Critical Week: Pleased to meet you

It's been another eclectic week at the cinema, with a very, very wide range of movies to watch. Sophisticated audience will love the nuances in Materialists, Celine Song's second film, which plays on the romcom formula. It stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. Rather a lot more low-brow, Smurfs features voice work from Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman and John Goodman. It's very silly, and also occasionally funny.

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Unicorns • Friendship
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The sweeping Irish romance Four Letters of Love stars powerhouse actors Helena Bonham Carter, Pierce Brosnan and Gabriel Byrne, but its strongest roles go to the terrific Fionn O'Shea and Anne Skelly. A prickly bromance is at the centre of the provocative black comedy Friendship, starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. Despite its three-hour running time and rather grim title, the German drama Dying is mesmerising, witty and wonderfully thoughtful. The first film in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Dreams is an astute and involving look at teen longing. And because I'm seeing the sequel this weekend, I finally caught up with the animated action comedy The Bad Guys, which is cool, funny escapism.

This coming week we have Pedro Pascal in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun,  Sam Rockwell in the animated sequel The Bad Guys 2, Fiona Shaw in Park Avenue, the mystery thriller Gazer, Slovenian drama Little Trouble Girls, and the second chapter in the Oslo Stories Trilogy, Love. I'm also looking forward to the 100-year restoration of Eisenstein's iconic Battleship Potemkin, which I've never seen projected. And there's a special 3D premiere of the new trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Critical Week: Charm the camera

It's been another week with a random collection of London press screenings. Thankfully, the winter weather has suddenly turned summery, just in time for the four-day Easter weekend. The biggest movie for me this week was the Sundance hit Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, in which Zac Efron delivers an unusually layered performance as notorious killer Ted Bundy. Thankfully the film isn't chronicling his murders or the police investigation; instead it's a clever take from a more easily identifiable perspective. Claire Denis' foray into science-fiction High Life stars Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche as crew members on a deep space mission. It's of course beautiful, evocative and rather challenging. And Julianne Moore plays an opera singer in the offbeat Bel Canto, based on a true story about a hostage situation in South America. It's a mix of drama and thriller, impeccably played by the cast. But it's an odd concoction.

Further afield, we had Sergei Loznitsa's pitch-black political comedy Donbass, about the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine. It's brilliantly shot and edited, and the doc-style acting makes it both funny and harrowing. The Skin of the Teeth is a quirky drama set in New York that explores identity through a very unusual drug trip. Set in rural Argentina, the strikingly well made and darkly involving Marilyn is about a young man harshly harassed for questioning the idea of masculinity. Hagazussa is a freak-out horror from Germany, full of 15th century superstitious nastiness. And Doozy is a part-animated experimental documentary about comic icon Paul Lynde, a little too arty to offer much in the way of information, but still fascinating. And then there was this music-based movie, dropped online last weekend...

Guava Island!
dir Hiro Murai; scr Stephen Glover
with Donald Glover, Rihanna, Letitia Wright, Nonso Anozie, Betiza Bistmark Calderon, Yansel Alberto Monagas Perez, Ayensi Amilgar Jardines Delgado, Karla Talia Pino Piloto
19/US ***.

This short feature is set out as a mythological story of love and war, set around an island called Guava at the centre of the world. The opening, beautifully animated in the style of a children's book with intricate colours and textures, recounts how the Red family seized control of the silkworms, industrialising production and destroying paradise. Generations later in a poverty-stricken suburb, Kofi (Rihanna) grows up hearing this story, dreaming about a life far away. Her childhood boyfriend is musician Deni (Glover), who dreams of writing a song that will unite the island's people and remind them of what this place could be. From here the film shifts into beautifully shot live-action, with Rihanna and Glover in the roles. They bristle with wit and personality in the vibrant, sundrenched-island setting (it was filmed in Havana). While Kofi works in a garment factory with her friend Yara (Wright), Deni is planning a secret concert to feature his new songs, which have begun being played on local radio. Deni sings about how Guava is essentially America, since the only way to get rich is to make someone else richer. As a result, he's grabbed by officials and taken to the boss Red Cargo (Anozie). "How do you know what's best for everyone?" Deni asks him, as he declares the concert cancelled. As the story continues, there's a terrific mixture of music and song, including variations on Childish Gambino hits This Is America and Summertime Magic. And the drama shifts seamlessly from personal and warm to edgy and intense. The story takes several turns, sometimes a bit obvious (Kofi has just found out that she's pregnant) and sometimes darkly surprising (Red Cargo's reaction is vicious when Deni defiantly decides to go on with his performance). Where the story goes is sobering and sometimes shocking. What it says about human resilience in the face of oppression is powerful, while the pulsing fusion of music and culture adds a visceral kick. So while it feels a bit slight, it's a badly needed cry of hope in an unjust world.

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After Easter weekend, we have screenings of the year's biggest blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, Lin Shaye in Room for Rent, the Scottish indie drama Beats, the Dutch drama Just Friends, and a collection of short films screening at the forthcoming Tribeca Film Festival.

Critical Week: Light up the night

My favourite press screening this week was for Pawel Pawlikowski's Cannes-winner Cold War, a black and white Polish drama that's quite simply a masterpiece. A companion piece to his Oscar-winner Ida, it's a smart, complex love story spanning 50s and 60s Europe. On a much bigger scale, the spin-off sequel Ocean's Eight has a new cast of A-list actresses and another twisty but very easy caper plot to play out. It's mindless fun.

Smaller films had some edge to them. Adrift is a harrowing true story of survival at sea starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin. The Escape is an involving and very personal marriage drama starring Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper. And Alex Strangelove is a refreshingly original take on the gay teen comedy, avoiding cliches to find this generation's perspective on the topic.

More offbeat films included Stanley: A Man of Variety, an experimental mental hospital freak-out in which Timothy Spall plays all the roles. Happiness Adjacent is a low-budget romantic-comedy set on a Los Angeles to Mexico cruise, but it makes some provocative observations. And Al Berto is a Portuguese period piece about idealistic artists who think their nation is freer than it is after the revolution.

This coming week I have two American indie dramas: the edgy romance Golden Boy and the pointedly topical At the End of the Day. And there are also four films from the London Indian Film Festival: Bradford-set comedy Eaten by Lions, offbeat family comedy Venus, mother-son drama My Son Is Gay and filmmaker doc Bird of Dusk.

Critical Week: Well well well...

UK critics had a chance to catch up with Russell Crowe's directing debut The Water Diviner this past week. It's a moving true story set in the aftermath of World War I, but its earnestness tries the patience. As does a somewhat gratuitous romantic subplot involving Olga Kurylenko as an impossibly gorgeous Turkish hotelier. The biggest film of the week was Insurgent, which held its world premiere in London before the only press screening on Monday. It's an improvement on the original, with stronger characters, terrific acting and even more impressive visuals.

Critics were also treated to a lively morning screening of the hilarious DreamWorks animated romp Home, and an evening screening of Liam Neeson's latest action movie Run All Night, which was better than expected. Stonehearst Asylum is a nutty mental institute thriller by Brad Anderson with an all-star cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Kate Beckinsale and Jim Sturgess. Listen Up Philip is a funny and awkward comedy about writers starring Jason Schwartzman, Jonathan Pryce and the amazing Elizabeth Moss. Still is a low-budget British film that majors in moody set design and intense characters at the expense of personal involvement. And 3 in a Bed is an even smaller-budget British romance that proves that anyone can make a movie, including amateurs.

We also had some press screenings for the British Film Institute's Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday night at BFI Southbank. The opening film is I Am Michael, a bracingly open-handed drama starring James Franco and Zachary Quinto that's bound to spark a lot of discussion. And we also watched the director's cut of 54, Mark Christopher's 1998 disco-era drama that was eviscerated by the studio at the time and makes a lot more sense with key narrative elements reinstated. Great performances too from Ryan Philippe, Salma Hayek, Breckin Meyer and Mike Myers, plus a glimpse of a young Mark Ruffalo. I've seen a lot more BFI Flare movies already, and will be covering the festival here as usual.

Over the next week, BFI Flare will take up most of my time, but I also have screenings of Will Ferrell's Get Hard, the true thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken and a pair of somewhat self-explanatory docs: Altman, about the filmmaker, and I Am Big Bird, about the Sesame Street performer.

Requisite Blog Photo: The three amigos

Paralympics: The last hurrah

Last night the London 2012 Paralympics came to a close with a spectacular bang. And it was amazing to actually be in the stadium to see it firsthand - a closing ceremony that actually outdid the Olympics finale. But then it was also the final shout for a summer of extraordinary achievement over about six weeks in London.

Designed as a "festival of flame", the closing ceremony featured rather a lot of fire! It was astonishing to see in the stadium, as thousands of performers worked the stadium floor in gigantic motorised contraptions that took specific roles in the various seasons of the ceremony, while others flew above us in aerial stunts. In the centre of it all, Coldplay did an entire concert, performing 15 of their hits with a bit of help from Rihanna and Jay Z, all while keeping the focus on the athletes who were gathered around them singing along. It was easily one of the most colourful spectacles I've ever witnessed, and also one of the most moving, as it recognised the remarkable achievements of the competitors.

Over the last three days of competition, I managed to achieve my own goal to see something at the Paralympics every day of the competition. On the final morning in the Olympic Stadium, I got up close with the cauldron (via Instagram right) - close enough to feel the heat. On Sunday I watched the final two gold medal matches, in which Australia won the wheelchair rugby and Russia won the 7-a-side football (the players all have cerebral palsy).

Indeed, the past 12 days have been a life-changing experience for me. I will never look at anyone with a disability in quite the same way again, and I can only hope that these talented, skilled athletes continue to get the media coverage they deserve as they continue to compete in their sport. The massive ratings in Britain prove that there's an audience for it.