Jennie Punter

Gets under your skin as another thought-provoking wake-up call about the power of studios and the corporations that back them.

Humpday is mostly foreplay. But isn't that usually the most fun anyway? It certainly is in this film.

While this may all sound seductively warped to those who enjoy movies featuring sexually deviant confinement and torture, blasphemous rants and rampaging rednecks, The Devil's Rejects does not live up to its sick, twisted and campy intentions. "Straw Dogs" meets "Smokey And The Bandit" for the new millennium it ain't.

Unfortunately, despite a committed and lively performance, McAvoy's Scottish doctor is fictional, an amalgam of Amin's "white monkeys."

It may be a slim story, but its gentle humour, natural rhythm and above all authentic performances make Tomboy beautiful, intimate cinema.

Both a cathartic and a creative family entertainment.

Running more than two hours – a very long time for an adaptation of a book without a plot – Eat Pray Love is like an overstuffed lightweight suitcase, with little room for us to feel the emotional connections Liz makes with new friends along the way.

The movies have given us plenty of loquacious teenagers – from such fast-talking truants as Ferris Bueller to such overachieving political animals as Tracy Flick ( Election). Hal Hefner is not one of these kids.

Designed to please all generations of irreverent humour-lovers, The Pirates! Band of Misfits may not be heart-warming (it is about nasty, scurvy pirates!) but it's breezy rollicking fun.

The summer's most lip-smacking movie treat.

Mann (Comic Book Confidential) plays with archive, animation and music (hot soundtrack by the Sadies), illuminating another worthy counter-culture corner. Pure fun, fun, fun.

Lanthumos's accomplished and fascinating Dogtooth pushes the notion of parents screwing up their kids into seriously disturbing and darkly comic terrain.

Glodell never lets his creation spin out of control. Bellflower revs the engine of an exciting new maverick.

What elevates Foy's impressive first feature (he also served as editor and composer of the dark, whimsical score) above, say, your average "unsolved mystery" TV episode, is the emotional connection he gradually builds between Duerr and the elusive creator of the Toynbee tiles.

Even in a season of apocalyptic films, these facts are really, really scary.

A taut, gorgeously filmed and enjoyably wicked cinematic treat.

While Mesrine: Killer Instinct certainly deserves a place among memorable French gangster films, Richet never delivers a clear theme here, let alone a plot.

Paine does offer something of a heroine in Chelsea Sexton; the attractive EV1 sales specialist was laid off in 2001, became an EV1 activist and is now executive director of Plug In America.

Certainly a bizarre kind of virtuoso filmmaking, but it does not feel precocious or burdened with too many ideas.

Surreal and hilarious.

Both Speedman and Tyler deliver solid, nuanced performances as a couple caught at the most fragile moment in their relationship.

Given Paine's penchant for B-movie-sounding titles, let's hope he gets to make it a trilogy that concludes with The Electric Car Lives!

This film offers a child's perspective on the ravages and complexity of war and is also a convincing testament to the healing power of creative expression.

A sprawling personal journey, filled with an array of fascinating characters, through the world of wine.

Although she lets her flair for creating funny, sharply written, quirky scenes consume her feature directorial debut, her use of family, friends and even an ex (Goldberg) in 2 Days In Paris, gives the film a wonderfully natural, comfy feel.

An unholy mess.

Is there any doubt Evans' Captain America will do exactly what the character created 70 years ago by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby did in the comics – kick Nazi butt? The real surprise will come next year, when we get to see how the super-square Captain adapts to 21st-century life.

While the visuals aren't nearly as eye-popping as those of the underwater movies, the film is more inspiring thanks to its human heroines.