Familiar territory, especially if you've seen "Hoop Dreams" and "Friday Night Lights," but the intimate style offers its own rewards.

A fabulous first live-action effort, combining R-rated hilarity with skilled storytelling as it slips some real heart into the stuffing of a toy bear.

What emerges is a touching study (in more ways than one) of the trials, terrors and triumphs of living with physical disability.

The tale is better than the telling – and the soundtrack's better still – but music this monumental demands its moment. Now go and buy the album.

2 Days is a sparky, crowd-cheering gem buoyed by Julie Delpy's smart writing and Adam Goldberg's tart whining. Less swoony than Linklater's "Before Sunrise/Sunset," but Delpy nails the relationship humour.

Scrupulous but ponderous, this documentary account of avant-garde Spanish über-restaurant El Bulli's annual stint creating ker-aazy new recipes piques your interest but not your taste buds.

Fake plastic trees, fake plastic entertainment? The Lorax is immensely colourful, catchy and cheery. Then again, it's also gaudy, bland and recycled. You can do better.

You'd think Greta Gerwig's bones were hurting, so achingly hip is this irritating New York indie.

Friedkin's unflinching trailer-park noir features ugly characters, game performances, degradation and the obscene abuse of a chicken drumstick. Highly recommended, then.

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

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

Freestyle, funny but finally just too repetitive, Ice's affectionate home-movie needed someone to structure it into a deeper documentary.

Some will balk at Pinto's passivity, but Trishna again shows Winterbottom to be one of the few directors today who are liberated, rather than constricted, by classic literature.

Soderbergh lets his hair down with a frank, funny dramedy that bulges with humour, heart and smarts as McConaughey gives it everything he's got, in a potentially gong-grabbing turn.

Weighed down with daft new characters and an overstretched story, the prehistoric saga is looking a bit old. On the other hand, it still has Scrat –which is all any movie really needs…

Despite being as garish and manufactured as Perry's multi-coloured hair-don'ts, Part Of Me deserves kudos for allowing an element of unpredictability to intrude upon its tween exploitation and sugary vulgarity.

It works hard, and the first half hour is textbook creepy, but the oldschool grab-bag of shocks struggles to jolt a dour script to life.

Though more forgiving than previous Solondz films, Dark Horse is too slight to herald a wholesale change of direction. Yet it's still worth catching, if only for Walken's terrible toupee.

Smart dialogue, a gifted ensemble and good intentions from Jennifer Westfeldt, but her grown-up romcom can't quite escape feeling like a sitcom on the big screen.

Impressive, if messy, the film combines kitchen-sink drama with found-footage horror, perjuring itself with too many plot possibilities.

Diaries is dark and gruesome, but with little in the way of genuine shock or surprise, you should expect the expected.

It's probably the best three-star movie this month. An effortless, emotional, funny little indie that few people will see. Be one of them.

It isn't perfect but this reboot's wins outweigh its wobbles. The leads charm, the action crackles and the grooves are well-laid for part two. Untold story? Next time, then.

What [Bekmambetov] doesn't do is offer us any respite from his 3D CGI barrage, an assault on the senses that makes the bullet John Wilkes Booth fired into the real Abe's noggin seem calming by comparison.

Showing a keen, compassionate eye for human observation, Özge reveals how each of his character's lives is as gridlocked as the cars on the bridge.

Based on genuine cases, the film reveals its horrors in a matter-of-fact manner, taking care to show the characters grasping every chance for laughter - however inappropriate - amid the grimness.

Disposable, overly long fun best enjoyed with BFFs and a bevvie.

Contrived attempts to 'explain' the film's many mysteries ultimately disappoint.