VOD: Annihilation (dir: Alex Garland, 2018)

"God didn't make mistakes - that's somewhat key to the whole being-a-God thing."
"Pretty sure he does."

With the planet under a growing threat from a destructive zone named The Shimmer after a meteor strike, Alex Garland's latest film shows all his trademark intelligence, careful construction and visual aplomb.  Natalie Portman works well as the seemingly-bereaved biologist who joins a quartet of women set to explore The Shimmer, with a tight focus on their fracturing minds and bodies.  The pace is languorous, but the storytelling and dialogue are economic and efficient, and there are some excellent visual ideas (with gorgeous colour-saturated natural sights), and with some appropriate genre nods to Alien, The Thing and 2001.  Ultimately, the trip into this other environment is very reminiscent of Apocalypse Now but with scientists, and the intriguing final act proves an interesting challenge.  Annihilation is perhaps not the easiest film to market without misrepresenting it to the audience, but its mix of sci-fi, philosophy, body horror and creature-feature maintains interest.

VOD: Veronica (dir: Paco Plaza, 2018)

"'Once prodded, the imagination is a horse run wild....'"

When the internet exploded with claims that Veronica is 'the most terrifying film ever', you simply knew that it would not be the case, but the film - directed by one half of the [REC] duo - certainly does its best to unsettle.  Apparently based on a true story, Sandra Escacena does a very good job portraying the 15-year-old titular protagonist, who with her friends makes the obvious error of using a Ouija board during a solar eclipse, not just contacting her late father but also enabling another evil spirit to latch on to her and attack the family and their home in Madrid, 1991.  Direction is stylish and very well controlled, the sound mix is a vital component (headphones advised) and Chucky Namanera's score is a retro-synth delight.  A lot of possession/poltergeist conventions are neatly ticked off, but there are some very uncomfortable moments involving Veronica's younger siblings and some nicely-played-out sequences with an interesting finale (although it does get a bit Dario Argento at times), making Veronica a quality Euro horror overall.

VOD: The Young Offenders (dir: Peter Foott, 2016)

"Ignorance really is bliss...and we had s**tloads of it...."

The movie that introduced amiable idiots Conor and Jock to the world and subsequently spawned a wonderful TV series is in itself a comedy treat.  Using many of the locations and most of the main characters that have become familiar, the movie is based on the 2007 scuttling of a cocaine-smuggling vessel off the Irish coast and our fictional heroes' subsequent road (cycle?) trip to obtain a package and become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.  Although not quite as big-hearted as the small-screen series (and lacking the girls), the film is warm, hugely funny, very well-played by all concerned and the central relationship is an utter delight.  Pitched somewhere between The Inbetweeners and This Country, if you have not yet discovered The Young Offenders, this little bit of joy awaits.

FILM: Lady Bird (dir: Greta Gerwig, 2018)

"I'm just happy!"

This whistle-stop tour of the eponymous teenager's final year at high school is delightful, charming, funny and engagingly honest.  Taking the form of a series of rapid-fire vignettes, this is a real triumph for writer-director Greta Gerwig as the remarkable cast land the fully-formed and expertly played characters  scene after scene with enjoyably effective precision, notably Soairse Ronan's most enjoyable performance so far and the excellent Laurie Metcalf delivering an extraordinary character study as the damaged but loving mother.  Its ordinariness is its strength, as the simplest of moments can take great importance in the life of a teenager, but this film is so well-observed and wrangles powerful themes into a hugely enjoyable whole.

FILM: The Shape Of Water (dir: Guillermo del Toro, 2018)

"It's beautiful."

With a huge weight of expectation from early festival screenings and awards, The Shape Of Water more or less lives up to the hype.  This is, at its heart, a simple fable, a universal love story that tells its story quite brilliantly.  At his best - and he is here - del Toro walks an intriguing tightrope between melodrama and fantasy, and in this movie every scene has a purpose, every detail is lovingly crafted on screen from the period sets to the finely judged performances (Sally Hawkins is stunning, Doug Jones creates an extraordinarily sympathetic creature-character, and Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins and Michael Shannon all provide very admirable support).  It also is imbued with a love of cinema (as a medium and as a place) and musicals (one very La La Land sequence will melt even the hardest of hearts), and it is not afraid to raise issues of racism and homophobia of the time.  It could be argued that the entire plot is very predictable, but this is story-telling used with such verve, panache and beauty that is quite captivating.

FILM: Tad The Explorer and The Secret Of King Midas (dirs: David Alonso and Enrique Gato, 2018)

"You are definitely punching above your weight!"

This wonderfully daft and somewhat lightweight animation is both undemandingly enjoyable and amusing.  It is unashamedly Indiana Jones for little children, with a simple quest, amiable characters (including a mummy sidekick that plays like a bizarre-but-entertaining PG-rated version of Roger from American Dad!) and enough colour, energy and ideas to fill its lean running time purposefully.

FILM: Black Panther IMAX 3D (dir: Ryan Coogler, 2018)

"Just because it works, it doesn't mean that it cannot be improved."

Marvel is now in the position of being able to re-use its successful formula template but mixing it up in terms of styles and concepts, and Black Panther brings it back to basics in many ways: it is a stunningly successful fusion of straight drama, fantasy, action and - of course - superhero tropes that is supremely engaging and extremely entertaining.  Ryan Coogler creates a very dynamic film, through the excellent flow of different textures, superb action sequences (there is a moment in the Fast And Furious-style car chase that makes you want to stand up and applaud) and working with an unbelievably powerful and watchable lead cast.  The cultural significance of this movie and its importance for a young generation of Marvel fans and beyond cannot be overstated, but it also will hold this value because it is such an effective movie in its own right and will rank as one of Marvel's best.

FILM: Fifty Shades Freed (dir: James Foley, 2018)

"Did you just roll your eyes at me?"

With its moment in the zeitgeist well and truly long gone, this trilogy closer - filmed back-to-back with the second part - proves to be little more than an barely efficient closer to this silly series.  The problems remain: very little plot, lacklustre dialogue and disengaging performances, attractive gloss but relentlessly flat in style, and little in the way of emotion.  As female fantasy, it is remarkably patronising, right through to the final frames, but judging by audience reaction, it seemed to have served its purpose.  The idea of filming the follow-up novels, telling the whole saga again through Christian's point of view, should be squashed immediately, but it is likely that diminishing interest and box-office will do that job effectively enough.

VOD: The Cloverfield Paradox (dir: Julius Onah, 2018)

"Logic doesn't apply to any of this."

Thank you to Netflix for paying Paramount a ridiculous sum of money for this movie which meant that we did not have to trudge all the way to the cinema to be let down.  Dropping unannounced globally after its Super Bowl TV spot, the third Cloverfield film is a very routine space-station horror-thriller that simply throws together a number of genre clichés (and the references are hardly subtle) without much regard for the creation of real drama or character.  The cast has some strong players, but they do often seem to be performing in different movies at the same time.  There are a couple of good exterior effects shots when the station starts falling apart, but overall this is a considerable step down from the first two Cloverfield films.

VOD: God's Own Country (dir: Francis Lee, 2017)

Make you happy?"

God's Own Country is a bold, stark and beautiful film.  The journey of emotionally locked-in farmer Johnny to the first spring-like signs of an emotional humanity is skilfully handled by Francis Lee's confident direction and two fantastically controlled performances by Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu.  Even if the occasional metaphor is somewhat blatant, it is the capturing of tiny detail and subtle shifts in the characters and relationships that impress.  Bold camera choices, stunning use of the bleak late-winter Yorkshire landscape and a contemplative score by A Winged Victory For The Sullen also contribute to making this an incredibly thoughtful, moving and well-made movie.