A hugely powerful, moving study of a small village's stand against overwhelming state power. Despite all the suffering and injustice, the final message is one of optimism that feels neither facile nor tacked-on.

The film reveals how patriarchal values clash with the desires of its female characters to lead more emancipated lives.

Viewing the heightened emotion and drama of adolescence with an unjudgemental eye, it’s a reminder that schooldays are always the best.

A couple of scenes are perhaps too on the nose, but the naturalistic performances are faultless, the righteous anger controlled, and the bleakness dotted with moments of humour and small acts of kindness. I, Daniel Blake is, first and foremost, a deeply humanistic film.

A smart, stirring spectacle that faces down impossible expectations to pull off a hugely satisfying end to business.

With lush visuals, intelligent performances and a lingering lyricism, this is an instant classic that cements Hunnam’s star power.

Not quite as good as Infinity War, but wears its three-hour running time with ease and rewards the fans. Part of the journey is the end, and this goes out with a bang that’ll make you whimper.

A cunning, suspenseful thriller that bears comparison to the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple, Blue Ruin is an impossible-to-ignore calling card from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Hollywood awaits.

It plays like Frankenstein meets Blade Runner via Hitchcock haunted by the ghosts of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in a film that’s both highly literate and steeped in tense cat-and-mouse chills. Thematically epic – it demands to be seen at least twice and should fuel hours of debate — structurally it’s as lithe as Ava’s perfect mesh frame.

Original, engrossing and extremely confrontational, The Tribe treads the dark path between misery porn and masterpiece.

Zootropolis is a witty, creative and entertaining romp with literally endless sequel potential and the biggest collection of four-legged critters this side of Noah.

A breezy but heartfelt Shakespear update that should put a smile on the faces of Whedon fans, Bard worshippers and anyone in the mood for a sharp, sassy romance.

This dreamily shot US indie is an insightful study of sexual repression and awakening, featuring a compelling lead performance from Brit newcomer Dickinson.

Cleaving closely to the source material, del Toro wants to explore the trauma that makes us, mankind's capacity for cruelty, the death we bring on ourselves through war, and the catharsis of forgiveness – all notions that make Frankenstein relevant in current world politics and social media savagery.

Wildly inventive, unpredictable, and unhinged, Riley’s genre-bender stands out from the comedy pack.

The music busts a gut straining for weepie affect, but you might shed a few yourself when the five-year battle reaches its jubilant, justified climax.

Sam Mendes audacious WW1 epic is a sensational technical achievement, grounded by George MacKay’s gritty intensity.

While director Ceyda Torun lets the focus meander too much, it’ll leave you, ahem, feline good.

It’s as mad as a box of frogs, but a strain of melancholy romance adds emotional backbone to the gags, gore and kung fu.

This is an assured, blackly funny, and outrageous horror that will leave you roaring with approval.

Against the odds this is a sometimes droll and surprisingly tender affair, and a fitting end to Seidl’s magnum opus.

In Soderbergh’s self-aware hands, it’s a character-centric, director-driven, genre-savvy invitation to take pleasure in a job well orchestrated, right up to a judicious closing shot that leaves you wanting to linger awhile with its motley crew.

Nosferatu delivers a relatively straight re-telling of this classic gothic tale. It looks and sounds stunning and is packed with vampiric horror. It doesn't push many boundaries but if you wanted the classic Dracula narrative feeling exactly like it’s directed by Robert Eggers, you're going to love it.

Both smart political primer and tense cautionary tale.

A fleet-footed and boisterously enjoyable Dickens adaptation that breathes new life into a well-worn story. A winning Dev Patel leads a highly amusing cast.

Peele is three for three. You’ll spill out into the night jawing with your friends and gazing at the stars.

For all its attempts to expand the original’s ensemble and embellish its themes, Dory is cod in batter beside Nemo’s smoked salmon. But still tasty.

An engrossing, influential movie, which screams to be watched on the big screen. Few films will provoke your thoughts so fiercely.

The cumulative effect is overwhelming. Poetically shot by a dozen DoPs, including Christopher Doyle, a powerful portrait of horror, hope and humanity emerges.

The horrors, like Cage himself, are largely kept off-screen for much of the movie’s duration. Yet with its eerie soundscape and sepulchral visuals, Longlegs nevertheless succeeds as a deeply disconcerting experience, one that burrows into the brain as insidiously as the innocuous means its villain employs to disseminate his evil.

Maverick director James Toback (Fingers) and Alec Baldwin front this frequently hilarious insider doc.

Where family films so often falter, choking on their own contrived sentimentality and/or cool, Paddington is sweet and silly and, at times, edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Imagine all of D-Fens’ fury in Falling Down squeezed into one short, then times it by six. A gloriously crazed compendium that fizzes with OMG and OTT moments.

A genre-blender imbued with style and substance. Magnetic and elusive, Stewart matches her director.

If not wholly convincing as an ‘issues’ movie, this memoir is a triumph as an actors’ showcase; with McConaughey and Leto giving the performances of their careers.

Creepier than "Catfish" and as cinematic as "Man On Wire," this is an unnerving story immaculately told and a strong contender for documentary of the year.

You’re left marvelling at London’s capacity for renewal and reinvention.

The restlessness of the camerawork may drive you to distraction, but director/co-writer Calin Peter Netzer’s film is held steady by Gheorghiu’s staunch performance.

Like Tonya on the ice, this vicious black comedy is lean, mean and hard to take your eyes off.

As we’re steered from nightmares to raptures, the mix of horror, sci-fi, puberty fable and gender-twisting perhaps strains the narrative. But two certainties hold: it’ll stick with you, and Hadžihalilovic is in total command of her evolution.

“Ever since I discovered art,” laments one participant, “this cell has truly become a prison.”

Smith casts non-pro Venkatesh Chavan alongside Bollywood star Nana Patekar to achieve credible chemistry, enhanced by his choice of quiet observation rather than Slumdog -style pizzazz and the delicate emotional kick and finespun simplicity of a short story.

An accomplished and classy follow-up to A Star is Born then, and one that proves Cooper is more than a one-hit wonder. But as an examination of artistic temperament, sexual voracity, and the patient women who love conductors, Maestro’s thunder has been stolen to a degree by Tár.

Writer/director Rachel Lang’s film lacks cumulative dramatic punch, its appeal rooted mainly in its easy humour.

With stunning visuals, a beautifully emotional story, and a delightful central bond between Ryan Gosling's Grace and Rocky the alien, Project Hail Mary is large-scale sci-fi with tons of heart.

Right from the first frame the urgency rarely wanes as Lee juggles fireworks, firearms and feminism.

First-time writer/director Josh Margolin sharpens the film into a smart senior thriller, giving us tense geriatric POVs of the challenges that ensue (Thelma is seriously old, not the agile seventy-something of The G, another recent granny-get-your-gun outing).

More fever dream than film, Love Lies Bleeding shows that Glass is the real deal. Who knows what sights she has to show us next?

Anchored by a truly sensational performance from Gleeson, this unexpected blend of passion play, detective story, rural comedy and serious inquiry into faith is destined for classic status.

Breakfast At Tiffany's still exerts an enduring charm, not least because of the poise and waif-like beauty of the bewitching Hepburn. [Review of re-release]

In Suzume, though, Shinkai goes full Ghibli, peppering his story of a teenage girl (voiced by Nanoka Hara) on a mission with oddball elements that would feel off-puttingly bizarre were they not incorporated so seamlessly within its epic grand design.

Vinterberg keeps us guessing right up to and after an end shot that suggests how tough some viral rumours are to shake off.

What keeps gratuitousness at bay is Zhangke’s controlled style and empathy for the have-nots

Witty, menacing and steamy (in every sense), The Beguiled is an intelligent update and Coppola’s best work to date. Oscars await.

It’s technically a doc, but neither Rivers nor his inscrutable subject is interested in backstory.

Odd-couple chemistry from Dench and Coogan, a smart script and honed direction make this real-life story highly compelling. Blending comedy and tragedy, it secretes a potent sting.

"Dunkirk" has a rival in the intensity stakes. Expect Bigelow’s deep-cutting drama to be part of the conversation come awards season.

Utterly enthralling, Kirikou And The Sorceress may be modest by Hollywood standards, but it has an enormous heart. Disney, please take note.

Clearly no stranger to John Hughes movies, writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig brings a spiky wit and a warm-hearted, nerd-friendly finale to a comedy that wants for nothing but a little substance.

This is a fine, fitting finale for the movies’ greatest mutant.

Though stronger in its more straightforward first half than in its experimental and hallucinatory second, 28 Years… still provides enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy.

Bolstered by a fine performance from Nahon, this even merits comparisons with Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

A simple, slight but delightful slice of life à la Leigh, with some heart-stoppingly committed performances and genuinely moving moments. It won't set the world on fire, but will smoulder in your brain long after you've left the cinema.

A documentary that'll make more than just fashionistas smile.

Underpinned by themes of language and identity, writer/director Rich Peppiatt’s rude, raucous film remixes music-movie clichés to Kneecap’s rebel tune with galvanizing verve. Tearing straight outta Belfast on barrelling beats, Kenneth Branagh it ain’t.

Vikander brings fresh emotional weight to the familiar scenario of WW1 grief, ensuring that this mostly avoids the traps of dull, dutiful heritage cinema.

Madame Bovary meets Thérèse Raquin with a splash of Lady Chatterley in a pared-down drama that packs a real punch.

Mad, marvellous and all kinds of sci-fi magical, Guardians Of The Galaxy is Marvel’s riskiest but most surprising success yet.

This oblique and understated tale of lost innocence conveys both an individual’s experiences and a powerful sense of a ruined nation.

The 3D is completely redundant and the action sporadic but unexpected gearshifts provide plenty of narrative meat.

Though awkwardly assembled, with an overemphatic voiceover, it’s chilling stuff.

Enchanting.

If this isn’t the biggest tearjerker of 2017 we’re in for a distressing year. A truly, ahem, tree-mendous fantasy.

While their situation feels futile, the film is almost poetic in posing important questions.

It’s a poetic elegy to a lost tribe that conjures up the Meryans’ secret lifestyle via surreal rituals and stunning widescreen visuals, although an over-explained voiceover and clunky symbolism sometimes weaken the spell.

An emotionally tough watch – though an exhilarating one tahnks to Aaron Sorkin's reliably taught script and direction

First-time writer/director Ritesh Batra deserves credit for mining gently captivating drama from a pitch that could have just ended with passive-aggressive Post-its left on the office fridge.

Though set in a divided country, it’s an effervescent period piece, edited with verve: Persiel combines recreations with archive footage, animation and home videos.

Jean-Pierre Léaud effortlessly summons up the iron ruler inside the failing man.

Skvortsov gives a scarily grim-faced performance, with biology teacher Elena (Viktoriya Isakova) increasingly beleaguered as the only one resisting him.

Shot on digital video with a non-professional cast, Lovely Rita intelligently conveys the stifling nature of Rita's home and educational environments, and benefits from refusing to spell out character motivations. Newcomer Osika's subtle and often wordless central performance, meanwhile, seals the film's success.

The final minutes turn Talk to Me into something almost lyrical, a kind of urban myth you could imagine being shared between parties and campus halls. The filmmakers also blow out the candle at a flab-free 95 minutes. Turns out that’s enough time to get inside you and take possession.

Taken as a throwback to the thrillers of Carpenter and Spielberg’s cinema of wonder, it is special indeed. Not least because it honours its influences and yet remains, first and foremost, a Jeff Nichols film.

Farrier doesn’t overlook the amusing oddness of such a strange corner of the internet, but treats the subjects of the videos respectfully.

Cool as you like one second, camp as Christmas the next, this entertainingly overpumped action-horror will have genre fans (and their mums) grinning from ear to ear.

Gadot is a godsend, Pine charms, and Jenkins delivers old-school thrills with heart and conviction.

Astounding. With a director, DoP and cast at the top of their game, The Revenant is a filmmaking triumph.

While the biopic is determinedly feel-good, and sometimes a little over the top, Williams holds true to the spirit of someone who - like Gael García Bernal - was a born entertainer.

An intriguing forerunner to François Ozon’s Swimming Pool, it’s languidly paced and elegantly lensed, though its prize asset is Delon/ Schneider’s sexual sizzle.

Gyllenhaal is outstanding in this inspiring warts-and-all story of a Boston bombing survivor’s recovery battle.

The film belongs to Arena, outstanding as a man growing ever more delusional in his quest to acquire celebrity status.

Aronofsky’s maternal horror is the most out-there studio movie of the year. You won’t believe your eyes.

While it paints a convincing vision of lives ruled and ruined by the bottle, none of this makes for compelling viewing. Certainly not an hour-and-a-half of it.

Sharp as fangs, warm as fresh blood, this could be the funniest movie of the year. New Zealand’s answer to Edgar Wright.

As unnerving as it is surprising.

Most alluring are the crumbling neon cityscapes, real world/cyberspace fusion and the musings on identity.

More accessible than "Take Shelter" but not as powerful, Mud boasts stunning photography, a mesmerising lead and a strong evocation of Americana. McConaughey’s gold run continues…

Gyllenhaal is sensational headlining a pitch-black satire with its finger on the pulse.