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 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | 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 and the Argonauts – absolutely superb Harryhausen Greek myths film, which I’ve loved since being a kid | Director: Don Chaffey Cast: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond |
 | 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 |
 | Jaws – a killer shark terrorises a town: only three men can stop it. Spielberg’s (literal) monster hit | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw |
 | Jean de Florette – a farmer is betrayed by his neighbours in this luscious French Merchant Ivory style film | Director: Claude Berri Cast: Yves Montard, Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu |
 | JFK – granddaddy of conspiracy movies, Stone’s epic (mad) fantasia on the death of Kennedy | Director: Oliver Stone Cast: Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon |
 | Joan of Arc – flat and preachy Joan of Arc biopic, even its director apologised for | Director: Victor Fleming Cast: Ingrid Bergman, José Ferrer, Francis L Sullivan |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Judas and the Black Messiah – the FBI forces a man to inform against Black Panther leader Fred Hampton | Director: Shaka King Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons |
 | Judgment at Nuremberg – Nazi officials are placed on trial, but will politics get in the way in this cracking drama | Director: Stanley Kramer Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Maximilian Schell |
 | Judy – uninsightful and plodding biopic determined to define its subject solely by tragedy | Director: Rupert Goold Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock |
 | Jules et Jim – Truffaut’s classic menage as a Frenchman and a German share a mutual love for a French woman | Director: François Truffaut Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre |
 | Julia – dubious biopic of Lilian Hellman and her friendship with a left-wing Jewish radical in Nazi Germany | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards |
 | Julius Caesar – traditional version of the Shakespeare play, with Brando showing modern actors can do the Bard | Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: James Mason, Marlon Brando, John Gielgud |
 | Jurassic Park – dinosaurs walk the earth… in a theme park. What could go wrong? Designed for the dino-loving kid in all of us | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Jurassic World: Dominion – very, very tired retread of a host of ideas from the other films | Director: Colin Trevorrow Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum |
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 | Kagemusha – a peasant acts as a double for a lord. When the lord dies he has to take his place. | Director: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki |
 | Khartoum – General Gordon makes his final stand in this biographical epic | Director: Basil Dearden Cast: Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson |
 | 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 Killers – femme fatales and murders in this masterful film noir | Director: Robert Siodmark Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien |
 | Kind Hearts and Coronets – a disowned relative decides to bump off his noble family in this brilliant black comedy | Director: Robert Hamer Cast: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson |
 | 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 |
 | King Arthur – average Arthurian epic, with miscast leads and the knights as Roman cavalry | Director: Antoine Fuqua Cast: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd |
 | 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 |
 | King Kong – iconic monster movie, the ‘daddy’ of them all, as the big beast takes an unfortunate trip to see his love in New York | Director: Melville C Cooper, Ernest B Schoedsack Cast: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot |
 | King Kong – Jackson cashes in his chips to make the film of his dreams, an affectionate and romantic remake | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts, Jack Black |
 | 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 |
 | King Richard – Richard Williams pushes his daughters to better themselves by becoming tennis superstars | Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green Cast: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Klute – a call-girl may hold the answer to a murder mystery in one of the first unsettling conspiracy thrillers of the 70s | Director: Alan J Pakula Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi |
 | 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 |
 | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – murder mystery turns real in Johnson’s second fun Agatha Christie tribute | Director: Rian Johnson Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe |
 | 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 |
 | Kramer vs Kramer – Best Picture winning divorce and childcare drama as a Dad learns to care for his son than fights for custody | Director: Robert Benton Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry |
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 | 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 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 |
 | The Lady Eve – a confidence trickster seduces a snake obsessed heir to a fortune – brilliant screwball comedy | Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn |
 | The Lady from Shanghai – an Irish drifter is made a dangerous offer in Welles’ for-the-money thriller | Director: Orson Welles Cast: Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane |
 | 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 |
 | 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 Lady Vanishes – an old woman disappears on a train in this gripping Hitchcock comedy-thriller | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, May Whitty |
 | Land and Freedom – left-wing radicals find betrayal while fighting for the cause in the Spanish Civil War | Director: Ken Loach Cast: Ian Hart, Rosana Pastor, Frédéric Pierrot |
 | 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 Last Detail – escorting a young sailor to prison, two others decide to help him experience life – in 48 hours | Director: Hal Ashby Cast: Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Otis Young |
 | The Last Duel – in Medieval France, two men fight a duel after one is accused of raping the other’s wife | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck |
 | The Last Emperor – Best Picture winning epic on the life of the last Chinese Emperor – looks a million dollars, but slightly shallow | Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Cast: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole |
 | The Last Hurrah – a long-term mayor runs for another term in this political drama that has no idea what it thinks about anything | Director: John Ford Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster |
 | The Last King of Scotland – Idi Amin takes a Scottish doctor under his wing, who slowly realises Amin is a monster | Director: Kevin MacDonald Cast: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington |
 | The Last Metro – during the occupation, an actress hides her Jewish director husband in their theatre basement | Director: François Truffaut Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Heinz Bennett |
 | The Last Picture Show – in small-town America times change but life never does in this coming-of-age classic | Director: Peter Bogdanovich Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd |
 | The Last Samurai – self-important drama, as a civil war vet joins a Samurai revolt in Japan, becoming… the last Samurai | Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Timothy Spall |
 | The Last Temptation of Christ – one of the most controversial films ever made, a reimagining of the Gospels with a doubt-filled Jesus | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey |
 | Laura – a detective falls in love with a murder victim in this influential noir | Director: Otto Preminger Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb |
 | The Lavender Hill Mob – a personal favourite as a bank clerk plots a heist in this surprisingly subversive comedy | Director: Charles Crichton Cast: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James |
 | Lawless – strangely flat bootlegger gangster family drama | Director: John Hillcoat Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain |
 | The League of Gentlemen – ex-servicemen denied their pay-offs, plot a heist in this great, overlooked, crime caper | Director: Basil Dearden Cast: Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough |
 | 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 |
 | Legend – Tom Hardy takes on both roles in this otherwise unremarkable Kray Brothers biopic | Director: Brian Helgeland Cast: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Christopher Eccleston |
 | 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 |
 | Leon – a hitman befriends a girl whose family are killed by corrupt cops | Director: Luc Besson Cast: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman |
 | The Leopard – an ageing Prince is out-of-step with the new Italy in Visconti’s lavish and superb costume drama | Director: Luchino Visconti Cast: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale |
 | The Letter – melodrama in which a fatal letter get lead to life or death | Director: William Wyler Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson |
 | A Letter to Three Wives – soapy small-town drama, written brilliantly, about a trouble-stirring letter | Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern |
 | Licorice Pizza – in the 1970s two young people fall in love, but won’t admit it because of an awkward age gap | Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Bradley Cooper |
 | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp – an army officer is the epitome of British fair play and decency | Director: Powell & Pressburger Cast: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook |
 | Life is Beautiful – a father shelters his son from the horrors of a concentration camp as Chaplin meets Schindler’s List | Director: Roberto Benigni Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini |
 | The Life of Emile Zola – Best Picture winning biopic of the great French writer, mostly about the Dreyfus affair | Director: William Dieterle Cast: Paul Muni, Joseph Schildkraut, Gale Sondergaard |
 | Lifeboat – one-location mini-masterpiece as survivors of a shipwreck drift on the seas | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak |
 | 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 |
 | Lilies of the Field – a travelling handyman builds a church for a group of German nuns | Director: Ralph Nelson Cast: Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann |
 | Lilith – a troubled counsellor starts to fall in love with his disturbed patient and finds his own grip on reality slipping | Director: Robert Rossen Cast: Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | The Lion in Winter – Henry II and his family gather to fight and argue over Christmas in this sensationally acted historical epic | Director: Anthony Harvey Cast: Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins |
 | 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 |
 | Little Women – brilliant adaptation of Alcott, perfectly cast, wonderfully shot and leaves a tear in the eye | Director: Gillian Armstrong Cast: Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne |
 | Little Women – imaginative and well acted new version, crammed with invention and good ideas | Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saiorse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh |
 | The Living Daylights – Dalton takes on his first mission and is masterful, in this overlooked Bond adventure | Director: John Glen Cast: Timothy Dalton, Maryam d’Abo, Jeroen Krabbé |
 | 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 |
 | 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 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 |
 | The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner – a borstal boy has only one skill – running – which is exploited by the Governor | Director: Tony Richardson Cast: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, Avis Bunnage |
 | The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne – a spinster with a drink problem tries to cease one final chance at happiness | Director: Jack Clayton Cast: Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Wendy Hiller |
 | The Long Good Friday – a capitalist London gangster gets in over his ahead against the IRA in this brilliant Brit thriller | Director: John Mackenzie Cast: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Derek Thompson |
 | The Long Goodbye – Philip Marlowe investigates again in this Altmanesque 1970s twist on Raymond Chandler | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Elliot Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden |
 | The Longest Day – huge scale D-Day drama with an all-star cast | Director: Ken Annakin, Andrew Martan, Bernhard Wicki Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda |
 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – first, and possibly most beloved, of the series – gets everything right | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen |
 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – the War of the Ring begins as Jackson expertly juggles multiple storylines | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis |
 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – epic conclusion, won Best Picture and every other award in sight | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen |
 | Loro – slightly scattergun and sometimes blunted, satire on Silvio Berlesconi | Director: Paolo Sorrentino Cast: Toni Servillo, Elena Sofia Ricci, Riccardo Scamarcio |
 | 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 |
 | The Lost Daughter – on holiday in Greece, a woman is forced to confront her failures as a mother | Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson |
 | Lost Highway – Lynchian oddness that defies easy explanation. Only for people who like that sort of thing | Director: David Lynch Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty |
 | The Lost King – terrible Ealingesque comedy about the search for Richard III that’s all about settling scores | Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Harry Lloyd |
 | The Lost Weekend – Best Picture winning drama about alcohol addiction, still very effective and powerful | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman,. Phillip Terry |
 | Love Affair – two people fall in love on an Atlantic cruise, before tragedy strikes: half comedy, half sentimental love story | Director: Leo McCarey Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya |
 | Love & Friendship – hugely entertaining adaptation of Austen ephemera as a schemer provokes engagements | Director: Whit Stillman Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel |
 | Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing – a Eurasian doctor and an American journalist fall in love in this thin romance | Director: Henry King Cast: William Holden, Jennifer Jones, Torin Thatcher |
 | Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon – dark and daring artist biopic | Director: John Maybury Cast: Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton |
 | Love’s Labour’s Lost – Kenneth Branagh’s old-school musical version of Shakespeare, an interesting semi-failure | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Natasha McElhone, Adrian Lester |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
M
 | Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – a jazz musician records a session while her trumpeter dreams of fame | Director: George C Wolfe Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Glynn Turman |
 | Macbeth – Welles first stab at film Shakespeare is a mix of genius and absolute mess. | Director: Orson Welles Cast: Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O’Herlihy |
 | Macbeth – Polanski’s dark and violent version of the tale, crammed with nihilism | Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Jon Finch, Francesca Annis, Martin Shaw |
 | 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 |
 | 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 Madness of King George – George III loses his mind, leading to a crisis in the monarchy in this superb Bennett adaptation | Director: Nicholas Hytner Cast: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Rupert Everett |
 | 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 |
 | The Magician – a troupe of magicians are questioned by rationalists: fascinating meditation on performance | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand |
 | The Magnificent Ambersons – Welles cruelly cut-to-ribbons Kane follow-up, an American family saga | Director: Orson Welles Cast: Joseph Cotton, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead |
 | The Magnificent Seven – gunfighters are hired by farmers to take down bandits. Gloriously fun remake | Director: John Sturges Cast: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach |
 | 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 |
 | Magnolia – lives intersect over a few days in LA in this Altman tribute | Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: John C Reilly, Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore |
 | Malcolm X – passionate and epic biopic of Malcolm X, brilliantly made and wonderfully performed | Director: Spike Lee Cast: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall |
 | A Man For All Seasons – Thomas More won’t compromise on Henry VIII’s marriage in the Best Picture winning personal fave | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller |
 | 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 Man Who Would Be King – in the British Raj, two conmen head out to the furthest reaches of India in search of riches | Director: John Huston Cast: Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Christopher Plummer |
 | The Man With the Golden Gun – Bond goes face-to-face with a hitman who prides himself on never missing. | Director: Guy Hamilton Cast: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland |
 | 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 |
 | The Manchurian Candidate – brilliant, chilling brainwash conspiracy thriller as Korean war vets are programmed to kill | Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury |
 | 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 |
 | Manhunter – the hunt for a serial killer leads to dangerous obsession in this moody Harris adaptation | Director: Michael Mann Cast: William Petersen, Dennis Farina, Brian Cox |
 | Mank – gorgeous film about the history of Citizen Kane, impossible to enjoy without a love of the original | Director: David Fincher Cast: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Dance |
 | Manon des Sources – conspiring farmers are found out in the second of this French Merchant-Ivory style epic | Director: Claude Berri Cast: Yves Montard, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart |
 | Marathon Man – a college post-graduate’s CIA brother is killed. A renegade Nazi is convinced he passed a secret to his brother. | Director: John Schlesinger Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Oliver, Roy Scheider |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Marty – a shy butcher falls in love in this gentle Best Picture winner, adapted from a TV play | Director: Delbert Mann Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti |
 | 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 – grand but second-tier Tudor history epic, with a little too much sympathy for Mary Queen of Scots | Director: Charles Jarrott Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Timothy Dalton |
 | 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 |
 | Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – overblown and try-too-hard version, operatic and overly dynamic | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, Helena Bonham Carter |
 | M*A*S*H – very dated, sexist, counter-culture comedy which I found hugely grating and unfunny | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Sally Kellerman |
 | The Mask of Zorro – hugely enjoyable version of the Zorro story, perfect swashbuckling entertainment | Director: Martin Campbell Cast: Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones |
 | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World – a personal fav, a Napoleonic naval captain pursues a French ship | Director: Peter Weir Cast: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D’Arcy |
 | Match Point – Allen’s tone-deaf London-based drama about a social climbing tennis coach | Director: Woody Allen Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson |
 | The Matrix – iconic sci-fi action, as an office drone discovers the world is not what it seems | Director: The Wachowskis Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne |
 | The Matrix Reloaded – pretentious and (whisper it) rather dull sequel that took all the faux-philosophy way too far | Director: The Wachowskis Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne |
 | The Matrix Revolutions – if you thought the above was bad… two films that near killed the franchise stone dead | Director: The Wachowskis Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne |
 | The Matrix Resurrections – a failed attempt to relaunch the franchise, although much better than the other sequels | Director: Lana Wachowski Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II |
 | A Matter of Life and Death – superb fantasy, as a pilot is stuck between Earth and “Heaven” | Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Cast: David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim Hunter |
 | McCabe and Mrs Miller – revisionist Western about a crook and madam who find themselves out of their depth | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjoinois |
 | Memoirs of a Geisha – lush but totally empty romantic drama that takes a tourist’s eye to Japan | Director: Rob Marshall Cast: Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh |
 | The Men – Brando makes his film debut in this earnest but realistic drama about paraplegic war veterans | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane |
 | 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 |
 | The Menu – a chef unleashes revenge on the super-rich in this intriguing mix of genres | Director: Mark Mylod Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult |
 | Michael Collins – wonderfully shot biopic of the Irish terrorist leader, makes passionate points about the gun in politics | Director: Neil Jordan Cast: Liam Neeson, Julia Roberts, Alan Rickman, Aiden Quinn |
 | Midnight Cowboy – Best Picture winning tale of two grifters who shoot for the moon in New York, but crash to the ground | Director: John Schlesinger Cast: Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvia Miles |
 | Midnight Express – Turkish Prison drama – to say it looks a bit racist and homophobic today is an understatement | Director: Alan Parker Cast: Brad Davis, Randy Quaid, John Hurt |
 | Midnight Run – a bail-bond collector tracks down an accountant who stole money from the mafia. Brilliant odd-couple comedy | Director: Martin Brest Cast: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto |
 | The Midnight Sky – after an environmental catastrophe, a scientist remains on Earth to warn a space mission | Director: George Clooney Cast: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo |
 | Midnight Special – a father protects his boy, with secret powers, from the government | Director: Jeff Nichols Cast: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst |
 | Midway – a retelling of the famous WW2 battle, which never quite escapes its made-for-TV roots | Director: Jack Smight Cast: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn |
 | Mildred Pierce – superb murder mystery melodrama about a mother and her terminally ungrateful child | Director: Michael Curtiz Cast: Joan Crawford, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth |
 | Milk – van Sant’s heartfelt (if traditional) biopic rightly places gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk back in the public consciousness | Director: Gus van Sant Cast: Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin |
 | Miller’s Crossing – one of my favourite Coen films, a fixer falls out with his gangster boss and plays all sides against the middle | Director: Coen Brothers Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden |
 | Million Dollar Baby – Best Picture winning sucker punch (literally) as a woman dreams of becoming a boxing champ | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman |
 | Minari – autobiographical film: in 80s America, a Korean family try to make a farm selling Korean food a success | Director: Lee Isaac Chung Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Youn Yuh-jung, Alan Kim |
 | Ministry of Fear – a man is framed for murder in this WW2 spy thriller | Director: Fritz Lang Cast: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond |
 | Minority Report – dark sci-fi noir: a police force arresting people for crimes they are yet to commit. Flunks the ending | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton |
 | Misbehaviour – the 1970 Miss World competition is disrupted by protests in this engaging social issues comedy | Director: Philipa Lowthorpe Cast: Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Misery – a novelist is kidnapped by an obsessive fan in this tension packed look at fan culture (slightly ahead of its time) | Director: Rob Reiner Cast: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth |
 | Missing – in the aftermath of the Chilean revolution an American father hunts for his missing son | Director: Costa-Gravas Cast: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, John Shea |
 | The Mission – tragic South American missionaries drama, as colonialism claims multiple victims. Breathtaking score | Director: Roland Joffé Cast: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally |
 | Mission: Impossible – huge fun spy action adventure, as a secret agent has to clear his name. Spawned an excellent franchise | Director: Brian de Palma Cast: Tom Cruise, Emannuelle Beart, Jon Voight |
 | Mission: Impossible: II – only bad film in the franchise: egotistical Tom Cruise vehicle about the hunt for a virus | Director: John Woo Cast: Tom Cruise, Thandiwe Newton, Dougray Scott |
 | Mission: Impossible: III – exciting return to form, as Hunt hunts down a arms dealer with a secret weapon | Director: JJ Abrams Cast: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | The Missionary – witty, gentle comedy: a priest working with fallen women finds himself in endless sexual entanglements | Director: Richard Loncraine Cast: Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott |
 | Mrs Miniver – Best Picture winning homefront saga, as a woman hold house and home together in the Blitz | Director: William Wyler Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Theresa Wright |
 | Mr Brooks – a respectable businessman is driven to acts of murder by his imaginary friend | Director: Bruce A Evans Cast: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore |
 | Mr. Holmes – an aged Holmes struggles with the loss of his memory | Director: Bill Condon Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker |
 | Mr Smith Goes to Washington – the best-ever filibuster film as one man makes a difference | Director: Frank Capra Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains |
 | Mr Turner – beautifully filmed and deeply engrossing Turner biopic | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey |
 | 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 |
 | Moby Dick – uniquely filmed adaptation of the American novel, with some brave casting and a wonderful sense of the sea | Director: John Huston Cast: Gregory Peck, Leo Genn, Richard Baseheart |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Moonraker – James Bond does Star Wars in what’s pretty much a remake of The Spy Who Loved Me | Director: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale |
 | Morocco – romantic drama set in the French Foreign Legion | Director: Josef von Sternberg Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou |
 | The Most Dangerous Game – genre-defining movie, as a mad Russian hunts the shipwrecked on a jungle island | Director: Ernest B Shoedsack, Irving Pichel Cast: Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks, Fay Wray |
 | Mothering Sunday – self-consciously arty film about post-WW1 grief: outstays its welcome | Director: Eva Husson Cast: Odessa Young, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth |
 | The Motorcycle Diaries – a young Che Guevara motorbikes over South America with a friend and becomes political | Director: Walter Salles Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de le Serna, Mia Maestro |
 | Moulin Rouge – handsomely made biopic of Toulouse-Lautrec | Director: John Huston Cast: José Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon |
 | Moulin Rouge! – brash, loud and wonderfully romantic jukebox musical, as a writer falls in love with a courtesan | Director: Baz Luhrmann Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent |
 | Much Ado About Nothing – vibrant and funny Shakespeare adaptation, sun-kissed and sexy | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington |
 | Mulholland Dr – Lynch’s surrealist, dream-like masterpiece as two young women find love and mystery in Hollywood | Director: David Lynch Cast: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux |
 | The Mummy – huge-fun, old-fashioned adventure as archaeologists accidentally bring to a life a terrible mummy | Director: Stephen Somers Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah |
 | 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 |
 | Munich – Israel sends assassins to wipe out Black September in this noble attempt to engage with terrorism | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds |
 | Munich: The Edge of War – Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to make peace in this so-so spy drama | Director: Christian Schwochow Cast: George Mackay, Jannis Niewöhner, Jeremy Irons |
 | The Muppet Christmas Carol – my Christmas watch of choice, beautiful (and best) version of the Dickens story | Director: Jim Henson Cast: Michael Caine, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great |
 | Murder by Decree – Holmes investigates Jack the Ripper in this enjoyable mix of pastiche and Bonkers conspiracy theory | Director: Bob Clark Cast: Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Frank Finlay |
 | Murder on the Orient Express – Brilliant all-star adaptation of Agatha Christie’s most famous Poirot novel. A dozen suspects: who did it? | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman |
 | 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 |
 | Mutiny on the Bounty – Best Picture winning retelling of the most famous mutiny ever | Director: Frank Lloyd Cast: Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone |
 | My Brilliant Career – a young Australian woman struggles to find her path in this impressive feminist period piece | Director: Gillian Armstrong Cast: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes |
 | 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 |
 | My Darling Clementine – myth-making Wyatt Earp biopic, Ford’s romanticism at its best | Director: John Ford Cast: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature |
 | My Fair Lady – Best Picture winning musical version of Pygmalion, very stagy and unoriginal, rather flatly made | Director: George Cukor Cast: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Sterling Holloway |
 | My Man Godfrey – a millionaire goes incognito as a butler with one crazy family, classic screwball | Director: Gregory La Cava Cast: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady |
 | 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 |
Movie Musings 