Jamie Graham

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.

Hits all the routine beats but is plenty entertaining, with Pacino rediscovering his enviable pizazz to headline a quality ensemble.

Not up there with key US influences "Annie Hall," "When Harry Met Sally" and "Jerry Maguire," but a romcom Brits can be proud of. Make a date of it.

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

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.

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.

The Soska sisters’ feminist ‘T Is For Torture Porn’ has the most to say but everyone will have their own favourites (D, K, T, X and Z, since you asked).

Wan has fashioned a nitro-fuelled thrill-ride that forms a fitting tribute to its blue-eyed bro.

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.

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

Misses the energy and vitality of Gregg Araki’s best work, but there’s more going on here than immediately meets the eye.

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.

It’s no "Heat" but the niggles are easily forgiven given the virtuosity on show and the mood oozing from every frame. No one shoots faces, architecture and gunfights like Mann.

A low-budget, highconcept WTF thriller that might have been conceived by Rod Serling in the heyday of his Twilight Zone series. Spread the word.

Wahlberg finds his most interesting role since The Departed in a film that’s heavy on atmosphere and suspense but shy of a full deck when it comes to characterisation.

Never sure if it wants to be a hard-edged character drama or pacy action-thriller, Son Of A Gun has plenty to admire between the tonal wobbles.

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…

A sombre, ’70s-flavoured crime drama with strong, interior performances from Hardy, Gandolfini and Rapace. Feel the (slow)burn.

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.

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.

Scott operates on a suitably Biblical scale and grounds the spectacle with rock-solid turns from Bale and Edgerton.

A masterpiece of animation and imagination.

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

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.

Among the blood, sweat and (ahem) salty tears are musings on desire, family and emasculation, but this is Kim at his most mischievous, the laughs drowning all.

The Expendables 3 marks a sizeable improvement on the first two outings.

By the beard of Zeus! Brett Ratner delivers fast, fun thrills to score a sound victory over Renny Harlin’s laborious The Legend Of Hercules.

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.