Keaton handles her appealing ensemble, the early 60s period and child's perspective of tragedy, love and reconciliation with a sure, gentle hand.

Naomi Watts’ exceptional performance is the crucial element of this moving if flawed tale. The film to see if you’ve ever wondered how to tackle grief with a ginormous dog in the Big Apple.

Bruising and beautiful in equal measures, La Mif is an impressive slice of social realist drama that feels rooted in something real — because it is.

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.

An affecting, impressive debut from a filmmaker with an innate taste for modern America's clashes of conscience. An important document.

Abel Ferrara out-sleazes even his own grubby oeuvre with this powerful if overbearing study of a soul swallowed by depravity.

Far too light and reliant on the Hollywood romantic clich_ to explore its topic intelligently, and - appropriately enough - leaves Kline looking like a Muppet.

Assayas' attempt to present a multi-perspective Polaroid view of Adrien and his circle fall back on the tired technique of abruptly punctuating grainy, handheld sequence with jump cuts. A disappointingly sterotypical French film.

Jacques Audiard’s outlandish musical thriller is a little jumbled, and a little misjudged in the treatment of its characters. But you can’t doubt its audaciousness.

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.

Sex and swearing from David Mamet: the family guy. Fun for grown-ups only.

Olivier is truly remarkable in his portayal of the hammy actor, anti-hero Archie.

Herself tells a compelling story, but combining a tough realist drama about domestic abuse and homelessness with an optimistic tale of solidarity weakens the foundations of this otherwise admirable film.

While it proves an all-round well-mounted distraction, Ant-Man And The Wasp undeniably lacks the scale and ambition of recent Marvel entries.

It's every bit the great songfest it's hailed as, with bucketloads of innuendo thown in behind some of the most energetic musical numbers ever to grace the inside of a movie theatre.

Among the excellent principals, top-billed Turturro enlivens things wonderfully, but the real star, Buy, is magnificent.

Convincingly sozzled performances but, like Bukowski's poetry, there is little meaningful here to take away.

It may climax with an overly formulaic splurge, but The Winter Soldier benefits from an old-school-thriller tone that, for its first half at least, distinguishes it from its more obviously superheroic Marvel cousins.

A delightfully offbeat reminder of how inventive and witty blockbusters seemed when you were a kid.

Hunter is superb as the alcoholic mom trying to keep her life from falling apart, and Wood and Reed are scarily convincing as delinquents.

Happily, Jamie Lee Curtis gurning through a guitar solo (she is Lady Spinal Tap, after all) while her floundering ‘mother’ mimes on stage is amusing.

Unable to strike enough fear in an audience, this brave foray nevertheless takes a hatchet to the notion that it had gone soft.

Imagine "The Lion In Winter" set at a Kylie gig. You can have too much of a good thing, but it is a good thing.

As a metaphor for England at the dawn of the 70s, The Italian Job is a hard one to top.

Entertaining satire from a talented cast.

Reygadas' big ideas translate with mixed results.

The two stars are very good, doubtless enjoying their high fashion outfits, and the script has one clever plot reversal in the third act, but it really could have done with a few more thrills (the motives for the killings lead to necessarily slow plot development), either in the murder or the sexual perversity departments.

It suffers occasionally from self-consciousness and over-indulgence in its own oddity, but Gondry’s grasp of emotion and visuals is enchanting. Even if he seems several sandwiches short of a picnic.

It may sound dismissive to call a film ‘nice’, but that’s exactly what this is. It’s beautifully produced, entirely uncynical niceness. If you’re after just a lovely time, come on in and put your feet up.

Baalsrud never claimed to be a hero and the emphasis of this gripping reconstruction rightly falls on the resourcefulness, courage and self-sacrifice of those who epitomised the spirit of resistance.

A Western that hits many of the expected beats but which does so in an unexpected manner, being centred on a tender, loving relationship rather than gunplay and grit.

A mighty actor, a smart play, a clunky adaptation.

Holm’s well-judged adaptation of the bestseller keeps the maudlin to a minimum and plays the black comedy just right. A strong contender for feel-good film of the year.

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

Initially, the film works well as a tense, teasing suspense vehicle. But one of Dead Calm’s major problems is that it brings to mind ideas and plot similarities from so many other films that you are constantly being reminded of its own rather humble status.

In the absence of any genuine emotional wallop, it is the directorial pizzazz that pulls you through. Just about.

An apt tribute to a major figure in film history. The talking heads and archive clips do the job — but hearing it told by Sidney Poitier himself is the real treat.

Those who find men in feathers inherently divine will have a high old time here, and there are enough hilarious cinematic moments for the gob-smacked rest.

Echoes of "Waiting To Exhale" are obvious, but this is a more smiley affair altogether, with perhaps a spoonful too much sugar stirred in at times, and emotional development often mixed from the most basic of recipes.

A rare del Toro film that’s not an outright spook show, Nightmare Alley isn’t quite the filmmaker’s best — but it’s not far off, boasting an enveloping atmosphere, compelling characters, and gorgeous filmmaking.

Though stuck with stretches of guff and looking all too convincingly like video-era rubbish TV, Mindhorn delivers regular proper laughs and eventually wrings just enough drops of pathos to scrape by.

Gere proves that there’s more to his range than ageing romantic leads in a multi-layered tale of public fraud and self-deception.

A story that deserves to be heard, but like the EV1, it’s a quiet achievement that should have been much louder.

Unlike most sequels Lethal Weapon 2 is neither predictable nor conventional. It's just pumped full of juice.

Touching and funny. Waters fans should sign up now.

A fascinating documentary that captures all the glamour and grubbiness of the 20th century’s most famous nightclub. All the thrill of being there with none of the hangover.

A life story packed with incident means that this sometimes rushes past events that would be formative for anyone else, but equally means that Lamarr’s life story is never, ever dull.

21 Grams strives for greatness, and that's precisely what it achieves.

There's little tension or opportunity for emotional involvement in the brief story, and despite competent animation the cats are rarely anthropomorphised to good comic effect. One for anime - and animal - lovers only.

Unshowy to a fault, Hytner delivers a fine, moving comedy of English manners between a writer and his eccentric tenant, which slowly deepens into an exploration of human bonds.

Part film industry satire, part winning love story, Benjamin is low-key and shambling but emerges funny, bittersweet and affecting.

An effective look at women's lives in a decidedly non-Hollywood setting.

A familiar story oddly presented, but with a powerful central performance from Woody Harrelson.

LaBute has crafted one of the most explicit and hilarious films of the year; it's a slow-moving affair, with little camera movement and only the merest hint of a soundtrack.

An intimate, illuminating doc that puts the focus on M.I.A.’s activism instead of her music and is, in some ways, all the more admirable for it.

Just lovely. Tourette syndrome has not been afforded its cinematic dues, but what an affable, funny character to explore it with in John Davidson — and what a performance from Robert Aramayo.

Late Night is sharply written and warmly enjoyable, with Kaling and Thompson on endearing form. But a few extra knock-out gags and a clearer focus would really help it in the ratings.

Like any good “Weird Al” song parody, Weird takes the music-biopic template and transforms it into something utterly absurd. The result is a polka-popping, piss-taking joy.

A respectful look at the rise of the world’s biggest musical sensation, from her own perspective and those closest to her. A treat for fans, but too conventional to fully do justice to the extraordinary phenomenon.

Witty one-liners one-liners crackle and cowboy cliches are given a good kicking as the three stars give excellent accounts of themselves.

An indecently entertaining trashfest.

Smith's script simply crackles with an endless succession of humorous gags and on-the-ball observations while Anderson's brilliant performance as the shop assistant from hell is worthy of a film 100 times as expensive.

It was this love of mayhem combined with a biting comic attack on neo-fascist corporatism - most notably seen in the TV ads for products like the apocalyptic board game Nuke 'Em - which helped raise Robocop above the common sci-fi herd.

Strongly acted and effectively staged, The Boys In The Band has lost little of its impact in the five decades since its first debut, and is a fitting tribute to its creator Mart Crowley, who died in March.

A final opportunity to see a master at work in this mischievously melancholic delight.

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Portrait’s staid approach doesn’t always cohere into a gripping yarn but it is detailed, boasts a real feel for the fiction and, in-between the two men’s rampant viciousness, emerges as undeniably poignant.

One of the year's originals - frantic, unpredictable and very, very funny. Remove brain. See loud.

Despite some solid action beats and a story that skips from Sudan to Afghanistan, Paris and, finally, Guildford, The Old Guard is a trite revenge/conspiracy yarn, clumsily told (“That woman has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn”), and squanders a potentially engaging conceit.

A starkly effective ensemble drama which could well do for the sniffles what Jaws did for great whites.

Patricia Clarkson's standout performance as Joy is as honest as it gets, and writer-director Hodges treats her sickness not with pity but great understanding.

Filmmaker Bob Weide’s relationship with Kurt Vonnegut may detract from a more incisive critical portrait but it is sweetly etched, and the unparalleled access provides a comical, compelling profile of a singular figure in 20th-century American letters.

A delightfully obscene alternative to the usual Christmas tosh.

A story with all the qualities of a classic LA noir is given a very effective spin by transposing it to politically charged Cairo. It’s angry, frustrated and thrilling.

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 cast hurls itself into the comic-book violence, while the stunt choreography and razor-sharp editing are exhilarating.

A witty, stylish and imaginative variation on the vampire movie.

The guy story is so strong that conventional romantic interludes with the woman torn between two men could easily have been dropped.

This is LaBeouf at his best, stripped down to his bare elements and bookended by two luminous performances from Gottsagen and Johnson. A lightly flawed script may lack Huckleberry Finn epicness, but warms the heart with its parental tenderness.

A hilarious, unexpectedly heartbreaking farce that proves that Chris Morris is still a hugely important voice in telling the stories that we find hardest to hear.

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

A work of beautiful rage.

Restrained but promising stuff from Keough and Gemmells, who exhibit strong world-building and lightness of filmmaking touch. A moving exploration of fatherhood, racial tension and reservation life.

This is textbook Wes Anderson without falling back on old tricks. The rich world of The Phoenician Scheme can be a lot to take in, but what a view it is.

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

Bewildering in all the right ways, this is a poetic, sublime interpretation of a sorry story. An evocative, emotional experience, it pits humanity against inhumanity, resulting in something refreshingly new.

With Ahmed and James’ connection holding it together, this is a tight, tense throwback to the paranoid thrillers of yesteryear that just about sticks the landing.

A strangely affecting romance with real heart -- and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around.

A refreshingly low-key treatment of teenage trauma, with a lovely star performance and an unforgettable approach to orthodontics.

Uncomfortable viewing which isn't afraid to engage with race-related violence.

With a confidence typical of its director, the last line of Inglourious Basterds is, "This might just be my masterpiece." While that may not be true, this is an often dazzling movie that sees QT back on exhilarating form.

This plays up Lee's heroic accomplishments perhaps more than necessary, but it's impossible to deny the power of the basic thrust of his life story, or the spectacular fight sequences.

A beautifully realised adaptation of a profoundly affecting novel. Intelligent sci-fi provides the backdrop, while in the foreground is a trio of truly impressive performances from Mulligan, Knightley and Garfield.

Jack Nicholson as The Joker helpfully provides all the colour.

A rip-roaring, bloody slice of Russian genre cinema that combines a tightly plotted narrative with a stylish command of craft to hugely entertaining, immersive effect.

It may be too slow for some tastes, but Babel remains emotionally bruising but compulsive viewing.

An exhilarating riff on the cop-thriller drama by a director at the top of his game -- Herzog is also at his most accessible here -- powered by an incendiary performance from Nicolas Cage. A very bad lieutenant, then. And a bloody good film.

Some days a runaway train movie just hits the spot.

No less lovely than former films, in many ways lovelier, but Brave is boutique Pixar: less ambitious, more succinct, excellence at a lower ebb.