Critical Week: Now you see her

It's been a busy week, with another wildly eclectic selection of films to dive into. Seriously, my head begins to spin sometimes at the way they bump into each other in my schedule. The biggest title was a late press screening of The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell's new take on the classic novel, centring on the terrific Elisabeth Moss as a woman haunted by her unseen ex. Clever acting and directing add subtext that makes up for the rather lazy screenplay. Nicolas Cage goes nuts once more in Color Out of Space, also based on a classic novel, this one about pink-hued alien invasion on an isolated farm. The movie is bonkers, and a lot of fun.

Smaller movies made the most of sometimes tired genres: Villain stars Craig Fairbrass in an unusually thoughtful London crime thriller. Run is an atmospheric smalltown Scottish drama with Mark Stanley. Straight Up mixes comedy and drama as a gay man tries to make his relationship with a woman work. Blood on Her Name is a taut, grounded dramatic thriller about a woman in trouble. The Garden Left Behind is a thoughtful, moving New York drama that takes on both immigration and transphobia. And Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is both a fascinating behind-the-scenes doc and a provocative look at one man's personal odyssey to accepting his past.

Outside the cinema, I caught up with two plays: Tom Stoppard's astonishing Leopoldstadt (at the Wyndham) is a grand yet deeply personal look at the impact of history, while Al Blyth's The Haystack (at the Hampstead) is a riveting thriller about state-sanctioned hacking and personal compromises. And I also visited Rethreading and Retracing, a lovely exhibition of textiles by Bita Ghezelayagh at the Aga Khan Centre.

This coming week, I have a screening of the new Pixar animated quest adventure Onward, Daniel Radcliffe in Guns Akimbo, Michael Pena in a horror-style Fantasy Island, the festival favourite System Crasher, the topical romcom Breaking Fast and the doc Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.