For the blockbuster, this was the age of the Franchise. Marvel’s growing success meant every single studio was dusting off every IP they could lay their hands on to try and turn it into a cinematic “universe”. However, literally none of them could do as well as Marvel. Blockbusters became more about setting up future films (some of which would never exist) rather than telling good stories. Away from that, interesting, small-scale films continued to be made and sometimes the likes of a Nolan or Cuarón would get the money to make an original big-budget film.
2010
 | Another Year – a contented married couple offer support (but not help?) to their less well-adjusted friends | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville |
 | Beginners – a reserved son struggles to know how to react when his widowed father comes out as gay | Director: Mike Mills Cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent |
 | Black Swan – a ballerina wins the lead dancer role, but can her fragile mental health survive the pressure | Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassell |
 | Centurion – Roman soldiers, caught behind Hadrian’s Wall, have to keep ahead of furious tribes to get home | Director: Neil Marshall Cast: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, David Morrissey |
 | The Fighter – two boxing brothers battle family clashes and addiction in this warm-hearted Rocky-ish tale | Director: David O. Russell Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams |
 | The Ghost Writer – the Ghost writer for a Blairish ex-PM gets wrapped up in espionage in this superb thriller | Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams |
 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – our heroes on the run; expert adaptation of the drier part of the book | Director: David Yates Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | Inception – a team specialises in stealing memories for people as they sleep – but how can you tell what’s real? | Director: Christopher Nolan Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt |
 | The Kids Are All Right – the kids of a lesbian couple meet their sperm donor. Trouble follows | Director: Lisa Cholodenko Cast: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo |
 | The King’s Speech – Best Picture winning costume drama, as George VI tries to conquer his stammer | Director: Tom Hooper Cast: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter |
 | Made in Dagenham – female car factory workers in the 1970s campaign for equal wages | Director: Nigel Cole Cast: Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson |
 | The Next Three Days – a desperate husband risks everything to break his innocent wife out of prison | Director: Paul Haggis Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy |
 | 127 Hours – a rock climber falls and his arm is trapped; to escape he must make a terrible choice | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn |
 | Robin Hood – slightly revisionist version, a little too dry, that mixes in Magna Carta with Saving Private Ryan action | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt |
 | Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – imaginative biopic of Ian Drury | Director: Mat Whitecross Cast: Andy Serkis, Bill Milner, Naomie Harris |
 | The Social Network – Zuckerberg builds Facebook and loses his friends, in this era-exploring drama | Director: David Fincher Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake |
 | The Way Back – in the 1940s men escape from a Siberian Gulag and walk across Asia to freedom | Director: Peter Weir Cast: Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan |
2011
 | Albert Nobbs – in late 19th century Dublin, a woman disguises herself as a man so she can find work in a hotel | Director: Rodrigo Garcia Cast: Glenn Close, Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowski |
 | Anonymous – dreadful Oxfordian conspiracy theory that argues (wrongly) that the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare’s plays | Director: Roland Emmerich Cast: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Rafe Spall |
 | The Artist – Best Picture winning pastiche silent-film: an actor struggles in Hollywood after the introduction of sound | Director: Michel Hazanavicius Cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell |
 | Battle Los Angeles – aliens attack Los Angeles and only the army stands in their way. A guilty pleasure. | Director: Jonathan Liebesman Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez |
 | Contagion – a virus outbreak drives the world in chaos in a film that felt very real in 2020 | Director: Steven Soderbergh Cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne |
 | The Descendants – a man’s wife is in a coma: he must connect with his daughters and deal with his family | Director: Alexander Payne Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller |
 | Drive – a samurai-style getaway driver finds a reason to bend his rules in this cult crime drama | Director: Nicholas Winding Refn Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks |
 | The Eagle – dry adventure story, as a Roman officer and a native Brit go behind the lines in search of a lost legion | Director: Kevin Macdonald Cast: Canning Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland |
 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Hollywood adaptation of the Swedish hit thriller, an heir to Silence of the Lambs | Director: David Fincher Cast: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer |
 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – misfiring final entry that completely misses the point of the book | Director: David Yates Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | Hugo – family film about a boy living in a train station who finds a mysterious automaton. Really for film buffs | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley |
 | The Ides of March – a political spin doctor is surprised to find he might still be an idealist | Director: George Clooney Cast: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood |
 | The Iron Lady – very average biopic that manages to turn Thatcher into someone very uninteresting | Director: Phyllida Lloyd Cast: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman |
 | Ironclad – medieval Dirty Dozen, as a gang of rogueish warriors protect a castle from siege by King John | Director: Jonathan English Cast: James Purefoy, Paul Giamatti, Brian Cox |
 | J. Edgar – solid but unrevealing J. Edgar Hoover biopic, that tries to explore his sexuality | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench |
 | Legend – Tom Hardy takes on both roles in this otherwise unremarkable Kray Brothers biopic | Director: Brian Helgeland Cast: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Christopher Eccleston |
 | Martha Marcy May Marlene – a woman flees a cult in an atmospheric but slightly unsatisfying film | Director: Sean Durkin Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulsen |
 | Moneyball – the manager of a baseball team can only contend with the big teams by using stats to his advantage | Director: Bennett Miller Cast: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman |
 | My Week with Marilyn – a young man forms a bond with Marilyn Monroe when she shoots a film in England | Director: Simon Curtis Cast: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh |
 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes – superb relaunch as we find out how this started to become the Planet of the Apes | Director: Rupert Wyatt Cast: Andy Serkis, James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow |
 | A Separation – in Iran a couple are forced to divorce; the husband is then accused of causing a harmful accident | Director: Asghar Farhadi Cast: Payman Maadi, Leila Natami, Sareh Bayet |
 | Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows – Holmes takes on Moriarty in this less impressive sequel | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Jude Law, Jared Harris |
 | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – brilliant, atmospheric adaptation of Le Carré’s Mole-hunt classic | Director: Tomas Alfredson Cast: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch |
 | Thor – Branagh combines comic book with cod-Shakespeare in a surprisingly effective Marvel outing | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston |
 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon – simply horrible, horrible film that plumbs almost every crude depth | Director: Michael Bay Cast: Shia LeBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro |
2012
 | Amour – a husband and wife struggle to cope after a series of strokes strip her of strength, character and mind | Director: Michael Haneke Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert |
 | Argo – average Best Picture winner: a CIA agent smuggles diplomats out of Iran, by disguising them as a film crew | Director: Ben Affleck Cast: Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman |
 | The Bourne Legacy – failed spin-off about another spy, that spends most of its run time justifying its existence | Director: Tony Gilroy Cast: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton |
 | Dredd – successful reboot where he keeps the helmet on. Dredd is called into to settle a towerblock siege | Director: Pete Travis Cast: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey |
 | Great Expectations – solid adaptation that doesn’t really do anything new | Director: Mike Newell Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Grainger, Ralph Fiennes |
 | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – first (and best) entry in Jackson’s misguided, enforced LOTR follow-up | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage |
 | The Hunger Games – in a dystopian future, teenagers fight to the death in gladiatorial games. First in a YA popular series. | Director: Gary Ross Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherston, Liam Hemsworth |
 | Lawless – strangely flat bootlegger gangster family drama | Director: John Hillcoat Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain |
 | Lincoln – serious, but heartfelt, biopic on the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, with a towering lead performance | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones |
 | Magic Mike – strippers live the dream and aim for the stars – but struggle to deal with grim reality | Director: Steven Soderbergh Cast: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Cody Horn |
 | Les Misérables – theatrical version of the famous musical, shot in a distinctive style that gets a bit grating | Director: Tom Hooper Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway |
 | Rust and Bone – a kickboxer and a crippled killer whale trainer find love in this striking and brilliant film | Director: Jacques Audiad Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure |
 | Silver Linings Playbook – two misfits with personality disorders enter a dance competition. Russell’s warmest film | Director: David O Russell Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro |
 | Skyfall – now embracing that this is probably my favourite Bond film, rich in character and action | Director: Sam Mendes Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem |
 | The Woman in Black – a widowed solicitor explores a haunted house. Good jump horror film with a too young star | Director: James Watkins Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer |
 | Zero Dark Thirty – morally dubious Hunt for Bin Laden film, that (inadvertently?) builds a strong case for torture | Director: Kathryn Bigelow Cast: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle |
2013
 | All is Lost – a sailor, alone at sea, battles against the elements and the waves to keep his ship afloat | Director: JC Chandor Cast: Robert Redford |
 | American Hustle – conmen are forced by the FBI to help with a sting operation for a politician believed to be corrupt | Director: David O Russell Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper |
 | Belle – a mixed-race relative of a rich family is wooed for her wealth; her uncle, the Chief Justice, adjudicates the Zorg case | Director: Amma Assante Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wikinson, Sam Reid |
 | Blue Jasmine – a socialite has to cope with sudden poverty in this twist on Streetcar Named Desire | Director: Woody Allen Cast: Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin |
 | The Book Thief – in Nazi Germany, a young girl loves books: but she draws attention to her family, secretly hiding a Jew | Director: Brian Percival Cast: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson |
 | The Butler – a Black butler serves many of the Presidents of the 20th century, in this gentle and polite civil rights story | Director: Lee Daniels Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo |
 | Captain Phillips – the captain of tanker is kidnapped when his ship is hijacked by Somali pirates | Director: Paul Greengrass Cast: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi |
 | The Duchess – in the 18th century, the Duchess of Devonshire is the toast of society but unhappily married | Director: Saul Dibb Cast: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Hayley Atwell |
 | Elysium – in a dystopian future, the rich live on a space station while the poor live on earth. | Director: Neill Blomkamp Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga |
 | The Fifth Estate – biopic of wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which manages to totally fumble all its points | Director: Bill Condon Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Alicia Vikander |
 | GI Joe: Retaliation – all-action sequel : the Joes fight against a man who has replaced the President | Director: Jon M Chu Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Jonathan Pryce |
 | Gravity – an astronaut is stranded in space, facing a desperate struggle to get home | Director: Alfonso Cuarón Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney |
 | The Great Gatsby – epic, glitzy and brash adaptation of the famous Fitzgerald novel | Director: Baz Luhrmann Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire |
 | Her – a man falls in love with the voice of his operating system, which is become ever more self-aware. Smug and awful film | Director: Spike Jonze Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams |
 | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – second Hobbit film as five chapters are turned into three hours | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen |
 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – our heroes are recalled to the games. But is there another plan they don’t know? | Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth |
 | The Impossible – true-life story of a family caught up in the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 in Thailand | Director: JA Bayona Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland |
 | The Invisible Woman – intelligent Dickens biopic, focusing on his secret relationship with Nelly Ternan | Director: Ralph Fiennes Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott-Thomas |
 | The Lone Ranger – box-office disaster, in a better-than-you-expect version of the old B-movie staple | Director: Gore Verbinski Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Ruth Wilson |
 | Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – old-fashioned full-life biopic of Mandela, like an 80s award baiter | Director: Justin Chadwick Cast: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge |
 | Nebraska – an elderly man is convinced he’s won a lottery, so his son agrees to drive him cross country to ‘collect’ | Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb |
 | Now You See Me – a gang of magicians are recruited by a secret organisation for an unknown purpose | Director: Louis Letterier Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson |
 | Oblivion – the last two people on Earth find that they are part of a terrible wider secret in this ambitious sci-fi | Director: Joseph Kosinski Cast: Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko |
 | Pacific Rim – when giant monsters attack the Earth, mankind builds giant machines to fight them. Perfect B-movie silliness | Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi |
 | Philomena – an old woman, whose baby was taken from her in her 20s, asks a journalist’s help to track him down | Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Michelle Fairley |
 | The Railway Man – a man who survived a Japanese POW camp has to overcome PTSD to forgive | Director: Jonathan Teplitzky Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård |
 | Saving Mr Banks – PL Travers reacts with horror, when Walt Disney plans to turn her Mary Poppins into a film musical | Director: John Lee Hancock Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell |
 | Sunshine on Leith – two squaddies return home to Leith in this up-beat Proclaimers jukebox muscial | Director: Dexter Fletcher Cast: George Mackay, Kevin Guthrie, Freya Mavor |
 | The Wolf of Wall Street – a Wall Street crook takes almost as man drugs as he steals dollars in this electric classic | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie |
 | The Wolverine – the clawed superhero searches for peace in Japan – but of course doesn’t find it | Director: James Mangold Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tak Okamoto |
2014
 | The Amazing Spider Man 2 – franchise killer as Spiderman takes on multiple foes with sharply diminishing return | Director: Marc Webb Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx |
 | American Sniper – sensitive biopic: an Iraq war marine sniper deals with PTSD, helping veterans before his tragic death | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller |
 | Birdman – smug and showy Best Picture winner: an actor best known for playing a superhero puts on a Broadway show | Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu Cast: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Ed Norton |
 | Boyhood – shot over a decade, Linklater’s beautiful film charts the formative years of a young boy becoming a teenager | Director: Richard Linklater Cast: Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette |
 | Child 44 – failed thriller: a disgraced NKVD officer struggles to convince superiors a serial killer can exist in the USSR. | Director: Daniel Espinosa Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman |
 | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – apes and men are precariously balanced in this superb trilogy episode | Director: Matt Reeves Cast: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman |
 | Dracula Untold – first (failed) attempt to launch a Monsters-verse; Dracula takes on dangerous powers to save his people | Director: Gary Shore Cast: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadron |
 | The Equalizer – TV remake, as a former special-ops agent uses his skills to right wrongs done to regular people | Director: Antoine Fuqua Cast: Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz |
 | Exodus: Gods and Men – biblical epic focusing on Moses, that keeps butting up against its atheism | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro |
 | The Falling – in an all-girls school, an epidemic of unexplained fainting is linked to sexual awakenings | Director: Carol Morley Cast: Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh, Maxine Peake |
 | Fury – a WW2 tank crew lead the line in Normandy in this solid but unmemorable war film | Director: David Ayer Cast: Brad Pitt, Logan Lehman, Shia LeBeouf |
 | Godzilla – decent-enough reimagining that struggles from becoming just a CGI effect hitting things | Director: Gareth Edwards Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston |
 | Gone Girl – a wife disappears and her husband is suspected of her murder as their perfect marriage unravels | Director: David Fincher Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris |
 | The Grand Budapest Hotel – murder, mayhem and malice at a grand hotel, in Anderson’s hilarious and bittersweet masterpiece | Director: Wes Anderson Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan |
 | The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – final, and worst, of the Hobbit trilogy, a bloated battle of little interest | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen |
 | Ida – beautiful, profound and wonderful Polish film about a nun questioning her calling in Cold War Poland | Director: Paweł Pawlikowski Cast: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska |
 | The Imitation Game – dreadful Turing biopic, cliched, self-important, timid and obvious | Director: Morten Tyldum Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode |
 | Into the Woods – misfiring and a little dull Sondheim adaptation | Director: Rob Marshall Cast: Emily Blunt, James Corden, Meryl Streep |
 | Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – totally routine spy thriller, as if Branagh wanted to show he could make something average | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner |
 | John Wick – punchy and imaginative, basically a series of fights as an assassin seeks revenge for his dog’s murder | Director: Chad Stahleski, David Leitch Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nqvist, Ian McShane |
 | Kingsman: The Secret Service – James Bond spoof that is a little too delighted with its crude humour | Director: Matthew Vaughan Cast: Colin Firth, Taron Edgerton, Samuel L. Jackson |
 | Left Behind – dreadful Christian film as passengers on a plane suddenly realise the Rapture has happened | Director: Vince Armstrong Cast: Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, Cassie Thompson |
 | Mr Turner – beautifully filmed and deeply engrossing Turner biopic | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey |
 | Noah – bizarre, imaginative and unique Biblical epic – for all its flaws it does something different | Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone |
 | Paddington – adorable, perfectly pitched, adaptation of the beloved childhood classic – the sweetest bear you’ll ever see | Director: Paul King Cast: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins |
 | Pawn Sacrifice – misfiring Bobby Fischer biopic that pulls all its punches and checkmates itself | Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard |
 | Selma – superb, passionate MLK biopic, focusing on his march in Selma, Alabama | Director: Ava DuVernay Cast: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmon Ejogo |
 | Still Alice – tearjerking, sensitive drama about a English professor suffering from early onset dementia | Director: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart |
 | The Theory of Everything – sanitised but heart-warming Stephen Hawking biopic, focusing on his marriage | Director: James Marsh Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox |
 | The Water Diviner – after his sons are MIA after Gallipoli, a father travels to Turkey to find their bodies | Director: Russell Crowe Cast: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Dylan Georgiades |
 | What We Do In the Shadows – very funny spoof, as a group of vampires house-share in New Zealand | Director: Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi Cast: Taika Waititi, Jermaine Clement, Jonathan Brudgh |
 | Wild – a woman wants to recover from grief and addiction by an epic hike: a lot more than just Eat, Pray, Hike | Director: Jean-Marc Vallée Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski |
2015
 | Ant Man – a thief is recruited by a scientist with a shrinking suit that gives him control over ants in this witty Marvel entry | Director: Peyton Reed Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly |
 | Avengers: Age of Ultron – the Avengers battle a genius robot intend on wiping out humanity to save the world | Director: Joss Whedon Cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth |
 | The Big Short – investors predict the 2008 crash and best against the economy: smart but cold comedy-drama | Director: Adam McKay Cast: Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell |
 | Black Mass – biopic of a notorious gangster | Director: Scott Cooper Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton |
 | Bridge of Spies – a lawyer defends an unmasked Soviet spy facing the electric chair | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan |
 | Brooklyn – an Irish migrant to the US is torn between two men, one American, one back home in Ireland | Director: John Crowley Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson |
 | Carol – sensitive and beautiful drama about two women who fall in love in 1950s America | Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson |
 | Concussion – a doctor is attacked when he blows the whistle on the dangers of head injury in American football | Director: Peter Landesman Cast: Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks |
 | Creed – the son of Apollo Creed is mentored by Rocky as he aims for a title shot in this franchise reboot | Director: Ryan Coogler Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson |
 | The Danish Girl – sentimental true story (virtually none of which is true) about a man in the 20s transitioning | Director: Tom Hooper Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts |
 | Ex Machina – a billionaire has built an AI woman who wants control over her own life | Director: Alex Garland Cast: Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson |
 | Eye in the Sky – British soldiers and politicians have to make real-time decisions about a missile strike | Director: Gavin Hood Cast: Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Aaron Paul |
 | Fifty Shades of Grey – shockingly bad film, based on a soft porn book that was an inexplicable global sensation | Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eloise Mumford |
 | 45 Years – on the eve of their anniversary, a husband reveals a secret to his wife that changes everything | Director: Andrew Haigh Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay |
 | In the Heart of the Sea – whalers are lost at sea when their ship sinks and turn to desperate measures | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy |
 | Jurassic World – hugely fun reboot, as the park reopens and a genetically engineered super dinosaur goes wild | Director: Colin Trevorrow Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio |
 | The Lady in the Van – playwright Alan Bennett allows a homeless woman to live in a van on his drive for years | Director: Nicholas Hytner Cast: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam |
 | Mad Max: Fury Road – gonzo action film, as Max helps a group of women escape a tyrant | Director: George Miller Cast: Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult |
 | The Man From UNCLE– failed attempt to bring a TV show to the big screen, not quite entertaining enough | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander |
 | The Man Who Knew Infinity – an Indian mathematician struggles to win respect with the support of a shy professor | Director: Matthew Brown Cast: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Devika Bhise |
 | The Martian – an astronaut on the first mission to Mars is accidentally left behind and needs to survive | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Matt Damon, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain |
 | Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation – Hunt and his team take on a secretive alliance of rogue spies | Director: Christopher McQuarrie Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg |
 | Mr. Holmes – an aged Holmes struggles with the loss of his memory | Director: Bill Condon Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker |
 | The Program – underwhelming biopic of Lance Armstrong’s rise to the top of cycling, on the back of drugs cheating | Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd, Jesse Plemons |
 | The Revenant – in the Wild West, a tracker is mawled by a bear and left for dead – he must find his way home | Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson |
 | Room – wonderful book adaptation as a kidnapped shelters her son, who was born in captivity | Director: Lenny Abrahamson Cast: Brie Larsen, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen |
 | Sicario – a female FBI agent works with the DEA to bring down a drugs smuggling ring – but questions their methods | Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Emily Blunt, Benecio del Toro, Josh Brolin |
 | Spectre – Bond hunts down a mysterious mastermind as Bond unwisely tries to start its own interconnected universe | Director: Sam Mendes Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux |
 | Spotlight – Boston journalists investigate sex abuse in the Catholic Church in this low-key Best Picture winner | Director: Tom McCarthy Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams |
 | Spy – a desk operative has to step in when tragedy occures to a field agent in this amusing comedy | Director: Paul Feig Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne |
 | Steve Jobs – biopic, structured like a play, that looks at its subjects life through three key project launches | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan |
 | Suffragette – lacklustre historical drama that fudges important issues | Director: Sarah Gavron Cast: Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Romola Garai |
 | Suite Française – picturesque occupation drama as a French woman falls in love with a Good German | Director: Saul Dibb Cast: Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts |
 | Terminator: Genisys – second attempt to kickstart the franchise, a messy, personality-free disaster | Director: Alan Taylor Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtenay |
 | Trumbo – biopic of the Hollywood scriptwriter, blacklisted and forced to work anonymously | Director: Jay Roach Cast: Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Diane Lane |
 | Woman in Gold – cosy Philomena rip off: woman and her lawyer fight for a painting stolen from her family in WW2 | Director: Simon Curtis Cast: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl |
 | Youth – a retired composer rebuilds relations with his daughter at a Swiss retreat for the rich and famous | Director: Paolo Sorrentino Cast: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz |
2016
 | Anthropoid – unfortunately titled thriller about the plot to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in Prague 1942 | Director Sean Ellis Cast: Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan, Toby Jones |
 | Arrival – fascinating and engrossing sci-fi as a female linguist works out how to communicate with aliens | Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker |
 | The BFG – faithful but somehow boring Spielberg Dahl adaptation with very little appeal to kids | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton |
 | Captain America: Civil War – the Avengers split over who controls them and attitudes to Cap’s friend ex-killer Bucky | Director: Anthony & Joe Russo Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jnr, Scarlett Johansson |
 | Deadpool – try-hard superhero spoof, that explains all the cliches it uses but still rigidly sticks to them | Director: Tim Miller Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein |
 | Denial – David Irving sues an author for calling him a Holocaust denier in a glossy adaptation of a landmark trial | Director: Mick Jackson Cast: Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall, Tom Wilkinson, Andrew Scott |
 | Doctor Strange – reality-twisting Marvel film as a crippled surgeon becomes a master magician | Director: Scott Derickson Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams |
 | Eddie the Eagle – obvious and not-as-funny-as-it-could-be biopic of the infamously hopeless ski jumper | Director: Dexter Fletcher Cast: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Iris Berben |
 | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Potter prequel series about a wizard who cares for unusual beasts | Director: David Yates Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler |
 | Fences – in 1950s Pittsburgh, a Black father clashes with his son and makes big promises to his wife | Director: Denzel Washington Cast: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Jovan Adepo |
 | The Founder – a businessman spots an opportunity in a burger stand in this fascinating McDonalds history | Director: John Lee Hancock Cast: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch |
 | Free Fire – an arms sale turns into a mass shootout in this action filled black comedy | Director: Ben Wheatley Cast: Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larsen |
 | The Girl on the Train – a lonely alcoholic thinks she may have witnessed a murder from her commuter train | Director: Tate Taylor Cast: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett |
 | Gods of Egypt – dreadfully silly fantasy epic set in Ancient Egypt where Gods and men live side-by-side | Director: Alex Proyas Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush |
 | Hacksaw Ridge – a pacifist signs up as a stretcher bearer. Only Gibson could a make a film this violent about peace | Director: Mel Gibson Cast: Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, Hugo Weaving |
 | Hail Caesar! – a Hollywood fixer has to find a solution when a superstar actor is kidnapped | Director: The Coen Brothers Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson |
 | Hell or High Water – a pair of bank robbers in West Texas have deeper motives than at first appears | Director: David Mackenzie Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges |
 | Hidden Figures – well-meaning but trying-too-hard story of black women struggling against prejudice in NASA | Director: Theodore Melfi Cast: Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe |
 | Independence Day: Resurgence – failed attempt to relaunch a trilogy of sequels as the Aliens attack again | Director: Roland Emmerich Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman |
 | Jack Reacher: Never Go Back – flat sequel that manages to remove all the elements that makes the character unique | Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smoulders |
 | Jackie – biopic of Jackie Kennedy, focusing on the days after the assassination of her husband | Director: Pablo Larrain Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig |
 | Jason Bourne – relaunch of the franchise, but with the magic gone, like director and star ran out of reasons not to do it | Director: Paul Greengrass Cast: Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones |
 | La La Land – musical homage as a couple meet and fall in love in Hollywood – but career ambitions get in the way | Director: Damien Chazelle Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone |
 | Lady Macbeth – an unhappily married woman seizes opportunities to rid herself of those standing in her way | Director: William Oldroyd Cast: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Naomi Ackie |
 | The Legend of Tarzan – failed attempt to launch a Tarzan franchise with a uninteresting lead character | Director: David Yates Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L Jackson |
 | Lion – an Indian man, adopted as a boy by Australian parents, wants to find out the secrets of his past | Director: Garth Davis Cast: Sunny Pawar, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman |
 | London Has Fallen – violent, dumb and offensive sequel as a Secret service agent protects the President from terrorists | Director: Babak Najafi Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman |
 | The Lost City of Z – explorer Percy Fawcett hunts for a lost Aztec civilisation, in this dream-like epic | Director: James Gray Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland |
 | Love & Friendship – hugely entertaining adaptation of Austen ephemera as a schemer provokes engagements | Director: Whit Stillman Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel |
 | Loving – a mixed race couple in 1960s America faces a legal battle to be allowed to live together | Director: Jeff Nichols Cast: Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Marton Csorkas |
 | The Magnificent Seven – decent remake, that doesn’t quite have the magic of the first one | Director: Antoine Fuqua Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard |
 | Manchester by the Sea – a man consumed by grief and guilt, becomes his nephews guardian. Heart-rending | Director: Kenneth Lonergan Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges |
 | Midnight Special – a father protects his boy, with secret powers, from the government | Director: Jeff Nichols Cast: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst |
 | Moana – delightful Disney film; the daughter of an Island chief, dreams of living her island for the open sea | Director: Ron Clements, John Musker Cast: Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson |
 | Money Monster – a financial current affairs TV host is taken hostage by a man who has lost everything in the crash | Director: Jodie Foster Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell |
 | Moonlight – Best picture winning life of a gay Black man, told in three parts: as a boy, a teenager and a young man | Director: Barry Jenkins Cast: Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris |
 | Nocturnal Animals – a woman reads her ex-husbands horrific book and it leads her to question her life | Director: Tom Ford Cast: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon |
 | Our Kind of Traitor – middle ranking Le Carré adaptation, as a Russian works with a writer to ease his defection | Director: Susanna White Cast: Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgård, Damian Lewis |
 | Passengers – on a spaceship, a lonely passenger wakes another woman from hypersleep | Director: Morten Tyldum Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence |
 | Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – crap film based on a gag gift that does what it says on the tin | Director: Burr Steers Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston, Matt Smith |
 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – a team steal Death Star plans in this play-it-safe Star Wars saga | Director: Gareth Edwards Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn |
 | Silence – 17th century Priests in Japan struggle to hold onto their faith, in the face of prosecution | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson |
 | Sully: Miracle on the Hudson – a pilot lands a failing plane in the Hudson – and is blamed by the authorities | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney |
 | Their Finest – making of a nation moving WW2 picture, the brain child of an undervalued female scriptwriter | Director: Lone Scherfig Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy |
 | Triple 9 – thieves plan to get away with a heist by distracting the cops by killing another cop somewhere else | Director: John Hillcoat Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Antony Mackie, Casey Affleck |
 | Unbroken – a POW survives incredible suffering and being stranded at sea during WW2 | Director: Angelina Jolie Cast: Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund |
 | A United Kingdom – an African Prince marries a British woman but they face huge obstacles to stay together | Director: Amma Assante Cast: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Terry Pheto |
 | X-Men: Apocalypse – the heroes take on a super powerful mutant in a series rapidly running out of ideas | Director: Bryan Singer Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence |
2017
 | Alien: Covenant – Prometheus sequel that runs out of ideas as a crew arrives on an abandoned planet | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup |
 | All the Money in the World – billionaire John Paul Getty’s grandson is kidnapped – but he refuses the pay the ransom | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg, Christopher Plummer |
 | Beauty and the Beast – live-action remake, a box office smash but half the film the original is | Director: Bill Condon Cast: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Emma Thompson |
 | The Beguiled – during the Civil War a wounded solider arrives at a all-female house, leading to tensions | Director: Sofia Coppola Cast: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Farrell |
 | Blade Runner 2049 – brilliant sequel (better than the original?) as a replicant hunts other replicants | Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana da Armas |
 | Call Me By Your Name – in 1970s Italy a young bisexual man has a coming-of-age relationship with an older man | Director: Luca Guadagnino Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg |
 | Churchill – the Prime Minister worries about the possible failure of D-Day and campaigns against it | Director: Jonathan Teplitzky Cast: Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery |
 | The Circle – terrible adaptation of a dystopian novel about a Google-esque company that completely misses the point | Director: James Ponsoldt Cast: Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega |
 | Dark River – a woman returns to her family farm after 15 years, where tensions remain unresolved | Director: Clio Barnard Cast: Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean |
 | Darkest Hour – Churchill comes to power and faces an immediate crisis, as many press for a negotiated peace | Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Stephen Dillane |
 | The Death of Stalin – hilarious, foul-mouthed black comedy as Stalin’s ministers scramble for power after his death | Director: Armando Iannucci Cast: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin |
 | Disobedience – a Jewish woman returns to her orthodox London community, where the woman she loves is now married | Director: Sebastian Lelio Cast: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola |
 | Dunkirk – superb, epic WW2 film, very cleverly split over multiple timelines. One of Nolan’s best | Director: Christopher Nolan Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy |
 | Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool – Gloria Grahame, in the last years of her life, forms a relationship with a younger man | Director: Paul McGuigan Cast: Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters |
 | Get Out – brilliant, terrifying, horror as a black man is unsettled by a weekend at his white girlfriend’s parents | Director: Jordan Peele Cast: Daniel Kaluyya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener |
 | The Greatest Showman – megahit old-fashioned musical, based on the life of PT Barnum | Director: Michael Gracey Cast: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron |
 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – witty sequel that deals with Star Lord’s issues with his long lost father | Director: James Gunn Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista |
 | The Hitman’s Bodyguard – lazy buddy-movie as a bodyguard must protect a hitman who is a vital witness of war crimes | Director: Patrick Hughes Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman |
 | I, Tonya – imaginatively filmed Tonya Harding biopic, filled with black comedy | Director: Craig Gillespie Cast: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney |
 | John Wick 2 – colder sequel that sacrifices the heart of the original for even more gunplay | Director: Chad Stahelski Cast: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane |
 | King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword – failed attempt to launch a sort of geezer King Arthur franchise | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey |
 | Kong: Skull Island – adventurers on a strange island meet a giant ape in predictable homage to better movies | Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson, Brie Larsen |
 | Lady Bird – a precocious teen struggles with decisions about her future and her relationship with her mother | Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalfe, Tracy Letts |
 | Logan – Jackman’s Wolverine swan-song is bloody, bold and brilliant as Logan protects the last surviving mutant children | Director: James Mangold Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen |
 | Loving Vincent – witnesses reflect on the final days of van Gogh, in this unique film assembled from paintings | Director: Doreta Kobiela, Hugh Welchman Cast: Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan |
 | The Miseducation of Cameron Post – a teenage lesbian is sent to a sex re-education camp | Director: Desiree Akhavan Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, John Gallagher Jnr, Jennifer Ehle |
 | Molly’s Game – a woman runs a gaming house for celebrities and ends up on the wrong side of both sides of the law | Director: Aaron Sorkin Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner |
 | The Mummy – disastrous attempt to launch a Dark Universe franchise, which killed the franchise dead on arrival | Director: Alex Kurtzmann Cast: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe |
 | Murder on the Orient Express – lush version, at times, like some of Branagh’s work, too operatic for its own good | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp |
 | My Cousin Rachel – a man suspects his cousin’s widow of having murdered her – but falls in love with her | Director: Roger Michell Cast: Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin, Holliday Grainger |
 | On Chesil Beach – a newly married couple in 60s Britain has a disastrous wedding night that shatters their marriage | Director: Dominic Cooke Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Samuel West |
 | Phantom Thread – in 50s Britain, an iconic dress designer marries an assistant – and the two form an unusual partnership | Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville |
 | The Post – the Washington Post carefully weighs their decision about whether to publish the Pentagon Papers | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson |
 | The Shape of Water – Best Picture winning fantasy, about a woman who falls in love with a captured sea monster | Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Richard Jenkins |
 | The Square – smug art satire: an art director gets into trouble when he’s distracted by a stolen wallet | Director: Ruben Östlund Cast: Claes Bangs, Elizabeth Moss, Dominic West |
 | Star Wars: The Last Jedi – iconoclastic Star Wars film, whose attempt to do something different was rejected by fans | Director: Rian Johnson Cast: Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher |
 | Thor: Ragnarak – hilarious Marvel film, that brilliantly reinvents Thor as someone lighter, funnier and tragic | Director: Taika Waititi Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett |
 | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – a mother campaigns for justice for her murdered son | Director: Martin McDonagh Cast: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson |
 | Victoria and Abdul – sentimental and feeble royal friendship drama, that has nothing interesting to say | Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Judi Dench, Ali Farzal, Tim Pigott-Smith |
 | War of the Planet of the Apes – Caesar seeks revenge after tragedy hits his family, during a war between man and ape | Director: Matt Reeves Cast: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn |
 | Wonder Woman – Wonder Women fights an evil German General in WW1: not as revolutionary as it claims | Director: Patty Jenkins Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, David Thewlis |
2018
 | All is True – Shakespeare retires to Stratford and struggles to make amends with his family (the role Branagh was born for?) | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen |
 | Aquaman – big, loud and silly film: Aquaman must return to claim his throne in Atlantis | Director: James Wan Cast: Jason Mamoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe |
 | At Eternity’s Gate – the final weeks of Van Gogh’s life, as he deals with depression and failure | Director: Julian Schabnel Cast: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac |
 | Avengers: Infinity War – a supervillain collects the legendary infinity stones, to reshape the universe. Can he be stopped? | Director: Joe & Anthony Russo Cast: Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Hemsworth |
 | Black Panther – the heir to the kingdom of Wakanda faces a challenge from his cousin | Director: Ryan Coogler Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita N’yongo |
 | BlacKkKlansman – a black cop (with a Jewish cop as the front man) goes undercover with the KKK in this electric race drama | Director: Spike Lee Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier |
 | Bohemian Rhapsody – Freddie Mercury biopic and mega-hit, squeamish about homosexuality | Director: Bryan Singer Cast: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee |
 | Bumblebee – charming Transformers reboot, that for once you’d be happy to show to children | Director: Travis Knight Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jnr |
 | Can You Ever Forgive Me – a failed writer makes a fortune forging personal letters of the literary rich and famous | Director: Marielle Heller Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant |
 | Cold War – Pawlikowski fictionalises his parents lives in Poland, the Cold War constantly preventing their happiness | Director: Paweł Pawlikowski Cast: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot |
 | Colette – solid biopic of the French writer, who fought to publish under her own name, rather than her husband’s | Director: Wash Westmoreland Cast: Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson |
 | Creed II – the son of Ivan Drago wants a match with the son of Apollo Creed – its a grudge match in every way | Director: Steven Caple Jnr Cast: Michael B Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson |
 | Destroyer – a tough cop finds a murder she is investigating has links to a shady undercover case from her past | Director: Karyn Kusama Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sebastian Stan, Toby Kebbell |
 | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – bad Potter film, a messy meander through Potter-lore and backstory | Director: David Yates Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Johnny Depp, Jude Law |
 | The Favourite – two women feud to become the favourite of Queen Anne in this sharp, bitter and funny costume drama | Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz |
 | First Man – handsome biography of Neil Armstrong that, like its lead, is a little cold and easier to admire than like | Director: Damien Chazelle Cast: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke |
 | The Front Runner – in 1988 Gary Hart runs for President – but is caught in a lie on his infidelity | Director: Jason Reitman Cast: Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, JK Simmons |
 | Green Book – cosy and (depressingly) Best Picture winning road trip as a white driver bonds with a black musician | Director: Peter Farrelly Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali |
 | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – cosy Sunday afternoon drama that is exactly like it sounds | Director: Mike Newell Cast: Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Tom Courtenay |
 | The Happy Prince – passion project by its director and star, about the final days of Wilde in exile | Director: Rupert Everett Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Emily Watson |
 | The Incredibles 2 – Elastigirl is wanted as the new face of superheroes – but is there a darker plan at work? | Director: Brad Bird Cast: Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell |
 | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – when a volcano threatens the dinosaurs, our heroes rush to save as many as they can | Director: JA Bayona Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall |
 | King of Thieves – a crew of old lags carry out a heist on Hatton Garden in a film which admires them all a little too much | Director: James Marsh Cast: Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone |
 | The Little Stranger – interesting adaptation of a ghost story novel, deliberately written from the perspective of a sceptic | Director: Lenny Abrahamson Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Charlotte Rampling |
 | Loro – slightly scattergun and sometimes blunted, satire on Silvio Berlesconi | Director: Paolo Sorrentino Cast: Toni Servillo, Elena Sofia Ricci, Riccardo Scamarcio |
 | Mary Poppins Returns – delightful sequel musical, at its strongest when it has the courage to be its own thing | Director: Rob Marshall Cast: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw |
 | Mary, Queen of Scots – political version which tries to turn Mary into a genius and Elizabeth into a weakling and fails | Director: Josie Rourke Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce |
 | Mission: Impossible: Fallout – Hunt and his team go all out to find a nuclear weapon they lost on a failed mission | Director: Christopher McQuarrie Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill |
 | On the Basis of Sex – biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsburg which is earnest but traditional | Director: Mimi Leder Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux |
 | Outlaw King – Robert the Bruce picks up the battle against Edward I to get Scotland its freedom | Director: David Mackenzie Cast: Chris Pine, Florence Pugh, Stephen Dillane |
 | Peterloo – Leigh’s impassioned, but slightly dry, history lesson on the famous massacre | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Pearce Quigley |
 | A Quiet Place – after an alien attack, even the slightest noise can alert them to where the survivors are | Director: John Krasinski Cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds |
 | Red Joan – terrible, slow and unrevealing fictionalised biography of a female spy for Russia | Director: Trevor Nunn Cast: Sophie Cookson, Tom Hughes, Judi Dench |
 | Red Sparrow – unpleasant and queasily leery action thriller about a female assassin | Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Matthias Schoenaerts, Joel Edgerton |
 | Roma – Cuarón creates an affectionate, intimate and beautiful film about his childhood | Director: Alfonso Cuarón Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga |
 | Solo: A Star Wars Story – unnecessary Star Wars prequel that seems determined to explain every Solo reference ever made | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke |
 | A Star is Born – tearjerkingly well-done version of the story, this time about Country and Western singers | Director: Bradley Cooper Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott |
 | Venom – utterly unoriginal comic book antics, saved by Hardy’s inventive performance | Director: Ruben Fleischer Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed |
 | Vice – terrible, smug and obvious Dick Cheney polemic | Director: Adam McKay Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell |
 | Vita and Virginia – Virginia Woold and Vita Sackville West fall in love and have an affair in this odd film | Director: Chanya Button Cast: Gemma Arterton, Elizabeth Debicki, Isabella Rossellini |
 | Widows – the wives of a gang of late-criminals, have no choice but to complete the final heist they planned | Director: Steve McQueen Cast: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki |
 | The Wife – a celebrated writer picks up a Nobel Prize: but how much of his success should actually be credited to his wife? | Director: Björn Runge Cast: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater |
2019
 | Ad Astra – in this Heart of Darkness twist, a son journeys to his father, a lost astronaut who has resurfaced near Neptune | Director: James Gray Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler |
 | The Aeronauts – a scientist and a famous balloonist ascend to the highest heights | Director: Tom Harper Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Himesh Patel |
 | Aladdin – basically a shot by shot remake with an added subplot and a big special effects ending, but half as good | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott |
 | Avengers: Endgame – its all been building to this as our heroes fight to restore the universe. Perfect blockbuster entertainment | Director: Joe & Anthony Russo Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Hemsworth |
 | Captain Marvel – a woman on an alien planet has strange memories of a place like Earth – what can it mean? | Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Cast: Brie Larsen, Jude Law, Samuel L. Jackson |
 | The Farewell – a Chinese family keep her terminal cancer a secret from the matriarch in this personal film | Director: Lulu Wang Cast: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin |
 | Ford v Ferrari (Le Mans ’66) – a Brit driver and retired racer turned engineer, work to create the perfect race car | Director: James Mangold Cast: Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Caitríona Balfe |
 | Frozen 2 – Elsa is drawn towards a voice from the wilderness that may hold the key to secrets in the kingdom | Director: Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck Cast: Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gadd, Jonathan Groff |
 | The Good Liar – a conmen zeroes in on a widow’s money, but is all as it seems? | Director: Bill Condon Cast: Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Jim Carter |
 | Hustlers – strippers exploit and steal from their Wall Street clients in this Scorsese-inspired caper | Director: Lorene Scarfaria Cast: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles |
 | The Irishman – a mafia hitman loses all trace of conscience or family over a long life of violence. Elegiac brilliance | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Stephen Graham |
 | John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum – more of the same, but still full of very inventive fights | Director: Chad Stahelski Cast: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Halle Berry |
 | JoJo Rabbit – in Nazi Germany a young boy’s imaginary friend is Hitler – but he still slowly realises the horror | Director: Taika Watiti Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Taika Watiti, Scarlett Johansson |
 | Joker – a mentally disturbed man, furious at social injustice, becomes a killer in this pleased with itself Scorsese rip-off | Director: odd Phillips Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz |
 | Judy – uninsightful and plodding biopic determined to define its subject solely by tragedy | Director: Rupert Goold Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock |
 | The King – Henry V comes to the throne and decides on war with France in this reimagining of Shakespeare | Director: David Michôd Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Robert Pattinson |
 | Knives Out – a murder mystery writer is killed but who in his family is responsible? Very entertaining Christie pastiche | Director: Rian Johnson Cast: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Christopher Plummer |
 | Last Christmas – can a wild child turn her life around with the help of a too-good-to-be-true guy? Christmas fantasy | Director: Paul Feig Cast: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson |
 | The Lighthouse – two wickies on a lighthouse slowly tip into madness in this haunting, undefinable semi-ghost story | Director: Robert Eggers Cast: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe |
 | The Lion King – soulless, heartless remake designed to make Disney a lot of money (on that score a success) | Director: Jon Favreau Cast: Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Knowles-Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor |
 | Little Women – imaginative and well acted new version, crammed with invention and good ideas | Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saiorse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh |
 | Marriage Story – searing response to Kramer vs Kramer as a couple feud for custody in this searing divorce drama | Director: Noah Baumbach Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda |
 | Men in Black: International – pointless sequel, that feels like a product rather than a film | Director: F Gary Gray Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Liam Neeson |
 | Never Look Away – fictionalised biography of Gerard Richter, torn between East and West Germany | Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Kock, Paula Beer |
 | 1917 – two soldiers are sent with a vital message to save lives in this stylish war film, showily shot in long takes | Director: Sam Mendes Cast: George Mackay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth |
 | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – perverse revenge fantasia on the death of Sharon Tate, a dreadful film | Director: Quentin Tarantino Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie |
 | Pain & Glory – a famed director who hasn’t worked for years reflects on his childhood. Biographical fantasia | Director: Pedro Almodóvar Cast: Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Nora Nacas |
 | Parasite – Best Picture winner, a poor Korean family, worms their way into the lives of a rich one. Brilliant class drama | Director: Bong Joon-Ho Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam |
 | The Personal History of David Copperfield – adaptation that focuses more on the comedy than the heart of the novel | Director: Armando Iannucci Cast: Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi |
 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire – beautiful lesbian drama, as a painter arrives to paint the daughter of a countess | Director: Céline Sciamma Cast: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami |
 | Queen and Slim – after accidentally killing a cop after an illegal search, a couple go on the run | Director: Melina Matsoukas Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Bokeem Woodbine |
 | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – a trilogy that started so well, ends with a fanbait entry that pleased no one | Director: JJ Abrams Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega |
 | Terminator: Dark Fate – surely one final time to relaunch the franchise, a better movie but a box-office disaster | Director: Tim Miller Cast: Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger |
 | Toy Story 4 – not sure there was a reason to make a fourth film, and this doesn’t really supply one | Director: Josh Cooley Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts |
 | The Two Popes – Benedict XVI meets with the future Pope Francis, in this witty, excellently acted odd-couple movie | Director: Fernando Meirelles Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins |
 | Uncut Gems – a luckless gem dealer needs a big score to clear his gambling debts in this electric comedy thriller | Director: Benny & Josh Safdie Cast: Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield, Julia Fox |
 | Us – creep horror as a woman encounters a sinister doppelganger of herself – is there a dark mystery behind it? | Director: Jordan Peele Cast: Lupita N’yongo, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph |
 | Wild Rose – an irresponsible cleaner with a powerful voice dreams of being a country and western singer | Director: Tom Harper Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo |
 | X-Men: Dark Phoenix – final flourish of the prequel films, with all ideas finally gone, though not as bad as all that | Director: Simon Kinberg Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jessica Chastain |
Movie Musings 