This Week&#039;s Best Movie Releases &amp; Discounted Manchester Cinema Tickets

2 ~ ANORA.

~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best Film + Best Director (Sean Baker) + Best Actress (Mikey Madison) + Best Original Screenplay + Best Editing.

★★★★★ Gorgeous, deranged - and one of the films of the year - the director of The Florida Project delivers an unpredictable rags to riches tale about a young stripper. ~ The i.

★★★★★ Sean Baker’s screwball Cinderella tale vaults him towards greatness. ~ The Observer.

★★★★★ The most entertaining chronicler of contemporary degeneracy has miraculously resurrected the screwball comedy. ~ The Irish Times.

★★★★★ His story of a Russian oligarch’s son who falls for a sex worker is a Coen Brothers-style black comedy and deservedly won the Palme d’Or this year. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ Energy fizzes through Baker’s anti-Cinderella story in which Mikey Madison is an Oscar shoo-in with her bristlingly real performance as a strip-club dancer. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★★ Madison makes a name for herself in this mouthy, moving story of stripper meets oligarch – and it's a laugh a minute. ~ Evening Standard.

★★★★★ ‘Pretty Woman’ with a vodka hangover? Sean Baker’s darkly funny sex-work screwball is a blast. ~ Time Out.

★★★★★ ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★ ~ The Independent.

★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ BBC.

3 ~ NO OTHER LAND.

~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best Documentary.

★★★★✭ Calling for a free Palestine, this vital doc chronicles the resilience of the Masafer Yatta community and the occupation’s atrocities in the West Bank. If you weren’t already radicalised… this is the film to watch. ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ This award-winning stark, unflinching West Bank documentary about the brutal expulsion of Palestinian villagers by the Israeli army is essential viewing. ~ The Observer.

★★★★★ A stark account of destruction in the West Bank, this documentary made by Palestinians and Israelis shows rural homes razed and fragile cross-border kinship imperilled. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★★ A damning powerful film that offers a stark insider’s look at the conflict. Essential viewing. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ Historical in scope yet intimate in its approach, this documentary from an Israeli/Palestinian film-making collective presents just a few years in the life of a beleaguered West Bank community. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ This sobering and gripping documentary made by film-makers on both sides of the conflict finds moments of quiet optimism amid the violence. ~ The Times.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

4 ~ A REAL PAIN.

~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best Supporting Actor (Kieran Culkin)

★★★★ Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs and stars in a film that manages to be ruefully perceptive and laugh-out-loud funny, often at the same time. ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★★ His story about two cousins on a Jewish tour to Poland is perfectly weighted between bleak and warm, poignant and irreverent. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ There is a lot going on in here, but Eisenberg is in full control. A Real Pain is funny and intelligent, a sort of buddy road comedy that knows when to laugh at itself and when to take matters seriously. ~ The Irish Independent.

★★★★★ The writer, director and actor effortlessly walks a tonal tightrope in this masterpiece about Jewish American cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland. But Kieran Culkin steals the show as the more mischievous cousin.~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ Eisenberg has done the world a favour with this movie. At a time when empathy seems to be diminishing across the globe, he's delivered a touching, intelligent, funny and achingly sad tale of love, loss and grief. ~ RTE.

★★★★ ~ The Independent.

★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★ ~ The Observer.

★★★★ ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

★★★★ ~ Empire.

5 ~ I'M STILL HERE.

~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best International Film

★★★★★ This is one of the greatest movies about motherhood. Walter Salles’s drama about a woman searching for her missing husband is rightfully nominated for three Oscars, including best actress for its extraordinary lead performance. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ Fernanda Torres is remarkable in Salles’s superb drama set in 1970s Brazil. ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★ This sensational true-life tale depicts the abduction of a congressman in military-occupied Brazil in 1970 – and fully deserves its three Oscar nods. ~ The Independent.

★★★★★ The gut-wrenching story of Eunice Paiva and her family from the dark days of Brazilian dictatorship is a triumph of humanity. ~ Evening Standard.

★★★★✭ Salles, his cast, and crew have done justice to the Paiva family's story. You need to do the same. ~ RTE.

★★★★✭ This already history-making effort is deserving of all its laurels. ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ From The Motorcycle Diaries to On the Road, Walter Salles is a great celebrator of liberation, both personal and political. The two come together in stirring and poignant ways here. You can feel the shadow of a contemporary Brazilian leader, Jair Bolsonaro, hanging over it. ~ Time Out.

★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.

★★★★ ~ Daily Telegraph.

★★★★ ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.

6 ~ CONCLAVE.

~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best Adapted Screenplay.

★★★★ A papal thriller that treads on eggshells, Conclave is one of the year’s most deftly balanced films. Pulpy and pensive in equal measure. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ Sinfully entertaining and divinely provocative all while breaking bread on modern day power struggles. ~ RTE

★★★★★ Ralph 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. ~ The Observer.

★★★★★ When the time comes to look back at his long career, a new high point has arrived in the form of this beleaguered papal gumshoe trying to solve a riddle. ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★★ Berger’s account of cardinals battling to be the new Pope is a thrilling succession story, and the Oscar-worthy astonishing Ralph Fiennes is simply hypnotic. ~ Evening Standard.

★★★★ A high-camp gripper, like the world’s most serious Carry On film. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.

★★★★ ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ ~ The Times.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

★★★★ ~ The i.

7 ~ SEPTEMBER 5.

~ 2025 Oscar Nominee: Best Original Screenplay.

★★★★★ When it came to the snubs on the recent Oscars shortlist, this excellent docudrama received just one nomination - Best Original Screenplay - when it deserved a handful. It also deserves to be seen by the widest audience possible. ~ RTE.

★★★★★ This retelling of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre raises urgent ethical questions. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★★ Dramatising the efforts of American TV network ABC to cover the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Tim Fehlbaum’s film transforms the unfurling chaos into a drum-tight procedural. ~ The Scotsman.

★★★★ This old-school procedural is a slick grown-up thriller. ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★ The story of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist massacre – in which 11 Israeli hostages were killed by the Palestinian Black September group, dying along with five of members of the group and one West German police officer – is retold by the Swiss director and co-writer Tim Fehlbaum as a taut, tense thriller. The film leaves it up to us to make what we will of modern parallels. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ This gripping newsroom drama recounts one world-altering day in Munich. ~ Time Out.

★★★★ Compelling and excellently acted, September 5 is a shining study of journalistic integrity, even if it skips some of the bigger and more important questions raised by the event it documents. ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ The Observer.

★★★★ ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ ~ The Times.

8 ~ ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND.

★★★★ Celebrated Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro, Exterminate All the Brutes) stays close to his natural habitat with this Cannes-winning documentary profile of exiled South African photographer Ernest Cole. ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★★ An inspiring portrait of a forgotten photographer. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ A tragic story of a fiercely pioneering photographer; Cole was a black South African photographer whose work illuminated the reality of life under apartheid, but Raoul Peck’s excellent documentary unearths a life of exile and homesickness. ~ The Guardian.

9 ~ ON FALLING.

★★★★ A Portuguese online fulfilment centre ‘picker’ drifts into solitude in Laura Carreira’s deft debut feature, a deft perceptive portrait of loneliness in the digital age. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ Laura Carreira’s impressive debut drama sees a quietly excellent Joana Santos endure dehumanising work conditions while looking for a way out ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ This superb debut about a lonely warehouse picker is an astonishing fable of hidden miseries. Director Laura Carreira’s research into online retail fed into this deeply sinister but plausible world with whispers of sci-fi dystopia. ~ Irish Times.

★★★★ This a powerful debut, a deceptively quiet protest against humanity’s marginalisation, a timely and incisive on-the-ground portrait of the true cost of convenience. ~ The Scotsman.

10 ~ MEMOIR OF A SNAIL.

~ 2025 Oscar Nominee: Best Animated Film.

★★★★ This delightfully dark and quirky adult animated film is every bit as good as its highly praised predecessor, the excellent Mary and Max (2008), bursting with wit, invention, charm, poignancy and moments of exquisite vulgarity. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ A unique Aussie stop-motion animation about coming out of your shell. ~ Time Out.

★★★★ This Oscar-nominated animation with Sarah Snook is a darkly funny, oddball delight. Adam Elliot’s stop-motion tale of twins separated as children in Australia is an enchantingly weird life lesson for us all. ~ Evening Standard.

★★★★ A charming, poignant tale of troubled twins. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ Weird and wonky in the best way, this is a compelling character study that makes its joys, however fleeting, feel truly earned. ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ The Times.

11 ~ BETTER MAN.

~ 2025 Oscar Nominee: Best Visual Effects.

★★★★★ This Bonkers Robbie Williams chimp biopic is an unexpected triumph. ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★ An honest, entertaining and endlessly endearing spectacle that seems certain to play well with a crowd. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Even more than with The Greatest Showman, director Michael Gracey has created a fun, bombastic, brilliant choreographed and totally enthralling film. ~ Time Out.

★★★★ "This Robbie Williams chimpanzee biopic is a bananas gamble that pays off." ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.

★★★★ ~ The Observer.

★★★★ ~ Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ RTE.

Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets

12 ~ MICKEY 17.

★★★★★ Bong Joon Ho's best English movie to date and arguably Robert Pattinson's best movie ever. ~ Total Film.

★★★★ The South Korean director packs everything but the kitchen sink into his follow-up to the Oscar darling Parasite. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ An absurdist, anti-capitalist, Trump-mocking masterpiece; the Oscar winner somehow convinced Warner Bros to finance a costly sci-fi epic about the plight of the working class – and led by an actor doing one of his trademark silly voices. ~ The Independent.

★★★★ Robert Pattinson is a hangdog delight in this enjoyably mad sci-fi confection which satirises the bleak religification of 21st-century corporate identity. ~ Telegraph.

★★★★ Gross and heartwarming in equal measure. ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ Like Mickey himself, it’s goofy and a little inconsistent, but it’s also funny, thoughtful and more plausible than we might like. A charming space oddity for these unusual times. ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

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13 ~ BABYGIRL.

★★★★ A film that’s liable to get people talking, arguing and flirting. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ A raw, sexy and surprising examination of an illicit affair between a high-powered CEO and her much younger intern. ~ RTE.

★★★★★ Nicole Kidman’s 21st-century Fatal Attraction is a complete knockout. This electrifying film rewires current neuroses into a merciless torture machine. ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★ Director Halina Reijn portrays a torrid office affair in all its messy complexity – it's moving and darkly funny. ~ BBC.

★★★★★ A hot erotic mess. Bondage has seldom been as playful. ~ The Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ The Independent.

★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ ~ The Times.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

★★★★ ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ NME.

Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets

14 ~ WICKED.

~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best Production Design + Best Costume.

★★★★★ This candy-coloured treat of a Broadway adaptation is carried by the phenomenal talent of Ariane Grande and her co-star Cynthia Erivo. ~ The i.

★★★★★ If you're a Wicked fan, it's hard to imagine you could want anything more from this thrillifying film adaptation. Grande's and Erivo's performances as Glinda and Elphaba will have you defying gravity. ~ Total Film.

★★★★ The stars enchant as young rival witches in Jon M Chu’s impossibly slick first instalment of his two-part adaptation of the musical juggernaut. ~ The Observer.

★★★★ The smash stage musical by Stephen Schwartz - inspired by The Wizard of Oz - gets the film treatment with this opulent, if slightly indulgent, adaptation. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ What an enjoyable spectacle it is. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ ~ The Times.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

★★★★ ~ Empire.

★★★★ ~ NME.

★★★★ ~ RTE.

Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets

Apollo Theatre, London ~ Until 4 Jan 2026.

15 ~ THE SUMMER WITH CARMEN.

★★★★ Two friends on a gay nudist beach are tasked with writing a low-budget movie in this fabulously frothy tale about love and a stray dog. ~ The Observer.

★★★ A sexy story of two men and a cute dog; with more than a nod to Charlie Kaufman this fun metafiction centred around Athens’ queer scene has plenty of sun, sea and acres of male flesh. ~ The Guardian.

16 ~ DOG MAN.

★★★✭ DreamWorks’ second feature-length Dav Pilkey adaptation is a lot of bark and solid bite; zippy, beautifully constructed family fun. ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★ An animation with wisdom and bite. ~ The Times.

★★★★ Dav Pilkey’s half-dog, half-cop Captain Underpants spin-off is now a superb animation with cross-generational appeal. ~ The Observer.

★★★★ Centering on a half-human half-canine cop, this colourful adaptation of the popular children’s books retains all the series’ wacky excesses. Like something a six-year-old would make up after bingeing on Maoams. ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★ ~ RTE.

17 ~ I AM MARTIN PARR.

★★★★ A valuable documentary on the vigilant genius whose highly coloured 70s and 80s images revealed the white working class as never before. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★ A jolly film about an inscrutable subject. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ Parr’s work is kinder, cleverer and funnier than anything in Little Britain.~ Time Out.

★★★★ A short, sharp portrait of the photographer, Lee Shulman’s invigorating debut feature considers whether the artist is an inspired observer of Britons on holiday or something darker. ~ The Times.

★★★★ A brisk and delightful documentary on an incredible photographer. ~ Irish Independent.

18 ~ BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY.

★★★★★ Now in her 50s, Renée Zellweger’s Bridget is a singleton once more – and what a joy it is to see her back on our screens. There's big laughs and even bigger emotions in her best film yet. ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★ Bridget faces new challenges in parenting and love, but it’s the familiar faces around her who deliver heart and humour in this unexpectedly poignant fourth outing. ~ The Observer.

★★★★★ This is the best film since 2001's original – a deeply moving and joyful look at grief, friendship and love that is a triumph in its own right. ~ The i.

★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.

★★★★ ~ The Independent.

★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.

★★★★ ~ Radio Times.

★★★★ ~ Irish Times.

★★★★ ~ The Times.

★★★★ ~ Time Out.

★★★★ ~ Empire.

ALSO SCREENING:

★★★✭ A Complete Unknown.

★★★✭ Twiggy.

★★★✭ The Last Showgirl.

★★★✭ Paddington in Peru.

★★★✭ We Live in Time.

★★★✭ Companion.

★★★ The Sloth Lane.

★★★ Bonhoeffer.

★★★ Moana 2.

★★★ The Monkey.

★★★ Mufasa: The Lion King.

★★✭ Flight Risk.

★★✭ Sonic The Hedgehog 3.

★★✭ Papa.

★★ Captain America: Brave New World.

★★ Marching Powder.

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NEW TO STREAMING:

(Updated 7 Mar 2025):

SKY CINEMA ~ THE GODFATHER.

~ 1973 Oscar Winner: Best Picture + Best Actor (Marlon Brando) + Best Adapted Screenplay.

★★★★★ The Mona Lisa of movies. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★★ This elegiac organised-crime saga from the young Francis Ford Coppola is one of the all-time high-water marks of American cinema, rich with subtle acting and blessed with stunning cinematography from Gordon Willis. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Coppola’s first film in the series is still an epic, full of hypnotic acting, which reinvented mafia criminals as players in a dynastic psychodrama. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ Coppola's masterpiece reveals something new every time you watch it. ~ BBC.

★★★★★ ~ Total Film.

★★★★★ ~ Empire.

SKY CINEMA ~ THE GODFATHER PART II.

~ 1975 Oscar Winner: Best Picture + Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro) + Best Director (Francis Ford Coppola) + Best Adapted Screenplay + Best Set Decoration + Best Original Score (Nino Rota & Carmine Coppola).

★★★★★ Few movie sequels are as good as the films they follow and even fewer have about them the air of necessity. Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II is among the rare exceptions. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ In sheer physical terms, it displays even more spectacular panache than its predecessor. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★★ Breathtaking in scope, Part II also shows the early life of the Don, brilliantly portrayed by Robert De Niro, as he flees Sicily and sails for New York. These sequences have the grandeur of a silent movie by DW Griffith or Erich von Stroheim. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ The result is among the very greatest American films.~ The Irish Times.

★★★★★ It is even better than the first film, and has the greatest single final scene in Hollywood history, a real coup de cinma. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★★ ~ Total Film.

★★★★★ ~ Time Out.

★★★★★ ~ Empire.

ITV X ~ THE THIRD MAN

★★★★★ An iconic film noir that's still fresh despite being familiar. ~ BBC.

★★★★★ Few films more effectively capture the crumbling infrastructure and opportunistic lawlessness of postwar Europe. And none better translate the snaking treachery of Graham Greene's stories and his worlds of cynical expats and casual betrayal. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ Set in postwar occupied Vienna, the plot is a corker, littered with memorable moments and played to perfection by an unforgettable cast that's led with distinction by Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Blustering, conceited, charming – Welles is still spellbinding in Carol Reed’s compelling parable of guilt, 70 years on. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ This is a film which does away with such cretinous inanity as offering up goodies and baddies, instead presenting its cast of characters as doing things which they believe to be good, but are not seen as such through the eyes of observers. ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★★ Seventy years on such sombreness seems timely, as does Harry Lime, Welles's deliciously elusive antihero. ~ The Times.

ITV X

BBC iPLAYER & AMAZON PRIME ~ SOME LIKE IT HOT

~ 1960 Oscar Winner: Best Costume.

★★★★★ A milestone comedy to watch again and again. ~ Sky Cinema.

★★★★★ Close to perfect, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis keep this joyous Billy Wilder comedy fizzing from start to finish. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ Clearly, the personality clashes both on- and off-screen didn't prevent this becoming a true film classic. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ A comedy masterpiece. Key to its success - along with its vivid characters and brilliant performances - is the snappy pace throughout. Non-stop gags, invention, twists and comic incident flow. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ For those who haven't seen it, "Some Like It Hot" is one of the greatest comedies ever. It is one of those rare movies where all the elements gel all the time. Wilder presents great comic scenes which soar on the back of originality and great timing and embrace both slapstick and super-sharp wit. The desert-island comedy bar none. ~ BBC.

★★★★★ Possibly the best cross-dressing film of all time, Some Like It Hot is a testament to both the humor of hairy men in heels and Billy Wilder's ability to stretch a one-joke premise into a two-hour film. ~ AllMovie.

★★★★★ Superbly constructed, and with a trio of terrific lead performances to complement the sparkling script, Some Like It Hot offers up countless magical comedy moments... Not to mention one of the finest, and funniest, closing lines in cinema history. ~ Total Film. .

BBC iPlayer

AMAZON PRIME & SKY CINEMA ~ TAXI DRIVER

~ 1977 Oscar Nominee: Best Pictire + Best Actor (Robert DeNiro) + Best Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster) + Best Original Score (Bernard Herrmann)

★★★★★ Re-released at a time when the grievances of white men are once more setting the world agenda, Martin Scorsese’s unflinching plunge into the darkest recesses of the human soul feels painfully relevant. ~ Time Out.

★★★★★ This deeply disturbing modern masterpiece established Scorsese as a major figure in world cinema, but, be warned: it hasn't lost any of its power to shock.. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Though its iconic elements earned immortality, it’s screenwriter Paul Schrader’s palpable disgust that resonated (and still does) with disaffected viewers. ~ Total Film.

★★★★★ The blend of Schrader's script, Scorsese's direction and Robert De Niro's performance is both riveting and unnerving. A film that will stay with you forever.
. ~ Empire

★★★★★ You've got the bleak beauty of the visuals and the taut intelligence of Paul Schrader's screenplay, but in the end it's De Niro's quietly terrifying tunnel vision that urges you to hunt this masterpiece down again and again. ~ BBC.

★★★★★ What a mad and brilliant film it is: 1,000-degree proof Seventies cinema. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ ~ Irish Times.

SKY CINEMA ~ THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE.

~ 1963 Oscar Nominee: Best Costume Design.

The greatest western of Hollywood’s Golden Age, even usurping John Ford’s own The Searchers that has always clambered its way near the top of greatest film lists. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ In his elegy to the Western hero, John Ford reveals the facts while printing the western legend. Shot in black-and-white with few exteriors, Liberty Valance's melancholy nocturnal atmosphere matches the story's suggestion that the West's glory days have passed. ~ AllMovie.

★★★★★ Two of Hollywood's greatest stars are paired in this key late John Ford western - once unfairly dismissed for being shot in black-and-white in an era of colour. John Wayne and a top-billed James Stewart create indelible western icons, and a superb Lee Marvin offers memorable support as the Liberty Valance of the title. But perhaps this neglected masterpiece is best summed up by its most famous quote, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!". ~ Radio Times.

AMAZON PRIME ~ RAGING BULL.

~ 1981 Oscar Winner: Best Actor (Robert De Niro) + Best Editing.

★★★★★ Critics and film-makers are always being asked to reel off their desert island films: this, without question, is one such great. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ A career high for both Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, this savagely authentic film about flawed masculinity is worth seeking out for another viewing. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ Declared by American critics to be the greatest movie of the 80s and it is, arguably, the director's most triumphant accomplishment. If you haven't seen it already, do so right now. Be amazed. ~ BBC.

★★★★★ A classic that has everything to do with the capacity of even highly successful men to cope with life in general, and women in particular. ~ Evening Standard.

★★★★★ When has a performer as fully and uniquely sacrificed himself to the moving-picture cause as De Niro? ~ Time Out.

★★★★★ De Niro famously buffed - and then bulked – up for his feral take on ‘40s blue-collar pugilist Jake La Motta and he captures the fighter’s tragic duality in a career-best (Oscar-winning) performance of wild and wiry defiance. ~ Total Film.

★★★★★ It still packs a punch like no boxing movie before or since. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ This is not a film about boxing. This is a film about the human condition and about cinema itself. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ ~ Financial Times.

BBC iPLAYER ~ ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.

~ 1977 Oscar Winner: Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards) + Best Adapted Screenplay + Best Set Decoration + Best Sound.

★★★★★ As smart and cautionary now as it was in the '70s. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ This Oscar-winning thriller about the Watergate burglary is one of the best movies ever made about American politics. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Following Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book, director Alan Pakula and scripter William Goldman make this film a dynamic detective yarn, even though everyone already knows the ending, by covering only the reporters' investigation of the scandal and keeping the administration criminals offscreen. ~ AllMovie.

Despite the twists, turns and exceptionally complex detail of the Watergate scandal, All the President’s Men manages to make it both comprehensible and watchable – with a few flashy fictional touches to gussy up the facts. ~ The Guardian.

BBC iPlayer

DISNEY+ ~ EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

~ 1991 Oscar Nominee: Best Makeup.

★★★★★ A true fairytale, Tim Burton's film, starring Johnny Depp, is sad yet laced with humour and humanity. ~ The Telegraph.

★★★★★ This bewitchingly oddball Beauty and the Beast-style fairy tale is one of the best fantasy films ever made. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Burton's modern-day fable succeeds beautifully as sharp comedy and achingly sad romance. The imaginative set design and spellbinding story are both superb, but the real joys here are the performances, particularly from Depp. It's still one of his finest moments, in a movie that is certainly one of the best fantasy films ever made. ~ Empire.

Disney+

AMAZON PRIME & SKY CINEMA ~ STAND BY ME

~ 1987 Oscar Nominee: Best Adapted Screenplay.

★★★★★ Rob Reiner's bucolic, nostalgic drama is widely agreed to be one of the most successful adaptations of a story by horror master Stephen King - in this case, a novella called The Body from his primarily non-supernatural collection of stories, Different Seasons. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ This is as fresh and moving as it was when it was first released. Superbly acted...the classic of its genre. ~ Empire.

★★★★ Shawshank aside, this is the best non-horror Stephen King adaptation of the bunch. ~ Total Film.