Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning review - can this really be the end for Ethan Hunt?

★★★ MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING Tom Cruise's eighth M:I film shows symptoms of battle fatigue

Tom Cruise's eighth M:I film shows symptoms of battle fatigue

Whether it is or isn’t the final Mission: Impossible film, there’s a distinct fin-de-siècle feel about this eighth instalment, and not only because of its title. An early scene brings a nostalgic recap of highlights from the series’ history (which stretches back to 1996), with a voice-over from Angela Bassett’s President Sloane (pictured below) pleading with Ethan Hunt to return to save the world one more time.

Magic Farm review - numpties from the Nineties

A comedy about youth TV putting trends above truth

There’s nothing more healthy than dissing your own dad, and filmmaker Amalia Ulman says that her old man was “a Gen X deadbeat edgelord skater” when she was growing up in the 1990s. The phrase brings the half-forgotten world of Generation X back to us from the mists of time, with its slackers and Douglas Coupland books and mumbling evasions.

Good One review - a life lesson in the wild with her dad and his pal

★★★★★ GOOD ONE A wise-beyond-her-years teen discovers male limitations in a deft indie drama

A wise-beyond-her-years teen discovers male limitations in a deft indie drama

Good One is a generation-and-gender gap drama that mostly unfolds during a weekend hiking and camping trip in the Catskills Forest Preserve in upstate New York. A putative indie classic, writer-director India Donaldson’s psychologically acute feature debut focuses on a self-contained, observant young woman, Sam (Lily Collias), whose skepticism about hard-wired male attitudes grows exponentially over the weekend.

E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea review - dull docu-fiction take on the designer-architect

Iconic Irish modernist Eileen Gray gets an artsy and overly reverential appraisal

It’s hard to say who is going to enjoy E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea. Admirers of the modernist designer-architect will be frustrated by how little of her other work is actually visible on screen while fans of feminist biopics might well be underwhelmed by the film’s languid pace and arty flourishes. 

The Marching Band review - what's the French for 'Brassed Off'?

★★★★ THE MARCHING BAND What's the French for 'Brassed Off'?

Brothers suddenly united in blood kinship – and music

In Emmanuel Courcol’s drama The Marching Band (En Fanfare in French, and also released as My Brother's Band), a struggling community band in a mining town in northern French has fallen on hard times. Elements of déjà vu, perhaps?

Certainly, if you're from Northern England. But rather than the romance of Mark Herman’s Brassed Off (1996), The Marching Band focuses on the relationship between two brothers (main picture).

The Last Musician of Auschwitz review - a haunting testament

★★★★★ THE LAST MUSICIAN OF AUSCHWITZ A haunting testament

When fine music was played in a death factory

“It is so disgraceful, what happened there,” says Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, in a comment that is the understatement of the century. She is referring to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was held prisoner.

DVD/Blu-ray: Slade in Flame

★★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: SLADE IN FLAME One of the great rock movies at 50

One of the great rock movies gets a 50th anniversary revival

Over the years Slade in Flame has been hailed as one of the greatest rock movies (albeit rarely seen or screened), up there with Perfomance and That’ll Be The Day.

Like those films, it has grittiness running through it like barbed wire through a stick of Blackpool rock. It’s raw and dark; very dark. Not glam at all. And wrapped up in its singular brilliance is the grim rather than glam fact that Slade in Flame tanked at the box office and almost tanked the career of the band it – sort of – celebrated.

Riefenstahl review - fascinating fascism? Portrait of the Nazis' favourite film-maker

★★★★ RIEFENSTAHL - Fascinating fascism? Portrait of the Nazis' favourite film-maker

A new documentary unlocks the archive of the woman who directed 'Triumph of the Will'

There used to be an unwritten rule among BBC commissioners about how long an interval had to pass before greenlighting a new documentary on a familiar subject – Shakespeare, Ancient Egypt, Andy Warhol – they all came round again with a decent interlude between reassessments. But if the pitch involved Nazis, all bets were off. And maybe in Germany itself, that’s been the case with film-maker Leni Riefenstahl who may have had more documentaries made about her than she made herself during her years as Hitler’s favourite director.

The Surfer review - Nicolas Cage is relentlessly down and out in western Australia

★★★ THE SURFER Irish director Lorcan Finnegan's manic take on macho surfer culture

Irish director Lorcan Finnegan's manic take on macho surfer culture

“Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” is the menacing motto (sounds more scary with an Australian accent) of the tanned, muscular denizens of Luna Bay beach. But the unnamed hero known as The Surfer, played by Nicolas Cage, isn’t listening.

Desire: The Carl Craig Story review - a worthy, brand-conscious encomium for a techno star

Documentary on the Detroit electronic music producer borders on hagiographic

Carl Craig (b.1969) is a leading Detroit electronic music producer and DJ whose Planet E Communications label has existed for over three decades. This 90-minute documentary, which was directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye and features over thirty interviews, tells Craig's life story and attempts to define his importance. It's accompanied by a soundtrack largely comprising music recorded by him, either under his own name or under his many aliases.