John Nugent

Sasquatch Sunset is a gloriously vulgar film about made-up monsters from children’s stories — but it is also a terribly melancholy adult story about the violence of progress. What a remarkable, unique, sad little cult oddity it is.

Solid, but understated to a fault. Causeway’s biggest appeal is seeing Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry act up a quiet, powerful storm.

A strange brew. While the family dynamics and capitalist satire work a little better than the outlandish spectacle, White Noise at least appears to herald an ambitious new phase in Noah Baumbach’s career.

All Of You might only work for some of you, but the easy, insatiable fire between Goldstein and Poots is undeniable. 

A bit of an odd one, an action-comedy throwback that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Still, it bodes well for Pierce Brosnan’s new phase as a grey-haired action star.

Though not always as profound as it aims for, Swan Song is a tender, warm-hearted reflection of a life well lived. If it’s possible for a prolific septuagenarian to be a revelation, Udo Kier is exactly that.

Though occasionally undone by its Sunday-teatime tendencies, this is a spirited and gently entertaining slice of wartime espionage, with sharp, wry performances from the ensemble cast.

An audacious, farcically funny digest of where we are now, and how we got here: the cinematic equivalent of pandemic primal therapy, a mad scream into the void.

As a newly solo director, Safdie summons a thoughtful and moving mood for this unconventional sports film; as a newly serious dramatic actor, Johnson is about to win some awards.

Alien: Romulus plays the hits, but crucially remembers the ingredients for what makes a good Alien film, and executes them with stunning craft and care. It is, officially, the third-best film in the series.

Reassuringly formulaic, this is a straightforwardly inspirational-by-numbers sports movie, made watchable thanks to Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez.

A cautionary tale against the dangers of excessive podcasting, this is a supremely spooky sonic ordeal. As an allegory for Catholic guilt, it’s haunting; as an auditory experience, it’ll fuck you up.

This documentary feels too stuffed and not insightful enough to be the definitive article — but few skinny-jeans-wearing Millennials will be able to watch without getting nostalgic.

A gentle, odd little Australian fable. Warwick Thornton’s film has a lot of thoughts to process, and while they don’t always cohere, the performances from Blanchett and Reid keep it interesting.

An unorthodox romance that will leave you sweaty-palmed and tearful, in equal measure. It doesn’t quite reach the heights it could, but there’s a hell of a view at the top.

A remarkable film about a remarkable life, from a remarkable director.

With some gorgeously stylised animation and sharp comedy making up for its somewhat lightweight storytelling, The Bad Guys is... not bad.

Silly, witty, extremely British — this is a family film made with a very Aardman-y kind of craft and care. A good egg.

A slow-burn, sluggishly surreal horror, The Feast takes its time getting to the point — but the bloody final act is something to really sink your teeth into.

Piece By Piece’s very existence is baffling, and the Lego of it all is never entirely justified, but as an unconventional documentary of a maverick musician, it works — just about.

A classic American sports movie, with all of its triumphs and clichés — kept afloat by two brilliant, warm lead performances from Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.

It purports to celebrate the pursuit of science, but this film may have single-handedly set the space programme back a decade.

A bold, brave first effort behind the camera for Viggo Mortensen, elegantly distilling some painful truths for anyone who has ever had a complicated relationship with a parent.

An absurd, iconoclastic riot. Ruben Östlund’s point may be blunt — yep, rich people are bad — but his telling of it is hilariously, breathlessly entertaining.

La Diva Eterna lives in Jolie, with a performance as towering as it is understated: sad and soulful and heartbreaking. She has never been better. Brava!

Scoop is not quite the prince that was promised. But there are some gripping moments, and some extraordinary performances — especially from Sewell and Piper.

A gripping, zig-zaggy potboiler, this is a crime thriller in the old-school tradition, with some enjoyable turns from Boston’s finest, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

The reach of this avant-garde comic meltdown sometimes exceeds its grasp, but this is still a consistently jaw-dropping joyride through one man’s terrible, very bad, no good week.

The film is strongest when it remembers it’s a Tim Burton film and has licence to get weird. While it’s slicker and less homemade-feeling than the 1988 vintage, there are still flashes of B-movie brilliance.

A smart, compelling, pared-down thriller for grown-ups, anchored by a pair of stunningly charming performances from Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton.

It’s not trying to reinvent the romcom wheel, and its final bow could be predicted by anyone with half a brain — but I Want You Back is sweeter and more sensitive than you might expect from this kind of broad mainstream romp.

It might follow a linear storytelling path a little too strictly, but Sylvester Stallone is a bracingly honest documentary subject, and fans in particular will take much from this look at a life and career well lived.

As that Ronseal title suggests, Plane is rarely on the good side of trash. But at least Gerard Butler and Mike Colter offer some solid action-star appeal.

This is a garish, frequently insane, diamond-encrusted fantasy trip into the mind of a superstar, and we should be grateful to have even limited access.

A close encounter of the wordless kind, this is a smart and splendidly scary horror sci-fi, with a brilliantly brittle turn from Kaitlyn Dever.

Wolfs has all the practised professionalism of its two anti-heroes, if not quite their spark. But there are few movie stars as straightforwardly enjoyable to watch as Clooney and Pitt.

Thick with sharpened scissors, and barbers with barbed tongues, Medusa Deluxe is a unique take on the whodunnit mould, and a hell of a debut from British filmmaker Thomas Hardiman.

Lovely visuals, but this is a rare miss from Sony Pictures Animation. Watch KPop Demon Hunters again, instead.

A solid, old-fashioned Irish Western about what it means to hang up your rifle. It isn’t especially deep, but it’s good to see Liam Neeson find some character depth among the usual shooting and grumbling.

It won’t win points for originality or sophistication, but this is another muscular, well-pitched heist thriller with strong character work from Butler and Jackson Jr. We wait with bated breath for The Further Adventures Of Big Nick.

It’s thinner than the paper it’s written on, and full of questionable choices — but in a switch-your-brain-off kind of way, this will adequately activate your heist glands. Light the fuze!

Godzilla Vs. Kong mostly delivers on its promise of a big monster fighting another big monster. It just depends whether you’re willing to sit through the toe-curlingly bad set-up that surrounds it.

A solid bit of high-concept B-movie fun, establishing Josh Hartnett as a credible action hero, and James Madigan as a genre director to watch.

Strictly-for-fans-only. Bono is a charismatic chronicler of his own life, but the self-conscious storytelling concept is a harder thing to stomach for non-enthusiasts.

A largely painless viewing experience — but it could have been far more pleasurable.

Funny and shocking, Get Away is not always a successful holiday-gone-wrong, but its bloody bonkers final act makes it worth the trip.

The story of how Flamin’ Hot Cheetos came to exist barely demands to be told (if it is even true). But like all good junk food, there are still some guilty pleasures to be had here.

Just a solidly made cat-and-mouse thriller, with muscularly committed performances from its two leads. It’ll make you want to explore the Great Outdoors and simultaneously never leave your house again.

A defiantly avant-garde take on commercial chart-toppers. It’s not for everyone, but it deserves to be: a gorgeous fusion of film, fashion, faith, and certified bangers.

There’s trouble in this paradise: bleak without much of a point to make and bloody without any particular reason, this is an odd attempt at satire that takes a fascinating slice of real-life stranger-than-fiction history and somehow makes it less interesting.

A touch less fresh than the original, but this is still bursting with energy, emotion, warmth and imagination. It knows the way.  

Though somewhat flawed and less artistically daring than it could be, Charlotte still makes for an emotional, humane viewing experience.

Indy’s final date with destiny has a barmy finale that might divide audiences — but if you join him for the ride, it feels like a fitting goodbye to cinema’s favourite grave-robber.

Wicked: For Good, sure — but not quite Wicked: For Great.

This collection of tired jokes is enough to prompt the question, “What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?”

It doesn’t always work, but an unexpected, perfectly pitched bad-guy turn from national treasure Hugh Bonneville makes I Came By just about worth stopping by for.

Army Of The Dead is best when Snyder leans into the fun, and allows himself moments of pure silliness. When he aims for more emotional territory — like the rather trite guilt-to-redemption arc between Scott and his estranged daughter, played capably by Ella Purnell — we start to feel the weight of that running time.

An ingenious, wildly stylish new take on the body-swap movie, this deserves to be a Gen-Z cult classic. 

It’s always nice to see Illumination outside of its Minions comfort zone, but Migration is mostly generic. A bit of a flightless bird.

Its wackier moments sometimes feel like they have more bark than bite, but as an uncommonly honest and authentic depiction of motherhood, Nightbitch will come as sharp relief to mums everywhere.

Despite a fun voice cast, this is a lazy effort that squanders its characters, and will likely bore anyone over the age of ten.

As furiously funny as it is helplessly horny, this lesbian road movie simultaneously feels exactly like a Coen brothers film — and entirely its own thing, too.

Edgar Wright’s biggest film yet feels like something out of both the future and the 1980s: a scathing satire that’s also a lot of fizzy blockbuster fun.

Uneven, immature and a little derivative — but entertaining performances from Olivia Cooke and Alec Baldwin keeps Pixie watchable.

Guy Ritchie’s defiantly ahistorical romp is part derring-do spycraft, part bullet-riddled action, part impish comedy, and all-parts silly.

Michael Bay’s tribute to the emergency services (which involves blowing several of them up) is noisy, messy and frequently absurd — yet still somehow his most gleefully entertaining effort in at least a decade.

This is a film about nothing less than the future of America and the history of mankind. It is brash and bonkers and doesn’t always hang together, but 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola has rarely been as audacious.

No Martinis in sight, but this is still an extremely watchable look at a unique naming phenomenon — with surprisingly profound results.

Bardo sees director Alejandro González Iñárritu looking at the man in the (hall of) mirrors; the result is visually sensational but sometimes lethally patience-testing.

An old-fashioned, B-movie creature-feature with some CG gloss. Beast is as predictable as anything but it’s a fun, silly, well-made film about a man punching a big cat.

It never scrapes the heights of Jackson’s trilogy — few do — but amid a messy meeting of worlds, there are stirring moments.

An exuberantly bad-taste ode to our poochy pals. Dumb & Dumber, but for dogs.

M3GAN 2.0 is more absurd, self-aware silliness: a riot of timely tech paranoia, with almost no horror but a ton of successful comedy. Slay, queen!

A solid if fairly derivative attempt to steal Disney’s thunder. There’s enough pep and vigour here to keep kids interested, if not quite enough for the grown-ups. 

John Woo’s first American film in 20 years is not the filmmaker at his peak — but it has its moments, with energetically filmed action enough to distract from a melodramatic tone and sometimes silly concept.

Statham is as gruffly convincing as he usually is (though it’s 20 minutes before he’s even allowed to kick any ass), but the action scenes are horribly inconsistent: fine in the hand-to-hand stuff, sloppy elsewhere.

This is not a perfect film, but it handles the important stuff — abuse, trauma and recovery — unexpectedly well. If its reception is anything like the book’s, it will be a powerful vessel for people with similar stories of their own.

Emancipation can’t avoid the well-trodden hallmarks of slavery stories, nor offer a particularly fresh perspective on them. It’s best when it leans into other modes — and when it centres on Will Smith’s outstanding, understated performance.

Christopher Landon dials down the blood and dials up the feels for a fun, heartfelt horror-comedy enlivened by David Harbour’s accomplished apparition-acting.

Adam Sandler goes back to his Happy place for this unashamedly stupid sequel. What it lacks in precision or panache, it makes up for in sheer goofy, golf-y geniality.

Gerard Butler proves he has more in the tank than just thoughtless action with this Middle East-set thriller, which is unexpectedly interested in the people and politics behind the usual explosions.

Director Chloé Zhao’s entry into the superhero world is assured, ambitious and told on a dizzyingly cosmic scale — but even it can’t escape the clichés of superhero storytelling.

Short, sharp and mostly satisfying, this is a thriller that sticks to the stripped-back fundamentals of the genre — no more, no less.

The obvious chemistry and charm of Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell counts for a lot, yet not quite enough, in a romantic comedy severely lacking in both romance and comedy.

It follows the rules of the genre as unwaveringly as its hero follows orders, but despite that, there’s a tense, tightly constructed thriller here — and Chris Pine makes a decent play as a neo-Bourne.

A children’s film for pensioners, 80 For Brady is an absurd, silly mess. But in spite of itself — and thanks to the warm, genuine chemistry of its legendary leading ladies — it is sweet, and difficult to truly begrudge.

Like a parody of a Jason Statham film, without any of the joy that might imply. This Working Man just doesn’t work.

This is sadly unsuccessful as both an eat-the-rich satire and a schlocky B-movie. Not even Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega can rescue Death Of A Unicorn from expiring on arrival.

The action is well-shot, and the buddy dynamic is fun. There’s plenty here that’s familiar, but it’s actually not a terrible way to spend a couple of hours with your Familiar.

While it doesn’t quite boast the bullet-train speed or slickness of the original, it’s not a cheap replacement bus imitator, either.

Now You Three Me, as it should be called, offers ample 2010s nostalgia, but not quite enough brainless fun lands successfully. Put this rabbit back in the hat.

Well-meaning but unfortunately misjudged, this clichéd melodrama is a minor stumble for Harry Styles’ continuing conquest of cinema.

It hardly breaks the romcom mould, but You People is funny and thoughtful on how race can still divide a relationship. As the in-laws from hell, meanwhile, Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are the undeniable highlights.

An instantly forgettable, paint-by-numbers romcom, despite the obvious charm of Witherspoon and Kutcher — worthy of watching neither at your place nor mine.

Tinkering with the spy-action wheel rather than reinventing it, this is a pacy, ruggedly entertaining romp, with a punchy pair of lead turns from Gosling and Evans.

Some likeable performances — and solid Irish accents — can’t save a dreary parade of clichés. Pray that the Lord forgives these cinematic sins.

Sometimes the storytelling can feel like a stretch, but this is mostly a lively, well-told account of a bizarre toy craze gone wrong, and the big personalities behind it.

It has about as much depth as a floppy disk, but some lovely, shiny CGI and a stunningly ear-shattering score from Nine Inch Nails makes for a fun if forgettable bit of futuristic fluff. Bio-digital jazz, man!