Above and beyond the wonders of computer-generated artwork and a whole new box of tricks available to animators in the 21st century, one thing remains constant - sentimentality.
Tribute to the original film, provides sugary interpretation of musical classics.
There is meat and crunch and intelligent plotline.
The year is 1926 and Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures when things go awry in New York.
In an effort to thwart Grindelwald's plans of raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings, Albus Dumbledore enlists his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead.
This is not just the best of the filmed Fantastic Fours but top drawer MCU, a film that entertained me as a thing itself, as a comics connoisseur, as someone who's done their Marvel miles.
Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer.
While the gags are aimed squarely at a family audience, there’s nothing wrong with that and this is certainly a film you could take even tiddlers to without worrying they are going to have nightmares later.
The Marvel superheroes have a slight hitch with a wedding when the earth is threatened with destruction.
It is highly satisfying that this feature film about the history and cultural impact of photography - and, by extension, film and television - should be such a lovely example of the Reithian principles to “inform, educate and entertain”.
From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity’s unique obsession with the camera’s image and the social consequences that lay ahead.
Wang proves adept at slowly and gently building up the onion layers of this family as more and more of them come into each other’s orbit.
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family’s decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
Reunited after a 17-year separation, Walter, an Angolan immigrant, is joined in the US by his wife and teenage daughter. Now absolute strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance that may help overcome the emotional distance between them.
A documentary that refuses the audience the comfort of taking the “right” position and being done with it.
Haunted by the killing of his Palestinian childhood friend Aseel Asleh by Israeli police in 2000, Roy Cohen revisits their friendship through a cinematic letter addressed to Aseel.
The production design here is exquisitely detailed and complemented by careful lighting choice that generally keep things realistic but sometimes throw in a hint of giallo.
A struggling artist gets her dream job working for a renowned visual artist. While cataloguing her work she is shocked to keep seeing a girl who closely resembles herself, and learns that this girl is actually her boss' missing daughter.
Rachel Drezin treads a careful line between the risk of appropriating other people's struggles and the importance of giving a voice to parents, of understanding that they can struggle too.
Examines the experiences of families in which parents and children are profoundly different from one another a variety of ways.
At the core of Adrian Lyne's sumptuously photographed fable is an encounter with real chemistry and a vital balance that makes us question - if only for brief moments - whose side we should be on.
A woman becomes dangerously obsessed when she is ignored by the married man with whom she had a one night stand.
Grozeva and Valchanov allow a gentle absurdity to flow through the film.
After losing his wife Ivanka, Vasil believes that she is using his phone to reach him from beyond the grave, so he enlists the services of a psychic to try to make contact with her, much to the concern of his son.
Zeller elegantly and scarily fuses dream logic with markers of past trauma.
Anthony is 80 years old. He lives alone in London and refuses the caregivers that his daughter tries to impose upon him. Yet his need for help is becoming more pressing.
Golubovic wants us to feel the weight of all this, and we certainly do, as cinematographer Aleksandar Ilic not only captures the countryside of Serbia but also a sense of dilapidation.
Nikola’s children are taken away from him after social services decide that he is too poor to provide them with a decent living environment. He sets off on foot to lodge a complaint in Belgrade.
Despite the anger at the unfairness of what has gone before, this is ultimately a warm-hearted, life-affirming film.
Between 1979 and 2016, trans people in Norway were forced to undergo sterilisation, depriving them of their right to bear children. Kris has dreamed of becoming a father since kindergarten. Together with his partners Sindre and David, he becomes a part of the resistance forging change.
The way Zischler and Hüller play their relationship is so wonderfully real and subtle and appropriately opaque for all us non-Mann family members, that it at times brought tears to my eyes.
Drama focusing on Thomas Mann's post-war life, as he and his daughter embark on a road-trip across Germany.
This is a film about rejection. Everyone's contaminated in one way or another
The emotional diversity of a father's love for his daughter and his daughter's inability to love. Insecurity runs riot across a landscape of psychological dysfunction
In throwing a spotlight on these neglected and unsung heroes Vadepied does an invaluable service to their memories that no amount of medals and ceremonies could achieve.
A father enlists in the French army in 1917 to join his 17-year-old son.
Using every slapstick and farce joke they can lay their hands on, scriptwriters Jack Davies and Henry Blyth keep the pace rushing along at such a clip you get carried away with their enthusiasm.
Slapstick, fast-paced Sixties rom-com about Big Daddy and the newlyweds.
The confusion of incident and memory add to the sense of creepiness and disorientation which Tetlow’s performance and the heightened visual style create.
A vulnerable young boy finds his mother pushed out of the family home by a strange new woman, and he must confront the terrifying supernatural forces that seem to move in with her.
If you have no prior knowledge of this type of science then it may take you a little while to find your feet. If you know it well, you'll find this more interesting as a character study than revelatory. Either way, it's a stimulating experience.
A documentary about a doctor who made headlines for implanting electrodes in the brain of a paralysed man then teaching the patient to control a computer - and then decided to experiment on himself.
If you're cynical about non-human intelligence and inclined to associate an interest in whale song with sentimental hippies, Fathom will waste no time in setting you right.
Documentary follows researchers working to finally decode the communication of humpback whales.
This is essentially a modern film, indicative of changing times, which makes its story all the more potent and provides it with a lasting emotional charge.
A silent classic in which Faust makes a pact with the demon Mephistopheles, offering his soul in exchange for knowledge.
Beshir keeps an eye on the natural environment as well as the sociopolitics, including the oppression of the Oromo people, while allowing a mythic element concerning the hunt for the water of life to flow alongside.
A spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar, immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf Sufi Muslims chewed for centuries for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. A tapestry of intimate stories offers a window into the dreams of youth under a repressive regime.
There is a lot of familiar genre language here – a ouija board, a bloody bathtub, shifting shadows – but it is Zanotti’s performance which pulls it all together.
A self help author mourning the loss of her husband retreats to a cabin on the bayou to finish her next book, only to find that more than just her past is haunting her.
We might be laughing at this small town mentality but we'll soon also be feeling a growing fear about what might happen to Sveta and Bamba as things begin to spiral.
When a woman takes in a Malian refugee, she faces opposition from the local townsfolk.
Chan delivers a martial arts film of truly dazzling fight sequences that proves his physical and technical prowess, whilst injecting something very un-Lee, something very Chan. The humour.
A gem from Jackie Chan’s fast-punching back catalogue.
As a rule it’s a good thing when filmmakers are prepared to push their limits, but if you’re going to take it this far, you need, at the very least, to be in control of the laughs.
A young couple travelling down a desert freeway find themselves being followed.
