Ian Freer

It leans too heavily into ham-fisted cliché but Jack Huston’s debut gets by on a striking look and a clutch of strong performances led by an excellent Michael C. Pitt.

Liam Gallagher: As It Was lacks the narrative shape and drama of previous Oasis doc Supersonic, but provides an interesting snapshot of an artist in transition, both professionally and personally.

There is some nice insight into cycling-team practices, but overall The Racer lacks sufficient nuance, specificity and originality to nab the yellow jersey.

Midway is a big, bold, brazen attempt to detail one of World War II’s most significant moments. But in a post Saving Private Ryan-Dunkirk landscape, it feels astonishing anyone is still making war movies like this.

If you hear the Rocky theme and think '118 118', you might wonder what all the fuss is about. For the rest of us, this is a reminder of why we fell in love with the character in the first place.

By turns impressive and oppressive, Petrov’s Flu combines technical razzle-dazzle with obtuse storytelling. Bravura and baffling in equal measure.

Take out the BDSM, and Fifty Shades Freed would play perfectly as afternoon thriller on Channel 5. An end to a damp squib of a trilogy which sees Johnson as the only one to emerge unscathed.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut is an affectionate, if flawed, Valentine to both musical theatre and the art of creativity — some bum notes, some strong moments. Tick, tick… the jury’s out.

Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn is a scattershot satire, wrapping its hit-and-miss point-making in a raunchy comic romp. Despite its faults, Radu Jude’s flick is one of the more audacious films of 2021.

Jeremy Hersh’s debut is naturalistic and well played. If it initially lacks momentum and oomph, the film becomes a multi-faceted look at issues surrounding surrogacy, anchored by Jasmine Batchelor’s central performance as a woman forced to make a life-changing decision.

A bizarrely strait-laced project for Todd Haynes, Dark Waters lacks dramatic oomph but compensates via a well-mounted telling of a terrifying story, driven by still contemporary concerns and a convincing central turn by Mark Ruffalo.

The Dig is well played, especially by the leads, and visually gorgeous, but it lacks fire and ironically doesn’t get under the surface of its story.

Two parts raw and real, one part manipulative, Coda finds engaging characters and real emotions in a hackneyed narrative arc. See it, though, for a terrific turn from Emilia Jones, if for no other reason than to say you were there at the beginning.

JT LeRoy is a decent telling of a fascinating, resonant true story. If it never really fulfils its promise, it’s worth it to see two major talents — Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern — in full flow.

It was always going to be hit-and-miss, but Homemade flits between creativity and indulgence in documenting the current crisis. If you want to cherry-pick, Larraín, Lello, Nyoni and Sorrentino’s efforts are top of the class.

Alice Lowe’s directorial debut may falter in its grip, especially in story and tone, but it’s a daringly evocative film that marks a filmmaker of imagination and promise.

A forced, over-ripe satire on the hunger for social media, bolstered by an engaging performance by Joe Keery. But if you really want to feel the real-life impact of the ’Gram on a young psyche, stick with Eighth Grade.

Whisper it. A Quiet Place Part II might lack the smarts and novelty of its predecessor but it serves up strong set- pieces, Millicent Simmonds shines and Krasinski remains a director to watch.

It should be a delicious chocolate gateau but Emma. makes heavy weather of Austen’s charmer, delivering a tonally uneven, mostly airless affair. Amy Heckerling’s Clueless — Emma in the Valley — remains the big screen benchmark.

The film thrives on two performances: Barbaro is terrific as Baez, hypnotic on stage and fiercely charismatic off. And Chalamet inhabits Dylan without ever feeling like a Stars In Your Eyes contestant. From the voice to the charm to the earthiness to the self-centredness (‘You’re kind of an asshole, Bob,’ Baez tells him), Chalamet nails it all. It’s a shame Mangold’s safe flick doesn’t ask just that little bit more of him.

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Portrait’s staid approach doesn’t always cohere into a gripping yarn but it is detailed, boasts a real feel for the fiction and, in-between the two men’s rampant viciousness, emerges as undeniably poignant.

Togo is in a slightly more sombre register than Call Of The Wild but delivers similar sturdy pleasures; exciting dog-in-peril action and striking landscapes, all anchored by Dafoe’s grounded performance.

It’s a small, lightweight picture but Good Posture is alive to the messy realities of becoming a grown-assed adult, becoming more charming and involving as it goes on. It also suggests a bright future for writer-director Dolly Wells.

Held back by a more conservative aesthetic and emotional approach, One Life comes nowhere near the power and veracity of Steven Spielberg’s film. But it does have an ace in the hole in Anthony Hopkins, whose performance delivers a subtle but profound gut-punch.

22 July takes a helicopter view of a terrifying, unthinkable tragedy, perhaps flying too high to capture all the nuance, complexities and emotion. Still it has great stretches and a terrific performance by Anders Danielsen Lie.

Centred by a committed, affecting performance by Noomi Rapace, Lamb gets over its longueurs and missteps with interesting ideas, filmmaking craft and a unique tone of voice. Also includes some of the best animal acting of the year.

It’s very conventional in form and dances round his famous temper, but Never Give In touches on topics (class, identity) rare in a sports documentary, etching a moving portrait of a man reflecting on his past at a point when his memory is slipping away from him.

It says little that is new and lacks heat, but Wilson and Burke inhabit a compelling mismatched couple, with Wootliff finding cinematic ways to get under their skin. A flawed but admirable attempt to take the temperature of a dark, modern relationship.

More engrossing than both "Sully" and "The 15:17 To Paris," Richard Jewell is enlivened by Paul Walter Hauser’s breakout performance yet undone by a lack of subtlety and real dramatic wallop. Solid, dependable, very late period Eastwood.

Although let down by muddled plotting, The Night House is a low-key, well-made thoughtful horror flick, excellently played by Rebecca Hall.

Like many sequels, Truth To Power is bigger but messier than its predecessor. While it doesn’t quite deliver the oomph of the original, it is still a timely, persuasive wake-up call.

Dream Horse is predictable and manipulative to a fault but, sparked by Toni Collette, there is a strong sense of sincerity and commitment to the subject matter that helps it across the finishing line.

Super skilled and eminently likeable, Nyong’o is a saving grace in the eye of the storm.

If Never Look Away is no The Lives Of Others, it is also a cut above The Tourist. A strongly crafted, ambitious, occasionally absorbing dissection of a fascinating period in German culture, it is perhaps too middle-brow and broad for its own good.

It's fun spotting stars under cakes of make-up and the panache, great supporting cast and good-natured, old-fashioned feel make for a better movie than you remember.

If it cleaves too close to convention and doesn’t land the ending, Concrete Cowboy is a striking debut, celebrating a long-overlooked tradition of Black cowboys via visually powerful filmmaking. And Caleb McLaughlin is superb.

In some senses T2 shares elements with its Terminator namesake. It’s inventive and full of surprises. But unlike Cameron’s sequel, it doesn’t reimagine the original in quite the same glorious way.

It’s not doing much daring or different but this delivers a fun, well-made summer theme-park ride, with fast highs and slow lows. Pleasurable, though it doesn’t linger.

The talking heads aren’t particularly revealing and there are some strange filmmaking choices. But McEnroe makes for incredibly likeable company and the tennis, as ever, remains sublime.

Russell Tovey gives a layered, career-best performance in an intense interior drama that never quite shakes its theatrical origins.

A potentially trite tale of an unlikely relationship is lifted immeasurably by Sophia Loren and is best viewed as a testament to the true power of the movie star.

Creed II is to Creed what the Rocky sequels are to the original: a more generic, less textured take on familiar boxing movie tropes. The difference, it seems, is Coogler.

Joe Wright brings fun and imagination to an oft-told tale, even if the story beats offer few surprises. Still worth seeing for a compelling Peter Dinklage turn.

Despite an imposing performance by Renée Zellweger, Judy never exposes the dark heart of Garland’s last years, creating an enjoyable backstage drama movie while failing to get under its protagonist’s skin.

The film soft-peddles any sense of controversy but what emerges is an entertaining portrait of a generous, funny, larger-than-life figure. And the music is sublime.

Graced with great performances from Garfield and Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man is a rare comic-book flick that is better at examining relationships than superheroism. If it doesn't approach the current benchmark of Avengers Assemble, it still delivers a different enough, enjoyable origin story to live comfortably alongside the Raimi era.

For its first half, Thirteen Lives feels like it is treading water, waiting for its big final act. Thankfully, the second half is a riveting depiction of a daring, foolhardy, inspired rescue.

Mothering Sunday just falls short of a great movie; a radical attempt to shake up period-picture staidness, shot through with strong performances, impeccable craft and a strain of sadness, but it’s never enough to tug vigorously at the heartstrings.

It cleaves closely to the familiar, but Finding The Way Back scores points by finding different beats within the formula and from a great Ben Affleck performance.

It still feels old-fashioned rather than timeless and even on its family entertainment terms, it just doesn’t quicken the pulse-rate.

An upgrade from Prometheus, Alien: Covenant amps up the thrills but doesn't deliver a memorable crew member or the full-on onslaught of the series at its height.

What The Phantom Of The Open lacks in ambition or dramatic oomph, it makes up for in easy-going appeal. Anchored by an impish Mark Rylance, it takes its cue from the story’s hero: a bit ramshackle, very amiable, always watchable.

Black 47 lacks the seriousness and rigour of other displaced Westerns like The Proposition and Sweet Country. But Lance Daly’s film is gripping enough to suggest Ireland’s tragic backstory is a frontier full of resonant riches.

Despite some inventive photography and decent gore for its day, its uneven pace renders it a curio for Coppola fans.

A serious, well-intentioned slice of WWII naval history full of compelling detail and good action but lacking the dimensions and dynamics to make you truly feel it.

Official Secrets is a timely, ambitious if broad take on a complex subject, but remains engaging and entertaining. anchored by Keira Knightley on great form.

Let Him Go starts languid and builds to a tonally at-odds finale, with its stars looking curiously unengaged. This is what happens when slow burning never really catches fire. Still, Lesley Manville is on fire as a memorable backwoods-y crime boss.

Hotel Mumbai benefits from strong filmmaking and an unflinching gaze, yet it lacks dimensions, both in its characters and take on its subject matter. Still, it’s a punchy, promising debut.

Edwards’ film boasts great filmmaking, noble intentions and cracking monster action. Yet it never reconciles its B-movie origins — preposterous premise, clichéd characters — with its solemn, Nolanised tone. This Godzilla stomps but very rarely romps.

Eastwood is in good, if not great form, Bridges steals the whole show, and Cimino displays a sense of unpretentious fun and appealing grasp of character.

H Is For Happiness has more on its mind than most kids’ flicks and delivers its ideas in an attractive, if familiar, package. And who can resist a film with a character called Douglas Benson From Another Dimension?

Not as strong as the original, Rams is perhaps best described as a feature-length version of one of Sam Neill’s social media shorts; funny, a little bit rambling, winning.

A simple, effective thriller, Copshop doubles down on pulpy, ’70s-styled fun. It proffers little that is novel but has enough vim and vigour to compensate.

A Boy Called Christmas is by-the-numbers Yuletide storytelling buoyed by a strong Brit cast, inventive filmmaking and a heart in the right place.

Triple Frontier is engaging in parts with well-mounted action. But the characters lack definition and you can’t help but think an old timer like Howard Hawks or Sam Fuller might have done it better in half the time.

In a concrete Russian military facility, no-one can hear you scream. Sputnik offers obvious time-honoured sci-fi/horror shenanigans with a few fun tweaks to the formula.

A fun diversion for the kids, but you feel Attenborough could have packaged these often beautifully produced images with more rigour and insight in under an hour.

More interestingly, it paints the Bolshoi as a microcosm of Russia, in thrall to tradition but beset by greed, backstabbing and corruption.

With Soderbergh now only on cinematography duties, this one takes all of the original’s surface — chiefly the hip gyrations — and none of the substance, interesting character arcs or charms.

A darker middle act, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 lacks the verve of 1994 but still delivers enjoyable summer camp-based bedlam. Next up: 1666.

Neither a splendid phoenix from the ashes nor a complete failure, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is erratic, occasionally inspired, occasionally dull, but shot through with a grandiose sense of ambition. Plus, Driver and Pryce add some magic along the way.

An interesting, challenging mess. The White Crow offers lots that’s impressive — Ivenko as Nureyev, the dance sequences, a knuckle-whitening last 20 minutes — but can’t render it in a dramatically engaging way.

Plot-wise Ocean’s 8 cleaves closely to the tenets of Heist Movie Lore but does little to enliven or tweak the formula. It lacks the jazzy swagger of Soderbergh’s trio but delivers a fun, likeable romp built on the charm and charisma of its cast.

It’s messy, with a middle section that sags, but Birds Of Prey has vibrancy, anarchy and balls to spare. Harley and Joker are dead. Long live Harley Quinn.

Moving beyond the confines of the app’s premises, The Angry Birds Movie 2 starts slow but flourishes into breezy, colourful fun.

The story is programmatic and the indie stylings feel tired but Handsome Devil is a winning, enjoyable call for individuality. And Nicholas Galitzine and Fionn O’Shea show promise for the future.

Stillwater mashes up quest-for-justice, father-daughter dramatics, fortysomething romance and mid-life introspection for a refreshingly adult drama. It doesn’t coalesce completely, but Damon and Cottin keep it engaging.

An interesting, well played and well made attempt to reframe Shakespeare’s most famous play through a feminist lens, Ophelia ultimately doesn’t have the boldness to deliver on its resonant idea.

Isn’t It Romantic had us at hello but loses its spell when it has to develop its plot. Not as smart or sharp as you’d hope, it still delivers a lot of fun for those who can’t resist a bad Katherine Heigl flick.

It goes nowhere fast and Kechiche’s camera consistently ogles his female cast but he remains a terrific director of actors, the intimacy and authenticity conveying a real lust for life to sweeten the hefty running time.

It’s a sad, emotive, important subject but it deserves a more detailed, heartfelt film than this.

A strong cast and impressive action sequences can’t find subtleties or surprises to enliven a rote period disaster movie. It hits the right points, but mechanically.

Although sometimes it gets bogged down in the details of drilling, The Hummingbird Project extracts enough entertainment value from an unpromising premise, greatly helped by Jesse Eisenberg finding the humanity in his hustler.

It doesn’t all land, but The Night Before is largely a salty, sweet jingle ball.

Zoo is the antithesis of edgy, an overlong, all encompassing experience that despite Crowe's integrity and lightness of touch doesn't deliver the emotional experience of, say, "Jerry Maguire" or "Almost Famous." Still, it is good to have the righteous dude back.

The 50th anniversary of the moon landings has brought a welter of reminiscences and Armstrong, while entertaining enough, does little to distinguish itself from the pack.

Despite good performances and an interesting milieu, The Wedding Guest doesn’t deliver as an exciting genre piece or thought-provoking drama. Michael Winterbottom is a master in many areas but the thriller seems beyond him this time.

For all its formula, Instant Family is a winning confection, unafraid to go to unexpected dramatic places and elevated by Byrne’s gift as a comedy foil and Moner’s lively but subtle turn.

If the film never completely coheres into a satisfying whole, Days Of The Bagnold Summer has a lot going for it: a nicely judged sense of character, an eye for detail and strong performances, especially from Dolan. It also suggests Simon Bird is a filmmaker worth watching.

The astonishing true life story of The 33 deserves a better movie than this. Trite above and below ground, it is not suitable for miners. Or anyone else really.

A familiar tale of a quirky childhood is delivered with little in the way of freshness or truth. Still, the performances by Larson, Harrelson and Watts rescue it.

Slightly better than its predecessors, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 works hard to entertain — it has the odd bright moment — but overall lacks surprise, freshness or anything to set the heart racing. It’s a Saturday-morning cartoon writ long.

An engaging, if familiar, mix of teen rites of passage, the fun of friendship and mooning over a cool girl. Still, Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne make for a watchable duo.

An enjoyable if routine period crime picture with good performances from Jason Sudeikis and Lee Pace, but it lacks a personality and style of its own.

A mid-way twist seems like it’s going to up the ante but the film ultimately drops the ball in the final act, where there is a lot of huff and puff (Fire! Demons! Body horror!) but little in the way of a satisfying conclusion. Ironically, Never Let Go becomes less interesting the more untethered it gets.

It has its pleasures but after the nuance and emotional hits of Love Is Strange and Little Men, Frankie is a disappointment. Not even la Reine, Isabelle Huppert, can elevate this one.

A Street Cat Named Bob has its heart in the right place but doesn’t quite land on a tone to unite hard hitting drama and a cat-based comedy.

The film is at its most entertaining when it’s a showcase for Smith and Lawrence’s easy chemistry, whether improvising a Reba McEntire country song to appease some rednecks or bantering about Burnett’s bad eating habits during a convenience store hold-up. They’re eminently watchable. Then again, when the highlight of an action movie fourthquel comes with the two stars watching a younger man do his stuff, it might be time to call it a day.