★★★★☆ — Years after his escape from police custody, genius cannibalistic serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter now lives in Europe with a new identity. But his freedom is threatened by under-pressure FBI special agent Clarice Starling, as well as a surviving victim hellbent on exacting grisly revenge. Michael Mann’s excellent Manhunter aside…

★★★☆☆ Adèle Exarchopoulos soars in a drama that struggles to land — Fleeing a family trauma, a young woman experiences nomadic highs and lows working for a low-cost airline company. Also known by its equally flippant French title Rien à foutre, Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre’s directorial debut Zero Fucks Given is a turbulent ride, a frustrating film that, much like its…

Originally published April 2012. The Swedish adaptation, Released in 2009 after the overwhelming success of the books, wowed audiences with it’s no hold barred look at a number of delicate themes such as child abuse and incest, rape, liberalism and redemption. It turned Noomi Rapace into a household name and…

★★★★☆ Emotionally-charged domestic horror is an instant classic — Still grieving the loss of her husband, a single mother and her young son are plagued by a sinister presence that lurks in the shadows of their home. A powerful meditation on the all-consuming dangers of unprocessed trauma, Jennifer Kent’s remarkable housebound horror debut instantly deserves recognition alongside the greats…

★★☆☆☆ Wesley’s mostly rubbish sex planet trip poses some interesting ideas — The Enterprise’s encounter with a world of peaceful pleasure-seekers takes a dangerous turn when Wesley Crusher unwittingly breaks one of their laws. Unwilling to let his young crewman be put to death but bound by the prime directive, Picard’s dilemma is further complicated by a mysterious object in space, an…

★★★★☆ Oliver Stone’s sprawling sports drama is an intoxicating extravaganza — Led by an ageing coach, the fading Miami Sharks struggle through on and off-field conflicts that threaten to derail their season. “Life’s this game of inches”, Al Pacino proclaims in his climactic pep talk to an assembled band of modern-day gladiators. “Because we know when we add up all those…

★★☆☆☆ Late-career Carpenter horror bites — A no-nonsense hunter and his team race to stop a powerful vampire who is searching for an ancient relic that will allow his kind to exist in sunlight. Give me Ghosts of Mars over this any day. That might be a highly controversial admission, but while John Carpenter’s 2001 horror/sci-fi…

★★★★☆ Stressful corporate drama is worth investing in — Pressure mounts on an embattled corporate executive whose professional dedication has come at great personal cost. Vincent Lindon (Titane) is a man under incredible pressure in Stéphane Brizé’s absorbing and relentless drama with a noticeable anti-capitalistic sentiment. Centre framed for practically every second of its brisk runtime, Lindon’s rugged, weather-worn…

★★★★☆ Don Siegel’s lean invasion thriller remains potent almost seventy years on — A doctor uncovers an extra-terrestrial conspiracy where the inhabitants of his small hometown are slowly being replaced with emotionless duplicates. The first of six¹ big-screen adaptations of Jack Finney’s classic serial, Don Siegel’s initially underappreciated version replaces the source material’s eco and colonial concerns with a more era-effective anti-communist subtext…