Some plot developments are more convincing than others, but it’s still a compelling drama with an impressive turn from Garfield as well as Shannon and Dern as Garfield’s concerned mother.

A gripping and unheralded story that doesn't quite get the telling it deserves.

Tougher than a box of nails, this is a brassy revenge thriller that refuses to pull its punches.

It’s a sad, emotive, important subject but it deserves a more detailed, heartfelt film than this.

This slight, lightly charming comic adventure is most obviously appealing for the "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" set — though Bryson himself was in his forties when he made his journey.

Visually striking, intellectually challenging and emotionally harrowing.

An exposition-heavy opening gives way to a modestly effective Australian mash-up of sci-fi/horror hybrids.

The film veers from quasi-real to cartoonily silly and scenes either drag or whirl by too fast.

Spectacular and well-acted, this suffers from much the same problem as the situation it depicts — too many people on the mountain and too many threads to follow so that affecting individual stories get lost in the snow.

Anchored by another great turn from Matt Damon, The Martian mixes smarts, laughs, weird character bits and tension on a huge canvas. The result is Scott’s most purely enjoyable film for ages.

This spends more time on the tensions between the dominant trio than their landmark campaigning.

A thriller in the key of Woody. The “same old, same old” but still entertaining.

Despite its sketchiness, this offers a vivid insight into the rejuvenation of a decaying city through fury, activism and music.

If only he had probed a bit deeper, and widened his scope beyond the predominantly white, male subjects (including our own Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan and Stephen Merchant), this could have been a fascinating film as well as a funny one.

Helgeland’s savvy new take on this well-known story proves that crime can pay, while Hardy is astonishing and magnetic in two truly towering performances.

While it’s a woefully incomplete middle chapter, at least it’s never boring.

Sadly, proof that they will make absolutely anything these days.

Delve into the story at your own risk, but embrace the unrepentant stupidity of it all and there’s a zen-like joy to be found in this screenvomit of adolescent violence.

Hardly groundbreaking but this high-school actioner ghosts by on its charm and sense of fun.

A smart riposte to the ’hood drama stereotype. Dope is funny, stylish and mostly exuberant fun.

A tough yet tender and beautifully crafted human drama that more than earns those Loach comparisons.

Full of restraint, from both its director and leads, this is a quiet gem with the power to move.

Zac Efron makes a convincing bid for movie stardom — and Ratajkowski proves she’s more than just a pretty face — in this flawed but fitfully entertaining film, even if it all goes a bit Pete Tong at the end.

While there are fun moments, the whole is an odd mix of grotesquerie and cutesiness.

Potent and visceral in its depiction of street life and blinged-up excess alike, Straight Outta Compton delivers big beats of both kinds.

While the Norman vistas are glorious, the storytelling lacks wit and charm.

An engaging, if familiar, mix of teen rites of passage, the fun of friendship and mooning over a cool girl. Still, Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne make for a watchable duo.

Tom and Anna are so thinly sketched that by the time the painfully slow set-up starts to pay off, we no longer care who does what to whom, or why.