FOUR STARS When a career man loses his job after decades of loyalty, he devises an alarming plan to get his job, any job, back. DRAMA KOREA Korean #NOOTHERCHOICE Starring Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin You know you’re well into awards season when every other film you watch hits the 2 hour 30 mark, and so it is with Park Chan-wook’s challenging NO OTHER CHOICE. Part social satire, part comedy horror, part devastating drama, it’s all parts Park from the exquisite visuals to the off

FIVE STARS A couple lose their son to the plague. A tragedy that could have destroyed them, unites them. DRAMA UK English #HAMNET Starring Jess Buckley, Paul Mescal There are films that announce arrive with fanfare and then there are films like HAMNET, which land softly, almost apologetically, and undo you with their grace. Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is such a work. A period drama of rare emotional intelligence that understands grief is not a dramati

THREE AND A HALF STARS A demanding choirmaster aims to bring hope to a mill town depleted by the ravages of World War I. DRAMA UK English #THECHORAL Starring Ralph Fiennes, Mark Addy THE CHORAL is the kind of film that arrives as advertised, clears its throat politely and gets on with the job. Set in a Yorkshire village during the grim attrition of the First World War, it centres on a depleted male voice choir and the cultured outsider brought in to revive it. There are hymn

THREE AND A HALF STARS A filmmaker returns home to cast his estranged daughter in the lead role. She turns him down, reopening old family wounds. DRAMA NORWAY Norwegian #SENTIMENTALVALUE Starring Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve SENTIMENTAL VALUE arrives freighted with expectation; a Cannes-anointed meditation on family, art and inheritance, that, thankfully, proves far easier to love than its sombre packaging suggests. While it clearly wants to be taken as a serious reckon

THREE STARS A classical musician learns he has a brother who plays in a brass band. He needs his brother, and the band needs a conductor. COMEDY-DRAMA FRANCE French #MYBROTHERSBAND Starring Benjamin Lavernhe, Pierre Lottin MY BROTHER’S BAND is a warm crowd-pleaser that knows exactly what it wants to be and achieves it with grace. A tender French feel-good drama about music, family and second chances, it gently recalls the best of British like BRASSED OFF or THE FULL MONTY, w

FOUR STARS Two men travel the back blocks of north America collecting folks songs for posterity. Men whose personal relationship goes far deeper than their professional one. DRAMA US English #THEHISTORYOFSOUND Starring Paul Mescal, Josh O'Connor If your idea of a good time is sitting in mone-chrome calm for a couple of hours while a pair of impeccable, handsome men meander through early 20th-century America collecting folk songs, THE HISTORY OF SOUND is the film for you.  Di

THREE STARS Convinced of his innocence, General Herman Göring surrenders to the Allies, setting the stage for one of history's most significant trials. DRAMA US English #NUREMBERG Starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek James Vanderbilt’s NUREMBERG arrives with the grand confidence of a prestige drama: big cast, bigger subject, and the kind of glossy, old-school production that once fuelled Hollywood’s award seasons. It’s a film that wants to reckon with history while reminding u

TWO STARS Barb becomes enmeshed in saving the life of a young woman, kidnapped in the frozen, winter landscape of Minnesota. DRAMA US English #DEADOFWINTER Starring Emma Thompson, Judy Greer This is the sort of film that confirms just how rough the landscape must be for actors of Emma Thompson’s calibre. A hackneyed horror-thriller with pretensions of grit (one she, surprisingly, co-produced presumably because this is how you get to work), DEAD OF WINTER wastes its star on a

THREE STARS Linda's world is buckling, and neither her child, husband, therapist, doctor nor apartment are helping. DRAMA US English #IFIHADLEGS Starring Rose Byrne, Conan O'Brien There’s no denying the impact of IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU, Mary Bronstein’s grim, claustrophobic portrait of a mother unravelling. Whether that impact feels worthwhile will depend on your tolerance for discomfort. Starring Rose Byrne in a performance as raw as it is punishing, this is a film desi

THREE AND A HALF STARS John Davidson has Tourette's. Everyone thinks he's inappropriate and swears too much. DRAMA UK English #ISWEAR Starring Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake Kirk Jones (WAKING NED DEVINE ) is no stranger to sentiment, and I SWEAR is no exception. Based on the true story of John Davidson, a Scotsman diagnosed as a teenager with Tourette syndrome, it’s a film with heart, humour and a fair amount of grit. If it doesn’t quite stick the landing, it certainly at lea