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

Loaded with flashbacks, it’s unevenly mounted but kept watchable by the lively script and classy cast.

The low-key tone and casual pacing create an atmosphere akin to a fly-on-the-wall doc, while a nuanced moral conflict builds through the plight of the title character.

Stunning fights and creepy CG come wrapped inside a blade-sharp story, as the swordsman vows to hunt the killers of a young girl’s parents. Truly epic.

This is also a Christmas horror-comedy – and one of the best since Gremlins.

An outlandish high concept is a recipe for hope and humour in a film that bears viewing more than once.

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

The action’s passable and Gillan makes a decent fist of an underwritten character. Otherwise, this Jumanji makeover’s a losing game.

Filmmaker Jonathan Olshefski illuminates the rich, strife-filled lives of these extraordinary people.

Poverty and poetry, delinquency and deluxe wonder… this child’s-eye view of lives on a knife-edge is terrific.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Wonder Woman, this tale of her creation is rich, evocative and enlightening.

Backdraft clichés notwithstanding, this is a stirring fact-based tribute to public servants putting it on the line.

Musing on memory and machine-emotion, it echoes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Her. But despite its fine portraits of loss, it never escapes its stage-play origins.

Alain Gomis’ film paints a lacerating picture of a raucous, dangerous city.

Face crumpled, eyes darting, Jones captures the wounded humanity at the core of this psychological thriller. He feels the walls of his flat closing in; we feel the influence of Polanski and Hitchcock.

The cast do decent work, but Clooney’s ersatz Fargo misses the mark. A Coen pastiche rather than the real deal.

Vexingly, Ferrell flaunts his daft genius just enough to avert an entirely shite Christmas.

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

Marx, Tristan Tzara, André Breton, Werner Herzog; Constructivism, Dadaism, Futurism… on it goes. Impressive, sure, but ultimately stultifying.

With it comes admission into a stunning world of majesty and savagery; shame about the overbearing Philip Glass score.

From multi-talented Belgian/Canadian duo Dominique Abel and his partner Fiona Gordon comes a slice of light-hearted whimsy.

Stone and Carell ace it in this smart biopic, stylishly recreating the champ-vs-clown clash of the tennis titans that electrified ’70s America.

Dennis Bartok’s sparse horror has a spooky central conceit, and just about overcomes its budgetary bumps, while Macdonald excels as the innocent.

Justice League’s most significant shortcoming is how forgettable it all is. There’s barely a moment that sticks, not a single sequence to rival the standout superhero set-pieces of recent years.

Does for Norman’s place what Room 237 did for the Overlook: reopens old haunts for welcome re-investigation.

While the film lacks Christina Applegate’s razor-sharp delivery (though she gets a LOL-worthy cameo) and most of the plot doesn’t make sense, the older ladies warrant a Bad Grans spin-off.

A superb satirical swipe at the worst excesses of the social media generation.

A meditation on repressed desire with deep secrets, Thelma throbs with hypnotic intensity: it burns slow, but its magnetism holds right up to the teasing climax.