jarvis) struggling to balance his work as a henchman with his love for his young autistic son. And from England, County Lines is a pointed, often harrowing drama about a 14-year-old (astonishing newcomer Conrad Khan) groomed into a life of crime by a charismatic stranger (Harris Dickinson). Two Scandinavian movies were unnerving for very different reasons: The Icelandic drama A White, White Day is a slow, moving exploration of grief, while the Swedish horror Koko-Di Koko-Da is surreal, unhinged and breathtakingly original. And then there was the 3D documentary Cunningham, which inventively chronicles the career of groundbreaking dancer-choreographer Merce Cunningham.

This coming week's screenings include Jim Carrey in Sonic the Hedgehog, Anya Taylor-Joy in Emma, Tiffany Haddish in Like a Boss, Keira Knightley in Misbehaviour and the British thriller Rose Plays Julie.

And in the wake of the always rather predictable Baftas last weekend, which were as usual broadcast in the UK heavily edited and several hours after they took place, I'll be staying up all night on Sunday to watch the Oscars handed out live. In the UK the show starts at 1am. I'll take a nap beforehand...