Adapted from the novella by Colin Barrett, this very impressive debut from director Rowland is a gripping and bruising drama. Set in a scuzzy rural West Ireland it tracks the downward spiral of the brutish but broadly well-intentioned ‘Arm’ (Jarvis from ‘…

Swedish-Georgian director Akin’s picture, which charts the romance between two traditional Georgian dancers, hits all the rote narrative beats, but is elevated by the novel setting and soulful central performance. Merab (Gelbakhiani) is a talented dance s…

Czech director Marhoul’s first film in twelve years (his third film in all) is a harrowing and relentlessly grim three-hour long adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński’s controversial 1965 novel. Non-professional lead Kotlár is impressive as ‘The Boy’ who, after be…

This genre-juggling Brazilian curio begins with a young woman Teresa (Colen) returning home for the funeral of her grandmother, the matriarch of the titular town which seems to be populated exclusively by misfits and eccentrics. There Teresa discovers tha…

Director Todd Haynes tones down the sumptuous visuals for this stirring profile of the tenacious attorney Robert Bilott who pursued chemical company DuPont for malpractice over several years. It begins in 1998 with Bilott (Ruffalo), working as a corporate…

Not quite the masterpiece mooted, but South Korean writer-director Bong Joon-ho’s latest genre juggler is a nimble and cheeky melange of social commentary, dark satire and horror movie. The beginning is redolent of Hirokazu Kora-Eda's ‘Shoplifting’ as we …

Writer-director Robert Eggers’ follow-up to the chilling ‘The Witch’ is an almost unquantifiably strange combination of psychodrama, bleak comedy, period bromance and hallucinatory nightmarish mood piece. It’s the 1890s and Ephraim Winslow (Pattinson) has…

Director Heller’s follow-up to the excellent ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ dramatizes and embellishes a real-life meeting between US children’s TV star Fred Rogers and a cynical, world-weary journalist. For the uninitiated (which will be most UK viewers who …

Austrian writer-director Hausner’s oblique and elusive if stylish English language debut uses sci-fi tropes to explore themes of alienation, familial estrangement, and medicated happiness. Beecham is Alice, a single mother and senior plant breeder at a co…

Despite the all-too timely theme of how news is managed and disseminated by the authorities, Polish director Holland’s biopic of Gareth Jones, the crusading Welsh journalist, whose investigations altered the rose-tinted view of Stalinist Soviet Union, fee…

This elegiac, funny, meditative, but ultimately rousing documentary charts the efforts of a quartet of indefatigable ex-filmmakers - veteran members of the Sudanese Film Club - to set up a cinema in a small village in order to kickstart the industry. This…

Greta Gerwig’s adaptation honours Louisa May Alcott’s much-loved book while boasting a vital and contemporary feel. Ronan is first among equals as wannabe writer Jo, one of four teenage girl siblings living with their kindly mother Marmee (Dern) in a gent…

Satirist Iannucci’s latest is a fun and frantic take on the Dickens classic. Patel, leading a multi-racial cast, is the titular hero making his way through Victorian England, encountering the virtuous and not-so-virtuous poor and the capricious rich, whil…

Taika Waititi’s follow up to the larky ‘Thor Ragnarok’ is a bold-ish but flawed comedy, adapted from the novel ‘Caging Skies’ by Christine Leunens, and charts the experiences of a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany in the closing stages of WW2. Jojo Bet…

Malick returns to the WW2 period of ‘The Thin Red Line’ to chronicle the real life story of an Austrian conscientious objector. Franz Jagerstatter (Diehl) is a devout young farmer living in a high altitude Alpine paradise with his doughty and beautiful wi…

Writer-director Shults aims high with this South Florida-set drama but struggles in vain for universalism and profundity. The first half profiles Tyler (Harrison Jnr), a school wrestling star and all-round popular pupil from a solid upwardly mobile Africa…

More likely to be remembered for its technical prowess than thematic power, Sam Mendes’ WWI picture, based on stories from his grandfather Alfred, nevertheless boasts a series of thrilling and horrifying if episodic sequences, alongside the occasional nar…

Writer-director Wang ‘Beijing Bicycle’ Xiaoshuai’s panoramic and deeply affecting film charts the lives of a married couple and their friends over four tumultuous decades of change and upheaval in China from the 1980s to the present day. We are introduced…

After the messy and extremely contentious sequel ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ writer-director Johnson regains a considerable amount of ground with this enjoyable murder mystery yarn which sports a top flight cast, and is his best picture since teen noir deb…

Not the feminist reimagining of ‘Aquaman’ the title suggests, Russian director Kossakovsky’s globe-spanning documentary is as visually stunning as it is hard to quantify, being part travelogue, part abstract tone poem, and part disaster movie. There’s no …

Written by and starring troubled actor Shia LaBeouf, this semi-autobiographical picture about a child star and his relationship with his irresponsible and volatile father initially sounds like another one of the actor’s narcissistic and pretentious art ‘p…

Documentarian Greenwood has already profiled the lifestyles of the rich and careless in films such as ‘The Queen of Versailles’ and ‘Generation Wealth’. She’s hunting even bigger game here with this horribly compelling profile of Imelda Marcos, the famous…