Ian Freer

One Cut Of The Dead is a true original, a fresh take on the zombie apocalypse drama and much more besides.

It doesn’t do anything different from the original, but the upside to The Upside is two strong, winning performances that keep you going down a well worn path.

Despite good moments and an ambition to reach for the profound, Life Itself settles for trite, sentimental and patience testing. A killer cast deserve better.

A genuine oddity, Welcome To Marwen may not hit the emotional highs but mixes high-concept fun with a sincere attempt to describe trauma in an original visceral way. And Zemeckis’ filmmaking remains exemplary.

Weird, dirty but accessible, The Favourite is a perfectly performed, thrillingly made period picture that morphs before your very eyes. Come for the top-drawer hi-jinx; stay for a moving look at human foibles and frailties.

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.

An enjoyable foray into JK Rowling’s imagination, bolstered by a more appealing Eddie Redmayne, but you can’t help feel The Crimes Of Grindelwald is still treading water until future chapters.

Orson Welles’ final film is an infuriating, brilliant, personal sign off, filled with stunning images, wit and bravura to spare. In short it’s everything you hoped it would be.

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.

Venom is neither triumph nor train-wreck. It’s a mediocre origin story, a superhero host that sadly fails to bond with its comedy parasite. Which is a shame, as there is enough here to to suggest it could have been a blast.

Blue Iguana grates on pretty much every level, a misjudged hodge-podge of ill-defined characters, tired filmmaking licks and an air of general unpleasantness. It also contains one of the worst shootouts in recent memory.

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.

If it lacks filmmaking fireworks and emotional wallop, The Children Act delivers a sensitive, thoughtful drama about complicated issues. And it is another reminder, if one were needed, of the subtlety and skill of Emma Thompson’s stratospheric talent.

A kind of Ken Loach does Shirley Valentine, The Escape is not a comfortable watch. But it is a rewarding one, thanks to Dominic Savage’s forensic investigation of a disintegrating marriage and career-best work by Gemma Arterton.

Uneven in places, Pin Cushion nonetheless offers a moving meditation on what it feels like to be different, elevated by great work from Joanna Scanlan and newcomer Lily Newmark.

Schrader’s best in yonks, a powerful meditation on faith’s place in the modern world. Hawke, as a kind of Travis Bickle in a dog collar, gives one of the performances of the year.

In The Fade manages to be absorbing character study, courtroom nailbiter and vengeful woman flick, all the while taking the temperature of neo-Nazism in Germany. It’s flawed but powerful, mostly down to a revelatory performance from Diane Kruger.

It might not have the oomph of "Winter’s Bone," but this is a sympathetic, affecting, beautifully realised portrait of lives lived on the margins.

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.

Filmworker is an absorbing, important portrait of both a genius at work and the man behind the scenes who made the magic possible, whatever the cost to himself.

A rare animated film without a shred of sentimentality but bucket-loads of heart and soul. “Stories remain in our hearts all our lives,” Parvana’s father tells her. The Breadwinner is testament to that.

With its moody heroine, sex and reliance on talk it would be easy/stupid to dismiss Let The Sunshine In as oh so French, but Claire Denis’ most conventionally entertaining film is a delight. And it’s yet another reminder Juliette Binoche is an international treasure who should be cherished.

I Feel Pretty is an intermittently funny vehicle for Schumer’s talent that never really gets to grips with the ramifications of its high concept. Its heart is in the right place, but its head is somewhere else.

Mark Felt is a lacklustre staging of a fascinating episode in recent US history. Despite Neeson’s strong presence, this is a deep throat that never finds its voice.

Dark, disturbing and difficult, this is a deep dive into a troubled headspace and never lets you leave. Ramsay is now four for four, one of our most exciting filmmakers. If she could not leave it so long next time, that’s just fine with us.

Sweet Country is epic and personal, daring to tell a simple story in a challenging, arresting way. It’s a demanding two hours but leavened by great performances, especially from newcomer Hamilton Morris.

Clint Eastwood’s bold choice to have real protagonists does little to enliven a listless story about friendship. Although the terrorist attack is effectively staged, The 15:17 To Paris fails to spin a remarkable film out of a remarkable act of heroism.

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.