Damon Wise

Zahler has a way with action, and the set pieces are inventive and nasty, with an unflinching eye for violence. Such style and confidence is impressive. But after three movies, his increasingly morose characters’ world-weariness is becoming wearying in itself; a little more light and shade here and there would easily take this cult director to the next level. That is, if he wants to go.

Coppola’s most traditional film to date is a heightened, darkly comic, sexually tense drama that flips the male gaze, to show what happens when a man, for once, gets caught in the crosshairs of desire.

A visceral, artful horror about childbirth and trauma released in the UK just in time for Mother’s Day.

Ralph Fiennes dazzles as a rock’n’roll maverick in a stylish, unorthodox erotic drama that tries hard but fails to maintain its eccentric momentum.

Sparks fly, but the grim cynicism of modern politics adds subversive weight to the film’s screwball comedy stylings and has a lot to say about modern politics, in the US as well as abroad.

The acting is wooden, but fans of the director’s more shocking work might enjoy its gentle self-referential comedy.

Don’t get too caught up in the all-too-familiar plot, just savour Jake Gyllenhaal’s powerhouse performance in a riches-to-rags-to-redemption sports movie that punches well above its weight.

Roth and Reeves locks us in for an increasingly terrifying thrillride.

Neatly balances a folkloric coming-of-age tale with violent action thrills.

The dirty compañeros of the old Spaghetti West ride again in this stirring tale of hate, murder and revenge.

Superbly acted allegorical drama with a climax that is not only breathtakingly exciting but flawlessly handled.

When Abbot and Nixon start their sparring, Mond’s film takes on a magnificently physical and tactile quality.

A great cast and promising premise get swamped in an awkward mix of airport-novel noir and blokey family melodrama.

Cahill's second feature film is another smart, inventive and engaging offering.

Filmmaker Sean Ellis does terrific work balancing the disparate elements of his crime-laced drama.

Dreams of rock stardom become a warped reality in this barking-mad but affecting comedy about the side-effects of being a non-conformist genius.

A very welcome return from Moodysson. The music is Wyld Stallions-grade, but the charm and spirit of the three girls will have you moshing in your seat.

A brutal, immersive prison survival story with a breakout performance by British actor Jack O’Connell.

Another meticulously stylish and deadpan Wes Anderson movie that walks the fine line between masterpiece and folly.

A caper thriller that's sufficiently zippy to hold the attention. LaBeouf's current notoriety adds extra piquancy to those urban fight scenes.

The oddest thing of all about The Wolf Of Wall Street is also the most unusual for a Scorsese film: it is incredibly, incredibly funny.

Though it begins as a murder-mystery, Kill Your Darlings may be best described as an intellectual moral maze, a story perfectly of its time and yet one that still resonates today.

A charming road movie that develops into a full-blown study of life and roots, offering a beautiful insight into the way families migrate and change.

A terrific, sophisticated comedy that tackles serious issues with a lightness of touch and a spirit of steel, Philomena is the British film to beat come BAFTA time.

A terrific human drama about two boys about to be consigned to the scrapheap, with standout performances from its young leads.

Gordon Green follows up a pair of execrable comedies with a wise and witty slow-motion road trip that catches the sun.

A bulked-up James McAvoy dominates the screen in this razor-sharp Glasgow smile of a black comedy, packed with aberrant sex, hard drugs and maximum David Soul.

A bang-on soundtrack will make the hairs on ex-ravers' necks stand up. The plot will have the opposite effect.

The acting isn't perfect (which is perhaps understandable under the circumstances), and the film's dream states sometimes try too hard, but Escape From Tomorrow has an otherworldly atmosphere that both hooks and engages.

Experimental and uncompromising, Winding Refn and Gosling’s Drive follow-up is a tripped-out riff on the crime family movie in which The Grifters — literally — go to hell.

Made Of Stone somewhat brilliantly sees the individual moments and faces in the crowds, making this the best, most immersive concert film since Jazz On A Summer’s Day.

An incredibly provocative piece of work, featuring a brave and vulnerable performance by Naomi Watts (who seems perhaps a little too young) and a career-high acting masterclass from Robin Wright (who is cast perfectly).

Ahmed excels and the set-up is compelling but ultimately this is middle rank stuff from the Monsoon Wedding director.

Though Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's handsomely mounted period piece evokes the era with impressive detail, Lovelace's journey remains difficult to tell.

Forget the sci-fi trimmings and sentimental pay-off — this is a gleefully subversive character study of a charming but unapologetic rogue.

A decent, well-cast and mounted adaptation that hits all the right notes but plays them in a respectful, muted monotone.

Jennifer Lawrence is the standout in a tonally uneven, eccentric romantic dramedy that fuses "The Fisher King" with "Romy And Michele's High School Reunion."

An often brilliant '50s-throwback character drama that never feels nostalgic, with terrific central performances and a luminous, unforgettable visual beauty.

Beautiful, funny, timely and tender, this is the American arthouse movie of the year.

Bursting with insights and a droll sense of the absurd side of fashion, it's a fitting tribute to one of the industry's key figures.

A good, efficient crime thriller, let down by clunky social commentary but lifted by excellent performances, including perhaps Brad Pitt's recent best.

Solid production values lend a polish to the spooks and there are strong performances all round, especially from the ever-excellent Rebecca Hall, but there's little here to add to the well-worn haunted house genre.

A little pretentious maybe, but then you've got to wonder at a woman who could sit motionless in a wooden chair, eight hours a day for three months.

Talented Norwegian Joachim Trier - distant cousin to the better-known (and Danish) Lars - delivers a wonderful, melancholy character piece that's funny and tender, and as fresh as a breath of Oslo sea air.

Formulaic, yet scrappy, and extremely funny in fits and starts, General Aladeen is the first of Cohen comic creations to get a better vehicle than it probably deserves.

Though short on shocks and mild in horror terms, Fresnadillo's fantasy has a lot of heart and sincerity in equal measure.

This isn't traditional heritage cinema and it may not tickle the same taste buds that devoured "Tinker Tailor" or "The King's Speech." It does, however, represent the unique vision of an artist who needs to be met halfway, and in an age of hubbub, its patient elegance is a rare thing we should nurture.

As horrifying and hard to watch as you'd expect a paedophile's-eye view of life to be. It's neither sensationalist nor trite, and the questions it asks are intelligent and thoughtful.

An uneven study of a notorious love story, raised by some superb performances and nuances, but brought down by awkward direction.

Brave, beautifully acted and emotionally revealing - an early strong contender for the most provocative and compelling film of the year.

A tough, post-punk Tintin-meets-Klute for the Occupy Wall Street set, this kinetic, hard-edged thriller is the perfect festive comedown for Fincher fans and dysfunctional families everywhere.

Excellent performances from the cast elevate this otherwise slightly flawed a hokey interloper story.

Compared to its direct inspiration - Hal Ashby's blackly brilliant "Harold And Maude" - Restless comes off like an anemic facsimile. After the excellent "Milk," this is more like curdled cheese.

Just don't walk in expecting to become a believer by the end.

A dark rites-of-passage story meets lethal Shakespearean drama, with low-key performances that artfully get under the skin.

A sharp study of corporate greed for those who felt Michael Moore pulled too many punches.

A surprisingly fun, effervescent against-the-odds drama that offers an upbeat moral without the usual punishing survival-story clichés. Not for the faint-hearted, mind.

A beautifully rendered, long, drawn-out but ultimately very satisfying story of betrayal and revenge in an uneasy setting of wartime paranoia.

Where Gambon made the perfect misanthrope, Downey doesn't quite fit the role. Astonishingly, despite his drug-related crimes and misdemeanours, he actually seems too innocent to be so crabby and vile.

With jokes that routinely miss the mark and cringeworthy slapstick, this black comedy farce shouldn't work. Somehow, though, it does.

Affleck's meta-satire riffs amusingly on celebrity culture without hitting too many faux-doc highs.

A slick, fun film that has by no means sacrificed the fast action beats of the first three.

The unlikely superhero of this film is the hamster, who brings the funny amid a flurry of weaker gags. But Bolt still has charm -- it just won't hit with the adults the way the best animated films can.

A brilliantly high-concept title and some decent gore aside, you're better off watching the version in your head. It will be infinitely more fun and have markedly improved production values.

A bold and sometimes garbled take on modern American politics, this nevertheless marks an effective and surprisingly funny comeback for a film that many deemed to be DOA.

A barbed study of the American economy puts capitalism in the dock but somehow fails to convict.

A stately, rich and moving Italian melodrama in the spirit of Visconti.

As in Cocoon, the emphasis is on sentiment, feel-good and reclaiming the elderly from the scrapheap. But the performances are nowhere near as subtle.

A rich, understated character drama that gleefully exposes the petty playground politics at the centre of one of the internet-era's most bitter court cases.

Fans of David Gordon Green, you may well leave feeling confused. Fans of daft laughs and James Franco, you're in for one of the funniest comedies of the year.

A splendid study of the forces and passions behind the world’s biggest fashion magazine.

Director Yang Joon-hyun works scrupulously from the Hollywood serial murder playbook, and delivers something which does its job, even as its last reel flounders with several too many plot twists, but has no particular reason to exist.

George Clooney dazzles and Jeff Bridges shines in a scattershot but often hilarious military farce.

A dazzling and exquisitely original riddle as told by an enigma, featuring a superb, multi-layered performance by Laura Dern.

A refreshingly low-key treatment of teenage trauma, with a lovely star performance and an unforgettable approach to orthodontics.

A gross and engrossing attempt to humanise a hot-button subject, using a star-sprinkled cast to reveal some unpalatable truths.

An intriguing rites-of-passage story with a delirious, skewed perspective and an almost palpable sexual pulse.

Almodovar consolidated his status as a challenging and bold filmmaker by forcing Americans to drop their zany preconceptions of him and see his world through his eyes.

Yes, it’s offensive, stupid and loud, but its cartoonish, macabre wit should be evident to anyone with a brain in the first ten minutes. Whether it’s funny or not, though, is another matter entirely. Approach with extreme caution -- and/or rubber gloves.

Corbet emerges as an actor of sensitivity and depth, but it’s Gordon-Levitt who steals every scene as the damaged, destructive but ultimately sympathetic rent boy.

An unfunny, unfocused sub-SNL baseball comedy that makes the likes of Joe Dirt and Deuce Bigalow seem vintage.

Tight as a drum, glamorous and exquisitely funny, this one should earn them (Coens) enough cash to make five more offbeat minor masterpieces like "The Man Who Wasn't There" -- and the Coens deserve that as much as we do.

A stylish, darkly satirical horror-thriller, raising serious questions about Hollywood’s sanitisation of violence.

With In Bruges, the British gangster movie gets a Croydon facelift. It may not be new, but it’s a wonderfully fresh take on a familiar genre: fucked-up, far-out and very, very funny.

Lyrical in style and presentation, this drama alludes to serious issues but does not address them. Enjoyable stylistically, but not substantiated beyond glossy advertisement.

A visually stunning Swiftian satire, Children Of Men may appear clumsy, but its message is simple, heartfelt and ultimately rather moving.

A compelling, adult period thriller, with an Oscar-assured performance from Angelina Jolie.

With a superb lead turn by rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rian Johnson’s debut is a smart, original neo-noir that works as an ingenious mindgame as well as a slick Hollywood calling card.

A compelling, intelligent and provocative sins-of-the-father story with a terrific ensemble cast, and a standout Mr. Ripley turn by the ever-versatile Gael García Bernal.

Great performances, provocative ideas and gripping action scenes fall prey to Hollywood logic and pat storytelling in the final hour.

This is not a film about narrative but loneliness and life on the road, which it captures with a mysterious brilliance.

A sombre, slow, but well-paced study of organised crime in urban Naples that leaves a very grim taste in the mouth.

Arguably not the most proficiently crafted film in Cannes this year and certainly not the most balanced, but Moore’s assault on the Bush administration is a terrific polemic.

Very humane portrait of a potentially extremely unlikeable character.

John C Reilly just about holds together a funny but patchy comedy that puts a ten-megaton bomb under the cliched rock biopic – and never detonates it.

Although it is often seen as a precursor to the multiple parts played in Dr Strangelove, Sellers' turn here is a reminder of his true potential, soon to be swallowed up by a stream of ever more awful Pink Panther films.

A patchy, hit-and-miss comedy with a few outrageous highs and a lot of just-okay padding, Brüno suggests that Sacha Baron Cohen's in-your-face fool routine sadly isn't working any more.

A black comedy with flashes of genius, but let down by a sharp slide into chaos.