The best films to watch in cinemas this week, from The Surfer to Sinners

Telegraph

09-05-2025

Our top choices:
The Surfer
★★★★☆
Nicolas Cage doesn't do much surfing in The Surfer – and that's the point. In this deft psychological thriller, he's a washed-up dad in Perth trying to recapture lost youth. Bullied by locals off his childhood beach, he spirals into a surreal breakdown. Like his 2021 film Pig, it's a shape-shifter, with Cage fully committing to one of his most haunting performances. You won't soon forget the mania in his eyes when he ravenously chomps on a dead rat. Read our Surfer review here
Sinners
★★★★☆
Ryan Coogler's latest film takes a wild, unexpected turn from his usual prestige work. Set in Prohibition-era Mississippi, it follows twin mobsters (both played by Michael B. Jordan) opening a juke joint. What starts off resembling a period drama quickly escalates into a crazy, blood-splattered, Riverdancing vampire adventure. With its unique mix of Southern Gothic and metaphysical ideas, Sinners is an exhilarating and joyously odd film. Read our Sinners review
The Accountant 2
★★★☆☆
In this belated sequel to The Accountant, Ben Affleck returns as Christian Wolff, a high-functioning action hero who thwarts a human trafficking ring. Mixing real-world concerns with a fraternal buddy caper, the film, sillier and more rambling than its predecessor, taps into vigilante thrills with a touch of reactionary energy. Despite its meandering plot, the film's fun moments offer a nostalgic, refreshing tone. Read our Accountant 2 review
The Amateur
★★★☆☆
In The Amateur, Rami Malek plays a twitchy CIA cryptographer who takes justice into his own hands after his wife's death in a London terrorist attack. Lacking brute strength, he brings data skills and DIY grit to a revenge quest that's more brainy than brawny. With sardonic touches – lock-picking via YouTube, murder by hay fever – and brisk, no-nonsense direction, this lean thriller succeeds through competence and character, not spectacle. Read our Amateur review
Ocean with David Attenborough
★★★★☆
Released on David Attenborough's 99th birthday, Ocean is a stirring, visually breathtaking documentary that spotlights the beauty of marine life and the urgent crisis of overfishing. Balancing awe with clarity, it offers a hopeful, actionable message ahead of the UN Ocean Conference. With poetic narration, dazzling 4K footage, and a call to collective responsibility, it's an impassioned plea to protect our planet's most mysterious and vital realm. Read our Ocean review
Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII
★★★★☆
Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII is a gorgeously restored 1972 concert film capturing the band's psychedelic prime in an empty Roman amphitheatre. Directed by Adrian Maben, it features intimate, powerful performances and early glimpses of Dark Side of the Moon. Steven Wilson's surround-sound remix amplifies its timelessness. It's a must-see for old fans and aspiring musicians in an increasingly digital age. Read our Pink Floyd at Pompeii review
Flow
★★★★☆
Flow is a post-apocalyptic animated gem that outshines most films in capturing a video-game-like mood of desolation. Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, the story follows a group of animals navigating a flooded world without a speaking line between them. The mysterious landscape, abandoned human relics, and understated animation create an eerie yet captivating atmosphere. Flow is a minimalist yet immersive experience that feels more alive than its studio counterparts, making it a breath of fresh air. Read our Flow review
And the rest:
Thunderbolts*
★★☆☆☆
Thunderbolts⁎ arrives with Marvel's usual asterisk – and a whole glossary of conditions. This rag-tag team-up should be Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan's moment, but the film barely gives them space to shine. Instead, it's a murky swirl of trauma, flashbacks and CGI gloom, capped by a mopey new villain and a rebrand that's more marketing than movie magic. Fun? Not quite. Read our Thunderbolts review
The Minecraft Movie
★★☆☆☆
Based on the 300-million-selling game, A Minecraft Movie doesn't work out how to turn its source material into the stuff of plot. Jason Momoa stars as a former champion gamer reinventing himself as a life coach, but corporate obligations kick in. The Minecraft world's 'untrammelled creativity' is swamped by generic action. A subplot with Jennifer Coolidge almost saves the day – but the PG certificate prevents the obvious punchline. Read our Minecraft Movie review
The Penguin Lessons
★★☆☆☆
Steve Coogan gives quite a tender performance in The Penguin Lessons – it's just a pity about the surroundings. Based on a memoir by teacher Tom Michell, this whimsical comedy-drama sees a rumpled Brit abroad smuggling a rescued penguin into class, sparking students' imaginations. But characterisation is thin, the script defaults to penguin jokes and its self-conscious 'moral' plays like the film patting itself on the back. Read our Penguin Lessons review
Parthenope
★★☆☆☆
If all films were produced by Saint Laurent, as Parthenope palpably is, we'd get exquisite clothes, gorgeous faces and ambient wafts of first-world melancholy. Paolo Sorrentino's style fits perfectly: couture on Neapolitan shores. But in human terms, it's a non-starter. Parthenope wastes her youth in listless episodes and almost zero story. Despite a vivid Gary Oldman cameo, it amounts to little more than a love letter to Naples – and to side-boob. Read our Parthenope review
The Friend
★★☆☆☆
The Friend, starring Naomi Watts and a Great Dane, is essentially Rampage: the Day-Lewis cut. It carries itself like a mischievous character study, but is really a dog weepie with airs. Watts's grieving author inherits a giant dog from her late mentor (Bill Murray), but little comes of it. One imagined conversation with him sings – the rest is all chewed-up novels and groaning clichés. Read our The Friend review