Iana Murray

There’s a noble search for meaning in the grass, sea and mountains, but it couldn’t hurt to have characters vocalize their feelings even just once. There is a story here, though Pálmason only really alludes to it.

In tackling homelessness with deep empathy, one of our most exciting young actors proves himself to be a bold new voice in British filmmaking. Leave some talent for the rest of us, Dickinson.

This zany debut dials up the cringe comedy to its most excruciating extremes — and it’s a riot. Andrew DeYoung and Tim Robinson are a match made in heaven.

The Mastermind sees Reinhardt working with a bigger budget and a larger scale, but she never loses her languorous, absorbing sensibilities as a filmmaker. She’s never been better.

This is textbook Wes Anderson without falling back on old tricks. The rich world of The Phoenician Scheme can be a lot to take in, but what a view it is.

Bolstered by a grounded performance from Meghann Fahy, Drop deftly weaponises its titular tech to update the paranoid thriller for the iPhone age. Better check those security settings.

Nicole Kidman has perfected the art of the wronged housewife, but that’s not enough to elevate the shallow nightmare of Holland. This derivative thriller is in need of some Dutch courage.

Joshua Oppenheimer’s uncompromising, apocalyptic odyssey thoughtfully unpacks the stories people tell themselves to survive — but don’t expect to be tapping your feet to its collection of lacklustre songs.

Steven Soderbergh’s first-person experiment is a gamble that pays off massively. This is an eerie family drama that turns the horror genre inside out and infuses it with greater empathy.

Come to this clever satire for Sebastian Stan’s radical transformation, beyond the prosthetics, but stay for Adam Pearson’s remarkable performance as a bona fide matinée idol.

Starve Acre is sometimes overly derivative as a folk-horror — but Daniel Kokotajlo’s second film crafts a sinister Yorkshire, replete with impressively gnarly special effects and a strong performance from Morfydd Clark.

Greg Berlanti’s revisionist comedy offers a fresh take on the Apollo 11 moon landing, but its convoluted conspiracy fails to capitalise on the charms of Johansson and Tatum’s workplace romance.

Luna Carmoon’s grimy study of loss might ultimately be too strange for its own good. Nevertheless, this debut boldly announces the arrival of one of Britain’s most promising new filmmakers.

A surprisingly staid biopic of Ferrari’s venerable originator. In unpacking motorsport’s greatest legacy, it gets bogged down in a dull relationship drama — but the racing sequences are thrillingly visceral.

Nicole Holofcener transforms an intimate betrayal into an illuminating case study of moral righteousness. A delightful, hilarious and deeply human film about the innate contradictions we refuse to accept.

Both hilarious and heartfelt, Joy Ride packs a nuanced exploration of Asian identity into a Trojan Horse comedy, filled with enough narcotics to get the blood pumping.

A beautifully understated performance from Sydney Sweeney, paired with stylistically minimalist filmmaking, make for a chilling, compelling chamber piece — finding the humanity underlying even the tensest of confrontations.

Kubi is an outrageously exhilarating update of the samurai epic, dialing up the blood and guts and sprinkling in the sick humor to match.

For a movie that seeks to establish the ferocious fire within the great, shunned Catherine Parr, it doesn’t take long for the flame to fizzle out.

Taking a mental note of every loose thread “Monster” introduces is a demanding task that may confuse some viewers, but it’s an immensely satisfying and emotionally resonant watch to see how the pieces fit together.

An award-worthy performance from the reliably exceptional Andrea Riseborough elevates an affecting portrait of the road to recovery that fails to tread new ground.

The sharp economic filmmaking of this meta-textual satirical mystery is ultimately weighed down by its cleverness.

Absorbing and heartwarming, it’s easy to forget that this tender drama is about human trafficking.

Tori and Lokita puts its characters through hell to elicit some tears and send an urgent message. You may consider this an empathetic film — exploitative might be the better word.

Decision to Leave is ultimately a seductive romance, one made all the more fascinating by the boundaries the characters tread but never dare cross. Stories of longing are so tantalizing because they hang in that gray space of potential. The build-up is often more gratifying than the release, and Park wrings it for all its worth.

The film strikes a careful balance between the high school drama and the online realm but also explores how those two environments bleed into each other.

What Blue Bayou does wonderfully in these quiet moments is illustrate that being Asian is not a one-size-fits-all identity but a vast tapestry of different cultures.

For all of its careful observations, it’s still an absolute slog to get through.