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...

Critical Week: Home sweet home

UK critics had a late press screening of 10 Cloverfield Lane this past week. This is JJ Abrams' companion piece to the 2008 hit Cloverfield, and it's a superbly intense thriller. There were also screenings of two films based on the same true story: Florence Foster Jenkins stars Meryl Streep as the New York socialite who fancies herself an opera diva, but no one has the nerve to tell her that she can't sing. With a less-comical tone, Marguerite shifts the story to Paris with the marvellous Catherine Frot giving an award-winning performance in the lead role.

Further afield, we had two smaller British movies. Remainder is an insinuating, involving brain-bender starring Tom Sturridge, while The Call Up sends a team of video gamers into a nightmarish virtual reality game that's not as virtual as they'd like. Both are watchable but flawed. And Laurie Anderson's seriously offbeat performance-art movie Heart of a Dog plays out as an ode to her loveable rat terrier Lolabelle, pondering life, death, grief and rebirth.

BFI Flare kicks off on Wednesday night with the world premiere of the Russell Tovey drama The Pass at the Odeon Leicester Square, and over the next 10 days I'll be blogging about the films and the festivities. I've seen several Flare movies over the past few weeks, including The Pass, and I'll comment on all of them along the way.

I'll also have normal press screenings these days for things like the sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, the animated comedy Zootropolis (aka Zootropia), the Scandinavian thriller The Absent One, the youthful romance Bang Gang and the documentary I Am Belfast.

Critical Week: Nasty turbulence

Things continue to be a bit odd for London-based film critics at the moment, with a blinding combination of press screenings and awards-consideration screenings - all of which carry differing embargo rules. It's a minefield. The biggest film I saw this past week is also heavily embargoed, despite the fact that it's been in US cinemas for two weeks already. So even though there are more than 500 reviews online for Flight, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemeckis, I can't tell you what I thought of the film until February. I also saw Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in the funny but uneven Gambit; and the action-packed, visually thrilling animated action ensemble Rise of the Guardians.

Further off the beaten path, we had Toni Collette's reunion with Muriel's Wedding director PJ Hogan for the sharply pointed and often very funny Aussie black comedy Mental; Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the slightly unconvincing alcoholism drama Smashed, the effectively icky body modification thriller American Mary, the beautifully made dark Spanish thriller Sleep Tight, and the awkward but endearing American indie romance Elliot Loves.

Awards screenings this coming week include Judd Apatow's Knocked-up spin-off This Is 40, a rescheduled screening of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and Gus Van Sant's reunion with Matt Damon in Promised Land. We also have the retro Disney animation Wreck-it Ralph, the Belgian award-winner Bullhead, the Canadian comedy-drama Starbuck, Chris Smith's Indian drama The Pool (made in 2007 and only just not getting a UK release), the 2012 Olympics doc First and the Japanese horror X Game.