A QUIET PLACE ★★★★★
Directed by John Krasinski. Starring Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe. 15A cert, general release, 90 min
A family struggles to noiselessly survive a post-apocalyptic world in which alien invaders hunt by sound. They have something of an edge against the mysterious creatures that have depopulated the planet: the eldest daughter (the remarkable Simmonds) is deaf. While others have perished, sign language has allowed the family to communicate in their remote, survivalist-friendly farm. Nail-biting thrills, family drama, and a perfectly calibrated high concept ensure that this as good a film as you'll see this year. Full review/trailer TB
MICHAEL INSIDE ★★★★
Directed by Frank Berry. Starring Dafhyd Flynn, Moe Dunford, Lalor Roddy, Robbie Walsh, Steve Blount, Hazel Doupe. 15A cert, general release, 96 min
Flynn is terrific as a young Dubliner who gets cast on the slippery slope when he's banged up for a minor offense. Dunford is charismatic as the bully on the yard. Berry's follow up to I Used to Live Here is technically assured: enveloping score by Daragh O'Toole; oily, claustrophobic camerawork from Tom Comerford; an astonishing lead performance by Flynn. But it the generous humanism underlying the documentary realism that really sets it apart. Full review/trailer DC
120 BPM ★★★★
Directed by Robin Campillo. Starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, Adèle Haenel, Antoine Reinartz, Félix Maritaud, Ariel Borenstein, Aloïse Sauvage. 16 cert, general release, 143 min
Sprawling, exciting study of the Act Up awareness campaign during the Aids crisis in Paris. The picture's desire to touch on all relevant issues perhaps explains why the analysis is sometimes a little sketchy. Haemophiliacs and transgendered people had their own specific concerns; a continuing prudishness kept governments from offering useful advice on sexual health. The personal drama at the heart of the picture remains hugely touching. An admirably ambitious epic. DC
GHOST STORIES ★★★★
Directed by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. Starring Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman, Alex Lawther, Nicholas Burns, Jill Halfpenny, Paul Whitehouse. 16 cert, general release, 98 min
A prickly nightwatchman (Whitehouse) hears terrible things while guarding a derelict building once used as an asylum for female patients. A nervy, bullied young man (Lawther) is involved in a hit-and-run incident with a demonic beast while driving deep in a forest. A wealthy high-flier from the financial sector (Martin Freeman, oozing smug) is terrorised by a poltergeist just as his wife is going into labour. This is a modern Dead of Night portmanteau from Andy Nyman (the co-creator of Darren Brown's stage shows) and The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson. TB
THOROUGHBREDS ★★★★
Directed by Cory Finley. Starring Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, Paul Sparks, Francie Swift, Kaili Vernoff. 15A cert, general release, 92 min
Sparky, angular amalgam of Heathers and Double Indemnity starring Cooke and Taylor-Joy as Connecticut rich kids who talk their way into a murder plot. It's sharp and clever and features a delightful final performance from the late Anton Yelchin as a deluded loser too dumb to understand how the girls plan to manipulate him. The film is, perhaps, a little short on plot, but its nastiness is very welcome. DC
ISLE OF DOGS ★★★★★
Directed by Wes Anderson. Voices of Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Ken Watanabe, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono. PG cert, general release, 101 min
In a futuristic Japan, a thuggish, totalitarian Mayor Kobayashi – the descendant of a long line of cat fanciers – uses an outbreak of snout fever to justify the banishment of all canines. The puppers and doggos of Megasaki City are accordingly rounded up and dumped on Trash Island. Here, the mutts scrap in marvellous cottonwood dust-ups and struggle to survive on maggoty morsels. Wes Anderson's second stop-motion film (after Fantastic Mr Fox) doesn't put a paw wrong. Full review/trailer TB
