A Real Pain (out Dec 26) is a dark comedy about two 30-something-year-old American cousins who go on a week-long tour through Poland to understand their family heritage. It’s a wonderful character study with Kieren Culkin having the flashier role as the bipolar Benji while Jesse Eisenberg, who serves as writer-director, is also excellent as an introvert with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The film deftly mixes comedy, drama and heart in achieving its goals. Grade: A.

Parthenope (out Dec 26) is the kind of movie you’d expect from director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty). It doesn’t always make sense but the soft music and beautiful cinematography generate a hypnotic vibe that lure you in. A movie with something to say about love, beauty, ageing, and the city of Naples. Makes you reflect on life. Grade: B+.

All We Imagine as Light (out Dec 26) won the Grand Prix (runner-up) prize at the Cannes Film Festival and is centred on three women who work in Mumbai hospital. It highlights the importance of friendship in helping cope with day-to-day struggles. Won’t blow you away but a worthy movie with nice characters. Grade: B+. 

Better Man (out Dec 26) is biopic about the life of British entertainer Robbie Williams. Heavy on CGI and narration, it shows him to be a gifted, narcissistic, insecure, drug abusing, alcoholic show-off who loved his grandmother and wanted to play at Knebworth. By illustrating these qualities again and again, the film becomes repetitive and runs out of puff. Grade: B-.

Mufasa: The Lion King (out Dec 19) is an improvement on the 2019 release and largely serves as a prequel. We meet a young Mufasa and learn about the adventurous, perilous journey he took in becoming a great leader. Directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), it’s good family entertainment. Grade: B+.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (out Dec 19) has a runtime of just 79 minutes and is easy-to-follow for kids with plenty of humour for adults. Feathers McGraw doesn’t say a word and is built entirely from coloured clay… but he’s the equal of any James Bond baddie. This series keeps delivering. Grade: A-.

Kraven the Hunter (out Dec 12) is a disappointing Marvel origin story that stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a super-fast, super-agile human who enjoys hunting the world's villains. The backstory is meh (daddy issues) and the bad guys lack spark (one of them just wants a business partner). Grade: C.

Black Dog (out Dec 12) won the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes this year and is an excellent Chinese film set in 2008 about a small township about to be bulldozed at the direction of the government, and a softly spoken young man who befriends a wild dog. It showcases a part of the world we rarely see on screen. Great performances (the dog included)! Grade: A-.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (out Dec 12) is set roughly 200 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and is largely a standalone adventure with new characters. I liked the anime-style animation but it's a simple story with a one-note, power-hungry villain. Grade: B.

Out of Season (out Dec 5) is a tiring French romantic drama that features two uninteresting people having long, uninteresting conversations. Grade: C.