Nick de Semlyen

Two men in their 80s power the month’s most pulse-pounding thriller. Who could have seen that coming?

A visceral, unique, utterly f**ked-up experience that demands to be seen on the big screen, Midsommar is the horror movie to beat in 2019. Caution: contains distressing amounts of folk music.

A strange hybrid of Italian neorealism and fish-based fantasy, Luca is beautiful to behold but plays it too safe to make a real impact. Still, great CG linguine.

Rare is the film that understands the pleasures of letting an enraged Ice Cube take out his wrath on an all-you-can-eat buffet. And which other blockbuster in 2014 would interrupt its climactic car chase to lob in a gag about Benny Hill?

A droll and vigorous psychological study of an everyday egomaniac, but we’ve seen Stiller do this sort of thing before, and better.

If you can get on board with the paradigm change, this is an amped-up rock-gig of a movie and the most fun Predator since the original.

Made on a budget that would just about cover Kong’s left bicep, Colossal is cool, smart filmmaking, with plot developments that will be talked about for a long time to come.

Stylish, high-energy, smart and eye-wateringly violent. There are quibbles, for sure, but where it counts, Monkey Man goes bananas in the best possible way.

It’s not as effective as Mandy or The Mist, both of which it evokes at points. But Color Out Of Space is still an audacious and admirably out-there attempt at cosmic horror.

The lesser of 2017’s two Wonder Woman movies, this attempt to explore a complex three-sided relationship is let down by bland storytelling.

An absolute blast, with a frenetic strike-rate and songs that will worm their way into your ears for days. Like Conner, this comedy’s for real.

It shouldn’t really have taken 11 years for the Widow to get her own standalone adventure. But thanks to some zesty new character dynamics and smart twists, Marvel have finally done her right.

James Cameron has surfaced with a cosmic marine epic that only he could make: eccentric, soulful, joyous, dark and very, very blue. Yes, he’s still leagues ahead of the pack.

A film about a cult that might well attract a cult following itself. But it’s only moderately successful, with the early scenes hinting at a bolder, more satisfying tale that could have been.

It sounded like the dumbest movie of all time, but it’s actually smart, subversive and packed with famous voices saying wonderfully unspeakable things. In fact, it’s a banger.

Tough on nuance, tough on the causes of nuance, this episode has the highest velocity and lowest IQ yet. See it on the biggest, loudest, dumbest screen you can find.

It’s no masterpiece and admittedly slight at 85 minutes long. But Idiocracy is that rarest of things in this age of lazy laughs — a gutsy comedy with something to say. More importantly, it’s funny.

More proof that Cornish is a wizard at re-energising tired tropes.The characters are a delight, the action sequences thrum with invention, and when it’s funny, it’s very funny indeed.

Reminiscent of The Happytime Murders but actually watchable, this zippy, highly amiable rodent noir turns out to be 
a delightful surprise. It flings a lot of ideas at the screen — and most of them stick.

While all of the signature elements are present and correct, right down to the soul-shrivelling hard stare, some of the warmth and wit and dashes of brilliant eccentricity we’ve become used to are absent.

Some of the tension drains from a slow middle act, but it remains a gripping tale of sleuth-work and moral awakening.

Considering it’s the debut of one of TV’s hottest double-acts, Keanu is a slight disappointment. But there’s plenty of funny stuff, and George Michael fans in particular should have faith, faith, faith.

Over-familiar and the first half's pace is sea-sluggish but with inspired touches.

Paul Schrader's intense drama pulls out all the stops.

Not quite ‘Ready Player One Star’, but this is an odd duck: a Black Mirror-ish concept played for laughs, which ends up getting tangled up in its own code.

Kudos to Anderson and Gilroy for making a low-action, dialogue-heavy geopolitical thriller in this day and age. But aside from finally giving its star some strong material to work with, it doesn’t live up to its promise.

Some inspired grace notes elevate a thriller that's more De Palma than Hitchcock.

If you like E.T. and Bumblebee, chance are you’ll have a good time with this slightly homogenous but sweet-natured kids’ adventure.