Kate Stables

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.

First-time writer/director Josh Margolin sharpens the film into a smart senior thriller, giving us tense geriatric POVs of the challenges that ensue (Thelma is seriously old, not the agile seventy-something of The G, another recent granny-get-your-gun outing).

Despite leaving its love affair on the launch pad, this sassy NASA romcom fulfils its mission to entertain.

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.

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.

IF is obviously aiming to be an E.T.-style family classic about kids and creatures on a healing journey. But its sticky sentimentality keeps it mawkish rather than magical.

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

This classy, female-centred Omen prequel is devilishly good at keeping its nun on the run.

In the exquisite gunfight-style tension of the real interview, Gillian Anderson’s uncannily accurate portrayal of Emily Maitlis (that cocked head and laser stare) comes into its own. Yet even she is outclassed by Sewell’s narcissistic but oddly charismatic Prince Andrew.

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.

This is a clever, all-ages charmer.

Any attempt at Chariots of Fire-style emotional intensity is tanked, however, by Callum Turner’s unhelpfully laconic, low-key performance.

Adapting from Rumaan Alam’s bestseller, writer/director Esmail (creator of TV’s tech-conspiracy drama Mr Robot) paints a scarily plausible picture of how fast chaos and conflict erupt when our computer-reliant systems suddenly start to fail. But his endlessly bickering characters ultimately stop us caring whether their world ends with a bang or with a whimper.

Ravishingly pretty but low-powered, this cute and earnest fairy tale has a whole lot of homage, but not enough heart.

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.

Taking aim at England’s ruthless ruling class rather than American misogyny, it’s a glossy, wildly over-the-top satire about a working-class student’s fatal attraction to an aristo family. Saltburn is a fiercely funny watch, albeit one that doesn’t deliver on its promise quite as well as Fennell’s debut.

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.

A playful, punchy tale that spills the beans about those Babies. Zach Galafianakis’ tantrum-prone tycoon transfixes.

The tender, tragic vibe Williams tries for via our hero’s forbidden affair with aristo soprano Marie-Josephine (a brittle Samara Weaving) feels too speedily set up to be truly effective.

What holds everything together and stops the film from sliding into a winking spoof is the intensity of newcomer Kansara’s performance. Her obsessive Ria drives the movie’s frantic pace with sheer willpower and scrappy physical courage

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

A slick, dance-crammed London excursion that loses some magic when it focuses on romance.

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.

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.

Despite the well-honed wizarding credentials of Yates and co-scripters Steve Kloves and Rowling, the series still can’t seem to settle on a hero. Let’s hope that the prospective next two helpings can unravel whether it’s Newt’s beast-fuelled journey or Dumbledore’s quest with which we’re hitching a ride.

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

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

It’s ‘Hello Dahl-y’, as Anne Hathaway’s Grand High Witch brings camp not creepiness to Zemeckis’ entertaining fairytale.

Handsome, risk-taking Netflix remake sacrifices suspense for sweeping sadness.

Daniel Kaluuya is the motor for this lyrical but hard-hitting road-movie, fuelled by fury and frustration.

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

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

Zellweger knocks it out of the park, lighting up this punchy and moving late-life biopic with big-hearted, big-voiced panache.

Tween-appropriate action and jungle-genre gags keep this family-friendly reboot giggly rather than gripping

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

Ronan is the monarch of the lens in this feisty, feminist royal biopic, which favours queenly clashes over battlefield action.

A heist movie with serious bite, Widows is both brilliantly tense and strikingly relevant.

Simply doesn't have the original's magic.

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

There’s a bumpy, wholly unexpected dip into melodrama along the way, but the film’s commitment to its characters, and its sheer emotional heft, carries you along regardless.

The storytelling can feel a bit plodding, but Jim Broadbent’s exuberant Ernest and Brenda Blethyn’s timid, upwardly mobile Ethel give the marriage a touching intimacy and warmth.

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

Musing on memory and machine-emotion, it echoes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Her. But despite its fine portraits of loss, it never escapes its stage-play origins.

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

Mixing a rom-coma into the romcom, this smart, sweet and highly personal love story finds a winning formula.

Jean-Pierre Léaud effortlessly summons up the iron ruler inside the failing man.

Both smart political primer and tense cautionary tale.

Filled with cherry-blossom gorgeousness and sentimental homages to small-town Japanese life, it's a film of quiet, telling moments, even when big revelations surface.

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

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

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.

The portentous narration, restless visuals and whimsical ghost characters (an unexpected Night at the Museum-style Napoleon) combine to make a thoughtful case about the inevitable interweaving of art and war.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Its attempt to cram in both origin story and follow-up adventure makes it a long haul for the target tinies.