Beyond Fest — A–Z of films

Although Jonas describes his leg as rotting, we get only the briefest hints of what this looks like to him. For the most part, it just looks like an ordinary leg, and our understanding of his position comes from Singh’s performance.

It’s a decidedly quirky tale of the sort that will infuriate some viewers, who will feel they’ve been egregiously ripped off – but if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be in your element.

What isn't untrue is that Anora is brilliant.

It finds room for those who despise weakness, and are weaker for it, and is stronger because of it.

Jennifer Kent's film creates something original, even frightening

A film that will get under your skin, unsettling to a rare degree.

One of the great masterpieces of modern cinema

A past shines through another layer of the past into a silver screen present that is both familiar and brand-new.

With a post-apocalypse setting - deserts, service corridors, junk yards at night - the film lacks the vision of Silent Running.

Even though we’re essentially talking about a basic shot-reverse shot exchange, framed in creeping wide angles, juxtaposed with close-ups, the feeling is comparable to watching a getaway heist.

Full of gothic visuals and brooding melancholy, the bleak gloom is striking.

There’s a fantastically unhinged performance in here which it would be a spoiler to say too much about. Everyone is good at what they do.

The film's real trouble stems from the fact that Lynch just wasn't the right man for the job.

Manages to include a whole stack of annoying cliches, stereotypes and habits that it could well do without.

Alternately hilarious and touching.

Way too inspired for the end result to be intentional.

To see it on any screen other than the biggest you can is to do yourself a disservice, and to miss it is to miss a masterpiece.

Illusions are everywhere in this film.

Hellboy holds his head high above the mass of superhero characters thanks to a terrific performance by Ron Perlman.

The pace is so manic, the action so intense, that it’s easy to be fully immersed in Jimmy’s experience.

Usually with a comedy you're lucky to get one genuine laugh-out-loud moment. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang has at least half a dozen.

Anderson’s use of the documentary framework is an inspired choice, since it lends what we’re seeing an air of reality that helps build the tension to jangling point.

In this tangled tapestry, Russell has captured the soul of a nation.

Gibson’s got intensity on tap, balancing internal grief with edgy energy and natural comic timing for the performance of his career.

Although this is set in the Nineties, the gritty feel makes it redolent of Seventies-set thrillers, a mood reinforced by the way that du Welz embeds us in Paul’s life from the start.

As a moody, atmospheric study of paranoia, it is hard to beat.

A Mother’s Embrace has an organic quality. Even its strangest elements feel convincingly part of the whole.

Gosling and Crowe are wondrous sparring partners.

Nightbitch is of an ilk that is off-kilter. It is unreliable and unstable. It is visceral and dark. It is taxidermy and what I think are freezer potato pancakes.

A film that looks back, that gazes also into you.

A Nightmare On Elm Street remains an atmospheric and genuinely unsettling film with a chilling, universally relatable central motif: sleep gets everyone in the end.

A film that is so focused on the presence we can’t see it forgets to fully flesh out the lives that we can.

The combination of subtlety and indeterminacy makes for an uncanny treat.

Eisenberg takes us through the entire journey in a brisk 90 minutes, but the film never feels rushed.

There is certainly some pleasing schadenfreude, but it doesn’t have the nerve to go all out, and ultimately it’s not as clever as it thinks it is.

The writing is sharp and succinct.

The oppressive atmosphere of the swamp and the tension between the frustrated alpha males are so thick right up to the final frame you could cut the air with one of their knives, while the trauma of the experience lingers long after the credits roll.

Hilarious throughout.

Just enough is revealed to keep you glued while shocking, sucker-punches blindside you at all the right moments.

Overrated and extremely dated.

Tiainen copes impressively with a film which swerves far off its original course, and what emerges is more interesting for the diversion.

An unusually intimate, exploratory film underscored by dry humour, Sky Peals has an atmosphere that you won’t find anywhere else.

A heart-in-your-mouth experience.

Whilst very, very cheap, Terrorvision goes beyond standard spoof territory and fleshes out its characters into people the viewer can care about.

Leone demonstrated that he is a talented director with a perfect instinct for set pieces, but that he is less capable as a screenwriter.

Hooper infects characters and viewers alike with the thrill of a madness from which there can be no real escape.

At first glance it seems like a rollercoaster action movie but underneath it's full of ambiguities, hidden clues and red herrings.

This isn’t up there with the best of the V/H/S series overall, but it’s entertaining enough.

Well shot and well paced, Zero has a lot to offer in spite of its twee moments.