FOUR AND A HALF STARS A young man in colonial Algeria is a stranger to everyone who knows him. DRAMA FRANCE French #THESTRANGER Starring Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder With THE STRANGER, director Francois Ozon doesn’t simply revisit Albert Camus’s famously cool slab of existentialism, he turns into something pared back, distilled, faintly accusatory. The result is a film of icy assurance and unnerving beauty, one that feels philosophically aligned. The broad strokes will be

THREE AND A HALF STARS Three stories about the little things not said that makes a family what it is. DRAMA US English #FATHERMOTHERSISTERBROTHER Starring Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER is as wonderfully compelling triptych of family (dis)connection. Three stories in three distinct settings pick at how families work, or don’t; first in a cluttered American cottage (Father), then an uptight British home (Mother), and finally an empty apartment in Par

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

THREE AND A HALF STARS The sun is dying and Dr Ryland Grace is sent to save us. Turns out it's a bigger problem than he thought, and he's gonna need a bigger brain. SF DRAMA US English #PROJECTHAILMARY Starring Ryan Gosling, James Oritz There’s a strain of big-budget sci-fi that mistakes noise for awe; PROJECT HAIL MARY isn’t entirely immune, but it’s far more interested in charm than chaos. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and adapted from Andy Weir’s novel, th

THREE AND A HALF STARS Stella and Gerry take a holiday in Amsterdam where faith, secrets, history and yearning collide. DRAMA UK English #MIDWINTERBREAK Starring Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds The quietly affecting MIDWINTER BREAK follows a long-married couple who travel to Amsterdam to celebrate a milestone anniversary. What begins as a gentle holiday soon reveals emotional fault lines, as chance encounters and buried tensions nudge their relationship into unfamiliar territo

FOUR STARS A young girl calls from a car, trapped in Gaza. She's surrounded by dead bodies, gunfire can be heard in the background. The Red Crescent is working to save her. DRAMA TUNISIA Arabic #HINDRAJAB Starring Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees There’s a moment, early on in THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB where you realise the film has no intention of letting you look away. Not through spectacle, not through manipulation, but through something far more confronting: restraint. What unfol

FOUR STARS In the crowd at a desert rave, a father is looking for his missing daughter. DRAMA SPAIN Spanish #SIRAT Starring Sergi López, Bruno Núñez Arjona In some rock strewn corner of a Moroccan desert, a rave is taking place. A father hauls his young son through the crowd, chasing rumours of a missing daughter he hopes to find. When rumours that a war has started in the ‘real world’, he falls in with a ragged convoy as they drift from one dust-blown gathering to the next.

THREE AND A HALF STARS From pillion to pillow, Colin learns the dominating power of submission. DRAMA UK English #PILLION Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Melling There’s a moment early in PILLION where you suspect you’ve accidentally wandered into a particularly well-lit fever dream: leather, motorcycles, and a courtship ritual that involves more instructions than affection. Relax. This is not quite the forbidding artefact its source novel ( Box Hill ) might suggest, but

THREE AND A HALF STARS Frances and her filmmaking parents travel to Amsterdam to bond with her gay, activist grandfather. DRAMA AUSTRALIA English #JIMPA Starring Olivia Colman, John Lithgow If Sophie Hyde’s JIMPA were a person it would arrive at a dinner party with good intentions, a great bottle of red and a mostly charming tendency to over-explain itself. After the startling formal invention of 52 TUESDAYS, Hyde’s compelling, time-bound study of a transitioning parent and

TWO AND A HALF STARS Cathy and Heathcliffe get wet and wild on the Yorkshire Moors. PERIOD DRAMA UK English #WUTHERINGHEIGHTS Starring Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi It’s all there in the title. This is “a” vision of Brontë's Wuthering Heights but reimagined as only Emerald Fennell (SALTBURN) could. It’s a ride, a “romance”, an assault on the senses and a story told in her very singular, visionary voice. Does it bear much resemblance to the novel? About as much as a sexed up K