JAWBONE ★★★★
Directed by Thomas Q. Napper. Starring Johnny Harris, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Michael Smiley. Cert 15A, limited release, 91mins
Just when you think the boxing movie is beyond reinvention, along comes Jawbone to give the genre a meat-punching, raw-egg-drinking workout up and down the museum steps. Former teen boxing champion Johnny Harris wrote and stars in this semi-autobiographical tale about an old pugilist getting ready for one last fight. Behind the scenes, Daniel Day-Lewis provided notes on the script and Barry and Shane McGuigan prepared Harris for the fight scenes. Their expertise shows in every second of the crunching choreography. TB Review/Trailer
FRANTZ ★★★★
Directed by François Ozon. Starring Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber. Cert 12A, limited release, 114mins
After her fiance's death in the first World War, Anna continues to live with her husband-to-be's devastated parents. One day, Anna spies a stranger leaving flowers on his empty grave. François Ozon remakes the Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 anti-war classic Broken Lullaby and seamlessly adds a new, poignant third act. A splendid cast work through the complications and stages of grief to provide a scathingly anti-nationalist warning from history. TB Review/Trailer
HANDSOME DEVIL ★★★★
Directed by John Butler. Starring Fionn O'Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Moe Dunford, Andrew Scott, Michael McElhatton, Ruairi O'Connor, Amy Huberman. 15A cert, gen release, 94 min
Butler's lovely follow-up to The Stag stars O'Shea as an artistic young fellow coping badly at a posh, rugby-obsessed school. Galitzine plays the jock with whom he gradually learns to connect. Set in a deliberately uncertain period, with contemporary fashions scored to 1980s musical references, Handsome Devil is proudly traditional in its storytelling. Setbacks come at just the right moments to prepare us for the next outburst of fist-in-the-air relief. A cracker. DC Review/Trailer
THEIR FINEST ★★★★
Directed by Lone Scherfig. Starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Helen McCrory, Jack Huston, Richard E. Grant, Rachael Stirling, Henry Goodman, Jeremy Irons. Cert 12A, gen release, 117mins
A varied team of film-makers shoot a patriotic drama in England during the second World War. Arterton, who plays the writer, does tremendous work, bringing a rare vulnerability to a Blitz-era heroine where a lesser thespian might have opted for full-blown Stiff Upper Lip. Picture Brief Encounter's Celia Johnson with a Welsh lilt. The production makes charming use of the no-budget film-within-the-film and of its talented, likeable ensemble. Funny, moving and cast in depth. TB Review/Trailer
LADY MACBETH ★★★★★
Directed by William Oldroyd. Starring Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, Christopher Fairbank. Cert 16, gen release, 89mins
Stirring, kinetic adaption of Nikolia Leskov's 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk, concerning a young woman who fights back violently after being sold into a loveless marriage. Oldroyd relocates the stort to Northumberland with windy, effective results. Pugh, who made such an unforgettable debut in Carol Morley's The Falling, is remarkable as the variously carnal, ruthless, suffering, pitiable, monstrous anti-heroine. Imagine the fur and feathers Angela Carter would spit out if she chewed up Downton Abbey. TB Review/Trailer
THE HANDMAIDEN ★★★★
Directed by Chan-wook. Starring Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo and Cho Jin-woong . Cert 18, limited release, 145 mins
Lovely, sexually explicit Korean adaptation of Sarah Walters's Fingersmith. This is easily the most lavish period piece of the past year, composed of striking, bewitching tableaux that could often pass for ancient scrolls or woodcuttings. The tricksy plot streamlines and improves the final, messy section of the source novel to mislead even the most astute viewer. Not the grand, bloody spectacle we were expected from the Stoker director, but a grand, bloody spectacle, nonetheless. TB Review/Trailer
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