Five star - Latest 5 Star Film Reviews from the Guardian

Amazing Grace review – transcendent Aretha Franklin documentary
The queen of soul didn’t want this film of a two-night recording session in a Baptist church to be seen – but it’s a spine-tingling sensation - Jordan Hoffman
They Shall Not Grow Old review – an utterly breathtaking journey into the trenches
Peter Jackson and team’s painstaking restoration of first world war footage is a cinematic triumph that all but brings young British soldiers back to life - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Widows review – Steve McQueen delivers an outstanding heist thriller
A dream cast, led by Viola Davis on Oscar-worthy form, have a field day in McQueen’s inspired reworking of Lynda La Plante’s 80s TV drama - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
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
The Captain review – savagery at the war’s end
A Nazi deserter poses as an officer in a compelling drama that captures the ugliest qualities of mankind - Wendy Ide
The Big Lebowski review – The Dude bowls back the years
Twenty years on, the Coen brothers’ comic masterpiece is sleeker and sharper, with even more menace and mystery - Peter Bradshaw
High Life review – orgasmic brilliance in deepest space with Robert Pattinson
This shocking and amazing sci-fi drama directed by Claire Denis follows a group of voyaging astronauts who switch their attention from black holes to sex - Charles Bramesco
22 July review – Paul Greengrass's searing account of Anders Breivik's mass murder
Drama and journalism meet in this brave and masterly film about the 2011 massacre of 77 people in Norway by a smirking, far-right extremist - Danny Leigh
American Animals review – audacious stupidity and teeth-clenching thrills
Bart Layton’s true-crime heist caper about an incompetent plan to steal valuable books from a college library is a triumph - Peter Bradshaw
Cold War review – love in a communist climate
Paweł Pawlikowski’s love letter to his parents is a sweeping tale of passion and politics set in the shadow of the iron curtain - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Peterloo review – grit and brilliance in Mike Leigh’s very British massacre
A biting sense of topicality pervades this passionate account of the murders of protesters at a mass pro-democracy protest in Manchester in 1819 - Peter Bradshaw
A Star Is Born review – Lady Gaga mesmerises in Streisand's shoes
Bradley Cooper directs and co-stars in this outrageously watchable update of the love story doomed by shifting fame - Peter Bradshaw
Roma review: Alfonso Cuarón returns to Venice – and Mexico – for a heart-rending triumph
The Oscar-winning director has made his best film yet with this exquisite study of class and domestic crisis in 70s Mexico City - Peter Bradshaw
Distant Voices, Still Lives review – vividly present autobiographical masterpiece
Pete Postlethwaite and Freda Dowie shine in Terence Davies’s remarkable 1988 portrait of a working-class Liverpool family that is as gripping as any thriller - Peter Bradshaw
The Women review – Manhattan's magnificent social whirl
George Cukor’s rereleased firecracker comedy, with Rosalind Russell and Norma Shearer as ladies who lunch, is an exhilarating delight - Peter Bradshaw
Acute Misfortune first-look review – Adam Cullen biopic is an enthralling, complex triumph
With a brilliant performance by Daniel Henshall, this hauntingly poetic film asks if we celebrate the wrong kind of people - Luke Buckmaster
The Producers review – Mel Brooks’ maniacal comedy still grips
Like a parody of Brexit Britain, never has the 1967 comedy been more horribly pertinent than it is now - Peter Bradshaw
Maurice review – Merchant Ivory’s EM Forster adaptation richer than ever
Hugh Grant and James Wilby star in this intensely poignant story of two young men forced to deny their love - Peter Bradshaw
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again review – full of hits and emotion
This slick sequel delivers sharp one-liners, joyously contrived plot twists and an emotional punch that left our critic reeling… - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Summer 1993 review – a moving look at loss from a child’s perspective
The debut feature from Spanish writer-director Carla Simón is a finely crafted portrait of personal upheaval - Wendy Ide
The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick review – Wim Wenders' bizarre noir is a keeper
A murderous footballer’s journey is the focus of this majestic mediation on madness, misogyny and the American dream - Peter Bradshaw
Summer 1993 review – stunning drama of a childhood ripped apart
Carla Simón’s brilliantly realised story of a six-year-old traumatised by the death of her parents features miraculous child performances - Peter Bradshaw
Vertigo review – still spinning its dizzying magic
Hitchcock’s masterpiece, rereleased after 60 years, combines his flair for psychological shocks with a genius for dapper stylishness - Peter Bradshaw
Leave No Trace review – flawless, deeply affecting
Debra Granik follows Winter’s Bone with this overwhelming tale of a father and daughter living on their wits in the US wilderness - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Sicario 2: Soldado review – terrific tale of terror on the Mexican border
Isis is smuggling suicide bombers into the US in this fierce and riveting sequel that chimes with Trump-era tribulations - Peter Bradshaw
Vagabond review – Agnès Varda's classic chronicle of a death foretold
Revived to mark the director’s 90th birthday, the story of a young woman’s short, troubled life is cool, enigmatic and as gripping as any thriller - Peter Bradshaw
Little Vera review – nudity and sex behind the iron curtain
Made in the final years of the Soviet Union, the sensational tale of a sexually voracious teenager was the key perestroika movie - Peter Bradshaw
Mikey and Nicky review – a neglected gem of 70s cinema
John Cassavetes and Peter Falk are at the top of their game in Elaine May’s tangy, talky classic about mobster lowlife - Peter Bradshaw
The Piano review – Jane Campion's drama still hits all the right notes
Rereleased after 25 years, this literary work about a mute woman in 19th-century New Zealand remains full of extraordinary images and enigmas - Peter Bradshaw
A Woman Captured review – brave and up-close story of modern slavery
This traumatic documentary about a Hungarian woman forced into domestic servitude is an outstanding example of how film-making can make a difference - Charlie Phillips
A Very English Scandal finale review – leaves you reeling, seething and laughing
Fabulous performances all round as Jeremy Thorpe finally comes to trial in a sea of hypocrisy, prejudice, ghastly snobbery, injustice and a chorus of tittering from the public gallery - Sam Wollaston
Hereditary review – Toni Collette is outstanding in brilliant fear machine
Collette give a terrific, hypnotic performance as a harried mother facing down family evil in Ari Aster’s rivetingly shot horror debut - Peter Bradshaw
Pandora's Box review – intensely erotic silent-era classic
Louise Brooks is the last word in amoral cosmopolitan chic as the serial seducer Lulu in GW Pabst’s magnificent tale of lust, greed and violence - Peter Bradshaw
That Summer review – must-see doc revisits Grey Gardens mother-daughter act
This sensational film presents a backstory-prequel to the making of the documentary that spotlit Big and Little Edie, two great American eccentrics - Peter Bradshaw
The Breadwinner review – a girl’s courage on the streets of Kabul
A courageous girl seeks to save her father from the Taliban in Nora Twomey’s magical adaptation of Deborah Ellis’s novel - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Zama review – desire and despair at the end of the world
In Lucrecia Martel’s magnificent drama, a Spanish officer stuck at a remote South American outpost numbs his burgeoning panic with erotic reveries - Peter Bradshaw
Jeune Femme review – sparky identity crisis tragicomedy
Laetitia Dosch dazzles in Léonor Serraille’s debut feature as a young Parisian woman struggling to work out who she is - Mark Kermode
The Wild Pear Tree review – Nuri Bilge Ceylan's delicious, humane tableaux
The Turkish director’s unhurried, magnificently acted film follows a bumptious young writer who returns home to face bittersweet truths - Peter Bradshaw
Dogman review – Matteo Garrone's terrific portrait of a criminal dogsbody
The Italian director nitpicks gangster insecurities with hilarious flair in this tale of a dog-groomer-cum-smalltime coke dealer - Peter Bradshaw
The Sound of Music review – the hills are still alive with joyous energy
No one – apart from its star Christopher Plummer – is immune to the evergreen charms of the blockbuster musical about seven singing children and their nanny Julie Andrews - Peter Bradshaw
Leave No Trace review – deeply intelligent story of love and survival in the wild
Debra Granik’s complex study of an army vet and his daughter living in a vast public park is the film Captain Fantastic should have been - Peter Bradshaw
Cold War review – wounded love and state-sponsored fear in 1940s Poland
Ida director Paweł Pawlikowski’s exquisitely chilling Soviet-era drama maps the dark heart of Poland itself - Peter Bradshaw
Nothing Like a Dame review – Judi Dench and Maggie Smith trade brutal banter
Dench, Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright engage in a round-table war of theatrical anecdotes in this outrageously funny film - Peter Bradshaw
Grease review – Travolta and Newton-John's summer lovin' still a blast
Rereleased on its 40th anniversary, the nostalgic rock’n’roll high school musical remains a sugar-rush of a film - Peter Bradshaw
A Fistful of Dollars review – punk-rock western as fabulous as ever
The film that made Clint Eastwood a star and legend has a cult, comic-book intensity - Peter Bradshaw
Western review – pastoral culture clash makes for year's best film
Valeska Grisebach’s striking drama – about foreign construction workers angling for trouble in rural Bulgaria – constantly subverts genre expectations - Peter Bradshaw
120 Beats Per Minute review – fury meets ecstasy in the face of the Aids crisis
French director Robin Campillo succeeds in uniting personal and political to electrifying effect - Simran Hans
A Quiet Place review – silence never sounded so terrifying
In John Krasinski’s brilliantly suspenseful thriller, a family must remain silent at all times to avoid the giant predators roaming their post-apocalyptic world - Peter Bradshaw
Tacita Dean: Portrait and Still Life review – 'I find myself holding my breath'
Unknowable thoughts cross faces, pears dissolve and Hockney wanders around … companion shows offer breathtaking film portraits and curated works that compellingly give pause - Adrian Searle
You Were Never Really Here review – a hitman with a conscience?
Lynne Ramsay’s fourth film is a nightmarish vision of a killer’s quest for redemption - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story review – startling life of the film star/inventor
This excellent documentary celebrates the glamorous Hollywood icon and brilliant engineer whose groundbreaking work led to Bluetooth and wifi - Peter Bradshaw
A Fantastic Woman review – sublime study of love, loss and the trans experience
Daniela Vega is wonderful as a young trans woman whose life is turned upside down when her older cis lover dies in ambiguous circumstances - Peter Bradshaw
The Shape of Water review – a seductively melancholy creature feature
Guillermo del Toro’s magical movie, a cold war thriller, is underpinned by a superb cast and knowing nods to Hollywood classics - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Lady Bird review – a hilarious love letter to teenagers and their mothers
Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are tremendous in Greta Gerwig’s moving and gloriously funny film about growing up, mother-daughter relationships and the anxiety of separation - Peter Bradshaw
Phantom Thread review – a deftly spun yarn
In what could be his final film role, Daniel Day-Lewis is a perfect fit as a celebrated dress designer in Paul Thomas Anderson’s beautifully realised tale of 50s haute couture - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Shirkers review - paean to never-finished film is love letter to Singapore
Director Sandi Tan puts together a magical documentary about an unrealised film project that celebrates the power of youth and friendship - Charlie Phillips
The Miseducation of Cameron Post review – prayers answered with conversion therapy drama
Chloë Grace Moretz puts in a career-best turn as a teen sent to “pray away the gay” at a Christian camp in Desiree Akhavan’s compassionate LGBT story - Jordan Hoffman
The Tale review – stunning sexual abuse drama is the mother of all #MeToo movies
Laura Dern stars as a woman coming to terms with her own molestation in Jennifer Fox’s landmark film - Jordan Hoffman
The Kindergarten Teacher review - brilliantly observed ethical pretzel about a poetically gifted kid
A precociously five-year-old is discovered by pre-school teacher Maggie Gyllenhaal in a wonderfully sensitive American remake of an Israeli original - Jordan Hoffman
Persona review – Ingmar Bergman's enigmatic masterpiece still captivates
Bergman’s sensually brilliant 1966 film about a mute actress and her psychiatric nurse is an endlessly questioning and mysterious disquisition on identity - Peter Bradshaw
Star Wars: The Last Jedi in-depth fan review: 'I finally got to see my dreams come true'
Rian Johnson’s sci-fi sequel will inspire kids 30 years from now to reintroduce it to awestruck audiences - Jordan Hoffman
A Matter of Life and Death review – timely rerelease of sublime celestial romance
Powell and Pressburger’s wartime drama, starring David Niven as an erroneously alive bomber pilot, is visually extraordinary and politically topical - Peter Bradshaw
Phantom Thread review – Daniel Day-Lewis bows out in style with drama of delicious pleasure
In his final film, Day-Lewis reunites with Paul Thomas Anderson to deliver a masterful performance as a society dressmaker beguiled by a young waitress - Peter Bradshaw
The Muppet Christmas Carol review – Michael Caine shows spirit in magical extravaganza
Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are joined by Caine as a hilarious Scrooge in this irresistibly sweet musical adaptation of Dickens’ festive tale - Peter Bradshaw
The Big Heat review – Fritz Lang's 1953 thriller retains its shocking power
Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin star in drum-tight and violent revenge flick, a classic from Lang’s American period - Peter Bradshaw
In a Lonely Place review – Bogart still captivatingly cynical in noir classic
Humphrey Bogart’s boozy screenwriter plays off perfectly against a marvellous Gloria Grahame in Nicholas Ray’s hardboiled thriller from 1950 - Peter Bradshaw
The Florida Project review – thrillingly vibrant
A child’s sense of wonder is at the heart of Sean Baker’s joyful story of people living on the impoverished fringes of Florida’s tourist traps - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Paddington 2 review – definitely bears repeating
Back from darkest Peru, our hero is at the mercy of unscrupulous actors, but generosity, emotional depth and top-class clowning win the day - Wendy Ide
The Florida Project review – a wondrous child's-eye view of life on the margins
A young cast give brilliantly naturalistic performances in this glorious story about a bunch of deprived kids living near Walt Disney World - Peter Bradshaw
Silence of the Lambs review – ratcheting tension remastered
Jonathan Demme’s 1991 blockbuster, given a 4K makeover, still makes the pulse race - Simran Hans
The Silence of the Lambs review – psycho-killer Hannibal still chills
Jonathan Demme’s thrilling masterpiece holds up terrifically well after 26 years, as Anthony Hopkins plays perilous mind games with Jodie Foster - Peter Bradshaw
Call Me By Your Name review – a peach of a romance
Timothée Chalamet is superb in a sensuous gay love story set in the Lombardy sun - Wendy Ide
Call Me By Your Name review – gorgeous gay love story seduces and overwhelms
Set during an endless Italian summer, this ravishing drama starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet is imbued with a sophisticated sensuality - Peter Bradshaw
The Princess Bride review – golden-age throwback glows brighter than ever
Rob Reiner’s salute to Hollywood’s old swashbuckling adventures is a poignant pastiche gloriously unencumbered by CGI visuals and gender cliches - Peter Bradshaw
Young Frankenstein review – glorious gags as Mel Brooks bolts together a monster hit
Garrick theatre, London The horror-movie spoof is gleefully reanimated for the stage with even more jokes, superb set-pieces and barnstorming parody songs that stick a pitchfork into good taste - Michael Billington
Blade Runner 2049 review – a future classic
The sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic manages to be both visually stunning and philosophically profound - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Blood Simple: Director's Cut review – Coens' debut is an ingeniously horrible noir masterwork
A gloriously repellent performance by M Emmet Walsh is one of many highlights of this thriller – a drum-tight gem that launched a film-making phenomenon - Peter Bradshaw
Blade Runner 2049 review – a gigantic spectacle of pure hallucinatory craziness
Ryan Gosling plays an LAPD officer heading for an encounter with Harrison Ford’s Deckard in a film whose sheer scale leaves you hyperventilating - Peter Bradshaw
Lawrence of Arabia review – David Lean's sandy epic still radiates greatness
Peter O’Toole’s impossibly charismatic debut performance remains a mesmeric marvel in this digitally restored version of a truly exhilarating feat of film-making - Peter Bradshaw
Sweet Country review – brutal Australian western soars with Biblical starkness
The latest film from Warwick Thornton possesses both shocking cruelty and haunting beauty with its tragic tale of tensions in the outback - Peter Bradshaw
Close Encounters of the Third Kind review – Spielberg's spectacular returns to Earth
Digitally restored to mark the 40th anniversary of its release, the director’s UFO blockbuster has lost none of its grand celestial magic - Mike McCahill
The Wife review – Glenn Close is unreadably brilliant as author's spouse plunged in late-life crisis
As the apparently-perfect wife of a Nobel prize-winning writer, Close gives arguably her best ever performance in an adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s novel - Peter Bradshaw
The Work review – Folsom prison blues
Prisoners engage with members of the public in an intensive therapy session in this extraordinarily moving documentary - Simran Hans
The Death of Stalin review – Armando Iannucci has us tremblin' in the Kremlin
The Thick of It and Veep writer’s tilt at Soviet-era satire boasts an outstanding cast, with Simon Russell Beale as the secret police chief with a satanic surprise - Peter Bradshaw
Belle de Jour review – Catherine Deneuve is extraordinary in a secret theatre of erotic shame
Luis Buñuel’s elegantly surreal film about a bored housewife and part-time sex worker offers a shrewd, scabrous commentary on social and gender relations - Peter Bradshaw
Mother! review – no gob left unsmacked in Jennifer Lawrence's anxiety dream of horror and dismay
Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a husband and wife whose isolated house is invaded by another married couple in Darren Aronofsky’s black-comic nightmare - Peter Bradshaw
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri review – violent carnival of small-town America
Frances McDormand is commanding as a woman avenging the murder of her daughter in Martin McDonagh’s modern-day western - Xan Brooks
Ex Libris: New York Public Library review – the restless mind of the city
A treasured US institution opens itself to the painstaking view of fly-on-the-wall master Frederick Wiseman, who finds enlightenment, humour, compassion and soul within its walls - Jordan Hoffman
Zama review – Lucrecia Martel emerges from the wilderness with a strange, sensual wonder
After a nine-year absence, the Argentinian director returns with an audacious and antic tale set in a 18th-century colony on the Asuncion coast - Xan Brooks
Downsizing review – Matt Damon thinks small in Alexander Payne's miniature masterpiece
Damon stars as a man who shrinks down to the height of five inches in Payne’s sci-fi comedy, a winningly inventive tale of masculinity in crisis - Xan Brooks
Prick Up Your Ears review – Stephen Frears' terrific testament to murdered playwright Joe Orton
Rereleased 50 years after Orton’s death, this Frears-directed 1987 biopic sees Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina in utterly convincing form - Peter Bradshaw
Howards End review – a welcome return to the big screen
Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins star in a gorgeous restoration of the Merchant Ivory period drama - Simran Hans
Victim review – groundbreaking gay thriller given timely rerelease
Dirk Bogarde’s elegant, sensitive portrayal of a man coming to terms with being gay played a vital role in the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality - Peter Bradshaw
Dunkirk review – Christopher Nolan's apocalyptic war epic is his best film so far
Nolan eschews war porn for a powerful and superbly crafted disaster movie – starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy and a decent Harry Styles – with a story to tell - Peter Bradshaw
The Death of Louis XIV review – a quietly amazing portrait of the end of life
Jean-Pierre Léaud gives the performance of his career in this powerful, intimate and moving account of the French king’s final days - Peter Bradshaw
The Tree of Wooden Clogs review – Olmi's neorealist masterpiece
This painterly depiction of Lombardy peasant life, with its unfolding, interwoven stories portrayed over a broad canvas, is magnificent in its authenticity - Peter Bradshaw