The Accountant 2 review - belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter

★★★ THE ACCOUNTANT 2 Belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter

Horror, humour and mind games combine in Gavin O'Connor's sequel

It’s been nine years since Ben Affleck’s original portrayal of Christian Wolff in The Accountant, who’s not only an accountant but also a super-efficient assassin working for the highest bidders. In this follow-up, again directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque, Affleck barely seems to have aged, and he's still solitary, anti-social and probably autistic.

The Ugly Stepsister review - gleeful Grimm revamp

★★★ THE UGLY STEPSISTER Gleeful Grimm revamp

A cutting Norwegian take on Cinderella and her adversaries

Although both of the Brothers Grimm died around 1860, they still insist on getting dozens of film and TV credits in each decade of our present age. They might be seen, in a sense, as inventing the modern horror movie far more than Poe or Shelley or Stoker – largely because of their stories’ especially swingeing violence.

April review - powerfully acted portrait of a conflicted doctor in eastern Georgia

★★★★ APRIL Powerfully acted portrait of a conflicted doctor in eastern Georgia

Dea Kukumbegashvili's second film is stylistically striking and emotionally raw

It’s easy to see metaphors about the status of modern Georgia, once again threatened by the Russian boot, in its recent artistic output. So while there are no overt political allusions in director Dea Kulumbegashshvili’s April, at its core you sense a tacit and urgent debate about how to square your conscience with the “rules” that govern the country’s conduct.

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Miguel Gomes on his latest exotic opus, 'Grand Tour'

THEARTSDESK Q&A Filmmaker Miguel Gomes on his latest exotic opus, 'Grand Tour'

The Portuguese director's comic melodrama takes a fantastical journey through Southeast Asia and the history of cinema

It doesn't take much to get lost in a film by Miguel Gomes. In fact, it's required. Multiple layers, timelines, and perspectives unfold in his cinema is mysterious ways, allowing the Portuguese director to tackle the themes that interest him: great love, colonialism, chance, destiny, death, and a dreary Portuguese world that is by no means willing to let anyone take away its history – or its stories.

Neil Young: Coastal review - the old campaigner gets back on the trail

★★★ NEIL YOUNG: COASTAL Young's first post-Covid tour, documented by Daryl Hannah

Young's first post-Covid tour documented by Daryl Hannah

As well as generating a ceaseless stream of albums, whether live, studio or culled from his copious archives, Neil Young has also amassed a fairly hefty body of film work, either as director, star or both. Like his music, his movies are created with a kind of confrontational spontaneity, grabbed on the run with rough edges and non-sequiturs still intact. His directorial debut, 1973’s only fleetingly coherent Journey Through the Past, gave early warning of what to expect.

The Penguin Lessons review - Steve Coogan and his flippered friend

★★ THE PENGUIN LESSONS Steve Coogan and his flippered friend

P-p-p-pick up a penguin... few surprises in this boarding school comedy set in Argentina during the coup

As if penguins didn’t have enough to fret about with impending tariffs on exporting guano to America, here comes Steve Coogan to ruffle their feathers. The Penguin Lessons is a pretty loose adaptation of a memoir by Tom Michell, about his stint as a young English teacher in an ersatz British boarding school in Argentina.

Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story - compelling portrait of the ground-breaking Irish writer

Glitz and hard graft: Sinéad O'Shea writes and directs this excellent documentary

“I was born with the ability and the demon to write. I have been punished for it constantly.” Written and directed by Sinéad O’Shea, this fascinating documentary is a testimony to Edna O’Brien’s rebellious talent, her prolific output – a novel a year for a while – and her star-studded socialising. It includes archival footage, some of it against the backdrop of Irish politics, as well as final interviews in which she looks frail but still glamorous in a sequined indigo cardigan, recorded by O'Shea not long before O'Brien died last year, aged 93.

DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons

★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: IN A YEAR OF 13 MOONS Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale

UK disc debut for Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale

A longshot of transgender Elvira (Volker Spengler) circled by gay men, assignation turning to assault as dawn mist rises from Frankfurt’s Main river, suggests Pasolini’s brutal 1975 assassination. Rainer Werner Fassbinder instead had in mind the suicide of his lover Armin Meier in May 1978.

The Amateur review - revenge of the nerd

Remi Malek's computer geek goes on a cerebral killing spree

In a world of macho super-achievers like Jack Reacher and Ethan Hunt, maybe it’s time to hear it for the nerdy guys. The Amateur (based on a novel by Robert Littell) was made once before, in 1981, starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer and directed by Charles Jarrott. For this sleek remake, the director’s chair is occupied by James Hawes, who, among other things, directed the first series of Apple TV’s Slow Horses.

Holy Cow review - perfectly pitched coming-of-age tale in rural France

★★★★★ HOLY COW Perfectly pitched coming-of-age tale in rural France

Debut feature of immense charm with an all-amateur cast

Director Louise Courvoisier has put herself firmly on the film map with this story of young Totone and his little sister, carving out a living in the modern-day Jura countryside after being orphaned. Think the Dardenne  brothers with more sunshine and less angst, a way of life where young calves are transported to market in the front seat of the family car.