By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, this is a fascinating and funny twin portrait of a Hollywood rise-and-fall, and the realities of living with Parkinson’s. It only confirms what we already knew: Michael J. Fox is one of the greats.

Stylish, twisted and daring, Gone Girl is a David Fincher date movie: dark, smart and dangerous. If it doesn’t deliver in its finale, its twist, turns and commitment to moral repugnance will leave you reeling.

A very watchable old-school blockbuster crowd-pleaser. Ryan Gosling and an alien made of rocks are the best space-based double-act since R2-D2 and C3-PO.

An epic masterpiece, albeit in need of a tweak here and there.

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.

Okay, it isn't the graphic novel, but Zack Snyder clearly gives a toss, creating a smart, stylish, decent adaptation, if low on accessibility for the non-convert.

Exciting, ironic, with assured direction, accomplished performances and the tension of topical themes, this is Shakespeare as relevant as you like it.

Surface-level funny but with a well of deeper meaning brewing, May December is not just a skilful satire of suburban propriety; it’s a unique and uncanny affair about the nature of performance itself.

A new take on Peter Pan that actually works, delivering all the visual richness you’d hope for from the film-maker behind Beasts Of The Southern Wild.

Filled with both passive aggression and aggressive aggression, The Nest has the trappings of a haunted-house movie but delivers something much scarier — the slow death of a marriage, performed to perfection by Jude Law and Carrie Coon.

The sustained furore of humour, visual panache and headlong momentum makes for dazzling cinema.

Matt Reeves’ arrival in the Bat-verse is a gripping, beautifully shot, neo-noir take on an age-old character. Though not a totally radical refit of the Nolan/Snyder era, it establishes a Gotham City we would keenly want a return visit to.

That it is a cartoon that takes kids right out of the equation is the best recommendation of all.

DiCaprio delivers a startling prettyboy-to-tough nut makeover – but he has to play it close to his chest here for the storyline to play out. Once you get past the trickery, Shutter Island offers sumptuous, enthralling, shivery gothic filmmaking with a hardboiled heart and a sly line in asylum humour. If a pot is being boiled, at least it’s an intricately-decorated pot on a spectacular fire.

Before you know it, you're caught up in a difficult but touching friendship, and enjoying a history lesson more than you ever thought possible.

The film's amazing strengths easily outweigh the odd outbreak of hammery.

In Tobe Hooper’s sequel, the toolkit cannibals are living under a theme park. The mood follows suit, pitched as Evil Deady black comedy. The first third is terrible; the rest judders with abrasive, ultra-demented splatter.

Paying fitting tribute to a photography legend, this slice-of-life film is a delectable treat, with among the best marriages of the ordinary and the transcendent since Perfect Days. 

A return to form for the MCU and for the Guardians, this is tear-jerking and heart-warming in equal measure, keeping its characters in focus despite all the chaos and colour swirling around them.

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.

One of Levinson's best films, and one of Hollywood's best films on the whole Vietnam subject.

Mia Farrow is note-perfect in this charming little movie.

A high-energy doc that does a tidy job of spanning 50 action-packed years. We suggest you don’t run to the hills but your nearest cinema instead.

A compelling, grubby outback Western revealing the ragged reality behind a folk hero. Terrific performances, incredible visuals, and a reassertion of Justin Kurzel as a bold filmmaker most comfortable dealing with discomfort.

Following Jackie, Pablo Larraín offers another powerful examination of grief, capturing all of the confusing and fascinating layers of human relationships. Despite the heavy subject matter, it’s intoxicating.

Not particularly funny, or even very sunny, but it is Charlie Kaufman’s first whole screenplay, and as wonderful as it is weird.

Iñárritu has made a modern classical tragedy and, in Javier Bardem, he has found his first authentic hero; a character caught up in an intricate web of events he cannot extricate himself from.

As furiously funny as it is helplessly horny, this lesbian road movie simultaneously feels exactly like a Coen brothers film — and entirely its own thing, too.