To Leslie is a very old-fashioned human drama; a straightforward character study with modest ambitions and a complete disinterest in modern trappings of spectacle, metacommentary, or narrative obfuscation.

All the Beauty is this wonderful study of the marginal, of someone with a heart uncorroded by time in the halls of power, who leverages the success of their life’s work to take on a pure, irredeemable evil.

As the feature debut from directors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick - the editors of Searching, the film goes to town on inventive editing techniques and uses all the comforts of technology that we take for granted, twisting them into complete discomfort for a layer of tension that stays through almost the whole film.

This is the way Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe starts — not with a bang, but with a family dramedy shrouded in visual effects and charming absurdity.

With far less stripping and far fewer banger tracks than one would expect for a movie about stripping, I declare Magic Mike’s Last Dance an official flop.

A symphony of cinema, bubbling with dark and subtly thrilling emotions, elevated by an incredible lead performance and anchored by adept direction.

However blunt its approach may be (and perhaps that obtuseness is key to something like this working for many audiences), The Whale succeeds on its emotional front, conveying a broader message of understanding and sympathy before judgement.

Rocketing off at a Scorsese-Esque pace, money changes hands, morals are compromised, and men get covered in explosive elephant diarrhoea, which sums Chazelle’s 3-hour epic up quite well as it is striking, explorative, inspired, and at times flat-out-hilarious. 

Say it with me: M3GAN is hip. M3GAN is happening. M3GAN is the moment.

For Spielberg, the world makes sense through the dreamlike lens of filmmaking. The Fabelmans manages to conjure cinematic spectacle out of family drama with embracive character studies and an unyielding recount of bittersweet youth.

Summer of Soul is undoubtedly a stunning blend of art and rebellion not likely to ever be seen again on our screens.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a breath of fresh air in the animated feature landscape.

While detractors of the first film will likely not be persuaded by Avatar 2: Aquatic Boogaloo's flashy 3D gimmicks, those on the fence or otherwise still in love with the first film […] will be pleasantly surprised to hear that not only was The Way of Water worth the wait, but it also surpasses the heights of the first film.

What are you expecting from a Sony rendition of a decades old kid’s cartoon strip about a singing crocodile, adapted for the big screens for 2022 with Shawn Mendes taking the lead as the titular Lyle, the crocodile?

While some viewers may appreciate All Jacked Up and Full of Worms' feverish blend of influences spanning Henenlotter, Cronenberg and Waters, unfortunately it winds up much like its protagonists, lost in the primordial ooze; buried while attempting to become one with the dirt.

A film whose subject matter should have been treated with the utmost care, She Said can only be described as an overall meagre, flat attempt at capturing a moment in time that will be remembered for its fervent rage and violent passion.

Offering a slice of pulpy, moralistic sci-fi that feels like a throwback to before 2D animation had died, Strange World is good, lighthearted fun, gesturing gently at the hard-headed nature of father-son relationships.

Combining bitter comedy with the sensibilities of an A24 horror film, The Menu marks a cool addition to the genre and establishes itself as one of the most exciting blockbusters of this year.

Playing like an emotional middle ground between Badlands and the Twilight saga, Luca Guadagnino's new Timothee Chalamet-starrer Bones and All is a romantic cannibal road movie, presenting a tale of both the impossibility and inevitability of love; how even in the bleakest of circumstances, when we least expect, or even want it, romance can blossom like a weed in the desert.

Halloween may have come and gone, but I have one last spooky movie to talk about - director/special effects extraordinaire Damien Leone's 138-minute splatterfest epic Terrifier 2, a film that came with reports of people fainting and vomiting due to its incredibly vile and gratuitous violence.