MARIA DUARTE defends a solid, late-career Spielberg conspiracy flick that calls for empathy in a hostile world

MARIA DUARTE recommends a truly immersive crime thriller that explores the consequences of creative paralysis

MARIA DUARTE relishes the outrageous true story of two working-class lads from Dundee who conned the music industry

MARIA DUARTE refuses to disclose the twist by which a conventional rom-com is undone by a universal US malaise

MARIA DUARTE recommends an extraordinary film that explores an absent father’s attempt to make up to his sons

MARIA DUARTE recommends a surreal and brilliant take on corporate lay-offs and their consequences

MARIA DUARTE recommends that this dramatic reconstruction of one instance of the Israeli killings in Gaza be seen as widely as possible

MARIA DUARTE recommends a British boxing biopic about the stormy relationship between Nazeem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle

MARIA DUARTE picks the best and worst of a crowded year of films

MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama

MARIA DUARTE recommends an intimate portrait of Jacinda Ardern, only the second prime minister to give birth while holding office

MARIA DUARTE reviews Desperate Journey, Blue Moon, Pillion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

MARIA DUARTE recommends the remarkable and painful story of the lesbian who put women’s boxing on the map

MARIA DUARTE ponders the defence this film makes, of charisma and ‘ordinariness,’ that Hollywood uses to dramatise Nazi war criminals

MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O CONNOR and JOHN GREEN review The Choral, Belen, Dragonfly, and Colossal Wreck

MARIA DUARTE recommends a brutal drama with an unstable young mother at its heart

MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You

MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of an enterprising US convict whose campaign of theft involved military planning and exquisite manners

MARIA DUARTE recommends a tense reminder that nuclear war remains a frighteningly real possibility

MARIA DUARTE is entertained by a wry portrait of befuddled resistance to US authoritarianism

MARIA DUARTE recommends the powerful study of an underfunded reform school and the staff who struggle to do good

MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium

MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable documentary, culled from 20 years of smartphone footage, that documents the trials of being a single parent

MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family

MARIA DUARTE recommends the ambitious portrait of an agricultural community confronted by the trauma of enclosure

MARIA DUARTE recommends a chilling examination of the influence of Evangelical Christianity over the far right in Brazil

MARIA DUARTE recommends the creepy thrills of David Cronenburg’s provocative and macabre exploration of grief

MARIA DUARTE recommends the very human portrayal of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist in Putin’s Russia

Is there a political message in the scenario of a plague of raging zombies in the UK, and kids growing up with it, wonders MARIA DUARTE

MARIA DUARTE recommends the deeply moving story, based on real experience, of a homeless single mother

MARIA DUARTE recommends an exposure of the state violence used against pro-Palestine protests in the US

The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Along Came Love, The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Ritual, and Karate Kid: Legends

MARIA DUARTE recommends the powerful dramatisation of the true story of a husband and wife made homeless

MARIA DUARTE is in two minds about a peculiar latest offering from Wes Anderson

MARIA DUARTE is gripped by a tense drama set almost entirely in a car as distressed parents try to rescue their wayward daughter

MARIA DUARTE recommends a tough love story that unfolds among mental health issues, drug addiction and inadequate housing