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

In the Insta age, this paean to body positivity and living your own truth is more than welcome, but you just wish UglyDolls’ message could be more charmingly argued, adroitly assembled and just plain funny.

A little heavy-handed with its moral messaging, this is nevertheless a self-deprecating and diverse tale of discovery. Michael Peña’s take on rave culture alone is worth your money.

JT LeRoy is a decent telling of a fascinating, resonant true story. If it never really fulfils its promise, it’s worth it to see two major talents — Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern — in full flow.

Its kids-say-the-funniest-things gags become one-note, but Good Boys has consistent laughs, winning performances, and a dollop of sweetness to boot.

Maybe it’s fitting Playmobil: The Movie is old-fashioned, stiff and only suitable for those between the ages of four and ten, but it sure isn’t much fun.

There is the odd funny moment, but The Art Of Racing In The Rain relies too heavily on the charms of its golden retriever. It might be built on the notion that dogs are the wisest of us all, but the end result winds up stupid.

Combining both the universality and specificity of Springsteen’s music, Blinded By The Light is an exuberant anthem to the importance of music, the need to be seen and the hope of new possibilities.

Statham and Johnson hold even the faltering moments up through sheer charm, their chemistry never better than when the film lets them lean into the slapstick of two macho doofuses having to work together.

Moving beyond the confines of the app’s premises, The Angry Birds Movie 2 starts slow but flourishes into breezy, colourful fun.

Photograph is decidedly old-fashioned and the outcome is never in doubt but the craft is impeccable, the performances low-key and likeable plus there is something persuasive about Batra’s gentle worldview, his faith in people and love restorative.

Grainger is a revelation and Shawkat a rebel in this delightfully defiant celebration of women’s imperfections. 
Stick with them through the chaos and you’ll be rewarded with an utterly electric tale of female friendship.

The lines between artist and muse are too clean cut to capture the visceral and intimate emotion of two lovers. Broomfield’s approach feels more intrusive than reflective, reducing the private story to public gossip.

The Chambermaid is a poignant portrait of one of life’s have-nots, sensitively played by Cartol as a woman slowly sinking into non-existence.

If it’s not top-drawer QT, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is at once an engaging buddy comedy, an intoxicating fact and fiction mash-up, gorgeous filmmaking and a valentine to the movies that delivers geek nirvana.

A stylish portrayal of a literal power struggle based on truly interesting historical figures and events. But it tries to take in too much in too little time, when all it needed was to centre on Edison and Westinghouse.

The title Varda By Agnès is apt, a portrait that is both expansive and personal, intellectually sharp but full of fun and heart. A film that is both an entertaining gateway and fitting eulogy to a giant talent.

A gentle and prettily appointed romantic tragedy with likeable performances; but there’s a stultifying blandness to proceedings and an implausible final act.

Despite good performances and an interesting milieu, The Wedding Guest doesn’t deliver as an exciting genre piece or thought-provoking drama. Michael Winterbottom is a master in many areas but the thriller seems beyond him this time.

The 50th anniversary of the moon landings has brought a welter of reminiscences and Armstrong, while entertaining enough, does little to distinguish itself from the pack.

The film soft-peddles any sense of controversy but what emerges is an entertaining portrait of a generous, funny, larger-than-life figure. And the music is sublime.

It’s uneven and doesn’t quite hit the right balance between yuks and yuck, but the charisma of the two stars – particularly Nanjiani – carries it along. A shame to waste Uwais on such a limited role, though.

The great circle of life has thrown up a gorgeous, star-studded story, but trading feeling for realism means that we lose something of the original film’s excellence.

It’s a lesser Jarmusch, yes — but it’s still a Jarmusch.

Lacking the style and scares of the better Conjuring movies, Annabelle Comes Home plays its tantalising spookhouse concept a little slow and far too straight.

If Never Look Away is no The Lives Of Others, it is also a cut above The Tourist. A strongly crafted, ambitious, occasionally absorbing dissection of a fascinating period in German culture, it is perhaps too middle-brow and broad for its own good.

A visceral, unique, utterly f**ked-up experience that demands to be seen on the big screen, Midsommar is the horror movie to beat in 2019. Caution: contains distressing amounts of folk music.

It’s not quite the home-run of Homecoming, but Far From Home isn’t far from matching it, with heaps of humour, energetic action, and the answers Endgame left you craving.