Jamie Graham

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

The Shining buzzes madness and malevolence from every frame.

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

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.

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

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.

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…

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

A masterpiece of animation and imagination.

Defying all boundaries, Martyrs relentlessly dishes the visceral pain and emerges as a work of not just ceaseless terror but also gravity and beauty.

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

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

Bong has once more proved what an exciting filmmaker he is, and Parasite is strong contender for Oscar Best Picture.

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 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.

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.

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.