Frankie & Johnny is a salutary reminder of what happens when two Hollywood stars, no matter what firmament they may inhabit, are lumped together without any real storyline, subtlety or sex.

Making full use of Cillian Murphy’s emotional range, Steve is a rallying, railing portrayal of a broken education system — and contemporary cinema’s worthy answer to Dead Poets Society.

This is still a delightfully original picture, poised perfectly between farce and horror.

Much like Parker’s career, the film begins with scintillating flashes of what might have been, but slowly deteriorates into waspish repetition.

Best known until now for Oscar-winning holocaust drama "The Counterfeiters," Karl Markovics flexes his muscles on the other side of the camera with terrific effect. A fine, moving debut for the new writer/director.

Funnier, filthier, and damn entertaining, Deadpool 2 leaves no stone un-deconstructed: the naughty man-child of the X-Men universe who manages to beat them at their own game.

It cleaves closely to the familiar, but Finding The Way Back scores points by finding different beats within the formula and from a great Ben Affleck performance.

Sharp animation and powerful visualisation of scale will enthrall a young audience but the clumsy cub-scout moralising feels, well, extinct.

It might look like a quirky take on the sports movie, but Puzzle is in fact an astutely crafted character drama, featuring a superb central performance from Kelly Macdonald.

A pitch-black, punchy satire on capitalism and care homes with lip-smacking performances from Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage.

Often gripping, and elevated by Cranston’s superb central performance. But it’s hard not to feel like we’ve seen this before, often and done better.

It's the kind of silly you can only get away with when your writing is very smart. A little bit odd and very, very funny.

Never revealing too much, Becker keeps us intrigued to the end, whilst Pacino and Barkin unexpectedly sizzle.

Mary Poppins Returns has boundless creativity, stacks of charm and not a cynical second. If it’s not quite practically perfect, it comes close enough.

It's all very, very silly. That, combined with the relentless pace, should ensure that it delights its target audience of under-tens, but the adults shouldn’t fear this dog’s bark too much.

Fellowes’ dewy-eyed swansong isn’t likely to make many Film Of The Year lists, but it still does Downton proud, closing the book on his Faragian utopia of stiff upper lips and British brio in a way that would do Cousin Violet proud.

Starve Acre is sometimes overly derivative as a folk-horror — but Daniel Kokotajlo’s second film crafts a sinister Yorkshire, replete with impressively gnarly special effects and a strong performance from Morfydd Clark.

More family-friendly than for-all-ages-friendly — but lively work from the thriving Sony Animation makes this energetic Lin-Manuel Miranda musical mostly worth your time.

While it doesn’t defy genre conventions like "Cabin In The Woods," Wingard’s tale of a dysfunctional family under siege is an outrageously entertaining crowd-pleaser — if you have the stomach for it.

An entertaining, frivolous ride through a wacky, well-realised world, The Toxic Avenger is a charming underdog story offering plenty of laughs. The very opposite of toxic.

Very funny, it's also penetrating on the ravages of time on love and marriage and sweetly touching, but with abundantly incongruous randy content to heartily amuse.

While the sun shines, it’s a four-star thriller with a superb turn from Smith. When the moon rises, it’s a two-star horror cartoon with some of the worst FX we’ve seen all year. So, really, it has to average out at…

Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina deliver a terrific meditation on insincere actors.

Slightly lacking in tension but with a striking performance from Marlon Brando.

Oddly enough, the film scores with Bowie's spellbinding take on the ageing Warhol. Without this comedic but beautiful performance and an offbeat soundtrack, this is little more than wet paint.

Maddin's surrealism is always gently persuasive rather than all-out shocking. Nobody else is doing anything remotely like this; reason enough to treasure it.

It’s relentless and exhausting for adults, but kids and die-hard SpongeBob fans may find something to love here as the consistently cheery fry cook once again out-dimwits a dastardly foe.

The ultimate Star Wars fan film, it’s short on whimsy but when it gets going there’s enough risk-taking and spectacle to bode well for future standalones.

A holiday romance perfect for the dark nights with the added bonus of a flashback structure that builds genuine intrigue into the outcome. It also includes a use of Rod Stewart’s ‘Sailing’ that guarantees its place on your 2020 movie playlist.

It glides romantically along on the surface while political turmoil boils away underneath. Its plea for tolerance isn’t subtle, but it’s a story that deserves to be told.

Foster is simply fantastic as the tough Sarah, unshakeable in her belief that justice has not been done and that she has a right to demand it. McGillis, from a slow start, builds beautifully and by the time the action has switched to the courtroom, she has shed her starchy persona for a true advocate's passion.

A few flat ideas aside, this is a handsomely made horror film that expertly utilises the frightening talent of its young stars and draws Wright into a new, exciting chapter.

It’s overly long and the Rosie Perez sub-plot leads it astray, but mostly, it rocks.

A brutally intense indie that commits to its bleak premise and doesn't back down. Tarantino will cackle as he watches.

A quartet of great performances and gorgeous scenery go some way to compensating for some strange variances in tone.

1954 musical that is woefully miscast in places and extremely dubious in its portrayal of African-Americans but does boast an on-form Dorothy Dandridge.

As meticulous as one of Claudel's sculptures, Hors Satan director Dumont and his star do this true-life story justice with an empathetic telling.

The script hasn't aged well and their's an overdose of the ominous, but when Ford forgets about religion and concentrates on squealer-on-the-run thrills, the film still has a real charge.

Judy Garland is magnificent in this charming musical with a number of star turns from the impressive cast.

Ferrera successfully breathes life into an old franchise, with only a slight small change in the narrative but making the aliens significantly more frightening. Anwar is equally intuitive and sassy enough to make her a likeable and believable heroine and although the effects aren't up to much, there are still plenty of scary moments.

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.

This director's cut might smack of self-indulgence, but it also says much about love and loss and the language of an artform that flirts with realism while remaining an illusion.

Margaret Qualley is lively and engaging, but Stars At Noon is let down by a wearingly meandering plot and lacklustre chemistry. Not one for the Denis hall of fame.

Manipulative and preachy, The Butler is redeemed by a sensitive performance from Forest Whitaker and the undeniable power of the events it depicts.

A tough but very rewarding watch.

Prettily shot and with moments of emotional power thanks to Jodie Comer’s performance, The End We Start From is involving and unpredictable, yet strangely cold when it should be searing.

It’s almost as structurally daring as "Memento," demanding that the audience fills in the gaps.

Like Chronicle, it's a fresh spin on the high-school flick. Unlike Chronicle, its execution never quite matches its ideas.

Triebel is an outstanding presence in this slow-burning thriller, which continues to smoulder long after the credits roll.

It still feels old-fashioned rather than timeless and even on its family entertainment terms, it just doesn’t quicken the pulse-rate.

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

With a heavily improvised script Cassavetes gets the most from his actors, each giving emotive performances.

Though this spin-off from the excellent animated Batman TV series, was too dark to catch the audiences who flocked to The Lion King, it is certainly the best cartoon feature of 1993.

Tense, powerful and considerably less crass than "Crash," Elah may be jammed with ideas that don’t all connect, but Jones’ devastating performance makes this a compassionate and very human look at the Iraq conflict.

A smart, tense, well-acted thriller undercut by a disappointing finale and an occasional lack of focus. But at least this offers something for those looking for a film with more on its mind than simple set-pieces.

An interesting stop-gap in the slasher genre.

The powerhouse of the film is Tim Curry's cross-dressing alien, Frank N. Furter, who would never reach these kinds of gloriously demented heights again.

The charming performances make this a win for colourblind casting. On the list of period romcom requirements, the sweet love story ticks all the right boxes.

It delivers in fits and starts but mostly baffles.

While the backgrounds and animation are wonderful, the film suffers from an intensely depressing middle section, full of heart-stopping chases, damaged friendships and forgettable songs more likely to invoke fidgets than sniffles among the younger contingent in the audience.

Like most kittens, it's not always perfectly behaved, but at least this new Puss adventure doesn't have you reaching for the cinematic spray bottle. And thank goodness the spin-off does nothing to neuter the charismatic cat's appeal.

Reeves and Winter look like they’re having a blast getting the band back together in a fun but forgettable time-travelling comedy. Neither bodacious nor bogus.

Perfomances are excellent, and despite its moralistic conclusion, the film has since become de rigueur viewing for crack barons, who know a good shoot-em-up when they see one.

It's a shame the suggested theme of identity remains undeveloped, but there are enough laughs and splashes of nostalgic glamour to excuse that.

Cruise is as compelling as ever with charm to spare, and this is a ceaselessly entertaining, sometimes tense romp. Although it doesn’t dig much below the surface.

A bit of an odd one, an action-comedy throwback that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Still, it bodes well for Pierce Brosnan’s new phase as a grey-haired action star.

It’s a classy weepy with some killer dialogue, but Bening is the big sell here. Given one of the juiciest roles of her career, she makes every moment count.

One of the most cinematic movies to come along in a while, with sparse dialogue, top-notch action and plenty of visual razzamatazz.

Carmen Emmi compellingly mines thriller tropes to capture the fraught experience of suppressed sexuality, but it's Lucas and Andrew’s heart-rending, beautifully performed love story that endures.

A great idea is weighed down by an over-egged screenplay, but the setting and cast bring out its best.

Last Flag Flying is a thoughtful tally of the cost of war on ordinary lives that also manages to be a funny, moving men-on-a-road-trip movie. It’s that rare thing: a sequel, albeit 44 years late, that is worth catching up with.

The jokes start wearing thin, and most of the noisy characters become rather tedious well before the rag-bag of thesps finally pitch up on Broadway.

With its driving jazz score, hilarious dialogue and overdrive melodramatics, this is the ultimate expression of the American cinema's greatest fetishes: big breasts, fast cars, tight jeans, and sudden death. This is, in its own way, one of the great films of the 60's.

On paper, fine; on celluloid, a Rocky Horror Show of nightmarish proportions.

On the basis of this expertly engineered crime thriller Djo Munga is a director going places.

Quietly compelling, the cerebral slice of social realism is well worth hunting down.

Great houses, shame about the plotting. The sort of glossy nonsense you might happily half-watch on a lazy Sunday.

A very neatly plotted blend of elaborate heist and twisting thriller, peppered with amusing gags and smart one-liners for its top class ensemble.

Though not always as profound as it aims for, Swan Song is a tender, warm-hearted reflection of a life well lived. If it’s possible for a prolific septuagenarian to be a revelation, Udo Kier is exactly that.

Love Jones is fun, at least for the first hour, after which the melodrama takes over and the characters stop being witty and become schmaltzy instead.

Masterfully manipulative and bloody scary.

There are thrilling flashes of Gilliam getting back to top form here. A scrappy movie with more ideas than it can control, but one born out of a passion and determination that are wholly infectious.

For the most part, Caught Stealing is a riotous, rollicking ride studded with New York’s concrete grit — but its sharper edges prove more difficult to endure.

Though occasionally undone by its Sunday-teatime tendencies, this is a spirited and gently entertaining slice of wartime espionage, with sharp, wry performances from the ensemble cast.

A haunting and moving tribute to the Australians who sacrificed their lives in WWI against not the Germans but the Turks at the lesser sung battle of Gallipoli from the assured hand of Peter Weir.

Cringe-making fun for survivors of the '70s. For the younger majority: a familiar rise and fall of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll enlivened by the gender reversal and performances.

An amiable, amusing story of unlikely friendship, which is as aware of what makes people tick as it is of what makes tech troubling.

At moments hilarious and others touching, it's a sweet, slight affair, more pretty pageant than pithy biographical drama. Expect awards nominations to stack up for Williams and Branagh.

A vibrant, insightful film about writers and writing, featuring Daniel Radcliffe’s best post-Potter performance.

A slick, fun film that has by no means sacrificed the fast action beats of the first three.

Enjoyable enough nonsense, even if it barely cracks a smile.

If anything, this is too faithful to the book, sometimes getting bogged down in detail as Katniss struggles to her goal. But its epic sweep, grand designs and unyielding central performance make this a compelling finale.

One of the funniest films of the year, this is a wonderful mix of old-school Carrey outrageousness with a genuinely touching - and very modern - love story.

His unique vision as a committed artist and unrepentantly crude joker makes this sweet, disarming, intelligent fun.

Lara Jean and Peter grow up convincingly in a well-handled conclusion to Netflix’s hit trilogy, with a heart as generous as its charming central heroine.

Genuinely funny. A life lesson in never prejudging a man just because he's skinning a squirrel.

A dedicatory, sometimes sombre recreation of the career of 50s teen-throb Richie Valens, which feels like a personal project by director Luis Valdez.

There's so much story here that the characters don't have quite enough room to breathe, but it's still a fascinating look at a time, and a man, worth remembering.