Five star - Latest Top Rated Film Reviews from the Guardian

Aftersun review – beach holiday with Paul Mescal and daughter is a sunny delight
This effortlessly relaxed debut by Charlotte Wells is a subtle and complex investigation of post-divorce parenthood, with a brilliant performance by young Francesca Corio - Peter Bradshaw
Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains) review – rich, beautiful and inexpressibly sad
A meditation on our capacity for love shapes this sweeping story of two friends, torn apart by family and life’s journeys but bound by something deeper - Peter Bradshaw
RoboCop review – thrilling, subversive 80s masterpiece from Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven’s sophisticated sci-fi fable is rereleased in its original director’s cut, with the gruesome violence and black-comic queasiness restored - Peter Bradshaw
The Innocents review – icily brilliant tale of kids with supernatural powers is future classic
Young actors steal the show in this scary movie set on a Norwegian housing estate, where grownups are unaware of the children’s abilities - Peter Bradshaw
Vampyr review – Dreyer’s hallucinatory undead classic comes back from the grave
Re-released for its 90th anniversary, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s film established some of the staples of the genre with a female, rather than male, vampire - Peter Bradshaw
The Quiet Girl review – exquisite debut drama set in rural Ireland
A young girl sent to live with relatives for the summer blossoms in Colm Bairéad’s beguiling first feature - Wendy Ide
Vortex review – Gaspar Noé’s stunning split-screen descent into dementia
A retired psychiatrist suffers a stroke, while her film-maker husband potters about their Paris apartment in denial in this brutally insightful film - Peter Bradshaw
The Quiet Girl review – deeply moving tale of rural Ireland already feels like a classic
A silent child is sent away to live with foster parents on a farm in this gem of a film from first-time feature director Colm Bairéad - Peter Bradshaw
Cabaret review – Liza Minnelli musical still divinely decadent and chillingly relevant
Minnelli brings the razzle dazzle to a Berlin determined to ignore the gathering storm in this cinematic masterpiece - Peter Bradshaw
Emergency review – smart frat-boy satire on racial profiling
Three college friends panic after finding a white girl passed out at their apartment on party night in this nerve-shredding road trip comedy - Wendy Ide
Benediction review – artful Siegfried Sassoon biopic full of unresolved yearning
The war poet’s life provides rich material for director Terence Davies to explore his preoccupations with sexuality, religion and the search for redemption - Mark Kermode Observer film critic
War Pony review – rousing tale of love and money on a Native American reservation
The innate wisdom and instinct to survive of two teenage males is beautifully observed in actor-turned-director Riley Keough’s debut feature - Peter Bradshaw
The Innocents review – psychic kids wreak havoc in chilling Norwegian horror
Bored children with apparently supernatural powers soon go to the dark side in Eskil Vogt’s superbly cast psychological thriller - Wendy Ide
Boy from Heaven review – stirring spy thriller set on an Egyptian campus
Egypt’s religious and secular institutions both breed mistrust in Tarik Saleh’s superbly realised paranoid nightmare - Peter Bradshaw
Enys Men review – a supremely disquieting study of solitude
Bait director Mark Jenkin delivers another eerie prose-poem of a film, about a isolated woman lost inside her own mind - Peter Bradshaw
Corsage review – a cry of anger from the pedestal-prison of an empress
Vicky Krieps puts in a star turn as lonely, patronised Elizabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s austere drama - Peter Bradshaw
One Fine Morning review – Léa Seydoux sparkles in poignant drama
Mia Hansen-Løve returns to Paris with this powerful drama about a single mother torn between emotionally unavailable men - Peter Bradshaw
Mariner of the Mountains review – dreamily wonderful Algerian odyssey
Karim Aïnouz’s essay on his own family history takes him from Brazil to north Africa to discover his father’s country - Leslie Felperin
Rhino review – horribly compelling Ukrainian crime drama
Oleh Sentsov’s deftly directed morality tale charts the rise and fall of an out-of-control gangster - Wendy Ide
Vortex review – Gaspar Noé’s punishing portrait of dementia
The director abandons his showy style in this brutally matter-of-fact tale of a couple at the end of their lives in a Paris apartment - Wendy Ide
Everything Everywhere All at Once review – multiverse madness with meaning
Michelle Yeoh has fun playing a laundrette owner transported into ever more baffling parallel worlds in this unusually touching indie sci-fi - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Little Tornadoes review – an elegant portrait of life in country Australia
While far from light viewing, this period drama written by Christos Tsiolkas and director Aaron Wilson is a pleasure - Luke Buckmaster
Lost Illusions review – Balzac adaptation is period-drama perfection
Benjamin Voisin and Cécile de France star in a superb costume coming-of-age story for the Netflix generation - Peter Bradshaw
We and Our Mountains review – absurdist Armenian satire thumbs its nose at Soviet Russia
On a remote hillside, far from the swinging 60s, garrulous shepherds exasperate the police in this elegant parable about power and the state - Peter Bradshaw
Wild Men review – Danish dad seeks his inner Viking in midlife crisis comedy
A suburban man leaves his family and heads to the mountains, where he meets a criminal on the run… - Wendy Ide
This Much I Know to Be True review – Nick Cave and Warren Ellis on transcendent form
Capturing intimate live performances of their albums Ghosteen and Carnage, Andrew Dominik’s documentary gets to the heart of a remarkable creative partnership - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
In Short, Europe: Loving Encounters review – small and sweet chunks of Euro love
Small and mostly sweet, this short film selection buoys us up in the wake of the pandemic with an upbeat view of relationships - Phil Hoad
The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain review – tense reconstruction of fatal police encounter
Simply depicting the events that led to the death of a former marine leaves audiences to draw their own parallels with the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor - Leslie Felperin
The Velvet Queen: Snow Leopard review – a moving glimpse of nature’s private life
Renowned nature photographer Vincent Munier captures the stark drama of the natural world in his search for the elusive snow leopard - Wendy Ide
Casablanca Beats review – Morocco’s vibrant school of hip-hop
Nabil Ayouch’s grittily authentic tale of a rapper turned teacher helping his students find their creative voices is a class act - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair review – exhilarating gaming-horror mashup
Teen Casey joins an occult online game in this unnerving experiment in form by trans film-maker Jane Schoenbrun - Peter Bradshaw
The Velvet Queen review – powerful hymn to the land of the snow leopard
This account of a photography expedition in Tibet goes beyond usual nature documentary territory in its writerly contemplation of the wild - Peter Bradshaw
Happening review: unflinching abortion drama that draws you in
The audience really feels the trauma of a young student’s hard choices in 1960s France in Audrey Diwan’s compelling Venice winner - Wendy Ide
The Road Dance review – a sweeping Hebridean weepie
On the eve of war, a young woman is hit by a double disaster in this unabashed Scottish melodrama - Wendy Ide
RMN review – sickness beneath the skin as racism breaks out in Romanian village
Latest from Romania’s Cristian Mungiu is a low-key drama about a multi-ethnic community in Transylvania who turn on a group of Sri Lankan immigrants - Peter Bradshaw
Three Thousand Years of Longing review – Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba in Mad Max: fairy overload
George Miller’s belated followup to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road is a consciously unfashionable fantasy about a wary academic and a chatty genie that may leave you wishing for more - Xan Brooks in Cannes
EO review – an innocent donkey leads the way in surreal Bresson-inspired ride
Life is seen through the eyes of a put-upon beast of burden in this beautifully photographed homage to Au Hasard Balthazar by the veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski - Peter Bradshaw
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers review – surprisingly sharp Disney+ update
The short-lived late 80s animated series gets a satirical yet earnest reboot with sly jabs at the industry and a host of comedians doing voice work - Benjamin Lee
God’s Creatures review – Emily Watson and Paul Mescal shine in doom-laden drama
As her son returns home after years away, Eileen is asked to give him an alibi which sets in motion a terrible series of events - Peter Bradshaw
When You Finish Saving the World review – Jesse Eisenberg’s sweet coming-of-age comedy drama
Eisenberg’s directorial debut, starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, is a well acted, ironic yet sentimental portrayal of a tricky mother-son dynamic - Peter Bradshaw
Tchaikovsky’s Wife review – love turns to obsession in an off-key marriage
Alyona Mikhailova is tremendous as estranged wife Antonina, whose naivety and narcissism fester in the rubble of her marriage to the gay composer - Peter Bradshaw
a-ha: The Movie review – Take on Me hitmakers relive the highs and the lows
An air of self-loathing and regret hangs over this 40th-anniversary documentary about the Norwegian trio who shot to fame in the 80s - Cath Clarke
Final Cut (Coupez!) review – Hazanavicius’s silly, splattery zombie horror meta-farce
The Artist director’s remake of the Japanese cult film One Cut of the Dead is an undemanding, easygoing way to kick off the Cannes film festival - Peter Bradshaw
The Sadness review – unapologetically yucky gorefest turns into pandemic allegory
Inventive Taiwan-set horror in which a virus turns the infected into monsters propelled by their worst instincts - Phuong Le
Cop Secret review – Reykjavík’s answer to Hot Fuzz in action flick sendup
Former footballer Hannes Þór Halldórsson makes his film debut with a goofy comedy about a knucklehead cop afraid to come out as gay - Cath Clarke
The Time Traveler’s Wife review – far too much ick factor to be truly great
Steven Moffat’s adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 bestseller is witty and well done, but it can’t overcome the novel’s depressingly old-fashioned and iffy implications - Lucy Mangan
Tosh review – an emotional look back at Swansea’s sprint up the League
John Toshack leads Swansea City from the Fourth Division to the First in just three years in a nostalgic documentary tribute to football’s simpler times - Andrew Pulver
Image of Victory review – study of Arab-Israeli conflict from all angles hopes to heal
Avi Nesher’s film set near the Gaza Strip in 1948 empathises with every side – which is a laudable, if idealistic, ambition - Leslie Felperin
The Road Dance review – boiling fury in tale of rape and denial in the Hebrides
There’s a wild rage against the backdrop of amazing landscape in an adaptation of John MacKay’s novel about a sex assault in a crofting community - Cath Clarke
Ghosts of the Ozarks review – shrewd Twin Peaksy allegory that musters dark forces
This supernatural thriller digs deep into the underbelly of a weird backwoods idyll - Phil Hoad
The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson review – one-woman outback western
A lone bushwoman holds her own as Leah Purcell breathes new life into an old Australian classic - Wendy Ide
The Essex Serpent review – Claire Danes is magnificent … unlike Tom Hiddleston
The Loki actor feels too suave to play a humble vicar in this adaptation of Sarah Parry’s lush novel – which makes the central romance cold and condescending - Lucy Mangan
Top Gun: Maverick review – Tom Cruise is still speedy, less needy in a rock’n’roll sequel
Cruise presides over some surprising differences from his first outing as the navy pilot hotshot in a film that’s missing the homoerotic tensions of the 80s original - Peter Bradshaw
Dobermann review – Vincent Cassel’s brutal pulp thriller still bites
This 1997 policier, directed by Jan Kounen, pulses with violent energy, although its pop-video aesthetic looks dated - Peter Bradshaw
Rhino review – bleakness and brutality in the Ukrainian underworld
The second film from anti-Putin director-activist Oleg Sentsov is a stylish tale of gangland violence in post-Soviet Ukraine - Peter Bradshaw
This Much I Know to Be True review – Nick Cave on music, art and healing
The musician holds the spotlight again in Andrew Dominik’s followup documentary, with star-quality input from Warren Ellis and Marianne Faithfull - Leslie Felperin
Hell Hath No Fury review – cleverly choreographed violence in a search for Nazi loot
Danish actor Nina Bergman is the commanding, shaven-headed hero of a bleak, subversive parable on the lethal power of greed - Phuong Le
Men review – Alex Garland unleashes multiple Rory Kinnears in wacky folk-horror
Garland’s latest is like a scary-movie remake of Dick Emery, with excellent performances from Kinnear in a number of different roles, and Jessie Buckley - Peter Bradshaw
Shattered review – John Malkovich has bizarre cameo in oddball erotic thriller
Luis Prieto’s psychodrama features a promising turn from Lilly Krug but it goes limp in end despite a decent vicious streak - Phil Hoad
Eleven Days in May review – unflinching homage to children killed in Gaza last year
Mohammed Sawwaf and Michael Winterbottom’s documentary takes a deeply personal approach to the young lives lost in May’s bombings - Wendy Ide
Thar review – savage Hindi neo-western set in Rajasthan
An antique dealer, a disillusioned cop and a thirst for revenge collide in this gruesomely compelling Indian thriller - Wendy Ide
The Swimmer review – Olympic ambition and homophobia in the fast lane
Israeli director Adam Kalderon draws on his own experience in this engaging drama - Wendy Ide
Barry & Joan review – all-singing all-dancing vaudevillians get their moment in the sun
Nostalgic insight into the theatrical world of the Granthams, an eccentric couple from the golden era of entertainment - Leslie Felperin
Thar review – Anil Kapoor’s violent cop thriller puts the punch in Rajasthan
There are hints of Sergio Leone and Cormac McCarthy in this Rajasthan-set mystery starring the actor and his son - Peter Bradshaw
Eleven Days in May review – heart-wrenching documentary on the grimness of life in Gaza
Michael Winterbottom’s film focuses on human cost of 11 days of bombing that killed more than 60 Palestinian children - Peter Bradshaw
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness review – cheerful alt-reality sequel
Benedict Cumberbatch returns as surgeon-superhero Stephen Strange, now on a mission to protect a teen who can visit parallel universes - Peter Bradshaw
My So-Called Selfish Life review – ‘childfree’ women beat at the gates of an old taboo
Women who don’t want children and those who regret being mothers speak in this worthwhile look at a still fraught subject - Peter Bradshaw
Wild Men review – the world’s worst Viking goes off grid
Dressed in animal furs and brandishing an axe, an office worker goes full Fred Flintstone in this madcap comedy featuring Sofie Gråbøl - Cath Clarke
Arica review – gripping tale of Chileans fighting back against a mining giant
This documentary covers the struggle for environmental justice as 800 local residents take a Swedish company to court - Phuong Le
The Offer review – the making of The Godfather makes for hit-and-miss TV
The splashy inside Hollywood drama on the making of The Godfather is a patchy, overlong series that is best when it sticks to the script - Adrian Horton
Downton Abbey: A New Era review – cheerfully risible second helping of snobby melodrama
The second – and hopefully last – film spun off from Julian Fellowes’s successful TV series is as hammy, silly, and undeniably entertaining as ever - Peter Bradshaw
Ennio: The Maestro review – exhaustive tribute to the great film composer
The director of Cinema Paradiso tells the story of Ennio Morricone’s extraordinary career in a documentary that lacks its subject’s flair - Wendy Ide
The Wall of Shadows review – Sherpas caught between a rock and a hard place
In this thought-provoking documentary, a family of Sherpas face a moral dilemma while scaling a sacred and dangerous mountain - Wendy Ide
Cop Secret review – unsubtle Icelandic police comedy
Two rival cops are paired up with not quite unforeseen results - Wendy Ide
a-ha: The Movie review – Norway’s 80s pop pinups in dour, exacting details
The trio recount their formative years – and their fallouts – in this slightly dispiriting documentary - Wendy Ide
The Triangle of Sadness review – heavy-handed satire on the super-rich loses its shape
The new film from Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund takes aim at obvious targets, and makes a mess of hitting them - Peter Bradshaw
Brother and Sister review – sibling battle with Marion Cotillard that leaves us all losers
The latest in Arnaud Desplechin’s overwrought oeuvre features plenty of film-making elan but not one line of plausible dialogue - Peter Bradshaw
Armageddon Time review – Hopkins and Hathaway can’t save this stagy tale of a quasi-Trump
A middle-class boy capitalises on his privilege in Reagan-era New York in James Gray’s uncharacteristically syrupy movie - Peter Bradshaw
Father Stu review – histrionic boxer-turned-priest drama
Mark Wahlberg goes all out in the title role, inspired by the true story of Stuart Long - Wendy Ide
Senior Year review – Rebel Wilson fails Netflix high school comedy
A miscast lead is one of many issues plaguing a broad and unfunny attempt to recapture the spirit of films like Never Been Kissed and Mean Girls - Benjamin Lee
Father Stu review – renegade-turned-priest Mark Wahlberg blesses Catholic drama
Mark Wahlberg stars in a based on truth story ably supported by Jacki Weaver –though Mel Gibson is a much less welcome presence - Leslie Felperin
Everything Everywhere All at Once review – nothing nowhere over a long period of time
Despite some smart gags, this broadly buzzed-about comedy turns out to be an oddly mediocre misfire - Peter Bradshaw
Bluff review – tiny-budget cop thriller aims for Guy Ritchie meets Line of Duty
Sheikh Shahnawaz’s low-budget debut cuts its violent thrills with a sprinkling of social realism, but is undermined by a shaky plot development - Cath Clarke
Spitfire Over Berlin review – jolly British pluck only gets low-budget war film so far
This second world war aviation drama is a film of laudable ambition but limited means, too little invention and a cliched script - Phil Hoad
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness review – one for diehard Marvel fans
Self-referential in the extreme, this latest outing for dimension-hopping Benedict Cumberbatch is a largely joyless affair - Wendy Ide
Along for the Ride review – Netflix teen romance is missing a spark
The latest film from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before scribe Sofia Alvarez hits the beats of a rom-com without much heart or heat - Adrian Horton
Wake Up Punk review – memorabilia-burning punk progeny fails to check his privilege
This documentary about Joe Corré, the son of Vivienne Westwood and the late Malcolm McLaren, is a strangely listless and unlikable affair - Peter Bradshaw
The Adventures of Maid Marian review – historical clunker with a boyband Robin Hood
Almost comically unmedieval, this new take on the legend lacks the budget and acting chops of previous Hollywood versions - Cath Clarke
Atabai review – great man’s homecoming in sincere Iranian drama about love and loss
Anger and pain course through this film about an architect who returns to his village, but it fails to deliver the emotional payoff - Peter Bradshaw
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair review – online horror fails to load
An isolated young woman gets sucked into an insidious internet game, but the terror never quite arrives - Wendy Ide
Downton Abbey: A New Era review – an artless cash-in with the Crawleys
Reheated plot lines abound as the regular cast and writer Julian Fellowes go over old ground in their second big-screen outing - Wendy Ide
Future Shock review – like a pretentious nightclub where no one is dancing
It claims to showcase the art of the future, but surely we have more to look forward to than dry ice, lights and music that sounds like the contents of Brian Eno’s dustbin - Jonathan Jones
Silverton Siege review – sensational apartheid-era standoff gets Hollywood treatment
Cliches and contrivances relegate a key incident in South African history to routine Tinseltown-style fodder - Peter Bradshaw
Your Mum and Dad review – Larkin-inspired essay on a family’s psychological wounds
Film-maker Klaartje Quirijns turns the camera on her mother and father as they open up about the trauma of her elder sister’s death - Peter Bradshaw
Saint-Narcisse review – witches, incest and self-pleasure
Bruce LaBruce’s profane tale set in 1970s Canada is a bit too self-involved for its own good - Wendy Ide
Firestarter review – soggy Stephen King remake struggles to ignite
Zac Efron tries his best in an otherwise regrettable retread of the horror author’s tale of a girl with superpowers - Benjamin Lee
Marmaduke review – Pete Davidson-voiced Netflix animation is a real dog
The SNL breakout gets an easy check cashed for voicing a calamitous mutt in a shoddily made adventure for undiscerning kids - Charles Bramesco
Faye review – single-performer horror show jabs at influencer culture
Kd Amond’s cabin fever tale about a self-help author suffering from writer’s block mostly features one character who talks too much - Phuong Le
The Bezonians review – Vinnie Jones cameo can’t lift Homer-inspired crime yarn
Don’t let the references to the Iliad fool you – this small-time gangster story is irritating, self-indulgent and stupid - Leslie Felperin
I Love America review – a clunky, corny, cringey mess of a romcom
There’s no redeeming this unfunny LA-set comedy starring Sophie Marceau, about a divorced woman’s return to dating - Peter Bradshaw