Kate Stables

Garland’s bold, original version of what horror can be when it swaps tired old tropes for visceral, visionary thrills is an absolute game-changer.

Chadwick Boseman gives this muscular film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, added punch and poignancy.

Besson is at his balls-out bonkers best in this genre-scrambling, mind-expanding exhilarator.

Despite its hard-scrabble setting, eco-gloominess and dystopian story, this dark fairytale is engagingly vivid and life-affirming. An ambitious love letter to a Louisiana way of life that's being literally washed away.

Both smart political primer and tense cautionary tale.

Based on a true story, it’s directed with beautiful, painterly restraint by Anne Fontaine (best known for pretty pieces such as Gemma Bovery), who lets powerful performances by Agata Buzek (as a nun of faltering faith), and fearsome abbess Agata Kulesza power the story.

It all adds up to a genuinely affecting, Seabiscuit-style underdog tale, which will get you cheering dogged Trudy past 10ft waves, a shoal of stinging jellyfish, and a plague of obstructive men. That salty liquid on your face isn’t sea water – it’s tears.

Refusing to become a cautionary tale, How to Have Sex explores the pitfalls as well as the pleasures of teen-holiday hook-ups; it also brings an admirably fresh, female POV to the subject of sexual consent.

What really elevates this sophisticated sequel is Banderas’ rich voicework, which reveals that, under Puss’ suave bluster, there’s a moody moggie discovering fear for the first time.

Theron is gobsmackingly good as the real-life screen queen determined to unearth the victims of Fox News’ most powerful predator.

A deliciously silly, spoofy tale of the 60s battle for breakfast domination, filled with high-fructose fun.

Theron is astonishingly good, giving a subtle, vanity-free performance.

The powerful, vanity-free performances are the real thing in this bittersweet biopic.

Stone and Carell ace it in this smart biopic, stylishly recreating the champ-vs-clown clash of the tennis titans that electrified ’70s America.

The drifty, dream-punctuated second half might puzzle younger kids, though its universal themes and visual gags are perfectly all-ages appropriate. As is the film’s sweet, un-snarky tone, free from sly Futurama satire or Bojack Horseman raunch.

At the heart of both movie and boardgame is that deep sense of community and camaraderie, which bonds the quartet of misfits nicely.

Greta Gerwig’s warm, woke take on America’s classic girlhood novel takes liberties, but makes a tender, engrossing tale.

If it sometimes feels a bit overstuffed, put that down to Lim’s understandable urge to prove that a gal-centred, globetrotting comedy can offer diversity, sharp social commentary, and dick jokes.

Alongside Turning Red and Orion and the Dark, Inside Out 2 offers a timely reflection of the anxiety epidemic among kids. If it doesn’t have the sparkling originality of its predecessor, it has its big heart, keen to show us how complex and gloriously messy teens can be.

Interviewing key figures in his life, they build an anecdote-rich bio.

Gyllenhaal is outstanding in this inspiring warts-and-all story of a Boston bombing survivor’s recovery battle.

Touching rather than touchy-feely, it’s a high-stakes story with its fair share of fights, deaths and the jail-or-joy tensions of parole hearings. If it’s also a tad starry-eyed about drama as a cultural cure-all, Kwedar’s empathy for the life-battered inmates makes this a rare, graceful work.

Coupled with the extraordinary lush visuals and fluid camerawork – moulding the ocean’s many moods and textures till it’s practically a character – Moana essays a rich, vivid feel. It might not be a whole new world, but it’s a fantastic voyage.

This is a clever, all-ages charmer.

Steeped in the bitter political divisions of the Civil War, Spielberg's thrilling film about hardwon freedoms is immersed in its own time, but speaks eloquently to ours.

Hugely charming if somewhat cluttered, Burton’s horror-spiked YA freaks-and-a-geek fantasy proves a Home run for Asa Butterfield.

It’s hands-down Disney’s best and punchiest prequel yet, one whose playful perils make for a deliciously rowdy ride.

Taraji P. Henson excels in a heart-warming history lesson that proves not only rocket men had The Right Stuff.