Jamie Graham

If ever there was a film that epitomised the saying ‘no pain, no gain’, this is it. Packs a real wallop.

A compassionate, masterful work that deservedly won Haneke a second Palme d'Or after "The White Ribbon's" 2009 victory. Best to avoid on a first date, though.

Watch this 4K restoration of Scorsese’s ’76 masterpiece, its colours a seeping virus, and marvel that he originally planned to shoot on black-and-white video.

The ghosts of Scorsese’s past can be found in these gaunt GoodFellas. An engrossing and, yes, haunting epic.

Like the Toy Story trilogy, Inside Out is about leaving childhood behind. It’s not quite as moving as those films but it is A-grade Pixar, full of Sadness and Joy.

Could have been a grand folly but instead it’s just grand. Will make audiences break into grins like its characters break into song.

Strikingly original, brilliantly acted, this serio-comic masterpiece constantly swerves expectations.

A rigorously detailed telling of an important story that never loses sight of the human devastation. Terrific turns from the ensemble cast.

Poverty and poetry, delinquency and deluxe wonder… this child’s-eye view of lives on a knife-edge is terrific.

A World Cinema Dramatic prize winner at Sundance, Hogg’s best film yet is an instant British classic.

An excellent middle chapter bursting with wit, wisdom, emotion, shocks, old-fashioned derring-do, state-of-the-art tech, and stonking set-pieces.

A lunatic vision, as hilarious as it is hellish. And some of the greatest action ever put on screen.

Awkwafina and Zhao shine in a deft comedy-drama with a higher US per-screen take than Avengers: Endgame.

Over-long, but a work of great artistry and emotion. As the woodcutter says upon finding our heroine: “A gift from heaven”.

Charlie Kaufman shows us what it is to be human. Plus the best use of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ in the movies.

McDormand is an unstoppable force in a fiercely intelligent, profanely poetic movie that shifts tonal gears at breakneck speed.

Iñárritu ditches time-hopping bleakness for a linear, if loopy, satire that buzzes with brio. If Mel Brooks, John Cassavetes and Terry Zwigoff co-directed a superhero movie, this might be it.

McQuarrie brings grace and grit, and Cruise brings it, period. This quick-witted, fleet-footed franchise shows no sign of flagging.

Good enough to survive evoking "Bicycle Thieves" and "The 400 Blows," this small story contains universal truths, told with irresistible force.

A masterpiece of animation and imagination.

Paul Schrader’s best for 20 years. A stunning study of one man’s flaws and an apocalyptic vision of mankind’s fate.

FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), brainiac cannibal Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and tackle-tucking serial killer Jame Gumb (Ted Levine) make for one of cinema’s great ménages à trois.

It explores two of the filmmaker’s pet themes – the impossibility of true communication, the futility of art – and is set against the Vietnam War. Extraordinary.

Everybody in Everybody smashes it out the park, playing dreamers who exhibit a voracious lust for life as they quest for identity. Well, these actors might have found theirs – the next generation of leading men.

While some might have preferred this story with its edges unsmoothed, The Fabelmans is better viewed as the tale of how Spielberg’s personal values inform his every artistic decision, and how he became who he is: The Greatest Showman On Earth.

Making his feature debut after directing a couple of Pixar shorts and co-writing Inside Out, Josh Cooley proves there’s life beyond the trilogy.

Robert Eggers’ measured, meticulous debut builds into one of the most genuinely scary horror movies of recent years.

Full of shivers and subtext, this is scarily good. One of the films – horror or otherwise – of the year.

Gosling and Cooper use their star currency to power a slow-burn, heartsick drama. "Blue Valentine" director Cianfrance is a serious talent.

An intergenerational family drama, a search for self, and a big, bouncy comedy sure to entertain.

“YOU RIPPED MY FAVOURITE SHIRT!” Cage loses it in a bloody, druggy, superbly crafted revenge thriller. Astonishing.

Furious, relevant, and funny as hell.

I don’t want people to dislike me. I’m indifferent to if they dislike me,” says Jobs. Well, this won’t be for everyone but it dazzles. Markedly better than Ashton Kutcher’s Jobs…

OK, so the ‘Nam firefights are more routine than we’d expect from Lee and the treasure hunt element almost feels it belongs to a different film, but this is a frequently fierce, fascinating picture. The world needs it right now.

Certain Women won’t challenge Transformers 5 at the box office, but it’s a deeply affecting triumph.

One of the princes of arthouse cinema, Miguel Gomes here uses his status to push form and stretch boundaries. Very long but very much worth it.

Volumes one and two are especially captivating, as Gomes himself appears onscreen to tell of how he charged a team of researchers with scouring Portugal in search of tales.

Is Furiosa as magnificent as Fury Road? No, though not because it’s the first Mad Max movie without Max, whose absence barely registers. At 140 minutes minus credits, it’s a touch unwieldy, while its lament for the inevitability of war and the emptiness of revenge feels hollow given the giddy excitement it stirs from just these things. But what can’t be disputed is that Miller, the Mad genius, has done it again, once more refusing to simply repeat himself and instead choosing to kick up dust rather than gather it as he forges a new path through the Wasteland in often spectacular fashion.

It’s the filmic equivalent of a Penn and Teller magic trick: amaze, show the mechanics, amaze again.

This franchise is never happy to cruise - and M:I 7 goes all-out. It judders at times, but when it delivers, it delivers big time.

It’s not iconic sci-fi to match Alien or Blade Runner but it is a topical, supremely crafted, intelligent, heartfelt spectacle with gallows humour to die for. Strap yourself in.

Be sure to make family time for Bird’s flawed but dazzling sequel. “Superheroes suck,” says Violet. No, they most certainly don’t.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not perfect nor could it ever be. But for every niggle...there are 10 things that are exactly right, and it says much that no one will leave disappointed despite going in with hysterical levels of expectation.

Who let the dogs out? This is Homeward Bound: The Incredibly Harrowing Journey, with the feelgood payoff arriving after many feel-shit sequences. Well worth it, though.

Boasting great music cues, vivid 35mm lensing (by, of all people, Avatar actor Giovanni Ribisi, who here makes his classy debut as director of photography), and engaging gender politics that establish Mollner’s interest in more than just the thrill of the chase, Strange Darling is a slick game of cat and mouse.

Strickland’s nuanced, atmospheric, ambiguous movie transcends genre.

So damn charming it makes your heart twinkle like Redford's eyes.

The great thing about Arabian Nights is that if one story isn't to your liking, another pops up, so the decision to give this tale a feature-length running time is perplexing. But quibbles aside, this is daring, magical filmmaking.

After 30 years of gestation, Mank emerges one of the great films on the machinations of Hollywood

Doesn’t have the heft of Zodiac or the verve of Se7en but Gone Girl is a masterful adaptation and a superior crime-thriller. As for Fincher changing the ending… See for yourself.

Dear everyone – stop whatever you’re doing and go see Dear White People. One of the freshest, funniest and most vital films of the year.

Scorsese blends his twin religions of Catholicism and cinema to considerable effect.

Much mellowing and life-learning ensues in a plodding dramedy, though the glint in MacLaine’s eyes makes it almost worth your while. Almost.

No cynicism, just on-point sentiment and scintillating set-pieces. Top Gun: Maverick scores a direct hit on its twin targets of nostalgia and adrenaline.

It’s a triumph of design, offering a creepy twist on such classic monsters as living dolls, the mummy and, in particular, the golem of Jewish folklore, a large clay figure that can be brought to life to do its creator’s bidding...

The one-liners are in evidence but this is more abrasive than you might expect. Blends rigour and vigour to join "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Midnight In Paris" as the best of late-period Woody.

A couple of scenes are perhaps too on the nose, but the naturalistic performances are faultless, the righteous anger controlled, and the bleakness dotted with moments of humour and small acts of kindness. I, Daniel Blake is, first and foremost, a deeply humanistic film.

Not quite as good as Infinity War, but wears its three-hour running time with ease and rewards the fans. Part of the journey is the end, and this goes out with a bang that’ll make you whimper.

A cunning, suspenseful thriller that bears comparison to the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple, Blue Ruin is an impossible-to-ignore calling card from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Hollywood awaits.

Peele is three for three. You’ll spill out into the night jawing with your friends and gazing at the stars.

Malcolm & Marie is a film of the moment, powered by Covid, BLM and #MeToo – but good enough to stand the test of time.

It’s a delight to watch Amy Adams do Jekyll and Hyde as she incrementally transforms from cheery Giselle to noxious stepmother, while Maya Rudolph is a whole heap of fun as the ultimate control-freak soccer mom who - of course - becomes queen when Monroeville turns into “one big fantasia”.

Imagine all of D-Fens’ fury in Falling Down squeezed into one short, then times it by six. A gloriously crazed compendium that fizzes with OMG and OTT moments.

"Dunkirk" has a rival in the intensity stakes. Expect Bigelow’s deep-cutting drama to be part of the conversation come awards season.

An emotionally tough watch – though an exhilarating one tahnks to Aaron Sorkin's reliably taught script and direction

Taken as a throwback to the thrillers of Carpenter and Spielberg’s cinema of wonder, it is special indeed. Not least because it honours its influences and yet remains, first and foremost, a Jeff Nichols film.

As unnerving as it is surprising.

Most alluring are the crumbling neon cityscapes, real world/cyberspace fusion and the musings on identity.

Gyllenhaal is sensational headlining a pitch-black satire with its finger on the pulse.

Isabella Rossellini’s singer Dorothy is a heart-rending open wound, Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth one of cinema’s great nutjobs, and Lynch’s control a thing of nightmarish beauty.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation might have its hi-tech gadgets, but it's a pleasingly old-fashioned affair.

Wiig and Hader give winning, finely nuanced turns in a film that deftly mixes light and dark. Also features the best use of ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ since Mannequin…

Jackass Forever has laughs and thrills and will goose your nostalgia, but it’s like a modern-day Rolling Stones gig – the hits are replayed but satisfaction is elusive.

Hilariously infectious and full of hope, Spider-Man’s return to Marvel couldn’t be more welcome.

It’s flawed, yes – Frances is frustratingly underwritten, her psychological fault lines spoken of but never shown – but it’s also swaggeringly cinematic. And it has Tom Hardy vs Tom Hardy.

A super-entertaining, super-slick love/hate letter to horror with a final 20 minutes that's stunningly bonkers.

Hail, Caesar! is a love letter inked in arsenic, at once celebrating the artistry of Hollywood and cringing at the crass commercialism and rampant phoniness of it all.

Tiny Furniture announces Dunham as a talent to watch.

Ambiguity is The Falling’s currency, and it’s all the richer for it.

2012 is the year of the Muppet, and we don't mean Ashton Kutcher. After Jason Segel's fur-filled revival, rejoice in a documentary to make you laugh and, yes, cry.

Something of a companion piece to the superior Finding Nemo, this is one of Pixar’s weaker efforts but still worth catching.

The breakneck pace leaves little room for meaningful character development... But there’s imagination, spectacle and thrills to spare.

As a portrait of a privileged, narcissistic sex addict, its magnificence and messiness are intertwined, while Gérard Depardieu’s (literally) naked performance offers a gurning, grunting bedfellow to Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant and Brando’s butterfat Last Tango In Paris protagonist.

Bigger and better – 22 Jump Street joins the exclusive list of sequels that out-gun their originals. We’re already knocking at the door of no.23.

The animation is spellbinding as Onward builds into a galloping adventure full of amusement, excitement and enchantment.

Informed, balanced and deeply humane.

With Streep on grandstanding form and Grant given a rare chance to show his range, this is an intelligent dramedy that moves and amuses.

An impressively cinematic drama that fully immerses viewers in a time and place but offers links to our divided present.

Shot on 16mm for less than $50,000, Sam Raimi's visceral debut remains a benchmark of modern horror. Plot and acting are minimal - five stooges inadvertently awaken demonic forces - but then this isn't about intellect or intricacy: it's about intensity and intestines. [1 Oct 2001]

A savage triumph.

Drags in places and not always certain of its tone but with a sprinkling of eye-bulging visuals that wink to Spielberg’s heyday. Give it a shot.

Director Garth Davis’ debut is a touch over-stretched but impossible to resist – a classy crowd-pleaser with an especially magical first half.

This easily surpasses Fede Alvarez’s overrated 2013 reboot and suggests there’s plenty more life – and death – in the franchise yet.

Thrilling and haunting, pitching the power of adventure and friendship against the day-to-day horrors of childhood and a chilling Pennywise. An absolute scream.

Not in the Bridesmaids league but a very funny female-centric comedy with big laughs and spot-on attitudes.

Family entertainment with death, limb-lopping and other horrors. If you go Into The Woods today, you’ll be surprised how faithful this is to the dark stage musical.