Undoubtedly the finest of Argento's thrilling horrors, this one takes the radical step, for the director at least, to concentrate on a plot that equals the shocking visuals of his other works. David Hemmings is well cast and is given a great script which genuinely frights.

A movie masterpiece.

Part of its strength is that it’s not a glossy, predictable Hollywood horror and so it has a grainy, semi-amateur, black and white look which gives it a dread sense of conviction.

Heavy-handed but still poignant patriotism in this Hitchcock thriller.

The red-jacketed, Method-pouting James Dean steals every scene, but the ensemble playing is nothing short of exemplary.

It’s a simple but artfully effective debut feature from Irish filmmaker Colm Bairéad, with a remarkable, heartbreaking debut performance from Clinch, whose face betrays anxieties she doesn’t yet fully understand.

A sharper account of the Iwo Jima conflict than Flags, this balances its unflinching handling of the horrors of war with its touching portrayal of those who face them.

As with most Cassavetes' it is Rowlands who steals this show, this time expertly playing the happy housewife slowly going off the rails while Falk plays the part of her bewildered husband. At two-and-a-half hours, it could easily have dragged but with such strong performances, you're left wanting more.

Anomalisa has more heart, soul and pathos than 99.9 per cent of live-action movies. The best hotel-set love story since "Lost In Translation."

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

Great effects for its time and some incredible performances makes this a true cinema classic.

Another great, landmark American film of the '70s.

Incredibly stylish and visually ravishing arguably to a fault Jean-Jacques Beineixís audacious debut has aged well.

Moving, bold, unconventional and impeccably staged, The Arbor is a worthy tribute to a powerfully artistic voice.

This is more a favourite of the children than adult Disney fans. It has a few memorable songs and has spawned a very popular stage production.

Dark but beautiful.

Winning Best Film at that year's Oscars, this John Huston film typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn's famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O'Hara although McDowall as the young lead, gives a particularly memorable performance while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful.

Paddington 2 is every bit as enchanting as the first, perhaps even more so, but it feels arbitrary to pick a winner. The film is a pure delight, as sweet and sharp as, well, marmalade, really.

The rebirth of Disney in the modern era and due to superb songs, enduring humour and a touching plot it remains an animation classic.

Admirably low-key, deeply compelling and their warmest movie since Fargo.

An outstanding film, showcasing a great performance, at once celebrating, analysing and criticising an important writer and his major book. You'll appreciate it more if you've read "In Cold Blood" recently and have seen enough footage of the real Truman Capote to know Hoffman is underplaying.

Iannucci’s brand of political satire is applied to one of the darkest chapters in modern history, with sensational results. The Lives Of Others with laughs, it’s farcical, frightening and a timely reminder that things could always be worse.

Magnificent absurdist crime drama from the master of suspense.

A gruelling but ultimately rewarding experience, this is Leigh at his most confrontational, devastating and humane, aided by the unadulterated power of Jean-Baptiste’s career-redefining performance.

Funny, brutal and breathtakingly beautiful. Two exceptionally raw lead performances, supercharged by a bold script from Martin McDonagh, could make Three Billboards this year’s Awards-upsetter.

Louis Malle, possibly at his best here. The drama is subtle but affecting.

Another meticulously stylish and deadpan Wes Anderson movie that walks the fine line between masterpiece and folly.

Haunting, serenely composed and beautiful, this is an elegy for a life and a country that America used to be. 

It will test your concentration, resolve and butt cheeks to the limit but Winter Sleep will reward your staying power: a perfectly played, beautiful-looking, exquisitely nuanced picture. Would make a great, if gruelling, decaying-wedlock double bill with "Gone Girl."

A remarkably assured directorial debut from Bradley Cooper who turns in a career-defining performance opposite a promising Lady Gaga. A remake that captures the tone and spirit of prior films, A Star Is Born still blazes its own heartfelt, authentic path.

Bold, unblinking filmmaking – no less than a living document of a global scandal straight from the whistleblower. Alarming and essential – anyone with a phone should see it.

It's Sarah Polley through and through: slightly too glum for its own good, but reeking of quality and feeling.

Entertaining, energetic and unfailingly smart, this is theatre at the highest level, performed by a cast without a weak link. You can’t say no to this.

It might be lesser known, but certainly not deservingly so. This is a cracking piece of Brit cinema.

Hopkins is extraordinary as a man flailing against a condition that’s taking everything from him. And Zeller proves he’s a natural filmmaker, orchestrating a Wagnerian opera of emotion based entirely around an old man in a flat.

A sharp study of corporate greed for those who felt Michael Moore pulled too many punches.

Sweet Country is epic and personal, daring to tell a simple story in a challenging, arresting way. It’s a demanding two hours but leavened by great performances, especially from newcomer Hamilton Morris.

It might not have the oomph of "Winter’s Bone," but this is a sympathetic, affecting, beautifully realised portrait of lives lived on the margins.

If you're returning for more Donnie, you'll still have tears in your eyes come the sublime Mad World conclusion. If it's your first viewing, you should still be wowed by an astounding masterpiece. But this is undoubtedly the lesser of the two cuts, and since you have the choice, you should stick with version one.

Think the blazing joys of "Chariots Of Fire" where the race is to the end of a sentence. Can it be that the British are coming?

Almodóvar juggles comedy and drama to terrifically entertaining ends, aided by a tip-top Penélope Cruz. It’s hard to think of a more exciting actor-director partnership working today.

Taut, tense and burnished by Jeff Bridges at his best. This is a deceptively simple tale of Texan cops and robbers that drags the Old West into the modern age.

If it had lived up to its golden first five minutes, Up would have been the film of the decade. As it is, it remains the best animated flick of 2009, a funny, moving, beautifully made argument that dreamers can move mountains.

Wow! It may not be art or good taste, but throbbing melodrama doesn't come with more conviction. Even to those usually turned off by the tough Crawford, Mildred is compelling.

Absolutely batshit, utterly filthy and a true original: Poor Things is as good as Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone have ever been.

As hilarious as it is touching and tasteful at the same time, Tootsie will offend no one and uplift anyone who watches it.

Storytelling doesn't get much better than this.

Beautifully played — especially by Wang Jingchun — So Long, My Son is sprawling, audacious, sometimes bewildering, ultimately moving. It tests your patience but it’s worth it.

Among the plethora of innocent charms on offer, there's the near perfect script by Zemekis and Bob Gale which not only negotiates its time travel paradoxes with deft, exuberant wit but invests the light-hearted plot machinations with a seasoning note of honest drama.

Like Taika Waititi before him, Ryan Coogler gives the Marvel template a bold auteurist twist with an African extravaganza that packs a muscular intensity and challenges as much as it exhilarates.

Possibly Lean's most complicated movie, Kwai is a towering work.

Unashamedly romantic and achieved with a beautifully subtle, old-fashioned elegance, it’s a graceful coming-of-age tale ripe for awards.

Leigh has the skill to inspire with the everyday.

One too many jokes about Dick Van Dyke's dire Cawk-nee accent can drag a movie down.

Apollo 11 isn’t a film about the facts and stats of the mission to reach the moon. Instead, it’s about how it feels to be in space and on the ground as history is made. Stunning, stirring stuff.

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

A sort of Romeo And Juliet with systemic racism replacing the family feud, this is romantic and infuriating, hopeful and despairing. A sensory, desperately emotional experience for lovers and fighters alike.

Birdman is everything you want movies to be: vital, challenging, intellectually alive, visually stunning, emotionally affecting. And welcome back to the big time, Mr. Keaton; you have been sorely missed.

It's beautifully mounted to capture the age and the passing seasons, though director Gillian Armstrong never lets the production values overwhelm the gentle sketches of girlish hopes and pastimes tempered by the trials of life.

A moving hymn to outsiders, this thrives on two criminally good performances from Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant. It also confirms Marielle Heller as one of the brightest directorial talents around.

A treat. With astonishing craft and visual storytelling that howls from the screen, Cartoon Saloon have surely secured their place in the animation hall of fame.

A must see.

An otherworldly tale of childhood and a definitive work of imagination.

Powerful and mesmerising, this offers an fresh approach to a tough topic.

If you set aside Frankenstein as more of a horror film and King Kong as a fantasy, The Invisible Man is the first truly great American science fiction film.

Amadeus skewers the period finery - stunning costumes, production design, sublime music - with piercing intelligence and thematic gravitas.

A subtle criqiue of the main character that contains some astonishing set pieces.

Not as depressing as the subject matter might suggest, this tackles heavy themes of modern life.

A beautifully presented tale of love, honor and duty from a master film-maker.

A consummate display of populist weepie-making.

Pain & Glory might see Almodóvar working in a minor key but it is a major work, graced with career-best work from Antonio Banderas.

A sombre, slow, but well-paced study of organised crime in urban Naples that leaves a very grim taste in the mouth.

Gothically shot in black and white and numerous shots that have influenced the next generation of directors, this is a classic, no matter how comfortable it is to watch.

Fans can mouth the words of Grant's big speeches along with him, relishing every viperish turn of phrase...this is and always will be a perfect dark comedy and a student staple.

A film that recognises there is no single answer to questions like ‘who are you?’ or ‘where do you come from’. Stirring, constantly surprising stuff — with an arresting debut turn from Ji-Min Park.

The Verdict Underground is hypnotic but clear-eyed, finding a different way to put a musical biography on film. And for all its radical formalism, it never forgets to be entertaining.

A thoughtful, meditative thesis on humanity’s relationship with nature, filmed with the kind of cinematographic beauty most fiction filmmakers can only aspire towards.

It’s as wistful and sad as it is funny and charming, with the first of Nino Rota’s great scores to keep it burbling along.

What lifts it out of the doldrums is Kieslowski's fascinating use of reflections, focusing techniques and camera angles to give the somewhat pedestrian material a profound and otherworldly East European feel.

A bone fide masterpiece. An erotic, deeply unsettling, darkly comic journey through the subconscious city of night.

A combination of thrilling stunts, insane daring and clever writing make this a stunning piece of action cinema. Just be sure to take your heart meds first, and hold on tight.

Entertaining as hell.

One of the Nouvelle Vague's boldest achievements.

A complex, unique and engrossing journey into the murky recesses of an unhinged mind. It really needs to be seen to be believed.

Larger than life, faintly ridiculous, completely cool, Goldfinger is the quintessential James Bond movie.

Boseman and Davis deliver superb performances in this timeless meditation on Black art, and those who would exploit it. Yet another fine adaptation of an August Wilson play.

Who needs humans? This is visual storytelling at its finest, a traditional animation of gentle, unshowy genius. Sometimes the very best love stories go deeper than words can say.

First-time director Franklin, a former actor, proves himself remarkably adept behind the camera, wringing the plot for every bit of tension, then sitting back and letting his cast stew in it.

It was the complete nightmare that invented the "summer blockbuster", launched the genius on a global scale and delivered an astonishingly effective thriller built on a very primal level: fear.

A very welcome return from Moodysson. The music is Wyld Stallions-grade, but the charm and spirit of the three girls will have you moshing in your seat.

Spartacus' merry rabble swarms across country to face a Roman army that, seen from a distance, resembles either a group of ants moving in perfect formation or living chessboard squares marching in order — an unbeatable, fascist machine. It's a breathtaking moment, which forces you to realise that Kubrick (before CGI) had to command extras as rigidly as Crassus runs Rome.

Scorsese is the Bob Dylan of cinema – poetic, truthful, idiosyncratic – and Rolling Thunder, despite some longueurs, is an important document of a major artist – by a major artist.

In his final and perhaps most personal Small Axe chapter, McQueen superbly rounds off a succulent portrayal of the resilience of Black British people ending where it matters most — the youth.

Lord knows how it all connects, but there's a strange power in how About Endlessness flows, jumping around the whole spectrum of human experience and the ridiculous places to which our emotions push us. Andersson's pigeon is at flight once more, and cinema is a richer place for it.

Nomadland is a Springsteen song in movie form, a beautifully rendered tale of what it means to be disenfranchised in America. Life on the road has never been so tenderly captured, politically alive and profoundly moving.

Perhaps the most ironic title of 2021, Hope isn’t filmmaking to set the pulses racing. Instead it’s a quiet, nuanced study of how a couple who have drifted apart deal with the direst of circumstances, perfectly played by Andrea Bræin Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård.

The comedy is never indulged at the expense of the plot, which flies off in genuinely unexpected directions, culminating in a boundlessly inventive funfair chase sequence.

Farhadi’s gifted storytelling and direction is on show again in a damning look at Iranian society.