latest movie review 2022

The Best Reviewed Movies of 2022

The year's 90 highest-rated movies at ign..

2022 was a solid year for moviegoers, as IGN has awarded 90 movies a review score of 8 or higher. Fans of nearly every genre have had reason to celebrate this year's film lineup, which has included the long-awaited Avatar sequel, an excellent animated feature from Pixar, one of the best-ever One Piece features, Steven Spielberg's autobiographical Fabelmans, Jordan Peele's Nope, the first proper Jackass movie in over a decade, a career performance from Brandon Fraser in The Whale, a new iteration of DC's iconic hero in The Batman, and so much more.

To keep track of the year's best new releases, we compiled a list of every movie released in 2022 that IGN scored an 8 ("great"), 9 ("amazing"), or 10 ("masterpiece"). Read on or click through the gallery below for our full list of 2022's best-reviewed movies.

Best Reviewed Movies of 2022

Review Score: 8 ("Great")

Anything's possible.

From our review : Anything’s Possible is a fun, frothy teen rom com that features a trans character front and center. Director Billy Porter brings his boundless energy and exuberance to every frame, which makes the romance between Kelsa and Khal so beguiling and inspiring to watch. By giving audiences an opportunity to celebrate their young love, and empathize with the concerns and worries associated around them, it moves us one step closer to wiping away the stigmas that exist. – Tara Bennett

Avatar: The Way of Water

From our review : Avatar: The Way of Water is a thoughtful, sumptuous return to Pandora, one which fleshes out both the mythology established in the first film and the Sully family’s place therein. It may not be the best sequel James Cameron has ever made (which is a very high bar), but it’s easily the clearest improvement on the film that preceded it. The oceans of Pandora see lightning striking in the same place twice, expanding the visual language the franchise has to work with in beautiful fashion. The simple story may leave you crying “cliché,” but as a vehicle for transporting you to another world, it’s good enough to do the job. This is nothing short of a good old-fashioned Cameron blockbuster, full of filmmaking spectacle and heart, and an easy recommendation for anyone looking to escape to another world for a three-hour adventure. – Tom Jorgensen

The Bad Guys

From our review : The Bad Guys is a slick, hilarious heist movie with buckets of laughs and a lot of heart. It’s Ocean’s Eleven meets Little Red Riding Hood with Sam Rockwell’s Wolf going on a charm offensive to stay out of jail… and he might just win you over in the process. Richard Ayoade has a blast as the sanctimonious Professor Marmalade and the entire voice cast brings their A-game with some stellar gags that will get you roaring with laughter. The Bad Guys is a fun, family-friendly caper that’s bursting with action and brimming with laughs. Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Not us. – Ryan Leston

The Banshees of Inisherin

From our review : Colin Farrell plumbs emotional and comedic depths in Martin McDonagh’s witty and wistful period drama, with Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan on solid supporting duty. Set against the stunning vistas of Ireland, The Banshees of Inisherin tells an effective and corrosive tale of friendship. – Hanna Ines Flint

From our review : Barbarian is barbaric, comedically brutal, and the antithesis of contemporary horror trends. Some will despise exactly that, but it’s the risk of challenging viewers to reach or surpass their boundaries in one sitting. Zach Cregger embraces extremism in horror cinema that is a sensory overload of hyper frights, grindhouse lawlessness, and the ugliest characterization of society this side of 2022. It's not always sublimely successful and doesn't waste time on subtlety in a way that's a bit too much, but as a horror fan, my chin had to be peeled from the floor multiple times. Fire this one with a crowd and howl the night away — Barbarian comes out swinging and never stops. – Matt Donato

Bodies Bodies Bodies

From our review : Bodies Bodies Bodies’ great ensemble and delightfully chaotic script make for a tense and laugh-out-loud funny film. Though it falters a bit in portraying Gen Z talk, it still manages to capture the wild energy of the very best Among Us sessions. – Rafael Motamayor

Bones and All

From our review : A lush, richly conceived cannibal road-trip romance, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All lives in the intimate space between love and self-hatred, with characters who connect over their shared hunger for human flesh. Everything from its performances to its music feels fine-tuned to tell a story about reaching out through the void, no matter what reaches or bites back. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : Clerks III delivers all the inappropriate cuss-cluttered humor and pot smoke that is Kevin Smith's trademark but evolves his sentimentality beyond bong-rip wisdom. The third Clerks installment is a moving ode to working-class nobodies that amplifies Smith's touchstone sincerity above Randal's not-so-passive aggression or Jay's lit-for-days attitude. Smith might be the most in touch he's ever felt as a filmmaker, and it's a semi-departure that presents Clerks III as a precursor for what's still to come from the rebooted writer/director. Whatever my quibbles are with the film's length and less successful humor when being just another Clerks sequel are a critic's nitpicks — a critic who still felt satisfied by Clerks III in 36 more ways than presumed possible. – Matt Donato

Confess, Fletch

From our review : Confess, Fletch is a clever soft-baked cookie of a mystery, never getting too intense or presenting massive stakes, which is the perfect sandbox for a wise-cracking investigator like Fletch to play around in as he relies on a mix of charm, smarts, and luck to make it through to the other side. Jon Hamm is pitch-perfect as Fletch, a kittenish case-cracker designed to make you almost feel angry that you like him. – Matt Fowler

From our review : Devotion’s a respectful introduction to heroes the world should know and celebrate. Between J.D. Dillard’s thoughtful direction, the shocking clarity of Erik Messerschmidt’s cinematography, a rousing soundscape, and the tight editing, it’s a riveting drama ready to give even the best aerial war story a run for its money. – Ro Moore

From our review : Dual is a bleakly funny sci-fi story that puts a dying woman, Sara (Karen Gillan), on a collision course with her cloned replacement. Writer-director Riley Stearns transforms depression and disappointment into a hilarious confrontation of death and a peculiar tale of self-image in an uncanny film with a precisely bizarre lead performance. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : The Duke is a searingly funny, quintessentially British comedy with some truly joyous performances from Jim Broadbent and Dame Helen Mirren. The laughs are undercut with themes of social justice and progressive thinking, turning this almost-heist flick into more of a social satire. The Duke pokes fun at the establishment with a Robin Hood lead who might make you think twice about the TV licence fee. – Ryan Leston

From our review : Emergency is a generational stunner when it takes its stances. Stars Donald Elise Watkins, RJ Cyler, and Sebastian Chacon are authentic in their imperfect navigation of an absurd scenario, as the addition of cultural stakes obliterates buddy-comedy molds. KD Davila doesn’t lessen his script’s underlying protest, much like how director Carey Williams won’t sugarcoat climatic moments that intend to make our stomachs drop. Emergency grapples with multiple genres and wrestles its prevailing themes into a place of passionate pleas for better tomorrows, all unified by its final few minutes. The point of a gun, a puff of vape smoke, and the slam of a door in the face of white guilt is all it takes. It walks a tightrope with its topics, but Williams is delicate and confident with every step — his performers following close behind, dominating the screen. – Matt Donato

From our review : Fresh delivers a full-course meal with dazzling cinematography, disturbing imagery, and one of the best horror performances of the past few years. Sebastian Stan joins the pantheon of horror psychopaths as this delightfully gory movie explores the world of modern dating. – Rafael Motamayor

The Best Movies of 2021

Funny Pages

From our review : Owen Kline establishes himself as heir to the Safdie brothers' brand of stressful underworld cinema with Funny Pages. While this story of an arrogant aspiring comic book artist will be entirely off putting to some, it’s that very cringeworthy energy that makes it well worth your time, reveling in an often cruel teenager’s misguided flailing in brutal fashion. – Esther Zuckerman

The Good Nurse

From our review : The Good Nurse shines a light on the inherent darkness of a for-profit healthcare system while exploring the even darker recesses that allow a serial killer to thrive. Based on a true story, it’s a terrifying examination of systemic failures, not to mention a wild cover-up from self-interested hospitals. A creeping soundtrack and long, lingering zooms heighten the tension while Eddie Redmayne puts in a disturbingly believable performance as Charlie Cullen. Jessica Chastain casts a tense shadow as Nurse Amy, who grows more anxious with every scene. The Good Nurse is a wild combination of exposé and serial killer drama that cuts a stark storyline through the grim landscape of U.S. healthcare. After all, who can you trust with your life? – Ryan Leston

From our review : Hellraiser is a soulful revival of a soulless horror legend that never tries to oust Clive Barker's original. Director David Bruckner — alongside writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski — examines Hellraiser's themes with spectacle styles through addition. Jamie Clayton is the Pinhead a new generation deserves, awash in Bruckner's colder cinematography that stashes redder lighting to signify humanity is where true monsters reside. Hellraiser might be comparatively less grotesque, but a heady calibration of "pain or pleasure" storytelling brings Hellraiser 2022 screaming with glee into a reinvigorated ready-to-franchise configuration. It's cleverly calculated by saving gore for maximum impact and valuing the psychological edginess inherent in Cenobite storytelling, never getting lost in gooier intentions just for masochistic midnighter distractions. There are developments that feel slighter and less explored even at almost two hours, but that doesn’t stop Bruckner from delivering one of the best Hellraiser films since the original. – Matt Donato

The Innocents

From our review : The Innocents is a slow-burner that stars a majority small-fry cast and yet is far more poised and impactful than those descriptions suggest. Eskil Vogt commands a superhuman story that exposes the wild extremes of childhood experiences and throws in some unsupervised horror for good measure. Audiences of all ages can learn from knee-high characters discovering themselves, recognizing consequences, and standing up for what's right. The pace of this gorgeously shot Norwegian pseudo-fable will be a roadblock for some, but give Vogt a chance. Storytelling rewards are bountiful once The Innocents executes its conflicts well above the expected maturities of players on screen. – Matt Donato

From our review : Steven Soderbergh’s KIMI follows an agoraphobic tech worker forced to venture outside when she finds digital traces of a violent crime. With a simple but effective script and some fun visual experiments, it's an entertaining conspiracy thriller set in (and very much about) the post-pandemic world. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : Lou is a tight, gripping thriller that opens up a whole new genre for the ever-fabulous Allison Janney. Working off a smart script from Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley, director Anna Foerster proves her skills as an action/thriller director. Janney, Jurnee Smollett, and Ridley Asha Bateman make a winning trifecta who sell the realistic physical and emotional aspects of the script without resorting to melodrama. They’ll have you rooting for them and perhaps wishing for more. – Tara Bennett

Lucy and Desi

From our review : A worthwhile documentary debut from Amy Poehler, Lucy and Desi chronicles the I Love Lucy couple from birth to death, while trying to mirror their personal lives with the stories they told on screen. It may not always succeed, but it arrives with an energy worthy of the TV comedy legends. – Siddhant Adlakha

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

From our review : Marcel the Shell With Shoes On suffers from an aimless plot that feels stretched too thin, but it provides one of the most endearing and adorable animated characters since Paddington Bear. It delivers enough heart, laughs, and innocence to forgive its shortcomings. – Rafael Motamayor

From our review : Director Mariama Diallo explores the creeping horrors of America’s past in Master, her New England-set feature debut about three Black women navigating a mostly white college built atop a Salem-era gallows. With a layered performance by Regina Hall as the university’s first Black dean of students, the film plays with familiar tropes and images from American horror, but re-fashions them into an unexpected, subdued story with a chilling emotional payoff. – Siddhant Adlakha

Master Gardner

From our review : Master Gardener rounds off Paul Schrader’s informal trilogy about tortured men reckoning with the past, present, and future, and may be his most accomplished film in years. Joel Edgerton plays a horticulturist with a dark history who mentors the mixed-race grand niece of his stern benefactor, leading to a domino effect of violence, mercy, and unearthed secrets. – Siddhant Adlakha

Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special

From our review : Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special — a one room, one take stand-up routine recorded before Macdonald’s death — captures what made him so uniquely and absurdly funny. It’s also followed by a fitting eulogy from six of his comedian friends, who share stories about him and try to unlock the person he was. – Siddhant Adlakha

The Northman

From our review : Robert Eggers’ viking revenge saga The Northman works best when it dives head-first into dreams and disorienting visions, but it slows down when it becomes a more traditional Hollywood narrative. With viciousness relegated to its margins, it often feels neutered and bloodless, but still ends up on the right side of entertaining thanks to its pulsating music and measured performances. – Siddhant Adlakha

Official Competition

From our review : Official Competition is a sharp black comedy that skewers grandiose wealth, egocentric artists, and how quickly art is swallowed by money and celebrity. Writer/directors Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn distill the worst cliches of narcissists and place them into four characters who torture one another because they get the funding to do so. Penélope Cruz is witty and beguiling in her curly red wig, trying to break two prestigious actors of their narcissism so they can make some art together. Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez continue to prove how versatile they are as actors, shifting from comedy to drama on a dime and making it all work seamlessly. And if peeling back the curtain on filmmaking is a genre of interest, this would make a fine viewing pairing with HBO's Irma Vep. – Tara Bennett

On the Count of Three

From our review : A buddy comedy about a suicide pact, On The Count of Three follows Val (actor-director Jerrod Carmichael) and Kevin (Christopher Abbott) on their final day alive, when the rules of tomorrow no longer apply to them. Thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly acted, it’s one of the most bleakly funny films to come out this year. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey never lets up. It’s full of the Predator franchise’s trademark violence and tension, but it’s the ferocious, star-making turn from Amber Midthunder that stands as its greatest strength. The movie’s sole focus on her lead character, Naru, means that the supporting roster comes off a little wooden, but when Prey’s tracking the young warrior’s duel with the Predator -- full of powerful imagery and creative kills -- it rarely falters. – Tom Jorgensen

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

From our review : Not only does Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie function as a superb entry point for new fans, but it also commits to tonal and stylistic makeovers that elevate the franchise in unexpected ways. Not all of its emotional beats will stick beyond the credits, but it’s still fun to see just how much the Turtles have to grow in order to become the crime-fighting unit we adore. – Hayden Mears

From our review : Rosaline is charming, energetic, and gives Kaitlyn Dever another opportunity to shine. She proves to be just as adept at comedy as she is in the array of dramas she usually takes on. The script is an inventive romp through Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, giving the tragedy a lighter touch and a slight skewering regarding its approach to portraying acts of true love. – Tara Bennett

The School for Good and Evil

From our review : The School for Good and Evil goes full blockbuster scale in telling the stories of small-town besties – and potential witches – Agatha (Sofia Wylie) and Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso). It’s their friendship and care for one another that roots the sometimes over-the-top world into succeeding as a story that still feels intimate and true when all kinds of crazy is swirling around them. In particular, Wylie is the beating heart of the movie who sells both the unfiltered candor of Agatha’s disdain for the shallow motivations of the “Ever” students and her heart-on-her-sleeve support for her tempted friend, Sophie. Director Paul Feig also does an impressive job world-building a story that manages to differentiate itself aesthetically and tonally from other high-end, magic-centric movies and TV series. – Tara Bennett

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

From our review : Netflix’s Scrooge: A Christmas Carol was bound to be somewhat decent considering its timeless foundation. Its premise, slight deviations aside, is as worn as Tiny Tim’s shoes at this point. Thankfully, it does manage to stand out in the smallest, but still impactful, of ways. The animation is vibrant, with a bright color palette that nicely contrasts the tonally dark story, and the cast does a splendid job of portraying the film’s assorted characters. Scrooge won’t win over those who’ve grown tired of this tale, but it’s still more than enough to get folks in the holiday spirit. – Kenneth Seward Jr.

Shin Ultraman

From our review : Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno's Shin Ultraman manages to do for the tokusatsu superhero what the duo did for Godzilla, updating the classic character to modern times with a new origin and outlook while preserving the sensibilities and uplifting themes of the original show. It’s a joyful, uplifting ode to tokusatsu and to superhero tales, and well worth a watch no matter your level of familiarity with the character. – Rafael Motamayor

From our review : Showing Up tells the muted story of an artist suffocating beneath feelings of inferiority as she struggles to carve out a place amid her artistic community. The weight of expectation bears a staggering toll on Michelle Williams’ Lizzie as she prepares to make her mark, all while juggling the responsibilities others place upon her. Director Kelly Reichardt paints a subtle picture with fine strokes, painting in the details as we learn more about Lizzie’s history with those around her. It’s a beautiful portrait created by a master at work, with lingering shots that highlight the internal struggles of the starving artist while exposing the thoughtlessness of those around her. Showing Up takes a unique look behind the canvas, laying the artist bare. – Ryan Leston

Significant Other

From our review : Significant Other is a tight and well-constructed thriller that offers some genuine surprises and showcases the talents of Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy. A character study that takes some interesting story swings, it makes you wish more films of a similar ilk would take the same care and precision in finding fresh ways to mesh the intimate with high-concept ideas. – Tara Bennett

Something in the Dirt

From our review : Something in the Dirt is another genre-bending winner for filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, a highly entertaining and mind-melting sci-fi film about two neighbors encountering mysteries much larger than themselves and getting trapped by their own obsession with truth and fame. Before they likely explode in popularity from their involvement in Marvel's Moon Knight series, this film encapsulates what makes them some of the most unique and important voices in genre filmmaking today. – Rafael Motamayor

Speak No Evil

From our review : Speak No Evil isn't for the faint of morality and weak constitution. Its message is simple — our world is full of monsters. Christian Tafdrup doesn't coddle his audience, nor does the film pad its landing. Speak No Evil hits with the impact of leaping off the Empire State Building and greeting 34th Street at full force, with the aftermath to match. Patience is rewarded by knock-down, soulless-nasty payoffs that cast an exquisitely malevolent cloud over humankind, which will lose some viewers — it's excessively backloaded, one of my only criticisms. But it's also proficient and tactical in its momentum buildup, meticulous in its naive stroll-about pace, which viciously sells an epic heel turn that will make you want to cancel plans for the next 24 hours of recovery. – Matt Donato

Thirteen Lives

From our review : Much like he did with Apollo 13, Ron Howard takes an outsized moment in history, the 2018 Thai soccer team rescue, and reshapes it into an intimate event that allows the audience to experience the intensity and stakes of the ordeal. Utilizing his recent skills in documentary-making, Howard highlights the timeline of the flooding, and subsequent rescue attempts, to create a subtle but effective ticking clock undertone that heightens the stakes and gives us a visceral sense of how overwhelming the endeavor was. As cameras follow the divers from the water-line into the impossibly cramped spaces they had to navigate, it makes for some unbearably intense cinematography that captures the claustrophobia needed to put viewers in the fins of everyone involved. The grounded and understated performances of the Thai and western actors, meanwhile, ensure that the story doesn’t veer into bombastic territory. – Tara Bennett

From our review : With a stunningly raw performance from Danielle Deadwyler, Chinonye Chukwu’s Till lives in the body of a traditional biopic — about Mamie Till-Mobley in the aftermath of her son Emmett’s lynching — but it turns real events into regretful, wistful memories, with a camera that refuses to look away from a mother’s pain. – Siddhant Adlakha

Triangle of Sadness

From our review : Triangle of Sadness pokes fun at the ultra-rich, playing their undoing for laughs in the worst of situations. It’s a masterclass in cringe comedy with Harris Dickinson playing it straight throughout as he finds himself in appallingly toe-curling situations. A spectacular turn from Woody Harrelson amps the laughs up even more, and while toilet humor literally erupts in the second half, it’s the performances of the film’s stellar cast that keep this ship on course. The script could’ve been tighter, but Triangle of Sadness keeps the laughs coming thick and fast, even well into the home stretch. Who knew class politics could be this much fun? – Ryan Leston

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

From our review : It probably goes without saying that Nicolas Cage obsessives will get precisely what they’re looking for out of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’s meta-exploration of the actor’s persona, but the real heart and soul of the picture is Cage’s on-screen bromance with Pedro Pascal’s Javi. Their chemistry carries the movie into far more memorable territory, and more than makes up for a few of the film’s less-interesting elements. – Alex Navarro

From our review : War Pony tells a surprisingly personal story of two young men trapped by their circumstances. Challenging perceptions of life on the poorest Native American reservation, the film highlights the struggles they face while desperately trying to grasp at a better life. Jojo Bapteise Whiting and Ladainian Crazy Thunder play two sides of the same coin and could easily be the same boy seen at different periods in his life. But their similarities, it seems, are a product of their environment. It’s up to them to change it. An effective debut feature from director Riley Keough, War Pony is a rare breed – a native story told by an outsider seeking to uplift the community rather than exploit it. – Ryan Leston

Wendell & Wild

From our review : Henry Selick returns to our screens with Wendell & Wild, a new stop-motion nightmare that brings an edgier and darker tone, more mature subjects, and even more laughs to the director's toolbox. Partnering with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, this is a feast for the eyes; a hilarious, spooky, empowering story; and a movie you'll want to add to your Halloween rotation. – Rafael Motamayor

We're All Going to the World's Fair

From our review : A technological horror drama with lingering transgender subtext, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair follows an online role-playing challenge connected to an urban legend. With a stunning debut performance from Anna Cobb, as a teenager in search of connection, the result is a moody, meditative film about loneliness in the digital age. – Siddhant Adlakha

When the Screaming Starts

From our review : When the Screaming Starts is a clever, cleaver-waving mockumentary that deals in the price of infinite recognition paid in flesh. Commentary behind Aidan's ambitions, Amy's gratifications, and Norman's obsession skewer why all these people would rather be known forever as malevolent bastards than live average, upstanding lives. Conor Boru might have directed When the Screaming Starts as a razor-sharp horror comedy, but it's effectively a morbid tragedy about the state of contemporary media. "Serial killers don't get forgotten — no one remembers the victims." A pointed screenplay and stellar ensemble of slashers slice-and-dice their way through true-crime obsessions that hold the audience accountable for what they're watching, presenting one of the year's surprise horror favorites like a body bag with a bow on top. – Matt Donato

When You Finish Saving the World

From our review : When You Finish Saving the World sees debuting director Jesse Eisenberg ironing out his visual wrinkles, as he spins an awkwardly funny, emotionally intricate tale about a disconnected mother and son. Led by moving performances from Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, the film takes a roundabout approach to its drama, resulting in a realistic portrait of a relationship in stasis. – Siddhant Adlakha

The Woman King

From our review : The Woman King overcomes the perils of its overstuffed script with a collection of performances that elevate the whole. As expected, Viola Davis is the emotional center of the piece, masterfully fine-tuning her performance to go from fierce to vulnerable as needed. More surprising is breakout star Thuso Mbedu as the Agojie’s new recruit, Nawi. She drives the majority of the story and lands everything the movie asks of her and then some. What results is a crowd-pleasing movie featuring an inspiring array of female heroes who, even in 1823, are more than capable of saving themselves, and do it quite thrillingly. – Tara Bennett

Women Talking

From our review : A harrowing tale rooted in real events, Women Talking takes a stage-like approach to its debate between victimized women in a commune, but imbues it with cinematic flourishes. It’s also one of the rare ensemble movies where every single performance makes it worth watching. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : While its gnarly payoffs eventually peter out, X is filled with fun and intense setups that harken back to classic slasher fare. A story of a doomed porn crew shooting in the middle of nowhere, it has the makings of a traditional splatter-fest, but injects its story with an unexpected sympathy for its cleverly conceived villains. – Siddhant Adlakha

You Won't Be Alone

From our review : You Won’t Be Alone forges a melancholy coming-of-age nightmare that touches on all aspects of humanity. Elements of body horror and traditional folk horror carve a bizarre niche, while star Sara Klimoska traverses this strange new world with wide-eyed naivete. A stirring performance by Anamaria Marinca elevates a role that could exist within classic horror tropes to that of a Shakespearean tragedy. Less of a straight-up horror movie and more creeping dread, You Won’t Be Alone explores the spectrum of human emotion with an otherworldly curiosity. Perhaps it takes someone on the fringes of society to find out what it really means to be human. – Ryan Leston

Worst Reviewed Movies of 2022

Review Score: 9 ("Amazing")

The adam project.

From our review : The Adam Project is a thoughtful, witty mash-up of all the movies from my childhood. It’s Back to the Future meets The Last Starfighter with a slew of wonderful performances from a cast that clearly loves the concept as much as I do. Ryan Reynolds is on top form as Adam, while Walker Scobell matches him punch for punch with a great debut performance. The Adam Project is a love letter to the family sci-fi flicks of the ‘70s and ‘80s, packed full of Amblin-like charm. – Ryan Leston

From our review : A tale of love and death told through an android’s vivid memories, After Yang is a gorgeous, heart-wrenching sci-fi mystery about an aloof couple (Colin Farrell and Jodie-Turner Smith) discovering the secret life and hidden emotions of their artificial son (Justin H. Min). With melancholy performances and an eye for natural beauty, Kogonada’s second feature film draws from masters of the past to create a glowing and moving future. – Siddhant Adlakha

All Quiet on the Western Front

From our review : All Quiet on the Western Front is just as bleak as you might imagine, with an unflinching examination of the horrors of war. It’s a brutal, exhausting, and raw reminder of the evil humanity is capable of inflicting upon each other, and it couldn’t be more timely. Felix Kammerer stuns as Paul Bäumer with stand-out performances from Albrecht Schuch and Edin Hasanovic. The attention to detail is phenomenal, with director Edward Berger retelling this classic story in a new and interesting way. All Quiet on the Western Front is a grim, harrowing march towards an inevitable conclusion that’s held together by a minuscule thread of humanity. It’s a tough watch, but believe me, it’s worth every wince-inducing moment. – Ryan Leston

From our review : A dreamlike fictional biopic about Marilyn Monroe, Blonde features a stunning, volatile performance from Ana de Armas, whose daring vulnerability is matched by director Andrew Dominik’s equally daring formal approach, which keeps Marilyn in constant conversation with her iconic photographs, with the camera, and with the public at large. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : Bubble captivates both as commentary on the cyclical nature of existence and also a bittersweet sci-fi romance. Featuring gorgeous hand-drawn animation melded with fluid computer-generated graphics, a unique take on the beleaguered post-apocalyptic landscape, and a romance you'll want to root for right until it fizzles out, this is an anime film you'll want to add to your permanent collection right away. – Brittany Vincent

Catwoman: Hunted

From our review : Catwoman: Hunted proves Selina Kyle hardly needs Batman around to have a good time. This new DC Universe Movies release benefits from a strong, efficient script and a talented voice cast as it explores a jewel heist gone horribly wrong. But above all, it succeeds in merging DC's superhero universe with a strong anime aesthetic, resulting in a globetrotting adventure with strong echoes of Cowboy Bebop and Lupin III. That's great company to be in. – Jesse Schedeen

Cha Cha Real Smooth

From our review : "If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day." Those words by the great Jim Valvano apply to film as well. Movies like Cha Cha Real Smooth that make us laugh, think, and cry deserve special celebrations for encouraging viewers to feel less alone, filling our hearts with courage to weather life's oncoming storms. Cooper Raiff cements himself as an invaluable contemporary voice shaping American cinema's future through something so authentic and without emotional restraints. If all Raiff's stories are this vulnerable, reassuring, and spoken like a whisper in our ear during one long hug? I'll be first in line without even reading a tagline. – Matt Donato

Decision to Leave

From our review : Decision to Leave is Park Chan-wook’s unabashed ode to Hitchcock and Wong Kar-wai. Park Hae-il and Tang Wei have such potent, simmering chemistry that even when they’re just eating across from one another, they’re riveting. Portraying their shift from cat and mouse adversaries to unrequited soulmates is a journey that’s mature, surprising, and rather enthralling. – Tara Bennett

The Fabelmans

From our review : Steven Spielberg goes autobiographical with The Fabelmans, his warmest and most personal film to date. With a coming-of-age story that is universal in its portrayal of misunderstood artists and broken homes, but hyper-specific in its portrayal of the childhood that formed a legendary filmmaker, this is a therapy session turned into a hugely entertaining movie, aided by a fantastic cast, and one of John Williams' best scores in years. – Rafael Motamayor

Fire Island

From our review : Indie director Andrew Ahn creates a mainstream queer classic with the romcom Fire Island, his inventive modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Following a group of gay friends on a wild vacation, it features some of the funniest and most tension-filled scenes in any movie this year. As complete as any piece of entertainment can be. – Siddhant Adlakha

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

From our review : Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a bigger, bolder, funnier, angrier sequel that improves on almost every aspect of its predecessor. Rian Johnson plays with an air-tight script that targets the absurdity and stupidity of the one percent while delivering a hilarious murder mystery on the most luxurious private island not owned by a Bond villain. – Rafael Motamayor

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

From our review : Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a heartfelt dramedy about a middle-aged woman and the sex worker she hires and their candid conversations about life, shame, and acceptance. Director Sophie Hyde and writer Katy Brand beautifully explore aging women’s desires and needs and what it means to finally love yourself. Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack’s chemistry is intense and each give brilliant performances. – Laura Sirikul

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

From our review : The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special delivers all the Christmas cheer, sentiment, catchy musical numbers, and laugh-out-loud moments you could ask for in a quick 43 minutes. Kevin Bacon is hilarious as he plays himself in an insane situation, as is Dave Bautista’s Drax, but the real star here is Pom Klementieff as Mantis. James Gunn gives this former background character tons of layers, and Klementieff brings it all home with a charming performance. It all makes for a delightful addition to any MCU fan’s annual Christmas rotation. – Alex Stedman

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

From our review : Guillermo del Toro sprinkles his signature dark whimsy on a fairytale classic with stunning puppetry and catchy original songs. Filled with heart, humor, and historical grounding, it’s a phenomenal feat of animated cinema. – Hanna Ines Flint

From our review : The desire for justice becomes warped in A Hero, the story of a prisoner named Rahim, whose good deeds make him a micro-celebrity before his past comes back to haunt him. Told through director Asghar Farhadi’s signature brand of neo-realism, it pulsates with anxiety even in its quieter moments, thanks to the mounting realization that Rahim’s decency may not be enough to save his dignity. – Siddhant Adlakha

Hit the Road

From our review : Hit the Road is a masterful debut film for writer/director Panah Panahi. His skill at capturing this bittersweet chapter for this family so naturalistically, yet cinematically is breathtaking at times. The chemistry of the actors, who all give top-tier performances, is so potent that there isn’t a moment where you don’t believe they are an actual family, navigating this final road trip together with humor, sorrow, and vulnerability. – Tara Bennett

I Love My Dad

From our review : James Morosini’s shockingly funny I Love My Dad builds on the actor-director’s real-life tale of being catfished by his distant father. The story is told from the point of view of his dad, a character played with hilarious desperation by comedian Patton Oswalt, resulting in a bizarre act of cinematic empathy that’s as moving as it is intense. – Siddhant Adlakha

Jackass Forever

From our review : The final chapter in American comedy’s most chaotic saga, Jackass Forever is a hilarious last hurrah for its original crew. An extravagant stunt show filled with more cinematic homages (and more bodily fluids) than ever before, it takes an ill-advised trip down memory lane and raises the stakes in maniacal fashion. Few recent films have been funnier or more delightfully nostalgic. – Siddhant Adlakha

Jujutsu Kaisen 0

From our review : Jujutsu Kaisen 0 manages to work as both a standalone introduction to the anime and also a satisfying prequel to those familiar with this world. With stunning animation, complex and memorable characters, and a healthy dose of horror imagery, this is one of the best shonen anime films in a while. – Rafael Motamayor

From our review : The Menu is a hilariously wicked thriller about the world of high-end restaurants, featuring a stellar cast led by a phenomenal Ralph Fiennes, some of the most gorgeous food shots in recent film history, and accompanied by a delicious hors d'oeuvres sampling of commentary on the service industry, class warfare, and consumerism. – Rafael Motamayor

From our review : A hilariously bleak vision of the American dream, Jordan Peele’s Nope is a farcical love letter to Hollywood filmmaking. A sci-fi-horror-comedy that builds cinematic myths before casually knocking them over, it’s one of the most effective and purely entertaining summer blockbusters in years, from a studio director at the peak of his craft. – Siddhant Adlakha

Odd Taxi: In the Woods

From our review : Odd Taxi was one of the best anime of 2021, if not the past decade as a whole. In the Woods manages to make its epic, interconnected, funny, thrilling story more streamlined by focusing on its central mystery and peppering it with the character beats and hilarious banter that made the original so special. Fans of the show may not feel the need to revisit the whole story — though a new epilogue provides a satisfying closure — but newcomers may find a great gateway to both the world of Odd Taxi and anime in general. – Rafael Motamayor

One Piece Film: Red

From our review : One Piece Film: Red breaks the mold of the typical anime shonen film, capturing the magic of the series. It’s confidently a musical, too, with J-Pop star Ado providing several fantastic earworms as Uta Shanks doesn’t get as much screen time as fans may hope, but it’s still satisfying to spend more time with him. It’s not the movie that will convert non-believers into fans – it feels more like a lost episode than a cash grab for newcomers – but by heavily integrating itself with the main series and understanding the humor that makes it shine, Film: Red ranks at the top of One Piece’s features. – Just Lunning

Project Wolf Hunting

From our review : Project Wolf Hunting goes for broke in terms of exquisite beatdown violence in the pursuit of primal genre happiness. Writer/director Kim Hong-seon executes like there’s a going-out-of-business sale on fake blood, and we reap the benefits as showstopping displays of action-horror devastation take center stage. Fugitives and coppers aren't just killed; they're pummeled into oblivion until maybe half their identifiable traits remain — if lucky. Project Wolf Hunting is a cornucopia of killing-machine kookiness that keeps reminding us why South Korean horror frequently reigns supreme, and leaves us wanting more even after Boat to Busan docks for a refuel. – Matt Donato

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

From our review : Puss in Boots: The Last Wish takes not only the Shrek franchise, but DreamWorks Animation to exciting new places. This is a spaghetti western-inspired tale of an aging cowboy on one last adventure with some rather mature themes, aided by stunning animation that mixes 3D with 2D effects, and a painterly style that gives the film a unique look. – Rafael Motamayor

Resurrection

From our review : Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth deliver explosive, career-best work in Resurrection, a psychological thriller that takes shocking and upsetting turns. The film is powerful both in its quietly disturbing scenes — which toy with the perspective of a troubled mother who believes her traumatic past has returned — and in its most deranged and violent movements. – Siddhant Adlakha

From our review : The latest addition to the Scream franchise expertly blends reverence for the source material while creating something that feels almost completely new. All of the performances are pitch-perfect as the new generation of Woodsboro teens step into their futures, the kills are gnarly, and no version of toxic fandom is left unmocked. – Amelia Emberwing

The Stranger

From our review : The Stranger might just be one of my favorite films out of Cannes 2022. It’s dripping with gritty realism, cloaked in the shadows of a muted palette, and finished off with some truly inspired style choices. It’s the kind of thriller that only comes along every once in a while – truly unsettling and with enough twists and turns to not only keep you interested but on your toes. There’s plenty of great acting, too, with both Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris throwing their characters up against a wall and dissecting them with brutal efficiency. There’s a lot to love in The Stranger, and even more to wrap your head around. The reward is a rich, dark thriller that will be on your mind for some time. – Ryan Leston

From our review : Todd Field’s first feature in 16 years, TÁR is a richly detailed portrait of power and creative genius, led by Cate Blanchett’s towering performance as a world-famous composer whose private and professional life enters the public spotlight. A pressing film that feels distinctly of-the-now. – Siddhant Adlakha

Turning Red

From our review : A story of magical transformation as a metaphor for personal and cultural change, Turning Red (from Bao director Domee Shi) is Pixar’s funniest and most imaginative film in years. It captures the wild energy of adolescence, uses pop stars as a timeless window into puberty, and tells a tale of friendship and family in the most delightfully kid-friendly way. – Siddhant Adlakha

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

From our review : Weird: The Al Yankovic Story does for the music biopic what the real Weird Al did for many a hit pop song: it makes fun of it, reveres it, remixes it, makes it weirder, and improves it. With Daniel Radcliffe in the role he was born to play, Weird tells the definitive and totally true story of one of our greatest musicians and comedians while making you wish all music biopics were this funny or bizarre. – Rafael Motamayor

Werewolf By Night

From our review : Werewolf by Night is a wondrous homage to the classic Universal monster movies. It’s about as scary as those original films are to a modern audience, but that doesn’t matter – it faithfully evokes the kind of classic horror that we haven’t seen in decades. The style may be old, and the tropes may be well-worn, but the film’s Marvel twist is enough to keep it feeling relatively fresh while tapping into the nostalgia of horror film fans. Gael Garcia Bernal is excellent as Jack, and the dynamic between him and Laura Donnelly warrants further screentime. Werewolf by Night may not make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but it will keep you on the edge of your seat with a slow, creeping tone that captures the very best of classic horror. – Ryan Leston

From our review : The Whale forces us to face some uncomfortable truths, not just concerning its grotesquely proportioned protagonist, but about ourselves, too. Much of its power comes from breaking down the barrier between the audience and the film’s subject, forcing us to accept that there’s a human being beneath the fat. A powerhouse performance from Brendan Fraser explores every facet of the deeply complex man, while Sadie Sink digs deep for a quirky role that keeps you guessing. A sharp script is delivered with slow brutality by Darren Aronofsky who gets to the heart of what it means to be Charlie. The Whale isn’t just a great film – it’s an important one, too, delving into our own humanity with the dogged relentlessness of Ahab himself. – Ryan Leston

White Noise

From our review : White Noise holds up a mirror to contemporary America, forcing a self-examination that both amuses and terrifies. It may be set in the ‘80s but it’s as prescient as ever, forcing us to examine the failings of postmodern culture and face the comedy and terror inherent in our society. It may be funny, even light-hearted in places, but White Noise confronts heavy, poignant topics with a level of awareness that will make you laugh while your skin crawls. A flamboyant performance by Adam Driver drills down into our own inadequacies, while Greta Gerwig’s Babette keeps the whole sorry mess together with a graceful banality that’s beautiful in its ordinariness. White Noise is an overtly weird yet almost mundane take on some heavy existential issues. After all, aren’t we all tentatively scheduled to die? – Ryan Leston

The Worst Person in the World

From our review : Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World features a stunning lead performance and peppers its realism with occasional dreamlike flourishes. It explores several years of millennial uncertainty through the eyes of Julie (Renate Reinsve), an indecisive, self-loathing 20-something who switches careers and languishes in a doomed romance until she’s able to find fleeting moments of joy amidst emotional turns that twist like a knife. – Siddhant Adlakha

Review Score: 10 ("Masterpiece")

From our review : The Batman is a gripping, gorgeous, and, at times, genuinely scary psychological crime thriller that gives Bruce Wayne the grounded detective story he deserves. Robert Pattinson is great as a very broken Batman, but it’s Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano who steal the show, with a movingly layered Selina Kyle/Catwoman and a terrifyingly unhinged Riddler. Writer/director Matt Reeves managed to make a Batman movie that’s entirely different from the others in the live-action canon, yet surprisingly loyal to Gotham lore as a whole. Ultimately, it’s one that thoroughly earns its place in this iconic character’s legacy. – Alex Stedman

Watch The Batman on HBO Max on April 18, 2022.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

From our review : Everything Everywhere All at Once is a complex film that encompasses a variety of subjects, but it does justice to each of them with a carefully written script, marvelous performances, and a healthy dose of bizarre humor to counter its bleak story. Michelle Yeoh in particular gives a powerhouse performance in a story that puts a fresh, welcome spin on the idea of the multiverse. – Rafael Motamayor

This story was originally published on February 11. It was most recently updated on December 13 with the latest information.

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Must-watch new releases include Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and The Silent Twins

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1. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

2. the silent twins, 3. charlotte, 4. lady chatterley’s lover, 5. glass onion: a knives out mystery, 6. matilda the musical, 7. bones and all, 8. aftersun, 9. the menu, 10. armageddon time, 11. no bears, 12. a bunch of amateurs, 14. causeway, 15. the wonder, 16. barbarian, 17. the banshees of inisherin, 18. the good nurse, 20. all quiet on the western front, 21. nothing compares, 22. catherine called birdy, 23. moonage daydream, 24. see how they run, 25. the forgiven, 26. official competition, 28. mr malcolm’s list, 29. my old school, 30. fisherman’s friends: one and all, 33. thirteen lives, 34. the duke, 35. hit the road, 36. notre-dame on fire, 37. she will, 38. mcenroe, 39. the railway children return, 40. thor: love and thunder, 41. turning red, 42. boiling point, 43. top gun: maverick, 44. licorice pizza, 45. belfast, 47. minions: the rise of gru, 48. the batman, 50. parallel mothers, 52. the eyes of tammy faye, 53. operation mincemeat, 54. apollo 10½: a space age childhood, 55. the northman, 56. true things, 57. the outfit, 58. good luck to you, leo grande, 59. playground.

Guillermo del Toro had apparently spent “his whole professional life” yearning to adapt Carlo Collodi’s famous tale for the screen, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . Now he has finally produced this wonderfully dark stop-motion animation. As you might expect of the director of Pan’s Labyrinth , his Pinocchio is low on sugary sentiment. He has set it against the “glowering backdrop” of Mussolini-era Italy, and it works brilliantly. The “formidable” cast of voice actors includes Tilda Swinton as the “benign wood sprite” who awakens Pinocchio, and Ewan McGregor as the talking cricket. Pinocchio himself is voiced by the young British actor Gregory Mann, and is nothing like the “cherubic” puppet of the 1940 film. This Pinocchio is a bratty, rebellious “handful”; and it means that when he finally succumbs to “filial love”, it’s genuinely touching. The film is worth seeing, but “if I recommended it as fun for all the family, I’d expect my nose to sprout by another inch or two”. This is a Pinocchio strictly “for grown-ups”.

Actually, I’d expect children with a bit of “grit” to get a lot out of this, said Danny Leigh in the FT . Yes, it’s “sorrowful”, and it looks seriously at loss and fatherhood, but it’s never “ponderous”, and the story “zips and thrills” along, aided by some “wonderfully inventive” animation. Beautiful and unusual, the film “harkens back to the good old days of tough-love family flicks, with a lot of tears and huge emotional payoffs”, said Johnny Oleksinski in the New York Post . Pinocchio may be “100% unabashed lumber” – so woody he’d “vanish on my living room floor” – but he is still “the most endearing animated on-screen fella since Paddington”.

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This “heartfelt, absorbing” drama tells the true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twin daughters of Barbadian immigrants who grew up in a white community in Wales, and who became known as the silent twins because they only communicated with each other, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . Played as adults by Tamara Lawrance and Letitia Wright, the sisters were “effectively abandoned by the school and care systems”. They wrote reams of poems and stories, and had a novel self published, before being committed to Broadmoor in 1981 for arson and theft. Their story has been adapted before, but this version, by the Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska, uses stop-motion puppet animation to depict “the strangeness and loneliness of their imaginings”, and also looks “subtly” at the role that race and gender may have played in the way they were “written off”. It’s a “disturbing” film, “but also tender and sad”.

The Silent Twins: the true story behind new film

The film is “overlong”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday , but it is lovely to look at, and the twins’ “often distressing” tale is “fabulously well-told”. Some aspects work better than others, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph – Wright has a “nice line in Diana-esque sidelong glances”, and the script “wisely has the girls communicate in plain English”, rather than in the rapid-fire mix of English and Barbadian slang that they used. But the leads “chew and slurp at their consonants”, which becomes “wearing”, and the mystery at the heart of their story – why they withdrew in the first place – is never quite plumbed. This leaves the viewer “peeping confusedly” into the twins’ “sealed-off world”, without understanding why they shut themselves up inside it.

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This “sombre and haunting” animation describes the life of Charlotte Salomon, the Jewish-German artist who was killed at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 26, said Kevin Maher in The Times . Salomon (voiced by Keira Knightley) is best known for her “semi-autobiographical masterwork”, Life? or Theatre? , a collection of 769 paintings that is sometimes described as the first graphic novel. We first meet her in 1933, when she is studying art in Berlin; she “listens dutifully” to her “stuffy professors” while nurturing her own “impressionistic” style. But “signs of dread are everywhere” – staff greet each other with “lazy Sieg Heils” – and she eventually flees to the French Riviera, where she is captured. Like other “cartoons for grown-ups”, such as Flee and Waltz with Bashir , this is a “serious meditation on politically motivated violence”, and it mostly works well.

Charlotte clearly “wants to bring Salomon’s aesthetic to life with the warm homage of its own animation”, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph , but the “basic, child-friendly visuals” never do justice to her compositions, and the film feels “cocooned” in its own prettiness. And while the cast is full of “big names” – including Jim Broadbent, Sophie Okonedo and Helen McCrory (in her last screen role) – the sheer number of famous voices ends up feeling like “cameo overkill”. For an account of “an unconventional artist, the animation is disappointingly conventional”, agreed John Nugent in Empire . Even so, the film makes for “an emotional, humane viewing experience”, and should satisfy, and inform, the young audience it’s made for.

“If you’re of my generation, I expect your first encounter with D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the (well-thumbed) book passed around school, and then maybe Ken Russell’s full-frontal, hut-shaking, 1993 TV adaptation,” said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Netflix’s film seems more in keeping with Lawrence’s “alternative title for the novel, Tenderness”: it is more of a “gentle, affecting, immersive love story than a sex story” – though it does fit in “plenty of sex”. Directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, it stars Emma Corrin as Constance Chatterley, the young aristocrat who is ground down by the cruelty of her husband (Matthew Duckett), and who falls for Mellors (Jack O’Connell), the gruff gamekeeper. The themes of the novel – class inequities, industrialisation, “sex as natural rather than shameful” – are all addressed, “but delicately so”, and while the film “won’t set the world alight”, the story is “quietly yet rather beautifully told”.

Corrin and O’Connell are “splendid” as the lovers, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail ; but it’s a pity that the novel’s jagged edges have been sanded down. “Mellors is less a piece of rough than a piece of semi-smooth”, who reads Joyce and has been “brutally cuckolded” himself. Constance, meanwhile, is depicted as such a fervent “champion of the working man”, she’s “practically Angela Rayner”, which doesn’t convince. Still, there have been worse adaptations, and it is unusually “lovely to look at”. It’s all very “tasteful and nice”, said Tomiwa Owolade in The New Statesman , with its “tender voice-overs” and a soft-lit scene in which the lovers dance naked in the rain. But it has no “erotic build-up”, and none of the book’s seductive darkness. In the end, it seems a bit “pointless”.

A rumour has been “doing the rounds” that Glass Onion isn’t as good as Knives Out , said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard . Well, that rumour is “cobblers”: Glass Onion is complex, intelligent and “outrageously funny”. Daniel Craig returns as detective Benoit Blanc, with a new crime to solve, “in a different location, among a different set of A-list faces”. Proceedings kick off when a tech billionaire (Edward Norton) invites some friends to his Greek island home to play a murder-mystery game. The story plods a bit at first, but when the twists kick in, it becomes “edge-of-the-seat stuff”.

If you ask me, Glass Onion is better than the first film, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . Sure, it’s “preposterous”, but it’s properly entertaining: watching Craig parade about in a variety of “outrageous leisure-themed outfits” is a particular “joy”. The film is “crafted with guile”, said Anthony Lane in The New Yorker . But the characters are just too unlikeable; in the end, you don’t care who kills who, which leaves the movie feeling “curiously thin and cold to the touch”.

When Netflix paid $500m for the rights to Roald Dahl’s works, “plenty thought it had overpaid”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . But on the strength of Matilda the Musical , it looks like a “shrewd” investment. Adapted from the West End hit, and featuring Tim Minchin’s music, the film could have had a “constraining theatrical feel”; but director Matthew Warchus imbues the story, about a child prodigy with telekinetic powers, with “a whole new energy”. Irish newcomer Alisha Weir is a wonderful Matilda, and it all adds up to an “exuberant joy”.

It struck me as a bit “shrill and stage-schooly”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday ; but there are plenty of compensations, not least Emma Thompson, who is “unquestionably brilliant” – and all but unrecognisable – as the vast and fearsome Miss Trunchbull. The trouble is that while it captures the darkness of Dahl, it lacks some of the author’s lightness, said Nicholas Barber on BBC Culture . I wish the film had paid attention to what Matilda tells Miss Honey in the book: “Children are not so serious as grown-ups and they love to laugh.” Viewers will laugh, but some moments are so “disturbing”, they “may scream and cry, too”.

“Anyone who travels the roads of America must sooner or later confront the question of what to eat,” said A.O. Scott in The New York Times . For the “footloose young lovers” in Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All , it “is more a matter of ‘who’”: Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) are cannibals, who murder to sate their appetites. Yet this is “less a horror movie than an outlaw romance in the tradition of Bonnie and Clyde ”, and though it is a bit ridiculous, it’s also “curiously touching”.

“Friends whose opinions I trust have gone gaga” for this film, said Danny Leigh in the FT , but it left me if not cold, then lukewarm. Russell is “excellent”, but Chalamet doesn’t really convince as a drifter capable of driving a pick-up truck, and Mark Rylance really hams it up as a veteran cannibal “huffing at the air like a macabre Oxo advert”. It may not be for everyone, but I found it “the strangest, most bewitching movie of the year”, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times . There are “grisly sights” (lots of “bloodied snouts” and “cadavers buzzed by flies”), but this misfit love story – “by turns dreamy, sad, bloody and repulsive” – could become a new generation’s Sid and Nancy.

The Scottish director Charlotte Wells’s “astonishing feature debut” is “a portrait of paternal love, its protean nature and the lingering impact it leaves on adult life”, said Kevin Maher in The Times . Set in the late 1990s, the drama focuses on Calum (Paul Mescal), a father who has taken his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) on holiday to a low-budget Turkish resort. The film is largely made up of “sun-kissed vignettes” depicting holiday fun, but bubbling beneath the surface is “something much deeper and more difficult”: it turns out that Calum has been largely absent from his daughter’s life, and the pair are “burdened” by an urgent need to reconnect. Added to that is the hint of something darker: Calum does not explain how he broke his arm; there is bruising on his body; and though he clearly loves his daughter, there is an un-telegraphed ambiguity to his feelings. The “real kicker”, however, is that the narrative is intercut with scenes in which the adult Sophie, who now has a child of her own, constantly replays this holiday in her mind.

The film “ripples and shimmers like a swimming pool of mystery”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . Wells never forces the pace, nor labours the point. “With remarkable confidence”, she just lets the drama unspool like a “haunting and deceptively simple” short story. The result is outstanding, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent – a film that is gentle and contemplative, yet feels as though it is teetering on the edge of a cliff. We don’t know why this shared time has become so important to Sophie; and she doesn’t learn her father’s secrets. This is a film that “leaves behind a deep feeling of want, and it’s one of the most powerful emotions you’ll find in any cinema this year”.

A darkly misanthropic fable about pompous foodie snobs, The Menu is “a wicked treat”, said Kyle Smith in The Wall Street Journal . The film is set in an ultra-exclusive restaurant on a private island, accessible only by boat and without mobile phone coverage; ruling over it with an iron spatula is a scowling martinet known simply as Chef (Ralph Fiennes). The dozen diners include a highfalutin restaurant critic (Janet McTeer), a fading movie star (John Leguizamo) and an obsessive foodie (Nicholas Hoult). His companion – played by the “superb” Anya Taylor-Joy – is the only diner who is bored by the pretentiousness of it all, which creates friction between her, her date and the supremely sinister Chef. The characterisation is a bit too broad, and the plot doesn’t entirely stand up to scrutiny – but if you like your comedy “as black as squid ink”, there’s plenty to enjoy.

With each of the diners getting their just desserts, you could describe it as a grown-up, haute cuisine take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph , with Fiennes as the Willy Wonka character who despises the kind of people who would pay absurd prices for his elaborate grub. It adds up to a comic thriller of “rare and mouthwatering fiendishness”: director Mark Mylod builds the tension masterfully, while having a good deal of fun with culinary pomposity. With targets ranging from tax havens to performance art, I found the satire rather scattershot, said Nick Hilton in The Independent . But Fiennes – who plays Chef half as a Michelin-starred maestro, half as a cult leader – is mesmerising, as is Taylor-Joy. Both have “such an otherworldly magnetism that, frankly, I’d be content to watch them read a menu”.

Set in a Jewish family in Queen’s, New York, as the Reagan era looms, James Gray’s new film is a “moving” autobiographical drama with a “lot to say”, said Paul Whitington in the Irish Independent . Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) is an artistic 11-year-old who befriends Johnny (Jaylin Webb), one of the few black children at his inner-city school. The pair both have ambitions, but they get into various scrapes, and eventually Paul’s parents (Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong) decide to move him to a local private school that has Donald Trump’s father as one of its main benefactors. Paul had already noticed that teachers treat him and Johnny differently; now the gap between them grows even wider.

The film is evocatively shot, but not everything here rings true, said Geoffrey Macnab in The i Paper . The family are portrayed as struggling: Paul’s father is a disappointed and sometimes violent man; his mother is a frazzled homemaker. Yet with the help of Paul’s wise old grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) they are able to send him to an expensive bastion of white privilege. What gives the film its resonance is Repeta’s “fierce, unsentimental” performance. This is a child who is slowly realising that “he is the beneficiary of a system that routinely gives him the benefit of the doubt”, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post , and this begins to “chafe against what he’s been told about his own Jewish heritage of survival against oppressive odds”. Gray’s exploration of his own “budding awareness of injustice” can slip “into self-congratulation”, but overall this is a “disarmingly honest” film about love and loyalty, and “how identity morphs from one generation to the next”.

With Iranian women rising up against their country’s oppressive regime, this is a good time to watch No Bears , said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian – starring, and directed by, the recently jailed Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi. In the film, he plays “Jafar Panahi”, a film director who has been banned from making films or from leaving Iran, who nevertheless decides to shoot a film in a Turkish town just over the border. Panahi delegates the “hands-on direction” to his assistant Reza (Reza Heydari), while watching proceedings over Skype from a rented room in a nearby Iranian village. There, he falls foul of village chiefs, who accuse him of taking an incriminating photo of a young woman who is about to undergo an arranged marriage, a photograph he insists does not exist. The “meta-fiction” at the heart of No Bears can feel a bit “emotionally obtuse”, but don’t be put off: this is a film of real intelligence and “moral seriousness”.

No Bears is shot through with “wider political resonances”, said Mark Kermode in The Observer , but it’s also “a piercingly self-aware portrait of an artist”. It is remarkable that “despite all that he has faced”, Panahi has “the wit and humility” to question his art with such “candour and self-deprecation”. That Panahi was able to make a film at all is astonishing, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator , let alone a film that is as funny, engrossing and thought-provoking as No Bears . The more you think about it, the more it reveals about “lives made small by restrictions that can and do result in tragedy”. Daring and brave, it is partly about the power of film; it is also “great cinema”.

Documentary

The members of the Bradford Movie Makers club have been making “virtually zero-budget films with rickety production values” since 1932, said Cath Clarke in The Guardian . Kim Hopkins’s “warm and rather wonderful” documentary about them “finds comedy in their idiosyncratic passion, without ever being mean or mocking”. In the club’s heyday, it had a waiting list of several years; today, it is on its uppers. Its numbers are dwindling, and it is five years behind on the rent for its crumbling clubhouse. Still, “some big personalities” remain, including Colin, a retired carpenter in his 80s whose wife lives in a dementia care home; and Phil, the club’s “enfant terrible”, a “sweary” fortysomething “lad” who makes short films with titles such as The Haunted Turnip . There are funny moments, but this is a thoughtful film that has “unexpectedly deep things” to say about “camaraderie, community and male friendship”.

A Bunch of Amateurs celebrates a “certain kind of Englishness” – eccentric, passionate and “engagingly daft”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . As the documentary unfolds, it becomes clear that there is no mushy ending in store: the films produced by the club’s members will not get much of an audience, and “in truth don’t deserve one”. But that’s not the point: its members are “amateurs in the original sense of the word, making films for the love of the process”. The club is a lifeline for them, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman . The “very act of making and screening films” offers them “much-needed respite from their everyday troubles”. Still, Hopkins’s attempts to turn the club’s precarious future into a comment on the state of the film industry feels “a little strained”.

“Not much happens” in Living , Kazuo Ishiguro’s “impeccably written” new film, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail ; but what doesn’t happen “doesn’t happen exquisitely”. Set in 1950s London and directed by Oliver Hermanus, it stars Bill Nighy as Mr Williams, a “stiffly venerable” bureaucrat who spends his days processing planning applications for London’s County Council. A widower, he is a “benignly authoritative presence” in the office and “a politely tolerated one” at the home he shares in Esher with his stolid son and daughter-in-law. When he learns that he has terminal cancer, however, he resolves to add “colour to his monochrome existence”: he skips work, forms a platonic but “faintly scandalous friendship” with an ex-employee (played “delightfully” by Aimee Lou Wood), and champions the efforts of a group of East End mums to build a children’s playground on a bomb site. Living is not exhilarating, but it’s beautiful in its melancholy way, “and Nighy is simply superb”.

This is one of those rare films that “may actually inspire you to live differently and, perhaps, do something of value before it’s too late”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . A remake of the great Japanese film Ikiru (1952), it is as “heartbreakingly tender” as the original, and “asks the same question – what makes a life meaningful? – but this time with Englishness, bowler hats, the sweet trolley at Fortnum’s and Bill Nighy”. Really, “what more could you want?” Everything “comes together” in Living , said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times : “the delicious ache” of Ishiguro’s script; Jamie Ramsay’s lovely, “desaturated cinematography”; and, above all, Nighy. As an actor, he is as reliable “as an old umbrella”. Here, he has “a chance to unfurl fully” in a role worthy of his talents.

“ Causeway is an excellent, moving, determinedly low-key slice of US indie cinema” that could easily have slipped under the radar were it not for the presence of Jennifer Lawrence, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph . She stars as Lynsey, an engineer for the US military who moves back in with her mother in New Orleans, having narrowly missed being blown up in Afghanistan by a bomb that claimed the life of one of her comrades. Dosed up on medication and struggling with a “drastic case” of PTSD, Lynsey drifts through her hometown “with a sense of futility and woozy disconnectedness”. When she meets James (Brian Tyree Henry), a mechanic who lost a leg in an accident a few years earlier, these two “broken people” bond, and the film “gently ignites”. This is a “spare, sensitive and unadorned” film, and it’s well worth seeing.

Lawrence has wasted almost a decade on “soulless blockbusters” and “arthouse misfires”, said Kevin Maher in The Times ; so it’s a joy to see her finally produce “the kind of restrained, internalised performance” that made her name in the 2010 indie film, Winter’s Bone . But she is nearly outshone by her co-star, who imbues his character with “humour, compassion and hangdog dignity”, and grounds the film in gravitas. Causeway is superbly acted, agreed A.O. Scott in The New York Times , but once James and Lynsey are brought together, the film seems unsure “what to do with them”. The “symmetry of their physical and psychological wounds” feels far too “neatly arranged” to be credible, and while Henry and Lawrence do what they can, they can’t quite “bring the script’s static and fuzzy ideas about pain, alienation and the need for connection” to life.

Florence Pugh is “terrific” in this period drama set in Ireland in 1862, just a few years after the Great Famine, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday . She plays Lib, an English nurse sent to a remote village to observe an 11-year-old girl (an “impressive” Kíla Lord Cassidy), who is reported to have lived for four months without eating. Lib suspects this “miracle” is a con, perpetrated by the child’s family, and resolves to uncover the truth, aided by a sharp-witted journalist played by Tom Burke. The story is unappealingly framed: it starts and ends in a modern-day film studio. But the rest is well done and there are some fine performances. A word of warning, though: The Wonder is so darkly shot that “anyone watching on Netflix will need the living room lights off and the curtains drawn” to have a clue what’s going on.

Adapted from Emma Donoghue’s 2016 novel, it is an “arrestingly strange” and “distinctively literary tale of innocence, horror and imperial guilt”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . Without Pugh’s “sensuality, passion and human sympathy”, the film could have teetered “under the weight of its contrivances”; but thanks to the “pure force” of her performance, it works. The cast is “stellar” and the cinematography “striking”, but I found it frustratingly lacking in nuance, said Tara Brady in The Irish Times . “Every plot progression and twist” – from the big reveal to the ludicrous denouement – is so heightened, it makes “the average telenovela look like Bicycle Thieves”. Unless “you are absolutely fine with weapons-grade melodrama”, I’d steer clear.

Barbarian is a “playful” horror film that uses “one of the minor pitfalls of modern life” as a “satisfying plot hook”, said Ed Potton in The Times . Georgina Campbell plays Tess, a documentary researcher who arrives in a “down-at-heel” neighbourhood of Detroit one night for a job interview, only to find that the Airbnb she’d booked has been rented to someone else on a different app. That person is Keith (Bill Skarsgård), who comes across as a “nice guy” equally puzzled by the situation. Tess is wary even so, but she lets her guard down when they share a bottle of wine and bond over their passion for music. Soon, however, she discovers that the house is harbouring a horrifying secret. Often “gleefully scary”, this is an “inventive tale that’s full of disarming twists and #MeToo undertones”, and it makes evocative use of Detroit’s “abandoned buildings and sense of decay”.

This low-budget production has done “excellent business at the US box office – and deservedly so”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail : it’s smart, scary and at some points “very funny”. It’s just a pity that the plot gets less credible as the film goes on. Still, it’s “done with tremendous swagger”, and “those few good laughs make the chills even chillier”. I’d say that it is only “competently made”, said Benjamin Lee in The Guardian : it feels “curiously flat”, and its echoes of horrors such as Don’t Breathe and The People Under the Stairs are not flattering. It’s also frustrating to watch Campbell, “an actor of clear intelligence”, glumly navigate “a character of deep stupidity”: she starts the film as a “smart and careful woman”, and ends it as a “maddeningly dim-witted” one.

Comedy-drama

Tragedy and comedy are “perfectly paired” in this “deliciously melancholy” new film from Martin McDonagh, said Mark Kermode in The Observer . The Banshees of Inisherin reunites the director with the stars of his 2008 debut, In Bruges : Colin Farrell plays Pádraic, a dairy farmer on the fictional island of Inisherin, who pops into his best friend’s house one afternoon in 1923, as the Irish Civil War is raging distantly on the mainland, to find that Colm (Brendan Gleeson) has no interest in coming to the pub. In fact, Colm has no interest in being friends anymore. “Depressed by a sense of time slipping away”, and determined to spend his remaining years composing fiddle music of lasting value, he has decided to rid himself of Pádraic’s “aimless” chatter. And silly though his resolution seems to other islanders, Colm is taking it deadly seriously: when Pádraic tries to persuade him to rethink, Colm threatens to cut off one of his own fingers whenever Pádraic speaks to him. The film swings “between the hilarious, the horrifying and the heartbreaking”; and the cast is “note-perfect”.

This sad and startling film is my favourite of the year so far, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . The characters have real depth; the dialogue is “exquisitely crafted”; the score is “glorious”. And while McDonagh has come under fire for peddling Irish stereotypes, the only flaw I can detect is “in the dentistry department”: I suspect “the smiles of the rural Irish 100 years ago were rather more peat-brown than pearly-white”. The Banshees of Inisherin is, by my reckoning, “a perfectly formed piece”, said Kevin Maher in The Times . Consistently witty and visually ravishing, it is “unafraid to ask serious questions about life as it is, and should be, lived”. It is, in short, a work of “proper art”.

This Netflix thriller is based on the real-life case of Charles Cullen, a New Jersey nurse who was arrested in 2003 having apparently killed hundreds of patients, said Edward Porter in The Sunday Times . He is played by Eddie Redmayne, who proves he is “more than able to conjure up a desiccated, quietly creepy” murderer; while Jessica Chastain “adds humanity” as Amy Loughren, a struggling nurse and single mother who bonds with Cullen when he starts working at her hospital, but eventually plays a key role in bringing him down, as it becomes clear that he has been covertly administering lethal overdoses. The film is essentially a report on the administrative flaws that allowed Cullen to work in a series of hospitals without detection for so long: and while it’s a little “grey and plodding in its style”, the two lead performances make it well worth watching.

Directed by the Danish film-maker Tobias Lindholm, this is one of those films that “operates at a low temperature, simmering its ingredients until the final reel”, said James Mottram in the Radio Times . There are some “terrifying moments”, but anyone “looking for a scary serial killer movie, in true Silence of the Lambs style”, would do better to sit it out. Still, “as a character study of a disturbed mind”, the film “pushes all the right buttons”. The Good Nurse is entertaining enough, said Michael O’Sullivan in The Washington Post . But ultimately, it’s “the kind of dime-a-dozen true-crime tale that typically goes straight to streaming”. I was left wondering why two such talented actors “thought something this slight, this weightless, this forgettable was ever worth their time”.

Emily Brontë died in 1848 at the age of 30 with just one novel to her name, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . “But that novel was Wuthering Heights .” And this “beguiling film” imagines what might have inspired her to write it. Written and directed by Frances O’Connor, it offers a speculative, even mischievous, take on the author’s life, about which precious little is known. We begin at the end, with Emily (Emma Mackey) on her death bed and her sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) aghast at the contents of her novel, but astounded by its merit. “How did you write it?” she demands – and we are whisked back in time to find out. Emily, we learn, is considered the “weird one” of the Brontë girls; a loner who pours her thoughts into her stories. When her clergyman father (Adrian Dunbar) takes on an attractive new curate (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), she isn’t impressed, but her cynicism slowly turns to love. The film is “handsome-looking”, beautifully acted, and the script is “superb”.

What a “daring and ravishing” film this is, agreed Deborah Ross in The Spectator . It’s a period drama that takes liberties, but “there’s no Billie Eilish on the soundtrack or breaking of the fourth wall or jokey intertitles, which is a mighty relief”. Aspects of the plot may sound “insane” – at one point, Emily tries opium; at another she is sent to retrieve her brother from a pub, and returns drunk herself. (What? “Emily Brontë, drunk! And high!”) But within the film’s “internal logic”, it all makes sense. Mackey is on splendid form here, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard . But the film is based on the simple premise that “being on Team Emily means sticking the boot into her sisters”. Yet the Brontës were team players. “Why is that not a story worth telling?”

Erich Maria Remarque’s classic 1929 anti-war novel has been adapted for the big screen twice before, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian ; but this is the first German-language version – and the result is a “powerful, eloquent” and “conscientiously impassioned” film, well worth seeing. Felix Kammerer plays Paul, a German teenager who enlists with his schoolfriends in a burst of patriotic fervour towards the end of the First World War. He is anticipating “an easy, swaggering march into Paris”; instead, he finds himself mired “in a nightmare of bloodshed and chaos”. Meanwhile, in a parallel plot (not in the book) a real-life German politician, Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl), is trying to negotiate an armistice. The film is “a substantial, serious work, acted with urgency and focus”, with battle scenes that seamlessly combine CGI with live action.

All Quiet on the Western Front is “reminiscent of a darker, much tougher 1917” , said Kevin Maher in The Times . The set pieces are spectacular, but they are humanised by “incidental details” – the soldiers learn, for instance, that “shoving their hands down their trousers keeps their trigger fingers warm”. Some images linger long after the film is over: “a mutilated body hanging in the woods like something from Goya’s Disasters of War ”, a battlefield of charging soldiers so suddenly perforated by Allied machine guns “that a faint pink mist, made of tiny droplets of blood, fills the air”. “See it on the biggest screen possible. Then watch it again on Netflix.” There are moments when the film resembles a preposterously beautiful PlayStation game, said Ed Power in The Daily Telegraph . But its evocation of war ends up connecting “where it truly matters: in the gut”.

“It’s been 263,000 hours and 10,960 days – give or take – since Sinéad O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live ,” said Leslie Felperin in the FT . The Irish singer’s 1992 protest against clerical abuse in the Catholic Church nearly wrecked her career – not that she “gave much of a toss”, as becomes clear in this “rousing” documentary.

Director Kathryn Ferguson pieces together the pop star’s life through archive footage and interviews, including with O’Connor herself; the picture that gradually emerges is of an inveterate rebel whose refusal to be bossed around began when she shaved her head early in her career, in defiance of her record company.

The film works as a study of O’Connor’s “complex character”; but what a pity that Prince’s estate refused to give the film-makers permission to use her unforgettable 1990 cover of his song Nothing Compares 2 U .

Lena Dunham, creator of the cult HBO comedy-drama Girls , is “perhaps not the first name you would think of to adapt and direct a period film set in medieval England”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer . But this teen comedy, based on the 1994 novel by Karen Cushman, is a “peppy, irreverent” triumph.

Bella Ramsey plays Lady Catherine, a bird-loving 14-year-old (hence her nickname, Birdy), who finds herself in a sticky situation when her “charming but feckless” father (Andrew Scott) fritters away the family fortune. His solution is to marry Catherine off to a “title-hungry gentleman of means”; the trouble is, Catherine likes her life as it is – so she sets about scaring off her suitors with “every unsavoury trick” she can conjure.

Ramsey excelled as a “poised” child-queen in Game of Thrones , but here she brings welcome mischief to her role; and Dunham directs with “liberal use of goats, geese and chaotic energy”. The film has a “refreshingly forthright approach to everything from puberty to the status of 13th century women”, and it’s a “delight”.

“David Bowie was a rock star like no other,” said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail , so it’s fitting that Moonage Daydream is a truly “singular documentary”, ostensibly about his life, but more a journey through his “relentlessly mercurial mind”.

Writer and director Brett Morgen was granted rare access to “every nook and cranny” of Bowie’s archive, and has made excellent use of all that material: one of the “primary joys” of this film is “how little [of it] we’ve seen before”.

This “immersive, trippy, hurtling, throbbing” film takes us as close to knowing Bowie “as an actual person as we are ever going to get”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Morgen covers his life from “cradle to grave”, but not in the usual way: there are no talking heads or clichéd graphics, for instance. Instead, excerpts from interviews allow Bowie essentially to narrate the film himself, while his music – remixed by his long-time producer Tony Visconti – provides the lushest of soundtracks.

No one has ever managed to make a film of The Mousetrap , said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph , and for one very simple reason: Agatha Christie insisted there should be no film adaptation until six months after the play closed – which, of course, it never has. Using that very stipulation as a motive for murder, a crafty team have come up with the next best thing: a “delightfully absurd” whodunnit about the play itself. It’s set in 1953: the cast is celebrating the play’s 100th performance when a telegram arrives from Christie saying she cannot join the party, but has sent a big cake instead. Sure enough, within ten minutes someone is dead. The film bounces with a sense of fun worthy of Tom Stoppard – whose name, in a running joke, is given to the detective (Sam Rockwell). The suspects include a glamorous impresario (Ruth Wilson), a dandyish playwright (David Oyelowo) and a furtive producer (Reece Shearsmith). With a seam of pure English silliness, this is a “whizzy fairground ride in theatreland, powered entirely by the thought of a literary icon spinning in her grave”.

See How They Run is “as sweet and light as a fondant fancy”, said Clarisse Loughrey on The Independent . It’s the kind of ensemble film that plays like a tennis match, with the cast skilfully lobbing one-liners at each other and giving knowing winks to the camera. But the real joy is the rapport between the investigating plods, said Ian Freer in Empire . Rockwell brings “grizzled, Walter Matthau-type charm” to the cynical inspector; Saoirse Ronan is even better as an over-eager WPC star-struck by the suspects. Combining farce, backstage drama, crime potboiler and police procedural, this is a “fast, funny and frequently stylish” movie steeped in the atmosphere of 1950s London.

If you “like your humour wickedly dark, bordering on the unpleasant”, then “ The Forgiven could be the film for you”, said Kate Muir in the Daily Mail .

Ralph Fiennes plays David, a high-functioning English alcoholic driving his American wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) to a swanky party at a castle in Morocco. The couple are arguing as usual when a teenage boy “suddenly appears in their headlights and is killed on impact”. They’re on a dark rural road, so they stash the boy’s body in the back of the car, and press on to the castle, which is owned by an “outrageous” couple (Matt Smith and Caleb Landry Jones).

Adapted from a novel by Lawrence Osborne, this is a watchable film that makes good use of its attractive Moroccan settings, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday . The story, though, is “lacking in tension”, and director John Michael McDonagh, who made The Guard (2001) and the “brilliant” Calvary (2014), can’t decide whether his “first priority is to amuse or serve up something meaty and moralistic”. By the time he’s made up his mind, “it’s almost too late”.

You do “have to do your own moralising” with this film, which is “always a drag”, agreed Deborah Ross in The Spectator . But there are reasons to see The Forgiven : Fiennes and Chastain are both “terrific”, and it’s a “compelling” tale, even if human nature doesn’t come out of it at all well.

Films that satirise the film industry itself are, in my experience, “seldom funny – or even fun”, said Leslie Felperin in the FT . Yet this “irresistibly silly” Spanish comedy manages to be both, thanks in part to Penélope Cruz, who brings both comic and dramatic flair to the role of Lola, a maverick film director hired by a “dilettante squillionaire” to make an art film that will be his legacy. This film is to be about two estranged brothers and, in order to pit two real-life opposites against one another, Lola casts a “high-minded, classically trained Argentine import” (Oscar Martínez) as one of the brothers, and a “swaggering Spaniard” (Antonio Banderas) as the other. During rehearsals, the film’s two leading men “grow to loathe one another” as Cruz puts them through their paces. Directors Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat “keep the comedy deadpan” to create a film that has the pleasing feel of “an old-school screwball comedy, albeit one with very dark edges”.

Official Competition certainly has a “top-notch” cast, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday . But despite their “best endeavours”, I can’t see this film having mass appeal. It seems to have been “made for the slightly smug, aren’t-we-cool film-festival crowd”. Well then, I guess I must be among them, because I loved this “Spanish-language gem”, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph . Martínez and Banderas are “splendid”as the warring leads, while Cruz, “who’s never looked more divine”, really “nails” it as the “visionary nutcase” director. The film’s set pieces will make you roar with laughter, and the whole thing is brilliantly finessed. “Smart comedy is already a rarity; smart comedy that looks this good is a once-in-a-blue-moon event.”

For years, blockbuster films have been posing questions such as “How would Spider-Man cope with PTSD?” and “How would Buzz Lightyear process personal and professional failure?”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . So there’s a “Zen-like release” in watching one that “ponders nothing more onerous than ‘who would win in a fight between Idris Elba and a marauding big cat?’”

In Beast , Elba plays a widowed doctor seeking to reconnect with his teenage daughters (Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries) by taking them to their late mother’s birthplace in South Africa. He has amends to make – and “his own conscience to salve” – as their marriage fell apart just as she was becoming ill with cancer. Then a “huge, drooling” lion attacks, and keeps attacking, and Elba’s “appealingly fallible hero” finds himself fighting for his family’s survival,“not just figuratively, but also in a more pressing, oh-dear-we’re-about-to-be-eaten sense”. The resulting “man-versus-animal death-match” provides a “grippingly efficient thrill-ride”, whose “93 minutes seem to pass in around 15”.

I am not sure “whether this was ever intended to be a serious film”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Perhaps it doesn’t matter. It is fun, in a “shlocky, gory, silly way”; it has perfectly decent CGI, it zips along, and it will delight anyone who’s yearned to see Elba “wrestle a lion and then punch it full in the face” – “not my dream especially, but each to their own”. Beast doesn’t go “anywhere you can’t predict from the trailer”, said Benjamin Lee in The Guardian , but the pace rarely slackens, and it’s “directed – by Baltasar Kormákur – with more flair than one often gets from such material”. It’s a “B-movie”, to be sure, but one that’s “bringing its A-game”.

Adapted by Suzanne Allain from her own novel, this “engagingly silly and self-aware comedy” is a “romantic Regency romp in the diverse, postcolonial ‘alt-history’ universe popularised by Bridgerton ”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . Our heroine is Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton), “a highly strung young woman” hunting for a husband in fashionable London society, who learns that the city’s most eligible bachelor, the Hon. Jeremy Malcolm (Sope Dirisu), has a “secret list” of attributes that he is looking for in a bride.

When Julia fails to meet these requirements, she decides to seek retribution, by asking her best friend, a penniless clergyman’s daughter (Freida Pinto), to ensnare Malcolm “by faking the ten comely attributes from his list”. Malcolm falls for the conspiracy and is soon entranced – as is an ex-cavalry officer (Theo James), a man “so tight-trousered his fly button will surely have someone’s eye out”. This is “good-natured entertainment” that clearly has no ambitions other than to amuse, and in that, it succeeds quite nicely.

It didn’t amuse me much, said Kevin Maher in The Times . So lightweight as to be “almost meaningless”, the film has just one redeeming feature: Ashton, whose “stellar” performance just about keeps the show on the road. Pinto and Dirisu, by contrast, seem to have set their “charisma phasers” to “power-save mode”. The film does feel slightly “paint-by-numbers”, said Dulcie Pearce in The Sun . The set-up scenes are “painfully long and unfunny”; the script is “plodding”; and though the “costumes and finery” are nice to look at, you will soon find yourself yearning for Mr Darcy.

This “impish and riveting” documentary recounts the stranger-than-fiction case of the man who called himself Brandon Lee, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . In 1993, a curly-haired “teen” enrolled at a Glasgow school under audaciously false pretences: he was, in fact, a 30-year-old man who had decided to pretend to be 16 so that he could resit his exams and get into medical school. When the scheme came to light in 1995, Lee became a “minor media sensation”, but he has become publicity-shy in recent years, so director Jono McLeod – who was one of his schoolmates – devises a “cunning compromise” here: an audio confession from Lee that is lip-synched by the actor Alan Cumming, and interspersed with interviews and re-enactments of key moments. The film initially “bubbles along entertainingly”. Later, though, it becomes genuinely “unnerving” as it deals with the most “awkward” part of the story: Lee’s on-stage kiss with a teenage girl in a school play.

Even if you’re familiar with Lee’s story, as I was, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator , you’ll wonder as you watch this documentary: “How could they not know? He could drive a car! He liked Chardonnay! He introduced his classmates to retro music!” The film doesn’t have all the answers – there’s clearly something “disturbed” going on here that is never fully plumbed – but you’ll “enjoy the ride” anyway.

Considering how “deeply weird” Lee’s behaviour was, I found My Old School “oddly heart-warming”, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman . McLeod adopts an appealingly “bemused” tone throughout; and while Lee is shown to be a “slippery character”, the film is no hit job. Rather, “it’s an expertly crafted tale of deception”, told “with a playfulness that is eminently watchable”.

“Break out the pea coats, chunky sweaters and bushy beards, for Fisherman’s Friends is back,” said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday . “Yes, three years after the unexpectedly successful film put the Cornish village of Port Isaac on the cinematic map, and reminded us all that sea shanties are rather wonderful as long as there aren’t too many of them”, the team has returned with a sequel that picks up about a year after the 2019 movie left off. The shanty-singing band have now stormed the UK charts, and are learning that “fame, modest fortune and life on the road” can take a toll. Singer Jim (James Purefoy) is having an especially rough time of it, hitting the bottle as he grapples with the death of his father. This is “lightweight, late-summer fun”, packed with “broad comedy” and “high drama”, but it’s also “surprisingly emotional”, and it’s buoyed by Purefoy’s “nomination-grabbingly good” performance (“yes, seriously”). “As sequels go, me ol’ hearties, it’s terrific.”

It didn’t do it for me, said Wendy Ide in The Observer . Rather than tell one story well, it “weaves drunkenly between themes”: bereavement, substance abuse and male mental health all crop up, and the film even saunters into “the murky waters of the woke debate”. Subplots are used as mere glue to “tack together the Cornish tourist board-approved shots of cornflower-blue waters and cloudless skies”. There is also “far more rousing close-harmony singing than anybody really needs to hear in their lifetime”.

This is a nice-looking, “well-made film” held together by a “very likeable cast”, said Cath Clarke in The Guardian . But it’s wearyingly predictable, and has a rather “factory-made” flavour. I’m afraid this franchise feels to me “like it’s hit the rocks”.

Nope is “a film that does for open skies what Jaws did for the beach, and The Wicker Man for Hebridean getaways”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . It’s the third feature from Jordan Peele, director of the psychological horror smash hit Get Out ; and like that movie, it’s an entertaining thriller with a “rich and troubling substance bubbling underneath”.

Daniel Kaluuya stars as the taciturn OJ, who, along with his more gregarious sister (Keke Palmer), trains horses on a ranch in southern California for use in films and TV. When we meet them, they’re dealing with the mysterious death of their father, killed by a small object that has dropped from the sky. Nope “treats us to all the tricks from the flying saucer canon” – false alarms, “teasing peeks” – while remaining “excitingly fresh”.

It’s one of the movie events of the year, “if not the decade”, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard . A “playful riff on our obsession with UFOs, Nope blurs sci-fi, horror and cowboy movie tropes, while finding the time to explore racism, climate change and 1990s sitcoms”. It’s also a deeply weird film that is “likely to invade your dreams”.

The special effects aren’t bad, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday , but as a whole the film is “painfully slow, overburdened with plot and not exactly awash with the sort of performances to make you pleased you bought a ticket”. I’m afraid “it’s a big ‘nope’ from me”.

Prequels make “my heart sink”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer : all too often they’re used just to “squeeze a little more juice out of an already dead and desiccated franchise”. Prey , however, which revives the Predator series for a seventh outing, “is different”. For one thing, it’s set 300 years before the earlier films, on the Great Plains of North America, where Comanche life is presented in rich, authentic detail. Our heroine is Naru (Amber Midthunder), a warrior whose prodigious survival skills are put to the test when an alien creature starts killing everything in its path. To director Dan Trachtenberg’s credit, the film “stays true to the essence” of the 1987 original – it’s “stylishly violent, stickily graphic” and “impossibly tense” – while also succeeding “as a self-contained entity”.

I was impressed by this addition to the franchise, said Benjamin Lee in The Guardian . “It feels genuinely new to see a genre film of this scale” anchored by an Indigenous American cast. This is not just a victory of representation; it also ensures that a story “we’ve seen a few too many times before” is told in an interestingly fresh way. It’s just a shame that the film, which is beautifully shot, and has some “intricate, well choreographed” action sequences, is going straight to Disney+.

What I liked about this “audacious action flick” is that it reinforces the forgotten value of “dramatic jeopardy”, said Kevin Maher in The Times . Its characters are seen “in actual danger of harm, injury or even death, rather than just punching stuff repeatedly for two hours while wearing a superhero costume”. Of course Midthunder’s stellar performance helps too; in a few short scenes, she conveys so much about Naru that when the “great big bloody predator” swoops to get her, we “really care”.

We all remember the events of 2018, when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded cave network in Thailand, and were rescued – after 18 days – by an international team of cave divers led by two “plucky Brits”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. What we may not know is the detail; what it felt like to be trapped underground, or to dive underwater into darkness.

Now, thanks to Ron Howard’s new film, we do. This is a dramatisation “that works on just about every level”: it’s thrillingly paced, “culturally sensitive” and beautifully acted. Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell play the two British divers, and though neither are British, they pull it off brilliantly: Mortensen captures the “British blokey bolshiness” of ex-firefighter Richard Stanton, while Farrell is “quietly perfect” as IT consultant Jonathan Volanthen. The film is coming to Amazon Prime, but its “exceptional” underwater photography makes it well worth seeing on a big screen.

When he’s on form, Howard makes “warm-hearted, decent and diligent” films characterised by a kind of “Centrist Dad” level-headedness, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . And this “compulsively watchable” dramatisation is him at his best. The diving sequences are so tense you’ll be “sympathetically shrinking in your seat”; and wisely, Stanton and Volanthen are not depicted as “saviours swooping in from lands afar”, but as gruff hobbyists who clash with each other as well as with the Thai rescue team.

The film is certainly compelling, said Edward Porter in The Sunday Times, but to me it lacks the “dramatic flair” of Howard’s previous true-life disaster movie Apollo 13 . Viewers might do better to seek out The Rescue , a riveting 2021 documentary about the same events.

I could probably watch this old-fashioned comedy caper “all day every day for the rest of my life,”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Directed by the late Roger Michell (of Notting Hill fame), it recounts the notorious theft of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in 1961, and stars Jim Broadbent as Kempton Bunton, the idealistic taxi driver from Newcastle who claimed to have committed this audacious crime.

The film is “wonderfully funny”, but “thoughtful and tender” too; if you don’t find Bunton – the “ordinary fella prompted to do an extraordinary thing” – wholly “loveable” from the off, I’ll “refund your ticket”.

This warm and witty film has the “zing of a classic Ealing caper”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . Broadbent and Helen Mirren, who plays Bunton’s wife, have rarely been better. And while the film is unafraid to “go broad – one stirring sequence is scored to the hymn Jerusalem, for goodness’ sake” – it touches on serious themes (about how, for instance, institutions should serve the people who fund them); and its subtlety “often catches you off guard”.

There are moments when it ladles on the “working-class nobility” a bit thick, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail : we see Bunton standing up against racism, and being sacked as a taxi driver for waiving a war veteran’s fare; but Broadbent “keeps it real at every turn, and manages a passable Geordie accent to boot”, while Mirren, who does frumpy and downtrodden as well as she does elegant hauteur, is a “superb foil”.

Although she is often exasperated by her “placard-waving husband”, we never doubt the depth of their love. For what proved to be his swansong, Michell has given us a truly “lovely film”.

For my money, “the best release of the week by far” is this Iranian film by debut director Panah Panahi – the son of the recently jailed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . It follows a family of four who are driving to the Turkish border, because the elder son (Amin Simiar) needs to flee the country. We presume that it is for political reasons, but “really, those reasons don’t matter”. This is a film about families; the profound love that holds them together, and the ways they can fall apart. The film has a “strong undercurrent of sadness”, but it is a “charmer. I was hooked from the opening scene, in which the irresistibly cute but unstoppably naughty” younger son (Rayan Sarlak) “mischievously hides his father’s mobile phone down his pants”.

Sarlak is one of the most “believably annoying” kids you’ll ever meet on screen, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph , but Pantea Panahiha is “wonderful” too as his mother, “forever silently asking herself whether they’ve reached the point of no return”. The film could “have had the gloom of a Stygian ferry ride”; instead it “pulsates with vivacity”. Hit the Road is a “miraculously accessible piece of entertainment” about people who “stay brave” even as they are “drowning”.

Most of the action takes place within the confines of the car, a private space that can be an “island of freedom” in the director’s home country, said Christina Newland in The i Paper ; but Panahi punctures “his closer camera work with some stunning wide shots of the landscape nearby”. It’s a wonderful, life-affirming film; what a crying shame, then, that it has not yet been shown in Iran.

The words “dramatic reconstruction” can be a bit of a dampener, said Larushka Ivan-Zadeh in The Times , but “I’d defy anyone” not to be gripped by “this spectacular minute-by-minute reconstruction of the blaze that engulfed Paris’s iconic cathedral” on 15 April 2019. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud ( The Name of the Rose ), it captures the efforts of French firefighters to contain the inferno that nearly razed Notre Dame to the ground, combining dramatic recreation with archive footage, digital effects and amateur video. The result is a “documentary/thriller/disaster movie” mashup that doesn’t entirely pull it off; but if you do get the chance to see it on an Imax screen, take it.

It’s still unclear how the fire broke out at Notre Dame, said Phil de Semlyen on Time Out ; and Annaud wisely “hedges his bets” on this mystery “by showing us both a workman’s rogue ciggie and an electrical short”. The film comes into its own when the “almost demonic” inferno, raging at up to 1,300°C, starts “melting scaffolding and pouring molten lead” through the mouths of the cathedral’s gargoyles. And yet alongside this drama, there are some “surprisingly funny” moments. “The church is 800 years old,” notes a bystander at one point. “We should call your mother,” replies his wife.

The film rather revels in the disaster, said Wendy Ide in The Observer , but it does capture the fire’s “daunting rage”, to often “eyebrow-scorching effect”. What we don’t really get is a “sense of emotional engagement with key characters”, partly because so many of them are “concealed behind breathing apparatus”. In its place, there “are contrived scenes in which newbie firefighters share gum, and moments of pure cheese involving an adorable moppet and a prayer candle”.

Directed by the artist Charlotte Colbert, She Will sits “somewhere between a feminist revenge horror and an arthouse psychodrama”, said Ed Potton in The Times . Alice Krige plays Veronica, a faded film star, who travels to a country house retreat in the Highlands to recover from a double mastectomy. She’s hoping that it will be a peaceful idyll; instead, it teems with self-help groupies who are in thrall to the house’s flamboyant artist-in-residence (played by Rupert Everett). He likes to pee against trees and says things like, “Don’t draw the landscape, let the landscape draw you”. To escape all this, Veronica retires to her quarters, but she soon starts to sense the presence of spirits that haunt the local forest – the site of 18th century witch-burnings – and which help her wreak vengeance on a director (Malcolm McDowell) who abused her in her youth.

Krige’s “thrillingly intense” performance is the “lightning rod at the core” of this “viscerally atmospheric” drama, said Mark Kermode in The Observer . She grounds its “hallucinogenic visuals in the terra firma of past tragedies and modern traumas”. Not everything lands – some of the tonal shifts feel abrupt, and the plot can be wilfully obscure – but “these are minor imperfections” in what is a satisfyingly “chilling tale of buried secrets and dreamy vengeance”. Executive produced by Dario Argento, the film wants to be an “artfully lurid” feminist horror freak-out, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman ; unfortunately, I found it “laughably bad”, with a “dramatically inert” script and tiresome use of “a generic Scottish setting as an off-the-peg signifier of folkloric dread”.

Decent sports documentaries are “ten a penny”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer , but ones that really delve into “the psychology of their subject” are rare. This film, about the tennis maverick John McEnroe, is one of these rarities. Using archive material, interviews and often “unwieldy” graphics, it explores “the experience of being a phenomenon and a hate figure for a kid who was barely out of his teens” when he exploded onto the tennis scene in 1977. The result is an excellent film that deserves to find “an audience far beyond just fans of the game itself”.

This portrait of the enfant terrible of tennis is “refreshingly free of the sycophancy that drags down” most sports docs, said Ed Potton in The Times . Its appreciation for McEnroe is clear, but “tempered with an awareness of his flaws”. Among the interviewees are McEnroe’s greatest rival Björn Borg, “whose early retirement McEnroe calls an ‘absolute f***ing tragedy’”; Keith Richards, “one of several celebrity mates” who appear; and McEnroe’s second wife, Patty Smyth, who suggests that he is on the autism spectrum. “There’s only one star, though, and he’s candid, insightful and hugely likeable.”

As a result, many of the film’s most eye-opening comments come from McEnroe himself, said Raphael Abraham in the Financial Times . (“Thirty-seven psychologists and psychiatrists didn’t help,” he snarls at one point.) Still, there are omissions: the film doesn’t delve deeply enough into McEnroe’s “technical brilliance” to satisfy the “tennis nerds”, and perhaps tellingly, we hear nothing at all from his first wife, Tatum O’Neal, or his nemesis, Jimmy Connors.

“Fifty-two years after setting the high watermark for ineffably wholesome family entertainment, the railway children are back,” said Kevin Maher in The Times . “And they haven’t changed a bit.” Yes, the era has shifted from 1905 – when the book and Lionel Jeffries’ much-loved 1970 film were both set – to 1944, but the characters are “reassuringly familiar”: three earnest siblings fond of outdoorsy japes find themselves evacuated from Salford to a village in Yorkshire. There, they are taken in by headteacher Annie (Sheridan Smith) and her mother Bobbie, who was the oldest of the original trio and is once again played by Jenny Agutter. There are attempts to make it more relevant to a modern audience – the siblings befriend a black GI (Kenneth Aikens) who has run away from his US army base to escape its violent racism – but the film’s appeal lies in its “unapologetic embrace” of old-fashioned storytelling. “Pixar and Marvel devotees will possibly be repulsed, but how could you not love conker fights, piggybacks on the common and a race-to-the-train finale?”

The young cast “give it their all”, and it’s a “nostalgic joy” to see Agutter return as a “distinctly glamorous grandmother”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. But alas, she is not on screen for all that long, and none of the actors can save the film from its “slightly opportunistic, made-for-television air”. Those who, like me, regard the 1970 film with “unalloyed affection” will be nervous about this sequel, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . But they shouldn’t worry: the film doesn’t quite capture the original’s “charm and innocence”, but it “makes sumptuous use” of many of the same locations, and is a “lovely celebration of an England and a brand of Englishness” that still lingers.

Taika Waititi has done it, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times : he’s made “not just the best Marvel movie” to date, “but a bona fide camp comedy classic”, brimming with “gaudy” pleasures. The film, which is the fourth standalone Thor movie in the now 29-strong Marvel franchise, begins with a “helpful recap” that explains how the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) picked himself up and transformed his “bad bod to a god bod” following the death of “just about everyone he ever knew”. But though his pecs are now sharp, all is not well: Thor’s beloved ex (Natalie Portman) has cancer, and a “bald creep” played by Christian Bale is plotting to murder every god in the realm. The plot is “the usual lunatic babble” we’ve come to expect from Marvel, but the story unfolds with such wit and brio, who cares? This is just the kind of “silly summer movie we didn’t know we needed”.

Steady on, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard . This “intergalactic space adventure has a bitty first half”, and isn’t a patch on the last Marvel movie that Waititi directed, 2017’s Thor Ragnarok , which is widely deemed “one of the best superhero romps ever made”. Still, fans of the genre will find a “whole lot to love” here, including some memorable performances. Look out in particular for Russell Crowe, who plays Zeus as “a cheesily Greek pansexual” with an accent straight out of Mamma Mia! . I enjoyed the film immensely, said Ed Potton in The Times . It’s true that it lacks the “irreverent zing” of Ragnarok , but it “bursts with surreal spectacle” and “Pythonesque silliness”. The “twinkly script” is genuinely funny, and though Waititi has been made to churn out the mandatory CGI battle sequences, he manages to give even them some emotional depth.

“It’s hard to know what’s more impressive about the latest Pixar film,” said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph , “its boundless artistry, ingenuity and loopy comic verve, or the mere fact that the studio got away with making it.” Directed by Domee Shi, this Disney+ animation looks squarely at female puberty, “with all the distinct bodily changes” it entails. Its heroine is Mei, a 13-year-old from Toronto (“winningly voiced” by Rosalie Chiang), who wakes up one day to find she’s turned into a giant red panda. Hearing her cry out in the bathroom, Mei’s mother (Sandra Oh) assumes she’s got her period and asks enigmatically outside the door, “Did the red peony bloom?” In fact, Mei has developed a “secret family trait”: at moments of “heightened emotion”, she becomes a bear. From there, the film explores the onset of Mei’s puberty sensitively and playfully, as she strives to bring her “furry alter ego” under control in time for her to attend a concert by her favourite boy band.

Turning Red deserves credit “for finding comically direct ways to address the biological and emotional awkwardness of female adolescence in a family film”, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman . Usually, it’s a topic relegated to horror. But once Mei has learnt to control her panda self, the film doesn’t seem to know where to go, and it ends up feeling lazy and familiar.

“Yes, there’s a formula at work here” and the dialogue can be a bit trite, said Kevin Maher in The Times . “But who doesn’t enjoy an exquisitely manipulated cry?” With a premise like this, the film could have been “awful and preachy, like a woke revamp of Disney’s actual 1946 public information cartoon, The Story of Menstruation ”. In fact, it is “ingenious and light, and deeply lovely”.

I realise it’s early days, but “if a more stressful film” than Boiling Point comes along this year, “I would be most surprised”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Filmed in a single continuous take, it stars that “powerhouse” of an actor Stephen Graham as Andy, the head chef and part-owner of a hot London restaurant. Andy’s staff “respect and like him”, but we can see something “broken” about him, “and are on it, asking ourselves: ‘Can he hold it together, or will he implode? That water bottle he is always clutching. Is it water?’”

Jangling with nervous energy, Andy tries to get on with his work, but his customers don’t help: there’s a racist table, a trio of influencers who insist on ordering off-menu, a woman with a severe nut allergy (“hello, Chekhov’s gun”), and a poisonous celebrity chef (Jason Flemyng) who demands a ramekin of za’atar to go with his risotto; it’s “98% there”, he tells the chef. With an improvised feel, the film is as “tense as a thriller”.

It’s to director Philip Barantini’s credit that I frequently forgot I was watching a one-shot film , said Mark Kermode in The Observer . It is “utterly immersive, conjuring the raw experience of an inexorably accelerating panic attack”. But like the 2015 German thriller Victoria , which was also filmed in one take, this is “first and foremost a gripping and gritty drama”.

Graham is superb as a man on the edge, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph , but there is “great, frazzled acting” from the supporting cast too, especially Vinette Robinson, who plays an overburdened sous-chef. The one off-note is the ending, which tries to make a “hard-hitting impact” but doesn’t quite succeed. That aside, this is a brilliant film that exerts a remorseless grip.

The original Top Gun propelled Tom Cruise from “a heart-throb to a household name”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . With this “absurdly entertaining” late sequel, we have possibly the “Cruisiest” film to date. Within moments of the opening credits, Maverick – Cruise’s charismatic fictional fighter pilot – is recalled to his “old Top Gun stomping ground” to train a new generation of aviators who have assembled for a deadly mission: the neutralisation of a uranium enrichment plant in an unspecified location overseas. Among the youngsters is Rooster (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s friend Goose, who died in the first film. For my money, this is the best studio action movie since 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road ; it is also “Dad Cinema at its eye-crinkling apogee – all rugged wistfulness and rough-and-tumble comradeship”, interspersed with flight sequences “so preposterously exciting” that they seem to invert the cinema “through 180 degrees”.

This film isn’t short of “rock’n’roll fighter-pilot action”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian , but weirdly, it has none of the original’s “homoerotic tension”. “Where, oh where, is the towel round-the-waist, semi-nude locker-room intensity between the guys?” Weirder still, it’s even “less progressive on gender issues” than the 1986 blockbuster, which did at least put a woman in charge (Kelly McGillis’s civilian instructor).

It’s true, the female roles here are pretty thankless, said Clarisse Loughrey on The Independent , but the film is so “damned fun” you forget to care. Director Joseph Kosinski has made “the kind of edge-of-your-seat, fist-pumping spectacular that can unite an entire room full of strangers sitting in the dark, and leave them with a wistful tear in their eye” to boot.

Licorice Pizza is the “metaphorical shot in the arm we all need right now, to go with the real one”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . Paul Thomas Anderson’s “irresistible” film brims with “effervescent charm” and “belly laughs”; “I cherished every minute of it.” Set in California in 1973, the film is a “boy-meets-girl-at-high-school” tale, but the twist is that only one of the lovers is at school. That’s 15-year-old Gary (Cooper Hoffman), a child actor who falls for a 25-year-old photographer’s assistant, Alana (Alana Haim) when she visits his school to take the pupils’ pictures.

Shot on rich and grainy 35mm film, Licorice Pizza “does a superb job” of recreating 1970s Los Angeles, said Geoffrey Macnab in The i Paper . Hoffman has the same “shambling charm and force of personality” as his father, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, while Haim – better known as a musician – brings an ingratiating spikiness to her role as the “(slightly) older woman who can’t quite believe she is falling for a teenager”. The narrative style is “deliberately rambling”, with the story unfolding in loosely joined episodes, but the result is so subversive and funny that you forgive its “shaggy-dog approach to storytelling”.

I’m afraid I found the episodic structure rather “gruelling”, said Kevin Maher in The Times . Anderson is “far too gifted to make a stinker”, but the film isn’t a patch on his better films, such as There Will Be Blood and The Master . While the love story is meant to be “adorable, cute and cuddly”, to me it seemed contrived. Alana articulates one of the film’s central flaws when she asks her sister: “Is it weird that I hang out with Gary and his 15-year-old friends?” The answer, as the characters are presented here, is: “yes”.

“Kenneth Branagh has made a masterpiece,” said Kevin Maher in The Times . Belfast , set in the city in 1969, is a “deeply soulful portrait of a family in peril”, inspired by Branagh’s own childhood: his family fled to Reading that year, when he was nine. The film stars Jude Hill as Buddy, a Protestant growing up in a “warm and garrulous family”, whose carefree childhood is shattered when a “loyalist mob” rampages through their peaceful, largely Protestant community, “smashing windows and screaming: ‘Catholics out!”’ A loyalist enforcer then demands that Buddy’s father (Jamie Dornan) either “join the Catholic-bashing or face terrifying retribution”, setting the stage for a coming-of-age drama that, though not without cliché, is overlaid with dread and “an expectation of physical conflict”. Highlights of the film include a “hugely charismatic turn” from Dornan, and Haris Zambarloukos’s mostly black-and-white cinematography, which manages “to out- Roma Roma in frame after frame of meticulously lit gob-smackers”.

The film does tip into the nostalgic: at times it feels like a mash-up of Cinema Paradiso and Hope and Glory , said Deborah Ross in The Spectator – but it’s so “heartfelt, warm and authentic” that you forgive it. I welled up at least three times; plus there are some very funny lines, many of them delivered by Buddy’s grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds). “For some people, perhaps, the seam of sentimentality that runs through the picture might be too much,” said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . “But it will take a stony heart not to embrace it.” The film has a “wonderful” score by Van Morrison and – an added bonus – it is relatively short, at just over an hour and a half.

“Have you ever looked a cow in the eye?” If you watch Andrea Arnold’s documentary, “you certainly will”, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent . Shot over four years on a dairy farm in Kent, this surprisingly gripping, largely wordless film allocates much of its 94-minute runtime to a Holstein-Friesian called Luma. We watch her give birth. We watch her chew cud. We watch her get “hooked up to a milking machine, its nozzles splayed out like the heads of hungry leeches” – and then “we watch those processes again. More birth; more milk.” The film is “grimy and unvarnished”; it captures the “banal cruelty” inflicted on dairy cows – but there are moments of poetry, too: “at one point, Arnold even catches Luma gazing dreamily up towards the stars”.

“This is certainly not the first film to make the point that industrial farming and animal welfare are uneasy bedfellows,” said Wendy Ide in The Observer . Yet this “important” documentary “encourages an intimacy and emotional connection with its bovine subject that is rarely achieved elsewhere”. Shots have a “handheld urgency, the lens positioned at udder and eye level”; tellingly, it’s a good 45 minutes before we “even glimpse a blade of grass”. It’s a bleak film, and a challenging one, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Why would I watch a cow for 94 minutes? “What does this cow do that’s so interesting?” But you end up caring, and the finale, when it comes, is hard to bear. The trouble is, vegans already know about industrial dairy farming, and the rest won’t seek out this film, because they prefer to look away. All I can say is that the “next time I went to put milk in my tea, I did feel Luma’s big eyes upon me. So it is absolutely haunting in that way.”

“There has already been one prequel to the Despicable Me series [ Minions , 2015]”, and it proved so popular we now have another, said Edward Porter in The Sunday Times . To judge by the laughter at the “child-packed” screening I went to, this addition to the franchise hits the mark with its intended audience. The film picks up soon after Minions left off, in 1976, when the would-be supervillain Gru is 11 years old (yet still voiced by Steve Carell) and just getting to know his little yellow stooges, the Minions (voiced, the lot of them, by Pierre Coffin). When a gang of hardened criminals known as the Vicious 6 oust their leader, Gru spies an opportunity, and plots to become their kingpin. The storyline is a bit “shaky”, but the film is redeemed by its “scattershot comedy” and immense “sense of fun”.

It has what the Despicable Me films do best, said Wendy Ide in The Observer : lots of silliness, “madcap, looney-tunes energy”, and a “big, wet raspberry blown in the face of sophistication”. There’s “not a whole lot that is new” here; the film is a “near-relentless barrage of sight gags, puns and effervescent cartoon violence”, and the result is “exhausting” but “extremely funny”.

“Some think that the Minions concept has run out of steam”, said Ed Potton in The Times . This film has enough “vim, wit and invention” to suggest otherwise. Even the characters’ names are amusingly inventive: we meet Jean-Clawed, for instance, a criminal with a lobster claw for a hand, and Nun-Chuck, a nunchuck-wielding nun. Gru’s “dastardly ambition”, meanwhile, proves “weirdly touching”: here is a kid “who really wants to be good at being bad”.

Since 1989, five live-action Batmen have “slunk in and out” of our cinemas, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph – so you might wonder if a sixth could offer anything new. But for this latest instalment, director Matt Reeves has done something fresh and surprising: The Batman is less a superhero movie than a “sinuous” detective thriller with the plotting of a film noir.

We meet the young reclusive Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) when his “Gotham Project” still mainly involves combating muggers and assisting a local police detective (Jeffrey Wright) in the decaying city. But that changes when the two find Gotham’s mayor battered to death with a coded message beside him. It’s from the Riddler (Paul Dano), a villain who in this film is given chilling plausibility.

The acting is superb, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard . Pattinson’s Wayne is spoilt and immature, but also intelligent, and full of self-doubt: “Basically, Hamlet in a balaclava.” Zoë Kravitz is glorious as Catwoman, while Dano delivers a performance that is “breathtakingly” intense and nuanced. It’s one of the most audacious films of the year: I was amused, entertained, intoxicated and shocked.

To add to the pleasure, this “darkly splendid” movie looks like a work of art, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times , with “an enveloping mixture of roasted colours and noirish shadows”. And the action set pieces are thrillingly executed, said Christina Newland in The i Paper – among them a roaring car chase down a steamy, orange-lit highway at night. There’s some clunky over-explaining in the second half, but with its intriguing plot and hero fraught with contradictions, it should be one of the year’s “blow-your-hair-back” hits.

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic isn’t “as much of a trip” as his 2001 musical Moulin Rouge! , but “it’s never less than stimulating” to look at, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail – “a spectacle as much as a story”, with plenty of the director’s flourishes, including tricksy editing, split screen and slow-mo. Austin Butler assumes the title role, while Tom Hanks, in a fat suit and acres of prosthetic jowl, is scarcely recognisable as Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s overbearing manager.

The film covers most of Presley’s life, from his rise to fame in the mid 1950s to his death in 1977: we see him recording those early songs in Memphis; making movies; enlisting in the US army; meeting his future wife Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge); and finally, overweight and unhappy during his lengthy Vegas residency. The story will be familiar to many, but the film offers “a lively reminder” of an extraordinary life.

The trouble is, it’s less a film about Elvis than a “159-minute trailer for a film called Elvis ”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . It feels like a “relentless, frantically flashy montage”, simultaneously “epic and negligible” with “no variation of pace”.

The film has nothing profound to say about Presley’s character or music; it “retrofits” him with liberal sensitivities, skirts over the less savoury aspects of his life, and barely hints at the “failure and suffering”. Even in the “Fat Elvis” years, we only ever see “a decorous hint of flab”, and there’s no sight of the “yucky burger binges or the adult diapers”.

The film is oddly shallow, agreed Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Butler is a “charismatic” Elvis, but “we never get to look into his soul”; he’s just a “simple fella who wants to sing the music he loves”. Still, the film does “fizz along”, and though it’s very long, it’s never dull.

“With most films, you know exactly what you’ll be getting within the first ten minutes,” said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Not so with Parallel Mothers : a “delicious and beautifully styled” drama from the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Penélope Cruz stars as Janis, a photographer who has a fling with a forensic anthropologist called Arturo (Israel Elejalde). She gets pregnant, and when Arturo stands by his wife, who has cancer, she decides to raise the baby alone. In hospital, Janis meets Ana (a “terrific” Milena Smit), a teenager whose circumstances are even more complicated, and whose life becomes intertwined with hers. Alongside this domestic drama runs a second plot strand, concerning Janis’s desire to have Arturo exhume the mass grave where her grandfather was buried in the Spanish Civil War. The narrative is twisty and full of surprises, but “it all adds up to an immensely rich, satisfying whole”.

In less skilful hands, said Wendy Ide in The Observer , the film’s “dual focus, which pulls us backwards and forwards” through time, might have been unwieldy. But Almodóvar “makes a light-footed dance of it”, expertly weaving together the story’s many threads. Above all, it’s Cruz who sets the tone “with a performance that radiates warmth”; she has surely “never been better”. Cruz certainly brings “incontestable, blazing life” to the film , said Edward Porter in The Sunday Times , but I found its handling of the history clumsy. Liberals in Spain are pushing to “disinter the crimes of the Franco years, an agenda fiercely opposed by right-wing populists”; in “doing his bit” for the cause, Almodóvar has extended the range of his work, but created a “slightly uneven film”.

A marriage of “dazzling spectacle, high-octane action and social commentary”, this animated film from Japan received a 14-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Cannes, said Tara Brady in The Irish Times . The story revolves around Suzu, a 17-year-old high school student who’s unremarkable but for her extraordinary singing voice – which she can’t bring herself to use in public. At school, she isn’t a big hitter socially, until she signs up to “U”, a virtual world “pitched somewhere between Instagram and The Fifth Element ” that allows its users to live as idealised avatars.

In this metaverse, Suzu is reborn as Belle, “a pink-haired, singing beauty” who becomes an overnight sensation. The film’s best scenes are not the “riotous tableaux” that play under her J-pop ballads, however, but “the blushmaking adolescent exchanges, the family concerns”, and even, in a late plot twist, a powerful (but delicately handled) dramatisation of childhood abuse.

This finely observed, gorgeously animated sci-fi fairy tale is one of director Mamoru Hosoda’s best to date, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . Long “enthralled by abstract digital spaces”, he has created here a twinkling metaverse that “overawes you through sheer volume of lunatic detail”. And though the plot owes much to Beauty and the Beast , the film’s exploration of “our online-offline double lives” is entirely fresh.

Belle ’s central message is a powerful one, said Simran Hans in The Observer – that the closer our online personas capture who we really are, “the more powerful” they become. All in all, this is anime to swell the heart.

“Ours is not a country – and thank heavens for it – in which a company called Praise The Lord Television could ever grow into a mighty broadcasting network,” said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail . Yet in the US, PTL was once the fourth-biggest TV network behind NBC, ABC and CBS. This “unexpectedly moving” biopic tells the story of the couple behind PTL, Tammy Faye Bakker (Oscar winner Jessica Chastain) and her preacher husband Jim (Andrew Garfield). “An evangelical Barbie and Ken,” they started from the bottom with a puppet show, and gradually gained a cult TV following, convincing viewers that “the more they gave, the more God would love them”. But their “gaudy temple came crashing down” in 1987, when it emerged that Jim “had been misappropriating funds, even using some to pay off a church secretary who alleged he had raped her”.

This is without a doubt “Chastain’s movie”, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times . Her Tammy Faye is an “inflatable doll of grotesque, martyred femininity”. With a “chirpy, aw-shucks manner” and a tan “the colour of a basted turkey”, she’s a fake “through and through” – like one of Roy Lichtenstein’s pop-art pin-ups “blown up so large you can see the dots”. Chastain is on “fabulous” high-octane form here, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday , and well matched by Garfield; but it’s all a bit “one-note” with the “constant smiling and ‘God told me he wants...’”. And no amount of brilliant hair and make-up can make up for the shortcomings of the script. Tammy Faye is portrayed as a woman who was “seemingly blind” to the wrongdoings around her – and that’s a pity, because “the wrongdoings are what made the Bakkers interesting”.

This tale of wartime derring-do is the sort of film to watch “with your dad on a Sunday afternoon, before or after Ice Cold in Alex ”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Based on a book by Ben Macintyre, it recounts a British operation to conceal the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen star as the two intelligence officers who led the mission, which involved obtaining the corpse of a Welsh man, putting it into the uniform of a Royal Marine, loading it with bogus “top secret” papers about a planned invasion of Greece, and dropping it in the Mediterranean. Directed by John Madden ( Shakespeare in Love , The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ), and starring not one but two Mr Darcys, the film is well performed and “highly enjoyable”.

This is a well crafted, “handsomely mounted” film, which painstakingly recreates the look and feel of wartime London, said Geoffrey Macnab in The i Paper . The acting, too, is “heartfelt and strong”; aside from the two leads, we also have Simon Russell Beale as Churchill, Johnny Flynn as the young naval officer Ian Fleming (“a few years away from writing his first Bond novels”), and Kelly Macdonald, who features in a romantic subplot. “What the film lacks, though, is any real sense of dramatic upheaval or surprise.” In essence, this is the story of an “elaborate prank”, and once the officers have dropped the decoy body into the sea, they have little to do but “wait for the Nazis to take the bait”.

Madden had a huge amount to cover in a two-hour film, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph , and the pacing is a little off, with drowsy sections in the middle, a rushed third act and an awful lot of exposition along the way. It’s a pity: it’s watchable, but could have been done better.

Richard Linklater’s rotoscoped animation, set in 1969, is a low-key but “evocative” story of childhood loosely inspired by the writer-director’s own, said John Nugent in Empire . It is narrated by Jack Black as the adult version of protagonist Stanley (Milo Coy), a dreamer who lives in the suburbs of Houston, and whose father is employed in an admin job at Nasa. Like everyone else, Stanley is obsessed with the forthcoming Apollo 11 Moon mission , but in his account of that year, there was another, secret Moon landing days before it, a test run for which Nasa agents recruited him as the astronaut. The reason: they’d “built the lunar module a little too small”, meaning that only a child could fit inside it. The rotoscope technique involves tracing over live-action film footage, and results in a “strange, hyperreal aesthetic” which is well suited to this film’s blending of reality and fantasy.

With “shrewd storytelling judgement”, Linklater makes Stanley’s “lucid dream” only a small part of what is otherwise an “overwhelmingly real”, but more or less plotless, account of a 1960s childhood, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . His memories of the era are “curated with passionate connoisseurship” – “the ice-cream flavours, the TV shows, the drive-in movies, the schoolyard games, the parents, the eccentric grandparents, the theme park rides, the neighbours, the prank phone calls”.

Linklater has made some “dire” films since Boyhood , his 2014 “masterpiece”, said Kevin Maher in The Times , but Apollo 10½ is a triumphant return to form. Rich with observational detail and saturated in “loving” references to the music, movies and television of the period, “it feels as significant an American memoir as Little House on the Prairie ”.

“You should really put in some kind of training before submitting yourself to this Viking Braveheart ,” said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times . An adaptation of the Norse folk tale that inspired Hamlet , the film is “a beast” – a “grunting, howling, gore-soaked tangle of blood, muscle and vengeance” that is both “incredibly violent and magisterially strange”. The tale revolves around Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), a prince who, as a boy, watched his uncle (Claes Bang) murder his father before carrying off his mother (Nicole Kidman) and seizing the throne. Amleth flees overseas but returns to the kingdom as an adult, transformed by the intervening years into a hulking Viking “berserker” with a “heart of cold fire” that is now bent on revenge. “The film feels not so much shot and edited as dropped from the sky by ravens and beaten into shape in a smithy.” I loved it.

The Northman has been proclaimed a “masterpiece”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday , but I can’t see why. “Yes, it looks magnificent”, but there’s little more than “muscle and machismo” to Skarsgård’s role – and how this film “escaped with only a 15 certificate is beyond me”.

It is violent, said Kevin Maher in The Times , but it is also rather silly. Director Robert Eggers ( The Witch , The Lighthouse ) takes his “Scandinavian beefcakes” so seriously, there are moments when the film lapses into “risible camp”. “Sleep well, night blade,” was the line that got me giggling, and after that, it was hard to stop. Other inadvertently funny bits are Amleth’s romance with a “sassy slave” played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and the cast’s sing-songy accents. The film is a one-note fiasco, a “foam-flecked depiction of cartoon machismo” from a director who should have known better.

The British writer-director Harry Wootliff’s “well-liked” 2018 debut Only You centred on a couple experiencing fertility problems, said Leslie Felperin in the FT . Her second feature, the “woozy, intoxicating” True Things , adapted from a novel by Deborah Kay Davies, charts a rather more troubled relationship, involving a “destructive erotic obsession”.

Kate (Ruth Wilson) is a middle-class benefits officer with “a barely hidden wild streak”. She is dissatisfied with life and already in trouble for persistent lateness at Margate’s job centre when one of her clients, a “sexy bit of rough” with a prison record (Tom Burke) asks her out for lunch. Within hours, they’re having sex in a car park. She refers to this nameless man as “the Blond”, and is soon mad about him. But it seems the hunger is all hers and, with terrible inevitability, he starts taking advantage of her infatuation.

For Kate, the romance is a “delusion” and an “addiction”, and there is an “element of insanity about it – “nightmares, hallucinations, clawing open an abyss”, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph . “The cinematography nudges us boldly to the brink with rain on the lens”, and the editing becomes “fragmentary”. But throughout, what really “rivets” is Wilson’s performance. Kate is a mess, yet Wilson succeeds in making her peculiarly relatable.

Burke is good too, skilfully lending the Blond an air of “old-world romanticism”, said Clarisse Loughrey on The Independent . But the problem with the film is that he is still too obviously a cad, making it hard for us to identify with Kate. And though there are intriguing hints that her obsession is a rebellion against the social expectations she faces as a woman in her 30s, this idea remains underexplored.

“If, like me, you’re a fan of old-timey gangster flicks, this twisty, enjoyable new film starring Mark Rylance is probably going to scratch that itch,” said Christina Newland in The i Paper . The film is set in 1950s Chicago and features “warring mobs, shoot-outs, rats and double-crosses galore”. The action itself is limited to one location: a tailor’s shop in which Rylance, known to customers as “English”, plies his trade. A former Savile Row cutter, he now makes suits for local gangsters.

Film review: Phantom of the Open

When Richie (Dylan O’Brien), the son of mob boss Roy (Simon Russell Beale), appears in the shop one night, bleeding from a gunshot wound, English is caught in the middle of a gang war that turns his shop into a temporary mob HQ. The script is superb, and while the visuals are bland and some of the cast a little uneven, the story is “sure to keep viewers enthralled”.

“You can wait for a great Mark Rylance performance all year long and then – like double-decker buses – two come along,” said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times . The actor was “sublime” as an amateur golfer in last month’s The Phantom of the Open , and he’s “mesmerising” in this crime thriller, too. From the first few frames, as we watch him “brew a pot of tea, oil his shears and begin cutting fabric”, you can tell the role was “tailor-made” for him.

Yes, Rylance is on “quietly compelling” form, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday , but his performance doesn’t save this play-like film from its many flaws. For one thing, the plot twists “struggle to convince”; for another, there are simply “too many British actors playing American”. Debut director Graham Moore’s “single-set thriller” is a “brave experiment”, but sadly it’s one that “doesn’t altogether work”.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande has been much hyped “as the film in which Emma Thompson gets her kit off”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. But before the actress lets her “dressing gown slip” in this “amusing, revealing and really quite sexy” film, there is an awful lot of talking – so much so that at times, it feels more like a “single-set stage play” than a movie.

Thompson plays Nancy, a widowed former RE teacher who never had good sex with her husband, and so decides to pay Leo (Daryl McCormack), a handsome Irish escort, to supply it. The film mainly takes place in the hotel room where they meet. Some of it stretches credibility, but Thompson is a such “class act” that it’s “definitely worth a peek”.

Written by comedian Katy Brand, “this is a riveting film and an important one”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator . Older women are usually cinema’s “least developed characters”, and it’s “practically unheard of” to see one strip off, let alone list the various sexual positions she’d like to try.

There is “genuine chemistry” between the leads, and some “wonderfully comedic moments”, such as when Nancy says that she’s resigned to never having an orgasm. “It’s not a Fabergé egg, Nancy,” Leo replies. “People have them every day.”

I’m afraid I wasn’t greatly charmed, said Donald Clarke in The Irish Times . Yes, the film celebrates “sexagenarian sexuality”, but it’s a bit too proud of its “supposed braveness”, and the characters are all rather familiar. Nancy is the “sort of handbaggy Silly Billy” that Thompson could play in a coma, while Leo is “absurdly decent, articulate, understanding and patient” – qualities that “few humans outside the New Testament” show in such abundance.

Playground “captures exactly what it feels like to be seven years old and starting a new school, which is another way of saying it’s the most panic-attack-inducing film of the year”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph . Many of the events it depicts are “fairly ordinary”; the Belgian film’s power lies in Maya Vanderbeque’s “heart-lurchingly plausible” central performance as Nora, a troubled new pupil who must learn to negotiate school life.

Vanderbeque acts with “the kind of pristine psychological integrity that would make Daniel Day-Lewis drop his cobbling kit”, and director Laura Wandel capitalises on this by making the film mainly from the child’s point of view – so that older pupils “loom” up before her, grown-ups are little more than “disembodied legs”, and the din of the schoolyard resembles that of a “war zone”. Owing to a “brief, appropriately frightening moment of child-on-child violence”, Playground has a 15 rating, which is a pity as younger audiences would surely benefit from watching “such a striking depiction of pre-teen life”.

“Sometimes cinema is at its most potent and engrossing when it’s stripped down to the essentials,” said Wendy Ide in The Observer . This “uncomfortably powerful” film is a case in point: at little over an hour in length, with lithe, handheld camerawork and no score, it takes a “piercingly insightful” look at the “semi-feral pack dynamic of childhood”, without labouring the point.

The “Hobbesian, tooth-and-nail universe of the playground” has seldom been portrayed “so indelibly”, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times . Occasionally, Nora turns to adults for help, but the film shows she’s on her own; as its French title ( Un Monde ) suggests, school is “a world unto itself. A beautiful film.”

“All men really are the same” in this Wicker Man- style folk horror film from Alex Garland, said Mark Kermode in The Observer . Garland, the author of The Beach , who also directed the intriguing sci-fi oddity Ex Machina , has concocted “a playfully twisted affair” set deep in the English countryside. The excellent Jessie Buckley plays Harper, the survivor of an abusive relationship who escapes to a “dream country house” to recover. The house is owned by Geoffrey, a “Tim Nice-But-Dim” character, who like all the men in the village – from the smarmy vicar to the unsympathetic police officer – is played by one actor, Rory Kinnear, “deftly” slipping between identities. The plot takes a sinister turn when a menacing figure appears to Harper in a deserted railway tunnel. As the film proceeds, Garland “throws caution to the wind” and unleashes horror upon gruesome horror.

Men wants “to be a social thriller for the ages; a Get Out for women”, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard . “It almost succeeds.” But at exactly the point where “it should begin to be unbearably tense, it begins to unravel”. It’s unclear whether all the male characters are figments of Harper’s imagination, or whether they represent a real threat. Either way, the film doesn’t really do justice to the “horrible realities” of violent misogyny.

It never quite makes sense of its “startling central conceit”, agreed Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian . Kinnear’s multifaceted performance is “unnerving and outrageous”, but there are also moments of “not-entirely-intentional silliness” here: Men almost feels like an episode of The League of Gentlemen without the jokes. The actors, though, are very good, and there’s much to enjoy “as the movie builds to its freaky finale”.

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The best movies of 2022 so far, according to Rotten Tomatoes

There have been some corkers this year

Is 2022 a vintage year for movies? It certainly feels like it, especially as far as critical responses go.

There's been a lot to enjoy in 2022 thus far. So much so, in fact, that The Batman , which boasts a rather impressive Rotten Tomatoes rating of 85%, finds itself all the way down at Number 58 on Rotten Tomatoes' round-up of the best movies of 2022. Well, so far anyway.

With so many great movies to choose from, we thought we’d showcase the top 10. You can find the full list here but, in our round-up, we've chosen not to include documentaries (we’ll round them up separately at a later date). So here, without further ado, are the 10 best movies of the year so far, according to Rotten Tomatoes. 

10. Everything Everywhere All At Once 

2022 might have been the year of Marvel’s Doctor Strange heading into the Multiverse of Madness , but it’s another trip into a multiverse that has been wowing critics – and one with a much-smaller budget. 

The movie follows Michelle Yeoh's Evelyn Quan Wang, a tired and unhappy laundromat owner who somehow discovers that it is she and she alone who can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led. 

A sprawling mass at 140 minutes, there is so much going on here, with madcap comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts and animation all hurled into the same melting pot, but it all hangs together somehow. 

9. Lingui, The Sacred Bonds

Beaten to the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival by striking horror Titane , this tough drama hails from Chad. 

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The movie is the story of Amina, a devout Muslim whose live is torn apart when Maria, her 15-year-old daughter, tells her she is pregnant and wants to abort the child. Abortion is banned in Chad and the two face a battle that may well be already lost. Critics praised its power and elegance as it told an upsetting tale with real empathy.

8. Great Freedom

This time we’re in post-World War II Europe for another hard-hitting drama and the story of Hans. 

Despite its liberation from Nazi rule, freedom does not include freedom of love in 1950s and 1960s Germany and Hans, a gay Jewish man, is sentenced to time in an Austrian prison for violating anti-homosexuality laws. Once inside, he begins a strange and unlikely friendship with Viktor, his deeply homophobic cellmate. An offbeat indie drama, but an utterly compelling one, as critics attested.

7. Top Gun: Maverick

While it’s fair to say that Tom Cruise’s long-awaited return to the cockpit was one of 2022’s most-anticipated movies, nobody saw reviews like this coming. Every poster for the film is a sea of five-star ratings, including TechRadar’s review , which gave it maximum points. 

Top Gun: Maverick sees Cruise return to play the supremely gifted, but cocky Peter "Maverick" Mitchell. We meet him 36 years after the original movie and Maverick has avoided promotion in order to keep flying. Now grounded after an outrageous display of ego, Maverick’s old rival, Iceman – now an admiral – reassigns him to TOPGUN as an instructor to train a group of elite pilots for a mission of unprecedented difficulty. Among the rookies are the son of his former friend Goose, ensuring this mission is off to a difficult start before it's even begun.

Reviewers have been knocked out by the movie’s spectacle and action-sequences, all the while stressing the need to see it on the biggest screen possible . We couldn’t agree more.

6. Hellbender

One for those among you with a taste for horror . Set in Upstate New York, the movie focuses on Izzy and her mother, who live off the grid in the mountains. 

Izzy’s mother, who is never named, has told her daughter she is ill and must not go near people or their nearby town, not even for supplies. Instead, the two spend their time studying magic and making metal music. But, after a chance encounter with another teenager causes her to uncover a connection between her family and witchcraft, Izzy begins to unpick everything.

Tense and bloody, Hellbender was praised for being ambitious and achieving things way beyond its tiny budget. 

5. The Innocents

A fine science-fiction tradition is dusted off for this Norwegian drama, which boasts a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97% . 

In the bright light of a Norwegian summer, four children become fast friends during the holidays. Away from the prying eyes of teachers and their parents, they discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities, their lives change completely, and, as you expect, things get rather dark...

Critics acknowledged that this is a well-known story structure, but praised the passion and commitment of the young cast and the film’s pacing and new take on things. 

4. The Duke

Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent lead this comedy-drama, which proved to be the final act for much-acclaimed British director Roger Michell. 

The movie retold the real-life cast of Kempton Bunton, a 60-year-old man who stole Francisco Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. After making off with the hugely valuable painting, Bunton then sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly.

Charming and tremendously warm, Broadbent’s Bunton and Mirren, who plays his wife Dorothy, are both at the top of their game here. 

3. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie 

The year’s finest anime and a feature-length version of Gege Akutami's hugely popular manga series, this movie has a mighty 98% rating on the reviews aggregator.  

The narrative follows Yuta Okkotsu, a high school student who suddenly gains control of an extremely powerful dark spirit, something that gets enrolled in the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, where he is overseen by Jujutsu Sorcerers to help him control his power. But, what they really want to do is keep an eye on him…

2. Happening

A searing French drama set at the start of the 1960s, this movie is an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s much-acclaimed novel, L'événement. 

We follow Anne, a young student who is progressing well academically and planning her career. After discovering she is pregnant, Anne’s grades begin to slip and her life choices begin to shrink, forcing her to confront the shame and pain of an abortion, something that comes with the risk of a prison sentence. 

The reviews for this movie have been wall to wall high-praise, with star Anamaria Vartolomei tipped for the biggest of things off the back of it. As you might gather from the subject matter, it's a harrowing watch at times, but beautifully and gracefully put together. 

1. Playground

Movies with 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes do not come around all that often, but the debut from writer-director Laura Wandel is one such movie. 

The definition of an intimate drama, this Belgian outing tracks Nora, a shy seven-year-old who is struggling to fit in at a new school. As she slowly tries to make friends, she notices her brother Abel, who is a few years older than her, being horrendous bullying. He doesn’t defend himself, nor does he want her to tell their father about it. 

Coming in at only 72 minutes, the film is a difficult watch, with the camera rarely leaving Nora’s side and giving this drama a truly unique perspective. Maybe not a film for a Friday night treat, but with a 100% rating, it’s a movie everyone should seek out. 

Tom Goodwyn was formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor. He's now a freelancer writing about TV shows, documentaries and movies across streaming services, theaters and beyond. Based in East London, he loves nothing more than spending all day in a movie theater, well, he did before he had two small children… 

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‘Elvis’ Review: Shocking the King Back to Life

Austin Butler plays the singer, with Tom Hanks as his devilish manager, in Baz Luhrmann’s operatic, chaotic anti-biopic.

By A.O. Scott

My first and strongest memory of Elvis Presley is of his death. He was only 42 but he already seemed, in 1977, to belong to a much older world. In the 45 years since, his celebrity has become almost entirely necrological. Graceland is a pilgrimage spot and a mausoleum.

Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” — a biopic in the sense that “Heartbreak Hotel” is a Yelp review — works mightily to dispel this funerary gloom. Luhrmann, whose relationship to the past has always been irreverent and anti-nostalgic, wants to shock Elvis back to life, to imagine who he was in his own time and what he might mean in ours.

The soundtrack shakes up the expected playlist with jolts of hip-hop (extended into a suite over the final credits), slivers of techno and slatherings of synthetic film-score schmaltz. (The composer and executive music producer is Elliott Wheeler.) The sonic message — and the film’s strongest argument for its subject’s relevance — is that Presley’s blend of blues, gospel, pop and country continues to mutate and pollinate in the musical present. There’s still a whole lot of shaking going on.

As a movie, though, “Elvis” lurches and wobbles, caught in a trap only partly of its own devising. Its rendering of a quintessentially American tale of race, sex, religion and money teeters between glib revisionism and zombie mythology, unsure if it wants to be a lavish pop fable or a tragic melodrama.

The ghoulish, garish production design, by Catherine Martin (Luhrmann’s wife and longtime creative partner) and Karen Murphy, is full of carnival sleaze and Vegas vulgarity. All that satin and rhinestone, filtered through Mandy Walker’s pulpy, red-dominated cinematography, conjures an atmosphere of lurid, frenzied eroticism. You might mistake this for a vampire movie.

It wouldn’t entirely be a mistake. The central plot casts Elvis (Austin Butler) as the victim of a powerful and devious bloodsucking fiend. That would be Col. Tom Parker, who supplies voice-over narration and is played by Tom Hanks with a mountain of prosthetic goo, a bizarre accent and a yes-it’s-really-me twinkle in his eyes. Parker was Presley’s manager for most of his career, and Hanks portrays him as part small-time grifter, part full-blown Mephistopheles.

“I didn’t kill Elvis,” Parker says, though the movie implies otherwise. “I made Elvis.” In the Colonel’s mind, they were “the showman and the snowman,” equal partners in a supremely lucrative long con.

Luhrmann’s last feature was an exuberant, candy-colored — and, I thought, generally underrated — adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” and the Colonel is in some ways a Gatsbyesque character. He’s a self-invented man, an arriviste on the American scene, a “mister nobody from nowhere” trading in the unstable currencies of wishing and seeming. He isn’t a colonel (Elvis likes to call him “admiral”) and his real name isn’t Tom Parker. The mystery of his origins is invoked to sinister effect but not fully resolved. If we paid too much attention to him, he might take over the movie, something that almost happens anyway.

Luhrmann seems more interested in the huckster than in the artist. But he himself is the kind of huckster who understands the power of art, and is enough of an artist to make use of that power.

As a Presley biography, “Elvis” is not especially illuminating. The basic stuff is all there, as it would be on Wikipedia. Elvis is haunted by the death of his twin brother, Jesse, and devoted to his mother, Gladys (Helen Thomson). Relations with his father, Vernon (Richard Roxburgh), are more complicated. The boy grows up poor in Tupelo, Miss., and Memphis, finds his way into the Sun Records recording studio at the age of 19, and proceeds to set the world on fire. Then there’s the Army, marriage to Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge), Hollywood, a comeback broadcast in 1968, a long residency in Las Vegas, divorce from Priscilla and the sad, bloated spectacle of his last years.

Butler is fine in the few moments of offstage drama that the script allows, but most of the emotional action is telegraphed in Luhrmann’s usual emphatic, breathless style. The actor seems most fully Elvis — as Elvis, the film suggests, was most truly himself — in front of an audience. Those hips don’t lie, and Butler captures the smoldering physicality of Elvis the performer, as well as the playfulness and vulnerability that drove the crowds wild. The voice can’t be imitated, and the movie wisely doesn’t try, remixing actual Elvis recordings rather than trying to replicate them.

At his first big performance, in a dance hall in Texarkana, Ark., where he shares a bill with Hank Snow (David Wenham), Snow’s son, Jimmie (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and other country acts, Elvis steps out in a bright pink suit, heavy eye makeup and glistening pompadour. A guy in the audience shouts a homophobic slur, but after a few bars that guy’s date and every other woman in the room is screaming her lungs out, “having feelings she’s not sure she should enjoy,” as the Colonel puts it. Gladys is terrified, and the scene carries a heavy charge of sexualized danger. Elvis is a modern Orpheus, and these maenads are about to tear him to pieces. In another scene, back in Memphis, Elvis watches Little Richard (Alton Mason) tearing up “Tutti Frutti” (a song he would later cover) and sees a kindred spirit.

The sexual anarchy and gender nonconformity of early rock ’n’ roll is very much in Luhrmann’s aesthetic wheelhouse. Its racial complications less so. “Elvis” puts its hero in the presence of Black musicians including Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Yola), Big Mama Thornton (Shonka Dukureh) and B.B. King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who offers career advice. An early montage — repeated so often that it becomes a motif — finds the boy Elvis (Chaydon Jay) simultaneously peeking into a juke joint where Arthur Crudup (Gary Clark Jr.) plays “That’s All Right Mama” and catching the spirit at a tent revival.

There’s no doubt that Elvis, like many white Southerners of his class and generation, loved blues and gospel. (He loved country and western, too, a genre the film mostly dismisses.) He also profited from the work of Black musicians and from industry apartheid, and a movie that won’t grapple with the dialectic of love and theft that lies at the heart of American popular music can’t hope to tell the whole story.

In the early days, Elvis’s nemesis is the segregationist Mississippi senator James Eastland (Nicholas Bell), whose fulminations against sex, race-mixing and rock ’n’ roll are intercut with a galvanic performance of “Trouble.” Later, Elvis is devastated by the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (who was killed “just three miles from Graceland”) and Robert F. Kennedy. These moments, which try to connect Elvis with the politics of his era, are really episodes in his relationship with Colonel Parker, who wants to keep his cash cow away from controversy.

When Elvis defies the Colonel — breaking out in full hip-shaking gyrations when he’s been told “not to wiggle so much as a finger”; turning a network Christmas special into a sweaty, intimate, raucous return to form — the movie wants us to see his conscience at work, as well as his desire for creative independence. But Luhrmann’s sense of history is too muddled and sentimental to give the gestures that kind of weight.

And Elvis himself remains a cipher, a symbol, more myth than flesh and blood. His relationships with Vernon, Priscilla and the entourage known as “the Memphis mafia” receive cursory treatment. His appetites for food, sex and drugs barely get that much.

Who was he? The movie doesn’t provide much of an answer. But younger viewers, whose firsthand experience of the King is even thinner than mine, might come away from “Elvis” with at least an inkling of why they should care. In the end, this isn’t a biopic or a horror movie or a cautionary parable: It’s a musical, and the music is great. Remixed, yes, and full of sounds that purists might find anachronistic. But there was never anything pure about Elvis Presley, except maybe his voice, and hearing it in all its aching, swaggering glory, you understand how it set off an earthquake.

Like a lot of people who write about American popular culture — or who just grew up in the second half of the 20th century — I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Elvis. “Elvis,” for all its flaws and compromises, made me want to listen to him, as if for the first time.

Elvis Rated PG-13. Rock ’n’ roll, sex, drugs. Running time: 2 hours 39 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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The 50 best films of 2022 in the UK

The No 1 film is a stunning directorial debut, one of the finest cinematic moments of any year – see which other movies you may have missed

• Read the US Top 50 movies of 2022
• More of the best culture of 2022

This list is compiled by the Guardian film team, with all films released in the UK during 2022 in contention. Check in every weekday to see our next picks, and please share your own favourite films of 2022 in the comments below.

Compartment No 6

Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen directs this answer to Before Sunrise, about an archaeology student who shares a train compartment with a boorish Russian; the pair connect despite their differences. Read the full review

• Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Cruise returns almost four decades on for another bout of speed and need: this time he is the mentor to a new generation of navy fighter pilots, led by Miles Teller, playing the son of Maverick’s late wingman, Goose. Read the full review

Paris, 13th District

The latest film from Rust and Bone director Jacques Audiard, here putting together a short story collection of sexual encounters and relationships in Paris’s 13th arrondissement, shot in tough black-and-white. Read the full review

Golden Lion-winning abortion drama, more relevant than ever, from director Audrey Diwan; a study of a woman (played by Anamaria Vartolomei) who becomes pregnant in early-60s, pre-legalisation France. Read the full review

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Entertaining second dose of Rian Johnson’s labyrinthine crime mystery, with Daniel Craig on good form as Hercule Poirot-esque detective Benoit Blanc, here investigating a murder-themed party that turns deadly. Read the full review

Split-screen dementia drama from Argentine provocateur Gaspar Noé, starring Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun as an elderly couple whose lives are dogged by the latter’s cognitive decline. Read the full review

The Woman King

Stirring period epic starring Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, a brigade of female warriors in west Africa who are attempting to see off threats from the Oyo empire as well as from slave-buying colonialists. Read the full review

Brian and Charles

David Earl and Chris Hayward’s story of an inventor’s relationship with his creation blends Caractacus Potts with Victor Frankenstein to heartwarming effect. Read the full review

French-Senegalese film-maker Alice Diop offers a sensitive portrayal of the disparate communities that live along one of Paris’s commuter rail lines, in a documentary predating her acclaimed fiction feature debut, Saint Omer. Read the full review

Everything Went Fine

André Dussollier and Sophie Marceau are outstanding in François Ozon’s wonderfully observed story about a father and daughter whose tricky relationship is upended when he asks for her help to die. Read the full review

Benediction

Terence Davies’s account of the life of Siegfried Sassoon (played by Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi in younger/older versions), tracing his career from lionised war poet to unhappy later life. Read the full review

Prayers for the Stolen

A heart-rending study of the traumatising life experience of a Mexican woman trying to ensure her daughter escapes the attentions of rapists and narcos who can apparently operate with impunity. Read the full review

Mysterious fable from Italian director Laura Samani, about a woman desperate to revive her stillborn baby who heads off on a quest to find the church that may be able to accomplish it. Read the full review

Great Freedom

Intriguing German drama about a former concentration camp inmate imprisoned after the war for gay sex acts, and who develops a complex relationship with his straight cellmate. Read the full review

Social-comment body horror from debut feature director Ruth Paxton, with Sienna Guillory as the apparently perfect single mother with two daughters, one of whom develops a mysterious eating disorder. Read the full review

All Quiet on the Western Front

Anti-war nightmare of bloodshed and chaos where teenage boys quickly find themselves caught up in the ordeal of trench warfare, in a German-language adaptation of the first world war novel. Read the full review

Lingui, the Sacred Bonds

Chadian auteur Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s quiet fable, about a woman torn between social proprieties and respecting her daughter’s decision to get an abortion. Read the full review

All That Breathes

Two Indian brothers dedicate themselves to rescuing birds that are being poisoned by pollution in this complex and quietly beautiful film. Read the full review

Vicky Krieps puts in a star turn as lonely, patronised Elizabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s austere drama that functions as a cry of anger from the pedestal-prison of an empress. Read the full review

Crimes of the Future

As he did with 90s hit Crash, David Cronenberg’s horror sensation creates a bizarre new society of sicko sybarites where pain is the ultimate pleasure and “surgery is the new sex”. Read the full review

The Worst Person in the World

Thelma director Joachim Trier comes up with an unexpectedly moving drama about a twentysomething woman (played by Renate Reinsve in a star-making performance) as she navigates relationships and jobs at a tricky period in life. Read the full review

The Souvenir Part II

Second half of Joanna Hogg’s autobiographical drama, with Honor Swinton Byrne as film student Julie as she abandons her social issue documentary in favour of making her own autobiographical memoir. Read the full review

American Honey director Andrea Arnold’s meaty slice of bovine socio-realism, detailing the life of dairy cows with unflinching and empathic precision. Read the full review

Complex metafiction of fear in which now-jailed director Jafar Panahi plays a version of himself, forced to shoot his new film in a town near the border with Turkey. Read the full review

White Noise

Don DeLillo’s novel of campus larks and eco dread gets an elegant, droll film treatment from Noah Baumbach, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. Read the full review

The Gravedigger’s Wife

Gentle, funny drama of a man seeking money for his spouse’s operation and his sick spouse from Somali-born director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed. Read the full review

Fire of Love

Romantic portrait of passionate, doomed volcanologists embraces the mythology around Maurice and Katia Krafft, the scientists who died in the 1991 Mount Unzen disaster. Read the full review

Powerful documentary on the legacy of slavery showing how an illegal slave ship led to the creation of an Alabama community of inherited trauma but also defiance. Read the full review

Deeply disturbing drama about mass killer Martin Bryant which shies away from depicting the Port Arthur massacre itself – but outstanding performances mean it is still a highly unsettling story. Read the full review

The Innocents

Creepy-kid horror from Norwegian director Eskil Vogt (co-writer of The Worst Person in the World ), about two young sisters who make friends with other children who apparently possess supernatural powers. Read the full review

The Northman

Brutal Viking saga based on the same legend as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Alexander Skarsgård as the chieftain’s son out for vengeance on the man who murdered his father and took his throne. Read the full review

Official Competition

Penélope Cruz is on fire in delicious movie industry satire in which she plays an eccentric director using unorthodox techniques to manage lead actors – and polar opposites – Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez. Read the full review

Exquisitely sad drama starring Bill Nighy in a Kazuo Ishiguro-scripted remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru about a man dealing with a terminal diagnosis. Read the full review

You Won’t Be Alone

Spellbinding horror movie from director Goran Stolevski, a witch story that follows a shapeshifter in a 19th-century village. Read the full review

Jason Isaacs and Ann Dowd are among the cast of a drama about the “healing” meeting between the parents of a high-school shooting victim, and the parents of the perpetrator. Read the full review

Bones and All

Teen cannibal romance with Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell, who dazzle in Luca Guadagnino’s blood-soaked parable of poverty and rebellion. Read the full review

Seven-year-old Maya Vanderbeque is brilliant in this Belgian schoolyard drama, as a girl called Nora who tries to confront classroom bullies in this short, intense film. Read the full review

The Banshees of Inisherin

Guinness-black comedy of male pain in which Martin McDonagh reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in remotest Ireland for an oddball study of isolation and hurt. Read the full review

Moonage Daydream

Glorious, shapeshifting eulogy to David Bowie from director Brett Morgen, whose intimate montage of the uniquely influential artist celebrates his career, creativity and unfailing charm. Read the full review

Funny Pages

Deliciously dark coming-of-age comedy from Owen Kline, that fuses teen innocence with adult sexuality in a bad-taste debut film that recalls American Splendor and Crumb. Read the full review

Decision to Leave

South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s sensational black-widow noir romance, starring Tang Wei, keeps the viewer off-balance at every turn. Read the full review

Tilda Swinton joins forces with Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul for an English-language, Colombia-set fable about a woman who can hear sounds that others don’t appear to. Read the full review

Haunting adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s story of divine possession, with Florence Pugh as a nurse who is sent to a rural Irish village to investigate a young girl who appears to be perfectly healthy despite not having eaten for months. Read the full review

Multilingual, pan-Indian, historical-action-romance blockbuster set in the 1920s, following a pair of real-life revolutionaries as they take on the might of the British Raj. Read the full review

Hit the Road

Beautifully composed debut feature from Panah Panahi, the son of jailed Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, this tense family drama is drenched in a subtle but urgent political meaning. Read the full review

Licorice Pizza

70s-set romance from Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Cooper Hoffman as a former child actor who sets his sights on 10-years-older Alana Haim as he gets into the waterbed business. Read more

Distinctive fusion of documentary and animation from Danish film-maker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, outlining the journey and heartache of a gay Afghan man living in Copenhagen, having left his home country as a 10-year-old. Read more

Parallel Mothers

Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar collaborate once again to tremendous effect; this time Cruz plays a woman sharing the same maternity ward as a much younger, troubled mother to be (played by Milena Smit ). Read more

The Quiet Girl

Deeply moving tale of rural Ireland in which a silent child is sent away to live with foster parents on a farm, in a gem of a film from first-time feature director Colm Bairéad. Read more

Father-daughter bonding drama starring Paul Mescal and nine-year-old Francesca Corio, attempting to navigate post-divorce family life in a Turkish beach resort. A brilliant debut feature from Charlotte Wells. Read the full review

• Best films UK 2022
• Drama films
• Documentary films
• Action and adventure films
• Jacques Audiard
• Rian Johnson

Most viewed

New movies 2022: release dates, casts, plots and everything we know about the year's most anticipated movies

New movies 2022: calendar for all the upcoming film release dates.

Moved out of 2022

Here's our new movies 2022 release dates calendar for all the remaining big films of the year. 

2022 has had some huge hits, with Top Gun: Maverick proving to be the biggest film of the year so far. Can anything beat Tom Cruise and co?

We have a series of in-depth guides to these huge films, such as our guide to the much-talked-about She Said .

We will regularly update our new movies 2022 guide — see also our new TV shows in 2022 guide — as release dates are changed, fresh plot details are teased and new films are announced. 

So, whether you're looking forward to seeing Daniel Craig in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery or desperate to know when Avatar 2 is out , we've got you covered... also if you like a bit of cinema history check out our best movie posters of all time guide.

Check out our new movies 2023 guide for movies coming out in 2023.

Our new movies 2022 calendar

• Stars: Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Diane Kruger.
• Directed by: Simon Kinberg.
• Release date: Jan. 7.

The 355 is a new spy thriller boasting a star-studded cast. It follows a group of international agents who join forces to recover a top-secret weapon.

Our The 355 review verdict: "Action, yes. Thrills, no. This soulless spy ensemble lets down the formidable women at its helm."

• Stars: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox.
• Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olphin, Tyler Gillett.
• Release date: Jan. 14

Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley reunite in the new Scream movie. Now, 25 years after the first string of murders shocked Woodsboro, a new killer is targeting unsuspecting teenagers... there's already a Scream trailer to enjoy.

Our Scream (2022) review verdict: " Scream slashes through modern horror culture with a slick, merciless blade in this fifth franchise entry that's just as spirited and sharp as Wes Craven's originals."

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania

• Stars: Brian Hull, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg.
• Directed by: Jennifer Kluska, Derek Drymon.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania sees all our favorite monsters back. The latest film in the series sees Drac and his pals all transformed into humans!

The King's Daughter

Based on the 1997 novel  The Moon and the Sun  by Vonda N. McIntyre, The King’s Daughter sees King Louis XIV capture a mermaid’s life force in his quest for immortality. But then his long-lost daughter forms a bond with the creature… Sadly, this has been something of a flop.

• Stars: Pierce Brosnan, William Hurt, Kaya Scodelario.
• Directed by: Sean McNamara.
• Release date: Jan. 21
• Stars: Halle Berry, Donald Sutherland, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley.
• Directed by: Roland Emmerich.
• Release date: Feb. 4

In the appropriately titled Moonfall the moon is rocketing towards Earth, threatening to wipe out civilization. Ex astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) heads into space on a mission to save the planet...

Our Moonfall review verdict: "Moonfall has just the right amount of confidence and craziness to make this cosmic doomsday a fun ride."

Jackass Forever

• Stars: Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Johnny Knoxville, Tony Hawk, Machine Gun Kelly.
• Directed by: Jeff Tremaine.
• Release date: Feb. 4.

Jackass Forever promises more crazy stunts from the gang. Could the fourth film be the maddest yet?!

Our Jackass Forever review verdict: "While as a whole it falls just short of the series' masterpiece Jackass Number Two , this swan-song offers enough unforgettable gags to make it worthy of its predecessors."

• Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman, Utkarsh Ambudkar.
• Directed by: Kat Coiro.
• Release date: Feb. 11

Marry Me could be just the ticket for Valentine's Day. After discovering her partner is cheating, a top pop star (obviously played by Jennifer Lopez!), marries a total stranger (Owen Wilson).

Our Marry Me review verdict: " Marry Me isn't an instant rom-com classic, but its two lead performances are so charming that it's easy to be won over."

Death On The Nile

• Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Tom Bateman, Letitia Wright, Dawn French, Sophie Okonedo.
• Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

Death On The Nile is the long-awaited follow-up to Murder On The Orient Express , Kenneth Branagh's first adventure as Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot. This time, Poirot's Egyptian vacation is transformed into a race against time to identify the murderer aboard a river cruiser before they can strike again.

Our Death On The Nile review verdict: "If this is to be the end of the road for Branagh’s Poirot, it’s an appropriately high note to go out on."

Meanwhile, there's talk of a third Poirot movie on the way.

• How to watch Death On The Nile

• Stars: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas.
• Directed by: Ruben Fleischer.
• Release date: Feb. 18 in US, Feb .11 in the UK.

Uncharted is Sony's adaptation of the iconic gaming series created by Naughty Dog. Tom Holland plays Nathan Drake with Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Victor Sullivan.

Our Uncharted review verdict: " Uncharted is a rip-roaring modern treasure hunt that plays by video game rules and has a blast doing so."

Uncharted has become a box office smash!

• How to watch Uncharted

• Stars: Channing Tatum.
• Directed by: Reid Carolin, Channing Tatum.
• Release date: Feb. 18.

Dog is a comedy road trip movie coming to theatres starring Channing Tatum as Army Ranger Briggs who is given the seemingly impossible task of transporting Lulu, an unruly Belgian Shepherd, down the Pacific Coast to attend its owner's funeral. 

• Stars: Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, Paul Dano, Zoë Kravitz.
• Directed by: Matt Reeves
• Release date: March 4

The Batman sees Robert Pattinson following in the footsteps of the likes of Adam West, Michael Keaton, and Christian Bale to play the iconic superhero. Little is known so far about the plot, but The Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman will all feature.

Our The Batman review verdict: " The Batman fires on all cylinders and commits to its darkest impulses without losing sight of the light at the core of its protagonist."

• Best Batman actors
• Best Catwoman stars

Turning Red

• Stars: Sandra Oh, Rosalie Chiang
• Directed by:  Domee Shi
• Release date: March 11

This animated Disney movie sees 13-year-old Meilin "Mei" Lee (Rosalie Chiang) wrestling with her own adolescent problems and her struggle to remain her mother's dutiful daughter. As if she didn't have enough problems in Turning Red , whenever she gets too excited she transforms into a giant red panda!

• Stars : Mark Rylance, Dylan O'Brien, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn.
• Directed by : Graham Moore.
• Release date : March 18

Mark Rylance stars in The Outfit as a tailor who makes suits on London's Savile Row until a personal tragedy sees him running a tailor shop on the wrong side of Chicago. Ironically his best clients are gangsters...

Our The Outfit review verdict: "Dick Pope's cinematography, Alexandre Desplat's score and Mark Rylance's leading role amount to much less than all that pedigree suggests."

The Lost City

• Stars: Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliffe , Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt
• Directed by:  Aaron Nee, Adam Nee.
• Release date: March 25 in the US, April 13 in the UK.

If you enjoyed Romancing the Stone , you may well like Sandra Bullock’s new comedy, The Lost City . She stars as a romantic novelist who heads off on a jungle escapade with her book cover model. 

Our The Lost City review verdict: "A pair of American Sweethearts are dulled-down gems in this dazzle-free cape."

Everything Everywhere All At Once

• Stars: Michelle Yeoh
• Directed by:  Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
• Release date: March 25 in the US, May 13 in the UK.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a universe-trotting movie that casts Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, an aging immigrant who discovers she has the power to connect with her other selves from across the multiverse and is forced to put these skills into practice to save every world.

In our Everything Everywhere All At once review, we said: " Everything Everywhere All at Once is a chaotic thrill ride everyone should experience"

• Stars: Jared Leto, Michael Keaton, Matt Smith, Tyrese Gibson, Jared Harris, Adria Arjona.
• Directed by: Daniel Espinosa.
• Release date: April 1 (changed from Jan 28)

Morbius is a talented scientist who ends up becoming a vampire with superhuman powers when his experiment to cure himself of a rare blood disease goes wrong. This is the latest movie set in Sony's Spider-Man universe, but it's been critically torn apart .

Our Morbius review verdict : "A bland, poorly directed, poorly written mess of bad VFX and shoddy editing that wastes its otherwise talented cast on a movie that can't even be enjoyed for camp appeal."

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

• Stars: Jim Carrey, Idris Elba, Ben Schwartz, Colleen O'Shaughnessey
• Directed by: Jeff Fowler
• Release date: April 8

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the second movie based on the popular video game franchise by SEGA. This time Sonic and his sidekick Tails go on a mission to track down the Master Emerald before it falls into the hands of Doctor Eggman and Knuckles.

Our Sonic the Hedgehog 2 review verdict: "Knuckles is the true star in this amusing sequel".

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

• Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Katherine Waterston.
• Directed by: David Yates.
• Release date: April 15 in the US, April 8 in the UK.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the third entry in the  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them   franchise that began in 2016. This time, Dumbledore enlists Newt Scamander and his companions on a mission that will see confronting Gellert Grindelwald's growing army.

Our Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore review : "The threequel shakes off its predecessor, but can’t quite reach Potter heights."

The Northman

• Stars: Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgard, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, Claes Bang.
• Directed by: Robert Eggers.
• Release date: April 22

The Northman is one for historical/mythology film fans. Set in 10th century Iceland, it follows Amleth who sets about on an epic revenge quest when his father is killed by his uncle.

Our The Northman review : " The Northman delivers on its purpose in bloody, gory spades.

Operation Mincemeat

• Stars: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald
• Directed by: John Madden
• Release date: April 22 in UK cinemas, due on Netflix in US on May 11.

Operation Mincemeat , based on the hit historical book by Ben Macintyre, follows an incredible bluff operation carried out by the Allies against the Nazis in World War Two.

Our Operation Mincemeat review said: " Operation Mincemeat shows that even in our darkest times the strength of humanity will always win out by celebrating the heroes of war."

The Bad Guys

• Stars: Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron.
• Directed by: Pierre Perifel

The Bay Guys is a computer-animated movie about a group of villains who decide, well, they don't want to be the bad guys any longer. Will Mr. Wolf and co really become the goodies now?

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

• Stars: Nicolas Cage, Neil Patrick Harris, Tiffany Haddish, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan
• Directed by: Tom Gormican

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is an eccentric action-comedy that sees Nicolas Cage taking center stage... as Nicolas Cage. When his life takes a surprise turn, this fictionalized version of Nick Cage is forced to channel a variety of his most recognizable characters in order to rescue his family from a dangerous criminal.

Our The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent review said: "Nicolas Cage is matched by scene partner Pedro Pascal as the two deliver brilliant comic performances in the offbeat The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent ."

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

• Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Directed by: Sam Raimi
• Release date: May 6

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a thrilling ride through the Multiverse with Doctor Strange, his trusted friend Wong and Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch.

Our Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness review verdict: "Sam Raimi makes the most Sam Raimi movie Marvel would allow, which works to liven otherwise heavy exposition in a more formulaic script focused on connecting multiverse dots."

Downton Abbey: A New Era

• Stars: Maggie Smith , Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Elizabeth McGovern, Joanne Froggatt, Dominic West, Jim Carter.
• Directed by:  Simon Curtis.
• Release date: May 20 in the US, April 29 in the UK.

Downton Abbey: A New Era sees the Crawleys heading off to France following an amazing revelation by Maggie Smith's Violet Crawley. "Years ago before you were born, I met a man...". What will they all discover about the Dowager's mysterious past? The Downton Abbey: A New Era trailer gives a real flavor of what we can expect. Note the release date has been pushed back from March.

Our Downton Abbey: A New Era review verdict: "Ticks all the right boxes for any Downton fan."

The Bob's Burger Movie

• Stars: H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal, Dan Mintz
• Directed by: Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman
• Release date: May 27

Top Gun: Maverick

• Stars: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly.
• Directed by : Joseph Kosinski

Ready to fly back into the danger zone? More than 35 years after the original  Top Gun , the Tom Cruise blockbuster has got a sequel in the form of  Top Gun: Maverick and it's brilliant!

Our Top Gun: Maverick review verdict: "The long-awaited sequel comes with maximum G-force."

And if you're wondering who Penny is in Top Gun , we have the answer!

Jurassic World: Dominion

• Stars: Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Chris Pratt, Laura Dern.
• Directed by: Colin Trevorrow.
• Release date: June 10.

Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum reunite for the first time together since the original blockbuster went out in 1993. Jurassic World: Dominion is now out and has had a mixed critical response, although our reviewer enjoyed it.

Our Jurassic World: Dominion review verdict: "It teams nostalgic moments and some thrilling new dinosaurs to put an emotional end to the much-loved franchise".

• Stars: Chris Evans.
• Directed by: Angus MacLane.
• Release date: June 17.

Lightyear   is a new spin-off in the  Toy Story   film franchise, which will explore the origin story of the Space Ranger who inspired the Buzz Lightyear action figure owned by Andy and Bonnie throughout the original film franchise. The Lightyear trailer promises much and the reviews are great, although it hasn't taken off at the box office.

• Stars: Tom Hanks, Austin Butler
• Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
• Release date: June 24 

Director Baz Luhrmann is "taking care of business" in his Elvis movie , starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks. HBO Max  subscribers will be available to stream the film just 45 days after its theatrical release.

Our Elvis review concluded: "For all its flaws, Luhrmann’s portrait of The King is a must-see."

The Man from Toronto

• Stars: Kevin Hart, Woody Harrelson, Kaley Cuoco.
• Directed by: Patrick Hughes.
• Release date: June 24 on Netflix

The Man from Toronto  follows longtime screw-up Terry (Kevin Hart) as his identity is mistakenly confused with that of a deadly assassin (Woody Harrelson) at an Airbnb.

The Black Phone

• Stars: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames
• Directed by: Scott Derrickson
• Release date: June 24

The Black Phone is a horror movie that centers on a serial killer known as The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) who kidnaps and murders local children. 13-year-old Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) is one such potential victim, though he begins to be contacted by the spirits of The Grabber's past victims who are dead set on helping him avoid the same fate.

Our The Black Phone review said: " The Black Phone is as horrifying as Sinister through different means and stars Ethan Hawke in a phenomenally despicable role."

Minions: The Rise of Gru

• Stars: Steve Carrell, Lucy Lawless, Pierre Coffin.
• Directed by: Kyle Balda, Jonathan del Val, Brad Ableson.
• Release date: July 1

Minions 2: The Rise of Gru focuses on a young Gru's journey to becoming an iconic supervillain. It's a lot of fun but has oddly sparked controversy through an odd TikTok trend which has seen people going to watch the film dressed in suits.

Thor: Love and Thunder

• Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale.
• Directed by: Taika Waititi.
• Release date: UK: July 7, US: July 8

In Thor: Love & Thunder Chris Hemsworth is back for his fourth solo adventure as the titular Asgardian. 

In this 80s-inspired film, he's searching for inner peace... a quest that is rudely interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). Together with Valkyrie, Korg and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who now wields the power of Mjolnir, Thor sets out on a mission to put a stop to Gorr's plans.

Our Thor: Love & Thunder review concluded: " Thor: Love and Thunder is packed with love and unleashes its mighty thunder with all the colorful personality we've come to appreciate from Taika Waititi's films."

The Gray Man

• Stars: Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page
• Directed by: The Russo Brothers
• Release date: Limited theatrical release on July 15, Netflix on Jul 22

The Gray Man is a high-octane thriller that sees skilled mercenary Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) recruited out of prison to be an 'agency-sanctioned merchant of death'. When he uncovers some dark secrets about his own organization, he's forced to go on the run whilst being hunted down by a group of assassins recruited by crazed CIA agent, Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans).

Our The Gray Man review concluded: " The Gray Man is a drab action thriller that reflects the colorfulness and excitement of its title, despite Chris Evans giving 110% as a wack job villain."

• Stars: Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Donna Mills.
• Directed by: Jordan Peele
• Release date: July 22

Nope is Jordan Peele's next creation following on from the huge successes of Get Out and Us . As with his previous two movies, very little has been revealed about the plot,  so it's difficult to predict exactly what we're going to get until it finally arrives.

Our Nope review concluded: " Nope doesn’t eclipse Peele’s previous work in Get Out or Us , but it’s still a cinematically rich, perfectly cast and solidly entertaining movie that'll generate multiple opinions."

Also check out our Nope ending explained piece.

Where the Crawdads Sing

• Stars: Garret Dillahunt, Daisy Edgar-Jones, David Strathairn.
• Directed by: Olivia Newman.
• Release date: US: July 15, UK July 22

Where the Crawdad's Sing is an adaptation of Delia Owen’s novel by Reece Witherspoon's production company starring Daisy Edgar-Jones. 

The story follows Kya Clark, a sensitive, intelligent young woman who has survived for years on her own in the marshes of Barkley Cove, North Carolina.

Our Where the Crawdad's Sing review verdict: "Strong visuals and an excellent cast don’t quite make up for a soft-centered story".

Also check out our Is Kya found guilty in Where the Crawdad's Sing piece.

Mrs Harris Goes To Paris

• Stars: Lesley Manville, Jason Isaacs, Anna Chancellor
• Directed by: Anthony Fabian
• Release date: July 15 in the US, Sept. 30 in the UK

Adapted from the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris follows a cleaning lady who falls in love with French fashion. Determined to buy her favorite frock, she heads to Paris on an adventure... 

• Stars: Olivia Colman
• Directed by: Emer Reynolds.
• Release date: July 29 UK only.

Young Mully steals a taxi whilst trying to get away from his father. Mully's soon shocked to find Olivia Colman's character Joy (and her baby) sitting in the backseat, and the two then set off on a riotous adventure together.

Our Joyride review said: "Powerhouse performances mean Joyride reaches its destination with ease".

DC League of Super-Pets

• Stars : Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Natasha Lyonne
• Directed by : Jared Stern, Sam Levine.
• Release date: July 29

Bullet Train

• Stars: Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock.
• Directed by: David Leitch.
• Release date: 3 August UK, 5 August US

Bullet Train revolves around five assassins who all board the same titular bullet train in Japan and soon realize that their missions are interlinked. Notable for being the first time Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock have starred together.

Our Bullett Train review concluded: "Brad Pitt has a ball as a hippy assassin, but ultimately he has more fun than the audience."

Easter Sunday

• Stars : Jo Koy, Jimmy O. Yang, Tiffany Haddish, Tia Carrere, Lou Diamond Phillips.
• Directed by : Jay Chandrasekhar.
• Release date : August 5

In Easter Sunday, s tand-up comedian Jo Koy plays Joe Valencia, a down-on-his-luck comedian attending a dysfunctional family Easter celebration with his Filipino American family. 

Secret Headquarters

• Stars: Owen Wilson, Jesse Williams.
• Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman.
• Release date: August 5.

• Stars: Idris Elba
• Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur
• Release date: August 19 (US), August 26 (UK).

Beast sees Idris Elba taking on an entirely new on-screen enemy: a large, ferocious lion who's become incredibly territorial and will stop at nothing to prove he's the one in charge.

Other cast includes Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries who plays his daughters Meredith and Norah. 

Spin Me Round

• Stars: Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Molly Shannon
• Director: Jeff Baena
• Release date: August 19 (US), UK not announced yet.

Anyone who loved the indie comedy The Little Hours is sure to be excited for Spin Me Round , which brings back many of the pieces for an all-new comedy. Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Molly Shannon reteam with writer/director Jeff Baena for this movie that starts off like a romance, but quickly things go hilariously off the rails...

• Stars: Tom Hanks.
• Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
• Release date: September 8 on Disney Plus

Pinocchio gets a live-action remake, starring Tom Hanks as Geppetto. The much-loved actor is teaming up again with Forest Gump director Robert Zemeckis for the film which will be available on Disney Plus .

See How They Run

• Stars: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody
• Directed by: Tom George
• Release date: September 9 (UK), September 16 (US)

The murder-mystery genre is having a moment in TV and movies again, with See How They Run another example of that. This star-studded comedy sees Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan try to solve a murder in a theater in the West End during the 1950s.

Ticket to Paradise

• Stars: Julia Roberts, George Clooney
• Directed by: Ol Parker
• Release date: September 20, please note was 16 September (UK), October 21 (US)

Ticket to Paradise is the story of a former married couple, played by Roberts and Clooney, who travel to Bali to prevent their daughter, Lily (played by Kaitlyn Dever), from marrying a guy she’s just met. She’s head over heels in love with him and her parents believe that she’s about to make a big mistake...

Our Ticket to Paradise review concludes: "A non-vintage but sparkling rom-com vehicle for two of Hollywood’s finest."

The Woman King

• Stars : Viola Davis, John Boyega, Lashana Lynch
• Directed by : Gina Prince-Bythewood
• Release date : September 16 (US), October 7 (UK)

Sony describes the plot of The Woman King as the following: " The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen."

Our The Woman King review said: " The Woman King obliterates everything you think you know about period storytelling and depicting Black-centered narratives. This is must-see cinema. 

Don't Worry Darling

• Stars: Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde.
• Directed by: Olivia Wilde
• Release date: Sept. 23

Billed as a thriller, Don’t Worry Darling centers on husband and wife, Alice and Jack, who live in an experimental 1950s utopian society, or so it seems. Alice begins to fear that there is more to their surroundings than meets the eye.

Our Don't Worry Darling review concluded: "Florence Pugh shines in this Stepford Wives style mystery drama, even if the audience might figure out the big reveal before the characters do."

• Stars : Ana de Armas, Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody
• Directed by : Andrew Dominik
• Release date : September 16 (select theaters), September 28 (Netflix)

The life of Marilyn Monroe is viewed through a new, fictionalized lens with Blonde , which features Ana de Armas as the famous Hollywood starlet in a movie adapted from a Joyce Carol Oates novel.

Hocus Pocus 2

• Stars: Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy
• Directed by: Anne Fletcher
• Release date: September 30

Hocus Pocus 2   will see Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy returning to play the iconic Sanderson sisters.

• Stars: Luke Macfarlane, Billy Eichner, Monica Raymund
• Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
• Release date: September 30 in US, October 28 in UK

Bros follows a man disenchanted by the process of looking for love who happens to find love with a guy he initially thinks is out of his league. 

• Stars : Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington
• Directed by : David O. Russell
• Release date : October 7 (US), November 4 (UK)

Director David O. Russell returns with his first movie in seven years with another all-star cast, including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy and Robert De Niro, just to name a few. Amsterdam is about three friends who witness a murder and in trying to prove their innocence discover one of the most outrageous plots in American history.

Our Amsterdam review 's verdict: "Despite boasting an impressive cast, Amsterdam could have been a good deal funnier." 

Lyle Lyle Crocodile

• Stars: Javier Bardem, Scoot McNairy, Constance Wu
• Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck
• Release date: October 7

Lyle Lyle Crocodile is an adaptation of the children's story of the same name and has a great cast attached including singer Shawn Mendes in the lead role, providing the voice of Lyle the crocodile. 

The Lost King

• Stars: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan
• Directed by: Stephen Frears
• Release date: October 7 UK, US tbc

The Lost King follows the remarkable story of one woman's fight to search for England's controversial King Richard III.

Our The Lost King review thought: "Frears and his collaborators turn Philippa's fascinating, stranger-than-fiction quest into a rousing, feelgood film."

• Stars: Emma Mackey
• Directed by: Frances O'Connor
• Release date: October 14 in the UK, no US release date currently.

Sex Education and Death on the Nile star Emma Mackey plays the titular role of the passionate author who died young, at just 30 years old, along with a host of young talent.

Emily has been described as imagining "the transformative, exhilarating and uplifting journey to womanhood of one of the world’s most famous, enigmatic and passionate writers".

Our Emily review concluded: "A fresh and atmospheric take on the Wuthering Heights author and creation story."

Halloween Ends

• Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Kyle Richards
• Directed by: David Gordon Green
• Release date: October 14

The legendary horror franchise is ready to deliver what is being billed as the final chapter in the Michael Myers and Laurie Strode saga. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Laurie Strode for the last time with Halloween Ends , more than 40 years after she starred in the original. 

Our Halloween Ends review wasn't impressed! " Halloween Ends is one of the least fulfilling endings to any trilogy, not to mention a rather inept Halloween film even compared to the franchise's previous huge swings."

• Stars : Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi
• Directed by : Jaume Collet-Serra
• Release date : October 21

Black Adam   sees Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson joining the DC cinematic universe, as he takes on the role of the complex comic book character. 

Our Black Adam review said: " Black Adam brings the lightning but stifles its thunder, feeling formulaic as a superhero origin story, but still notches heavy-hitting action beats."

The Banshees of Insiherin

It's an In Bruges reunion with The Banshees of Inisherin , with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson playing two long-time friends on the outs in the latest from Martin McDonagh. Check out our The Banshee of Inisherin locations piece.

My Policeman

• Stars : Harry Styles
• Directed by : Michael Grandage
• Release date : October 21 in theaters, then November 4 on Prime Video

My Policeman tells the story of PC Tom Burgess (Harry Styles), who struggles to hide his sexuality while living in Brighton on the British south coast in 1957. Based on the 2012 novel My Policeman by Bethan Roberts , the movie explores the criminalization of homosexuality in 1950s Britain.

Enola Holmes 2

• Stars : Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, David Thewlis
• Directed by : Harry Bradbeer
• Release date : November 4

The game is afoot once again with Sherlock Holmes little sister in Enola Holmes 2 . The sequel to the 2020 hit brings back much of the main cast for an all new mystery.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

• Stars: Martin Freeman, Michaela Coel, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright
• Directed by: Ryan Coogler
• Release date: Nov. 11

The original Black Panther was not only a box-office behemoth and the first superhero movie to earn an Oscar Best Picture nomination, but it became a true cultural phenomenon. All of that makes the long-awaited sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , that much more exciting.

• Stars : Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Anthony Hopkins
• Directed by : Florian Zeller
• Released date : November 11

The Father writer/director Florian Zeller has his follow-up movie, The Son , which stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Anthony Hopkins. The movie follows a father who has his new life upended when his son arrives.

• Stars: Carey Mulligan, Samantha Morton
• Directed by: Maria Schrader
• Release date: November 18 US, November 25 UK

She Said is the story of the New York Times journalists whose groundbreaking reporting of Hollywood abuse launched the #MeToo movement.

Our She Said review concluded: "Big-screen investigative journalism has never been so heart-pounding or so impassioned. A triumph."

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

• Stars: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr.
• Directed by: Rian Johnson
• Release date: November 23 for US and UK, then December 23 on Netflix.

Who's ready for another Knives Out mystery? The sequel to the 2019 movie, titled Glass Onion , sees Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc return with a new case, featuring another star-studded ensemble. And in great news for cinema lovers the movie does have a theatrical release date before hitting Netflix. 

Strange World

• Stars: Alan Tudyk
• Directed by: Don Hall
• Release date: November 23 in the US, November 25 in the UK

Walt Disney Animation Studios describes the Strange World plot with the following: 

"The feature film introduces a legendary family of explorers, the Clades, as they attempt to navigate an uncharted, treacherous land alongside a motley crew that includes a mischievous blob, a three-legged dog and a slew of ravenous creatures." 

Our Strange World review said: "Disney’s latest animation ticks lots of boxes, but only scratches the surface of its many themes."

The Fabelmans

• Stars: Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen
• Directed by: Steven Spielberg
• Release date: November 23 (US), January 27 (UK)

Steven Spielberg gets autobiographical in The Fabelmans , with this story based on his life living in a post-war Arizona.

Our The Fablemans review commented: "Spielberg is able to look at his own origin with a mix of sincerity and humor, though the balance can feel a little off at times."

Disenchanted

• Stars: Amy Adams, Adam Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Idina Menzel
• Directed by: Adam Shankman
• Release date: November 24 US (Disney Plus), November 26 UK (Disney Plus)

Disney teases: " Disenchanted takes place 15 years after the events of the original movie. Giselle and Robert are now married and decide to move from New York to the suburb of Monroeville with their teenage daughter, Morgan. There, Giselle 'must juggle the challenges that come with a new home and discover what happily ever after truly means to her and her new family.'" 

White Noise

• Stars : Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Jodie Turner-Smith
• Directed by : Noah Baumbach
• Release date : November 25 (in theaters), December 30 (Netflix)

Adapted from Don DeLilo's novel of the same name, White Noise follows a family as they attempt grapple with the mundane elements of their lives as well as a dangerous virus.

Matilda the Musical

• Stars: Emma Thompson, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough and Alisha Weir
• Directed by: Matthew Warchus
• Release date: December 2 (UK), December 9 (US), December 25 (Netflix)

The Broadway adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical comes to the big screen this year. With Emma Thompson transforming into the detestable Miss Trunchbull the movie looks like a delight.

• Stars: Kate Winslet, Sam Worthington, Michelle Yeoh.
• Directed by: James Cameron.
• Release date: December 16

Easily one of the biggest new movies in 2022, Avatar 2 is finally coming to the cinemas more than a decade after the original was released. Fans will be able to see what's next for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), following on from the events of the first film which saw Jake permanently transferred into his avatar after Ney'tiri saves him from suffocation.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

• Stars: Antonio Banderas.
• Directed by: Joel Crawford.
• Release date: December 21 in US, February 3, 2023 in UK.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Part One)

• Stars: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Issa Rae
• Directed by: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
• Release date: June 2, 2023 ( was Oct. 7 2022)

Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey are heading back into the Spider-Verse in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) . And yep, there is a part-two on its way as well although not now until 2024!

Legally Blonde 3

• Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Cauffiel, Jennifer Coolidge
• Directed by : Jamie Suk
• Release date: Originally May 20, 2022, now not known.

Reese Witherspoon reprises her role as Elle Woods for the much-anticipated Legally Blonde 3 movie. The third installment of the franchise promises to show Elle in her 40s. Over 20 years after the original, how has life treated the lawyer? In bad news for fans, Legally Blonde 3 is no longer coming out in 2022 and its future is unclear.

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David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.

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‘Coup de Chance’ Is Woody Allen’s Best Film in Years

'coup de chance' restores the masterful filmmaker to his deserved position as one of the screen’s most profound storytellers. .

Unfairly derailed by obvious, headline-demanding personal problems, Woody Allen ’s phenomenal career returns to where it should never have paused in the first place with this languidly paced but endlessly mesmerizing combination of domestic-crisis love story and suspense-layered murder mystery—his first (and best) film in years. Set in the upper-class echelons of Paris and written, acted and filmed entirely in French, the title Coup de Chance translates as “stroke of luck,” and that’s exactly what it is, restoring the masterful filmmaker to his deserved position as one of the screen’s most profound storytellers. 

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The film centers on what outwardly appears to be the perfect marriage of Fanny and Jean Fournier, a rich, attractive couple who don’t seem to have a care in the world. The envy of even their most familiar friends, the Fourniers are like glamorous role models in glossy articles in French Vogue: trendy clothes, a fashionable lifestyle, regular patrons in the most expensive restaurants, a lavish apartment, and a gorgeous ivy-covered weekend house in the country. Fanny (charming, appealing Lou de Laâge ), having survived a miserable first marriage to a lazy, abusive musician, has hit pay dirt with Jean (dashing Melvil Poupaud ). She stays busy working for an exclusive art gallery. He doesn’t do anything but make money as an entrepreneur and a business advisor to rich friends. Two lives well lived, but as in all Woody Allen movies, perfection isn’t everything. The wrinkle in the seamless canvas is boredom. Fanny considers their life missing the proverbial lost chord. She’s tired of weekends with superficial guests who talk about money, travel and the world’s best hotels and wines, has no interest in Jean’s passion for deer hunting, and longs for a change.

Opportunity knocks when Fanny accidentally runs into Alain ( Niels Schneider ), an old schoolmate and once-potential boyfriend she hasn’t seen in years, now a published (and intriguingly divorced) writer working on a new novel, and wonders: if she had married him, would it have led to a different, more exciting life? Against her better judgment, curiosity and a dormant sexuality invade her subconscious. The former school acquaintances begin to meet for casual lunches in the park. Suddenly Jean can’t reach her at work. Cooking spaghetti at his apartment, buying a lottery ticket, change is gradual. Alain makes the mistake of calling when he thinks she’s home alone, and Jean makes the mistake of answering the phone. A coincidence turns into an infatuation and the result is a passionate, full-blown affair. Humiliated and furious, Jean hires a detective, and 48 minutes into the film, irony turns lethal and romance turns to murder. But this is, above all, a Woody Allen movie, so even tragedy blends with humor. I’ll refrain from any spoilers, so you’ll have to ponder who does what to whom—and how. But in another left turn, a new character moves to center stage when Fanny’s mother, suspicious and a devout reader of crime novels, embraces paranoia and continues the narrative in ways that will leave your mouth wide open with shock. Nothing happens the way you think it will, and Coup de Chance will keep you riveted with suspense and surprise.

I wouldn’t describe Woody Allen as a reluctant director, but in this film, his laid-back style has the feel of a jazz improvisation, which is reflected to the hilt in the changing tempos of the screenplay, and in everything from the beauty of the elegant cinematography by the accomplished Vittorio Storaro to the intimacy of the background ballad music by great jazz musicians such as Nat Adderley , Milt Jackson and the Modern Jazz Quartet. 

Superb performances by a sterling cast are an enormous help, too. Especially Lou de Laâge, whose Fanny is endlessly fascinating in a quirky but realistic way, full of unique revelations and traces of Diane Keaton . Her mid-tempo acting style—expressive, with great feeling—easily held my attention from beginning to end. In Woody Allen, she seems to have found the right director to bring out the unexpected strength in the face of adversity needed to meld the power of humor and logic. Coup de Chance is about fate—and the consequences of luck. Woody’s “take” is there is no such thing as fate; we make our own luck. And she, in turn, brings out the intention of her director in spades. Like his films, which are incisive, brightly lit social observations about the human condition, hers is a mirror that masks the darkness of the human heart with the wit, intelligence and survival of the human spirit.

• SEE ALSO : Dorian Harewood Returns To Broadway In ‘The Notebook’ After Almost 50 Years

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The First Omen

A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hop... Read all A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate. A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

• Arkasha Stevenson
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• Nell Tiger Free
• Ralph Ineson
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• 38 User reviews
• 75 Critic reviews
• 64 Metascore

• Father Brennan

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Burning Questions With Nell Tiger Free

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Did you know

• Trivia All entries contain spoilers
• Goofs The fashion used by the supporting characters, as well as the extras in the film, do not belong to the early seventies, but to the middle of that decade. Additionally, the song "Daddy Cool" by the group Boney M. is heard in a scene. This song was released in 1976 and the film is set in 1971.

Young nanny : [from trailer, played in reverse] Look at me, Damien! It's all for you.

• Connections Follows The Omen (1976)

User reviews 38

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• Apr 5, 2024

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A 2016 Thriller Is The Top Movie On Netflix Right Now

Senior Reporter, HuffPost Life

“The Accountant” is the most popular movie on Netflix , according to the platform’s public ranking system.

The action thriller was released in theaters in 2016 to mixed reviews from critics but positive box office returns. “The Accountant” follows a CPA on the autism spectrum whose accounting office is a front for criminal organizations’ money laundering schemes.

The movie stars Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick and J. K. Simmons., and a sequel is currently in the works.

Read on for more trending movies of the moment across streaming services including Max, Apple TV+, Hulu and Peacock. And if you want to stay informed about all things streaming, subscribe to the Streamline newsletter .

“Butcher’s Crossing”

The most popular movie on Hulu right now is “Butcher’s Crossing.”

An adaptation of John Edward Williams’s 1960 novel of the same name, the Western was released in theaters in 2023 after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022.

“Lisa Frankenstein”

Zelda Williams’ directorial debut, “Lisa Frankenstein,” is currently trending on Peacock.

Written by Diablo Cody, the comedy horror movie takes place in the same fictional universe as the screenwriter’s 2009 film “Jennifer’s Body.” This movie revolves around a goth teen (played by Kathryn Newton) who develops a relationship with a Victorian-era corpse (Cole Sprouse) that has been brought back to life in a zombie-like state.

“A Star Is Born”

“A Star Is Born” is on the list of current popular movies on Apple TV+.

The 2018 musical romance is the fourth adaptation of this classic story about an aspiring star who falls in love with an alcoholic celebrity who helps launch her career. “A Star Is Born” marked the directorial debut of Bradley Cooper, who also starred in the movie with Lady Gaga.

“Kong: Skull Island”

The 2017 monster movie “Kong: Skull Island” is trending on Max at the moment ― which is likely related to the recent release of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” in theaters on March 29.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and features a star-studded cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson and John C. Reilly.

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10 Movies to See at New Directors/New Films, NYC’s Premier Showcase for Emerging Filmmakers

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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Looking for bold new work from first- and second-time feature filmmakers? Look no further than New Directors/New Films , the premier New York City festival that annually highlights them.

Also premiering at the festival is Sundance favorite “ Exhibiting Forgiveness ,” Titus Kaphar’s emotive drama starring André Holland as an artist confronted by the resurfacing of his long-estranged father. During the festival, IndieWire will host a live recording of the weekly “Screen Talk” podcast, with co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio joined by “Blue Valentine” director Derek Cianfrance. He’s at the festival as a producer on “Exhibiting Forgiveness.”

Below, we round up 10 must-see movies at New Directors/New Films.

David Ehrlich contributed to this story.

“A Different Man”

Aaron Schimberg’s  mordantly funny the-universe-is-a-cruel-joke film  “A Different Man” stars Sebastian Stan as Edward, a New York actor who undergoes an experimental facial reconstruction surgery only to end up cast as himself in a play about his former life. The playwright is Edward’s former neighbor, the eccentric Ingrid ( Renate Reinsve , playing the type of woman who loves to watch things die), and the play is interrupted by a man with neurofibromatosis named Oswald (Adam Pearson), who is Edward’s doppelganger and a charisma machine who outpaces him in every way.

“Stress Positions”

The summer of 2020 shouldn’t project beautiful memories onto the brain maps of those who endured it, but Theda Hammel’s anxiety-addled screwball feature debut “Stress Positions,” set around that COVID Fourth of July in New York, asks you to relive the scary days of sheltering in place, banging pots and pans in solidarity with health care workers, and social distancing whenever it was convenient or made you look like you stood for something.

“Stress Positions” mines the gap between the dark bookend of events that shaped millennial lives — September 11 and the pandemic — and that between liberal-posturing millennials and a Gen Z with a less fussy, more hopeful worldview. Hammel’s muses and emissaries on either side of the dichotomy in a comedy swirling with ideas are comedian  John Early  as a gay soon-to-be-divorcee and Qaher Harhash as his nephew, a 19-year-old Moroccan model with identity-shifting questions of his own. Here is a movie that sees a hapless set of self-obsessed millennials who came of age out of liberal arts colleges and the internet for who they really are. — RL

“Good One”

A slight but sensitive and fantastically assured debut that unfolds with the pointillistic detail of a great short story, India Donaldson’s “Good One” is a coming-of-age story that jettisons all of the genre’s most familiar trappings in favor of a long walk in the woods.

“Exhibiting Forgiveness”

The past is never really gone. Memories can invade the mind, feeling as immediate as the present. Moving on from past pain is a constant journey. In Titus Kaphar’s debut feature “ Exhibiting Forgiveness ,” the struggle of moving on plagues a successful painter trying to live in the present with his family. Tarrell ( André Holland ) is harried by memories of his abusive father, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), including nightmares about their time together. He wakes up angry and violent, scaring his wife, Aisha (Andra Day). Despite their beautiful home and darling son, Tarrell can’t seem to settle. His success can’t heal the wounds of his childhood. 

This trauma inspires new, deeply personal paintings that beg for their own gallery show. But Tarrell doesn’t know how he feels about the work, and Aisha — who is a singer-songwriter — wants to return to the studio and focus on her own art. “It’s my turn,” she says more than once. They can’t both be busy because they have a son to raise, but the urgency of Tarrell’s trauma-fueled art takes priority. There’s also his mother, Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who is supposed to be moving closer to him and his family, leaving his childhood home behind. Like Tarrell, Joyce can’t seem to let go, but she romanticizes their troubled past, refusing to see it for what it was. — Jourdain Seales

“Hesitation Wound”

Still, despite the high standards of their lawyer colleagues on screen and the woeful ones of those experienced by many in real life, Canan, the protagonist of “Hesitation Wound,” is a compelling, knotty heroine who doesn’t over-concern herself with what end of the spectrum she lies in. She is a performance wrapped in a performance. Taking on the role of “lawyer” with a hardened artifice that, even before the plot wraps her up in moral quandaries, shows her to be a complex, empathetic, morally upstanding, chainsmoking, brittle-shelled pragmatist, with no fulfilling identity beyond her profession. Most impressively, that level of nuanced characterization unspools within the first 10 minutes of the  film , thanks to a truly stunning performance by Tulin Ozen. — Leila Latif

“Explanation for Everything”

Hungarian director Gábor Reisz’s 2023 Venice premiere is a sprawling and nearly three-hour panorama of the inner life of a Budapest high schooler, Abel (Adonyi-Walsh Gáspár), who is in love with his best friend and lost amid the crush of high school final exams. Abel’s interior tensions boil over to include many of the people in his life, family and friends, as the movie expands its scope. “Explanation for Everything” takes a hard look at Hungary’s education system, and its ideological divides, through the lens of a coming-of-age story where the youth are the only hope, but also jaded by their circumstance and the world they’ve inherited. —RL

“Omen”

From IndieWire’s review by Arjun Sajip: The film “offers a deeply felt look at Congolese customs, sensibilities, and family dynamics, it foregrounds its own European perspective. What results is an intriguingly ambivalent reckoning with Baloji’s mother country, a genre-hopping, beautifully slippery exploration of Congolese belief systems and their relation to patriarchally inflicted traumas.” — RL

“Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry”

Georgian director Elene Naveriani’s 2023 Cannes premiere “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” focuses on an independently minded, never-married woman in her late 40s who has an affair with her handyman. Eka Chavleishvili stars as the woman casually steers her life into a tailspin following a near-death experience. Naveriani wanted to make an empowering tale about a later-in-life woman at a crossroads over new romance, and in a remote Georgian village where gossip runs hot and nothing much exciting happens to anybody, until now. — RL

“All, or Nothing at All”

Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang’s feature debut “All, or Nothing At All” unfolds entirely on an urban shopping mall island in Shanghai. Against the glittering spoils of commerce, strangers form romantic connections cluttered by consumerism, in a shiny place where people waste time and money. Zhang, with screenwriter Hee Young Pyun, unwraps the story across two timelines as lovers entwine and drift apart alongside passersby and vendors. The film uses surveillance cameras and cell phone footage to tell a story in two parts, both of which will be presented at New Directors/New Films. — RL

“A Good Place”

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Former MAGA to undercover conservative, characters make 'Girls State' a fascinating watch

Timing is everything.

That’s one takeaway from “Girls State,” the excellent, thankfully inevitable follow-up to the also excellent “Boys State.” Both are directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss; both follow students through the weeklong program that immerses them in government. But not JUST government.

As Maddie Rowan, one of the participants, says at the beginning: “There’s a funny feeling in the air. There’s something in the air. And it’s politics.”

Is it ever.

“Boys State” came out in 2020, but the events took place in Texas in 2018. Gun control and abortion rights were central to the debates as the boys running for office shaped their platforms.

“Girls State,” however, takes place in the summer of 2022 in Missouri, and timing is everything.

When does 'Girls State' take place?

It’s set in the strange time between the leak of the Supreme Court draft that outlined the decision to kill Roe v. Wade and the announcement of the decision itself; the decision was handed down six days after "Girls State" ended. The inevitability colors everything, playing out like a slow-motion car crash, one in which you know impact is coming but you can’t do anything to avoid it.

Tochi Ihekona — who at the outset muses that for some of the participants from smaller, more rural communities, she might be the first Black person they’ve ever interacted with — personifies the real-world political stakes when she is tasked with with defending the state’s requirement that women seeking an abortion must undergo mandatory counseling. Tochi is smart and does her job well, but her beliefs don’t line up with the state’s.

As with “Boys State” — as with any good documentary — the film’s success is dependent upon the characters, and once again McBaine and Moss have found a crop of compelling ones. They flit through a flurry of girls at the outset, as the participants check in and decide what they want to do with their time there. Nisha Murali, for instance, uses her campaign to be on the Supreme Court as a means of overcoming her shyness (though she is plenty passionate about issues). There’s also a funny bit where another girl who is running for the Supreme Court is asked what case has affected her most. She goes with the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case without hesitation.

The participants in 'Girls State' are products of the times

Of course, the most ambitious girls know from the start what they want and scheme to get it. Governor is the highest office, and it’s in that race the star of the film, if it can be said to have one, emerges.

Emily Whitmore announces herself as “that girl” in her high school, the one who not only participates in everything, but more or less runs it all, too. She hasn’t lost an election since grade school, and not only does she plan on running for and winning governor at Girls State, she plans on being President of the United States in 2040. She has plans, you might say.

Ah, but the best-laid plans and all that. It’s no spoiler to say that things won’t go exactly the way Emily imagines they will — no spoiler because do anyone’s, ever? She has kept her conservative views under wraps so far, she says, so that she won’t turn off any potential audience — the “Republicans buy shoes, too” reasoning that Michael Jordan popularized. (That a high-school girl thinks in terms of an audience already says something about both Emily and the times in which she lives.)

Emily uses Girls State to announce her conservative views — but she also insists that she has no interest in forcing them onto anyone who disagrees with them. She’s never going to get her MAGA credentials with that attitude. One of her rivals, Faith Glasgow, WAS a MAGA follower, thanks to her family and community. But she has rejected their beliefs and runs as a hard-charging progressive. (She was voted Most Judgmental in her Girl Scout troop, she notes with a touch of pride. She’s not there to make friends, she says. She’s there to talk about politics.)

'Girls State' shines a light on inequality, in mock and real government alike

For the first time, Boys State and Girls State are held on the same Missouri college campus, though there are strict rules against any interaction. The girls, who have a stricter dress code and other more rigid requirements, begin to chafe at the inequality.

Why, for instance, does the actual governor of Missouri swear in the boy who wins Boys State governor, but not his female counterpart?

This leads to a somewhat surprising and hopeful development, though inequality, whether seen through how much say women have when making choices about their bodies or through the disparity in spending on Boys State and Girls State, remains prevalent throughout.

If the purpose of Girls State is to give high-school students a taste of how government works in real life, “Girls State” makes a case that it does its job only too well.

'Boys State' review: An enlightening, depressing documentary about politics

'Girls State' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Directors: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss.

Cast: Emily Worthmore, Faith Glasgow, Cecilia Bartin.

Rating: Not rated.

How to watch: Streaming on Apple TV+ on Friday, April 5.

Reach Goodykoontz at  [email protected] . Facebook:  facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm . Twitter:  @goodyk .

Subscribe to azcentral.com today .   What are you waiting for?

The 7 Best Movies to Watch Before They Leave Hulu in April 2024

From ‘The Menu’ to ‘Blade Runner 2049’, be sure to watch these films before they leave the streaming platform.

April is right around the corner, and what better way to embrace the changing month than by diving into Hulu ’s top-notch movie collection? While April often brings spring thoughts and blooming flowers, Hulu offers a variety of movies for those looking beyond the blossoming fare. From the culinary horror comedy The Menu to the sci-fi hit Blade Runner 2049 , Hulu’s vast movie library, there’s something for everyone to enjoy, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the April spirit.

Check out these Hulu movie recommendations to accompany the new month. Don’t wait too long, though. These cinematic gems may bid adieu sooner than you think.

'The Menu' (2022)

Fine dining has never been as frightening as The Menu . When a skeptical Margot Mills (Taylor-Joy) tags along with her date, foodie Tyler Ledford (Hoult), on a culinary adventure to a secluded island, all she expects is an overpriced five-course meal with a bunch of pretentious snobs. But when the two finally step into Hawthorn, an exclusive restaurant helmed by renowned chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes), they discover that Slowik’s culinary prowess extends beyond the boundaries of traditional fine dining. But amidst the opulence and extravagance Hawthorn offers, guests are met with shocking surprises that each course offers, eventually leading to shocking, and even deadly results. Part satire and part social commentary, The Menu is praised for its slow-burn suspense and performances .

'Mr. Right' (2015)

What happens when the wrong man ends up being your Mr. Right ? Martha (Kendrick) knows this dilemma all too well, having been the joke of failed relationships with the wrong kind of men. On the brink of giving up on love altogether, she unexpectedly finds herself smitten with the unconventional Francis (Rockwell), who, not surprisingly, charms Martha’s socks off. But of course, appearances can be deceiving. As it turns out, Francis is a former CIA and mercenary agent turned professional hitman, who ironically enough, makes it his mission to kill those who misuse his services. Despite his unorthodox career choice, Martha falls for Francis instead. As their relationship deepens, Martha is further pulled into Francis’ world of contract killing, dodging bullets, and evading ruthless criminals determined to kill him.

'Blade Runner 2049' (2017)

Blade Runner 2049 is set in dystopian Los Angeles 2049, in a world now controlled by the Tyrell Corporation’s successor, Niander Wallace (Leto). Newer generations of obedient replicants coexist with outdated models that pose a threat. LAPD Officer “K” (Gosling) is tasked with hunting down these rogue androids . But in the middle of his journeys, K unearths a long-buried secret that threatens to disrupt society’s fragile balance thirty years after the events of the original Blade Runner . His discovery leads him on a quest to locate Rick Deckard (Ford), a former Blade Runner who has been missing for three decades. As K digs deeper into the mystery, he uncovers clues about his past, raising questions about his identity and purpose.

'Ghostbusters' (1984)

In the spirit of the franchise’s latest installment , Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire , take a trip down memory lane with the original Ghostbusters movie. Three eccentric parapsychologists (people who study psychic phenomena) - Spengler (Ramis), Stantz (Aykroyd), and Venkman (Murray) - find themselves booted off their cushy university jobs. Deciding to pursue a different career path, the trio set up shop in an old firehouse and launched a unique ghost removal service. Their popularity soars as they quickly become New York City’s go-to experts in all things paranormal. But when a downtown skyscraper becomes a focal point for supernatural activity linked to the ancient god Gozer, the Ghostbusters face their biggest challenge yet. With the fate of humanity at stake, the three embark on an epic showdown against the living dead. Someone better give them a raise.

'Pacific Rim' (2013)

Humanity faces annihilation in Pacific Rim , as monstrous sea creatures known as Kaiju emerge from a portal in the Pacific Ocean. To combat the relentless onslaught, colossal robots called Jaegers are developed, piloted by pairs of neural-linked individuals. However, as the Kaiju attacks escalate in intensity, the Jaegers struggle to keep pace, pushing humanity to the brink of defeat. Amidst the chaos, former pilot Raleigh Becket (Hunnam) and untested trainee Mako Mori (Kikuchi) are thrust together to pilot an outdated Jaeger in a desperate bid to turn the tide of the war. As they confront their own fears and past traumas, they become humanity's last hope against the impending apocalypse.

'Shazam!' (2019)

Abandoned teen Billy Batson (Angel) navigates a tumultuous search for his birth mother, bouncing between foster homes until he lands with a loving foster family. Unexpectedly chosen by the Wizard Shazam (Hounsou), Billy inherits incredible superpowers , transforming into an adult superhero (Levi) whenever he utters the wizard’s name. Alongside his foster brother Freddy, Billy revels in his newfound abilities, but soon faces a formidable foe: Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong), who harnesses the power of the Seven Deadly Sins. As Sivana threatens to unleash chaos upon the world, Billy must grapple with the responsibilities of his newfound heroism.

'Wonder Woman' (2017)

In Wonder Woman , Diana (Gadot), princess of the Amazons, is raised as a warrior in the secluded paradise of Themyscira. When pilot Steve Trevor (Pine) crashes on their shores and reveals the horrors of World War I, Diana is convinced she can stop the conflict. Leaving her home behind, she ventures into the world of men, discovering her full powers and embracing her destiny as Wonder Woman . Armed with her Amazonian strength and compassion, Diana joins Steve on a mission to end the war, facing unexpected foes and uncovering the truth about her own heritage.

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Best Movies of 2024: Best New Movies to Watch Now

Welcome to our guide of the Best Movies of 2024, featuring every Certified Fresh movie as they come in week by week!

In March : Love Lies Bleeding and Problemista , both from A24 . One Life , starring Anthony Hopkins. Ordinary Angels , starring Hilary Swank. In horror, we got You’ll Never Find Me and  Late Night with the Devil , the latter which also tops our best horror of 2024 list . Dialogue-free animation Robot Dreams and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World jockeying for the top spot here.

And what about February ? Dune pretty good, thanks for asking. Part Two went Certified Fresh within an hour after the reviews embargo lifted on February 21st. With it outclassing the first Dune , we took a look at 20 sequels that got better Tomatometer scores than their originals . Otherwise, things got freaky with horror film Stopmotion and the comic zaniness of Hundreds of Beavers taking the crown for the best-reviewed of the year.

We didn’t have a blockbuster January like we did in 2023 ‘s, when genre surprises M3GAN and Plane went Certified Fresh. But Daisy Ridley got her post-Skywalker win with Sometimes I Think About Dying . Mads Mikkelsen re-teamed with his A Royal Affair director Nikolaj Arcel to find The Promised Land. With The Crime Is Mine , Francois Ozon is getting career-best reviews, and his 10th Certified Fresh film over the past decade-and-change. And Netflix scored with The Kitchen , Orion and the Dark , and Good Grief .

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) 98%

Robot Dreams (2023) 98%

The Crime Is Mine (2023) 98%

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) 98%

Molli and Max in the Future (2023) 98%

Late Night with the Devil (2023) 97%

Io Capitano (2023) 97%

Tótem (2023) 97%

The Promised Land (2023) 96%

Hundreds of Beavers (2022) 95%

Fitting In (2023) 95%

Driving Madeleine (2022) 94%

Limbo (2023) 94%

Dune: Part Two (2024) 93%

Love Lies Bleeding (2024) 93%

The Settlers (2023) 93%

About Dry Grasses (2023) 93%

Femme (2023) 93%

Cabrini (2024) 91%

Orion and the Dark (2024) 91%

La Chimera (2023) 90%

One Life (2023) 90%

Stopmotion (2023) 90%

The Kitchen (2023) 89%

Disco Boy (2023) 88%

Monolith (2023) 87%

Ordinary Angels (2024) 84%

Riddle Of Fire (2023) 82%

Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023) 80%

You'll Never Find Me (2023) 80%

Suncoast (2024) 76%

Good Grief (2023) 76%

Self Reliance (2023) 72%

More countdown.

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Manchester City Netflix documentary review: Charges loom over everything but show lacks insight

Manchester City ’s eagerly anticipated Netflix documentary, titled Together, Treble Winners, has been released to audiences around the world — and for those who are not fans of the club, here is the headline: no, there is not much detail on Those Premier League Charges .

The people behind the documentary (ie, the club) do mention them, of course; voiceovers of television and radio presenters add a sense of drama and narrative at a point in last season where City did not look like winning anything at all, let alone the treble they ended up with.

Footage of manager Pep Guardiola’s press conference at the time is the closest we get to City’s reaction to the charges. What shines through the most is how much the issue galvanised the team exactly when they needed a jolt.

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City had lost at Tottenham Hotspur the day before the huge news broke and they had looked to be losing their way in the Premier League title race, but an us-against-the-world mentality kicked in. Guardiola, who had previously stuck up for the club in front of the media, delivered a rousing speech to his players:

“First: every single game now, starting today, when we are together before the referee starts the game, you hug each other in the centre circle, close to the referee and the opponents,” he tells his team before the first game after the charges were brought. “Somebody, it doesn’t matter who, start to talk. You look each other in the eyes and say that we are going to win every single game, or at least try.

“Second: I love this club. Don’t tell me why. Everything we have won, guys, has been on the pitch, always. I love the club. I love you too.

“Let’s go.”

Unfortunately, that second bit was released at the end of last season, so it is not exactly breaking news, but it is certainly one of the standout moments.

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Another of the most interesting aspects of the documentary is Guardiola and his leadership.

He can be extravagant to the point of being deranged around his players, at one point early in the season repeatedly shouting, “Rodri! Bernardiki (which appears to be his nickname for Bernardo Silva )!”, after a goal is scored in training. “Guys, I am going to retire,” he yells. “You won the Premier League. I’ve seen my team play how I want, I don’t want to win any more.”

Rather than providing answers, because Guardiola is only interviewed once throughout and it happens after this season has started, the documentary begs the question of how he manages to keep going year after year, and how he keeps coming up with new things to tell his players.

“I have a feeling that I have to do the meeting because they pay me a lot of money to do something. But I could not say anything, because you know exactly what to do,” he tells the team before their Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich last April.

City's big game record in 2023-24 is not great, but another treble is still possible

After City beat Fulham in November 2022 despite playing with 10 men for more than an hour, a performance The Athletic described around the time as a key reason he signed a new contract a couple of weeks later, he was in tears in the dressing room as he thanked his men for their efforts.

With only brief, sometimes out-of-context references to his tactical plans, this insight into his communication is by far the most interesting aspect of the documentary.

Perhaps the most revealing glimpse into Erling Haaland ’s psyche was that he, at half-time with the score 0-0 in the Champions League final against Inter Milan last June, told Rodri to relax because Guardiola would “fix it” and the team would win. Rodri went on to score the game’s only goal.

Unlike recent City Studio productions, a series of talking heads — usually journalists — have been used to explain everything in basic terms for those watching the show who have little prior knowledge of the club or indeed the sport.

Those of us who know what the Champions League draw is probably do not need it explained by The Times’ chief football writer, Henry Winter, but the first two episodes, in particular, are weighed down by things we already know, or an interview with the guy who called Haaland a “tremendous Nordic meat shield” during pre-season. These no doubt mean that more insightful content had to be cut elsewhere.

And that poses the question of who this documentary is for.

It is far from a warts-and-all account of City’s historic 2022-23 season, as you would expect from what began as an in-house production. City have been making documentaries like it for years and they are a hit with their supporters, as they show a more intimate side to the players and Guardiola than is available via external media.

Given these season reviews almost always end with City lifting a major trophy, plenty of scenes bring the fans closer to their heroes.

There is more of that stuff here: Jack Grealish takes exception to Haaland suggesting he is a “bad guy” by reminding him that he had to go downstairs in their apartment building to collect the Norwegian’s takeaway order; somebody prints out and pins to the wall a Sky Sports graphic that had photoshopped Manuel Akanji ’s head onto Bernardo’s much smaller body; reserve goalkeeper Scott Carson reminds Julian Alvarez during training that he “used to be good”.

Grealish and Haaland are interviewed a lot over the six episodes but Carson, now 38 and two years removed from his most recent first-team appearance but an England international from 2007-11, is a fascinating character who deserves more airtime; he calls fellow goalkeeper Stefan Ortega Moreno “Stephen Nettle Tanned:” — a literal English translation of his Spanish name.

One ‘prank’ shown involves the players dressing a mannequin in Rodri’s clothes, but the most interesting element is how the others thought the Spaniard might react to it. “I think he’s gonna be angry,” Phil Foden says, offering a faint glimpse into how the players interact with each other. In truth, there was too little of this, but the team talks and celebrations are bound to appeal to supporters nonetheless.

Documentaries like this are less worthy to those, such as journalists writing reviews of documentaries like this, who are looking for some of the grittier details, not necessarily even related to City’s Premier League charges.

The Premier League's kingmakers: How Villa, Spurs and Wolves can decide the title

There is no insight regarding Kalvin Phillips ’ struggles to get into the team, for example, and the biggest omission — that we know of — is Joao Cancelo ’s loan exit to Bayern halfway through the season, following a massive bust-up with Guardiola and criticising some of the team-mates who took his spot in the side. It is not even acknowledged that he left.

The highlight of the show, though, did come in adversity.

Guardiola has called the 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Southampton , who ended up relegated, in January last year the worst performance of his time at the club, and his dressing room dressing-down is worth watching.

“Tell me the explanation for today,” he opens. “Tell me. Do you think it is normal, the way you performed? Do you think it’s normal, for the guys (fans) who travel, who don’t have money to pay their heating at home, they come here, to follow us, to perform in this way?

“My team does not perform like that ,” he says, wagging a finger.

As his players sit deathly quiet, Guardiola lectures them about body language , he tells them to come back down to earth, to be humble and threatens them that they will be replaced with academy players.

“In less than two and a half days, we go to Old Trafford. Ten years, they have been waiting to kill us — 10 years. Have you prepared well? Because they have something that you showed me today that we don’t have.

“They are hungry. They are starving. We are not.”

Guardiola then eyeballs his players before departing the room with an ominous message.

“Maybe I was confused.” (City also lost that looming derby against United, 2-1.)

It all came to a head later in January when Guardiola referred to his players as “happy flowers” in a very public press conference dissection of their complacency.

One aspect of their performance in a 4-2 win that month against Tottenham he did not like was that his players did not stick up for 17-year-old midfielder Rico Lewis as the game got physical. But rather than focus on Guardiola and the players’ reactions to that match too heavily, the documentary took the opportunity to show us Lewis training at his dad’s Thai boxing gym .

That helps to sum up the series overall: a ‘nice’ story in place of something a bit more detailed. But then, that depends on what you want from it.

Across the six episodes, particularly the final two, as City prepare for the finals of the FA Cup and Champions League, the actual human element of their recent years of success is there for all to see.

The irony is that those who treat City’s, and Guardiola’s, achievements as foregone conclusions and/or the result of too much money, even cheating, will never watch this series.

If they did, they would see that the players are not avatars to be moved around on computer games such as Football Manager or EA FC. They are humans, who have achieved greatness through their hard work and talent. They get nervous, they make mistakes, and they have had setbacks at times, too.

Another irony is that the documentary, a promotional tool to show how great and successful City are, probably does not delve into these areas as much as it should because it is too concerned with showing the world how perfect everything is.

Liverpool and Arsenal are testing Manchester City in a new way - which of the three will prevail?

(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

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Sam Lee is the Manchester City correspondent for The Athletic. The 2020-21 campaign will be his sixth following the club, having previously held other positions with Goal and the BBC, and freelancing in South America. Follow Sam on Twitter @ SamLee

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

“Elvis” brings all of the glitz, rhinestones, and jumpsuits you’d expect in an Elvis film, but without the necessary complexity for a movie from 2022 about the “King.”

Maximalist filmmaker Baz Luhrmann , who abhors visual restraint and instead opts for grand theatricality, should be the perfect creator for a Presley biopic, but isn't. Luhrmann tells us this icon’s story from the perspective of the singer’s longtime, crooked manager Colonel Tom Parker ( Tom Hanks ). After collapsing in his tacky, memorabilia-filled office, a near-death Parker awakens alone in a Las Vegas hospital room. The papers have labeled him a crook, a cheat who took advantage of Elvis ( Austin Butler ), so he must set the record straight. 

From the jump, Luhrmann’s aesthetic language takes hold: An IV-drip turns into the Las Vegas skyline; in a hospital nightgown, Parker walks through a casino until he arrives at a roulette wheel. Carrying a heap of affectations, Hanks plays Parker like the Mouse King in “ The Nutcracker .” For precisely the film’s first half hour, "Elvis" moves like a Christmas fairytale turned nightmare; one fueled not by jealousy but the pernicious clutches of capitalism and racism, and the potent mixture they create. 

It’s difficult to wholly explain why “Elvis” doesn’t work, especially because for long stretches it offers rushes of enthralling entertainment. In the early goings-on, Luhrmann and co-writers Sam Bromell , Craig Pearce , and Jeremy Doner meticulously build around Presley’s influences. They explain how Gospel and Blues equally enraptured him—a well-edited, both visually and sonically, sequence mixes the two genres through a sweaty performance of “That’s Alright Mama”—and they also show how much his time visiting on Beale Street informed his style and sound. A performance of “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton ( Shonka Dukureh ), and the emergence of a flashy B.B. King ( Kelvin Harrison Jr.) furthers the point. Presley loves the superhero Shazam, and dreams about reaching the Rock of Eternity, a stand-in for stardom in this case. He’s also a momma’s boy (thankfully Luhrmann doesn’t belabor the death of Elvis’ brother, a biographical fact lampooned by “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”).  

Though a biopic veteran, Hanks has rarely been a transformative actor. In this case, you can hear his accent slipping back toward Hanks. And the heavy prosthetics do him few favors, robbing him of his facial range—an underrated tool in his repertoire. And Hanks already struggles to play outright villains; shaping the story from his perspective takes the edge off of his potential menace. It’s a tough line for Hanks to walk, to be unsuspecting yet vicious. Hanks creates a friction that doesn’t altogether work, but feels at home in Luhrmann’s heavy reliance on artifice. 

The most fascinating linkage in “Elvis” is the extrapolation of commerce and race. Parker is enamored by Presley because he plays Black music but is white. Elvis turns off the white Christian old, like the moribund country singer Hank Snow ( David Wenham ), and the homophobic men who consider him a “fairy.” Yet he excites the young, like Jimmie Rogers ( Kodi Smit-McPhee , both actors provide fantastic comic relief), and he has sex appeal. A wiggle, if you please. Luhrmann takes that wiggle seriously, showing sexually possessed, screaming women. Butler’s crotch, in precisely fitted pink pants and shot in close-up, vibrates. Harsh zooms, quick whip pans, and a taste for horniness (by both men and women) help make the early moments of this biopic so special. As does its anti-capitalist bent, which depicts how often labor, art, and ownership can be spit out and garbled in the destructive system.    

Unfortunately, “Elvis” soon slips into staid biopic territory. We see the meteoric rise of Presley, the mistakes—whether by greed or naïveté—he makes along the way, and his ultimate descent toward self-parody. His mother ( Helen Thomson ) dies on the most hackneyed of beats. His father ( Richard Roxburgh ) quivers in the shallowest of ways. Priscilla ( Olivia DeJonge ) appears and is handed standard tragic wife material. The pacing slows, and the story just doesn’t offer enough playfulness or interiority to keep up. 

But even so, the latter portions of Luhrmann’s film aren’t without its pleasures: The performance of “Trouble,” whereby Presley defies the Southern racists who fear his Black-infused music (and sensuality) will infiltrate white America, is arresting. Cinematographer Mandy Walker ’s freeze frames imitate black and white photography, like wrapping history in the morning dew. The performance of Elvis’ comeback special, specifically his rendition of “If I Can Dream” soars. During the Vegas sequences, the costumes become ever more elaborate, the make-up ever more garish, acutely demonstrating Presley’s physical decline. And Butler, an unlikely Elvis, tightly grips the reins by providing one show-stopping note after another. There isn’t a hint of fakery in anything Butler does. That sincerity uplifts “Elvis” even as it tumbles.    

But all too often the film slips into a great white hope syndrome, whereby Presley is the sincere white hero unearthing the exotic and sensual Black artists of his era. B.B. King, Big Momma Thornton, and Little Richard (real-life supporters of Presley) exist solely as either bulletin board cheerleaders or alluring beings from a far-off land. While these Black artists are championed—an awareness by Luhrmann of their importance and the long and winding history of Black art moving through white spaces—they barely speak or retain any depth, even while a paternalistic Presley advances their cause. 

The approach neither illuminates nor dignifies these figures. Instead, Luhrmann tries to smooth over the complicated feelings many Black folks of varied generations have toward the purported King. In that smoothing, Presley loses enough danger, enough fascinating complications to render the whole enterprise predictable. Because it’s not enough to merely have awareness, a filmmaker also has a responsibility to question whether they’re the right person to tell a story. Luhrmann isn’t. And that’s a failing that will be difficult for many viewers to ignore.

Luhrmann side-steps other parts of the Elvis mythology, including the age gap between Priscilla and Presley (the pair met in Germany when the former was 14 years old), and when Elvis became a stooge for Richard Nixon . Excluding the latter makes little sense in a movie concerning the commodification of Presley by capitalism and conservatism. Luhrmann wants to show the downfall of a doe-eyed icon by nefarious systems, but never pushes the envelope enough for him to become unlikable, or better yet, intricate and human. 

That flattening easily arises from telling this story from Colonel Parker’s perspective. He doesn’t care about Black people, therefore, they exist as cardboard cutouts. He cares little for Priscilla, therefore, she has little personhood. And Parker certainly isn’t going to tarnish the image or brand of Elvis because it corrodes himself. These undesirable outcomes, facile and pointless, make logical sense considering the framing of the narrative. But what good is making a sanitized Elvis biopic in 2022? And truly, who really needs a further fortification of Presley’s cultural importance when it’s been the dominant strain for over 60 years? It’s another noxious draft in history clumsily written by white hands.

“Elvis” certainly works as a jukebox, and it does deliver exactly what you’d expect from a Luhrmann movie. But it never gets close to Presley; it never deals with the knotty man inside the jumpsuit; it never grapples with the complications in his legacy. It’s overstuffed, bloated, and succumbs to trite biopic decisions. Luhrmann always puts Butler in the best position to succeed until the credits, whereby he cuts to archival footage of Presley singing “Unchained Melody.” In that moment Luhrmann reminds you of the myth-making at play. Which is maybe a good thing, given Luhrmann's misleading, plasticine approach. 

Now playing in theaters.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the  New York Times ,  IndieWire , and  Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the  Los Angeles Times , and  Rolling Stone  about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

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Elvis (2022)

Rated PG-13 for substance abuse, strong language, suggestive material and smoking.

159 minutes

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley

Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker

Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley

Dacre Montgomery as Steve Binder

Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. King

Richard Roxburgh as Vernon Presley

Helen Thomson as Gladys Presley

Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe

David Wenham as Hank Snow

Luke Bracey as Jerry Schilling

Alex Radu as George Klein

Alton Mason as Little Richard

Xavier Samuel as Scotty Moore

Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jimmie Rodgers Snow

Natasha Bassett as Dixie Locke

Leon Ford as Tom Diskin

• Baz Luhrmann

Writer (story by)

• Jeremy Doner
• Sam Bromell
• Craig Pearce

Cinematographer

• Mandy Walker
• Jonathan Redmond
• Elliott Wheeler

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