Five star - Latest Top Rated Film Reviews from the Guardian

Sound of Metal review – Riz Ahmed excels as a drummer facing deafness
Riz Ahmed gives a career-best performance in an astonishing drama that’s rooted in reality and fully captioned for all - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Songs My Brothers Taught Me review – Chloé Zhao's deeply intelligent debut
The Nomadland director’s authorship is obvious in this 2015 story of Lakota siblings adjusting to the death of their father - Peter Bradshaw
Romeo and Juliet review – National Theatre's first film is an ingenious triumph
Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley are captivating as the star-crossed lovers in a wondrous, adventurous production - Arifa Akbar
Minari review – a Korean family sows seeds of hope in Arkansas
Infused with a wonderful sentimentality, Lee Isaac Chung’s fictionalised account of his rural US childhood explores the growing pains of a family farm - Peter Bradshaw
Violation review – a torrent of suppressed rage
Madeleine Sims-Fewer stars and co-directs this rape-revenge movie that brilliantly and brutally reframes the trauma inflicted by male violence - Phil Hoad
Henry Glassie: Field Work review – hypnotic glimpses of folk art in the making
This documentary about the celebrated folklorist also takes a leisurely look at the working methods of the artists he reveres - Andrew Pulver
Veins of the World review – arresting portrait of nomadic life
Byambasuren Davaa’s gorgeous-looking drama examines the rituals and traditions of Mongolia as their very existence comes under threat - Phuong Le
Sequin in a Blue Room review – illicit thrills in gay coming-of-age story
Conor Leach is remarkable as a schoolboy pursuing adult online hookups in this striking debut feature from Samuel Van Grinsven - Wendy Ide
Palm Springs review – Groundhog Day with wedding bells on
This sharp time-loop romcom juggles fun and fatalism and resonates powerfully in the age of lockdown - Wendy Ide
The Frightened City review – crooks and coppers in a classic London noir
A pre-Bond Sean Connery is among the gifted cast in this 1961 mob drama that takes in the highlights of London lowlife - Peter Bradshaw
Palm Springs review – ingenious time-loop romance you'll hope never ends
With Covid having turned all our lives into Groundhog Day, it’s perfect timing for this razor-sharp take on the genre - Peter Bradshaw
Sequin in a Blue Room review – electrifying foray into online hookup culture
Samuel van Grinsven’s impressive graduation project is a gay coming-of-age tale that ripples with sexual energy - Phuong Le
A Common Crime review – chilling ghost story with a social conscience
A career woman is haunted by a teenager she could have saved from death in this masterful political thriller from Argentina - Peter Bradshaw
Undine review – romance with just enough magic and mystery
A woman on the rebound gets into deep water in Transit director Christian Petzold’s playful reworking of an age-old myth - Simran Hans
Minari review – an enchanting drama of faith and farming
Lee Isaac Chung’s Oscar-nominated tale of a Korean family putting down roots in 1980s Arkansas beautifully balances the feelgood and the gritty - Mark Kermode
The Night review – eerie check-in at an LA hotel
A young Iranian couple and their baby are the sole occupants of a Shining-style hotel in this effective supernatural thriller - Peter Bradshaw
The New Gospel review – a thrilling and unsettling Easter story
Milo Rau’s film mixes a dramatisation of the crucifixion story with a real-life portrait of exploited migrant workers - Mark Fisher
Godzilla vs Kong review – duelling monsters make for one hell of a show
The two titans take each other on in a goofy and hugely enjoyable action adventure that delivers the big dumb thrills many of us have been craving - Benjamin Lee
Violation review – a brutal and brilliant debut
A tale of trauma, betrayal and revenge between sisters that confronts the audience with its own complicity - Wendy Ide
Ammonite review – Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan find love among the fossils
Francis Lee’s sensational biopic of palaeontology pioneer Mary Anning reimagines her erotic encounter with a woman trapped in a stifling marriage - Peter Bradshaw
Memories of My Father review – deeply felt memoir of Medellín's public-health champion
Almodóvar regular Javier Cámara brings a wonderful richness to his portrayal of Colombian professor and campaigner Héctor Abad Gómez - Peter Bradshaw
Nobody review – Bob Odenkirk betters John Wick in fun action caper
The Better Call Saul star gets a furiously entertaining star vehicle playing a suburban father who finds himself up against the Russian mob - Benjamin Lee
Stray review – exquisite dog's eye view of Istanbul
Elizabeth Lo’s film about the street dogs of the Turkish metropolis is the perfect companion piece to Kedi, a 2016 work about its cats - Leslie Felperin
He Dreams of Giants review – Terry Gilliam's inspiring La Mancha sequel
Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe have made a compelling follow-up to their 2002 look at the disastrous production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote - Jordan Hoffman
H is for Happiness review – emotional affairs of adults seen through a bright, childlike lens
Syrupy-sweet visuals flavour this compulsively watchable story of a precocious girl intent on solving the world’s problems - Luke Buckmaster
That Cloud Never Left review – experimental ruminations on cinema and labour
Mundane life meets magical daydreams in a West Bengal village where discarded film footage is turned into toys - Phuong Le
Oleg review – the tale of a Latvian trapped in Belgium
In Juris Kursietis’s affecting drama, everything goes wrong for a young Latvian butcher trying to make a new life in Brussels - Simran Hans
Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time review – a clever, uncanny love story
A brain surgeon worries that her recent romance may be one big delusion in writer-director Lili Horvát’s seductive psychological drama - Mark Kermode
Groundswell review – the fight against fracking in Ireland
Johnny Gogan’s documentary highlights the misconceived plans of corporations that hoped to avoid protesters - Peter Bradshaw
I Blame Society review – film-maker turns serial killer in uneven black comedy
Sometimes funny, often annoying, director Gillian Wallace Horvat’s film tells us what happens when your script is rejected one time too many - Peter Bradshaw
Auggie review – watchable hi-tech satire doesn’t quite know what to say
Richard Kind is compelling as the retiree seduced by a VR ‘companion’, but the film fails to do much with its rather familiar premise - Peter Bradshaw
True Mothers review – Naomi Kawase's heartfelt yet frustrating drama
The director of The Mourning Forest returns with another sensitive film, this time about a difficult adoption, yet plot holes prove distracting - Peter Bradshaw
Be Good or Be Gone review – sharp Dublin crime thriller with deadpan charm
Criminal cousins try to rebuild their lives in Cathal Nally’s likably quirky, low-budget debut feature - Leslie Felperin
Effie Gray review – Emma Thompson’s entertaining take on a doomed Victorian marriage
Dakota Fanning performs with gusto in this slightly hammy account of John Ruskin and Effie Gray’s marital disaster - Peter Bradshaw
Night in Paradise review – operatic Korean display of gunfire and death
This blood-splattered Korean gangster flick with a romantic subplot follows Tae-Gu as he hides out from his enemies - Leslie Felperin
Sound of Metal review – Riz Ahmed keeps swirling disability drama on the beat
Darius Marder’s story of a hearing-impaired, ex-heroin addict drummer perhaps tries to do too much – but Ahmed gives it focus - Peter Bradshaw
I’m Not in Love review – anti-romcom that nails sex and dating
While some gags don’t land in this story of an ordinary bloke who can’t quite commit to his girlfriend, Col Spector provides an honest look at relationships - Leslie Felperin
Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon review - genial 60s British wacky-space-racers
Dated but good-humoured, this 1967 adaptation includes all the era’s popular elements, from villain Terry-Thomas to penny-farthings in haystacks - Andrew Pulver
The Power review – merciless East End hospital horror
A fragile nurse encounters malevolent forces on night duty in Corinna Faith’s efficient screw-tightener with a feminist slant - Cath Clarke
Workhorse review – beautiful but plodding paean to beasts of burden
Cliff Caines’s film about three businesses sticking with horse-drawn methods looks startling, but gets a bit bogged down - Leslie Felperin
Citizen Lane review – dashed hopes of a visionary art dealer
This drama documentary makes the case for the return to Dublin of dozens of impressionist masterpieces held by London’s National Gallery - Cath Clarke
Those That, At a Distance, Resemble Another review – meditation on the art and act of copying
This calm, painstaking visual essay explores how where copies and originals in an experimental film pregnant with ideas - Peter Bradshaw
The Mauritanian review – in limbo in Guantánamo with Tahar Rahim
This adaptation of a post-9/11 prisoner’s memoir is strong on procedural drama but blunted by stylised torture scenes - Simran Hans
Godzilla vs. Kong review – a spectacular battle of beasts
Ancient enemies slug it out in a movie that’s light on plot but vastly superior to its prequel - Simran Hans
Catch Us If You Can review – on the run with the Dave Clark Five
John Boorman’s feature film debut sends the pop band on a zany adventure that serves as a potent time capsule of 60s celebrity PR - Peter Bradshaw
Enfant Terrible review – Fassbinder portrait shows punk rock side of an arthouse auteur
Oskar Röhler has created a heartfelt and appropriately awestruck portrait of the bleary Byron of the German new wave, Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Peter Bradshaw
Concrete Cowboy review – Idris Elba saddles up for powerful father-son drama
Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin also stars as a kid sent to live with his father, who is a mainstay of the African-American urban cowboy tradition - Peter Bradshaw
Zana review – witchy wisdom and Lynchian shadows in Kosovan drama
A woman whose child was killed in crossfire desperately tries to get pregnant in this bleak, beautifully acted film - Leslie Felperin
Undine review – a shaggy catfish of a story about a woman with a water obsession
The director of Transit returns with a somewhat pointless film about an art historian who has a passionate affair with a diver - Peter Bradshaw
Wilderness review – young lovers' lost weekend
This tender, absorbing portrait of new lovers tested by events on a romantic trip is a remarkable production, with terrific chemistry from the leads - Cath Clarke
Selfie review – droll Gallic eye on slaves to the algorithm
Online metrics are pillow talk, and digital secrets go public in this tragicomic portmanteau of five stories about our relationship with technology - Phuong Le
Aljaž & Janette: Remembering the Oscars review – Strictly stardust at the movies
The TV pro couple’s take on favourite routines delivers fans a fizzing taste of the full-length stage show waiting in the wings - Lyndsey Winship
Memories of My Father review – loving portrait of a parent
A Colombian child’s hymn to his heroic father is absorbing and blessed with memorable imagery - Wendy Ide
Ammonite review – a chilly love among the fossils
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan’s 19th-century romance showcases their talents but doesn’t warm the heart - Mark Kermode Observer film critic
Made in Italy review – autobiographical poignancy from Liam Neeson and son
This sappy film about an artist renovating his late wife’s Tuscan holiday home with his son has eerie parallels with the actors’ family tragedy - Leslie Felperin
Retaliation review – Orlando Bloom gives it his all in lacerating sexual-abuse drama
Even if the script is sometimes heavy-handed, Bloom is an unrecognisable force as a survivor of church sexual abuse - Cath Clarke
The Banishing review – Jessica Brown Findlay shines in standard spooker
The Downton Abbey actor holds together Christopher Smith’s increasingly silly Essex haunted-house horror - Cath Clarke
Honeydew review – flame-grilled rural horror
A pair of city slickers find predictable trouble in deepest New England – but Devereux Milburn’s shocker has an atmospheric edge - Leslie Felperin
Oleg review – migrant drama of despair leaves no way out
A young man from Riga falls into a sinister situation to stay in Belgium in Juris Kursietis’s bleak social-realist film - Peter Bradshaw
Malmkrog review – cerebral period drama lives on in the mind
Cristi Puiu’s fourth film makes a virtue of high seriousness as guests at a country house discuss God, man, warfare and evil - Peter Bradshaw
Banksy Most Wanted review – adulatory greatest-hits profile of the graffiti kingpin
Whether or not the Bristolian is really the ‘Picasso of the 21st century’, this fawning documentary confirms how well he fits the social-media age - Andrew Pulver
Shortcut review – five go on a gory getaway
Director Alessio Liguori shoots the Italian setting of this teen horror with skin-prickling intensity, though its zany charm undercuts any real tension - Phil Hoad
Amber and Me review – a moving portrait of a girl with Down’s syndrome
Ian Davies’s labour-of-love documentary explores the progress of his daughter Amber, linking beauty and joy with harsher realities - Edward Currie
Killing Escobar review – the hard men behind plot to kill drug lord
Mercenaries Peter McAleese and David Tomkins tell the story and backstory behind their contract on the Colombian kingpin - Andrew Pulver
Creation Stories review – mythmaking and megalomania in likable Alan McGee biopic
Irvine Welsh’s cracking adaption of an autobiography by the ‘President of Pop’ flashes from My Bloody Valentine to his discovery of Oasis - Cath Clarke
Slaxx review – killer jeans horror-satire
Denim turns deadly in Elza Kephart’s silly but fun skewering of developing-world fashion exploitation - Peter Bradshaw
Into the Labyrinth review – Dustin Hoffman psycho-thriller goes down a rabbit hole
The Hollywood star and Italian veteran Toni Servillo attempt to solve a mysterious abduction – a race hampered by never appearing in the same scene - Peter Bradshaw
When Jeff Tried to Save the World review – slacker movie is an underachiever
Where’s the Dude when you need him? Bowling alley-set directorial debut would score with more laughs and more feeling - Cath Clarke
Portal review – close encounters of the disappointing kind
A million alien portals open on Earth in this trio of sci-fi shorts – but the effect is bland, not awe-inspiring - Cath Clarke
Clapboard Jungle review – confessions of an indie horror film director
Canadian director Justin McConnell has created a self-indulgent selfie-fest – I’d pass on his fantasy horror too - Peter Bradshaw
For the Sake of Vicious review – ugly home-invasion thriller whose title says it all
Blood spills, kneecaps shatter and excitement dwindles during a thriller that fails to build on a taut opening act - Phil Hoad
Sensation review – sensory hacking thriller comes on like a Tesco Value Matrix
You’ll need superhuman DNA, like protagonist Andrew, to understand this convoluted, untidy sci-fi conspiracy yarn - Phil Hoad
Thunder Force review – Melissa McCarthy gets superstrength in rote superhero comedy
McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are childhood friends turned crime-fighting duo in this by-the-numbers comedy - Peter Bradshaw
Voyagers review – horny Lord of the Flies in space quickly crashes to earth
Colin Farrell leads a crew of genetically engineered and chemically subdued youths on a perilous journey in a film that doesn’t have the guts to explore its perverse premise - Benjamin Lee
Bittersweet Symphony review – pretty but fake-feeling family Christmas yarn
Suki Waterhouse and Poppy Delevingne are a pair of unconvincing Welsh sisters dealing with terminal illness and creative blockages - Cath Clarke
Red Carpet review – rap-themed escape story loses itself in grim detail
A wannabe hip-hop star is kidnapped into slavery in a film that beats a well-trodden path around LA’s scuzzy underbelly - Phil Hoad
Rose: A Love Story review – woodland-shack thriller goes to ground
Real-life couple Matt Stokoe and Sophie Rundle put in good work as a pair of survivalists, but this claustrophobic film loses focus when it becomes a menage a trois - Peter Bradshaw
Infinitum: Subject Unknown review – solo time-loop echoes lockdown vexation
This iPhone-shot sci-fi drama with cameos from Ian McKellen and Conleth Hill is impressively realised, though the plot ultimately frustrates - Cath Clarke
A Dragon’s Adventure review – a mess of mind-melting, happy-clappy animation
Perhaps elements of this computer-animated children’s story got lost in the adaptation from German TV, but it’s inoffensive enough - Leslie Felperin
Antebellum review – the horrors of slavery repackaged as entertainment
Janelle Monáe stars in a lushly shot thriller that fails to justify its subject matter with anything resembling social commentary - Ellen E Jones
The Mauritanian review – fence-sitting Guantánamo drama provides few answers
This painfully worthy adaptation of former inmate Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s diary stars only good guys, and is hand-wringingly self congratulatory - Peter Bradshaw
Paintball Massacre review – splatterhouse horror with scattershot acting
This school-reunion paintball outing struggles to live up to illustrious Brit comedy-horror predecessors like Hot Fuzz and Dog Soldiers - Leslie Felperin
Chaos Walking review – cursed YA adaptation stumbles into view
Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley are lost in a sea of dystopian cliches in a delayed and misjudged adventure about a future where men’s thoughts are visible - Benjamin Lee
Last Call review – bad news, good booze
Jeremy Piven plays a prodigal son aiming to build a casino in his old neighbourhood in this flat-footed ode to bar-room wisdom - Phil Hoad
Tom and Jerry review – wearisome live action adaptation
Lazy writing mars this update of the cat and mouse feud - Wendy Ide
Tom & Jerry The Movie review – sanitised relaunch of the cat and mouse combatants
Uninspiring fights and sketchy rules of engagement mean this lazy reprise won’t excite real aficionados of the eternally warring pair - Benjamin Lee
Francesco review – a baffling papal love-in
Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary on Pope Francis goes one further than the recent Wim Wenders film by discussing child abuse, but is still another baffling act of hagiography - Peter Bradshaw
Six Minutes to Midnight review – Eddie Izzard miscast in strained Nazi-school yarn
The comedian plays a teacher who takes a job at a Nazi-sympathising Bexhill school on the cusp of the second world war - Peter Bradshaw
Take Back review – dusty martial arts thriller looks cramped
Despite Gillian White’s charisma, this B-movie thriller, the story of a lawyer’s run-in with melty-face Mickey Rourke’s hoodlum, seems tame - Phil Hoad
The Drifters review – grating post-Brexit romantic drama
Insufferable quirks and tone-deaf tropes undermine the social concerns of this wannabe New Wave love story - Phuong Le
Creation Stories review – generic biopic of record label supremo Alan McGee
Ewen Bremner stars as the fiery Scots label boss in this cliche-ridden drama co-written by Irvine Welsh - Simran Hans
The War with Grandpa review – De Niro slums in delayed ex-Weinstein farce
The two-time Oscar winner sleepwalks through a throwaway family film about duelling relatives that also wastes Uma Thurman and Christopher Walken - Benjamin Lee
Russian Raid review – hostile takeover of screens in steroidal martial arts actioner
Hooligans are up to all sorts of impish mayhem in this rote action flick apparently modelled on The Raid - Phil Hoad
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers review – 80s Japanese bubblegum pop curio
Even with a glorious mishmash of a pop soundtrack, it’s not obvious why Makoto Tezuka’s cult musical needs a revival - Leslie Felperin
The Reckoning review – witch movie descends into misogynistic torture ordeal
At first, this horror about a woman accused of witchcraft is merely bad. Then it becomes unwatchable - Cath Clarke
The Unholy review – Satan continues to inspire the very worst films
A poorly made horror takes an interesting concept, from a James Herbert novel, and squanders it with ineffective visuals and a dearth of scares - Benjamin Lee
Original Gangster review – hitman thuggery misfires
Steve Guttenberg hits a career low in this shallow, brutish London crime drama that portrays women with contempt - Cath Clarke
A Week Away review – out-of-touch Netflix play for Christian audience
A cloying new sub-Disney Channel teen musical, packed with unremarkable performances and forgettable songs, feels oddly of another period - Adrian Horton
Nemesis review – geezer cliche compilation with a charisma bypass
The Bill’s Billy Murray is a cockney hardman whose ordeal of a family dinner party gets inflicted on us too in this terrible thriller - Cath Clarke
Feedback review – Eddie Marsan thriller on the wrong frequency
Marsan plays a lefty radio presenter under siege – but there is an awful lot of unconvincing plot and incongruous violence here - Peter Bradshaw