Kambole Campbell

The First Kiss That Never Ends feels like a grand finale, but the interesting thing about Kaguya-sama is how it implies that romance is continuous work, rather than simply fated.

By changing the cautionary tale to be against assimilation and categorisation, plus its invigorating update of traditional technique, the film carves out a space not just as the best Pinocchio film of this year, but among the finest films the director has made.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever stands out from a somewhat formulaic era of Marvel movies: held together by its compelling sense of place, and by acting as a passionate eulogy for Chadwick Boseman.

Wendell & Wild marks the anarchic return of one of the most exciting directors in animation, retooling his idiosyncrasies in service of a boundary-pushing children’s horror with strong political messaging.

The film is admirable for its patient commitment to unpacking the children’s feelings about each other, the building, and other relics from their pasts, all as they learn how to carry their attachments and memories to new places.

It’s a psychedelic, bombastic rock opera, but amid all the energy, Yuasa ponders what stories have been lost as society’s more controlling elements attempt to control how art is made and distributed.

An ambitious, provocative swing, Nope feels like that increasingly rare beast: an original blockbuster. Unspooling a horrific parody of Hollywood’s hubris, it’s a crowd-pleaser that wonders about the cost of pleasing a crowd.

Another diagnosis of the sickness of an over-armed, money-guzzling police force, Emergency sometimes struggles to combine its cinematic form with its messaging. But there are just enough moments where it all comes together to make it feel like worthwhile viewing.

Bubble is tender, even meditative. But its best ideas are sadly swept away amid a wave of half-formed ones.

Ambulance is just delightfully unhinged in its experiment to see how much carnage can be caused by just one car chase.

The Spine Of Night is here to satiate the cravings of those who miss a particular brand of animated storytelling, updated with added psychedelic fervour and plenty of extra-gnarly bloodshed.

Though it’s packed with remixes of and callbacks to Eve’s history, it’s a dazzling, surprisingly accessible summation of his visual and sonic styles.

With all of its visual delights and expert use of its colourful onscreen spaces, its ever-a-shame that it’s the latest Pixar movie exiled to Disney’s streaming services – because it’s one of their best animated movies in years.

In its search for the personality behind the creator of one of cinema’s most famous comic characters, The Real Charlie Chaplin too often lapses into dreary convention, despite flashes of brilliance in its use of archive footage.

Belle is an exhilarating transformation of a classic tale, updating a story of alienation into something deeply resonant with our digital way of life. Though it misses a couple of notes in its final act, it’s an exhilarating sensory experience, with great emotional depths.

Jackass Forever is a hilarious, even genuinely touching reunion of America’s most vulgar performance artists. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel for the series or definitively say goodbye to it, nor does it need to — it’s simply enough to remember that some things never get old.

If it falters early on, The Summit Of The Gods emerges an astonishing work of animation of both intimacy and incredible scale, stunningly well-crafted and smartly adapted.

It’s a throwback to the exhilarating, ferocious Hong Kong action filmmaking of yore, capping off a muscular actioner that marries old-school bravado with contemporary technique.

Rose Plays Julie is impactful and unsettling, heightened by slippery performances and enigmatic visual construction.