Lyra review – brilliant life and tragic death of Northern Ireland’s fearless young reporter
Lyra McKee, killed by the New IRA in 2019, is shown here as an inspirational LGBTQ journalist, bravely addressing the lingering damage of the Troubles - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Banshees of Inisherin review – flawless tragicomedy of male friendship gone sour
Three Billboards and In Bruges writer-director Martin McDonagh reunites Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in this deliciously melancholy tale set in remotest 1920s Ireland - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarDecision to Leave review – Park Chan-wook at his playful, slinky best
A married detective contemplates infidelity in the Korean director’s seductive, multilayered crime drama - Wendy Ide
starstarstarstarstarPoltergeist review – out-of-the-box 80s scarer can still knock the furniture over
Fright master Tobe Hooper’s 1982 movie has Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints all over it, but has a disturbing, satirical edge that’s all its own - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarMy Neighbour Totoro review – dazzling staging of the Studio Ghibli classic
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production has astonishing puppetry, magical music and huge emotional impact - Arifa Akbar
starstarstarstarstarAll Quiet on the Western Front review – extraordinarily potent German first world war drama
Edward Berger depicts the horrors of war through the eyes of a young solider in this stunning indictment of wasted lives - Wendy Ide
starstarstarstarstarNingla-A’na review – Australia’s greatest ever protest movie
The electric documentary from the frontlines of the first Aboriginal Tent Embassy is restored, rereleased and still unmissable 50 years on - Luke Buckmaster
starstarstarstarstarSalt for Svanetia review – poetic, dreamlike Soviet documentary of forgotten world
Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1930s film gives a fascinating account of a medieval-style society about the supposed blessings of the USSR’s modernising impact - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarYou Won’t Be Alone review – a spellbinding horror movie from a great new talent
Director Goran Stolevski casts a different light on witch stories in his debut, which follows a shapeshifter in a 19th-century village - Luke Buckmaster
starstarstarstarstarMoonage Daydream review – cosmic Bowie doc is a mind-blowing labour of love
American director Brett Morgen’s kaleidoscopic collage of David Bowie’s life is a dazzling mashup of elegy, celebration and intimate portrait - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarJackie Brown review – Tarantino’s most romantic film is a stone-cold classic
Pam Grier and Samuel L Jackson are explosively good in this stylish crime thriller, with superb supporting turns from Robert Forster, Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarImmortality review – an irresistible plunge into a Hollywood mystery
Her Story creator Sam Barlow surpasses himself with this stunning interactive movie thriller in which you play detective, film editor and eavesdropper - Simon Parkin
starstarstarstarstarPearl review – Mia Goth and Ti West scare up a storm in extraordinary pandemic horror
This brilliant prequel to Goth and West’s previous collaboration, X, is a cine-fever dream set in the dying days of Spanish flu - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarBones and All review – cannibal romance is a heartbreaking banquet of brilliance
Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell dazzle in Luca Guadagnino’s blood-soaked parable of poverty and rebellion - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe March on Rome review – Mark Cousins dissects Mussolini and the grisly founding myth of fascism
In his trademark subjective style Cousins uses archive and contemporary footage to show the dictator’s dishonesty and brutality - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Stranger review – Joel Edgerton is at his brooding best in this sophisticated crime drama
Thomas M Wright’s unconventional, captivating film sees Edgerton as an undercover cop trying to identify a child murderer, opposite the brilliant Sean Harris - Luke Buckmaster
starstarstarstarstarThe Harder They Come review – Jimmy Cliff falls hard in visceral revenge western
Fifty years on, this crime drama of a headstrong singer shooting for his chance of success is as raw and energetic as its reggae soundtrack - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarHit the Road review – all of Iranian life on four wheels
Panah Panahi juggles joy, heartbreak and surreal humour in a road movie his imprisoned father would be proud of - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarParis, Texas review – Harry Dean Stanton unforgettable in haunting classic
Wim Wenders’ iconic vision of American alienation, starring Stanton as a weatherbeaten drifter, has held its mystery for 40 years - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarHit the Road review – irrepressible defiance in beautifully composed debut feature
Directed by Panah Panahi, the son of jailed Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, this tense family drama is drenched in a subtle but urgent political meaning - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Big City review – Satyajit Ray’s miraculous look at a new world of possibility
The struggles and triumphs of a 1950s Kolkata family whose highest earner is a woman is told with marvellous lucidity in an optimistic masterpiece - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Railway Children review – kids’ adventure has lost none of its limpid charm
Rereleased as a curtain-raiser for a sequel, Jenny Agutter, Bernard Cribbins and co continue to exert their grip over the national imagination - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarElvis review – blistering, turbocharged chronicle of the King
With electrifying performances from Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as Colonel Parker, Baz Luhrmann’s whirlwind biopic is cinematic dynamite - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarWings of Desire review – Wim Wenders’ elegiac hymn to a broken cold-war Berlin
Shot when the city seemed forever divided by the wall, this intensely romantic story of an angel who longs for human love is unlike any other - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarNude Tuesday review – this New Zealand orgy comedy told in gibberish is delightful
Hilariously subtitled by comedian Julia Davis, this film sees an unhappy couple go to a horny guru – played by Jemaine Clement – to fix their marriage - Michael Sun
starstarstarstarstarThe Plains review – a three-hour film set almost entirely in a car – and it is extraordinary
In this amazing work of art, we sit behind a middle-aged lawyer on his commute as he calls his family, listens to radio and gives a lift to a colleague - Luke Buckmaster
starstarstarstarstarGoya’s horrific Black Paintings are brought to life – La Quinta del Sordo review
Philippe Parreno’s filmic re-creation of Goya’s late murals, full of his bleakest visions, is like a time machine that lets us see this ghostly space through the artist’s eyes - Adrian Searle
starstarstarstarstarPickpocket review – existential thrills in Robert Bresson’s study of a thief’s progress
Bresson’s 1959 film about a misfit who dreams of rising above conventional morals is a brilliant example of the cinema of ideas - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarPsycho review – well worth getting scared in the shower all over again
The rereleased, uncut version highlights the calculation and skill that went into making a genre-defining horror classic - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarGet Carter review – Michael Caine delivers in stone-cold crime classic
Mike Hodges’ Brit-crime magnum opus from 1971, which gave Caine the role of a lifetime as gangland enforcer Jack Carter, can be savoured again on re-release - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarMoonage Daydream review – glorious, shapeshifting eulogy to David Bowie
Brett Morgen’s intimate montage of the uniquely influential artist celebrates his career, creativity and unfailing charm - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarFunny Pages review – a deliciously dark coming-of-age comedy
Owen Kline fuses teen innocence with adult sexuality in a bad-taste debut film that recalls American Splendor and Crumb - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarDecision to Leave review – Tang Wei stuns in Park Chan-wook black-widow noir
Park’s tale of a married detective torn between infidelity and moral duty keeps the viewer off-balance at every turn - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarRoboCop review – thrilling, subversive 80s masterpiece from Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven’s sophisticated sci-fi fable is rereleased in its original director’s cut, with the gruesome violence and black-comic queasiness restored - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Innocents review – icily brilliant tale of kids with supernatural powers is future classic
Young actors steal the show in this scary movie set on a Norwegian housing estate, where grownups are unaware of the children’s abilities - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarVampyr review – Dreyer’s hallucinatory undead classic comes back from the grave
Re-released for its 90th anniversary, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s film established some of the staples of the genre with a female, rather than male, vampire - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Quiet Girl review – exquisite debut drama set in rural Ireland
A young girl sent to live with relatives for the summer blossoms in Colm Bairéad’s beguiling first feature - Wendy Ide
starstarstarstarstarVortex review – Gaspar Noé’s stunning split-screen descent into dementia
A retired psychiatrist suffers a stroke, while her film-maker husband potters about their Paris apartment in denial in this brutally insightful film - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Quiet Girl review – deeply moving tale of rural Ireland already feels like a classic
A silent child is sent away to live with foster parents on a farm in this gem of a film from first-time feature director Colm Bairéad - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarCabaret review – Liza Minnelli musical still divinely decadent and chillingly relevant
Minnelli brings the razzle dazzle to a Berlin determined to ignore the gathering storm in this cinematic masterpiece - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarLost in La Mancha review – landmark doc of Terry Gilliam’s cinematic nightmare
Gilliam’s epic travails filming Don Quixote are well worth seeing again – and should be on the syllabus at every film school - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Northman review – Robert Eggers’ brutal vision of vengeance and violence
Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Björk and Anya Taylor-Joy feature in a mesmerisingly outrageous take on the Norse myth that inspired Hamlet - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarPrayers for the Stolen – extraordinary tale of fear and friendship in Mexican drug country
Tatiana Huezo’s haunting film captures the desperate lives of a remote rural community at the mercy of marauding cartels - Wendy Ide
starstarstarstarstarInspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts review – brilliant and bewitching
An exhibition paying homage to Walt Disney’s love of French art is playful and spellbinding, revealing how rococo clocks, paintings and tea sets were drawn into his most famous films - Laura Cumming
starstarstarstarstarThe Novice review – stunning debut passes the university challenge
Lauren Hadaway’s intriguing film plays with the texture of sound as it follows an ambitious student trying out for the college rowing team - Wendy Ide
starstarstarstarstarCries and Whispers review – Ingmar Bergman’s diabolically inspired claustrophobic horror
Bergman’s 1972 film is rereleased, the story of sisters waiting for one to die, and it shocks and disturbs in equal measure - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarApollo 10½ review – Richard Linklater’s sensational coming-of-ager heads for the stars
Richard Linklater combines his affinities for rotoscoping and depicting the quiet magic of childhood in a wonderful paean to late-60s idealism - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Worst Person in the World review – Nordic romcom is an instant classic
Renate Reinsve is sublime as a young woman veering between lovers in a film that reminds us of the genre’s life-affirming potential - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarChopper review – Eric Bana’s star-making turn reeking with lairy charm and charisma
Director Andrew Dominik’s funny, violent film about Australian criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read from 2000 contains a never-bettered performance from Bana - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarA League of Their Own review – feelgood baseball drama still knocks it out the park
Sprinkled with Tom Hanks stardust, and Geena Davis leading the line, this heartwarming tale of a women’s wartime baseball league stands the test of time - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Godfather review – a brutal sweep of magnificent storytelling
Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in the series is still an epic, full of hypnotic acting, which reinvented mafia criminals as players in a dynastic psychodrama - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert review – a towering time capsule
Nonplussed coppers, 60s London panoramas and the fab four very much alive … Peter Jackson’s film is moving and unmissable - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarFlee review – fantastically moving story of a refugee’s life-saving secret
This extraordinary tale of the desperate lengths a gay Afghan man was forced to go to in order to escape persecution is a powerful testament to human endurance - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Souvenir Part II – Joanna Hogg’s soul-searching sequel is a triumph
Part two of Hogg’s semi-autobiographical drama, in which a young film-maker finds her creative path after a doomed love affair, is the director’s most accessible work to date - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarThe Souvenir Part II review – a flood of austere sunlight in Joanna Hogg’s superb sequel
Hogg’s double-Swinton, highly autobiographical study of a young film-maker is less detached, more emotionally engaging, as we enter Julie’s world for a second time - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarJules et Jim review – Truffaut’s love triangle is a whirlwind masterpiece
The French New Wave classic chronicles the lives of two men and the dangerous object of their affections - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarParallel Mothers review – Almodóvar delivers an emotional bundle of joy
Pedro Almodóvar’s poetic conviction and creative fluidity flow through this moving baby-swap drama about two single mothers and buried secrets from the Spanish civil war - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarNightmare Alley review – a neo-noir knockout from Guillermo del Toro
Bradley Cooper plays a carnival conman drawn into a dark underworld in this dazzling drama from the Mexican director - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarYou Won’t Be Alone review – spellbinding tale of a body-switching witch
A witch discovers life, love and death via the bodies of others in a beautifully made and moving treatise on what it it means to be human - Benjamin Lee
starstarstarstarstarBelfast review – Kenneth Branagh’s euphoric eulogy to his home city
Nightmarishness meets nostalgia as Jamie Dornan and Judi Dench star in a scintillating Troubles-era coming-of-age tale - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe 400 Blows review – François Truffaut’s coming-of-age masterwork
Jean-Pierre Léaud dazzles at the heart of an autobiographical opus that invites new waves of adulation with each viewing - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Tragedy of Macbeth review – Denzel Washington delivers a noirish nightmare
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand hit top form in Joel Coen’s austere reimagining of Shakespeare’s Scottish bloodbath - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarWest Side Story review – Spielberg’s triumphantly hyperreal remake
Stunning recreations of the original film’s New York retain the songs and the dancing in a re-telling that will leave you gasping - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Shop Around the Corner review – Lubitsch romcom still a Christmas delight
James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan’s love-hate romance, which spawned many later meet-cutes, is more eccentric than you might remember - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarLife Between Islands review: displaying the power and passion of Caribbean-British art
Resistance and defiance and celebrations, arrivals, departures and returns: from photographs of protests to a Union Black flag, this timely show is an unmissable testament to creativity - Adrian Searle
starstarstarstarstarPetite Maman review – Céline Sciamma’s heartbreakingly hopeful fairytale for all ages
The acclaimed French director has created another gem with this magical story of a young girl coming to terms with her grandmother’s death - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarThe Power of the Dog review – Jane Campion’s superb gothic western is mysterious and menacing
Slow-burning psychodrama about two warring brothers on a ranch in 1920s Montana is one of the director’s best - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarLicorice Pizza review – Paul Thomas Anderson’s funniest and most relaxed film yet
Anderson’s latest is a romance about a teen boy wooing an older woman, starring two extraordinary newcomers and stuffed with fabulously hammy A-list cameos - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarProcession review – extraordinary documentary giving voice to sexual abuse survivors
Robert Greene’s documentary brings the stories of six men abused as children by Catholic priests to the screen with remarkable care and creativity - Simran Hans
starstarstarstarstarNaked review – one of British cinema’s great monsters
David Thewlis’s lost soul, raging around London in Mike Leigh’s fiercely bleak masterwork, is even more disturbing 28 years on - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarBurning review – the searing black summer documentary that Australia deserves
Eva Orner’s bushfire exposé boils your blood and rattles your bones as it addresses the climate crisis head on and rips into the dark heart of modern Australia - Luke Buckmaster
starstarstarstarstarHarry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone review – 20 years on, it’s a nostalgic spectacular
The first film in the franchise is re-released into a very different world – but it’s as entertaining and exhilarating as ever - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarSeven Samurai review – an epic primal myth that pulsates through cinema
Akira Kurosawa’s tale of ascetic mercenaries brought together for a single job inspired endless imitations, but the original has lost none of its magic - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarDune review – Denis Villeneuve’s awe-inspiring epic is a moment of triumph
Villeneuve’s take on the sci-fi classic starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac and Zendaya has been given room to breathe, creating a colossal spectacle - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarBrief Encounter review – sparkling revival of Emma Rice’s forbidden romance
This polished production brings Rice’s innovative adaptation of the classic film to life, with an electric central partnership and personality to spare - Anya Ryan
starstarstarstarstarThe Outsiders review – Coppola’s Brat Pack melodrama carries you away
Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe star in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 movie that comes crashing back on screen - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarAzor review – eerie conspiracy thriller about the complacency of the super-rich
Andreas Fontana’s debut feature is an unnervingly subtle drama about a Swiss private banker visiting clients in Argentina during the period of the military junta and ‘disappearances’ - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Ape Woman review – freakshow satire with bizarre alternative-ending payoff
Watching both versions of this 1964 drama of Elephant Man-style exploitation reveals an impressive degree of tenderness and complexity - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarGetting Away With Murder(s) review – powerful call for Holocaust justice
David Nicholas Wilkinson’s epic investigation into the Nazis who escaped a postwar reckoning shows the difficulty of prosecuting this technocratic atrocity - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarNitram review – intensely disquieting and extraordinary Port Arthur massacre film
Justin Kurzel’s exploration of the lead-up to one of Australia’s worst mass shootings is a film of eerie, queasy foreboding - Luke Buckmaster
starstarstarstarstarNo Time to Die review – Daniel Craig dispatches James Bond with panache, rage – and cuddles
The long-awaited 25th outing for Ian Fleming’s superspy is a weird and self-aware epic with audacious surprises up its sleeve - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Green Knight review – a rich and wild fantasy
Dev Patel works his subtle magic in David Lowery’s enthralling take on the medieval tale of the questing Gawain - Mark Kermode Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarThe Green Knight review – Dev Patel rides high on sublimely beautiful quest
Director David Lowery conjures up visual wonders and metaphysical mysteries from the anonymously authored 14th-century chivalric poem - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Maltese Falcon review – dreamlike tension and the greatest MacGuffin of all time
A dark, steely performance from Humphrey Bogart is at the cynical heart of John Huston’s adaptation of the classic detective novel - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Story of Looking review – Mark Cousins’ rhapsody of the gaze
An eye operation sets the veteran cinephile out on a delicate and fascinating exploration of what it means to look at movies – and the world - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Humans review – masterly family drama transfers from stage to screen
Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning play makes the leap to film with ease, an intimate – at times uncomfortably so – look at a family at Thanksgiving - Benjamin Lee
starstarstarstarstarThe Servant review – Losey and Pinter’s nightmarish version of Jeeves and Wooster
The subversive 1963 classic crackles with undertones of class, sexuality and communism, with Dirk Bogarde at his finest as the sociopathic manservant - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarFrozen review – stunning musical extravaganza creates its own magic
Beyond the visual thrills and powerful ballads, this adaptation brings an unexpected depth to the relationship between two tortured sisters - Arifa Akbar
starstarstarstarstarSinfonia of London/Wilson/ Chiejina review – a remarkable debut for Vertigo orchestra
The first live concert for the Sinfonia, which once recorded the Hitchcock soundtrack, was exceptional, featuring the exquisite voice of Francesca Chiejina - Tim Ashley
starstarstarstarstarSundown review – Tim Roth a wonderfully relaxed sociopath in Venice’s funniest film
Michael Franco’s latest collaboration with the actor sees Roth on a Mexican beach holiday, blissfully unaffected by grief - Xan Brooks
starstarstarstarstarDune review – blockbuster cinema at its dizzying, dazzling best
Denis Villeneuve’s slow-burn space opera fuses the arthouse and the multiplex to create an epic of otherworldly brilliance - Xan Brooks
starstarstarstarstarSpencer review – Princess Diana’s disastrous marriage makes a magnificent farce
Kristen Stewart’s entirely compelling Di has no escape from the dress-up game of monarchy in Pablo Larraín’s unreverential movie - Xan Brooks
starstarstarstarstarNow, Voyager review – Bette Davis’s sublime, sex-free act of sublimation
A wealthy young woman escapes her tyrannical mother to fall hopelessly in love in this magnificent Hollywood melodrama - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarThe Sparks Brothers review – a match made in heaven
Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright is a perfect fit for the absurdist antics of art pop’s most elusive duo in this stranger-than-fiction documentary - Mark Kermode Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarLimbo review – a gorgeous tragicomic take on the refugee experience
Ben Sharrock expertly juxtaposes the limitless landscape of the Scottish islands with the curtailed options of oud-playing new arrival Omar - Wendy Ide
starstarstarstarstarLimbo review – heart-rending portrait of refugees stranded in Scotland
Ben Sharrock announces himself as a master of atmospheric film-making with this stirring drama about a Syrian migrant - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarGirlfriends review – a lo-fi indie miracle about love and the city
Claudia Weill’s 1978 comic tale of a photographer trying to make it in New York is a gem whose emotional force comes from the female friendships at its heart - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarOld review – M Night Shyamalan’s fast-ageing beach horror is top notch hokum
With a cast worthy of Agatha Christie, this tale of a resort where time has been terrifyingly accelerated is brilliantly poised between serious and silly - Peter Bradshaw
starstarstarstarstarSummer of Soul review – the best concert film ever made?
Questlove’s magnificent documentary features rediscovered footage of Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone et al in their prime - Mark Kermode Observer film critic
starstarstarstarstarVortex review – Gaspar Noé’s latest goes gentle, for once, into the night
The provocateur has shocked Cannes with a change of pace: an extraordinary midnight movie that follows an elderly couple’s pained last steps in their Paris apartment - Xan Brooks
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