Blending big ideas with a refreshingly playful spirit, this ambitious space adventure mixes high-stakes science with a generous streak of humour.

When scientists discover that a mysterious microbe is slowly draining energy from the sun, project manager Eva (Sandra Hüller) recruits unassuming teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) to help prepare a desperate mission to save Earth. After awakening alone on a distant spacecraft with no memory of how he got there, Grace soon realises he isn’t the only one trying to solve the cosmic mystery. A nearby vessel carries a lone survivor from another world, a stone-like alien Grace affectionately names Rocky, and the two gradually learn to communicate.

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the story unfolds as a lively mix of inventive sci-fi spectacle and witty character moments. The tone is kept warm and inviting, turning complex astrophysics into an entertaining ride built around character, curiosity and an unlikely friendship. And at its heart lies the growing friendship between Gosling’s bewildered astronaut and his curious alien counterpart. Their teamwork, filled with jokes, discoveries and improvised science, powers a thrilling, imaginative adventure that proves even the vastness of space is better explored together.

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Darkly absurdist Ukrainian filmmaker Sergey Loznitsa returns to the Soviet era with a Kafkaesque satire that provokes uneasy smiles rather than outright laughs.

Set during the paranoia of the 1930s purges, the story examines justice, power and loyalty in a system determined to consume its own believers. Young prosecutor Kornev (Alexander Kuznetsov) is drawn into a disturbing case when a cryptic message written in blood escapes from a forbidding labour prison in Bryansk. As he pushes for answers, he discovers that guards and police are forcing prisoners to sign fabricated confessions. Attempts to raise the alarm locally go nowhere, so Kornev sets out for Moscow to confront chief prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky (Anatoly Beliy) himself, only to find layer upon layer of bureaucracy blocking the way.

Loznitsa stages this journey with cool precision. Endless gates, corridors and waiting rooms become obstacles in their own right, turning Kornev’s search for justice into an almost surreal ordeal.

Kuznetsov anchors the film with an open, idealistic performance, portraying a man who still believes the system must ultimately do the right thing. Watching that faith collide with the machinery of authoritarian power proves both chilling and oddly darkly funny.

David Mackenzie, director of Hell or High Water, delivers a tightly wound urban thriller set around the discovery of an unexploded wartime bomb in central London.

The crisis begins when construction workers uncover a massive World War II explosive, prompting an immediate evacuation of nearby streets. But as authorities scramble to contain the danger, it becomes clear that the bomb may be only one piece of a much larger puzzle.

At the centre is bomb disposal expert Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a highly skilled specialist determined to neutralise the device with minimal casualties. While police coordinate the evacuation, a group of criminals led by Karalis (Theo James) seize the moment to stage a daring bank heist nearby. Chief Superintendent Zuzana (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) soon realises the two events may be more closely linked than they first appear.

Mackenzie keeps the pace brisk, shifting between the tense bomb disposal operation and the unfolding robbery. Twists and reversals keep the pressure rising as different players pursue their own agendas inside the cordoned-off streets. This ticking-clock tension and a strong ensemble keep Fuze moving as a brisk thriller driven by high-stakes decisions.

Revisiting a remarkable moment of grassroots resistance, this urgent documentary recounts the day a Glasgow neighbourhood came together to stop a deportation raid.

On a quiet morning in May 2021, immigration officers attempted to detain two residents of Kenmure Street in Pollokshields. Within hours, friends, neighbours and passers-by gathered in spontaneous protest, forming a peaceful blockade that would last most of the day.

The film traces how that movement grew organically, echoing the protest itself. What began with a handful of determined locals soon drew hundreds, then thousands, united by a shared conviction that the two men should not be taken away. Much of the footage comes from mobile phones, live streams and community networks, capturing the unfolding events with an immediacy that mirrors how the protest spread through WhatsApp messages and word of mouth.

Director Felipe Bustos Sierra also places the moment within Glasgow’s longer tradition of activism, while interviews with participants reveal the warmth, humour and solidarity that carried the day. From improvised speeches to piles of donated food, the gathering becomes a portrait of community in action.

In the end, Everybody to Kenmure Street celebrates the quiet power of ordinary people standing together.

Mary Bronstein delivers a sharp, darkly comic psychological horror anchored by a remarkable performance from Rose Byrne.

Linda is a capable psychotherapist whose carefully balanced life begins to unravel after a flood forces her and her chronically ill daughter into temporary hotel living. With her husband frequently away and the demands of work refusing to ease, Linda finds herself stretched thinner by the day. Patients arrive with their own anxieties and obsessions, colleagues offer only partial comfort, and the routines that once kept everything stable begin to feel strangely unreal. As pressure mounts, an unexpected connection with a hotel employee offers a rare moment of support just as Linda begins to question how long she can keep everything together.

Bronstein keeps the camera close to Linda, capturing the small shifts in mood and exhaustion that build into something far more unsettling. Byrne is exceptional, giving the character intelligence, resilience and flashes of humour even as the strain becomes impossible to ignore. Around her, a strong supporting cast adds texture to the increasingly fragile world she’s trying to manage.

Unnerving, darkly funny and sharply observed, it’s an intense portrait of a woman pushed to her limits.

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Language: Portuguese

Sprawling and quietly nerve-jangling, this brilliant Brazilian political-thriller from writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho blends political intrigue, family drama and flashes of violence into an absorbing portrait of a country on edge.

Set in 1977 Recife during Carnival, the story centres on Marcelo, a tech expert forced into hiding in a seaside boarding house run by the formidable Sebastiana. Reconnecting with his young son while searching for answers about his long-missing mother, Marcelo discovers that hired killers have arrived from São Paulo, sent by a powerful businessman determined to erase him. As the police look the other way and the festivities rage on, danger inches ever closer.

Mendonça Filho fills the frame with sharply observed period detail and a gallery of vivid supporting characters, each adding humour, warmth or menace. Wagner Moura anchors it all with a restrained, deeply human performance, capturing a father’s tenderness alongside a man’s growing fear. His scenes with the child are disarmingly gentle, lending emotional weight to the mounting suspense.

Loose in rhythm yet precise in design, the film builds toward jolts of shocking intensity, while its reflections on corruption and survival are pointed and unsettlingly current.

Inspired by the mischievous spirit of Kind Hearts and Coronets, this darkly playful comedy follows an underdog who suddenly realises that a vast family fortune might be within reach.

After growing up as a disinherited orphan, Becket (Glen Powell) discovers that he could inherit the family wealth if he becomes the last relative standing. What begins as a half-serious thought soon gathers momentum as he sizes up the various eccentric relations ahead of him in the line of succession. Life, however, becomes more complicated when he lands a job on Wall Street and falls for the clear-headed Ruth (Jessica Henwick), while his fiery childhood sweetheart Julia (Margaret Qualley) encourages him to follow the plan through to its outrageous conclusion.

Writer-director John Patton Ford mixes sharp humour with a touch of noir as the story explores ambition, temptation and the strange moral corners people can find themselves in.

Powell’s easy charisma keeps the story grounded, while a lively supporting cast including Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Campbell Scott adds colour. An entertaining, twisty-turny tale about greed, family and the unpredictable consequences of getting exactly what you wish for.

Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s darkly comic romantic drama about love, honesty and the terrible secrets that can upend a relationship.

Set in the lead-up to their wedding, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) revisit their relationship with their closest friends, sharing stories from their past as they prepare speeches for the big day. But a casual dinner game asking everyone to reveal their worst mistake exposes a confession that changes the mood entirely, sending each of them into spiralling doubt about what they thought they knew about one another.

Borgli traces the fallout with sharp, patient detail, watching how a single revelation ripples through shifting loyalties, private guilt and strained friendships. The humour often lands in uneasy bursts, but it’s grounded in recognisably human reactions, from stunned silence to overcorrection and denial. Zendaya and Pattinson anchor the story with strong, layered performances, capturing both the intimacy and growing uncertainty between Emma and Charlie. As the pressure builds, the film becomes less about the confession itself and more about how each character processes it in isolation.

A relationship story that turns discomfort into its driving force, asking how well anyone can really know the person they love.

Twenty years in the making, Enid Blyton’s much-loved 1940s book series is vividly brought to life on the big screen.

Polly (Claire Foy) and Tim (Andrew Garfield) move to the English countryside with their three children, and the initial awkwardness of their new life quickly gives way to wonder when the youngsters discover the Magic Faraway Tree. Its eccentric residents (Moonface, Silky, Dame Washalot and Saucepan Man) guide them through fantastical lands, each more dazzling and unpredictable than the last.

Screenwriter Simon Farnaby, known for his work on Paddington 2 and Wonka, brings his trademark warmth and wit to the adaptation, crafting a world where curiosity, courage, and familial bonds shine. The stellar ensemble also includes Rebecca Ferguson, Jennifer Saunders, Lenny Henry and Michael Palin, infusing the story with humour and a rich sense of fun at every turn.

It’s a charming adventure, perfectly capturing the imagination and gentle magic that have kept Blyton’s books beloved for over eighty years. For anyone whose grown up dreaming of wondrous lands and whimsical creatures, this is a joyful journey full of laughter and the enduring delight of discovering new worlds together.

Hepburn plays Ann, bored princess (of an unnamed country) who is slowly being driven to despair by the toll of endless engagements. While in the bustling city of Rome, Ann makes her escape for 24 hours of fun. She happens to meet American Journalist Joe Bradley (dashingly handsome Gregory Peck). Recognising a hot news story, Joe pretends not to recognise the princess and offers to give her a guided tour of Rome.

Eddie Albert plays Joe’s friend Irving, who is excellent as the bewildered and breezy photographer who surreptitiously snaps the unwitting princess on her tour.

“Timeless, exuberant classic, with Hepburn’s naïve sense of fun and perfectly charming performance matched equally by Peck’s lauche and charismatic worldy American.”(Empire)

Filmed entirely in Rome, the location does rather dominate the movie; however, it turns the viewer into a willing tourist. (the location, it’s beauty, it’s sunshine and a time lost, is the whole reason for the film) Come and escape to Italy for 2 hours of fun with real stars, Miss Hepburn and Mr Peck.

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Set in a small Macedonian village, this offbeat comedy-drama captures the clash between tradition and youthful independence with a light but attentive touch.

After his mother’s death, 15-year-old Ahmet and his younger brother Naim hold onto her memory through the music she loved, even as their strict father pulls Ahmet out of school to tend the family’s sheep. When Naim stops speaking, he is taken to a local healer, while Ahmet begins to drift further from home. One night at a forest rave, he meets Aya, a neighbour returned from Germany for an arranged marriage, and their shared love of music quietly sparks something between them.

Writer-director Georgi Unkovski keeps things grounded in everyday detail, observing how small moments of humour, frustration and creativity shape a close-knit community, while music becomes a quiet thread linking its characters. As village pressures mount, from family duty to wedding plans, small acts of resistance and connection begin to reshape relationships. Even so, kindness and humour keep surfacing in unexpected places.

Anchored by strong performances from its young cast, it builds towards a gentle, hopeful tale of change and understanding across generations.

Constructed as a triptych, this richly detailed look at family life traces three separate encounters between siblings and parents.

In upstate New York, Emily (Mayim Bialik) and Jeff (Adam Driver) visit their father (Tom Waits) at his remote lake house, where conversation drifts between warmth and restraint. In Dublin, sisters Timothea (Cate Blanchett) and Lilith (Vicky Krieps) share a yearly tea with their mother (Tilda Swinton), while in Paris, Skye (Greta Lee) and Billy (Luka Sabbat) clear out their late parents’ apartment, unearthing memories as they go.

Jim Jarmusch directs with his usual ear for everyday rhythm, finding humour and unease in small pauses, half-finished sentences and the awkwardness of simply being together. Across each segment, costumes, colour palettes and framing subtly echo one another, reinforcing the sense of lives that are different but still linked. Conventional plotting is avoided. Instead, the focus is on how people speak around each other rather than to each other, and how meaning often sits in what is left unsaid. Performances are grounded and natural, often understated, allowing the relationships to feel lived-in rather than shaped for effect.

Low-key and wryly funny, it’s a finely observed take on the shifting complexities of family ties

A warm, big-hearted drama about family, forgiveness and the pull of home, set against the Scottish Highlands.

Brian Cox directs and stars as Sandy, a whisky distillery owner facing declining health and an uncertain future. Reaching out to his estranged brother Donal (Alan Cumming), now living in Chicago, he invites him back to the village he left behind years earlier after a bitter family rift. Donal returns with his daughter and granddaughter, stepping back into a world shaped by old tensions, unresolved memories and the imposing legacy of their father.

As the brothers reconnect, questions about the future of the family business begin to surface, alongside long-buried emotions that neither has fully confronted. Familiar dynamics slowly shift as past grievances give way to moments of humour, reflection and tentative understanding, played out against sweeping Highland landscapes.

Cox keeps the storytelling straightforward, allowing the strength of the performances and the setting to carry the film. Cox and Alan Cumming share an easy, lived-in chemistry, balancing friction with warmth, while the supporting cast adds texture and charm.

Gently paced and full of feeling, it’s an easygoing, heartfelt story about family ties and second chances.

Writer/director Bart Layton (American Animals) should probably be paying Michael Mann royalties, but his LA heist film is a slick, fun time.

This is an ultra stylish armed robbery thriller about a thief who is highly controlled, super-cool, super-groomed, and naturally looking for the “walkaway money” of the time-honoured one last job. Mike (Chris Hemsworth) commits jewel robberies with the laudably nonviolent precision of a ballet-dancer. He is controlled by a leathery old tough guy called Money (Nick Nolte), who once mentored Mike out of foster care and into crime. But Mike’s hits are all along California’s Route 101, a pattern spotted by LAPD’s single honest cop, detective Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), as dishevelled and smart as Columbo.

Halle Berry and Barry Keoghan round out the cast, the former a glamorous, put-upon insurance underwriter for high network individuals, the latter a psychotic criminal brought in by Mike to undercut him on a job.

The result is several cuts above the usual film with DNA from Mann’s Heat and Thief. It’s a film that revs the engine entertainingly and loudly. A watchable spectacle, leaving a sizzling streak of rubber on the tarmac.

A timeless romantic drama that blends youthful passion with quietly devastating emotion.

Set across college campuses and early adult life, the story follows Oliver (Ryan O'Neal), a privileged Harvard student, and Jenny (Ali MacGraw), a sharp, independent music student from a very different background. Their unlikely connection deepens into a sincere, playful romance, but family expectations and life’s unpredictability begin to shape their future in ways neither can control.

Looking back, director Arthur Hiller’s restrained approach feels key to the film’s lasting impact, allowing its emotional core to shine through intimate, everyday moments rather than grand gestures. Its honesty struck a chord with audiences at the time, helping it become one of the defining romances of its era, bolstered by critical acclaim, major award recognition and a hugely influential score.

O’Neal and MacGraw created a screen pairing that people connected with immediately. Their natural chemistry and unaffected performances helped shape the film’s legacy, grounding its most famous lines in something that felt genuine and relatable.

Still affecting decades on, it remains a sincere, emotionally resonant look at love, loss and growing up.

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Shot in luxuriant black and white, François Ozon’s adaptation of Albert Camus’s classic novella is a coolly compelling study of morality, detachment and social expectation.

In 1930s Algiers, Meursault (Benjamin Voisin) drifts through life with a disarming indifference, barely reacting to his mother’s death and showing only mild interest in his relationship with Marie (Rebecca Marder). When he becomes entangled in a neighbour’s dispute, a sudden act of violence leads to a courtroom reckoning that focuses as much on his character as his crime, exposing the rigid expectations and moral codes of the society around him.

Ozon keeps the storytelling direct and unfussy, allowing the ideas to surface through behaviour rather than explanation. He opts for casual honesty, refusing to play by the usual rules. Beautiful monochrome imagery adds period texture, while the performances ground the film’s more abstract themes. Voisin is particularly good, hinting at emotions beneath Meursault’s blank exterior, making his actions both unsettling and quietly understandable.

Measured and thought-provoking, this is brilliant filmmaking that invites you to sit with its questions rather than answer them, encouraging deeper reflection later.

As one of the dizzying heights of the private eye genre, The Maltese Falcon is an unassailable triumph of script, casting, direction and editing.

It put John Huston on the map as a writer-director and finally furnished Humphrey Bogart with a showcase for his magnetic talent and superhuman on-screen charisma.

Bogart is private detective Sam Spade; when called in to handle a case for Mary Astor’s character, he shortly finds himself in the middle of double-crossing intrigue and several murders perpetrated by strange characters bent on obtaining possession of the famed bejeweled Maltese Falcon. Keeping just within bounds of the law, and utilising sparkling ingenuity in gathering up the loose ends and finally piecing them together, Spade is able to solve the series of crimes for the benefit of the police.

The Maltese Falcon weaves swiftly through a series of attention-holding sequences to crack through to a most unsuspecting climax. It is a film that somehow  kick-started the noir genre, and yet was also its peak.  And, crucially, a film that should be admired and beloved by all, not just cinephiles. (Jack Whiting)

Baz Luhrmann reshapes rare concert footage and unheard interviews into an immersive portrait of Elvis Presley at full power.

For decades, 59 hours of professionally shot material from Presley’s early Seventies shows sat locked away in a Kansas salt mine, unseen and largely mythical even among devoted fans. When Luhrmann persuaded Warner Bros. to unearth the archive while preparing his 2022 biopic, what emerged was far more than performance reels. Multi-camera concert footage captures Elvis at his peak as a live artist, while backstage moments and candid reflections reveal a man both commanding and curiously exposed.

Rather than assembling a conventional cradle-to-grave documentary, Luhrmann opts for something more fluid and impressionistic. Presley effectively narrates the film himself through archival interviews and recordings, his voice guiding viewers through fame, doubt and creative hunger. The effect is intimate without being reverential, allowing flashes of vulnerability to sit alongside the swagger.

There is fresh force in being reminded that this global icon began life in deep poverty before becoming the most famous young performer on the planet. By letting the man speak and sing for himself, the film offers a vivid, unvarnished encounter with the King.

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A light-footed, time-spanning drama that explores how the past quietly shapes the present.

When a large extended family in Normandy are asked to clear out their long-abandoned ancestral home ahead of a redevelopment, four distant relatives take on the task. As they sift through letters, photographs and paintings, one of them, Seb, begins to imagine the life of a young woman from the 19th century, Adele, whose journey to Paris opens up a parallel story that gradually intertwines with the present.

Director Cédric Klapisch moves fluidly between timelines, drawing connections across generations with a playful, inventive touch. The film finds its rhythm in small discoveries and shifting perspectives, using visual echoes and gentle humour to link past and present without ever feeling heavy. Moments of curiosity, coincidence and imagination keep the narrative buoyant, even as deeper themes about identity and belonging come into focus.

A strong ensemble brings warmth and personality to a wide range of characters, grounding the story in recognisable emotions as new relationships form and old ones are reconsidered.

Easygoing yet thoughtful, it’s a quietly uplifting reflection on connection, memory and the traces people leave behind.

Gus Van Sant’s tense, fact-based thriller turns an ordinary grievance into something grippingly unpredictable.

Set in 1977 Indianapolis, the story follows Tony (Bill Skarsgård), a frustrated customer who arrives for an appointment with mortgage boss ML Hall (Pacino), but instead meets his son Dick. Fed up with waiting more than four years for his loan, Tony rigs a shotgun to his own neck, triggering a standoff that quickly draws in local police and an ambitious TV journalist eager to capture the moment. What begins as a single act of desperation soon spirals into a media spectacle, unfolding over several days as the nation watches.

Van Sant keeps the focus on the people at the centre of the crisis, grounding the drama in naturalistic detail and period texture. The tension builds through conversation and shifting perspectives, as law enforcement and the press circle the situation. A lively radio host (Colman Domingo) adds another layer, amplifying Tony’s voice beyond the room.

Skarsgård anchors the film with a measured, sympathetic performance, supported by a strong ensemble. It’s a tightly controlled drama that finds suspense in human behaviour as much as in the situation itself.

An easygoing, big-hearted salute to the British pub, this comedy-drama raises a glass to community spirit at a time when locals are disappearing from the high street.

Set in a struggling neighbourhood boozer facing closure, the story centres on a grieving family who gamble on brewing their own beer to keep the doors open. What begins as a desperate measure slowly gathers momentum, carrying them all the way to the Great British Beer Awards. Along the journey come bruised egos, old grudges and small-town rivalries, but also renewed friendships and a shared determination to protect a place that means more than just pints and crisps.

From the team behind Finding Your Feet and Fisherman’s Friends, directors Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft keep the tone warm and accessible, balancing gentle humour with moments of reflection. The ensemble cast, including Jonno Davies, James Buckley, Gabriella Wilde, Mark Addy and Martin Clunes, bring lived-in charm and comic bite to characters who feel instantly recognisable.

With thousands of pubs lost in recent years, Mother’s Pride taps into a genuine anxiety while offering a hopeful reminder that collective effort, however modest, can still make a difference.

Steven Knight brings Peaky Blinders to the big screen with The Immortal Man, a brooding wartime chapter that trades smoky backrooms for bombed-out streets.

It is 1940, and Birmingham is under siege as World War II rages. Nearly two decades have passed since we first met Tommy Shelby, and the former gang leader now moves through a city scarred by the Blitz, balancing political influence, old rivalries and the weight of his own reputation. As tensions rise at home and abroad, familiar faces return, alliances shift and unfinished business refuses to stay buried.

Cillian Murphy slips back into Tommy’s overcoat with ease, playing him as a man hollowed out but unbowed, running on willpower and memory. The performance is flintier, quieter, all the more compelling for it. Stephen Graham continues his bid to break the Guinness World Record for appearing in every television drama made in a five-year period, while Sophie Rundle is also back as Tommy’s sister Ada Shelby. Knight stages it all with sweeping, bomb-shattered visuals and a score that pounds like distant artillery.

A fitting bridge from small to big-screen, it expands the legend without losing its grit.

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The landmark Japanese cyberpunk anime from 1988 re-emerges as a deeply strange nightmare about destruction and rebirth.

Thirty years on from a devastating explosion that razed the city, a new capital – Neo-Tokyo – has been born: sprawling, chaotic, like the LA of Blade Runner. The city is beset with violence from warring motorbike gangs, and by protesters rioting against unfair taxes.

Biker teen Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata) is in the middle of a confrontation with a rival mob, when his friend Tetsuo (Nozomu Sasaki) accidentally crashes into a bizarrely wizened child-goblin figure who has apparently escaped from a top-secret government research facility investigating this race of troll-infants with bizarre powers.

Right from the outset, what stands out is how visually striking and timeless the animation is. The film utilised 160,000 hand drawn cels, and every frame feels like a visual marvel. From the light trails streaking behind the bikes as they tear through the city, to the breathtaking background art, to the fluidity of the character animation, the craftsmanship is astonishing. Despite being almost 40 years old, nothing about Akira feels dated; if anything, it feels ahead of its time.

Condemned as a work of “revolting immorality”, the French novel was promptly banned by the very society it described, which of course didn’t stop it being voraciously devoured for the next 200 years.

One day the Marquise (Glenn Close) comes to the Vicomte (John Malkovich) with an assignment. She has lost a lover who left her to marry an innocent Cecile (a very young Uma Thurman). She wishes the Vicomte to seduce the young woman before she can bear her virginity to the marital bed. The Vicomte accepts the dare and dispatches himself to the country, where, however, he eventually sets his sights on another young woman instead, the virtuous Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer).

The stage version, adapted by British playwright Christopher Hampton, won the 1986 Olivier Award, and then, of course, came Stephen Frears’ film, and thirty years after release its potency still fills the air. Frears’ smoothly assured direction punches the witty lines in Hampton’s production to the big screen, and that fabulous cast doesn’t miss a single cue in its delivery. (Jack Whiting)

There’s a terrific charm to this Bake Off-style adventure about a little girl in early-90s Iraq required by her school to make a birthday cake in Saddam Hussein’s honour

The tale begins just two days before the birthday of President Hussein. Celebrating that event is mandatory. Our heroine here is a nine-year-old Lamia. She is the one chosen to make a special cake for the occasion. Lamia sets off into town with her grandmother Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat) on a desperate shopping expedition, carrying her pet cockerel, Hindi.

Hooking up with a scallywag boy from school (Sajad Mohamad Qasem), she addresses the impossible task of getting the humble items for the cake. With no money, faced with tradesmen hanging by a money thread themselves, she’s in a desperate, developing world version of The Apprentice.

The film seeks morality in a teetering society, and if it offers a moral imperative it’s that no one should be the first in line to judge, or be judged. Lamia has an uncertain life that she’s determined to live – to subvert it but never sacrifice her soul

Set in a Cornish fishing village, this time travel ghost story explores the intimate presence of death and the claustrophobia of family and community.

The eponymous fishing boat that disappeared, has magically turned up at the rundown harbour. Two men — drunk named Liam (Callum Turner) and family man Nick (George Mackay) — unaware of the vessel’s past, are hired by the families of the deceased crew to go out once more. Upon their return, they find themselves sent into the past, having assumed the roles of the two men who were lost before.

Have they somehow cosmically contrived a happier future for the two men than the one that actually happened? Or was it their reality that was in fact unreal: a premonition of disaster and gloom from 30 years ago?

As you’d expect from Mark Jenkin (Bait), Rose of Nevada is at once visually harsh and remarkably beautiful in its attention to detail and texture. It is an elusive and complex film, with a strangeness and enigma present from the beginning; the film appears to be saying that there is something unknowable here even without the time slip.

Exhibition on Screen series returns with a profile of Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter who has long been venerated as a pioneer of feminist iconography.

Everyone knows her face but who was the woman behind the bright colours, the big brows and the floral crowns? Take a journey through the life of a true icon, discover her art, and uncover the story of her rebellious and turbulent life.

The film takes an in-depth look at key works throughout there career. Using letters Kahlo wrote as a guide, it reveals her deepest emotions, and unlocks the symbolism contained within her work, her personal life, and the ins and outs of her artistic achievements. (A fervent case is made that Kahlo was the first artist to render menstrual blood on canvas, in her heartbreaking depiction of her miscarriage and hospital stay in Detroit, where she had accompanied Rivera on one of his mural commissions.)

This intimate film offers privileged access to her works, her home, her studio and highlights the source of her feverish creativity, her resilience and her unmatched lust for life, beauty and revolution. A must see.

A vivid portrait of a legendary actor over the course of his career, Kokuho joins a rich tradition of films that depict the personal cost of making art.

The protagonist here is kabuki actor Kikuo Tachibana (Ryo Yoshizawa as an adult and Soya Kurokawa as a child), who is picked up by esteemed actor Hanai Hanjiro II (Ken Watanabe) after Kikuo’s father is killed by members of a yakuza group. Under Hanai’s responsibility, Kikuo’s relationship with theatre is furthered, and we see many of the people he connects with along the way.

The film spans decades of Kikuo’s life, from when he is a child in 1964 all the way to 2014. Kokuho boasts many intricate plot details throughout this story, and the many people who come and go through his story turn this play into a grander vision of a labyrinthine life.

In many ways, Kikuo acts as an embodiment of his art’s place in post-war Japan; it subtly forms a portrait of the changing times, signalled primarily by costume and production design. At three hours, it is a commitment, but a rewarding one.

Knives Out meets Babe in this light-hearted, wooly whodunnit, starring Hugh Jackman.

In this witty, new breed of mystery, Jackman is George Hardy, a shepherd who loves his sheep and raises them only for their wool. Every night he reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand, never suspecting that not only can they understand but they argue for hours afterwards about whodunnit

Then, when someone is actually found dead under mysterious circumstances, the sheep realise at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it. The local cop Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), on the other hand, has never solved a serious crime in his life, so the sheep conclude they will have to solve it themselves, even if it means leaving their meadow for the first time and facing the fact that the human world isn’t as simple as it appears in books.

The Sheep Detectives is a fun, wholesome murder mystery with an all-star voice cast including: Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall, and Patrick Stewart. Don’t miss.

This came so close to not being finished, but when it went on to win the coveted Palme d’or at Cannes (2006) it was glittered at by the glitterati, but not by the tabloid English press and Tele-graph.

They demonised it before it was ever screened!

“Only 42 of the 659 cinema screens in Britain are set to show it (one of that 42 was/is The Rex) yet 300 French cinemas are queueing for it…” (Standard 22nd June 2006).

With characteristic insight, honesty and intelligence, Loach/Laverty creates a tense moving, com-passionate and poignant story. It examines the personal cost of conflict in Ireland in the early 1920s.

Reluctant at first, later driven by all around him, Damien (Cillian Murphy) follows his brother Teddy (Padraic Delaney) into violent conflict. When an unstable treaty is finally agreed, it is already too late. Civil war pits families, who fought side by side, against each another. The period detail is extraordinary, as are the performances in this “controversial slice of half-forgotten history”.

Brutal and heart searching, not a beat is skipped.

It is a beautifully measured story of loyalty, conflict and above all: Family. Heart lifting/breaking.

Don’t miss Cillian Murphy at his best – long before Oppenheimer.

The paunchy Nintendo mascot Mario (Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) return for another colourful, kid-friendly adventure, this time going beyond the stars.

We meet a princess, Rosalina (Brie Larson), who is the mother of a brood of multi-coloured stars. She’s kidnapped by Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie), who’s out to avenge his imprisoned dad (Jack Black). Meanwhile Mario and Luigi meet and befriend cute dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover) and set out to help Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she goes off to rescue her fellow royal.

What follows is 90 minutes of pure sugar-rush as we quite literally bounce from one madcap segment to the next, with nary a time to breathe. There’s precious little humanity in the dialogue or performances, yet the joy lies in its sincere affection for the Mario universe; the people who made this, including a great many from Nintendo itself, care enough about the Mario games to ensure that the details are right: that everything looks and sounds as it should, from those spinning star-launchers from the Galaxy games to the cute 2D sequences that are straight out of Super Mario Bros. It’s silly, delightful stuff.

Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel play off each other beautifully in an intimate London-set comedy drama about art, commerce and the mess in-between.

McKellen is Julian Sklar, a once-brilliant painter who sullied his name with awful behaviour. Now, separated from the world he looks down on in his London townhouse, he makes money through embarrassing Cameo videos.

He’s cursed with two talentless children (Jessica Gunning and James Corden), they’re obsessed with the money they might still be able to squeeze from him. There’s a set of portraits – The Christophers – that have gained a mythical reputation and while no one on the outside knows they’re unfinished, the siblings intend to hire an expert to finish them so that they can con their way into a fortune. They pick Lori (Coel), an art restorer, she pretends to be Julian’s new assistant and the pair begin an unusual relationship, filled with mistrust, anger and revenge.

The Christophers is an witty comedy drama with plot reversals that make it feel like it’s on the verge of a thriller. It doesn’t end up there, but it’s unpredictable enough to never make us entirely sure just where it’s heading.

The cast members of 2006’s beloved fashionista comedy expressed no desire in doing a sequel, but apparently something changed, and now everyone has come back for a second strut.

This time, the story dives into the decline of print fashion magazines and the rise of digital media. Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) is dealing with retirement and the collapse of the magazine industry, now forced to build bridges with her one-time assistant Emily (Emily Blunt). Emily has become a powerful executive in the luxury brand world. The tension? Emily’s company no longer needs Miranda’s magazine, flipping their old dynamic on its head. It’s not just fashion anymore; it’s survival, relevance, and reinvention. Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs is also back in business with Miranda, working as an editor at Runway.

Expect sharp dialogue, breathtaking wardrobes, and that same biting humour that made the original a classic. This sequel has that perfect mix of nostalgia and new energy. The devil is back and she’s more fabulous and ruthless than ever. The Devil Wears Prada 2 feels like catching up with old friends, ones who wear designer heels.