As befits his usual screen persona, the debut feature from actor-turned-director Neil Maskell is an unsettling dark comic drama. IT worker Ewan Appleby (Shah from ‘Happy Valley’) and his wife Silke (Dohnke) have relocated from the UK to the titular town i…

Spanish auteur Almodóvar famously turned down the chance to direct ‘Brokeback Mountain’. This homoerotic cowboy movie is, he claims, his ‘answer’ to the question raised by that movie. It opens with dapper horsemen Silva (the ubiquitous Pascal, sporting St…

Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s latest is a sprawling state-of-the-nation drama with an all-too timely depiction of the resurgence of nativism in the EU/globalisation era. In an ominous prologue, a six-year-old boy witnesses something awful in …

Set in Fremont, California, Iranian-British director and co-writer Jalali’s picture is a whimsical and slight but ultimately affecting comic study of a lonely young refugee. Donya (real-life Afghan refugee Zada) is a twentysomething recently arrived in th…

Japanese writer-director Kôji Fukada’s latest is a deeply humane study of loss, distance and communication. Taeko (Kiumura) and her husband Jirô (Nagayama) live in a smart, small apartment in a nondescript housing block with their six-year-old son Keita (…

Adapted from his own highly popular series of 90s manga comics, Takehiko Inoue’s directorial debut is a rousing and immaculately-crafted basketball anime. The ragtag Shohoku High School basketball team are facing the fearsome Sannoh High School in the Na…

Co-written with Mauricio Zacharias, Ira Sachs’ latest is a far more austere and uncompromising examination of relationships than previous pictures such as the bittersweet ‘Love Is Strange’. German film director Tomas (Franz) lives with his British husband…

This likeable feature debut from writer-director Charlotte Regan plays like ‘Paris Texas’ reimagined as a cheeky and irreverent council estate comedy. Georgie (Campbell) is a wily twelve-year-old who has been managing by herself since the death of her mot…

Destined to be hawked around as ‘big-hearted’, this broad small-town musical romance is big on visuals but undone by poor writing. Helen (Brealey, Molly from ‘Sherlock’) works in the titular chicken-packing factory in a small Welsh town where she spends d…

A coarse, sweary, canine-only version of ‘The Incredible Journey’ might sound like a mildly amusing idea for a short skit, but proves almost unbearably tedious over a ninety-minute stretch. Reggie (voiced by Ferrell doing his wide-eyed innocent thing) is …

Few would have expected great things of this remake of the poor 2003 picture, which was in turn adapted from a Disney theme ride, but this is truly cursed stuff. Stanfield leads the far-too-good-for-this cast as Ben Matthias, an astrophysicist who has dev…

This bittersweet overly-determined exploration of storytelling, memory and the suffocating consequences of small-town life, follows a middle-aged author returning to his hometown of Cognac for the first time in decades. Shortly after arriving, author and …

The title of this illuminating and irreverently frank documentary from trans woman music producer-turned-director D. Smith, which profiles a quartet of trans women call girls, is taken from ‘Sissy Man Blues’, a 1934 recording by obscure blues singer Kokom…

An unpleasant if inevitable whiff of commerce pervades this extended Playstation ad, based, remarkably, and alarmingly, on a true story. It begins with Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore (a charmless Bloom) pitching a competition to the company heads …

This raunchy comedy, scripted by comedy writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, is amusing enough, thanks to spirited turns from the lead quartet and jaunty direction from Lim, but it runs out of road two thirds of the way in. A prologue illus…

While it’s more likely to appeal to nostalgic adults than children, this reboot of the animated 80s cartoon, their seventh (count ‘em) big screen outing succeeds due to sprightly pacing, surprisingly heartfelt voice turns and some lovely animation. An ori…

Although this is his fifth directorial feature, actor Louis Garrel’s comedy drama feels like a debut picture with its freewheeling energy and stylistic promiscuity. As well as co-writing, Garrel also stars as Abel, a moody thirtysomething man mourning his…

Writer-director Crialese’s family drama is ultra-stylish and undoubtedly heartfelt, but feels underdeveloped. It’s Rome in the 70s and gender dysphoric twelve-year-old Andriana (Giuliani) is struggling with their identity, choosing to identify as Andri (a…

This German-produced English language thriller does not quite maintain momentum after a very strong opening, but it’s zippy enough over its ninety-minute running time. American twentysomething Drew (Lowe) has persuaded her older sister May (Krause) to joi…

Partly inspired by the experiences of her brother who was present at the Bataclan in 2015 on the night of the Paris terrorist attacks, writer-director Winocour’s picture is a moving, if slightly contrived, study of loss and recovery. Belgian actor Efira, …

German-writer director Petzold continues to work through the elements with this more grounded and tartly enjoyable follow-up to aquatic fable ‘Undine’. Leon (Schubert) is an author who has left Berlin to stay in a small woodland cottage on the Baltic Sea …

As 2023 marks 40 years of iconic pop duo Wham! the celebrations have been nothing but brilliant. With the celebrations comes the release of Wham! on Netflix, a documentary highlighting the fame and friendship of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. As a Wh…

After months of hype, a tsunami of memes and an admittedly impressive publicity campaign Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the popular Mattel toy finally arrives. And it’s okay-ish. Co-scripted by Gerwig with fellow indie darling Noah Baumbach, it gets off a s…

Christopher Nolan’s dense biopic of father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer, based on the 2005 biography ‘American Prometheus’ by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, features some impressively muscular analogue filmmaking, along with more questionabl…

The seventh and penultimate instalment of the big screen is as unwieldy as its title. The opening scene sets out the picture’s modish theme as a high-tech Russian submarine is tricked into firing on itself by a sinister AI device. It is revealed that the …

The latest from singular oddball French writer-director Quentin ‘Deerskin’ Dupieux is a slight at 77 minutes, but consistently droll take on the superhero genre. We first encounter the spandex-clad Tobacco Force - dashing leader Benzène (Lellouche), osten…

The concluding episode of the Indiana Jones saga undoes some of the damage of the dispiriting previous outing for the archaeologist adventurer, 2008’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, but the zip of fizz of Steven Spielberg’s origina…

Based on true events, this French feminist drama charts the experiences of Maureen Kearney, a dogged and well-respected union representative working for nuclear energy company Ariva. When the company’s boss (Foïs), with whom Kearney (Huppert) enjoys a goo…

This lyrical documentary explores the life of a deaf Iraqi immigrant. Lawand was only five-years-old when he and his family, older brother Rawa and parents, fled the country, undergoing an arduous journey from Iraq to Derby. In his native country, there w…

Tastefully rendered in black and white, photographer/director Anton Corbijn’s documentary is an entertaining whistle-stop tour of the freewheeling career of legendary Prog-era design company Hipgnosis, featuring entertaining yarns from the major players. …

Shades of ‘Zootropolis’ in Pixar’s latest, a romantic comedy meets immigrant tale set in a teeming city where different anthropomorphic elements must muck along. Husband and wife fire elements Bernie (del Carmen) and Cinder (Omni) are immigrants to Elemen…

Graduating from YouTube shorts, Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou’s debut feature is an occasionally genuinely scary, but flawed horror tale. After a disconcerting prologue in which an Adelaide house party takes a very bad turn, we are introduc…

British-Moroccan director-screenwriter Fyzal Boulifa’s follow-up to the Essex housing estate drama ‘Lynn + Lucy’ is an empathetic slow-burning study of a mother and son in contemporary Morocco that nods to Sirkian melodrama and Fassbinder-style depictions…

Initially, this immigrant tale feels like a departure from Serraille’s debut, the sparkling comedy drama ‘Jeune Femme’, but it shares the earlier film’s feel for character detail and telling moments. Spanning twenty years and told in three chapters, each …

Even by his standards, Wes Anderson’s latest boasts some exquisite, meticulously-fashioned visuals, but once more, there is little resembling actual real human interaction here. It’s 1955 and a disparate group of grown-ups and their children have descende…

This adaptation of the Take That jukebox musical is a disappointingly rote feelgood Britfilm, as well as shameless attempt to replicate the success of ‘Mamma Mia!’. Aisling Bea is Rachel, a thirty-something nurse and 90s pop obsessive, constantly having t…

There was a period earlier this year when it seemed like a real possibility that that the first solo outing for Ezra Miller’s speedy DC superhero, Barry Allen/The Flash would never see the light of day, due to Ezra’s shocking behaviour in Florida. Neverth…

Despite its fascinating subject, this period biopic of the 18th century Black composer and violinist Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges feels like a missed opportunity. Bologne was born to a white Frenchman plantation owner and an African slav…

The insightful and empathetic co-writing, co-directing debut from actor Riley Keough plays like a less jocular version of TV’s excellent ‘Reservation Dogs’. It revolves around two Olaga Lakota Native Americans living on the Pine Ridge reservation in South…

The seventh instalment of the Transformers ‘franchise’ (dread word) skips forward seven years from the surprisingly okay 1987-set ‘Bumblebee. The jump does not signal, thankfully, a return to the clanging obnoxiousness of prior instalments, but the whole …

Like its predecessor, but turned up to eleven, this animated sequel is endlessly visually inventive and eclectic, almost exhaustingly so. A brief prologue sets the scene as alternate universe hero and emo drummer Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Gwen (voiced by Stei…

Director: Rob Savage The Hollywood debut of British director Savage, is a competent and occasionally atmospheric, but undistinguished adaptation of a minor Stephen King short story. High school student Sadie (Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Blai…

Theatre director Tina Satter’s debut, adapted from her stage play and based closely on real events, is an almost unbearably tense thriller. It’s 2018 and Reality Winner (Sweeney), a former Air Force intelligence officer turned translator contracted to the…

The family in this flawed but interesting and heartfelt Brit drama have enough issues to fill a series. Natey Jones is Travis, just out of prison where he was serving time for drug-related offences, and returning to his family in Lambeth. His glamourous p…

Veteran Chilean documentarian Guzman’s film is a timely and quietly inspiring essay about political activism, focusing on the female dissenting voices, which revolves around the 2019 protests where one-and-a-half million protestors took to the Santiago st…

The debut from Italian actor turned writer-director Cavalli is a stylish and occasionally droll but ultimately hollow character study. Porcaroli is the titular character, an early twentysomething recently returned to her mother’s Turin villa after a perio…

Narrated by Alan Cummings and featuring diary readings from Rupert Everett, this briskly-paced and genuinely illuminating documentary about the seemingly quintessential British playwright/songwriter/actor posits Coward as a modern figure who would have be…

Co-directed by octogenarian Nobel Prize winning author Annie Ernaux, this melancholy and lyrical cine-memoir, was instigated by her son David after he came across a trove of home movies belonging to the family. It starts in 1972 when Ernaux’s then-husband…

Ari Aster’s follow-up to Scandinavian horror ‘Midsommar’ is an equally bold and unwieldy three-hour road movie meets pitch black horror comedy meets oedipal study, featuring a commendably fearless performance from Joaquin Phoenix. He is Beau Wasserman, a …

Set in the Morocco smalltown Salé, this drama from writer-director Touzani is as affecting as it is considered. Mina (Azabal) runs a traditional shop selling Kaftans that are lovingly devised and sewn by her master tailor husband Halim (Bakri). Modernity …

This understated and disturbing dystopian sci-fi picture, set five minutes into the future, posits the Japanese government’s drastic response to the burgeoning elderly population. Calling on Japanese traditions of self-sacrifice, the authorities have devi…

This measured low-key drama explores the fallout after a life-changing incident in the life of a young Gaelic football enthusiast. Twentysomething Cian (McGivney) lives in rural Ireland with his morose father (Cranith). When not working at the farm, Cain’…

French-Cambodian director Chou’s picture is a haunting study of displacement and belonging. In her debut acting role, visual artist Jim-Min Park is Freddie, a twentysomething Korean woman who was adopted as a baby by a French couple and raised in the Fren…

This illuminating rockumentary about the architect of rock and roll Little Richard investigates his struggle with his faith and sexuality as well as the liberating effect he had on subsequent artists and the broader culture. It’s at its most fascinating i…