Critical Week: Mother knows best

The glittering Bafta Film Awards on Sunday had controversy in their wake, thanks to some bad decisions by both Bafta and the BBC regarding editing, disclaimers and an offensive but completely involuntary Tourette's tick. But the show itself included some terrific surprises that have shaken up awards season, including Wunmi Mosaku's well-deserved supporting actress award and especially Robert Aramayo taking lead actor alongside his rising star award for I Swear, a film that speaks far more meaningfully to the controversy than clumsy online commentators. Jessie Buckley also cemented her hold on lead actress with the best speech of the night. And the biggest highlight was seeing Huntr/x perform Golden live.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Sirat • All You Need Is Kill
The Testament of Ann Lee
ThePresident's Cake
Palestine Comedy Club
PERHAPS AVOID:
Scream 7
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As for movies this week, Neve Campbell is back for Scream 7, a fact that fuels the movie's wittiest meta-jokes. Otherwise, this is the least scary, knowing, twisty instalment yet in the series. Lithuanian filmmaker Romas Zabarauskas is back with another thoughtful drama, The Activist, and this one has ripples of a thriller as it explores anti-LGBTQ+ violence. Matthew Simpson made the London-set thriller Disremember entirely on his own (both on camera and behind it), and it's a stylishly riveting thriller about memory and mental instability. And the documentary Palestine Comedy Club follows a group of seriously intrepid standups as they face the outbreak of war in their homeland with sharply observational wit. I also attended a special premiere of the steamy fifth episode of Bridgerton season 4 part 2, followed by a Q&A with cast members Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha, plus showrunner Jess Brownell and director Tom Verica (see below).

Coming up this next week, I'll be watching Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary, Glen Powell in How to Make a Killing, Pixar's new movie Hoppers, acclaimed Chinese epic Resurrection, Belgian drama Wild Foxes and anime crime drama The Last Blossom. I'm also attending the UK premiere of the new series The Madison, which stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell.

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Critical Week: We will rock you

With Oscar night on Sunday, all eyes are on how Hollywood wraps up this year's surprisingly unpredictable season. There are very few sure winners for this ceremony, so let's hope for lots of upsets. My predictions will be posted on Saturday as usual. Meanwhile, movies keep arriving in cinemas. Woody Harrelson has a lot of fun in the inspiring remake Champions, about a lively young basketball team. Yes, it's full predictable, but director Bobby Farrelly adds some spark. Scream VI takes the franchise to New York for another meta-horror with comical touches. This one's unusually grisly, and also sometimes properly scary. And there's also the clumsy horror pastiche Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, set up as a sequel to the iconic tale. Except that this is mindlessly misogynistic and sadistic.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Lonesome • Sound of Silence
PERHAPS AVOID:
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey
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Further afield is Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer's offbeat Canadian drama The Middle Man, a stylised story about grief that's moving but rather bleak. Lola is a fiendishly inventive British thriller about two sisters in 1941 who build a device that receives future broadcasts, changing their lives and then some. Also inventive, Italian ghost story Sound of Silence is packed with visual panache, although the story feels thin. From Australia, Lonesome is a powerfully honest drama about a runaway who makes a connection in the big city. And the documentary Brainwashed astutely explores the impact of the gender-bias that's ingrained in moviemaking. It should be essential viewing at film school.

Films this coming week include the superhero sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in 80 for Brady, Alec Baldwin in Supercell, Mike Faist in Pinball and the British drama Rye Lane. There's also The Stroll, the opening night film at BFI Flare, plus three theatre press nights (reviews here soon).

Critical Week: This round's on me

As movie awards season heats up, things are getting busier for me - we're in the final week of voting in the London Critics' Circle Film Awards. I'm the chair of this group, so have quite a lot to do over the next few weeks before we announce our winners. Only a couple of the films I saw this week are awards-worthy. Ben Affleck earned a SAG nomination for his role in The Tender Bar, a gentle and somewhat uneven personal drama that also stars Tye Sheridan and is directed by George Clooney. On the big screen, I had a press screening of the fifth Scream movie, another self-referential meta-horror that plays it rather straight rather than going for something original. But it's fun to see Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette back together on-screen.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Memoria • Cow • Belle
Save the Cinema • Scream
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Smaller movies this week included the nutty horror The Free Fall, which plays out in swirly confusion before a terrific but very late reveal. Lucy Hale stars in Borrego, an underpowered thriller set on the drug-overrun desert on the California-Mexico border. There's more arthouse horror in The Scary of Sixty-First, a stylish and sexy Manhattan freak-out. And from Switzerland, The Fam (La Mif) is a riveting doc-style drama set in a children's care home.

Films to watch this coming week include Michael B Jordan in A Journal for Jordan, Christoph Waltz in Rifkin's Festival, the Brazilian thriller The Pink Cloud and the mountain-climber doc Torn, plus awards contenders Test Pattern, El Planeta, Azor and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy .

Critical Week: Let your colours burst

Pride month kicked off this week, and I had my first few LGBTQ+ movies to watch. Showing at San Francisco's Frameline, Being Thunder is a remarkable documentary about Sherente Harris (above), a two-spirited Native American teen from Rhode Island who is challenging artificial gender roles. It's a gorgeously observant film worth looking for. Offbeat indie comedy-drama The Carnivores takes a loose, skilfully improvised approach as it tells the story of two Texan women with dog and relationship issues. And from Chile, My Tender Matador stars the great Alfredo Castro as a crossdresser who befriends a revolutionary in the Pinochet-era. It's moving and beautifully thought-provoking.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
A Quiet Place Part II • After Love
My Tender Matador • The Carnivores
Undine • I Am Samuel • Gunda
PERHAPS AVOID:
Introducing Jodea • Gully
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Closer to the mainstream, Flashback is a swirly thriller starring Dylan O'Brien in his meatiest role yet, although the supernatural elements kind of blur everything. An edgy drama set in inner-city Los Angeles, Gully features another terrific role for Kelvin Harrison Jr, although the movie is too fragmented to ever come into proper focus. The micro-budget comedy Introducing Jodea has some charm as it tells a story in the movie industry, but the cast and crew reveal their inexperience. And finally, I indulged myself in Friends: The Reunion, a couple of hours of shameless nostalgia that felt a bit contrived and over-structured. It was fun to see these six iconic actors in their less orchestrated reactions and interactions. And the celebrity fans were fun (Gaga! Bieber!), although they highlighted a number of recurring cast members who were oddly missing.

Films to watch this coming week both in cinemas and on screener links include Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical In the Heights, Aussie romcom Ellie & Abbie (and Abbie's Dead Aunt), horror comedy School's Out Forever, Spanish romance Carmen and Lola and Hungarian drama Treasure City.

Critical Week: A message from the desert

UK critics this week had an enjoyable press screening for Tom Hanks' new comedy-drama A Hologram for the King, complete with themed cuisine. And the film was enjoyable too - elusive and provocative. We also got to see Ricky Gervais' Netflix movie Special Correspondents on a big screen, and we laughed a lot more than some grumpy America critics did (perhaps because the film isn't very nice about the American media). And then there was the multi-strand ensemble drama Mothers and Daughters, a gentle series of interlinked stories livened up by an all-star cast and some nice observations.

Further afield, the Australian pre-apocalypse drama These Final Hours avoids thrills for a deeper, more emotional approach. Michael Moore's latest documentary Where to Invade Next is entertaining and very, very pointed as it looks at things Europe has done better than America has. And we also had the final chapter in Miguel Gomes' epic trilogy about Portuguese politics, the beautifully made and surprisingly moving Arabian Nights: The Enchanted One.

Screenings coming up this week include Zac Efron and Seth Rogen reuniting for Bad Neighbours 2 (aka Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising), the animated adventure The Angry Birds Movie, Ethan Hawke in Born to Be Blue, Penelope Cruz in Ma Ma and two docs: Author: The JT Leroy Story about the literary scam and The First Monday in May about the Met Gala.