Almost every film in cinemas this week, reviewed and rated

ANNIHILATION ★★★★
Directed by Alex Garland. Starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac. Netflix, 115 min

Portman, Leigh and the rest investigate a mysterious portal in Garland's impressive adaption of Jeff VanderMeer's philosophical science-fiction novel. The more familiar aspects of Annihilation are enlivened by the female dynamic, which seldom conforms to simplistic group archetypes. Portman's Lena is a complicated heroine with complicated feelings about her husband. This is no ordinary gender-swapped rescue mission: her journey is motivated as much by guilt and obligation as it is by love. An arresting, visually impressive puzzler, going straight to Netflix on this side of the Atlantic. TB

BLACK PANTHER ★★★
Directed by Ryan Coogler. Starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Andy Serkis, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker. 12A cert, gen release, 134 min
Marvel's first outing with a black protagonist stars Boseman as an African king who, from time to time, fights oppression as the lithe Black Panther. Coogler has as much right to direct a so-so children's film as the next chap, but a little more roughage would have been nice. It's efficient, fun and very well acted. But the excess of CGI is suffocating and the surface plot is impossible to care about. Just good enough. DC

BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY ★★★★
Directed by Alexandra Dean. Featuring Hedy Lamarr, Mel Brooks, Peter Bogdanovich, Diane Kruger. Club, lim release, 98 min

Sweet Country: Once upon a time in the outback

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Six of the best films to see at the cinema this weekend

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The world's most powerful baboon has been tweeting about the Oscars

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Fascinating documentary on a movie star who, as well as being declared the most beautiful of her age, found time to invent a weapons guidance system that helped in the development of Bluetooth. Alexandra Dean's picture talks us through these details with great lucidity. Bombshell suffers from some common complaints of modern documentary – too much music; unnecessary, if perfectly decent, animated sequences – but it does remind us of a class of personality that doesn't exist anymore. A treat. DC

COCO ★★★★
Directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina. Voices of Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Edward James Olmos. PG cert, gen release, 105 min
The latest from Pixar risks telling children (and all others) a tale of the Mexican Day of the Dead. On paper, the mythology scans as complicated and dark, but in the capable hands of Oscar-winner Unkrich and Pixar veteran Molina, Coco is accessible for even the youngest. The animation eschews the tiring photo-realism of Cars 3 and The Good Dinosaur in favour of the transporting carnivalesque, replete with a stage show by Frieda Kahlo and candy-coloured Xoloitzcuintli. Welcome back. TB

DEN OF THIEVES ★★★
Directed by Christian Gudegast. Starring Gerard Butler, 50 Cent, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr, Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, Max Holloway. 15A cert, gen release, 140 min
Picture an Anchorman news team battle between cops and robbers. The cops are – wait for it – even more lawless than their targets. They are a hard-drinking, hard-partying, hard-bodied crew led by a growling Gerard Butler, who stands one eye-patch and wooden leg shy of being a full-blown Pirates of the Caribbean. "Do we look like the types that'll arrest you?" aaaarghs Butler. "We'll just shoot you." Passes the time if you can get past the daftness. TB

EARLY MAN ★★★★
Directed by Nick Park. Voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Miriam Margolyes, Timothy Spall, Rob Brydon, Richard Ayoade. PG cert, gen release, 88 min
The latest stop-motion treat from Aardman Animation follows a group of prehistoric oddballs as they prepare for a football match against more technologically advanced neighbours. The film is not quite up to the standards of Wallace & Gromit. But what is? The puns are solid. The characters are charming. And the animation retains the homemade feel that began winning fans 40 years ago. It cheers you up simply to know they still exist. DC

A FANTASTIC WOMAN/UNA MUJER FANTÁSTICA ★★★★★
Directed by Sebastián Lelio. Starring Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Kuppenheim, Nicolas Saavedra, Amparo Noguera. 15A cert, IFI/Light House. Dublin, 104 min
This Chilean drama, which won the best foreign language picture at the Oscars, details the struggles of a trans woman to make a life for herself following bereavement. Which makes it sound heavier than it actually plays. Yes, there are moments of anger and frustration, an extended scream against lazy assumptions and blinkered bigotry. But it is also light, funny, wry and inspiring. The first transgendered person ever to present at the Oscars, charismatic star Daniela Vega allows a vulnerability to peak through the carapace of confidence. She is in virtually every scene, and she owns every one of them. DC

FINDING YOUR FEET ★★★
Directed by Richard Loncraine. Starring Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie, Joanna Lumley, David Hayman, John Sessions, Josie Lawrence. 12A cert, gen release, 111 min
When Little Englander Sandra (Staunton) discovers her husband is having an affair, she sensibly packs her bags and heads to London to stay with her estranged and free-spirited sister, Bif (Imrie). It takes a little time, but slowly Sandra acclimitises to Bif and her community dance group chums, a lively bunch including some of Britain's best loved character actors. The film quickly swerves into Full Monty territory. But between the capering, there are subplots concerning Alzhiemer's, terminal cancer, adultery, and in flagrante death. TB

FIFTY SHADES FREED ★
Directed by James Foley. Starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Marcia Gay Harden, Arielle Kebbel, Max Martini, Brant Daugherty, Luke Grimes, Rita Ora. 18 cert, gen release, 105 min
The safe-word is bored. When last we left cinema's dullest screen couple, the lip-biting social climber Anastasia (Johnson) and her billionaire abuser (Dornan) were locked into a dangerously unhealthy relationship, defined by sexual possession, emotional neediness, one-percenter materialism, uninteresting secrets, even less interesting lies, and sex toys. What could possibly go wrong? Even the likable stars, Jamie Sidegroin and Dakota Frontboob, can't get a rise from the third and least eventful instalment of this flaccid trilogy. TB

GAME NIGHT ★★★★
Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. Starring Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Jesse Plemons, Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Michael C Hall. 15A cert, gen release, 100 min
Semi-amusing studio comedies are now so rare that, when a properly funny one arrives, the temptation is to have it stuffed and mounted. Game Night concerns insanely competitive yuppies (Bateman and McAdams) who devote their evenings to gaming exercises in mid-brain one-upmanship. One event, a staged murder mystery party, goes quickly out of control. The trick is to keep the dialogue so sharp and the relationships so cleanly defined that nobody bothers to question the increasingly preposterous plot turns. Directors Daley andGoldstein follow up their hilarious, unfairly derided updating of National Lampoon's Vacation with a critical hit that shows were right about them all along. So there. DC

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ★★
Directed by Michael Gracey. Starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya. PG cert, gen release, 105 min
This energetic musical – inspired by circus impresario PT Barnum (Jackman) – boasts plenty of razzle dazzle, at least two proper toe-tappers, and lovely turns from Efron, Zendaya, and Keala Settle. But it is let down by flimsy plotting, shallow characterisation, tacky CG backgrounds, miscasting, and a dishonest depiction of historical freak-shows. Too much smoke and mirrors. TB

GRINGO ★★★
Directed by Nash Edgerton. Starring David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton, Amanda Seyfried, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Yul Vazquez, Harry Treadaway. 15A cert, gen release, 110 min

Edgerton is a high-flying suit in Big Pharma; Theron is his partner in crime. Shenanigans ensue in a plot that takes a company-wide switch to medical marijuana, a Mexican cartel, and Oyelowo staging his own kidnap. Various characters arrive and quickly exit the stage. Some, particularly Copley's conscious-pricked bounty hunter, are memorable. Others, particularly a blink and you'll miss her Seyfried, serve no narrative purpose whatsoever. It's chaotic, but it moves at a pace and is aware of its own silliness. TB

I, TONYA ★★★★
Directed by Craig Gillespie. Starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale. 15A cert, gen release, 110 min
Searing, politically edgy study of the journey that took Tonya Harding (Robbie) from ice skating star to the most reviled woman in 1994 America. The film's sympathies lie with Harding, roundly abused by her ruthless mother and manager, LaVona (Janney), and her violent, shotgun-wielding husband (Stan). The film's treatment of domestic violence is occasionally a little uneasy. But a fired-up Robbie and an incandescently horrid Oscar-winning Janney make it work. A blast. TB

THE ICE KING ★★★★
Directed by James Erskine. Featuring John Curry. Club, IFI, Dublin (Sunday only), 89 min
Fascinating, well-structured documentary about the brilliant English ice skater John Curry – one of the first British celebrities to discuss a diagnosis of Aids. The Ice King is an agreeably unfussy affair. A precise, clipped voiceover from Freddie Fox brings Curry to life again. Contemporary interviews are kept to a minimum as we enjoy impressive footage of the skater in his pomp. Particularly strong on the media's unease about homosexuality in the 1970s. DC

LADY BIRD ★★★★★
Directed by Greta Gerwig. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley. 15A cert, gen release, 94 min
Gloriously funny, surprisingly moving comic-drama about the struggles between a feisty teenager (Ronan, delightful) and her harassed mum (Metcalf, nuanced) in millennial Sacramento. For somebody so often identified as the most fashionable of cinematic hipsters, actor-turned-director Gerwig proves (not for the first time) to have an enormously generous spirit. Nobody is perfect in the Lady Bird universe. But nobody is fully malign either. Laurie gets her moment of catharsis. Ronan is eventually allowed the chance to breath. Essential. DC

THE LODGERS ★★★
Directed by Brian O'Malley. Starring Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner, Eugene Simon, David Bradley, Deirdre O'Kane, Moe Dunford, Roisin Murphy. 15A cert, gen release, 93 min

Two Ascendency twins, haunted by malign "Lodgers", lurk in their big Irish house in the years following the first World War. Working from a script by David Turpin, the picture hangs around some fascinating ideas about otherness in Irish society, but there is a sense that too much tinkering has gone on with the machinery. A terrific founding concept leads on to a denouement that could only be more baffling if it were in Japanese. DC

THE MERCY ★★
Directed by James Marsh. Starring Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis, Ken Stott, Jonathan Bailey, Mark Gatiss. 12A cert, gen release, 102 min
On October 31st, 1968, businessman and amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst set off in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a competition to be the first person to sail nonstop and single-handedly around the world. In common with its tragic protagonist, The Mercy has nowhere to go. Crowhurst, as essayed by Colin Firth, sets out on a plainly doomed mission which turns out to be a plainly doomed mission. All at sea. TB

MOM AND DAD ★★★★
Directed by Brian Taylor. Starring Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Zackary Arthur, Lance Henriksen. 16 cert, gen release, 86 min

Think back on the most unhinged screen moments of Nicolas Cage's career. Multiply all these scenes together and you still can't match the awesome lunacy of Nic killing a pool table in the delightfully delirious Mom and Dad. With a taboo-trouncing twist on James Tiptree Jr's 1977 sci-fi classic The Screwfly Solution, this frazzled new film from reliably hyperactive Taylor (Crank: High Voltage) concerns a mysterious signal that starts transmitting through television screens and radios. The madness is all to enjoyable ends. TB

MONSTER FAMILY ★
Directed by Holger Tappe. Voices of Emily Watson, Nick Frost, Jessica Brown Findlay, Celia Imrie, Catherine Tate, Jason Isaacs. PG cert, gen release, 93 min
It was brave of the producers of this Euro-baloney to hire a writer called Catharina Junk. Watson voices a bookstore owner who accidentally phones Dracula and gets caught up in his yearning for company. Frost is a workaholic dad who repeatedly farts out a green gas that causes all those around to swoon. Isaacs is Dracula. Based, somewhat incredibly, on an actual book, Monster Family does seem to have had proper money put its way. Though never pretty, the computer animation is slick enough to compare with the mid-price efforts of American competitors. DC

PHANTOM THREAD ★★★★
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Camilla Rutherford, Gina McKee, Brian Gleeson, Julia Davis. 15A cert, gen release, 130 min
Anderson's latest experiment in the cinema of tyranny stars Day-Lewis as a successful couturier in a version of 1950s London untouched by smog or rationing. Reynolds Woodcock (for it is he) is eventually challenged in his toxic masculinity by a smart young waitress (Krieps) with a terrifying fungal strategy. The technical elan is so icily persuasive that it's easy to put the film's many quandaries on the long finger. Spooky. Puzzling. Persuasive. DC

THE POST ★★★★
Directed by Steven Spielberg Starring Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys, Bob Odenkirk, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sarah Paulson, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford. 12A cert, gen release, 116 min
Effective, unflashy investigation of the Washington Post's efforts to print the Pentagon Papers – revealing the state's dishonesty about the Vietnam War – during a turbulent period for America. Hanks is solid as editor Ben Bradlee and Streep subtle as publisher Katharine Graham. But it's the film's conversation with events in its near future (Watergate) and distant future (the current Trumpocracy) that sets it apart. The cheeky closing shots will delight fans of post-classical Hollywood. DC

RED SPARROW ★★
Directed by Francis Lawrence. Starring Jennifer Lawrence. Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Irons, Ciarán Hinds. 16 cert, gen release, 140 min
Red Sparrow has a big idea. Or at least notions. Or we think it does. We open with the ghastly idea that recently recruited former ballerina-turned-spy Lawrence has been sexually penetrated by her mark. Rampling plays the headmistress of a (we're quoting the script) "whore school" where (quote) girls learn to have "magic pussies". The film is big on torture porn and violence against women while doubling as a showcase for J-Law's ludicrious accent and many, many outfit changes. There is a post-Cold War caper buried in the muddled, insanely boring Red Sparrow. But apparently it has no intention of surfacing or blowing its cover. TB

THE SHAPE OF WATER ★★★★
Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer 15A cert, general release, 123 min
In this winner of four Oscars, including best picture and director, Hawkins plays a lonely mute janitor who falls for a (literally) fishy humanoid imprisoned in a CIA research centre during the cold war. Anybody who savoured Del Toro's work on Pan's Labyrinth will be at home in The Shape of Water's green universe. Alexandre Desplat's score wheezes warmly beneath a story that powers towards an epiphany so inevitable that...Well, if you haven't worked that out we won't spoil it for you. Maybe it's a bit too cosy. Remarkable nonetheless. DC

SWEET COUNTRY ★★★★★
Directed by Warwick Thornton. Starring Hamilton Morris, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown. 15A cert, gen release, 114 min

It is nine years since Thornton's Samson and Delilah was awarded the Camera d'Or prize at Cannes. Happily, Sweet Country, the best Oz-based neo-western since John Hillcoat's The Proposition, proves well worth the wait. The film concerns a 1920s-era manhunt for an aboriginal stockman (Morris) who has killed a vicious white veteran in self-defence. Thornton's direction, cinematography and screenplay could not be more impactful or ochre. The ensemble cast are excellent. And the frontier has seldom looked so forbidding. TB

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI ★★★
Directed by Martin McDonagh. Starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Lucas Hedges, Clarke Peters, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, Caleb Landry Jones, Kerry Condon, John Hawkes. 15A cert, gen release, 115 min
Martin McDonagh's third film as director starts quite brilliantly. Oscar winner McDormand plays a desperate mother who refuses to take the murder of her daughter lying down. Harrelson is the decent police chief, Rockwell (also an Oscar winner) his racist deputy. Sadly the beautifully knotted narrative begins to fray over messier second and third acts. The uneasy treatment of racism becomes more noticeable. The improbable twists become harder to forgive. A shame. DC

WONDER WHEEL ★★★
Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, Jim Belushi, Max Casella, Brittini Schreiber, Geneva Carr, Tony Sirico.12A cert, gen release, 101 min

Woody Allen's latest stars Winslet as a troubled woman, living with a second husband in Coney Island, who get tempted into a big sin after falling for a younger man (Timberlake). Wonder Wheel falls near the Allen median: some good performances, some bad ones, a few half-baked ideas, some memorable images. Vittorio Storaro's photography is delicious. The performances are sound enough. But, like so much of Allen's later work, it doesn't feel quite finished. DC

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE ★★★★★
Directed by Lynne Ramsay. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Manette, John Doman, Judith Roberts. 18 cert, gen release, 90 min
Ramsay returns with a searing revenge drama set in a terrifying, heightened version of New York City. Joaquin Phoenix stars as a private operative who spends most of his time rescuing victims of sexual slavery. A US senator hires him to recover his daughter and punish those who put her through hell. The first death triggers a veritable cornucopia of butchery. It is a brash, noisy, violent picture, but it is also a subtle, intricate, thoughtful one. DC