It may look like a documentary but Gibney's film is a horror film in every sense. Essential, uncomfortable viewing.

One of the most chillingly effective visions of the world’s end ever put on screen -- and a heart-rending study of parenthood, to boot.

A perfectly pitched blast of nostalgia, which will transport you to that time in life when the future stretched before you and anything seemed possible.

Robert Zemeckis’ Contact for kids. A slow start gives way to a charming, visually inventive adventure that might just inspire a new generation of astronomers to look to the skies.

By far the best Twilight film to date, Slade should satisfy the fan base while opening up the series to more sceptical viewers…

For the rare uninitiated, this is a fine introduction to Babs' talents.

Even if you’re not a motorhead, chances are you’ll be thrilled by this high-velocity bromance, powered by zesty acting and Mangold’s meticulous direction.

It remains entertaining throughout — a testament to the inventiveness of the on-screen action. And Pixar’s influence.

A motorsports movie you don’t need to be a petrolhead to enjoy. Rev up those whiteknuckle thrillride clichés, you're going to need them.

Ozon’s latest is a twisty-turny post-War mystery — think ‘A Very Long Bereavement’ — that boasts a kaleidoscope of quiet emotions. It unfolds slowly, but rewards patience with strong performances and a swooning third act.

Camp, over-the-top and entirely unbelievable: in short, the best thing John Woo has made in years.

A mixture of tough and wistful and reflective and brutal, this is the ideal vampire movie for Twi-hards who’ve had their hearts broken for the first time and want to move on to a less cosy vision of eternal romance with a side order of addiction.

The performance of Harvey Stephens as the young Damien has invested the film with the chill of genuine credibility.

A compelling look at the tragic and bizarre life of an enigmatic champion.

It's a low-budget winner combining a sharp, protean visual style - one minute music video, the next cinema verite - with impudent humour, raw emotion, a thumping good rap soundtrack and some pertinent lessons in choice and responsibility.

If you can overlook the smarm and the historical airbrushing there's much to enjoy here.

Another of the film's positive aspects is its narrative style, reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon.

A bravura monster movie which just doesn’t let up, ratcheting tension with nary a word uttered on screen. It also boasts great creature design and a breakthrough performance from young Millicent Simmonds.

A lurid, luminous teen-bender movie, as ludicrous as it is stylish, and Harmony Korine’s best film in years.

Overall this is a gripping, non-judgmental look at a young girl finding herself in the toughest circumstances.

Michael Moore proves that in six years between films he’s lost none of his power as a popular polemicist, and while the overall structure of his argument here is flimsy, the details he reveals have impact, suggesting a fair and just society is not an unattainable Utopia.

It’s a beautifully animated tale (keep your eyes on the way Kubo’s hair moves) that balances story with comedy and moments of effective (if light) horror.

A story we’ve seen told a hundred times before feels fresh thanks to Danielle Macdonald’s brilliant performance, handling both the drama and the rapping in style.

The genuinely witty and endearing Disney animation that everyone forgets.

An urgent rebuke to a country losing its conscience, The Report is rigorous but riveting. And Adam Driver — once again — emerges as one of the most watchable actors working today.

The best things about the first film — the characters and music — once again sing in a frequently dazzling if narratively flawed sequel that’s better at being sensory than sense-making.

Churchill’s darkest hour is Gary Oldman’s finest. Gripping, touching, amusing and enlightening, his performance is the prime reason this film must be seen — but not the only one.

Spielberg's technical ability is very clear, with much to appreciate on close examination.

A finely crafted Western which doesn’t flinch from portraying the horrors inflicted during that violent era, and which boasts an astounding performance from Christian Bale.

It's not for nothing that these guys are the world's finest live act.

Not as dark as its source material, Wanted works exceptionally on its own terms. McAvoy crashes the A-list, Jolie finally gets to be as big a star on screen as she has been in print, and Bekmambetov proves the most exciting action-oriented emigré since John Woo.

Does Deep Cover work as an improv comedy? Yes, and it delivers strong characterisation, a twisty crime story, and great performances too. End scene.

A rare animated film without a shred of sentimentality but bucket-loads of heart and soul. “Stories remain in our hearts all our lives,” Parvana’s father tells her. The Breadwinner is testament to that.

Inventive, ambitious, brutal and beautiful: a potent mythological epic. But also wilfully challenging, as likely to infuriate as inspire, whether through its unmitigated Old Testament harshness or its eco-message revisionism. If only more blockbusters were like this.

A very pleasurable surprise, with likeable leads, the right amount of gore, and some incredible near-the-knuckle gags that you can’t quite believe writer-director Forsythe even attempts, let alone gets away with. Far better than the 1989 Fred Savage-Howie Mandel movie of the same name.

Well-crafted and compelling, if a little inaccessible to western audiences...

It is perhaps not top-notch Haneke but Happy End is an intermittently gripping film about loveless people in a joyless world. They could all do a lot worse than go on holiday with the characters from Paddington 2.

A little slow and vastly outdated now, but nonetheless very watchable.

A modest, taut nailbiter. It lets itself down in the final third, but for the most part Oxygen leaves you gasping for air. And Mélanie Laurent, in practically every frame, is terrific.

Pondering everything from free expression and sexual harassment to bourgeois guilt and migrant rage, this superbly acted saga may not always hit the target. But it unerringly leaves its mark.

Fulfils all its early promise, delivering a well oiled, no-nonsense, supremely entertaining crowd pleaser.

Sharply observed but tenderly realised, Tully brings back the Reitman we knew and loved, represents Cody’s finest work since Juno, and reminds us why Theron deserved that 2004 Oscar.

A different beast to Past Lives, this is a razor-sharp look at the competitive marketplace of dating: both rigorously honest and idealistically romantic.

Director Thomas applies the deft comic touch which made The Brady Bunch Movie (similarly ignored outside the US) such a hoot, to make for a deliriously funny, frequently outrageous romp.

Sutherland is just Sutherland but his trademark turn is the perfect foil for Crudup's charging rebel, and makes a personal, affecting relationship the centre of a story essentially about a bloke flogging himself round a running track.

It's worth hanging on for the spice of the closing credit outtakes, which effectively rounds off a reliably entertaining slice of comic nonsense.

Less a black comedy than an indispensable reinvention of the so-called trauma plot, this grounded post-MeToo story is navigated with a light sprinkling of humour and the utmost grace.

Style over content, sure, but what style.

Russell's success, however, is in creating a film that avoids being freaky or an exercise in titillation by employing a mixture of sympathetic writing and black, black comedy.

Top-flight muscleman entertainment that is not afraid to have a brain or two in its head.

It might lack the edge of Godard’s own movies but this courses with love for cinema, creativity, youth, Paris and ’60s cool. Film history is rarely this charming.

Not up there with the very top echelon of Disney classics, but Pinocchio will still work its magic on younger viewers.

A special sort of film, one which can be enjoyed as a dark climate-change allegory and a bright, colourful, emotional yarn on friendship and family. Fantastique!

The spirits of the old masters pervade this disquieting but deeply moving drama. But Kore-eda stands alone as the chronicler of family life in a country facing an identity crisis.

Steinbeck himself praised it for reaching the parts his book couldn't. Need a better endorsement?

Beautiful to look at, but shot with a cruel and unerring eye, it gives no quarter to the German people for their complicity in events, and in turn disgusts, amazes and frightens.

An unusual and richly enjoyable love letter to a fellow artist and Chilean, Neruda further marks out Larraín as a director of serious range and ambition.

Hilarious from start to finish, with two excellent leading men and dollops of queer joy sprinkled throughout, Bros hits classic romcom beats while giving the genre a refreshing, much-needed update.

A surprisingly yet successfully restrained lesson in how to haunt a house.

An intimate, if unanalytical, portrait of one of movies greatest talents, told in her own words and through an adroitly assembled use of fantastic home movie footage. It’s also probably your only chance to see a Hollywood icon win a sack race.

Filmed on a modest budget with a subtle sense of place and pace, this highly impressive debut considers mortality with a wry compassion that's rare for such a young director.

A gripping, moving, sometimes frustrating portrait of a man consumed by a need to speak up, even as he wonders if anybody’s watching.

Raiff’s assured and intelligent writing and direction, paired with the strength of its acting ensemble, make this an irresistibly charming, emotionally rich treat.

An ambitious physics and time-bending, relationship drama with solid performances from the two main characters.

Filmworker is an absorbing, important portrait of both a genius at work and the man behind the scenes who made the magic possible, whatever the cost to himself.

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.

Well-paced, expertly performed, and an urgent call to stand up to fascism, Nuremberg is a powerful, sweeping story of the attempt to bring an unthinkable evil to justice.

You don't watch it, you survive it. A battering experience, and the hardest Brit horror in years.

Relentless gags, spot-on performances and dazzling showtunes to boot — Theater Camp is a feel-good delight, and a sign of impressive directorial talent from Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman.

This film encompasses everything that is both grating and great about the blockbuster. It gives scant regard to character depth or dialogue while still being a must-see hoopla of computer trickery that weakens the knees and raises the neck-hairs.

Yonebayashi pays perfect tribute to Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli with this bewitching and visually dazzling adventure. Studio Ponoc is off to a flying start.

A tense true crime thriller that avoids schlock horror tropes in favour of a welcome focus on the environment that allowed one of America’s worst serial killers to operate freely for years.

A gripping study of treachery, identity and survival.

The golden-larynxed franchise graduates with a merit.

Gyllenhaal flexes all his considerable acting muscles in this taut, tense thriller. One of the better remakes you’ll see.

Delivering knockout action and political punch, this blazing siren of a B movie imagines America at civil war with vicious force. Sequel, please.

Riveting, unhinged, and sardonic to its honey-soaked core, this is another Lanthimos-Stone winner. (With a great opening-title typeface, to boot.)

A welcome return from Hoop Dream director Steve James. Even at just shy of three hours, the format strains to accommodate such a complex, involving true-life story, but it makes a seriously impressive attempt.

A light, funny, blissfully entertaining flick about heavy, sadly still relevant themes.

A well-above-average ho-ho-ho-horror film with a shivery sense of winter weirdland and anarchic ultra-violence, it’s also a strong candidate to become a holiday favourite thanks to a perfectly judged punchline.

It's not big and it's not clever, but it's very, very funny.

Though inspired by real-life journals, Guerra’s haunting and beautifully shot film transports us into the realm of the mystical and surreal.

Wise (and Crichton) concoct the most absorbing, riveting take on science fiction tempered with science fact.

Compelling and honest with flashes of dark humour which makes this a meaty comedy drama.

As befits a distillation of 1,318 pages of the story so far, Akira the film is teeming with incident and detail.

It's a tale that subtly reinterprets the genre and delivers Jarmusch's most accomplished, if not necessarily his most accessible film to date.

A worthy, exciting, emotional addition to the venerable monkey movie marathon. Apes will rise. Sequels are likely.

The exuberance of the package, coupled with a sexual frankness seldom seen in English language cinema, makes this the most fun foreign film since "Y Tu Mamá También."

A crowd-pleasing oceanic musical with big tunes and beguiling characters, Moana is likely to thwack a big smile on your face. And did we mention the idiotic chicken?

Powered by a taciturn, soulful performance by its young star, this meditation on fear, shame and sexual repression packs a wallop.

Breathing new life into the overfamiliar terrain of the serial killer, Irish director Billy O’Brien here both successfully reintroduces Max Records to the world, and elicits Christopher Lloyd’s best performance in a long time. His film deserves cult classic status at the very least.

Featuring excellent work from grandstanding Cox and just-lying-there Kelly, The Autopsy Of Jane Doe creates a successful feeling of mounting dread punctuated by crashing thunder and surgical viscera.

Given the wealth of footage available, you can’t really go wrong with docs on the Apollo era – and yet amongst all that, Cernan is compellingly frank about the human costs of spaceflight.

Necessary, deft and ultimately shocking. This is a beautifully hewn, brave piece of filmmaking that asks difficult, searching questions that will haunt you long after the credits roll.

This needs its 'based on a true story' caption because otherwise you'd never believe it.

Essential stuff, even by the big man's considerable standards.

One of those sunny-natured indie comedies that comes out of nowhere to put a smile on your face.

A perfectly cast comedy of manners that couches complex emotional questions in joyous farce and continues Gerwig’s reign as the undisputed Queen Of Quirk.