Normally foreign directors can be relied upon to bring something new to the staid period drama genre. Sadly, this adaptation of Elizabeth Freemantle’s ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ from director Karim Aïnouz fails to break the trappings, despite a promising premis…

Shades of Hirokazu Koreeda’s ‘Nobody Knows’, albeit slightly lighter ones, in this tale of a trio of children left to fend for themselves on a Swedish housing estate. After their mother quits the house and fails to return, wily sixteen-year-old Laura (Del…

Chinese director-co-writer Guan Hu’s picture is a laidback but arresting combo of Western, road movie, redemption tale and deadpan absurdism. A surreal opening sequence sees a small bus making its way along the outskirts of the Gobi Desert before it is at…

Shades of late 90s Canadian cinema at its most clinical and unsettling, a la Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg, in this involving psychological horror. Gariepy is Kelly-Anne, a model who specialises in edgy photoshoots with a lucrative sideline in playing …

A strong whiff of déjà vu hangs over this brash cinematic sequel to Crockett Johnson’s 1955 illustrated book. A charming hand drawn intro, based on the book’s illustrations and narrated by Alfred Molina, shows how four-year-old how boy Harold, who lives w…

Shades of Gregg Araki but with a grainy video aesthetic in writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s impressively mounted 90s-set teen drama. Owen (Smith) is a seventh grade loner in high school, obsessed with the supernatural ‘Buffy’-style YA TV show ‘The Pink O…

Less a feature film, more pandering panto this occasionally amusing but ultimately tiresome sequel should hopefully put an end to the anything-goes, multiverse-straddling superhero pics. After a short prologue in which Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Reynold…

London-based Croatian director Pusić’s film is a tonally uncertain allegorical look at mortality. Lola Petticrew is Tuesday, a fifteen-year-old-teen with a terminal illness who lives in London with her American mum Zora (Louis-Dreyfuss). We first encounte…

Scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce, this animated adaptation of the Micheal Morpurgo novel is a slow burning but stirring tale of universalism as well as a plea to conserve the ecology. Michael (voiced by McGregor) is a pre-teen boy who, along with his elde…

Writer-director Sean Wang brings an appealing freshness to the familiar coming-of-age tale. Chris Wang (Wang), nicknamed Didi, is in his final year of middle school in 2008 Freemont California. His dad is mostly away, and his mother Chunsing (Chen) is str…

British director Hussain’s feature debut is a moody and oblique study of identity and alienation. Adam (Ayub) is an unassuming young man working at a fast food restaurant in the Sky Peals Green motorway service station. Adam is mixed race: his mother (Rus…

Adapted from Yu Hua’s novella ‘Mistakes by the River’ director-cowriter Wei Shujun’s 90s-set film is a neo noir that spins off into intriguing directions. It begins with a Hitchcock-style murderer’s eye view shot of their first victim, a woman standing by…

This biopic of the Irish Republican rap combo, starring the band as themselves, is a rambunctious, provocative delight. Working class lad and drug dealer Naoise Ó Cairealláin, along with his friend Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, are taught Irish Gaelic by Naoise’s f…

Tatiana 'Prayers for the Stolen' Huezo's lyrical and melancholy picture, while a documentary, is thematically similar to her previous one in its depiction of female solidarity in a patriarchal Mexican environment. The film observes three families in the s…

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…

Released approximately a year after their triumphant Wembley Arena gigs, this fairly standard rockumentary juxtaposes reminisces from the band – singer, frontman leader Damon Albarn; guitarist Graham Coxon; bassist Alex James; and drummer Dave Rowntree - …

No returning stars from Jan de Bont’s 1996 original ‘Twister’ here, but the protagonists are rival storm chasers and the typeface on the poster is the same, so this counts as a sequel we guess. A scary prologue has Kate (Edgar-Jones) and her buddies (all …

Writer-director Oz Perkins’ 90s-set horror picture is nicely crafted but buckles under its own portentousness. Shades of ‘Silence of the Lambs’ as FBI agent Lee Harker (‘scream queen’ Monroe) is assigned to an unsolved case involving a seemingly supernatu…

Horror begins at home in this elegantly constructed and atmospheric feature debut from Korean writer-director Jason Yu. The recently passed Lee Sun-Kyun is Hyun-su, an actor who has attained a moderate level of success, living in a small but nicely furnis…

Not quite the wacky love story mooted in trailer, this is a curiously unfocused and overlong combination of Doris Day and Rock Hudson romcom, space-age nostalgia and conspiracy tale. Scarlett Johansson is Kelly Jones (not the Stereophonics honker obv) a h…

The third part of Ti West's loosely connected slasher trilogy, once again starring the fearless Mia Goth, is impressively mounted but over-ambitious, unfocussed, and muddled. It begins with a nod to 'Peeping Tom' via scratchy black and white home movie wh…

Billed as the most violent and goriest film India has ever produced writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s picture, set almost entirely on a speeding train, is the type of no-frills purposeful actioner that is always welcome. A brief prologue introduces u…

This cross cultural romance feels a little rote but is elevated by impressive lead performances. Hardy is Luke, a single dad with a five-year-old who works alongside his dad as a mechanic. He has one night stands via Tinder to relieve his loneliness. One …

Destined to be referred to as ‘like a real life Black Mirror’ this disturbing documentary examines the practice of digital afterlife companies who create avatars and simulations of dead people for their grieving friends and relatives to talk to. Users inc…

Zar Amir Ebrahami, star of the accomplished Iran-set thriller ‘Holy Spider’, shifts to more low-key fare with this affecting 90s set Australian drama, a semi-autobiographical tale from writer-director Noora Niasari. Ebrahami is the titular character, an I…

Pitched as an ‘ambient slasher’ this minimalist horror picture is, sadly, not as groundbreaking as mooted. Filmed in boxy aspect ratio, it takes place mostly from the vantage point (over the shoulder, mainly) of a demonic serial killer. It starts with the…

Writer-director Minia Chokri’s picture initially feels like a traditionally middlebrow, French, wryly comic, relationship drama, but it’s subverted by an audacious execution. The excellent Blondeau is Sophia, a fortysomething philosophy lecturer living wi…

Following the raucous steampunk fantasia that was 'Poor Things', director Jorgos Lanthimos returns, partially, to his austere and formalist Greek Weird Wave roots with this absurdist triptych in which he uses the same cast members to play different charac…

Form meets subject matter in Spanish writer and activist Prediaco’s audacious, playful and thought-provoking documentary essay, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s ground-breaking 1928 novel. In Woolf’s book (and Sally Potter’s celebrated film adaption) an Eliza…

The last ‘Inside Out’ movie ended with the occupants of teenage girl Riley’s mind – embodied emotions, Joy (Poehler), Fear (Hale), Sadness (Smith) Rage (Black), Disgust and Sadness - discovering, via a red alarm bell, that they will have to navigate the c…

This Australian-made, Brooklyn-set, wilfully b-movieish horror has its moments but feels too much in thrall to its influences. Alyla Browne is Charlotte (as in Web, geddit?), a twelve-year-old living in a pokey apartment with her mum Heather (Mitchell) a…

George Miller’s prequel to his remake of the austerely plotted, but highly effective actioner 2015’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is a messier and more sprawling affair, which charts the origin of the fearsome Furiosa, who was played in the earlier picture by Cha…

Lithuanian writer-director Marija Kavtaradze’s picture is a flawed, but nonetheless affecting romantic drama that explores a relatively neglected subject. The luminous Grinevičiūtė is Elena, a contemporary dancer who also teaches at movement classes. Elen…

Skilfully related from multiple perspectives, veteran Polish director Holland’s picture is a harrowing depiction of the refugee experience as well as a heartfelt plea for humanity. It begins in 2021 on a plane bound to Belarus where we meet a Syrian famil…

Inspired by the 1903 Henry James novella ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ and set over three time periods, French writer-director Betrand Bonello’s romantic drama meets dystopian sci-fi flick features compelling ideas, but the picture is undone by a lack of focu…

This middlebrow, but likeable enough drama, is loosely based on Clémentine Delait, ‘the most illustrious and celebrated bearded lady in France’. Tereszkiewicz is Rosalie, a young woman in 1870s France, who lives with her father (Kervern) in a French villa…

The Scorsese influence hangs heavy over this 60s-set biker movie, inspired by the photography book of the same name by Danny Lyon. (The picture uses Danny’s interviews with his subjects as a framing device.) In a singsong gossipy voice, Kathy (Comer), a c…

Following their excellent semi-documentary about LA barflies ‘Bloody Noses, Empty Pockets’ filmmaker brothers Turner Ross and Bill Ross VI head out into the wide open for this realist-ish road trip with moments of beauty and grace scattered throughout. To…

It may be little over eighty minutes long and barely possess a plot, but Belgian writer-director Bas Devos’s picture contains multitudes. Stefan (Gota) is a quiet Romanian construction worker labouring in Belgium. His down time is spent hanging out and en…

Written and directed by John Krasinski, this obvious labour of love aims for poignancy and fun but flounders due to bizarrely convoluted execution. Casey Fleming is Bea, a twelve-year-old girl who lost her mum some years earlier. When her dad (Krasinski) …

The latest instalment in the Apes franchise (dread word) from the director of the ‘Maze Runner’ series is, reportedly, the first part of a trilogy, and it feels very much like a part rather than a satisfactory whole. It’s ‘many generations’ since chimp…

The spring of horniness continues apace with this frantic, sweaty ‘roided up drama from UK director, Rose Glass. It’s 1989 and Lou (Stewart) is the put-upon manager of a gym in New Mexico. An early sequence has Lou unblocking a filthy toilet, setting out …

Ryan Gosling continues his mainstream trajectory with this fiddly and overlong, but frequently amusing comedy, based on the Lee Majors-starring teatime favourite. We meet Gosling’s Colt Seavers as he is about to perform a vertiginous stunt on an action mo…

The pitch black side of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll is uncovered in this handsomely assembled documentary portrait of actor, model and muse Anita Pallenberg, narrated by Scarlett Johansson from Pallenberg’s unpublished memoirs. Raised in Germany and Ital…

Shades of ‘Ginger Snaps’ and ‘Mean Girls’ in the impressive feature debut from Malaysian writer-director Amanda Nell Eu. Zaffan (Zairizal) is the free-spirited and popular twelve-year-old girl at a conservative Islamic religious girls’ school. We are intr…

Sprinklings of magic realism enliven this slightly staid drama from writer-director Soudade Kaadan. The title in Arabic means ‘the displacement of souls, water and people’. It revolves around a family who have remained in their family home in a Damascus t…

As well as a faithful follower and advocate of the British/Hungarian filmmaking duo, director and film scholar Martin Scorsese also has a personal stake in Powell’s life. As a young director, Scorsese sought Powell, who was then a virtual recluse after hi…

Alice Rohrwacher’s latest is a typically freewheeling and lyrical tale set in 80s Tuscany. It’s also her most enjoyable picture to date. Josh O’Connor is Arthur, a shabby, disreputable-looking English archaeological scholar, just released from prison. He …

Writer-director Naverriani’s picture is a slow-burning but deeply affecting feminist portrait of a middle-aged woman living life to her own rules. Forty-eight-year old Etero runs a drab supermarket in a small Georgian village. Most of her adult life was s…

Echoes of Hirokazu Koreeda’s ‘Nobody Knows’ in its depiction of children left to their own devices in this occasionally harrowing but hopeful semi-autobiographical picture from Mongolian writer-director Purevdash. Ulzii (Uurtsaikh) is a gifted fourtee…

While it has its moments and boasts striking visuals, writer-director Alex Garland’s latest, an episodic wartime road movie, feels like a missed opportunity. It’s set in a dystopian future where Florida and Texas, the ‘Western Forces’ have seceded from th…

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s already controversial biopic of late singer Amy Whitehouse (the director’s second Brit biopic after Lennon picture 2009’s ‘Nowhere Boy’) more or less succeeds despite some flaws and an extended running time. It starts like fairly stan…

This prequel to the 1976 horror classic ‘The Omen’ feels substantially more than mere franchise-milking thanks to some strong performances and muscular direction from first-time feature helmer Arkasha Stevenson. ‘Game of Throne’s’ Nell Tiger Free is Marga…

Directed by the artist’s son Neo Sara, this solo concert performance, the final, from the late, great Ryiuichi Sakamoto is a fitting farewell to the Japanese musician who died a year ago of cancer. It’s an austere affair rendered in pristine black, white …