Film Reviews

Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro is a grand symphony of ambition

The heartbreaking drama Monster marks a tremendous return to Japan for Hirokazu Kore-eda

Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali face an unsteady apocalypse in Netflix’s Leave the World Behind

Aki Kaurismaki’s tragicomedy Fallen Leaves is the sweetest surprise of the year

Don’t sleep on Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage’s best movie in ages

Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby rule in the epic Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s late-career masterpiece

Disney’s Wish is a four-star centenary gift to itself, at least when it’s singing

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore get their sweet comeuppance in deliciously frothy May December

Taika Waititi fumbles with minor-league soccer comedy Next Goal Wins

NSYNC, but not ingenious: Trolls Band Together is harmless boy-band background noise

Odds are not in favour of overwhelming Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Sloppy and incomprehensible, The Marvels reveals a superhero machine in full breakdown mode

Slow-burn Canadian film Hands that Bind delivers shattering drama

Paul Giamatti schools Hollywood with wonderfully warm prep-academy dramedy The Holdovers

Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla is the essential antidote to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis

Netflix’s opioid-crisis comedy Pain Hustlers tries too hard to be The Wolf of Walgreens

When Chucky goes to Chuck E. Cheese: Five Nights at Freddy’s is bloodless kiddie horror

John Cena needs work, but surely there were better options than going Freelance

David Fincher’s The Killer is a comedy to die for

Steel yourself for The Delinquents, a slow-motion heist movie worth the jail time

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster save Netflix swimming drama Nyad before it drowns

Brilliant documentary The Mission unravels ages-old saviour complex

Hilariously perverted Dicks: The Musical is a wild, wet ride into the toilet bowl of bad taste

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic masterpiece of tragedy and shame

Foe turns Canadian author Iain Reid’s bestseller into a smouldering sci-fi head-spinner

Quebecois comedy Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person fails to draw blood

Incendiary thriller The Royal Hotel digs into toxic male behaviour from dusk till dawn

The Exorcist: Believer will turn the most faithful horror fan into an atheist

She Came to Me: Finally, a film that reveals the secret sex lives of tugboat captains

Fair Play is not the erotic thriller that Netflix thinks you want, but the sexual-politics nail-biter you need

John Carney’s heartwarming Apple TV+ musical drama Flora and Son deserves to top the charts

AI yi yi: The Creator is thrilling sci-fi entertainment

Lazy sequel Expend4bles is a Stallone-cold bore

Fun but empty GameStonk comedy Dumb Money is The Social Network for, well, dummies

‘J’accuse!’: Kenneth Branagh nearly drowns Poirot dead with the watery A Haunting in Venice

TIFF 2023: Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils is operatic look at morally dubious territory