Ian Freer

Generic title, strong movie. Relic is smart (but never smart-arse) horror. What it lacks in incident it makes up for in a troika of top turns and tangible tension in service to an interesting parable about the gnawing effects of dementia.

Superbly written and performed by actual friends Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino, The Climb is a smart, funny, small-scale delight. More please.

The second half falls into familiar action tropes, but Honest Thief has some twists and turns, sly humour and a refreshing feel for its characters that raises them beyond genre types.

An early entry into documenting Covid-19, Totally Under Control doesn’t have all the answers, but it is a vital, powerful examination of how one political administration could get something so wrong by ignoring the experts.

A holiday romance perfect for the dark nights with the added bonus of a flashback structure that builds genuine intrigue into the outcome. It also includes a use of Rod Stewart’s ‘Sailing’ that guarantees its place on your 2020 movie playlist.

Time may be shot in black and white but the world it captures is anything but clear-cut. By turns moving and angry, it’s a thought-provoking hymn to love, family and the power of Black female courage.

A brilliant Sally Hawkins stands atop Craig Roberts’ perceptive look at mental illness. Small but beautifully formed.

The Eight Hundred bites off more that it can chew but it consistently serves up gripping filmmaking on the biggest canvas.

Don’t confuse it with Russell Crowe staring out of a window. After a patient build-up, Les Misérables becomes a Molotov cocktail of a movie, tense, explosive and urgent. A powerful fiction debut from documentarian Ladj Ly.

Get Duked channels both Trainspotting and Deliverance to create a scattershot shotgun-blast of gags, gore and bedlam. Winningly performed by its young cast, it’s a (laminated) calling card for director Ninian Doff.

If it thematically bites off more than it can chew, Random Acts Of Violence is a full-on, visually arresting horror. What it lacks in chills, it makes up for in ambition and style.

Part political drama, part history lesson, part gripping spy thriller, Coup 53 gives what has been relegated to a small footnote in Iran’s story the big, expansive, dramatic treatment it deserves.

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 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.

A return to form for indie darling Drake Doremus, who brings his nuance, sensitivities and homespun feel to a formulaic love-triangle set-up. Jamie Dornan, Sebastian Stan and especially Shailene Woodley make it very watchable.

Young Ahmed might be major filmmakers in a minor mode, but it is still a riveting, beautifully made character study that provokes compassion and controversy in equal measures.

Claire Oakley has created a vivid sensory experience out of limited means. Make Up is anything but cosmetic — it gets right under the skin.

Even if it hits well-worn beats, Come As You Are still shines a light on the oft-ignored sexual wants and needs of the disabled community, with humour, empathy and poignancy.

Part film industry satire, part winning love story, Benjamin is low-key and shambling but emerges funny, bittersweet and affecting.

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.

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.

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.

Lost Transmissions is a clear-eyed view of schizophrenia, aided by a powerful Simon Pegg performance yet hamstrung by some woolly filmmaking and a whiff of pretension.

It’s a potentially mid-’90s B-movie premise, but director Patrick Vollrath and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt keep it taut, tense and classy. Just a shame it doesn’t stick the landing.

The Last Days Of American Crime takes a potentially entertaining, if silly, premise and drains it of any reason to get invested. You can just imagine a John Carpenter would have doubled the thrills in half the time.

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.

A Rainy Day In New York hits all of Allen’s touchstones, has a few good one-liners and is well played, but it sorely lacks the wit, vitality and veracity of his ’70s/’80s heyday.

Boasting a powerhouse cast, The Last Full Measure has the best of intentions, to celebrate servicemen without condoning war, but winds up with little else.