It’s always nice to stay ahead of the curve, if only so you can feel unneccessarily smug in front of friends and loved ones. With this in mind Best For Film brings you what you need to know about next week’s film releases. Have a read, plan your week accordingly, and practice that lovely self-satisfied smile we all love you for…

King of the American historical epic Ron Howard returns to form with Frost/Nixon. Based on Peter Morgan’s Tony-award winning Broadway play, the film chronicles ex-US President Richard Nixon’s infamous admission of wrongdoing in David Frost’s interview series in 1977. Howard’s intimate dual narrative draws you expertly into the lives of both the interviewer and his subject, while Michael Sheen and Frank Langella inhabit their characters with studied perfection. Despite its somewhat dry subject matter, you’ll find yourself fascinated by this battle-of-wits tale by the time the credits come up.

2009 certainly brought us a few cinematic corkers, from sci-fi epic Avatar to comic-book crunching goodness from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Watchmen. But it wasn’t all wham, bam and explosions – will 2010 be a year of smarter movies? Judging this list… maybe.

It’s been left up to Disney to challenge our hackneyed beliefs by presenting us with a bunch of spies that take the form of… wait for it, you’ll love it… Guinea pigs! Yeah, those infanticidal, hooting, air-sniffing pigs. As spies. It’s a one-note joke that’s taken to the extreme – Pixar would’ve made an idea like that into a witty ten minute short. Here, it’s 90 minutes long, and generally one ninth as entertaining, too.