Wendy Ide's film of the week
Films of the week reviewed by the Observer's film critic Wendy Ide
About Dry Grasses review – rich, engrossing Turkish epic with a twist
A village teacher is accused of inappropriate behaviour in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s handsome, beautifully performed, three-and-a-half-hour fable
Janet Planet review – Annie Baker’s tender, perceptive mother-daughter drama
Julianne Nicholson and newcomer Zoe Ziegler are a dream team in the Pulitzer prize-winning US playwright’s richly cinematic film debut
Longlegs review – Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage grip in brooding horror thriller
Monroe plays a dogged, antisocial FBI agent on the trail of Cage’s occult serial killer in the latest buzzy, atmospheric film from Osgood Perkins
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F review – Eddie Murphy’s megawatt charisma lights up creaking sequel
Reprising his role as lovable undercover cop Axel Foley, the actor – and some full-on car-chase carnage – can’t disguise a plot several decades past its sell-by date in debut director Mark Molloy’s slickly packaged action comedy
Kinds of Kindness review – Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone for overlong but admirable triptych
Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe head the cast in the Poor Things director’s odd three-part study of control whose central idea proves elusive
Green Border review – an angry and urgent masterpiece about Europe’s migrant crisis
Agnieszka Holland’s vital drama about refugees stranded between Belarus and Poland could hardly be more topical
Sasquatch Sunset review – brilliant bigfoot oddity is unexpectedly moving
The Zellner brothers follow a family of grunting sasquatches played by Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough in a wonderful one-off
The Dead Don’t Hurt review – Vicky Krieps is a woman of substance in Viggo Mortensen’s offbeat western
The actor-director’s second film behind the camera is a quirky spin on the genre given true grit by its magnetic heroine
The Beast review – Léa Seydoux mesmerises in wildly ambitious sci-fi romance
Bertrand Bonello’s head-spinning Henry James adaptation set in 1910 Paris, 2014 LA and an AI-controlled 2044 casts a dreamlike spell
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review – renegade warrior Anya Taylor-Joy ignites thunderous action prequel
George Miller’s world-building spectacle is an assault on the senses that’s given a human heart by its remarkable star
IF review – imaginary friends reunited in a kid-pleasing live-action fantasy
Actor-director John Krasinski’s animated tale of an anxious tween and her make-believe buddies is not in Pixar’s league, but it boasts a heartfelt sweetness and an engaging young star
Love Lies Bleeding review – Kristen Stewart keeps it real in deliciously lurid outlaw romance
Rose Glass’s follow-up to her acclaimed Saint Maud is a scorchingly sexy, darkly violent tale of a gym manager’s love affair with a bodybuilder
Challengers review – Zendaya holds court in absurdly sexy three-way tennis romance
Luca Guadagnino’s sizzling, sharply scripted drama, co-starring Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, is such fun it’s almost indecent
Sometimes I Think About Dying review – Daisy Ridley excels as shy office worker in offbeat comedy
Rachel Lambert’s perceptive tale of a loner with a vividly imaginative inner life proves an unexpected showcase for the Star Wars actor’s talents
Civil War review – Alex Garland’s chilling dystopian thriller of journalists in a conflict-riven US
The writer-director’s searing drama of reporters in the line of fire strips away political context to focus on the self-perpetuating nature of war
Monkey Man review – Dev Patel directs and stars in a bloody revenge thriller
The British actor’s directorial debut is a visceral love letter to global action cinema that’s an exhilarating, if messy, ride
The Origin of Evil review – Laure Calamy shines in enjoyably pulpy, Highsmith-esque thriller
Arriving on a jetset Mediterranean island to meet the wealthy father she has never known, Calamy’s factory worker enters a vipers’ nest of hostility in Sébastian Marnier’s devious French psychodrama
Robot Dreams review – bittersweet buddy movie is one of the best animations in recent years
A lonely dog buys himself a robot companion and learns to see the world in a joyous new light in Spanish director Pablo Berger’s exquisite, Oscar-nominated film
Monster review – multifaceted mystery from Hirokazu Kore-eda
The Japanese director of Shoplifters uses different takes on a single story to tell the fraught tale of two troubled boys
High & Low: John Galliano review – Kevin Macdonald’s candid look at the fashion designer’s implosion
The film-maker’s frank, even-handed documentary assesses the fallout from the former Dior creative director’s antisemitic tirade and his standing today
About 43 results for Wendy Ide's film of the week