While not quite on a par with Andrew Haigh's "Weekend," this is still an undeniably powerful piece of filmmaking.

An often brilliant '50s-throwback character drama that never feels nostalgic, with terrific central performances and a luminous, unforgettable visual beauty.

Determinedly quirky and cool, arresting and ultimately too baffling to be satisfying, although Penn is priceless. Cultdom beckons.

Nail-biting and genuinely heartbreaking moments mean it's emotionally involving, even if it isn't the cheeriest drug dealer saga in town.

Catfish pair Joost and Ariel Schulman keep the franchise firmly on track with a satisfyingly scary fourth instalment.

Skyfall is pretty much all you could want from a 21st Century Bond: cool but not camp, respectful of tradition but up to the moment, serious in its thrills and relatively complex in its characters but with the sense of fun that hasn't always been evident lately.

A touching and revelatory piece of film-making about the plights of real people living in an uncertain world.

While it may blunder down the odd comedy cul-de-sac, Madagascar 3 is often inspired and very, very funny.

Very sweet, very funny, really quite touching and exquisitely handmade, by a film lover with humour and a heart, for a like-minded audience.

Splashing around in the same mad puddle as Lynch but a good deal funnier, this tale of a man with many faces is an exhilarating, audacious, lunatic rocket-ride. Hop on board.

A few plot holes hold back what is otherwise a well cast and compelling picture.

An animation that never drags itself out of mediocrity despite the best efforts of gifted animator Tartakovsky.

Six years after "Little Miss Sunshine," Dayton and Faris deliver a comedy that sparkles with wit and substance. But from the script to her portrayal of the title character, Ruby Sparks belongs to Zoe Kazan, who joins the likes of Sarah Polley and Brit Marling in the rarified ranks of actress/screenwriter double-threats.

Beautiful, funny, timely and tender, this is the American arthouse movie of the year.

An honest, affection-hooking, coming-of-age drama which proves that there is life beyond Hogwarts for Emma Watson.

It lacks filmmaking fireworks but Liberal Arts is a B+ for Josh Radnor: strong writing, great performances (Olsen is the real deal) and a touching, upbeat tale for the big-brained and big-hearted.

The first one offered the novel sight of Oskar Schindler going Commando. Unfortunately, this half-hearted sequel is low on novelty and lower on fun.

Derrickson bounces back from his insipid redo of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" with an effective chiller that's got a skeleton or two in its closet.

A delight from start to finish.

If weapons and wizardry get your blood up, and you prefer your movies dark and brooding and minus the sandals, Solomon Kane fits the bill. It may lack The Lord Of The Rings' majesty, but Robert E. Howard fans will lap it up.

The Campaign gets by on its stars' comic compatibility and a relentless stream of jokes, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny. The only real downer is the ending, which feels tacked on like a hanging chad.

A few old favourites – like the inconveniently wonky torch and the probably-not-quite-killed maniac – deliver the required jolts, but early promise dwindles to hokum.

Bursting with insights and a droll sense of the absurd side of fashion, it's a fitting tribute to one of the industry's key figures.

What could have been an effective excoriation of US drug policy and a proper look at the violence inherent in the trade is wasted on a simplistic thriller that offers very little, especially given who is behind the camera. Sorry if that harshes anyone's buzz.

Lightly humorous, well performed and not nearly as smutty as you might imagine. The earth may not move, but there are tingles of pleasure along the way.

Intelligent science-fiction sometimes seems an endangered species - too much physics and there's a risk of creating something cold and remote, too many explosions and get lost in the multiplex. Looper isn't perfect, but it pulls off the full Wizard Of Oz: it has a brain, courage and a heart.

A good, efficient crime thriller, let down by clunky social commentary but lifted by excellent performances, including perhaps Brad Pitt's recent best.

Good fun, but O'Nan doesn't take this film nearly as far as it could go, leaving the plot and its characters somewhat two-dimensional in their obvious stereotyping.

More madness in the midday sun than Midnight In Paris. Baldwin, Cruz and Davis shine in a farce that overstretches itself into bellylaugh hits, but also some satirical misses.

A movie that while thin and silly, moves with such joyous speed that you almost want to throw your arms in the air and scream.

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.

Ingenious and wonderfully detailed, though better in its imaginative horror than its slightly too-broad comic knockabout. It's not quite on the level of Coraline, but it's proper summer fun with some dark delights.

It exists basically as a long showreel for Superman-to-be Henry Cavill, who gets to demonstrate a mastery of run-with-a-gun acting and flex his leading man charisma without really breaking a sweat.

The early franchise frights are missing. There's some ironic light-heartedness in the nuptial set, the religious overtones are distractingly self-conscious.

A moving drama set against beautiful Latin American backdrops - just don't expect fireworks.

If it doesn't ultimately engage your heart as it might, Anna Karenina is period drama at its most exciting, intoxicating and modern. Spellbinding.

Not nearly as terrible as burped-out Sandler disasters of recent years, there's enough funny stuff here to remind us of his talent. Still, it's not for everyone.

A bizarre and mesmerising journey to the heart of Cloud Cuckoo Land.

An uneven mix of impressively executed, violent clichés about good ol' boys defending the American right to flout the law.

There was much to dread about this new iteration of Dredd, but it's a solid, occasionally excellent take on the character, with Urban's chin particularly impressive.

Like any holiday, it is episodic and suffers from repetition but this is gag-for-gag the funniest film of the summer and a fitting end to a much-loved series. So long boys, it's been great to know you.

Too safe to shock and too familiar to really frighten, this is an overly conventional affair.

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.

Lacking the bite of "Attack The Block," Stiller and co. are happy to fall back on their usual shtick, with director Schaffer providing barely enough juice to power the laughs.

A semi-sequel to the acclaimed "Baraka," Fricke delivers another stunning spectacle in 70mm, interspersed with some tiresome sermonising.

Perhaps no more absurd than the Verhoeven version, but certainly less amusing. Farrell and Beckinsale emerge unscathed, but the endless scrabbling for novelty and reinvention leaves this feeling unaccountably stale and familiar.

It's overlong, but with its gorgeous cast, irreverent humour and beautifully drawn characters, this smart comedy-drama is the kind of movie Couples Retreat and Grown Ups should have been. Please, nobody let Adam Sandler anywhere near a remake.

The year's most fascinating and frightening doc so far, The Imposter delves far beneath the hysterical tabloid headlines.

A huge, bulging disappointment.

Sarah Polley's second film is a masterfully painted portrait of an ordinary marriage under threat, dominated by a central performance of exquisite subtlety and observation.

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

As earnestly as they have tried to continue the formerly excellent spy series, everything Gilroy and crew concoct only serves to mock the excellence and passion with which Greengrass delivered his films.

A worthy topic that deserves a slightly better documentary.

Solid production values lend a polish to the spooks and there are strong performances all round, especially from the ever-excellent Rebecca Hall, but there's little here to add to the well-worn haunted house genre.

Klayman exploits the opportunity to follow a man at the eye of a cultural and political storm, although more detail on his creative process and private life would have welcome.

A great disappointment by the "City Of God" man's high standards.

Christophe Honoré goes epic in a tale of interlocking lives that owes a debt to Jacques Demy. It won't be to everyone's taste but it's playful enough to win us over.

Greg avoids the curse of the three in the third outing for the Wimpy Kid. Hardly groundbreaking but plenty of fun for its target audience.

This barely conceivable story of neglect and loneliness is given heartbreaking new life by Morley, with Zawe Ashton standing in effectively for the tragic young singer.

Music fans will love this indie documentary. Try to avoid Googling him before you watch, though.

A mix of the fascinating and the frustrating: some of the dishes are exciting and interesting, however, 108 minutes of detail causes this documentary to fall short of its potential.

Lovely to look at and with some fun material not of Seuss' invention, but it's too hectoring, like reading an environmental textbook with jolly pictures.

Full of wit, intelligence and flair, once more Delpy has created a delightfully irresistible sort-of-romantic comedy.

Family dysfunction to make Jeremy Kyle blush, but thanks to McConaughey's oily power and Friedkin's unflinching purpose it's a compelling beast.

If Miike's re-tune of Masaki Kobayashi's bleak samurai tale is a surprisingly subdued affair, aficionados will still find enough sword-based shenanigans to keep them engrossed.

An extremely interesting insight, proving that rap music is an art form in its own right.

With spectacle in abundance and sexiness in (supporting) parts, this is superhero filmmaking on an unprecedented scale. Rises may lack the surprise of Begins or the anarchy of Knight, but it makes up for that in pure emotion.

Old friends and new voice talent will delight kids with a never-ending love for the most undemanding animation out there. A megabucks franchise drifts on.

The ever-versatile Winterbottom's loose and limber adaptation doesn't entirely mesh with Hardy's more formal narrative, leaving this feeling disjointed and underpowered. Nevertheless, there's still plenty to enjoy in the director's customary flourishes.

Fans will relish the chance to see Katy's rainbow-tastic live shows magically enhanced by 3D technology. Those indifferent to her will leave as perplexed about Perry's superstardom as they were before.

The final act has an inevitable wavering patch when the film is obliged to tut-tut about the shallowness of the stripping, drinking, bantering, carousing and whooping it has previously enjoyed, but this is terrific entertainment with a sideline in wry melancholia and testosterone-fuelled philosophy. Have 20 dollars.

Part road trip, part revenge movie, this is a tentative tale of a man who's not going to take it anymore, sharp on the fallibility of human foibles and sometimes stingingly funny, too.

Enjoyably satirical and occasionally insightful, it's betrayed by some lazy stereotyping.

A little pretentious maybe, but then you've got to wonder at a woman who could sit motionless in a wooden chair, eight hours a day for three months.

Graced with great performances from Garfield and Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man is a rare comic-book flick that is better at examining relationships than superheroism. If it doesn't approach the current benchmark of Avengers Assemble, it still delivers a different enough, enjoyable origin story to live comfortably alongside the Raimi era.

It benefits from a supernaturally engaging cast, but this treads too closely to the rom-com model to feel as smart or moving as Westfeldt's previous best.

Less confrontational than most Solondz movies, in that it refrains from violence or kink, but still unsettling and affecting.

The grave tone makes it stiff and leaden, the digi-saturated look is a turn-off. Damnable and disordered.

Despite one or two nice moments and the naturalistic tone, it's all a bit of a slog.

Another solid hit from Planet Apatow - charming, funny and remarkably in tune with real life.

Like every one of its songs, it makes a lot of noise about nothing much and cockily straddles awfulness and greatness. It's enormously entertaining nonsense.

An ambitious thriller from Pawlikowski assisted by excellent performances from Hawke, Kulig and Scott Thomas.

Unsparing in its portrayal of the seedier side of French society, only Polisse's loose focus keeps it from matching The Class for emotional punch. It's still a worthy companion piece to TV police procedurals like Spiral.

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

Even with a strong cast to gild its endless chambers and salons, there's barely a spark of soul to fuel its story. Pattinson is no Malkovich either.

Buffeted by a lack of suspense, threadbare characters, and a very poor script, the stunning visuals, gloopy madness, and sterling Fassbenderiness can't prevent Prometheus feeling like Alien's poor relation.

A charming, visually sparkling Parisian fantasy with a dark edge.

A strong visual style tussles with flaccid storytelling in this ambitious retelling of Grimm. It won't exactly have Walt Disney spinning in his secret ice chamber, but you may wish they spent more time worrying about what exactly the film is than who it's for.

Talented Norwegian Joachim Trier - distant cousin to the better-known (and Danish) Lars - delivers a wonderful, melancholy character piece that's funny and tender, and as fresh as a breath of Oslo sea air.

As funny, bittersweet and as distinct as you'd expect from Wes Anderson, a director who helps you know you are not alone. Terrific performances from sprogs to stars and a lovely sense of the sorrow and joy of growing up.

Despite some good moments, Agents J, O and K are missing an E.

Remember your first time with Hard Boiled? Die Hard? This is how it's done - a clean, hard, constant hit of adrenalin. If it's not the best action movie of the year, we'll eat a fridge.

Formulaic, yet scrappy, and extremely funny in fits and starts, General Aladeen is the first of Cohen comic creations to get a better vehicle than it probably deserves.

A word of warning: this is not the knockabout comedy the trailer suggests. Instead, it cleaves closer to what you expect from Burton: darkness, quirk and Johnny Depp on great form. A step up, then, from Alice In Wonderland and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, but not tip-top Tim.

With so many films adapted from novels, it's nice to see cinema paying homage to unheralded greats of literature like Sebald. While this one often struggles to do justice to his sense of grandeur and poetry, it'll be manna for fans of the German's work.

There's undoubtedly comedy mileage in an irreverent sending up of the Signs/Magnolia school of everything-is-connected philosophy. Despite the calibre of the cast, the Duplass brothers mostly fail to find it.

The pair muster some chemistry but it's the big musical moments - including a gusto-packed Soft Cell riff - that impress most. Sadly, the pair's romance is predictable and the plot unfolds with all the freshness of a two day old fish supper.

A nasty little chiller from the Saw director with the evergreen De Mornay on top form.