DESPERATION ROAD 18

★★★★★ OUT 20 NOVEMBER DIGITAL

An ex-convict and a struggling single mother struggle to keep their heads above water in this blood-and-whiskey-soaked Southern noir, set in small-town Mississippi. Stars Garrett Hedlund and Willa Fitzgerald (the Scream TV series) simmer with intensity as director Nadine Crocker turns up the heat, building a tightening sense of dread. The atmosphere can feel oppressively bleak, but a grizzled Mel Gibson (as Hedlund’s estranged dad) brings unexpected warmth amid all the trauma and bloodshed. What really keeps you invested, though, is the palpable chemistry between the two leads. JOEL HARLEY

THE ETERNAL MEMORY TBC

★★★★★ OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

Winner of the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance, this intimate story focuses on a couple coping with Alzheimer’s disease. Paulina Urrutia, an actor and former Chilean culture minister, and Augusto Góngora, a retired journalist, have been together for 25 years, but now he often doesn’t recognise her and needs reminding of their love. Director Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent) teases out parallels with the importance of remembering Pinochet’s dictatorship – Góngora reported on the crimes in the 70s and 80s – without forcing or overreaching.

DRIVING MADELEINE 15

★★★★★ OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

Careworn cabbie Charles (Dany Boon; Welcome to the Sticks, Micmacs) gets an unexpected trip down memory lane when hired to chauffeur a 92-year-old lady (Line Renaud) from the Paris suburbs to an old people’s home. The journey that follows takes in sites from her youth that prompt a series of conveniently chronological flashbacks, all revealing Madeleine (played in the past by Alice Isaaz) to be rather more steely than she initially seems. Effectively Driving Miss Daisy meets Night on Earth, Christian Carion’s (My Son, Joyeux Noel) heartwarmer gets its fuel from its winning central double act.

QUEENDOM TBC

★★★★★ OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS

Agniia Galdanova’s harrowing but impactful documentary follows 21-year-old non-binary Russian performance artist Gena Marvin, who dresses in otherworldly costumes to protest against the regressive regime. Shot in an intimate, unflashy style, it shows first-hand the harassment they face, from abuse in the street, to being escorted from shops and enduring shocking bursts of violence. It’s a tough watch, particularly when Russia invades Ukraine and increases its oppression of LGBTQ+ people, but as Marvin puts it, ‘I take all that pain and I use it in my art.’

FINGERNAILS TBC

Compatibility issues…

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS, APPLE TV+

Sweet and distinctly surreal, this quirkily dystopian satire from Greek Weird Wave writer/director Christos Nikou (Apples) takes aim at society’s obsession with using tech to find your soulmate. Set in the near future, this tender but torpid romcom centres on Anna (a deliciously intense Jessie Buckley), who can’t quite believe the revolutionary medical-test result that proves she and her couch-potato boyfriend, Ryan (a rather under-utilised Jeremy Allen White), are 100% compatible. Why, then, is she so drawn to her kindly new colleague Amir (Riz Ahmed) as they instruct hopeful couples seeking to pass the same test at the Love Institute?

Nikou’s deadpan comedy can’t resist overstretching its nifty premise with drawn-out whimsy, as Anna and Amir plunge intimacy-seekers into electroshock therapy, skin-sniffing and underwater eye contact (‘Let’s hope no one drowns, this time’) while ignoring their own spark.

The film does rather better when it dips its fingers (or fingernails) into grisly but gripping body horror, as Anna tries desperately to square science and sexual attraction. Buckley and Ahmed, who fill their characters’ slow-burn romance full of sad and subtle yearning, are undoubtedly impressive as the computer-crossed lovers. All the same, the meandering story and uneasy mix of playful parody and tortured love make for a darkly comic but frustrating watch.

THE VERDICT Nikou’s futuristic pitch-black comic satire on computer dating is ambitious but ultimately anticlimactic, despite a brilliant performance from Buckley.