FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 15

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS

‘This is going to be so much fun!’ cackles a baddie in this big-screen adap of the popular video game. Alas, Emma Tammi’s ploddingly predictable puppet show rarely delivers on that promise. Josh Hutcherson is the security guard who discovers that the eponymous restaurant’s quartet of bestial mascots has the power to come alive. With robot heads containing flesh-mangling chainsaws, faces resembling battle-scarred Terminators and the lumbering gait of Romero zombies, Freddy Fazbear and pals would seem precision-tooled for terror. Sadly, they’re about as scary as Barney the dinosaur.

GIRL 12A

★★★★★ OUT 24 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

Adura Onashile’s Glasgow-set immigrant drama explores the fine line between mothering and smothering. Struggling to suppress past trauma, highly strung Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) finds her close bond with daughter Ama (an auspicious debut for newcomer Le’Shantey Bonsu) strained when adolescence blooms. For Ama, the boundaries Grace has imposed to keep them safe are becoming ever more constrictive. Onashile’s spare script arguably leaves a little too much unspoken, but her disarmingly tender tale is elevated by vibrant lensing from DoP Tasha Back and Ré Olunuga’s ear-catching score.

PETER DOHERTY: STRANGER IN MY OWN SKIN 15

★★★★★ OUT 9 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

If nothing else, this uneven documentary proves how hard it is to get a grip on a talent as slippery as Libertines star Pete(r) Doherty, the controversial rock poet whose widely reported addiction issues have at times overshadowed the music. Directed by Doherty’s wife Katia deVidas, this intimate portrait doesn’t shy away from the drug use, but does leave out vital parts (Kate Moss, the death of Mark Blanco). Instead, it pursues a kind of myth-making that ultimately hinders any deeper insight into what makes Doherty tick.

FALLEN LEAVES 12A

★★★★★ OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS

Tragicomic auteur Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre) returns with another sly and distinctive look at Finnish life, this time centred on two lost Helsinki souls. Supermarket employee Asna (Alma Pöysti) and construction worker Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) aren’t exactly love’s young dream, but that doesn’t stop romance blossoming, despite Holappa’s alcoholic proclivities. The gloomy backdrop, including radio news of the nearby Russian invasion of Ukraine, isn’t enough to dampen the spirits of this deftly deadpan piece. Sneaking in a nod to Jim Jarmusch, this is Kaurismäki at his most playful.

GIVE ME PITY! TBC

★★★★★ OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL

Framed as a ‘Saturday night television special’, director Amanda Kramer’s garish take on celebrity and derangement is a slender but exuberant curio. Bette Midler’s daughter Sophie von Haselberg brings gusto to her role as Sissy St. Claire, a variety-esque performer staging a camppsychedelic one-woman show. But among her pep talks and paeans to Jesus – now he could self-promote! – shadows lurk. Kramer’s saying nothing deep about the desire for fame, but it’s how she says it that counts: if John Waters reimagined Joker under a mirrorball, the result might look like this trippy fancy.

DANCE FIRST 12A

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS

From the moment Samuel Beckett (Gabriel Byrne) escapes the Nobel Prize ceremony to converse with another version of himself (also Byrne), this take on the Waiting for Godot dramatist abandons biopic conventions. It offers up snapshots of the Irishman’s life, from working for James Joyce (Aidan Gillen) to his fractious relationships with wife Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) and mistress Barbara (Maxine Peake). It’s ragged at times, but Byrne and Gillan capture the essence of their literary-titan characters, while James Marsh’s (Man on Wire) direction smartly tips its hat to Beckett’s revolutionary modernism.

TISH TBC

★★★★★ OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

An intimate and compelling portrait of Tyneside-born photographer Tish Murtha, who died penniless in her mid-50s, leaving behind an unsung body of work. Her adult daughter Ella acts as a guide here, interviewing her late mother’s siblings, friends and tutors, while Maxine Peake voices diary entries and letters that affirm Tish’s socialist convictions. Director Paul Sng’s (Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche) film reveals how Murtha’s shots captured the defiance of those living in north-eastern working-class communities that had been devastated by deindustrialisation. Moving and illuminating.

WELCOME TO THE DARKNESS 15

★★★★★ OUT 9 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

Power chords, puerile humour and hints of poignancy propel this amiable portrait of Lowestoft pomp-rockers The Darkness. Director Simon Emmett plots the band’s small-venues reunion tour intimately, before flashing back to trace their short, sharp initial rise/ fall. While he doesn’t quite define the Marmite band’s appeal, Emmett does explore singer Justin Hawkins’ personality and polyps crises. Most crucially, a tale of two brothers emerges: gradually, Justin’s touching bond with sibling Dan (guitars) comes to dominate a story told with wit, warmth and willy gags to spare.