50 more movies you have to see
The best of the rest, from The King Of Staten Island to Queen & Slim…
Another Round
Thomas Vinterberg’s welllubricated story saw teachers use booze as an unorthodox TA. Mads Mikkelsen’s dad-dancing ensured an intoxicating climax.
Da 5 Bloods
A quartet of vets returned to ’Nam in search of buried treasure and a sliver of redemption in Spike Lee’s blistering, Conradian war yarn.
His House
Remi Weekes’ stylish and intelligent haunted-house horror saw a pair of Sudanese refugees take their nightmares with them when they relocate to Blighty.
Mulan
Niki Caro’s remake of Disney’s 1998 ’toon might have lacked charm, and a talking dragon. Yet it made up the shortfall with epic wushu spectacle.
Rebecca
Ben Wheatley hitched a ride on Hitch’s coat-tails in a sleek version of Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic melodrama lent glacial froideur by Kristin Scott Thomas.
Bad Boys For Life
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s overdue reunion was a pleasant surprise thanks to incoming co-directors Adil & Bilall and its whiff of Fast & Furious.
Days Of The Bagnold Summer
Simon Bird’s debut feature found heart and humour in a glum teen goth (Earl Cave) and his overattentive mother (Monica Dolan).
Jojo Rabbit
Taika Waititi’s Brooksian takedown of bigotry deftly sidestepped bad taste with its story of a young boy’s friendship with his imaginary Führer.
On The Rocks
Bill Murray’s recoupling with Sofia Coppola was no Lost In
Translation but still warmed the cockles with its look at a parent reconnecting with his daughter.
Saint Frances
From menstruation to breastfeeding, this story of a nanny bonding with her six-year-old charge addressed societal taboos with normalising informality.
Bad Education
Hugh Jackman exuded Trumpian levels of arrogance and selfdelusion in Cory Finley’s factbased exposé of rampant fraud at an all-American high school.
Enola Holmes
Millie Bobby Brown left Henry Cavill’s Sherlock for dust in this energetic combo of Conan Doyle deduction, YA adventure and fourth wall-breaking Fleabaggery.
Kajillionaire
Thanks to Evan Rachel Wood’s inscrutable performance, you never knew what was coming in Miranda July’s oddball hybrid of con caper and queer romance.
Onward
Half a dad was better than none in Pixar’s magical fantasy about two brothers racing against time to recover the rest of their reincarnated father.
Shirley
Elisabeth Moss channelled the spirit if not the reality of Shirley Jackson in Josephine Decker’s unconventional exploration of the horror writer’s life and art.
A Beautiful Day
In The Neighbourhood
Tom Hanks channelled children’s entertainer Fred Rogers’ kindness in Marielle Heller’s tale of a jaded journo falling under his spell.
Eternal Beauty
Always-excellent Sally Hawkins lent both fragility and gumption to her role as a woman negotiating mental illness in Craig Roberts’ affecting indie.
The King Of Staten Island
Pete Davidson, the son of a firefighter who died on 9/11, used his own trauma to inform this winning comedy drama about a tattoo-loving pothead.
The Painted Bird
A boy seeking sanctuary during WW2 witnessed unspeakable brutality in a gruelling three-hour endurance test that was as hard to watch as it was to forget.
Song Without A Name
The plight of poor Peruvians who had their infants stolen was hauntingly dramatised in Romastyle monochrome in Melina León’s shattering debut feature.
Bill & Ted Face The Music
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter – plus their on-screen daughters – were anything but bogus in the goofy, time-hopping threequel we never knew we needed.
Extraction
Chris Hemsworth kicked ass in a propulsive actioner elevated by spectacular set-pieces and an awesome “one-take” chase scene lasting an impossible 12 minutes.
The Life Ahead
Sophia Loren made an imperious comeback in her director son Edoardo Ponti’s sentimental heart-tugger about a childminder who takes in a Senegalese orphan.
The Painter And The Thief
Art’s ability to both transform and reform was potently brought home in this documentary about a Czech portraitist who made a criminal her subject.
Summer Of 85
If John Hughes had been gay and French, he might well have concocted a picture as rich as François Ozon’s heightened coming-of-age love story.
Birds Of Prey
Margot Robbie assembled an all-female antihero-squad in an exhilarating vehicle for Harley Quinn that fizzed with punky, playful irreverence.
Eurovision Song Contest
Will Ferrell’s affection for the camp subject was clear in this endearing comedy about an Icelandic duo tasked with representing their nation.
Lynn + Lucy
Wildly contrasting responses to motherhood drove a wedge between childhood friends in Fyzal Boulifa’s harrowing working-class tragedy.
Perfect 10
A talented gymnast (a promising Frankie Box) developed other interests after meeting her half-brother in Eva Riley’s soulful rite-of-passage drama.
The Trial
Of The Chicago 7
A starry cast visibly relished Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue in his indignant recreation of a notorious judicial miscarriage.
Bombshell
Charlize Theron’s metamorphosis into Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was just one reason to salute Jay Roach’s skewering of appalling sexual misconduct.
Finding The Way Back
Ben Affleck could have hardly chosen a more apposite starring vehicle than this story of a highschool b-ball coach mentoring his way out of alcoholism.
Les Misérables
This year’s BLM protests found a perfect on-screen complement in Ladj Ly’s electrifying snapshot of tensions erupting in one powder-keg Parisian banlieue.
The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Armando Iannucci vaulted Dickens’ picaresque roman à clef about an orphan turned author into the 21st Century.
True History Of The Kelly Gang
Justin Kurzel brought Ned Kelly back to life in a biopic that was radically distinct from previous treatments of the story.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Kazakh reporter’s return saw Maria Bakalova’s joyous breakout turn as his adorably gauche offspring.
The Forty-Year-Old Version
Radha Blank emerged as a talent to watch in this self-made story of a luckless playwright reinventing herself as a feisty freestyle rapper.
Miss Juneteenth
A single mum’s hopes of her daughter’s self-betterment hung on her beauty-pageant success in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ celebration of Black womanhood.
Pinocchio
Matteo Garrone replaced Disney twee with commedia dell’arte grotesquerie in a frequently nightmarish spin on the wooden puppet fable.
Vivarium
Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots got trapped in a hellish vision of suburbia in Lorcan Finnegan’s commentary on conformity and home ownership.
Boys State
This doc about Texan teens gathering in Austin to build a mock-government from scratch made us both cheer and fear for America’s embattled democracy.
Hamilton
A thrilling recording of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical sensation that gave both acolytes and newbies the chance to see its original cast in action.
Moffie
A young South African grappled with his sexuality while enduring his military service in Oliver Hermanus’ perceptive critique of a nation’s toxic intolerance.
Proxima
Eva Green’s astronaut ambitions clashed with maternal urges in an Alice Winocour drama that, unlike Netflix’s Away, made you feel the wrenching emotions involved.
Waves
Two Black siblings saw their lives go in shockingly different directions in Trey Edward Shults’ visually stunning chronicle of an aspirational family under duress.
Collective
The state of Romania’s corrupt healthcare system was exposed in a jaw-dropping doc that highlighted the crucial role of investigative journalism.
A Hidden Life
One conscientious objector’s refusal to fight for Nazi Germany became a thing of ethereal, languid beauty in the hands of master Terrence Malick.
Mogul Mowgli
Riz Ahmed scorched the screen in Bassam Tariq’s provocative dissection of a gifted rapper afflicted by both a serious ailment and a crisis of identity.
Queen & Slim
Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith gave Bonnie and Clyde a run for their money in this uncomfortably topical road movie about lovers on the lam.
Who You Think I Am
Juliette Binoche found online dating an emotional minefield in Safy Nebbou’s psychodrama about the webs we weave behind a cloak of anonymity.