Five star - Latest Top Rated Film Reviews from the Guardian

The Guilty review – so taut, you almost forget to breathe
Gustav Möller’s nerve-jangling thriller about an emergency police dispatcher and one fateful call uses minimal ingredients to devastating effect - Wendy Ide
Beetlejuice review – Tim Burton's afterlife comedy still full of eye-popping charm
Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis star in this spiky, inventive 1988 ghost story about a house makeover - Steve Rose
Night of the Living Dead review – still vital, brutal, cryptic and subversive
George Romero’s 1968 classic about a mass attack by cannibalistic ghouls is brilliantly perplexing, horrifying and mysteriously allegorical - Steve Rose
Orphée review – Cocteau's classic never looks back
Jean Marais’ journey through the underworld gains new strangeness and rapture in this restoration of Jean Cocteau’s 1950 Orpheus myth - Peter Bradshaw
They Shall Not Grow Old review – Peter Jackson's electrifying journey into the first world war trenches
Jackson has restored, colourised and added voices to footage of the western front, bringing the soldiers unforgettably back to life - Peter Bradshaw
Mirai review – an anime fantasy that bottles the magic of childhood
Mamoru Hosoda places himself among the best at his craft with a painterly tale of a boy dealing with a new sibling - Phil Hoad
Black Mother review – an epic odyssey through Jamaican identity
Kahlik Allah brings a passionate, poetic intensity to his hypnotic study of sex workers, beggars, hawkers and children - Steve Rose
The Hate U Give review – articulate drama about America’s racial strife
Amandla Stenberg excels in an adaptation of Angie Thomas’s novel about the police shooting of a black teenager - Simran Hans
Evelyn review – moving documentary on a family's loss
Film-maker Orlando von Einsiedel turns the camera on his own family in this unfiltered exploration of the effects of suicide - Leslie Felperin
Bad Reputation review – smart, funny Joan Jett rock retrospective
The proto-punk icon comes over as generous and self-aware in Kevin Kerslake’s documentary, which ropes in starry friends like Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop - Leslie Felperin
The Guilty review – a must-see masterclass in cinematic suspense
Gustav Möller’s low-key debut takes one man, a dark room and a phone – and crafts a cop thriller as riveting as any blockbuster - Cath Clarke
Dogman review – Matteo Garrone’s tragic story of lowlife Italian criminals
It’s a dog’s life for a man cowed by a gangster in the Gomorrah director’s best film - Wendy Ide
Fahrenheit 11/9 review – Michael Moore gets his voice back
The documentarist uses his trademark style to make an alarmingly persuasive case that US democracy is under threat - Wendy Ide
VS. review – the 8 Mile of Southend
This low-budget British film about a young white male channelling his rage into the rap battle scene has real storytelling punch - Peter Bradshaw
The Hate U Give review – a defiant challenge to divided America
Amandla Stenberg stars as a young black student whose double life navigating America’s racial politics is brutally questioned - Peter Bradshaw
Voyageuse review – touching tour of a family and its secrets
May Miles Thomas delivers one of the year’s most enjoyable documentaries with a vivid portrait of her passionate, embattled mother-in-law - Peter Bradshaw
An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn review – old-flame comedy is deadpan, bizarre and terrific
The reappearance of a coffee-shop worker’s former lover detonates the strange, surreal action in Jim Hosking’s movie - Peter Bradshaw
Science Fair review – riveting lessons from the smartest kids in school
This sharp, refreshing documentary charts the fortunes of high-school students in the unashamed pursuit of excellence - Peter Bradshaw
She Who Must Be Loved review – affectionate portrait of a trailblazer in Indigenous media
Enriching and unpretentious look at the inspiring life of Freda Glynn, who founded TV and radio networks across Australia - Luke Buckmaster
First Man review – an inner space odyssey
Damien Chazelle’s drama about Neil Armstrong and the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing is a moving tale of loss and peril - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Sometimes Always Never review – Bill Nighy spellbinding in Scrabble drama
The veteran actor shines as an ageing word wizard searching for his estranged son in Carl Hunter’s kind-hearted debut - Peter Bradshaw
Apostle review – exhilarating Netflix horror is a wild, gory surprise
Gareth Evans, director of The Raid, shocks and confounds with an ultra-violent tale of a mad prophet that transforms into something entirely unexpected - Charles Bramesco
Widows review – Steve McQueen's brutal heist thriller delivers the swag
Viola Davis leads a bereaved crew into the urban underworld in this stylish old-fashioned crime caper - Peter Bradshaw
Mandy review – fabulously ferocious Nicolas Cage revenge horror
Cage is on magnificent, mind-boggling form as a chainsaw-wielding lumberjack hunting the gang who invaded his home - Peter Bradshaw
In Like Flynn review – Errol Flynn biopic is a delightful, rapid-fire romp
The Hollywood swashbuckler never let truth get in the way of a good story – an ethos embraced whole-heartedly by this over-the-top film - Luke Buckmaster
Columbus review – the beauty of brutalism
Two drifters bond over their love of modernist architecture in a quietly profound arthouse film - Wendy Ide
A Star Is Born review – a double act to leave you star-struck
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are dazzling in this striking portrayal of the music industry’s highs and lows - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Blindspotting review – racial politics erupts in style
The police shooting of a black man divides lifelong friends, in a simmering Bay Area drama reminiscent of early Spike Lee - Wendy Ide
A Star Is Born soundtrack review – instant classics full of Gaga's emotional might
Bradley Cooper shows he can sing as well as act and direct but it is Lady Gaga’s pop prowess that lifts each track, be it spectacular piano ballads or heart-rending duets - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Private Life review – Netflix fertility comedy is painfully funny
Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn are terrific as fortysomething New Yorkers struggling with IVF in Tamara Jenkins’ intelligent, uncomfortable film - Cath Clarke
A Thousand Girls Like Me review – a brave woman refuses to bow down
An extraordinary film follows Khatera, an Afghan woman trying to bring her rapist father to justice. The details are gruelling, but she shines - Cath Clarke
My 20th Century review – tales of an adventuress and an anarchist
The witty, whimsical debut of Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi is about the strange entwined fates of separated twins at the turn of the century - Peter Bradshaw
Columbus review – a beguiling film about feelings and buildings
The architecture is the star in the feature debut of the Korean-American critic Kogonada – a passionate drama with visual echoes of Kubrick - Peter Bradshaw
Blindspotting review – just try taking your eyes off it
This bold US indie about urban life and police violence owes equal amounts to performance poetry and knife-edge thrillers. There is nothing else quite like it - Mike McCahill
Tehran Taboo review – sex, drugs and rock'n'roll in Iran
In this multi-stranded rotoscoped narrative, crackling with tension and bleak comedy, musicians and prostitutes find ways around the strict laws of their country - Leslie Felperin
The Gospel According to André review – pleasurably indulgent
The extrovert Vogue mainstay is portrayed more as a supreme taste-maker than a source of gossip - Simran Hans
The Wife review – Glenn Close in a class of her own
Close is superb as a long-suffering literary spouse whose marriage reaches crisis point when her husband wins a Nobel prize - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Armistice: Maudite soit la Guerre review – a cinematic anti-war requiem
Olga Neuwirth fuses music and film in a subtly evocative accompaniment to Alfred Machin’s prophetic 1914 silent classic - Andrew Clements
Homecoming review – Julia Roberts' old-fashioned mystery has hints of Hitchcock
Amazon’s big hope for autumn sees Roberts play a psychologist caught up in a complicated government programme. But is Sam Esmail’s show too smart for its own good? - Stuart Heritage
The Yukon Assignment review – canoe adventure doc stays in the shallows
A British father and son embark on a five-week expedition through Canada in a modest, pleasant documentary - Cath Clarke
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms review – a festival of winter schmaltz
Disney’s newly independent princesses haven’t lost their taste for glitzy frocks just yet – but Helen Mirren leads a diverse cast revelling in a sense of syrupy fun - Cath Clarke
Nae Pasaran review – how the Chilean coup was protested in East Kilbride
This heartfelt documentary about Rolls-Royce workers in the 70s tells a poignant story about the power of unions - Cath Clarke
Slaughterhouse Rulez review – boarding school comedy-horror
Simon Pegg and Michael Sheen star in a watchable jape that has plenty of charm but not enough scares - Andrew Pulver
Donkeyote review – one-man-and-a-donkey road movie
Chico Pereira’s uncle and his faithful steed strive to take a 2,000-mile journey across the US in this warm not-quite-documentary - Cath Clarke
The Evil Dead review – Sam Raimi's classic is gutsy, gory … and misogynist
The horror virtuoso’s trailblazing no-budget debut still makes for uneasy viewing – just not always in the way he intended - Steve Rose
The Girl in the Spider's Web review – Claire Foy channels 007 for mixed reboot
The Crown star adds weight to an efficiently made yet ultimately empty attempt to resurrect goth-hacker Lisbeth Salander - Benjamin Lee
An Artist's Eyes review – touching portrait of a rock'n'roll painter
In an affecting documentary, veteran director Jack Bond sketches Chris Moon’s personal struggles – and his startling way of creating art - Mike McCahill
Possum review – grisly shivers and a bag full of nastiness
In Matthew Holness’s creepy tale, a troubled figure trudges across remote fenland to the scene of his unhappy childhood – and a troubling encounter - Peter Bradshaw
Stan & Ollie review – melancholy twilight of comedy gods Laurel and Hardy
Brilliant impersonations by Steve Coogan and John C Reilly lift the muted charm of this biopic about their troubled music-hall tour of Britain - Peter Bradshaw
Halloween review – a slasher classic you just can’t kill off
New hands are at the helm for a knowingly intelligent reboot of the 1978 masterpiece - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Science Fair review – geek chorus
Teenage hormones dominate this likable film about a group of gifted students vying for recognition - Wendy Ide
VS review – UK battle rap gets its 8 Mile
Young British talent impresses in this edgy first film set in Southend - Wendy Ide
Assassination Nation review – social media revenge porn
Salem witch hysteria gets a Maga makeover in Sam Levinson’s satirical thriller about digital privacy and the patriarchy - Peter Bradshaw
The School in the Cloud review – how a computer for slum kids inspired a learning debate
This stimulating documentary looks at physicist and TED-talk guru Sugata Mitra’s ideas about using technology to help children learn for themselves - Leslie Felperin
Fahrenheit 11/9 review: Michael Moore v Donald Trump = stalemate
In his latest documentary, Moore’s bewildered fury at the president is powerfully evident, but he fails to deliver a knockout blow - Peter Bradshaw
Ray & Liz review – brutal study of a family coming to pieces
Richard Billingham’s bleak feature-directing debut captures the claustrophobic loneliness of a couple cut off from everyone, including each other - Peter Bradshaw
Been So Long review – Michaela Coel tremendous in movie musical
Coel and Arinzé Kene are captivating as an unlikely couple who meet on a night out in Camden in this beguiling love story - Peter Bradshaw
Bad Times at the El Royale review – overlong oddity from Drew Goddard
Stuffed with subplots and self-indulgence, this strange second feature stifles its tension - Simran Hans
Smallfoot review – thoughtful animated yeti musical
Channing Tatum dials it down as a Himalayan creature discovering humans - Simran Hans
Mandy review – Nicolas Cage’s rage rings hollow
Cage turns in a full-blooded turn as a lumberjack out for revenge, but this thriller is all style and no substance - Simran Hans
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead review – Ben Wheatley contrives a simmering hothouse of misery
Neil Maskell is the standout performer in Wheatley’s drama of dysfunction, as a man inviting his family to a New Year party in the country - Peter Bradshaw
Make Me Up review – freaky, subversive feminist satire
In Rachel Maclean’s deeply strange film, the voice of historian Kenneth Clark haunts a virtual reality world of Stepford Wives and robotic Barbie dolls - Peter Bradshaw
1945 review – wedding day trauma in the aftermath of war
In Ferec Torok’s skilled drama, celebrations in a Hungarian hamlet are marred by spreading rumours of infidelity, drug addiction and betrayal - Leslie Felperin
Sink review – tough tale of an unemployed dad living on the edge
A sixtysomething Londoner has hard choices to make in this affecting drama - Cath Clarke
Smallfoot review – slapstick-and-snowballs yeti adventure
High in the Himalayas, a village of abominable snowmen make a surprising discovery in this frenetic family animation - Cath Clarke
Kler review – counting the sins of the Catholic priesthood
Controversial in its native Poland, this ambitious drama skilfully shows its clerical cast are as much victims as villains - Mike McCahill
Pili review – hard lives and tough choices in rural Tanzania
A young mother faces difficult decisions when offered the chance of a better life in Leanne Welham’s thoughtful drama - Peter Bradshaw
Nancy review – Riseborough shines in engaging psychodrama
Andrea Riseborough plays a woman trying to convince a couple she is their long-lost daughter in Christina Choe’s strong debut feature - Peter Bradshaw
Bad Times at the El Royale review – kitsch hard-boiled thriller
Jeff Bridges and Jon Hamm are among the secretive clientele checking in to an equally mysterious 60s motel - Peter Bradshaw
Tehran Taboo review – powerful Iranian animation
A stunningly rotoscoped collection of the Iranian capital’s secret stories - Wendy Ide
Kusama: Infinity review – colourful art doc connects the dots
A celebratory introduction to the work of Yayoi Kusama, Japan’s biggest-selling living artist, hints at the roots of her obsessive pattern-making - Peter Bradshaw
22 July review – Paul Greengrass's potent Anders Breivik docudrama
Greengrass’s reconstruction of the 2011 terror attack in Oslo is well-intentioned, committed and intelligent, albeit conventional - Peter Bradshaw
Child of Mine review – poignant study of the trauma of stillbirth
Katie Rice’s documentary sensitively approaches a tough subject while listening to the concerns of midwives and obstetricians - Mike McCahill
Female Human Animal review – a date with Leonora Carrington
This sui generis docu-portrait offers a behind the scenes look at the art world, as novelist Chloe Aridjis curates a retrospective of the surrealist - Cath Clarke
Jalouse review – female rage seen through a pre-#MeToo lens
The Foekinos brothers’ sometimes tone-deaf romcom pits women against women in the pursuit of men - Leslie Felperin
Night School review – on a learning journey
Tiffany Haddish’s teacher is a class act in this cheerful, if predictable, adult education comedy - Simran Hans
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead review – exasperating Orson Welles documentary
Imitating the chaos that blighted the making of Welles’ ‘lost’ masterpiece, this misconceived Netflix oddity can’t compare to the anarchic real thing - Peter Bradshaw
Utoya: July 22 review – harrowing but manipulative
This dramatisation of Anders Breivik’s killing spree ramps up the tension but offers little in the way of reflection - Simran Hans
Bad Reputation review – superficial glimpse into the life of Joan Jett
This documentary on the American rocker lacks intimate revelations and fails to illustrate her feminist credentials - Simran Hans
Bohemian Rhapsody review – Queen biopic will not rock you
Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury is electric but Bryan Singer’s film fails to get to the heart of his personal life - Simran Hans
Waiting for You – slow-burn mystery with too much hanging about
Progress is slow in this attractive but frustrating drama about a student investigating his late father’s past in south-west France - Mike McCahill
Link Link by Isabella Rossellini review – superstar's pooch steals the show
A cod-scientific lecture on animal behaviour is given a comic twist in a surreal show that is too cutesy - Arifa Akbar
Bohemian Rhapsody review – Freddie Mercury biopic bites the dust
Rami Malek’s impersonation adds a kind of magic to this Queen-produced rock slog with a troubling moralistic subtext - Steve Rose
Lost & Found review – lightweight comedy can't find a punchline
The title is as original as the humour in this portmanteau comedy set in a lost property office - Cath Clarke
Hunter Killer review – Gerard Butler's sub commander is all at sea
Butler’s naval maverick investigates simultaneous torpedo attacks on US and Russian submarines in a long, loud game of Battleships - Mike McCahill
Touch Me Not review – body image quest ends in Euro-hardcore
The Berlin Golden Bear winner determinedly conflates honesty with exhibitionism, so the sex club is its characters’ inevitable destination - Peter Bradshaw
Mid90s review – Jonah Hill's directorial debut is stylish but empty
Snappy direction and a heady sense of nostalgia can’t hide a frustratingly flat coming-of-age tale that shows an actor struggling to find anything of interest to say - Jordan Hoffman
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween review – rarely scary horror for kids
This second film based on the RL Stine book series is likable enough but lacks the jolts and giggles of its predecessor - Mike McCahill
1% review – biker drama revs hard but mostly just spins its wheels
Despite lashings of sex and violence, this film about warring motorcycle gangs is remarkably devoid of subversiveness - Luke Buckmaster
22 July review – Paul Greengrass’s tough telling of the Breivik massacre
The focus on the survivors of the 2011 Norwegian murders fails to give the docudrama new insights - Simran Hans
Us and Them review – bloody class-war thriller trots toward tedium
A banker’s family home is invaded by violent thugs in a gritty drama whose message gets swamped by a third-act bloodbath - Leslie Felperin
MFKZ review – frenetic world-building overkill
Adapting his graphic novel, Guillaume Renard pieces together a dense reimagining of LA that’s impressive – until you stop to think about it - Mike McCahill
Venom review – Tom Hardy’s super-villain flick is less than a Marvel
Sony’s attempt to stake a claim in the lucrative comic-book movie world lacks the deftness of the best - Simran Hans
Blue Iguana review – deadpan wisecracking with MacGuffery galore
This middling crime comedy, starring Sam Rockwell, is overly pleased with itself but has colourful turns by an assortment of British character actors - Leslie Felperin
Johnny English Strikes Again review – another underpowered Rowan Atkinson spy spoof
The third outing for Atkinson’s parody James Bond would seem ideal for the floundering Brexit era – but it largely fails to rise to the occasion - Peter Bradshaw
Black ’47 review – weak revenge drama set during the 1847 Irish famine
Stereotypical baddies lessen the impact of Lance Daly’s bleak historical thriller - Simran Hans
King of Crime review – a new low for the Brit gangster flick (no, really)
With its A-level script, risible visuals and soap actors indulging in GBH, this humourless thriller comes close to comedy gold - Leslie Felperin
No Shade review – colourism drama falls well short of worthy themes
Clare Anyiam-Osigwe’s debut about the love lives of Londoners tackles a serious issue but can’t escape its amateurish trappings - Steve Rose
Strangeways Here We Come review – how low can a film go?
This awful Salford-set Shameless ripoff fails to raise any laughs at all from the implausible misadventures of its sink-estate caricatures and sex pests - Mike McCahill
Venom review – Tom Hardy flames out in poisonously dull Spider-Man spin-off
As the reporter who fuses with an alien ‘symbiote’, Hardy stumbles in a film that is nowhere near the nimble excellence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series - Peter Bradshaw