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Looking at the credits you might expect a comedy here and though there are some funny scenes from a psychological point of view it's an incredibly dark film that unflinchingly pokes at some really distasteful aspects of human nature. Neither of the protagonists come off as at all likeable in the end and we're just left to deal with that, which some people may not care for. So while it's a beautiful film with great performances and writing it does tend to leave a bit of sour taste in the mouth.

Having a sympathetic protagonist who took part in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib is a film only Paul Schrader would think to make, or could successfully pull off, and he's helped tremendously by Oscar Isaac, who gives a mesmerizing performance. There's always been a streak of nihilism running through Schrader's work, and this is a bleak affair to be sure, but there are also some keen observations on human nature sprinkled throughout, making it one of his more reasoned and quietly compelling films.

This is one western I can really get behind. It's short, sharp and brutal, with gorgeous cinematography that really captures the harsh landscape and living conditions of the time, and Tim Blake Nelson's stoic performance is truly captivating. It's a simple tale told well, and is grounded in reality at every step, with some nice attention to detail and authentic seeming touches throughout. And as if all that weren't enough the first half is an absolute masterclass in tension building.

For such an uneventful and sombre film this is surprisingly engaging. It's helped by a nicely understated central performance and some very naturalistic supporting turns. There's just the right amount of incident and mystery to drive everything forward and the themes of loss, regret and catharsis through art are quietly explored to great effect. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this film and would be happy to re-watch it because delving into what makes humans tick is always rewarding.

Second film from David Cronenberg's son Brandon who seems to have inherited a lot of his father's sensibilities and aesthetic. It has an intriguing setup that's expanded on logically and is satisfyingly resolved. It's thought provoking and takes its time to tell its story properly and the violent scenes aren't sugar coated hence are much more impactful than the throwaway, consequence-less violence of most Hollywood movies. As a result the film feels far more grounded than your average horror movie.

Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune has jettisoned the core feature of the novel that made it so compelling; the characters' thoughts the readers are privy to via their inner monologues. Their absence here results in a more action oriented affair - albeit a sombre, stately one. Lynch's 1984 version with it's broad performances and oddness may be more fun, but with its superior direction, performances, narrative coherence and visual mastery this is the version that will stand the test of time.

The logical conclusion of the continued dumbing down of movies over the last couple of decades is RRR, with it's mustache twirling baddies and hyperactive action scenes that have no regard for how the real world works. Everything's amped up to 11, then nitro boosted up to 20, resulting in something that's so far removed from reality that despite its serious subject matter it's hard to take it on any level other than a Roadrunner cartoon, and 3 hours of Roadrunner is too much for any sane human.

Uninteresting drama about the value of family that quickly becomes a convoluted mess - trying to juggle broad comedy with philosophical concepts that it seems to think are fresh and original but are neither - the multiverse theory having been around for decades, and the central concept borrowed from Douglas Adams' infinite improbability drive idea from 1980. It's frequently annoyingly silly, and at well over 2 hours it's a tiring experience that yields little of interest and nothing of substance.

Cate Blanchett is on fire in this biography of a disagreeable orchestra conductor who bullies her pupils, lies to her partner and betrays her colleagues in her single minded pursuit of her artistic goals. It's compellingly directed with Blanchett in every scene, the camera relentlessly following her every move so we become complicit in her actions, and as difficult as she can be it's hard not to root for her. The acutely observed commentary on gender politics and political correctness is also spot on.

It looks like Spielberg led a really boring life because outside of his parents splitting up and some light bullying there's not much happening here. It's child Spielberg shooting amateur movies for a couple of hours. Every scene lasts far longer than it should, the script is weak and the acting is serviceable at best, with Williams chewing the scenery whenever she's onscreen. The final 5 minutes is brilliant, but wading through the rest of this dull self-indulgent morass just to see that isn't worth it.

All of Christopher Nolan's movies have a puzzle aspect to them but 'Tenet' takes this to an extreme, and is so wilfully confusing at times that it will ultimately leave a lot of people cold. And it doesn't help that if they do manage to sort through everything some of it just doesn't make a lot of sense. Still, it's expertly directed and competently acted, and it's shooting for something more than just a standard actioner - and that counts for a lot these days. In short it's a bit of a garbled mess but still very watchable.

Very close to perfection. All the elements that go into making a film great are nailed here. The music perfectly complements the mood at every step, the acting - especially Hopkins - is sublime, and the direction and editing are subtle and unobtrusive. It's also very clever in the way it presents what's going on, with actors being switched and characters' plans always vague and often contradictory. It's likely as close as a viewer can get to understanding Alzheimer's and how terrifying it must be.

Girl murders people then fucks a car somehow then pretends she's a boy, then an old man thinks she's his long lost son somehow. Girl has little metal baby somehow and the old man will love it forever. The end. You can psychoanalyze this garbage with it's painfully obvious symbolism all you want, but any movie that's set in the real world with real humans had better follow real world rules or I'm out. Cronenberg's Crash - clearly an inspiration - was brilliant; this is on the level of bad anime.

Having never seen the original Top Gun I can't comment on how this compares but I will say that if you're anywhere close to a Tom Cruise fan this should be a treat as he's in almost every scene and is effortlessly charismatic. The story is silly and verges on being a big budget live action video game, but it does what it sets out to do without messing around and the aerial combat scenes are very well done. This is how actioners used to be before all the bloat crept in and is fine for what it is.

I like Keanu. We all like Keanu, and I want to like his movies, but damn he's not making it easy with this 4th outing as John 'Immortal' Wick. This one's way dumber than Parabellum, which is really saying something. The action is very repetitive - there's only so many times you can watch the same moves without tuning out. It's just too much, and gets really tiresome after a while, as does the fact that almost nothing that happens throughout the whole movie makes any sense. Please stop.

Shakespeare's not for everyone, but Macbeth is one of the safest bets to engage a modern audience. Just put some decent actors in front of the camera, keep things simple and you're half way to a good film. Denzel's a decent actor and he does a good job with material that's a million miles from what he's used to, as does Joel Coen who cleverly plays it safe by keeping it short and aping the classics. The sets and production design are noteworthy, but it's pretty stagey - and that's fine.

This is a sometimes drama that's not very dramatic, an occasional comedy that's not very funny and a desperate satire that's so unsubtle as to be completely uninteresting. We also have mostly unlikable characters not doing much of anything except being snarky and bickering with each other, and a central section specifically designed to turn your stomach, resulting in a rough couple of hours. Woody Harrelson and Zlatko Buric are kind of amusing in their scenes together but that's about it.

Fraser is really good. The film itself is not. It starts off well enough, but the cracks start to appear when the religious loony does, then it veers off course with a silly sub-plot between him and the one-dimensional daughter, then it throws in the confused ex, which dials up the sentimentality until everything takes a nosedive off a cliff in the final scene. It could have been great with better writing and a final half hour with the same tone as the first, but that's not how Aronofsky rolls.