The Last 5 Films I've Seen

Ghouls just want to have fun: Ghostbusters brings the laughs

1. Barbara (2012): Emotionally and morally complex '80s-set German drama from Christian Petzold, who directed last year's superb Phoenix. Petzold's regular collaborator Nina Hoss is the titular Barbara, an East German doctor exiled to a rural town from Berlin after she applies for an exit visa. Planning to defect to be with her West German lover, Barbara is shadowed by the Stasi, who regularly ransack her room and subject her to humiliating strip searches. Mistrust looms large as Hoss keeps her new colleagues at arm's length, including Ronald Zehrfeld's head physician André, and a palpable sense of paranoia informs the whole thing. But, ultimately, it's a tale of sacrifice and perhaps learning to make the most of what you have. Hoss is, as ever, tremendous and, although low-key, the film skewers Soviet-era Communism quietly and effectively. Rating: WWWW

The good German: Nina Hoss is tremendous in Barbara

2. Summertime (2015): Post-Blue Is The Warmest Colour, any French drama concerning a lesbian love affair is inevitably going to be compared – probably unfavourably – with Abdellatif Kechiche's controversial Palme d'Or winner. But Summertime shouldn't be dismissed so lightly as its a powerful and pleasing piece of work in its own right. Set in 1971, it tells the story of farm girl Delphine who travels to Paris and gets caught up in the city's burgeoning feminist movement. She meets Spanish teacher Carole, and the pair begin a relationship. However, when Delphine's father falls sick, she returns to the farm with the older woman in tow. The pair have to keep their affair a secret from conservative locals, while Delphine struggles to square the circle of wanting to be with Carole but also needing to support her family. It isn't as instantly lovable as Blue... but neither does it fall victim to the graphic clumsiness of that film's sex scenes (although, being French, there is nudity in abundance). Izïa Higelin and Cécile De France are terrific and believable in the lead roles, director Catherine Corsini and her cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie bring the beauty of rural France crackling to life and, come the ending, there won't be a dry eye in the house. Rating: WWW

A place in the sun: Summertime is a fine romance

3. Ghostbusters (2016): With Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat) in the director's chair, Parks & Recreation's Katie Dippold on script duties and Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig leading the cast, there was no way this female-centric remake of the beloved '80s supernatural comedy was ever going to fall flat... whatever the micro-penised trolls of the Internet wanted us to believe otherwise. It might not be as good as the original, could have done with one or two more killer gags and McCarthy is oddly subdued, but it had me smiling from beginning to end, and laughing out loud on at least a couple of occasions (Chris Hemsworth as dopey receptionist Kevin gets the best lines). In fact, there's a sense of joy about the whole enterprise, from Kate McKinnon's larger-than-life turn as nuclear engineer Holtzmann, to some nicely judged cameos from the original cast (Murray! Aykroyd! Weaver! Hudson! Slimer!). Rating: WWW      

Slimelight: Ignore the haters, Ghostbusters is good fun

4. Green Room (2015): Jeremy Saulnier's horror/thriller sees a US punk rock band – The Ain't Rights – finishing an unsuccessful tour with a gig at a backwoods club boasting a worryingly far-right clientele. The group – which includes Arrested Development's Alia Shawcat and the late Anton Yelchin – stumble in on a murder scene and the rest of the film sees them desperately trying to escape before the club's nasty-bastard owner (Patrick Stewart, clearly relishing a turn for the villainous) and his mob of neo-Nazis can silence them. It's tense, intermittently thrilling, and brutal enough to make you flinch, but somehow feels a bit lightweight and straightforward when set against the perceptive exploration of revenge the director offered in Blue Ruin, his far better previous film. Rating: WW

Rock and a hard place: Things go south in Green Room

5. The Legend Of Tarzan (2015): When I was a kid, Tarzan was as much a part of UK pop culture as Doctor Who – I seemed to spend my life surrounded by comics, cartoons, TV shows and old films dedicated to the Lord Of The Jungle. Thirty-odd years down the line, though, Edgar Rice Burroughs's most famous creation has slipped so far outside the zeitgeist, he makes The Six Million Dollar Man look positively hip and happening. The main problem, I suspect, is that the idea of a white English posho lording it over black Africans is, in these more enlightened times, seen as an embarrassing evocation of Empire as well as incredibly racist. Director David Yates and his team tackle this obstacle head on and make a decent fist of repositioning Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) as an honourable cove with nothing but love and respect for the tribes he and wife Jane (Margot Robbie) encounter. Putting the iniquities of the 19th Century slave trade front and centre – and giving Samuel L Jackson a sizeable role in proceedings – help too. It could have done with more humour, some of the plotting is a bit clunky, and I wasn't always convinced by the CGI – especially if you set it against that featured in The Jungle Book. That said, Skarsgård is suitably butch and brooding as the titular character and Christoph Waltz adds another bravura villain turn to his CV. Ultimately, it tries to do too much but, as reboots of classic characters go, I've definitely seen worse. Rating: WW

Jungle fever: The Legend Of Tarzan has its moments

Ratings
WWWW - Wonderful
WWW - Worthwhile
WW - Watchable
W - Woeful

Zootropolis, The Fall and Young Frankenstein: Your Week In Film (July 25-31)

Animal Magic: Zootropolis is smarter than the average animation

UK TV, Radio, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and cinema picks for the next seven days...

Monday 25th: Rabbit cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) teams up with conman fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to unearth a massive conspiracy in Zootropolis (VOD, DVD and Blu-ray), an utterly charming anthropomorphic adventure from Disney. Under the ubiquitous 'You can be anything you want to be' life lessons, there are laughs aplenty, some seriously impressive world building and surprisingly adult themes (when was the last time you saw a 'kids' film' tackle racial profiling?). Byron Howard and Rich Moore's movie is also beautifully written and animated, and packed full of memorable scenes. Not sure why its original US title - Zootopia - was changed for the British market though. We pretty much invented puns over here, you know. Somewhat bleaker is The End Of The Tour (VOD and DVD). Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg are both terrific in a sharp, character-led drama about David Foster Wallace, the acclaimed author of Infinite Jest. Segel, who you will know and probably dislike from bad US sitcoms (How I Met Your Mother) and worse US movies (Sex Tape), is a revelation as the troubled author as he slowly but surely opens up to Eisenberg's pushy journalist. I haven't seen Chet Baker biopic Born To Be Blue yet but will give it a mention here as the film is getting a simultaneous multi-platform release. You can see Robert Budreau's movie - which stars Ethan Hawke as the American jazz trumpeter and vocalist - on VOD, DVD, Blu-ray and in cinemas from today. I dream of a time when all new films can be viewed in the same way. Elsewhere, there's The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films 1917-1923 (Blu-ray), a lovingly-assembled four-disc boxset featuring all 32 of the silent movie legend's shorts, plus a ton of extras. Stanley Kubrick's glorious Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (Blu-ray) is the latest release to be given the swanky Criterion Collection treatment. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

Treasure Jest: The End Of The Tour is a sharp drama

Tuesday 26th: The Wolfpack (22:10, Sky Atlantic) is the head-spinning true story of the Angulos, six brothers raised in a small apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and only very rarely allowed to venture into the outside world by their insanely overprotective parents. Isolated from society, the boys seek refuge in movies, building elaborate props and costumes as they re-enact favourite scenes from the likes of Reservoir Dogs and The Dark Knight. But what happens when they’re all grown up and no longer need follow their parents' diktats? Director Crystal Moselle’s documentary was one of last year's best, even if some journalists accused it of playing fast and loose with the facts of the Angulos' situation. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly star in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief (14:25 and 04:00, Sky Cinema Select). The comedy/thriller from 1955 may be one of Hitch's lighter films, but it has charm and wit to burn, plus two leads at the top of their game. Online subscription service MUBI is showing On The Waterfront from today. Marlon Brando is the ex-boxer taking a stand against corrupt union bosses in Elia Kazan's powerful 1954 drama which won eight Oscars.

Real Steal: Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief

Wednesday 27th: Well, this is embarrassing. Despite being a fan of both Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (It took me about two days to get over United 93 after first seeing it), I've never caught ANY of the Bourne films. Let's call it The Bourne Insufficiency. The latest in the high-octane action series - simply titled Jason Bourne - is in cinemas from today and I clearly have some catching up to do. Also on release from today is The Fall, a documentary that reunites runners Zola Budd and Mary Decker 30+ years after their infamous clash in the 3000 metres final at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Budd - a white South African parachuted into the British team to get round the then-in-force sporting boycott of apartheid - accidentally tripped her American rival during the race and was so mortified she lost the will to go for gold herself. The film is also being shown on Sky Atlantic on Friday (21:00) and repeated on Sunday (12:00). John C Reilly is taken under the wing of Philip Baker Hall's professional gambler in Paul Thomas Anderson's superb Hard Eight (Netflix UK). Everything runs smoothly until he falls in love with Gwyneth Paltrow's cocktail waitress. The ensemble cast - which also includes Samuel L Jackson and Philip Seymour Hoffman - is impressive, Anderson revels in the low-key, sleazy world of casinos and motel rooms, and the twists are worth waiting for. 

Natural Bourne killer: Damon and Greengrass reunite 

Thursday 28th: Steven Spielberg's debut feature Duel (Horror Channel, 10:00) from 1971 sees Dennis Weaver's mild-mannered businessman relentlessly terrorised by the psychotic driver of a truck. It's been called 'Jaws on the highway' and that's a pretty good description of a smart chase movie full of tension and thrills. Jason Bourne director Paul Greengrass gives presenter Francine Stock a masterclass in how to direct a thriller in this week's The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4).

Fury road: Dennis Weaver is in big trouble in The Duel

Friday 29th: Ryan O'Neal is the titular Barry Lyndon in Stanley Kubrick's 10th film, a slow but rewarding 18th Century-set drama which returns to cinemas today. The extravagant period piece (which won four Oscars) sees O'Neal's young Irish rogue shoot a love rival in a duel before embarking on a series of 'misfortunes and disasters', as he battles his way from nothing to become part of the English aristocracy. Long seen as one of Kubrick's lesser works, it seems to have enjoyed something of a critical renaissance in recent years, possibly helped by the likes of Martin Scorsese heaping praise upon it. And quite right too. Also in cinemas is The Commune (VOD and cinemas), a 'bittersweet comedy' from Festen director Thomas Vinterburg; Pixar animation sequel Finding Dory, and Author: The JT LeRoy Story, a documentary recounting the intriguing tale of Laura Albert, a 40-year-old Brooklyn woman who created a 'public avatar' (the titular LeRoy) who quickly became a successful author. More complex and interesting than a mere hoax, Albert used the fake persona to write about painful events from her life she'd have found difficult to discuss under her own name. The Guardian Film Show was a popular weekly video review of new releases that ran for several years on the newspaper's website, until it was controversially canned in a round of cost cutting earlier this year. They tried a daily podcast after that which was pretty awful but now the spirit of the Film Show has returned in the form of The Guardian Film Review. A regular weekly podcast, it's the same as the original show, only presenter Xan Brooks is noticeable by his absence and its audio not video. Still, some fine critics are still on board, including the learned Peter Bradshaw and caustic Catherine Shoard, which makes it worth a listen. Edith Bowman and Robbie Collin sit in for the regular presenters on Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (14:00, BBC Radio 5 Live). Finding Dory star Ellen Degeneres is their guest. MUBI wrap up their season dedicated to Nicolas Winding Refn with My Life, a documentary made by the Danish director's wife, Liv Corfixen, which documents the making of Only God Forgives.

Rogue one: Ryan O'Neal is Barry Lyndon 

Saturday 30th: Versus: The Life And Films Of Ken Loach (21:10, BBC Two) is a celebratory documentary charting the 50-year career of the much-acclaimed British director of Kes, The Wind That Shakes The Barley and the forthcoming I, Daniel Blake. The 80-year-old filmmaker's Sweet Sixteen (23:40, BBC Two) - about a young boy trying to raise the cash to help his mum escape a pair of abusive relationships - follows later in the evening. Elsewhere tonight there's Clint Eastwood's classic revenge western Unforgiven (22:50, ITV4), Arnie fights an alien badass tougher than ALF and E.T. combined in Predator (21:00, Film 4), and the Wachowskis give us Bound (23:10, Film4), a thoroughly enjoyable lesbian crime caper starring Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly.

Too much, too young: Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen

Sunday 31st: Mel Brooks' joyously demented Young Frankenstein (16:40, Movie Mix) is easily your best bet today. For what it's worth, the plot goes like this: neurosurgeon Frederick (Gene Wilder) is the American grandson of Victor von Frankenstein and, having inherited his dead relative's castle, travels to Transylvania. There he encounters hunchback assistant Igor (Marty Feldman) and quickly realises his grandfather's work on reanimating the dead wasn't quite as crazy as he'd first thought. Madness and hilarity ensue. Endlessly quotable ("Fronkensteen"), gloriously silly and laugh-out-loud funny, it's probably only second to The Producers as Brooks' finest moment. 

Monster fun: Wilder in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein

UK box office Top 10
1. Ghostbusters R
2. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift 
3. The Secret Life Of Pets
4. The Legend Of Tarzan R
5. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
6. Secret Cinema: Dirty Dancing
7. Now You See Me 2
8. Central Intelligence 
9. Independence Day: Resurgence 
10. The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case

R = Recommended

All information correct at time of publication

The Last 5 Films I've Seen (from best to worst)

Alienated: The Independence Day sequel is an ungodly mess

1.The Measure Of A Man (2015): Stéphane Brizé's film uses France's economic downturn to explore the effects of austerity on the male psyche; specifically how it can emasculate, humiliate and ultimately dehumanise even the most resolute. Veteran French actor Vincent Lindon (who I last saw a couple of years ago in Claire Denis's excellent Bastards) is Thierry Taugourdeau, a former factory worker struggling to keep his family's head above water after two years of unemployment. But even when he finally lands a job as a security guard at a supermarket, he struggles with the compromises his new position forces him to make. Comparisons to the Dardenne Brothers' Two Days, One Night and, I suspect, Ken Loach's forthcoming I, Daniel Blake are inevitable as all three films explore the human cost of the economic downturn. Lindon is quite brilliant here (he deservedly won the Best Actor award at last year's Cannes) and the whole enterprise is shot through with both authenticity and anger.  

Dirty work: Lindon is superb in The Measure Of A Man

2. Weiner (2016): Candid documentary chronicling the fall of disgraced US politician Anthony Weiner. The appropriately-named Democrat was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 after sending 'dick pics' of himself to women via social media. Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's excellent film picks up his story two years later with Weiner running to be Mayor of New York. Suffice to say, old habits die hard and it isn't long before he and his long-suffering wife - Huma Abedin, an aid to Hillary Clinton - are under siege from the media as his reputation is trashed all over again. You feel desperately sorry for her and a mixture of fury and frustration at Weiner himself, a talented, charismatic politician who could have gone far if he'd only learned to keep Weiner Jr in his pants. 
3. The Invitation (2015): Talking about The Witch on here recently I've mentioned how my favourite horror films are those that, instead of shouting 'Boo!' at you every five minutes, concentrate on creating an atmosphere of looming dread. Director Karyn Kusama's The Invitation (available now on Netflix UK) is one that does just that. Will and his girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner party thrown by his ex-wife Eden and her new man. It takes place at Will and Eden's old place in the Hollywood Hills, the scene of a family tragedy that drove the couple apart. The other guests are a mix of old friends and a couple of vaguely intimidating newbies. Devastated by grief, it quickly becomes clear Eden is no longer the woman Will married and that her new beau and his pals have sinister plans for the other guests. It builds beautifully - something feels off from the moment Will and Kira walk through the door and Kusama has enormous fun working with that to bring the sense of tension and paranoia slowly but surely to boiling point. The last 20 minutes - when everything goes batshit crazy - are well worth the wait.

Dinner crime: Murder's on the menu in The Invitation  

4. The Mermaid (2016): Barking-mad Chinese romantic comedy from Stephen Chow, who you just might remember from 2011's equally crackers Shaolin Soccer. Playboy businessman Liu Xuan buys up a wildlife reserve to further one of his evil capitalist schemes and scares off the local sea life with a sonar device that also lays waste to the area's population of merpeople. The survivors send mermaid Shan (Lin Yun) to assassinate Liu but instead the pair fall for each other. It's ridiculous, with CG like something out of a '70s episode of Doctor Who, but gets by on its breathless energy, madcap performances and buckets of charm. The highest grossing Chinese film of all time, too, apparently.
5. Independence Day: Resurgence (2016): I saw the original Independence Day again quite recently and despite the dodgy ending and iffy dialogue, I loved the way it built the alien threat slowly but surely, as it introduced us to a cast of intriguing characters. It also boasted some smart, ahead-of-its-time FX work, and the scenes set at the Area 51 base are all terrific. This unnecessary and inferior sequel, on the other hand, is an ungodly mess lacking any of the original's charm. Jeff Goldblum is as watchable as ever but there's a big Will Smith-sized hole here that the next generation of alien fighters never even comes close to filling. Best not make it a trilogy, eh?

The Witch, Les Combattants and Star Trek Beyond: Your Week In Film (July 18-24)

Seduction of the innocent: The Witch is a perfect slow-burn horror

Monday 18th: There's only one place to start this week and that is with The Witch (VOD, DVD and Blu-ray). Robert Eggers' debut feature – my favourite film of the year so far – is a masterful exercise in slow-burn horror which sees a 17th century Puritan family (including Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie) battling demons within and without. Exhaustively researched, unsettling and filled to the brim with palpable dread, The Witch is about as far removed from formulaic multiplex 'jump scares' as it is possible to get. Its oppressive tone reminded me of Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man – the kind of film where you know something horrible is coming and meet its eventual arrival with a weird mix of glee and profound apprehension. Ben Wheatley's adaptation of JG Ballard's black-hearted but bleakly satirical 1975 novel High-Rise (VOD, DVD and Blu-ray) is riotously entertaining but, unlike its source material, loses focus about halfway through. It chronicles the collapse of order within a swanky London tower block, complete with more death, destruction and depravity than you can shake a stick at. It isn't really about class war (everyone in the high-rise is comfortably middle class), nor is it a 'yuppie Lord Of The Flies' (no one is trapped or stranded anywhere). It's more about alienation and isolation – the high-rise's well-to-do inhabitants shut themselves away from regular society and are progressively dehumanised as a result. The ubiquitous Tom Hiddleston stars along with Jeremy Irons and Sienna Miller. You’d be hard pressed to find a more unusual or satisfying modern love story than the one contained in Les Combattants (23:15, Film4), a sweet, funny, clever and occasionally spiky French film from debutant director Thomas Cailley. Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs) is bored, restless and unfulfilled, and life as a carpenter in a small coastal town isn’t helping any. Escape arrives in the form of Madeleine (Adèle Haenel), a feisty, serious but peculiar young woman convinced some terrible environmental apocalypse is waiting in the wings for which she must be ready. To improve her survival skills, Madeleine signs up for a two-week army boot camp and the smitten Arnaud tags along. Neither is truly prepared for what awaits them there...

Modern love: Les Combattants is sweet and satisfying

Tuesday 19th: White Bird In A Blizzard (18:10 and 01:30, Sky Cinema Premiere) is a criminally-underrated coming of age/missing person drama which boasts a sharp script and terrific performances from Shailene Woodley and Eva Green. Perhaps not quite as essential as director Gregg Araki's wonderful Mysterious Skin but certainly in the same ballpark. In Videodrome (12:50, Horror Channel) the great Canadian director David Cronenberg gives a masterclass in both body horror and blade-sharp satire. James Woods stars as the owner of an extreme cable TV channel, Blondie's Debbie Harry plays his doomed girlfriend. Long live the new flesh!

Girlhood: Shailene Woodley comes of age in White Bird

Wednesday 20th: Danny Leigh has recently launched Film Now: What The Hell Happened?, a series of six video essays on the BBC website. The series is dedicated to the cinema of the 21st century (so far) and, in its first installment, Leigh looks at the way in which Film itself is referenced in contemporary movies, expertly tying together his thoughts on the likes of Mulholland Drive, Holy Motors and The Act Of Killing. The second essay focuses on Money, specifically modern cinema's reaction to the crash of 2008, using Margin Call, The Wolf Of Wall Street and Spring Breakers as his reference points. Leigh - who you will know from Film 2016 – is a perceptive and original voice in British movie criticism and he's on top form here. Future weeks promise explorations of Sex, Death and Digital. You'll find the series – which has received scant publicity from the Beeb - here. Tangerines (22:00, Sky Cinema Premiere) is an Oscar-nominated pacifist drama set during the 1992-93 Abkhazia conflict when the Georgian government, separatist forces, and Russia were embroiled in a bitter war. Ivo and Margus – farmers who have remained behind in their otherwise-deserted rural village to harvest a crop of the titular fruit – are caught in the crossfire when two bands of warring soldiers clash. The pair take in two of the wounded men – one from each side – and hope they can be nursed back to health and persuaded not to kill each other. Nicely written and acted, uplifting and heartbreaking. Although the likes of The Avengers and Captain America seem to get all the headlines and coverage, X-Men: Days of Future Past (Netflix UK) is one of the better superhero films of the last few years. This time Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and his team send Hugh Jackman's Wolverine back through time to prevent the destruction of mutant-kind at the hands of monstrous giant robots called Sentinels. Evan Peters' debut as Quicksilver is one of many highlights.

Past Imperfect: The X-Men travel back in time  

Thursday 21st: In The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4) Finding Dory director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins reveal why they took the plunge with the sequel to the 2003 hit Finding Nemo. The New Girlfriend – from French director François Ozon – was my favourite film of last year and Potiche (01:35, Film4), one of his earlier movies, is pretty damn good too. Set in the 1970s, it sees Catherine Deneuve – the Potiche or 'trophy wife' of the title – take the reins of the family umbrella manufacturing business when her greedy, philandering husband is hospitalised after being kidnapped by furious employees. She makes a great success of it but her ex-lover (Gérard Depardieu as the town's left-wing Mayor) and fast-recovering hubby ensure things run far from smoothly. Ozon fills his films with so many ideas, themes and smart little touches, you never know what's coming next. This is about romance, marriage, ageing, loyalty, feminism, missed opportunities and capitalism. Deneuve even brings the house down with a song – C'est Beau La Vie (Life Is Beautiful) – at the end.

The good wife: Catherine Deneuve in Potiche

Friday 22nd: I'd forgotten just how much I'd enjoyed JJ Abrams' reboot of Star Trek until I happened to catch it on TV again the other night. It manages to pay fulsome homage to the mythic status of the original show, whilst striking out in a completely fresh and intriguing new direction. To my mind, it's one of the finest blockbusters of the last decade and far preferable to the same director's muddled Star Wars refit. I only mention all this because Star Trek Beyond – the third instalment of the new franchise – is in cinemas from today. Co-written by Simon Pegg (Scotty in the new films) and directed by Justin Lin (Fast & Furious), it sees Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the gang taking on Idris Elba's ruthless space villain Krall. Hopefully the recent and very untimely death of Anton Yelchin (Chekov) won't cast too much of a pall over proceedings. Also hitting the multiplex today is Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG. If the critics are to be believed, the nastier, darker stuff from the author's original tale has been toned down considerably which is a great shame. The excellent Mark Rylance plays the Big Friendly Giant of the title which is reason enough to check it out though. Chico & Rita (12:30, BBC2) is a gorgeous animation set in 1940s Havana about the passionate romance between pianist Chico and singer Rita. My only gripe is its flagrant rewriting of history: apparently everything in Cuba was just hunky dory until that nasty old communist Fidel Castro turned up and ruined everything. I've written about Paul Verhoeven's terrific Total Recall (22:40, ITV) several times before so this is just a heads up really. I hope we get the Dutch director's new film, Elle (starring Isabelle Hupert), sometime before the end of the year. Online subscription service MUBI continues its Nicolas Winding Refn season with Only God Forgives, which sees the Danish director re-team with Drive star Ryan Gosling. It's a revenge film of sorts – high on style, low on dialogue – that works its way through a series of themes, including honour, masculinity and Oedipal rage. In other words, it's NWR at his most divisive. Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (14:00, BBC Radio 5 Live) is back to its proper day and time after several weeks of sports-related interruptions. No idea who their guest is this week though.

Risky Enterprise: The crew return in Star Trek Beyond 

Saturday 23rd: I'm rather hoping Ryan Reynolds' popular turn as Deadpool might get a few more eyeballs across Mississippi Grind (Amazon Prime Video). It's an atmospheric comedy/drama about a pair of gambling addicts on a road trip to a big poker game. Reynolds acquits himself well here but it's Ben Mendelsohn – a dishevelled study in quiet desperation – who really impresses. Toy Story (17:15, BBC1) is Pixar perfection from beginning to end – a truly great film about friendship, imagination and childhood. Beautifully animated, perfectly cast (Tom Hanks the standout), funny, melancholic – I could go on. Grease (17:55, Channel 4) sees John Travolta's Alpha Arsehole and his gang of bullyng shits conspire with their female counterparts to turn poor Olivia Newton John into the sort of shameless hussy who, get this, wears leather trousers and smokes cigarettes. The songs are good though, especially that one about the car especially for cats ('You know that I ain't braggin', she's a real pussy wagon, Greased Lightning!'). Later on, Andrew Garfield makes an impressive debut as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man (19:45, ITV), teenage dirtbags Jay, Simon, Neil and Will go on holiday in The Inbetweeners Movie (22:00, Channel 4) and Denzel Washington lights up Spike Lee siege drama Inside Man (22:35, ITV).

Long shot: Mendelsohn & Reynolds in Mississippi Grind

Sunday 24th: Your best TV bets today couldn't be more different. Finding Nemo (17:30, Channel 4) probably isn't quite in the same league as Pixar's best work (The Incredibles, the Toy Story trilogy) but it has charm by the bucketload and plenty of laughs. Ellen Degeneres steals the show as Dory, the blue tang with a short-term memory loss problem. A sequel dedicated to her character (Finding Dory) opens in the UK next week. In stark contrast is American Psycho (21:00, Horror Channel), Mary Haron's endlessly quotable, frequently hilarious and gloriously blood-splattered adaptation of the infamous Bret Easton Ellis novel. Christian Bale is all too believable as yuppie 'serial killer' Patrick Bateman.

All killer no filler: Christian Bale in American Psycho

UK box office top 10
1. The Secret Life Of Pets
2. The Legend Of Tarzan
3. Now You See Me 2
4. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
5. Central Intelligence
6. Sultan
7. Independence Day: Resurgence 
8. The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case
9. The Neon Demon
10. Me Before You

All information correct at time of publication

The Last 5 Films I've Seen

Cruz control: The Spanish actress is at her best in Volver

1. Volver (2006): Pedro Almodovar's female-centric family drama focuses on the supposed return from death of Irene (Carmen Maura), a wife and mother thought to have perished in a fire many years before. The woman – or perhaps her spirit – reappears at an opportune time as daughter Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) has more than enough troubles of her own. The veteran Spanish director adds a dash of magical realism to give the film's soapy, melodramatic feel an intriguing extra level and it left me struggling to recall the last time Cruz had a Hollywood role half this good. Despite exploring themes such as death and sexual abuse, Almodovar's lightness of touch somehow prevents proceedings from ever growing too dark. 
2. By The Sea (2015): Angelina Jolie wrote and directed this 1970s-set vehicle for her and hubby Brad Pitt about a married couple retreating to the South of France in a desperate bid to save their foundering relationship. It was mostly met with critical disdain and box office indifference upon release last year but surely deserves a reappraisal. It's slow, repetitive and the script is occasionally clunky, yet I rather enjoyed its sun-kissed ennui and amusingly vanilla eroticism. Jolie - excellent here as the beautiful, icy but hopelessly lost Vanessa - clearly carries a torch for '60s and '70s European cinema, specifically Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mépris, at one point paying homage to Brigitte Bardot's famous bath tub scene.
3. The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015): Based on the infamous 1971 experiment of the title in which a Stanford professor - Doctor Philip Zimbardo (Billy Crudup) - set-up a makeshift prison in the university itself. He recruited 24 male volunteers - 12 played the role of guards, 12 the role of prisoners - and sat back to study the psychological effects on his subjects. He got rather more than he bargained for as those playing guards quickly became more and more authoritarian, aggressive and downright unpleasant. There's genuine craft in the way in which director Kyle Patrick Alvarez's camera roams the narrow corridor and tiny cells, ratcheting up the claustrophobia and tension. The elephant in the room, though, is that the experiment is so well known the film contains few surprises. What should be genuinely shocking simply isn't - it therefore lacks an edge and, despite the nastiness that goes on, you never really believe anything bad is going to happen.
4. Brahman Naman (2016): Eighties-set Indian teen sex comedy (available via Netflix) that homages the likes of Porky's, American Pie and Superbad, while mounting a fairly scathing critique of the country's caste system. It follows the members of a crack university quiz team - including the titular Naman - as they travel to a nationwide championship in Calcutta. Not only do they hope to win top prize but lose their virginities along the way. There are moments as amusingly outrageous as anything you'll see in the US movies mentioned above (Naman's inventive masturbation techniques are a jaw-dropping highlight) but the main problem with Qaushiq Mukherjee's film is that his main character is so thoroughly unlikeable. Naman is a drunk, a snob and a misogynist. You don't want him to succeed or get laid, you want someone to come along and kick his arse which, thinking about it, may well have been Mukherjee's intention.
5. Adult Life Skills (2016): Following last year's Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, here's another movie with an irritatingly whimsical approach to the subject of death. Jodie Whittaker is Anna, a 29-year-old woman who, following the demise of her beloved twin brother, has retreated from the world into her mum's shed. She lives surrounded by her sibling's belongings and all her cultural references are from the rose-tinted past she shared with him (The Goonies, Rocky, David Hasselhoff). There are some decent lines and a couple of chucklesome moments but mostly it's the cinematic equivalent of one of those TV ads for banks, in which a singer with an 'ickle girl' voice plucks out a quirky cover version of Smells Like Teen Spirit on a ukulele.

Ghostbusters, The Hard Stop and Theeb: Your Week In Film (July 11-17)

The whole tooth: The Coens are on top form with Hail, Caesar!

Monday 11th: Who you gonna call? Certainly not Ghostbusters because, get this, they're ALL BLOODY GIRLS NOW! How can girls bust ghosts when they'd have to stop every five minutes to worry about periods and make-up and whether they fancy Justin Bieber or not? Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and the other two have kidnapped my childhood, put it in a sack, taken a big wee on it, then thrown it in the river. It's absolute sacrilege, just like that time when I made a petition to get Ben Affleck sacked from playing Batman. He was really good as it turned out and not a woman, but that's beside the point – if we give in to the PC feminazi brigade over this, before we know it there'll be a black Captain America, a female Thor, and a black female Iron Man. And further more... sorry, what? There is? Dear god... i-if anyone wants me I'll be at my gentleman's club drinking scotch and growing a neck beard. (Paul Feig's Ghostbusters is in cinemas from today).

That's the spirit: Ghostbusters is in UK cinemas now 

On the home entertainment front, three films that made my top 20 of the year so far are out today in various formats and all are worth parting with your hard-earned cash for. Hail, Caesar! (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) is the Coen Brothers' love letter to old Hollywood - it oozes warmth, wit and charm. Somewhat darker is Deniz Gamze Ergüven's drama Mustang (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD), about five orphaned Turkish sisters who are held prisoner by their conservative guardians after being caught fraternising with local boys. Couple In A Hole (DVD) is a real hidden gem; Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are the titular marrieds living like savages in a French forest following a family tragedy. 

Sister act: Mustang is a dark but defiant drama

In fact, it's an uncommonly excellent week for home entertainment releases because also out today are Charlie Kaufman's stop-motion oddity Anomalisa (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD), Ken Russell's satirically seedy Crimes Of Passion (Dual Format), gripping psychodrama Queen Of Earth (Dual Format) and Andrei Tarkovsky's 15th century-set Russian epic Andrei Rublev (DVD and Blu-ray). TV-wise, Joseph Gordon-Levitt just about gets away with his outrageous French accent in The Walk (20:00, Sky Cinema Premiere) as he plays high-wire artist Philippe Petit who, in 1974, walked between the towers of the World Trade Centre.

French connection: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Walk

Tuesday 12th: There's only place to be tonight and that's sat in front of the box watching Film4. They are serving up a fine hat-trick of marvellous movies, starting off with Bridesmaids (21:00). Due to the release of Ghostbusters, the channel is showing several Melissa McCarthy movies this week and this smart and raucous wedding comedy gets proceedings off to a cracking start. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Rose Byrne also star. Based on a true story, Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring (23:25) is a deliberately slight but blade-sharp reflection on celebrity culture, consumerism and class. A gang of fame-obsessed teenagers – including Emma Watson’s Nicki – use the internet to track favourite celebs’ whereabouts in order to rob their homes. Of course, their crime spree can’t continue and it isn’t long before they start showing up on stars’ security footage all over Los Angeles. A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (01:10) is an utterly surreal and gloriously downbeat Swedish movie that should appeal to any self-respecting fan of British/Irish comedy. Spike Milligan, Samuel Beckett, Monty Python and the sitcoms of Dick Clement and Ian De Frenais are all invoked in a film that plays out as a series of sketches, most featuring two hopeless travelling salesmen. Roy Andersson's work is an acquired taste for sure but one you should definitely have a nibble on.

Special Branch: The surreal delights of Swedish cinema

Wednesday 13th: Do my eyes deceive me or are Sky actually showing a sub-titled foreign language film on their main movie channel? Yes, it's really happening and they've picked a very good one. In Arabic, Theeb (22:35 and 02:35, Sky Cinema Premiere, also available on NOW TV) is a powerful coming-of-age tale, set in the years before WWI, about a young Bedouin boy marooned in the desert with an injured bandit after the death of his brother. It's a beautiful-looking piece of work (shades of Lawrence Of Arabia at times) and effortlessly carried by youngster Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat as the titular Theeb. British-Jordanian director Naji Abu Nowar's film is refreshingly unpredictable, too, managing to totally wrong-foot me twice.

Desert storm: Theeb makes its debut on Sky Cinema 

Thursday 14th: Francine Stock presents 'Ghostbusters Revisited' in this week's The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4), in which the Comedians Cinema Club offer their "unique take" on the beloved '80s comedy, the reboot of which is in cinemas now. There's more Melissa McCarthy on Film4 tonight and The Heat (21:00) is probably my favourite of her collaborations with director Paul Feig. McCarthy plays a foul-mouthed and monumentally scuzzy Boston police detective who has to team up with Sandra Bullock's prissy FBI agent to bring down a gang of ruthless drug smugglers. Whilst it's true to say these 'buddy cop' movies all have very similar structures and tropes, The Heat is elevated greatly by the chemistry of its two stars and a whip-smart script. Subscription streaming service MUBI adds cracking 1950s western Shane to its catalogue today. Alan Ladd is the reformed gunslinger forced to come out of retirement when a ruthless cattle baron and his hired goon (Jack Palance) start menacing locals.

History Of Violence: Ladd's a retired gunslinger in Shane

Friday 15th: It's an unusually low-key Friday in cinemas (too many blockbusters all out at the same time?) but I shall certainly be checking out The Hard Stop. George Amponsah's documentary focuses on the aftermath of the 2011 killing of Marc Duggan by police and the riots and lawlessness in Tottenham it provoked. Amponsah visits Duggan's neighbourhood and talks to his friends, Marcus and Curtis, who are still coming to terms with his death while trying to make a life for themselves. The Hard Stop seems like an honest attempt to humanise young men often vilified and deliberately misrepresented in the media and for that it should be applauded. With The Neon Demon still in cinemas and dividing audiences, MUBI has a Nicholas Winding Refn season in full swing. His startling low-budget debut Pusher was added last week and Drive joins it from today. The Danish auteur's masterful LA noir stars Ryan Gosling as a mysterious, taciturn car mechanic/stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver. Gosling - his character doesn't have a name - runs bumper-first into trouble when he agrees to help out his struggling neighbour Carey Mulligan. It's stylish, stunning and one of my favourite films of the last decade. Kermode And Mayo's Film Review isn't even on the radio today, the golf has relegated it to the Five Live website (14:00). However, the show will be aired on the station on Saturday evening at 19:00. As I've said before, you'd be much better off just listening to the podcast. Chris Pine is this week's guest, talking about Star Trek Beyond. The excellent Nina Hoss stars as the titular Barbara (00:30, BBC2) in Christian Petzold's tale of life under the Stasi in 1980s East Germany. It's powerful, gripping stuff, every bit as good as last year's Phoenix which marked the pair's sixth collaboration. 

The riot club: The Hard Stop returns to Tottenham

Saturday 16th: Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen star in The Desolation Of Smaug (19:45, ITV), probably the best of Peter Jackson's much-maligned Hobbit films. Smaug himself - a skyscraper-sized dragon voiced with wicked relish by Benedict Cumberbatch - makes the interminable running time and less interesting subplots worth enduring. Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (21:30, Channel 4) is a psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a traumatised US marshal investigating the disappearance from an insane asylum of a woman (Emily Mortimer) who killed her three children. Not one of the director's best films but tension drips from every frame. 

Sunday 17th: I have a confession to make. I've never seen The Lion King (18:15, Channel 4) - nope, not even when my kids were little. The words 'Songs by Elton John and Tim Rice' were enough to put me off for life, I'm afraid. Thor (20:00, Channel 4) isn't in the same class as Marvel's best films (Iron Man, The Guardians Of The Galaxy) but a strong cast - including Tom Hiddleston as the titular character's treacherous half-brother Loki - keeps things interesting. Daniel Craig made his debut as James Bond in Casino Royale (21:00, ITV) and immediately gave the 007 franchise a much-needed shot in the arm. He's helped enormously by Mads Mikkelsen as bad-guy Le Chiffre, a corrupt banker who finances terrorists. 

Plastered: DiCaprio is traumatised in Shutter Island

UK box office top 10
1. The Secret Life Of Pets
2. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
3. Central Intelligence 
4. Independence Day: Resurgence 
5. The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case
6. Me Before You 
7. The Nice Guys R
8. Alice Through The Looking Glass 
9. The Jungle Book R
10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows 

R = Recommended

All information correct at time of publication

My 20 favourite films of the year so far

Strange brew: The Witch is my film of the year... so far

To qualify for this list, films had to have had a UK cinema release between January 1 and June 30 2016. That some of these films were out in the States (or elsewhere) last year is irrelevant; it's only when they were released here - in the United Kingdom - that matters to me. I haven't included any movies that went straight to VOD, DVD etc - they will probably get their own 'best of' list at the end of the year. 

1. The Witch

Director: Robert Eggers UK release date: March 11

Eggers' debut feature is a masterful exercise in slow-burn horror which sees a 17th century Puritan family battling demons within and without. Impressively researched, unsettling and filled to the brim with palpable dread, The Witch is about as far removed from formulaic multiplex 'jump scares' as it is possible to get.

2. Victoria

Director: Sebastian Schipper UK release date: April 1

German crime thriller about a naive young Madrid girl led into criminality by a group of men on the mean streets of Berlin. An incredibly impressive technical achievement (the film was shot in one long take - no tricks, no shortcuts), that Laia Costa - the Victoria of the title - imbues with real heart and soul.

3. Son Of Saul
Director: László Nemes UK release date: April 29
We've seen the hell of the WWII death camps on film before but never quite like this. Set in Auschwitz in 1944, it tells the story of a Jewish Sonderkommando (a prisoner forced to help the Nazis dispose of dead bodies) trying to arrange a proper burial for a boy he believes to be his son. Profoundly moving and utterly heartbreaking.

4. Couple In A Hole

Director: Tom Geens UK release date: April 8

Harrowing drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife living like savages in a French forest. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb in a tale that perfectly blends pitch-black humour and gut-wrenching emotion. 

5. Spotlight

Director: Tom McCarthy UK release date: January 29

The Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into a local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Its absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine.

6. Embrace Of The Serpent
Directors: Ciro Guerra UK release date: June 10

The story of an Amazonian shaman and his relationship (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with two European scientists - 40 years apart - as they descend into the great river's heart of darkness, searching for a mythical plant with great healing properties. Big themes, sumptuous cinematography and moments both disturbing and thrilling make for an intoxicating brew. 

7. Hail, Caesar!
Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen UK release date: March 4
Slight but joyous love letter to Hollywood past with wit and charm to burn. Full of great performances (George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich) and clever pastiches of old movies, especially Channing Tatum's No Dames, an hilariously homoerotic song and dance number featuring a bar full of sailors.
8. Mustang
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven UK release date: May 13

Oscar-nominated drama chronicling the lives of five orphaned Turkish sisters, imprisoned then forced into marriage by their conservative guardians. Its subject matter is dark but the film never slips into clumsy melodrama. Instead, it is hopeful and defiant.

9. Welcome To Me
Director: Shira Piven UK release date: March 25
Kristen Wiig is a revelation as a bipolar woman who scoops $86million in the lottery and uses the cash to buy her own (bizarre) talk show. It's surreal, sad, funny and human but most importantly refuses to patronise or infantilise its protagonist.

10. Remainder
Director: Omer Fast UK release date: June 24

Tricksy but inventive memory-loss drama in which Tom Sturridge forgets vast swathes of his past when he is hit on the head by an object falling from a London office block. Constantly has you on the back foot as its plot shifts from downbeat melodrama to surreal crime caper.

11. The Big Short

Director: Adam McKay UK release date: January 22

A breathlessly entertaining dissection of 2008's global financial meltdown, seen through the eyes of the men who knew it was coming and got filthy rich as a result. Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling are all great and McKay must be applauded for the inventive, fun ways in which he explains some pretty tricky concepts. Smug? A bit. Smart? Most definitely.

12. Joy

Director: David O Russell UK release date: January 1

This unconventional biopic of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano has some interesting things to say about the entrepreneurial spirit and American capitalism - i.e. battling to get rich can harm your relationships, strip you of your innocence and play havoc with your dress sense. Jennifer Lawrence, in the title role, is as ridiculously charming as ever. 
13. Eye In The Sky

Director: Gavin Hood UK release date: April 15

Incredibly tense examination of modern drone warfare, which is also surprisingly complex and refreshingly even-handed. Boasts terrific performances from Helen Mirren and the late Alan Rickman, in his final screen role.

14. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau UK release date: April 15
Rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific (Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson).

15. Welcome To Leith
Directors: Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker UK release date: February 12

Chilling documentary about a group of neo-Nazis - led by notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb - attempting to take over a tiny North Dakotan town. The locals are initially caught on the back foot, but it isn't long before they organise a fightback in hopes of sending Cobb and his toy-town Gestapo packing. 

16. Zootropolis
Directors: Byron Howard and Rich Moore UK release date: March 25
A rabbit cop teams up with a criminal fox to unearth a massive conspiracy in Disney's utterly charming anthropomorphic adventure. Under the ubiquitous 'You can be anything you want to be' life lessons, there are laughs aplenty, seriously impressive world building and some surprisingly adult themes. Beautifully written and animated, this is a joy from start to finish.
17. Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures
Directors: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato UK release date: April 22
Fascinating documentary chronicling the life and controversial career of US photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989. As well as presenting an honest portrait of his many relationships (including with Patti Smith), it expertly charts the increasing sophistication of his work. There was an awful lot more to the man than a dozen or so notorious S&M shots.

18. Youth
Director: Paolo Sorrentino UK release date: January 29

Sorrentino's follow up to the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty is an eccentric, tragicomic meditation on old age, grief and regret. Michael Caine is reliably superb as the retired composer waiting for the end at an exclusive Swiss spa, while Harvey Keitel turns in his best performance for years as a movie director chasing past glories.

19. Everybody Wants Some!!
Director: Richard Linklater UK release date: May 13
'Spiritual sequel' to the director's superior Dazed And Confused, this time focusing on the members of a 1980 Texas college baseball team. Beer is downed, weed is smoked, trash is talked, and occasionally these likeable jocks get around to hitting a ball or two. Good clean fun bathed in enough rose-tinted nostalgia to float a battleship.
20. Goodnight Mommy
Directors: Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz UK release date: March 4

Unsettling Austrian horror about twin boys who become convinced their mother is no longer who she says she is. Directing duo Fiala and Franz build the levels of tension, paranoia and nastiness very nicely but I'm not sure the finale's big twist is entirely necessary.