Captain America Brave New World: Very, very okay. Some things happen and they are sort of fine I guess, and then more things happen which are also not particularly good or bad. Looks like they did an okay job of rescuing it from all the reshoots in the edit. Then it ends. Okay.

Just Mercy (BBC iPlayer): Real life story of a lawyer that fought for inmates on death row. Pretty effective if unspectacular, raised by good performances and the nature of being something that really happened. Solid.

Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy: Much better than expected. Mostly frothy with some fun moments, but also spends a lot of time being a tender study of grief and aging. Zellweger effortlessly charming, Hugh Grant steal every scene he's in. Really quite sweet.

You're Cordially Invited (Amazon Prime): Two families clash over a double booked wedding venue. I counted 3 good laughs. This is a comedy that spends more time on character development than normal which is fine, but kinda forgets to be funny too most of the time. Sorta okay.

Here: Here: Single fixed shot tells the story of a living room over a 100 years plus. Could have been an interesting setup but the story Zemeckis tells is mawkish, trite and shallow. Some real hokey lines. The uncanny valley de-aging technology doesn't help either. A swing & a miss.

Becoming Led Zeppelin: Documentary about the formation and early years of the band, with unearthed archive footage and new interviews. Enjoyable if unchallenging, with Page particularly interesting to hear from. Perhaps overlong at 2h17m. Good times.

Love Hurts: Ke Huy Quan does the 'mild old guy who was secretly a hit man' thing. One good scene aside, the action is pretty weak. The Valentines theme and plot is really misjudged and poorly executed. Disappointing.

September 5: Dramatisation of the TV crew that followed the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics. A masterclass of building tension despite showing nothing of the event itself. Smart editing and some good performance real carry through a sense of urgency. Really good.

Companion: Was excited about this because it is from the same team that made Barbarian, but this is a lot more conventional than that. Fairly lightweight but still plenty enjoyable, with the cast all having a good deal of fun with it. A good time.

The Killer's Game (Amazon Prime): Jon Wick knockoff plays out like a cheap video game. Was hoping for daft fun but it's a bit lacking, and Bautista too immobile to convince with the action. There's a Dylan Moran cameo though where out-acts everyone, bit odd. Not great.

Presence: Another experimental technical showpiece from Soderbergh, this time an entire film shot in a single house from the perspective of a ghost. Mostly a familial drama in truth, with the spirit gradually becoming more involved. Works really well. Very good.

Wolf Man: Some interesting stuff going on here, especially when it just sticks to the horror aspect. The familial drama stuff doesn't work so well though, with the dialogue especially clunky. But some fun moments of tension, shot effectively.

Flight Risk: Mel Gibson back in the director's chair. Fairly generic action thriller, but Topher Grace and Mark Wahlberg (playing against type) are having fun at least. If you ignore the dumb decisions typical to the genre and enjoy it for what it is then it's watchable enough.

The Brutalist: Unashamedly epic in tone, feeling like an adaptation of a great American novel despite being an original. Brody is surely an absolutely lock for the Oscar, an incredibly subtle and versatile perfomance. Guy Pearce should join him for supporting. Excellent.

Nickel Boys: The first person shooting style - think Peep Show - takes a bit of getting used to but ultimately reveals sheer magic. A gorgeous, dreamlike, beautiful, contemplative film about an extremely dark subject. Gentle, moving and intimate. Absolutely magnificent.

Saturday Night: Dramatization of 90 minutes before the first ever SNL, played out in basically real time. Breezy & entertaining with plenty of laughs. Saccharine and cheesy at times, and seeing actors play people you know so well can be distracting. But an easy, enjoyable watch.

A Complete Unknown: Decent musical biopic with excellent performances, with both Ed Norton and Chalomet fantastic. Otherwise mostly a surface level speed run of events, but the strength of the music is obviously a huge boon. Not sure the genre has recovered yet from Walk Hard.

Maria: Biopic of opera singer Maria Callas, mostly framed around the last week of her life. Easy to forget Angelina Jolie is a great actress, so long has she been away, but she is very good here. The film is kind of interesting but really slow so a bit of a struggle at times.

Babygirl: Steamy drama. Nicole Kidman's performance is certainly brave and committed, and the film is certainly full on. But it doesn't seem to really say much or go anywhere and kind of peters out in failing to find a narrative thrust or any kind of ending. Bit muddled.

A Real Pain: Talky indie. Two very different American cousins go on a guided tour of Poland. Keiran Culkin is excellent as the troubled but charismatic one, bouncing off Jesse Eisenberg's more introverted character. Interesting character study, finds something real. Very good.

We Live In Time: Romantic weepie. Makes good use of its non-linear structure, and elevated by two extremely strong performances by Garfield and particularly Pugh. Has some great two-hander scenes that really shine, with natural and interesting conversations. Pretty good.

Nosferatu: Gothic horror melodrama. A masterpiece of sound and visuals, screaming with style and relentless in building and maintaining tension. Not without flaws particularly in the mannered forms of speech, but who cares when it looks and sounds this good. Fantastic.

a man with a beard sits in an empty auditorium ALT: a man with a beard sits in an empty auditorium

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