The growing pains of teenager Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario, best known for TV's Skins) are ably handled in Francesca Gregorini’s gentle and melancholy drama about grief, mortality and motherhood. Emanuel is obsessed with her mother’s untimely passing at childbirth and when new neighbour Linda (Jessica Biel), who bears an uncanny resemblance to her, moves in, Emanuel can’t help but become attached.

Ah, revenge. Why does something so bad sometimes feel so necessary? Particularly in its most bloodthirsty form, it's a concept well explored onscreen, from almost every western and martial arts film to the final act of so many horrors – and the entirety of the spectacularly absurd TV series currently showing on E4, which is so obsessed with the idea it couldn't be called anything other than Revenge. But what do those determined to get their own back truly hope to achieve, and where does an eye for an eye actually end?

It might be putting it bluntly, but hell - American rom-coms didn't always suck. The screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s made bickering artful and aspirational and Woody Allen added his own neurotic spin in the 70s. Now the commercial end of the genre makes fools of us all with its desperate women, bland men and rigid, asinine formula. These films are an insult to the intelligent, ambitious or independent, and are at best a guilty pleasure.

Debut writer-director Gillian Robespierre strikes the perfect balance between humour and humanism in this New York set comedy about unplanned pregnancy and abortion which sees stand-up comedian Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) get dumped and fired from her job at Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books in quick succession. At her lowest ebb she engages in a drunken one night stand with Max (Jake Lacey), a guy she meets in a Brooklyn bar, and we get to witness how she deals with the consequences of her actions whilst also trying to get to grips with the world around her.

A fresh take on the fish-out-of-water story, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter finds a lonely Japanese woman reimagining herself as an adventuress and travelling to America in pursuit of a fictional fortune. As with others of the ilk, the film derives humour from confusion and the culture clash but rather than being primarily concerned with calamity David Zellner's fifth film (co-written with his brother Nathan) makes Kumiko's alienation and retreat into fantasy its heartbreaking focus.

It's been four years since Ryan Reynolds' one-man-show Buried, which saw the thesp prove his acting chops while six foot under in a box. The Voices gifts him a full and talented supporting cast but it's a film that he also shoulders, cast in a role which requires him to be both the good guy and the very, very bad guy - and the source of the titular voices - despite ostensibly playing just one part.

The bitterness and jealousy of a relationship on the rocks is superbly handled in this disconcerting, witty and sharp indie which poses moral quandaries galore. Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) are the couple at odds with one another. The abrasions caused by their long-term relationship have led them to therapy and as a last resort their therapist (Ted Danson) sends them off on a break guaranteed to cement their love and rekindle their passion.

There are few films of which you can say there's something for everyone - but there is something for everyone in Jeff Nichols's third film.

Occasionally an ensemble cast comes along that makes you want to get down on your knees and give praise to the movie gods; A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce) has such a cast. The directorial debut of Stu Zicherman brings together Parks and Recreation stars Adam Scott and Amy Poehler and expertly tosses into the mix Oscar-nominee Richard Jenkins, along with bona-fide comic geniuses Jane Lynch and Catherine O'Hara. And that's just for starters.

Many of us have felt the frustration mixed with nervousness, even fear as night has descended on a country walk, and we’re not quite sure where we are. And it's the sense of familiar foreboding that makes Jeremy Lovering’s debut feature such an effective chiller.  

Tom and Lucy are taking a touching gamble on romance. Having met at a party, they have agreed to accompany each other to a music festival in Ireland. En route, Tom takes an additional plunge, and reveals that he has booked them into a hotel for the night, one that promises “your own slice of paradise”.