The psychological study that is the author's trademark is reduced to superficial and negative motivation - lust, guilt, revenge, escape.

The third part of Berg’s unofficial Americans-in-crisis trilogy will play better for US audiences than overseas, but it’s still a pacy and often enthralling disaster movie.

This unconventional film will offend anyone looking for a plot, but Linklater's smart observations speak volumes.

25th Hour proves that big ideas and an indie sensibility can still flourish inside the studio system. One of the more entertaining and thought-provoking Spike Lee Joints in a long while.

Despite a few missteps this is a spirited, touching romance and Shailene Woodley’s best performance yet. Divergent fans after a weepie need look no further.

It’s a mesmerising turn from Wiig, but the script leaves her working overtime to carry a story that doesn’t delve much deeper than its initial premise.

The kind of film that starts off with a climax and builds to a plateau of surrealist delirium that, one way or another, will have you shrieking.

Labyrintine and hypnotic, there's undoubtedly more style than substance to the film, but Von Trier manages to blind and bewilder his audience in a truly masterful manner.

21 Jump Street has that "Anchorman" experimental-chaos vibe, with all the hit-and-miss moments that implies. It's completely lunatic and sort of a mess. It's also the funniest high-school comedy to come out of Hollywood in ages.

Selah And The Spades showcases Simone’s star power and suggests a promising future for Poe, but ultimately fails to keep up the pace needed to make it the slick, cutting teen drama that it clearly wants to be.

In the filmography of liberal-skewing, Bush-era true stories, this is a measured, persuasive item.

Odd, confident, challenging, and featuring a brilliant turn by Williams. If only there was just a little more to it.

Entertaining Sunday afternoon stuff.

A fitting — and frustrating — end to an extraordinary career. Ken Loach’s powerful, poignant storytelling is occasionally stymied by his less subtle impulses.

Despite its glaring obviousness, this is charming enough to captivate the viewer, producing unexpectedly strong female characters and faultless attention to detail.

Smart and stupid in equal measure, this is a palate cleanser after the doom and gloom of Justice League. The Titans could make you fall back in love with the entire DC Universe.

Charming but uneven, director Améris's film doesn't know whether to make us laugh or cry, and ends up doing neither. Still, a smart script offers plenty to keep incurable romantics happy.

The cute puppy almost steals the show but Hardy is ace and quite the watchable chameleon in his surprising switch from lovable dumb ox to cannier-than-we-thought.

Wells knows how to extract the goods from a great cast, but it's in service of a somewhat mundane story. Still, it'll make you think about the imbalance in the business world, even if the arguments and consequences are nothing all that revolutionary.

There is much to admire in Vol. 1, not least a performance from Uma Thurman as steely as the plate in her character’s head and a knowing soundtrack that effortlessly smears the boundaries between east and west.

Stone takes gritty subject matter and hacks it into a perilous ride based on Boyle's life in Salvador. Showing the true, upsetting and harsh realities of which most of us try not to think of. Pure Oliver Stone.

The over-familiar story-beats and safe execution stop this from reaching its full potential — but Hopkins and Flynn shine, providing a moving portrayal of Winton’s life.

It's heartfelt, hilarious and a highly satisfying adaptation of the book. You don't have to be a geek to adore it; you just have to remember being young. But one word of caution: Hollywood, don't try to make a hundred of these. It won't work.

It's a mostly winning combination of sassy humour and sentiment, enlivened by some fun "newsreel" recreations that catch the period flavour of a sport adopting showbiz tactics - flirty-skirted uniforms, cheesecake stunts and skin-scraping do-or-die game plays - to attract the crowds.

An uneven but appropriately rousing attack on Trump, which occasionally loses its focus as it makes its bigger, scarier points about the United States’ slide into despotism.

An ode to impossible expectations, pride, bravery and loyalty, Happiest Season wraps up everything you could want for Christmas in a neat, thoughtful little bow.

Get Duked channels both Trainspotting and Deliverance to create a scattershot shotgun-blast of gags, gore and bedlam. Winningly performed by its young cast, it’s a (laminated) calling card for director Ninian Doff.

Ron Howard’s genial account of the legendary Muppeteer plays it safe, with a fairly traditional documentary-making approach — but it still manages to be adequately inspirational, celebrational and, yes, even Muppetational.