Wind River (2017)

Don't be turned off by the utter bleakness of the two previous Taylor Sheridan-penned movies (Sicario and Hell Or High Water, both also set on the American frontier) because this third suspense thriller of the loosely held together trilogy while bleak has a heart and a social conscience, telling a mystery of a woman's body found in the snow on a Native American reserve, and the only dissatisfaction you'll have as you come out of the cinema is that the suspense and the social commentary isn't sustained for longer beyond a ludicrous Reservoir Dogs finale that surely doesn't solve anyone's problems.

★★★★☆

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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

This is a rivetting and just in one particular area of the plot a slightly cryptic neo-noir sci-fi mystery about a replicant hunter, full of awesome future fashions, worryingly likely depictions of future city landscapes, glimpses of wondrous tech, and myriad things to think about like, "If replicants could birth children, then what would the ramifications be for humankind?" and, "If this represents a sexist, white boy's fantasy of the future, then what might the opposite look like?" and, "What freedom did director Denis Villeneuve have in creating his vision of the future and how much was dictated by Ridley Scott's classic 1982 original, and in what ways should the two, made 35 years apart, be different?"

★★★★☆

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The Beguiled (2017)

In her movie based on Thomas Cullinan's novel, is Sofia Coppola commenting on the fortitude and independence of women as men all around them tear each other apart in the American Civil War, or suggesting women make really bad rash decisions in the absence of men, or is Coppola's equally celebrated and lamented light touch as a director in fact a fear of saying anything at all, and had Annie Wilkes hobbled Paul Sheldon to save his life, would 'Misery' have been a thriller of greater psychological depth, are the sorts of questions that come up while watching this beautifully acted, stunningly photographed (the scene in which Kirsten Dunst picks flowers in the overgrown garden of a great southern plantation house is alone worth the price of admission), occasionally amusing, but mystifying and very slight, slice of feminist, no, anti-feminist, no, fem...gothic period drama.

★★★★☆

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A Quiet Passion (2016)

IBS sufferers, heavy breathers, and fans of the Fast and Furious franchise be warned: Quiet is the operative word in the title of this biopic which unfolds with the urgency of a poetry recital, with not a word wasted as Emily Dickinson, the posthumously celebrated American poet, grows up in the 19th century, distinguishes herself as unique in early adulthood, and then grows steadily more insular and cantankerous as she gets older and loses, one by one, those she loves to death or, equally devastating, marriage.

★★★★☆

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Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Casey Affleck is Kenneth Lonergan's latest emotionally stunted, middle-aged, blue-collar white guy dealing with trauma - this time the death of a brother - and while he grapples with his responsibilities to his orphaned nephew, his own heartbreaking backstory is revealed, punctuated by moments of Lonergan's trademark bittersweet poignancy and laugh-out-loud comedy.

★★★★☆

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Moonlight (2017)

This heart-rending drama traces the formative years of Chiron, a boy in so much pain you yearn for life to show him a little kindness as it moulds him into a man not strictly of his own choosing.

★★★★☆

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