Saoirse Ronan astounds as a young woman searching for grace in the face of addiction.

After living life on the edge in London, Rona (Ronan) attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland's Orkney Islands (where she grew up but left more than a decade ago) hoping to heal. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her childhood merge with the more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery. This is that rare, effective addiction film with a potent, if simple, message: if you persevere with curiosity and awe of the world, you will open the door to loving yourself as a part of it all. Adapted from Amy Liptrot's bestselling memoir.

UK 2023 Nora Fingscheidt 118m

An architect wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. This was the most polarizing film at this years’ Cannes Film Festival.

Francis Ford Coppola turns the fall of ancient Rome into a fable about the perils of American capitalistic greed. Caesar (Adam Driver) is a celebrity architect with aspirations to build a utopia in the ruins of New York City, here called New Rome. This is the battleground between Cesar, Mayor Frankyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) and Hamilton Crassus (Jon Voight), head of the national bank. The supporting cast also includes Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman. Premiered at Cannes 2024 to a mixed reception, and as is most often the case, the most interesting films are those that once seen, leave you not knowing if you have seen a stinker, or the best film ever made.

USA 2024 Francis Ford Coppola 138m

In this sharp, visceral and blackly humorous read on showbiz culture and society, a young actor in a cycle of nightmarish auditions takes it upon himself to find a new part to play.

Aden (Nabhaan Rizwan) is a young man who spends most of his time recording self-tapes for parts he never gets. After he receives multiple rejections for a series of terrible commercial auditions, he takes it upon himself to find a new part to play. This is a distressing metaphor for acting as a career, the ways in which we see other people, how we exploit what we see, and the harm that can cause. A seriously talented performer, Rizwan shines in a role that demands every shade in the spectrum from goofy comedy to dark contemplation. The varying characters he plays in auditions are vividly focussed and the layers of emotion Aden feels throughout each moment are easy to identify with.

UK 2023 Naqqash Khalid 95m

Gou Zhen

As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, a newly released convict bonds with a black stray and the two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.

A warm-hearted crowd pleaser about an ex-convict - Land (Eddie Peng) - and the canine he befriends, this the latest picture from prolific Chinese director Guan Hu, which elevates the man and dog genre in this moving film in which a lost soul is redeemed by his bond with a trusty mutt. This is a beautiful film that, with few words, reveals a personal drama while reflecting a complex social situation that affects many communities in China. The film makes the most of its blighted Gobi desert backdrop. Cinematographer Gai Weizhe shoots in widescreen, the better to capture the intimidatingly bleak lunar expanses of rock and sand. One of two very good Chinese films in this season’s programme (see also ‘Only the River Flows’). (Subtitles)

China 2024 Hu Guan 110m