Matthew Anderson

Sticking to documentary form for the most part with key talking heads, a barrage of headlines and ample news broadcasts, the co-directors are not afraid to shock with gruesome crime scene footage.

Chief in CODA’s achievements are the dynamics of the very close unit at its core. Coming away from the film, there is the sense that this could very well be a real family.

Respect and admiration for her work and carefree nature is in plentiful supply but this is not an exclusively glowing retrospective.

Sid and Nancy rages with a vitriolic fury which eventually becomes tiresome.

The US-born, Kenyan-raised director’s feature-length debut is told with honesty, determination and grace.

Tom of Finland is imbued with playfulness but not the cutting edge, and bravery, of its eponymous leading man.

Proceeding with a linear chronology to the present day, Castro’s Spies does justice to the long trials and many tribulations of its engaging subjects without ever flying too far off the expected route.

Watching the goofy boy develop into a man, we share in his experiences and root for him each step of the way.

A United Kingdom is a solid, competently made and gorgeously photographed film, but its exploration of complex issues - race, gender, politics and affairs of state - feels rather safe throughout, their full impact and import somewhat dialled back.

Its lasting resonance and wider humanitarian message is diluted by a second half that drags it down.

Behind the closed doors of this lakeside paradise it is clear that there’s trouble afoot.

The pacing of Meyers' film sometimes drags a little but like a slow-moving training heading for the end of the line we can see the danger ahead and are powerless to prevent it. This frustration, and a gripping central performance, make My Friend Dahmer a film you can't pull your eyes away from.

[Miles Teller] does dogged, unerring determination very well and makes Younger's film an engaging rollercoaster ride.

A chilling expose of state-sponsored cyber warfare and the enemy within.

It doesn’t hit the heights of former collaborations, but there’s a lot to drink in and appreciate here, and Mikkelsen’s all-dancing finale is one of the most exultant, triumphant moments in recent cinema memory.

The moral ambiguities and questions of legacy, friendship, family and integrity in Marco Bellochio’s The Traitor are the strongest points of an ambitious, punishing addition to a long line of films to explore the inner workings of the Cosa Nostra.

Alice Through The Looking Glass is at its middling best when Wasikowska is at the reins.

A challenging and very well considered inspection of familial disintegration, featuring strong performances, Human Factors is a solid entry in the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

It is a kooky, touching, continually droll comedy drama that treads simultaneously familiar and unusual ground in its exploration of grieving for a sibling, more specifically a twin.

Structured in a series of chapters, there is an element of picturebook, even fairytale, enchantment to Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It is easy to be swept up in the adventure of it all, and the comedy and light-heartedness make it eminently watchable but as one narrow escape leads to another, and another, things start to feel a little thin.

Southside with You doesn't leave a lasting impact because it plays all elements altogether too safe.

Given its place and time, Ammonite’s coldness is perhaps apt, but its stiff upper lip may well not do enough to make yours quiver, either.

The superb editing of news footage, the home video recording of the King beating and a dizzying amount of imagery from the heart of darkness during the riots throws us into the unfolding disturbances with minute-by-minute immediacy.

In Abigail’s longing to see beyond the high valley walls with the kind of scope of an atlas gifted to her by Tallie, The World to Come envisages a future reality not yet visible over the horizon, but shown as the slightest glimmer of light.

Whishaw is utterly compelling and committed to this performance, and we watch the slow-motion car crash unfurl with mouths often agape, but Surge needs more depth to really leave a lasting mark.

The metaphors of colonial history, the subjugation of women and Aboriginal peoples, vicious social ills and a nation’s hidden guilty past are all alluded to. But their treatment in The Legend of Molly Johnson are not developed to the extent needed to leave the lasting gut punch, and change of consciousness, this admirable project could have achieved.

There are just too many jumps to make and spaces to fill to fully believe this fantastical obsession.

The Mauritanian is not the film it could, and really should, have been.

Constructed with his trademark panache, it is bold, bracing and stylish in both its aesthetics and an outstanding retro soundtrack, but as its parallel leading ladies will discover to their peril, not all that glitters is gold.

With a lot of filler and none of the killer questions that are crying out to be asked, The Lost Sons leaves a lot unsaid. Take a step back from the effect of the shocking material, and the by-the-numbers construction of the film makes it too formulaic to leave a lasting impact.

A lacklustre, clichéd and at times wholly unbelievable film.

Set in early 1970s Chile, and prefaced with archival footage of the final days of Salvador Allende's presidency, The Colony paddles indecisively in the unspeakable ills of the Pinochet era without ever really taking the plunge.

A documentary that poses more questions that it answers can intrigue and beguile but there are vast areas in We Are X left crying out for further exploration.

A dry and surprisingly dull film, it is a comedy which doesn't induce a single laugh and a drama that doesn't engage emotionally or pull on the heartstrings at all.

Up for Love lacks tact and substance but its leads make it a watchable, albeit bite-size, jaunt.