Five star - Latest 5 Star Film Reviews from the Guardian

A Complete Unknown review – Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan is an electric revelation
James Mangold’s biopic follows the rise of the era-defining star with Chalamet brilliantly embodying his shapeshifting allure - Peter Bradshaw
Grand Theft Hamlet review – in-game Shakespeare performance is brilliantly exciting
In a hilarious and surreal documentary, two out-of-work actors decide to stage the tragedy within Los Santos with dreamlike and fascinating results - Peter Bradshaw
Conclave review – Ralph Fiennes is almighty in thrilling papal tussle
Fiennes gives one of the performances of the year as a cardinal assailed on all sides in Edward Berger’s elegant adaptation of Robert Harris’s Vatican bestseller - Wendy Ide
All We Imagine As Light review – Cannes prize-winning Indian drama is a quiet, tender marvel
Payal Kapadia’s poetic, everyday tale of three women who work at the same hospital is all the more remarkable for being her fiction feature debut - Wendy Ide
Beatles ’64 review – Fab Four radiate an inexhaustible, almost supernatural energy
Contemporary interviews and amazing archive footage combine in a sublime snapshot of the band’s whirlwind first US visit - Peter Bradshaw
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat review – superb study of how jazz got caught between the cold war and the CIA
Johan Grimonprez’s fascinating documentary uses the assassination of DRC prime minister Patrice Lumumba to launch a dizzying look into the politics of jazz in the 1950s and 60s - Wendy Ide
Anora review – Sean Baker’s screwball Cinderella tale vaults him towards greatness
Mikey Madison is outstanding as an exotic dancer who marries an oligarch’s son in Baker’s fiery and profane Palme d’Or-winning comedy drama - Xan Brooks
Kate Bush: Little Shrew review – this devastating film will make you weep at war’s violence against children
Written, directed and soundtracked by Bush, built up from sketches she drew herself, this four-minute animation is suffused with both love and horror - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
The Warriors review – Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis come out to play with firecracker musical
This concept album based on Walter Hill’s 1979 film features megastar rappers, Hamilton alumni and styles from metalcore to salsa – it is pulled off with breathtaking brio - Chris Wiegand
Carrie review – Brian De Palma’s horror masterpiece is a death metal spectacle of carnage
Sissy Spacek unforgettably evolves from ugly duckling to swan to something else entirely in the groundbreaking film of Stephen King’s novel - Peter Bradshaw
Young Frankenstein review – Mel Brooks monster comedy is wonderfully alive as ever
Gene Wilder’s giddy brilliance is backed by a tremendous supporting cast and only a few gags lumber as the film is re-released for its 50th anniversary - Peter Bradshaw
An Inspector Calls review – Alastair Sim drawing room drama brilliantly exposes its era’s hypocrisies
Sim is superbly insinuating as the detective arriving with a few questions for the complacent residents of a grand Edwardian home - Peter Bradshaw
Children of the Cult review – fierce doc about the Osho commune survivors
Courageously covering what Netflix’s Wild Wild Country didn’t, this film confronts those who ran the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh meditation centres with the shocking testimonies of its child victims - Peter Bradshaw
No Other Land review – powerful Israel-Palestine documentary is essential viewing
A Palestinian-Israeli collective have documented violence and displacement in a damning new film that offers a stark insider’s look at the conflict - Adrian Horton
Nickel Boys review – Colson Whitehead novel becomes intensely moving story of a racist reform school
Adaptation of Whitehead’s novel about two young friends trapped by institutional abuse is told with piercing beauty by RaMell Ross - Peter Bradshaw
Paul McCartney and Wings: One Hand Clapping review – restored rockumentary is pure pleasure
David Litchfield’s lost 1974 film captures McCartney’s extraordinary enthusiasm and skill, some killer tunes and a whole host of hilarious incidentals - Peter Bradshaw
Surréalisme review – monstrous, deviant, glorious fun as the movement hits 100
From Ernst to Dalí, from Maar to De Chirico, this is a dazzling riot of creativity, celebrating the artistic potential of the unconscious – and shoes - Jonathan Jones
The Brutalist review – epic Adrien Brody postwar architectural drama stuns and electrifies
In a superb performance, Brody plays a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the US and begins a distinguished career under the patronage of a wealthy man - Peter Bradshaw
Riefenstahl review – deep-dive study takes down the Nazis’ favourite director
Andres Veiel shows how the film-maker loved by Hitler hit the heights with her Berlin Olympics movie – and how she tried and failed to save her Nazi-tinged reputation - Xan Brooks
Lone Star review – John Sayles’s powerful crime drama is an extraordinary relic of 90s film-making
Sayles’s 1996 film tackles racial division in Texas as a sheriff uncovers dark secrets about his home town and his father’s past - Peter Bradshaw
My Neighbour Totoro review – Miyazaki’s supernatural masterpiece still enchants
Studio Ghibli’s inspirationally lovely film about a girl’s encounter with a gentle creature only becomes more beguiling with repeated viewings - Peter Bradshaw
Werckmeister Harmonies review – Béla Tarr’s brooding masterpiece of a town sleepwalking into tyranny
Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s 2000 film moves slowly around a small town where a very strange circus has arrived. Its eerie power has only grown in a time of rising fascism - Peter Bradshaw
Chariots of Fire review – classic British take on 1924 Paris Olympics is superbly watchable
This David Puttnam-produced parable of patriotism, faith and meritocratic success – rereleased in honour of the 1924 event – is on the level of classic Hollywood - Peter Bradshaw
I Saw the TV Glow review – 90s telly-addict chiller set to be future classic
Jane Schoenbrun confirms their place as a superbly gifted film-maker with the weirdly wonderful story of two misfits finding solace in a creepy TV show - Peter Bradshaw
Eno review – exhilarating Brian Eno documentary that’s different at every screening
Gary Huswit’s suitably innovative profile of the mercurial British musician, activist and artist uses specially developed software to create endless iterations of the same film - Wendy Ide
The Commandant’s Shadow review – family of Auschwitz commander bring healing to death-camp survivor
The son and grandson of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss appear in Daniela Volker’s engrossing documentary, a companion piece to Zone of Interest - Peter Bradshaw
Bushman review – amazing real-time evocation of a Nigerian’s life in 70s America
Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam plays a lightly fictionalised version of himself in David Schickele’s restored 1971 film reflecting on race and nationality - Peter Bradshaw
The Conversation review – Gene Hackman is unforgettable in Coppola’s paranoid classic
Hackman’s surveillance expert Harry Caul is inexpressibly sad and lonely – a classic and poignant American everyman - Peter Bradshaw
Francis Alÿs: Ricochets review – children of the world unite in a health and safety nightmare
From Cuba to Mexico, from Hong Kong to Iraq, the Belgian artist has made 40 mesmerising films of kids at play, including three with guns up to no good in a war zone - Adrian Searle
Network review – terrific 1976 news satire is an anatomy of American discontent
Peter Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his uproarious performance as a swivel-eyed news anchor – a cross between Billy Graham and Donald Trump - Peter Bradshaw
Yes festival review – a marvellous appreciation of Molly Bloom
A two-year celebration of the centenary of James Joyce’s Ulysses culminates in a female-led, cross-border, multidisciplinary festival dedicated to the protagonist’s wife - Clare Brennan
Green Border review – an angry and urgent masterpiece about Europe’s migrant crisis
Agnieszka Holland’s vital drama about refugees stranded between Belarus and Poland could hardly be more topical - Wendy Ide
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre review – original 1974 shocker is grotesque but brilliant masterpiece
Tobe Hooper’s gonzo massacre movie set the template for so many horror films that were to follow – but retains a uniquely disturbing power all of its own - Peter Bradshaw
The Matrix review – barnstorming sci-fi still calling our reality into question
The movie that launched a million memes has lost none of its conspiratorial power, and its action sequences still dazzle – but was it actually trying to tell us something we’ve all missed? - Peter Bradshaw
The Small Back Room review – boundary-breaking wartime drama from Powell and Pressburger
Reuniting the stars of Black Narcissus, this movie about a back-room boffin attached to a bomb disposal unit finds the film-makers pushing gloriously against genre conventions - Peter Bradshaw
All We Imagine As Light review – dreamlike and gentle modern Mumbai tale is a triumph
Payal Kapadia’s glorious film is an absorbing story of three nurses that is full of humanity - Peter Bradshaw
An Unfinished Film review – moving and mysterious movie about China’s Covid crisis
Lou Ye’s docu-realist film starts as sophisticated comedy, morphs from looking like a zombie apocalypse to intimate drama, and evolves into a tribute to how a nation handled trauma - Peter Bradshaw
Rome, Open City review – Rossellini’s blazingly urgent masterpiece from a city in ruins
Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 neorealist drama is unsparing in its depiction of the heavy price of both resistance and collaboration with the Nazi occupation - Peter Bradshaw
La Chimera review – Josh O’Connor dazzles in brilliant tale of Italian tomb-raiders
Torn between lost love and a gang of rowdy grave-robbers, the actor digs deep for one of his finest performances in Alice Rohrwacher’s dazzling caper - Wendy Ide
Shallow Grave review – Danny Boyle’s Edinburgh noir debut is a triple-crossing treat
Obnoxious flatmates Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox get way more than they bargained for with the arrival of enigmatic Keith Allen and a suitcase full of cash - Peter Bradshaw
Love Lies Bleeding review – Kristen Stewart lifts brilliant bodybuilding noir
Violent story of extreme sport, forbidden love and a lot of murder could be a new grindhouse classic, but Stewart’s fierce subtlety pushes it up a level - Peter Bradshaw
Ratcatcher review – Lynne Ramsay’s haunting debut is a hallucinatory wonder
Ramsay’s brilliant rendering of a child’s experience during the 1975 Glasgow bin-collectors’ strike, spiked with a horrifying twist of fate, remains masterly - Peter Bradshaw
The Promised Land review – Andrzej Wajda’s anti-capitalist comic opera is still razor sharp
Wajda takes three young entrepreneurs and follows their greed and ambition to toxic capitalism’s logical conclusion in this queasily disturbing satire - Peter Bradshaw
On the Waterfront review – Marlon Brando’s wounded masculinity rains punches down
Rereleased for its 70th anniversary, Elia Kazan’s classic exploration of corruption and whether or not to squeal is made all the more viscerally powerful by his own Huac testimony - Peter Bradshaw
Mary Poppins review – Disney’s entertainment sugar rush possesses thermonuclear brilliance
Manic, magic, madcap … Julie Andrews is superb in the role of the flying nanny, in a film filled with amazing songs - Peter Bradshaw
Robot Dreams review – bittersweet buddy movie is one of the best animations in recent years
A lonely dog buys himself a robot companion and learns to see the world in a joyous new light in Spanish director Pablo Berger’s exquisite, Oscar-nominated film - Wendy Ide
You’ll Never Find Me review – profoundly creepy and thrillingly bold Australian horror film
This debut feature steeps you in a kind of waking nightmare – with a shockingly brilliant final act you may not be able to forget - Luke Buckmaster
Copa 71 review – riveting story of Women’s World Cup goes way beyond football
The shameful treatment of women’s football after an unofficial tournament in Mexico in 1971 is the subject of this absorbing documentary - Peter Bradshaw
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell review – jewel of slow cinema is a wondrous meditation on faith and death
Much is open-ended about this realist yet dreamlike exploration of midlife crisis and regret set in Vietnam - Peter Bradshaw
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger review – Scorsese’s guide to cinema greats
Martin Scorsese, who helped rescue the British film-makers’ work from obscurity, is the perfect person to discuss their unique and now beloved work - Peter Bradshaw
My Favourite Cake review – charming portrayal of a 70-year-old Iranian’s appetite for romance
Heroine Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) is fiercely determined to revitalise her mundane existence and taste a better life - Peter Bradshaw
Interview With the Vampire review – Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt’s brilliant bloodsucking bromance
Neil Jordan’s horror-comedy features Cruise in scene-chewing form in a film that outrageously explores the vampire’s actually rather complex lived experience - Peter Bradshaw
Repentance review – dreamlike satire from Soviet Georgia brings life to Stalinist ghosts
1980s black comedy unravels the brutal legacy of a despot who is as ludicrous as his crimes are appalling - Peter Bradshaw
The Zone of Interest review – Jonathan Glazer’s unforgettable Auschwitz drama is a brutal masterpiece
Only the constant pall of smoke, and a dread-inducing soundscape, tell of the horrors beyond the wall as the idyllic life of the commandant of the death camp and his family rolls by in Glazer’s Oscar-nominated film - Wendy Ide
Days of Heaven review – Malick’s early masterwork heralds a rarefied visionary
The director’s rereleased 1978 film revealed some of the authorial signatures that would underscore a film-making career punctuated by a two-decade disappearance - Peter Bradshaw
Circle of Danger review – Jacques Tourneur’s Hitchcock-esque thriller is a gem
First released in 1951, this endlessly entertaining film is an absorbing tale of an American arriving in postwar Britain looking for answers about his slain younger brother - Peter Bradshaw
All of Us Strangers review – Andrew Haigh’s drama grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go
This deeply personal portrait of newfound love and a traumatic past, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, is an emotionally wrenching masterpiece - Wendy Ide
All of Us Strangers review – Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott tremendous in a beautiful fantasy-romance
Scott, Mescal and Claire Foy shine in a drama about a screenwriter who visits his childhood home to find his parents, who were killed in a car crash, still living there - Peter Bradshaw
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser review – Herzog’s early masterpiece is bold and brilliant
Rereleased for its 50th anniversary, this gripping retelling of a true story about a disturbed youth who finds favour in high society, features a masterstroke of casting - Peter Bradshaw
Poor Things review – Emma Stone transfixes in Yorgos Lanthimos’s thrilling carnival of oddness
The director of The Favourite teams up again with the fearless Hollywood star in a funny, filthy and explosively inventive spin on Frankenstein - Wendy Ide
Wonka review – Timothée Chalamet’s Chocolate Factory prequel is a superbly sweet treat
Timothée Chalamet leads a beguiling cast in a backstory that rinses away all sourness from Roald Dahl’s embittered chocolatier - Peter Bradshaw
Tótem review – exquisite Mexican family drama of joy and heartbreak
Writer-director Lila Avilés’s tender film, told largely through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl, is a minutely observed ensemble piece in which grief and celebration go hand in hand - Wendy Ide
Bluebeard’s Castle review – Michael Powell’s amazing serial-killer opera film
Powell’s expressionist-hallucinatory adaptation of Bartók features a blazing performance by Ana Raquel Satre as Bluebeard’s bride - Peter Bradshaw
Napoleon review – Joaquin Phoenix makes a magnificent emperor in thrilling biopic
Ridley Scott dispenses with the symbolic weight attached to previous biopics in favour of a spectacle with a great star at its centre - Peter Bradshaw
How to Have Sex review – two stars are born with this searing study of consent
First-time British director Molly Manning Walker’s remarkable drama about a group of post-GCSE girls hellbent on partying in Crete features a career-making performance from new talent Mia McKenna-Bruce - Wendy Ide
The Royal Hotel review – nerve-shredding outback thriller
Julia Garner is superb as a US backpacker working in a menacing, middle-of-nowhere Australian bar in Kitty Green’s follow-up to The Assistant - Wendy Ide
King and Country review – Joseph Losey’s brutal reflection on the futility of war
Tom Courtenay is unforgettable as a first world war private on trial for desertion. But it is Dirk Bogarde, dripping with distaste for his defendant who delivers a horrific coup de grâce - Peter Bradshaw
Pressure review – pioneering story of living with British racism retains its power
Horace Ové’s drama has the punchy energy of a 21st-century graphic novel, mixing comedy, tragedy and bitter irony - Peter Bradshaw
I Know Where I’m Going! review – Powell and Pressburger classic is a pure joy
The story of a headstrong heroine who knows what she wants, but is waylaid by the elements and an unexpected romance is one of the most lovable films in British cinema history - Peter Bradshaw
Beshkempir, or The Adopted Son review – part childhood memoir, part mysterious folk tale
There are touches of Fellini and Satyajit Ray in the gentle, unforced artistry of Aktan Abdykalykov’s film, which casts the director’s son in the title role - Peter Bradshaw
Mean Streets review – Scorsese’s miraculous early masterpiece is a blistering classic
Rereleased for its 50th anniversary, this ultraviolent urban pastoral remains thrilling, sensual, dangerous and effortlessly fluent - Peter Bradshaw
The Bikeriders review – potent ode to the violent lives of 60s biker gangs
Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy are magnetic in this power struggle-cum-love triangle inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photographic study of Chicago bikers - Peter Bradshaw
Cry, the Beloved Country review – utterly absorbing tale from the birth of apartheid
Zoltan Korda’s 1951 adaptation of Alan Paton’s crusading novel is filled with passion and moral fortitude - Peter Bradshaw
20 Days in Mariupol review – searing film bears terrible witness to brutal siege
Film-maker Mstyslav Chernov risked everything to document Russia’s attack from within the besieged city, recording unthinkable horrors in this vital account - Peter Bradshaw
The Exorcist review – Friedkin’s head-swivelling horror is still diabolically inspired
The 50th anniversary extended director’s cut of the 1973 tale of teenage possession still shocks - Peter Bradshaw
Red Island review – beauty and colonialism in a French childhood in Madagascar
This visually exquisite, tender film about a boy growing up in a military air base on an former colony is a wonderful watch - Peter Bradshaw
Stop Making Sense review – Demme’s Talking Heads doc still burning down the house
The energy of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film defies categorisation, and David Byrne in the ‘Big Suit’ is the Chuck Berry of new wave art-rock - Peter Bradshaw
Dazed and Confused review – Richard Linklater’s joyously evocative hangout movie
Rereleased for its 30th anniversary, this is a seemingly aimless but actually brilliantly controlled movie about Texan kids in 1976 - Peter Bradshaw
Lan Yu review – Stanley Kwan’s masterly and gentle Beijing-set gay melodrama
Kwan’s 2001 film was the strongest in a wave of gay-themed Chinese films and remains a poignant work that tugs at audience heartstrings - Ryan Gilbey
Past Lives review – a spine-tingling romance of lost chances
Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song’s tremendous feature debut tells the poignant tale of childhood sweethearts separated by fate and thousands of miles - Mark Kermode
La Ronde review – a classic, dizzying dance of sex and adventure that leaves a lingering sadness
Max Ophüls’s 1950 tale of dalliances in early-20th-century Viennese cafe society is a tantalising waltz of licentiousness and emptiness - Peter Bradshaw
Past Lives review – a must-see story of lost loves, childhood crushes and changing identities
Celine Song’s feature debut is delicate and sophisticated and yet also somehow simple and direct - Peter Bradshaw
The Killer review – terrific David Fincher thriller about a philosophising hitman
Michael Fassbender is perfect in the main role of a yoga-loving assassin who discourses on everything from morality to the Smiths - Peter Bradshaw
The Beast review – Léa Seydoux’s audacious drama throbs with fear
Disaster appears imminent as Seydoux and an impressive George MacKay meet across three different eras in what is maybe Bertrand Bonello’s best movie yet - Peter Bradshaw
Poor Things review – Emma Stone has a sexual adventure in Yorgos Lanthimos’s virtuoso comic epic
Stone gives a hilarious, beyond-next-level performance as Bella Baxter, the experimental subject of a troubled Victorian anatomist, in Lanthimos’s toweringly bizarre comedy - Peter Bradshaw
Jurassic Park review – Steven Spielberg’s meaty dino-fest is as delicious as ever
The classic movie’s unforgettable performances and CGI effects remain glorious 30 years after its original release - Peter Bradshaw
Tokyo Story review – Yasujiro Ozu’s exquisite family tale stands the test of time
An elderly couple visit their grownup children in this stunning work of art from 1953, now re-released for its 70th anniversary - Peter Bradshaw
Training Day review – Denzel Washington’s finest, most sinister hour
Superbly watchable tale of corrupt cops is led by Washington’s swaggeringly malign detective, out to bully Ethan Hawke into wrongdoing - Peter Bradshaw
Serpico review – Al Pacino is at his intense best in classic 70s corrupt-cop thriller
Powerful story of disguise and alienation is led by the moral passion of Pacino’s countercultural whistleblower - Peter Bradshaw
Love Affair, or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator review – dissident sex and death
A Yugoslavian pulp classic from 1967, this tale of a young woman’s erotic misadventures more than matches the French new wave for black humour - Peter Bradshaw
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One review – Tom Cruise does it better
Seven films in and nothing about M:I, from the star’s incredible stunt skills to the silly-serious tone, is showing any sign of slowing down - Peter Bradshaw
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars review – Bowie bids farewell to an icon in legendary gig
DA Pennebaker’s documentary offers moving moments and raw immediacy as the musician takes on his final performance as Ziggy Stardust - Peter Bradshaw
Beauty and the Beast review – Disney’s Australian production soars on stage
Full of boisterous numbers and deeply felt emotion, Shubshri Kandiah and Brendan Xavier lead a wonderful ensemble through a tale as old as time - Cassie Tongue
The Wicker Man review – brilliant conspiracy chiller is a one-movie genre in itself
The satirical masterpiece goes well beyond what one expects from folk horror, with Edward Woodward as the priggish cop sent to investigate a pagan island - Peter Bradshaw
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse review – a dizzying, dazzling sequel
The first Miles Morales animation was a sensation, but this second film, with fresh characters, writers and energy, goes above and beyond - Wendy Ide
Thelma and Louise review – punchier, bolder, hotter and sweatier than ever
Callie Khouri’s feminist crime classic is a masterclass in narrative and character development and director Ridley Scott delivers pure action brio - Peter Bradshaw
La Chimera review – Alice Rohrwacher’s uproarious adventure teems with life
Set in 1980s Tuscany, Rohrwacher’s captivating film follows a lovelorn Englishman plundering Italy’s historical artefacts with a bizarre gang - Peter Bradshaw
Kidnapped review – Marco Bellocchio’s antisemitism drama is a classic in the making
Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy kidnapped by papal authorities, this is a full-tilt melodrama that lays bare tyranny, bigotry and the abuse of power in the Catholic church - Peter Bradshaw
Killers of the Flower Moon review – Scorsese’s magnificent period epic is an instant American classic
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro star in a sinuous, pitch-black tragedy about how the west was really won - Xan Brooks
Killers of the Flower Moon review – Scorsese’s remarkable epic about the bloody birth of modern America
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone star in this macabre western about serial murders among the Osage tribe in 1920s Oklahoma, which reflects the erasure of Native Americans from the US - Peter Bradshaw