Dan Jolin

A devastating heart-stab of a movie, this certainly isn't a family film. It is, however, a beautifully constructed, animated drama.

Inside Llewyn Davis throbs with melancholy, hunches under heavy skies, revels in music history's unsexiest scene and unapologetically leaves you dangling. It is also beautiful, heartfelt and utterly enthralling.

A kids’ movie for grown-ups. A grown-up movie for kids. Exactly what you’d expect -- and hope for -- from the latest, and we’re guessing final, Woody and Buzz adventure.

Polley’s fearless personal journey is a huge achievement, a genuine revelation — but the less detail you know beforehand, the better. Go in cold, come out warmed.

A bravura documentary which balances the personal and the political as it peers into the First Lebanon War, its animated approach never feeling like a novelty. Astonishing, unforgettable: you have to see it.

Paul Thomas Anderson does gothic romance in prestige Brit picture style, eliciting a worthy final performance from Daniel Day-Lewis that’s admirably matched by newcomer Vicky Krieps.

A masterfully constructed character study from a great director operating on a whole new level. A film that you don’t merely watch, but must reckon with.

The year’s most pleasant cinematic surprise. Once has enough heart, wit, verve and sheer songwriting genius to ensure you’ll see it far more times than its title suggests.

Impossible to recommend as a great Friday night out, yet agonisingly vital as thought-urging cinema.

Absurd, outrageous, gross, disturbing, insightful, and so funny it’ll burst half the blood vessels in your face.

Unique, beautiful and endlessly fascinating. It really is a work of art.

A sharper account of the Iwo Jima conflict than Flags, this balances its unflinching handling of the horrors of war with its touching portrayal of those who face them.

Admirably low-key, deeply compelling and their warmest movie since Fargo.

An otherworldly tale of childhood and a definitive work of imagination.

McQuarrie also builds on the last film’s self-aware level of wit and, most importantly, its set-piece-crafting sophistication. No action sequence is allowed to peter out, or be chopped to ribbons in the edit, or lean on the crutch of CG augmentation.

A complex, unique and engrossing journey into the murky recesses of an unhinged mind. It really needs to be seen to be believed.

The film is engrossing and beautifully mounted, and is sure to not disappoint anyone who’s enjoyed McDonagh’s previous rough rides.

A raw horror masterpiece from a first-time director that deserves to be mentioned in the same frantic breath as the genre’s greats. Even the most jaded viewer should find something in Hereditary to disturb and distress them.

An old-school espionage thriller with a movie-biz comedy twist, all the better for being (almost) entirely true. It is to Ben Affleck's credit that the tension and laughs complement rather than neutralise each other.

A decent but unremarkable film with a big, unforgettable central performance. Carey Mulligan passes with First-Class Honours.

This fourth Toy Story isn’t as essential as the previous films in the series, but there’s no denying the joy of seeing Woody and friends back in action, while once again it’ll likely leave you with a tear in your eye.

A marvellous follow-up to 2004's "Sideways" - well worth the wait.

While Miyazaki’s two-hour-long, historical-melodrama swansong is destined to be his most divisive film yet, it is also his most adult and interesting, and never less than visually breathtaking throughout.

Gripping, heart-wrenching, powerful and a sad indictment of scientific practice, which shows that 'human' and 'humane' are all-too-often mutually exclusive.

A war film more of sober, grim reflection than balls-out escapades. Yet it grips consistently, its bursts of combat delivering gut-punches of veracity.

A solid, often entertaining life-of-crimer which benefits from some stylistic touches and a faithful, convincing central performance.

Both Greengrass and Hanks are on award-deserving form in a riveting, emotionally complex and hugely intelligent dramatisation of a real-life ordeal.

A beautifully murky, hard-edged thriller. Quite simply, one of the best films of the year.