Animals, chaos and a runaway locomotive power this bright, good-natured caper that blends slapstick comedy with heist-movie energy and a dash of heartfelt adventure.

When a crew of animal bandits accidentally find themselves caught up in a high-speed train robbery, unlikely allies Falcon, a streetwise raccoon, and Rex, a by-the-book police dog, must work together to stop Hans, a vengeful badger with a grudge. Cue frantic chases, near-misses, and more fur flying than in a grooming salon as the train hurtles toward certain disaster.

The animation is colourful and zippy, full of kinetic energy and small visual gags that keep younger viewers engaged throughout. The English-language voice cast, including Marc Weiner and Lisa Ortiz, brings plenty of warmth and bounce to the lively script. It’s hardly Pixar-level storytelling, but younger audiences will lap up the cheerful chaos, while parents can appreciate its brisk pacing, gentle humour and lack of cynicism.

Playful and undemanding, Pets on a Train doesn’t reinvent the tracks, but it’s a lively, big-hearted ride that stays just the right side of the rails.

Early in 1970 at a small cinema off Oxford Circus (the Regent St Cinema?) just as the final

frame caught them, there was a dead silence. Then the rapture began, and didn’t stop.

By the time the screen had turned to sepia the audience was on its feet, whistling, clapping, loudly through tears.

It was the first time I had experienced such an outpouring at the end of a film, and the last, until the Rex reopened. Being part of that audience has stayed with me as a huge and magical moment.

The film was, and remains, faultless and holds up as fresh today as it did forty eight years ago. It is witty, sharp, a great story and the camera doesn’t miss a trick.

“I got vision while the rest of the world wears bi-foculs…” What ever happened to director, George Roy Hill?

Supposedly based on the true story of two bandits who made outlaw history in the wild, west Wyoming of the late 19th Century. It emerges as a once-only comedy of errors played beautifully to the last shot by the serendipitous, genius, pairing of Redford and Newman. Don’t miss, no matter how many times…

“Somebody say - one two three go…”

A grieving Minnesota widow, played by Emma Thompson, stumbles into mortal peril in Brian Kirk's polished, icy suspense thriller.

With her recently deceased husband, Barb (Thompson) ran a fishing supplies store and like him was keen on ice-fishing. She’s about to make a pilgrimage with his ashes in a tackle box at his request.

Equipped with little more than a rugged pick-up  and a placid determination, Barb follows the trail to a cabin where, minutes before, she had stopped for directions. The bearded gentleman (Marc Menchaca) who answered her queries, is holding a teenage girl (Laurel Marsden) captive in his basement, but his gruff demeanor quickly belies a reluctance to proceed with whatever nefarious plan he’s signed up for. It’s his wife (Judy Greer), instead, who appears to call the shots.

So has Thompson’s widow chanced upon the local equivalent of psycho hillbillies? In fact, these people’s personalities and motivations are more complicated.  Thompson’s relatable presence and likability-aura make a very good solvent for the concentrated nastiness of Greer’s desperate villain and what she has in mind for her teen prisoner. There’s a distinct chill in the air.

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Louis-Julien Petit’s sweet, charming tale about second chances, wrapped in kindness and just enough social conscience to give it bite.

The film tackles the challenges faced by teenage migrants in France, but instead of feeling preachy, it turns into an uplifting story of teamwork growth, and the transformative power of food.

Audrey Lamy stars as Cathy, a sous-chef who dreams of running her own restaurant but finds herself stuck running the cafeteria at a shelter for teen migrants. Faced with a run-down kitchen and hungry, skeptical residents, Cathy initially struggles. But she gradually becomes a mentor, teaching the kids to cook, instilling confidence and helping them build a brighter future. Along the way, she discovers unexpected purpose and connection.

Petit balances humour, heart and social commentary, delivering a story that’s both engaging and thought-provoking. The cast, including Yannick Kalombo, Chantal Neuwirth, Amadou Bah and François Cluzet, is charismatic, making it easy to root for these underdogs. The finale (while a touch predictable) is genuinely satisfying, a feel-good moment that underscores the film’s core message of care and empathy.

Part heartwarming comedy, part heartfelt drama, this will leave you laughing, smiling, and maybe even a little hungry.

Embeth Davidtz makes a quietly stunning directorial debut with this adaptation of Alexandra Fuller’s memoir, drawing on her Zimbabwean childhood between the dying days of white rule and the uneasy dawn of Robert Mugabe’s new order.

Told through the eyes of eight-year-old Bobo (a remarkable Lexi Venter), it’s a child’s-eye view of war, loss, and ingrained prejudice on a crumbling Rhodesian farm.

Davidtz, who also plays Bobo’s volatile, grief-stricken mother, brings a raw authenticity to the family’s fractured life: sleeping beside an Uzi one moment, dancing barefoot in the dust the next. Her performance is as sharp as her direction, grounding the story in both intimacy and unease.

The film’s dusty landscapes and flickering lights evoke a world both dangerous and alive, its beauty undercut by violence and denial. Through Bobo’s bond with Sarah (Zikhona Bali), the family’s Black maid, the film exposes colonial contradictions with quiet precision rather than polemic.

A raw, humane portrait of displacement and innocence lost, it’s a debut that looks unflinchingly at Africa’s lingering ghosts, those its characters can no longer bear to see.(

Mystery, passion and art collide in this compelling cinematic exploration of Caravaggio, one of history’s most enigmatic painters.

Multi-award-winning filmmakers Phil Grabsky and David Bickerstaff peel back the layers of his turbulent life, examining the hidden narratives woven into his masterpieces and the man behind them. The film traces Caravaggio’s trajectory from revolutionary talent to fugitive, fleeing from Rome in 1606 after committing murder and spending the last four years of his life in exile, moving between Naples, Malta, and Sicily before dying in mysterious circumstances in 1610.

Highlighting the dramatic intensity, bold realism, and striking chiaroscuro that made his work instantly recognisable, the documentary presents each masterpiece as both visual spectacle and psychological clue, featuring testimony from leading art historians. It’s a deeply immersive experience, blending rigorous scholarship with cinematic flair, and showcasing the timeless power of Caravaggio’s art to captivate, unsettle and provoke.

Five years in the making, this film is a thrilling, immersive portrait of a man who lived fast, painted furiously, and left the world mesmerised by his daring vision

Sydney Pollack’s taut direction drives this post-Watergate thriller, capturing the paranoid tenor of the 1970s while featuring standout performances from Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.

Redford plays Joe Turner, a bookish CIA analyst who returns from lunch to find his entire office massacred. On the run, he must unravel a conspiracy that reaches deep into the agency, relying on his wits to survive. Dunaway is a quietly complex ally whose intentions remain uncertain, while Max von Sydow’s menacing presence underscores the constant threat.

Nearly fifty years on, it remains a masterclass in suspense and a reminder of Redford’s singular presence on screen. The Oscar-winning icon and Sundance founder, who passed away in September aged 89, brought intelligence, charm, and moral clarity to a career defined by understated heroism and restless curiosity. He was more than a movie star. He was the thinking man’s leading man, equally at home in westerns, political thrillers and intimate dramas. From Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to All the President’s Men and The Sting, Redford embodied a rare blend of grace, conscience and curiosity. He was, and will remain, endlessly watchable.

Luca Guadagnino swaps the sweat and sensuality of Challengers for the icy corridors of Yale in this glossy academic thriller where intellect, ego and moral panic collide.

Julia Roberts stars as Alma Imhoff, a philosophy professor forced to choose sides when a promising student (Ayo Edebiri) accuses a colleague (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. What follows is less a campus scandal than a sleekly stylised game of loyalty, power, and perception.

Guadagnino shoots academia like high fashion. It’s all polished wood, soft lighting and emotional repression. Nora Garrett’s script turns philosophical debate into verbal sparring. Roberts is superb: controlled, brittle, and quietly ferocious, her performance suggesting a woman whose intellect has become both weapon and shield. Garfield relishes his slippery charm, and Edebiri plays ambiguity like a chess master. Fresh off of their work on Tron: Ares, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s pulsing score underscores the tension, giving every exchange a faint hum of danger beneath the surface.

It’s a film more interested in appearances than answers, but perhaps that’s the point. Guadagnino’s lens lingers on style, not substance, but in this world of shifting truths and careful facades, honesty was never really the point.

Neon dreams and digital chaos collide as the line between human and program grows ever thinner.

Disney is still trying to make Tron a big deal. Nearly four decades after Steven Lisberger’s 1982 original, a film that underwhelmed at the box office but built a massive cult following, the studio is back with a third entry. Tron: Legacy (2010) had stunning visual direction and a fantastic Daft Punk soundtrack but, again, didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Yet Disney presses on, diving once again into the cybernetic world of the Grid.

This time, Eve Kim (Greta Lee), a Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disciple, searches for his legendary Permanence Code, a key to bringing digital creations fully into the real world. Her rival, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), and the unpredictable Master Control program Ares (Jared Leto) complicate her mission, leading to a moderately wild ride of neon-lit chaos and destruction.

The film dazzles on a visual level, aided by a pulsing Nine Inch Nails score, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Disney keeps trying to kickstart a franchise that few truly need. Still, it’s a vibrant, entertaining trip.

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Guillermo del Toro’s long gestating passion project is finally upon us, as Mary Shelley’s seminal work receives the lavish treatment it so desperately deserves.

Sticking very closely to the source material, we begin at the end, in the Arctic, as the crew of a ship frozen in ice encounter Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and his raging creation (Jacob Elordi) that’s pursued him to the end of the earth, we learn of the terrible preceding events: Victor’s cold upbringing under a disciplinarian father (Charles Dance) after the death of his beloved mother (Mia Goth); his entry into the medical profession and his vow, inspired by trauma, to reanimate dead tissue; his granting of life to a jumbled corpse; his subsequent ill-treatment of the poor, innocent ‘monster’; and his creation’s turn from nobility to violence when he’s warped by cruelty.

Frankenstein is a film of heady sensorial pleasures; del Toro's sense of design constantly hits you with ravishing moments of gothic splendor. This is epic-scale storytelling of uncommon beauty, feeling and artistry. It’d be a monumental waste to watch it on Netflix; it deserves to be experienced here on the big screen.

Based on a novel that Stephen King wrote in his college days before publishing it 12 years later, The Long Walk is a gruelling, yet beautiful dystopian drama.

The film’s emotional core lies in the performances of Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson. Hoffman is Ray, an ordinary boy who strikes up an uneasy but deepening friendship with Jonsson’s Peter, a sharp, sardonic figure who often seems wiser than his years. Their evolving bond offers a flicker of humanity against the cruelty of the march, grounding the film in something more tender than its grim premise might suggest.

The march in question being an annual game of survival. The rules are simple: you keep walking; fall behind and you’re shot; the last man standing receives a cash reward and any wish of their choosing granted. It is as bleak as it sounds, yes, but there’s a touching comradery between the desperate players, with a horrific turn from Mark Hamil as the commander overseeing the game.

Unflinching, and unexpectedly moving, The Long Walk is both a faithful King adaptation and one of the most harrowing cinematic experiences in years. Don’t miss.

Julie swirls on a mountain top, the kids are cute, there is a dirty nazi in the woodpile (perfect programming for 4th July…?) and Mother Abbess’ throat warbles in a glorious shaft of light.

As if you need reminding… It is a tale, set against a backdrop of the Bavarian Alps, of a nun from Salzburg who becomes governess to Captain Von Trapp's seven children. She cuts up the curtains and brings music into a household once run on Stalinist principles – quite right too. It is said to be loosely based on a true story, but so is Batman.

It is probably the most successful screen adaptation of a musical ever, and for the rest of the Sixties the decade’s longest running film. Climb Every Mountain still wets the eyes even on the wireless. Uncredited, it was sung by Margery McKay (IMDB) and look out for the real Maria Von T – an extra in ‘I Have Confidence’. Bring your whole families to spot her! You’ll love every minute again no matter what - in the new freedom - on our Rex wide surround sound screen. Come.

It Ends with Us author Colleen Hoover's next book is getting the movie treatment, bringing its plot of romance, betrayal, and family to the big screen.

Morgan Grant (Alison Williams) had her daughter Clara (McKenna Grace) at a very young age, sacrificing some big dreams for motherhood. Clara’s father’s death in a car crash ratchets up the tension between her and her mother. This causes new romances to be sparked, secrets to be uncovered, and a whole family to be changed forever.

Another key piece is the budding romance between Clara and local bad boy Miller Adams (Mason Thames). After her father's death, Clara finds solace in Miller's company, much to the chagrin of her mother.

So, with the pair of teenage lovers starting to see romance in their future, this first impression at the funeral lingers on Morgan's mind, filling her with trepidation around Thames' teenage dreamboat, especially considering he seems to have a college girlfriend despite also pursuing Clara. Oh dear.

Regretting You explores what’s left behind after a tragedy, the messiness and grief, but also the beauty of life and love.

Jeremy Allen White is a convincingly tortured rock star in this smartly narrow and specific look at a particular chapter of music history.

Based on Bruce Springsteen's authorised biography of the same name, the film takes place over a pivotal two-year period in the singer/songwriter’s life.

It’s 1981, and Springsteen (White) returns to New Jersey after touring his first No 1 record, The River, on the brink of superstardom but burned out. Record execs want him to strike with more hits while the iron is hot; Bruce wants to hole up in a rental house and tinker with the ideas that will become his 1982 album Nebraska.

It then picks up steam in the aftermath of his genius, as Bruce’s team scramble to preserve the haunted sound of his demos. Meanwhile, Bruce’s mental health crumbles along with his relationship with local waitress Faye (Odessa Young). The fear he often felt around his volatile drunk of a father (Stephen Graham), and the anxiety of his mother (Gaby Hoffman) are still very much with him. Deliver Me from Nowhere is a beautiful, haunting portrayal of a rock superstar.

Kristen Wiig gets her cat lady on in a likable wisp of a kiddie flick that's all about the cool confectionary design.

Based off of the television show, this live-action/animation hybrid revolves around the titular character, played by Laila Lockhart Kraner. Gabby possesses a special dollhouse, made for her by her loving grandmother Gigi (Gloria Estefan), inside of which are a collection of miniature cats who come to life. Gabby has the power to also miniaturise herself at will, by pinching her ears.

The story is set in motion when Gabby joins her grandmother in her van on a road trip to “Cat Francisco”. Unfortunately, her beloved dollhouse accidentally winds up careening down the street and falling into the hands of Vera (Wiig). She’s forever accompanied by her pet feline Marlena, who’s dressed identically to her. She’s apparently also a successful businesswoman, having invented “Pretty Glitter Kitty Litter,” which is exactly what it sounds like.

The candy-coloured film bounces off the idea that playthings will feel abandoned when their child owners grow up; it’s like Toy Story meets Trolls.

A timeless peak of musical cinema.

Sixty years after its release, The Sound of Music remains one of cinema’s most enduring success stories. Robert Wise’s lavish adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s stage musical was a phenomenon in 1965, winning five Oscars and redefining what a Hollywood blockbuster could be. Today, it stands as both a nostalgic touchstone and a benchmark for family storytelling on a grand scale.

At its heart is Julie Andrews, now celebrating her 90th birthday, in a performance that still radiates warmth and vitality. As Maria, she embodies an optimism and generosity of spirit that have long outlasted the trends and cynicism of modern cinema. The songs are as infectious as ever, the landscapes still breathtaking, and that soaring opening shot above the Alps remains one of the most iconic in film history..

It may well be the most successful screen adaptation of a musical ever made. Very few films have inspired such enduring affection across generations. Yes, it’s sentimental (gloriously so) but that sincerity is why it remains one of the most beloved films in movie history

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Prescient is perhaps the most appropriate word to describe Palestine 36. As the whole world focuses on Gaza, a film about the history of the conflict could not be more timely.

Director Annemarie Jacir dives deep into the archives, the social tapestries, and coloniser tactics, to ask how Palestine as we know it today might have come to originate in the Palestinian Revolt of 1936-1939, when it was a British colony.

Yousef (Karim Daoud Anaya) is a young man who goes between the small farming village where he was born, and Jerusalem, where he works as a driver for Amir (Dhafer L’Abidine), a Palestinian journalist who also moonlights as a political operative. In the villages, the farmers see their land dwindle as settlers escaping antisemitism in Europe seize some of it. In the city, British officers and Palestinian freedom fighters set their agenda for the inevitable conflict for the future of Palestine.

Two themes emerge as central to the narrative: the economic war over land, and the way citizens come to realise that their country is being stolen and start to organise a resistance. A must see.

A nifty ‘70s throwback thriller in the vein of The Conversation, Relay offers a fresh new take on the conspiracy sub-genre.

Riz Ahmed is Ash, a “fixer” who assists whistleblowers. He’s going about his work in New York, avoiding identification, living the life of a ghost. His latest client is food industry employee Sarah (Lily James) who uncovered potentially ruinous information that she impulsively made a copy of yet now, after increasingly alarming harassment, she has decided to return. This requires him to act as intermediary, sensitively communicating between the two parties to ensure safety.

Ash communicates with Sarah via a company called The Tri-State Messenger Service that mediates for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The beauty of this is that calls are confidential, and Sarah soon falls into step with Ash’s strange way of doing business. He is, however, a logistical genius and master of disguise, which comes in handy when a team of tech-savvy heavies, led by Sam Worthington, stake out Sarah’s apartment in a sinister black van. The film channels early Brian de Palma and Hitchcock to create a visceral thriller

Josh O’Connor stars as a wannabe criminal who fumbles a small-time art robbery in Kelly Reichardt’s evocation of 1970s suburbia.

James (O’Connor) is an art school dropout and would-be architectural designer with two young sons, married to Terri (Alana Haim). James depends on the social standing of his father Bill (Bill Camp) and is borrowing large sums of money from his patrician mother Sarah (Hope Davis), ostensibly to finance a new project.

But James has something else in mind for the cash. Having established the lax security measures at a local art gallery, he plans to pay two tough guys and a getaway driver to steal four Arthur Dove paintings. But the steps in his grand plan keep wobbling. His two accomplices shortly demonstrate that they’re barely up to the job, and the aftermath becomes the story, from hiding the paintings to going underground.

In The Mastermind, the dreary details of post-heist calamity are as pertinent as the main event. It is this that attracts Reichardt’s observing eye and makes the film so quietly gripping; it is a film that leaves you with something invaluable to gaze upon and reflect.  

“What a beautiful feckin’ day!” is how we first meet Sgt Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) of the Galway Garda. It’s a great measure of what is to come.

He is an unconventional policeman, investigating a seemingly random murder.

FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) arrives in Galway to mount an operation to catch a known drugs ring.

At first irritated by Gerry’s manner, the ‘yankie cop’ becomes reluctantly impressed. Sgt Gerry casually connects it all.

“A cracking film. Sgt Gerry a beautifully observed comedy creation.” (Total Film)

“Among the most purely entertaining films of any year, cuts its laughter with a dose of Celtic melancholy.” (Empire)

This is back not just because it is clever, witty and gorgeous, but it is was to celebrate ‘our kid’ on 26th March. Together our birth day always. He would love it for its infectious celtic humour, as will you. And its ruggered grey Atlantic coastline, which he loved so dearly. The pox overtook over us all 3 days before. So it is here - now.

A non-pc take on how-to-get-things-done! (sound familiar? But this is the good guy) “Gleeson relishes John Michael’s delicious dialogue in one bite.” (Hollywood Rep) Come, love it too. Raise another glass with twins. JH

Benny Safdie brings a raw, unfiltered edge to this bracingly authentic portrait of mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr.

Shot with a fly-on-the-wall intensity, it strips away the glamour of sports biopics to reveal the quiet despair and resilience behind the blows.

Dwayne Johnson gives a career-best performance as Kerr, capturing both his physical dominance and emotional fragility. Set between 1997 and 2000, the film follows Kerr’s rise to MMA superstardom, his friendship with fellow fighter Mark Coleman, and his battle with addiction as his body and personal life begin to unravel. Emily Blunt is superb as Dawn, his volatile partner, their relationship rendered with a bruising honesty that echoes well beyond the ring.

In his first solo feature, Safdie’s direction is meticulous and unsentimental, favouring grounded detail over dramatisation, almost cinéma-vérité in practice. The fights are brutal but never glorified, grounded in pain, exhaustion and survival. What emerges is less a sports movie than an exploration of identity, endurance and the price of control. A tough and unflinching character study that champions the idea that real strength has little to do with victory.

Nominated for 8 Oscars, sees a powerhouse duo: Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post journalists who uncovered the bones of the legendary Watergate Scandal.

Opening with a bang. It is 1972. A late duty policeman arrests five burglars at the Democrat HQ - Watergate building. Believing it to be a minor news item, the Post sends new boy Woodward (Redford) to cover the story. But when he discovers the burglars were no ordinary chancers, the thrill ride begins.

The cool thoughtful, Woodward is assigned the hasty, ankle biting, over ambitious, Bernstein (Hoffman) to assist. Not a good mix. Somehow, reluctance settles in to a chemistry that bounces.

“Remarkably intelligent, working both as an effective thriller, and as a virtually abstract charting of the dark corridors of corruption and power.” (Time Out)

(research Adam Protz)

A detective thriller of words, notebooks, clacking typewriters and desk telephones (landlines to you) Redford and Hoffman’s ‘Woodstein’ is a subtle double act, on every level. Pakula’s direction is a masterpiece of slow-to-build wordplay, enjoying a beautifully satisfying complex tension. Ahead of its time by 22 years, it is the natural big screen sequel to The Post.

One chance at The Rex, don’t miss it.

Not even five decades can dull the spiky impact of this cinematic gem. Jack Nicholson is at his deranged best long before he even picked up the script to The Shining.

Based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 best-selling novel, Nicholson is Mac McMurphy, the subversive wildman and troublemaker, sent down for statutory rape, whose unstable behaviour gets him a transfer to what he clearly thinks will be the cushy option of the mental institution.

Mac discovers that the set term of his prison sentence has been changed to an open-ended incarceration, dependent on psychiatric assessment. So Mac leads a revolt against the spirit-crushing regime of pills and shock therapy, and against the icy control of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).

The film’s simplistic approach to mental illness is not really a fault of the film itself, because it has no interest in being about insanity. It is about a free spirit in a closed system.

It remains enduringly popular as an anti-establishment parable, and McMurphy prevails as a character, despite the imperfections of the film, because he represents that cleansing spirit that comes along now and again to renew us.