What with the huge success of both Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and the latest MCU outing Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it's been a pretty stellar summer blockbuster season – and it isn't over yet.

Today sees the release of the first film in eight years from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell, and his thriller The End of Oak Street is very much a summer blockbuster of the old school, a Spielberg-inspired romp including rampaging dinosaurs.

There are plenty of other new releases this week as well, from Matt Johnson's 1975 set film about the youth of Anthony Bourdain to a bold mockumentary starring Sian Clifford.

Plus, there's a movie inspired by the early days of pop punk icons Green Day, a new nun comedy starring Miriam Margolyes an emotional coming-of-age film led by Bella Ramsey.

You can check out our own verdict of all of those films below, and of course you can also discover our lowdown on the other major movies released in UK cinemas in recent weeks and still showing in cinemas, including our reviews of The Odyssey and Brand New Day.

Read on for your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas.

What films are released in UK cinemas this week? 14 August – 20 August

The End of Oak Street

High concept doesn’t always equal high quality but in this instance “dinosaurs in the suburbs” works a dream. It’s a loving homage to Steven Spielberg and less rips off Jurassic Park, ET and Jaws and more relies on audiences’ love for those films and the nostalgia they are imbued with.

Directed by David Robert Mitchell (It Follows), this is a moving, funny and thrilling family-friendly 12A romp, which still has a murky dark heart.

Set in 1982, Oak Street lies in a friendly neighbourhood while the Platt family – fronted by Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor – are ostensibly the perfect unit, until you scratch the surface. Then one night, Oak Street is suddenly plopped in the centre of a prehistoric forest, complete with dinos, geysers and tropical foliage.

There is carnage. But there isn’t much gore, though the tension is still palpable. Produced by JJ Abrams, it’s colourful, pacy and slick, while ambiguities mean the ending could be sweet, happy and satisfying, or incredibly dark and disturbing. Take it as you will. Roarsome.

The early years of late celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain are explored in this hugely pleasurable film from Matt Johnson (BlackBerry), which mostly sidesteps the tired tropes of the biopic genre. Adapted from a section of Bourdain's best-selling memoir Kitchen Confidential, it unfolds entirely over the summer of 1975 in the seaside Massachusetts town of Provincetown.

Aspiring writer Tony (Dominic Sessa) travels there to chase the attentions of his high-school crush, before circumstances lead to him landing a job washing dishes in a small local restaurant, where he is moulded both by his raucous colleagues and the quiet mentorship of its hard-working proprietor and chef (Antonio Banderas).

Sessa is terrific, playing Tony as a livewire with both the cocksure arrogance of youth and the wounded quality of a lost soul, while Leo Woodall is electric in a standout supporting role as an unpredictable colleague. Johnson expertly crafts the nostalgic vibe of a specific seaside summer and stages intense, authentic kitchen scenes reminiscent of TV's The Bear, while the stellar soundtrack includes 70s hits from Jonathan Richman and Karen Dalton.

It adds up to a moving, well-performed coming-of-age film told with a commendably light touch.

Sian Clifford is a tour de force as "aristocracy’s answer to the Kardashians" in this eccentric mockumentary from debut director Samuel Abrahams. Impossibly wealthy aristocrat Isabella has invited a camera crew to her manor to document her artistic talents – though she’s currently unsure what those talents might be.

Heading the crew is young, anxious film-maker Sam (Laurie Kynaston) and, when one absurd, magical moment derails filming, Sam begins to believe they have something special on their hands. Filmed in just over two weeks at Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk, Lady is distinct from other mockumentaries thanks to a surreal plot twist and some heartfelt overtones.

The script is tight and fast-paced, and Clifford and Kynaston deliver some impressive comedic performances, whether Isabella is painting abstract art with her body or playing dead in her hedge maze (while wearing neon pink trousers).

Though some minor narrative choices cause the occasional wobble, the film remains a brilliantly peculiar yet unexpectedly tender tale of humanity, friendship and grief. A gloriously royal romp.

A teenager in remission from cancer reluctantly attends a summer camp for those with the disease in this spirited British indie. Bella Ramsey (TV's The Last of Us) is Ivy, a 17-year-old in remission whose parents (James Norton, Jessica Gunning) are concerned she has become withdrawn.

Ivy agrees to spend four weeks at a rural Scottish retreat, run by Neil Patrick Harris’s counsellor. Gradually, she thaws, making friends with other teens whose existence has been shaken by cancer, including the handsome Jake (Daniel Quinn-Toye).

Writer/director George Jaques (Black Dog) creates a story that doesn’t drip with mawkish sentimentality or melancholy, à la The Fault in Our Stars. While it might be difficult to call the film upbeat, it is sharply funny, shrewdly directed and catches the rhythms of teen interactions just so. In an enjoyable ensemble, Ruby Stokes as Ivy’s roommate Ella shines with a deft comic turn.

If some elements don’t quite come off – including a surprise musical guest playing themselves – it’s still a colourful, carefree and compassionate work.

Nimrods: A Green Day Comedy

Broadly based on the real-life experiences of million-selling college rock band Green Day, this loving but limited comedy drama is a hybrid of road movie and coming-of-age tale of lean and hungry musicians on the cusp of what they hope will be their big break.

The eager but perhaps underdeveloped trio set out on a trek to a high-profile concert opening for their heroes, a path peppered with life lessons that prompt them to reassess where they’re going and if the journey is worth the toil.

Hapless rockers on the big screen have previously been portrayed by the sublime Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer in This Is Spinal Tap, and the comparatively under-the-wire but nonetheless charming trio of Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi in Airheads.

But such comparisons arguably do a disservice to relative newcomers Mason Thames, Kylre Coffman and Ryan Foust, all of whom acquit themselves well, given what’s required of them, and it’s not their fault their roles are so one-dimensional and underwritten.

Three nuns and a motherless waif go on a road trip to try to save their convent from developers in this jaunty and enjoyable slice of New Zealand feel good. Miriam Margolyes, Judy Davis and Jacki Weaver twinkle away as they squeeze the maximum from a script that knows there's something inherently amusing about nuns going about everyday tasks.

It feels almost like a children's movie for grown-ups, with funny moments including Margolyes flashing her bum as Sister Luke goes for a swim, and Sister Agnes (Davis) and Sister Mary Clare (Weaver) sneaking the odd drink or cigarette.

The fact that their companion, motherless Brian (Elijah Tamati), is half Maori allows writer/director Nathalie Boltt (who also plays his wicked stepmother) to slip in some half-baked spiritual musings, but she doesn’t overdo it.

The main event here is the three lead actors, all national treasures, who willingly oblige in a film that celebrates their myriad delightful qualities.

What else is still showing in UK cinemas?

An evil ice cream man (Ari Millen) serves kids frozen treats that turn them into cannibalistic zombies in director Eli Roth’s extreme, brainless shocker. Bullied 12-year-old Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) is lactose intolerant, so he isn’t infected alongside his classmates, and joins up with his sassy older sister Lizzie (Sarah Abbott) and her besotted boyfriend Chris (Dylan Hawco) to make sense of what’s going on.

While the pedestrian acting isn’t up to scratch, the work of prosthetics designers Steve Newburn and Adrien Morot (the latter an Oscar winner for The Whale) certainly is. Their top-notch gruesome visuals include a dismemberment with hacksaw, intestines used as skipping ropes and much more.

Effects aside, there’s really nothing of substance in a cheap chiller that wantonly scoops ideas from Dario Argento, Alfred Hitchcock and the Terrifier franchise. Advertised in the opening credits as being in "Scream–O-Vision", the film is actually flakier than that chocolate stick in your overpriced 99. No one will be screaming for more Ice Cream Man.

Glenn Close stars in a faithful-to-a-fault adaptation of the 1972 novella by Tove Jansson, the author best known for creating the Moomins. Credited simply as Grandmother, Close’s aged character is holidaying in a remote cottage in the Gulf of Finland with her son (Anders Danielsen Lie) and his daughter Sophia (Emily Matthews).

As Midsommar approaches, they indulge in simple pleasures, from festive fireworks to wild swimming. But in a subtle story about absence, the lack of a mother figure weighs heavily. Director Charlie McDowell crafts a visually beautiful film, highly attuned to both the rhythms of nature and the book it's adapting.

McDowell’s observational camera beds in with the characters, sensitively played by all three actors, with emotions kept bubbling far below the surface. That’s all well and good, but with almost no plot, the softly-softly approach will frustrate those yearning for more dramatic punch. A film that treats the heaviest of subjects – life and death – with the gentlest of touches.

Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) stuns in this powerful French-language drama. After an amicable separation, Clémence (Krieps) and Laurent (Antoine Reinartz) share custody of their son, Paul (a natural performance from Viggo Ferreira-Redier). When Clémence informs Laurent that she is now dating women, things turn sour. Laurent sues for full custody, arguing that she is an unfit mother, which causes Clémence struggle to find her identity.

Krieps is simply astonishing: anguished but reined-in, she never once succumbs to false or forced emotion. Director Anna Cazenave Cambet, adapting Constance Debrés loosely autobiographical book, keeps a tight hold of both the script and her camera. You could argue that Clémence’s dispassionate narration occasionally falls on the pretentious side, yet when it hits, it hits hard.

The longing of this mother for her child is palpable; as is her determination to find a rich, fully sexual life with no restrictions on who she truly is. –

Tom Holland's embattled web-spinner returns for his exhilarating fourth solo outing, which picks up a few years after the downbeat ending of 2021's No Way Home. With all memory of Peter Parker erased from the world, including from the minds of his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best bud Ned (Jacob Batalon), we now follow a lonely neighbourhood Spider-Man as he helps the police with baddies like the Scorpion (Michael Mando) and a ninja cult known as the Hand.

Still pining for his lost love, Spidey is then faced with multiple distractions: the return of Ned and MJ to New York; mutating powers which threaten to make Peter more spider than man; and an insidious mystery villain able to possess anyone instantly. Director Destin Daniel Cretton delivers plenty of nifty web-slinging and dizzying set pieces, not least when a rampaging Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) battles Spidey and the Punisher (Jon Bernthal, in his big-screen debut as the fearsome vigilante).

Indeed, Holland’s double act with the brooding Bernthal is a refreshing addition to the franchise. This is stuffed full of the usual Marvel Cinematic Universe cameos and Easter eggs, but it also strives to work as a coming-of-age tale, with our happy-go-lucky teenage hero now a battle-scarred adult struggling with various losses, exemplified by some poignant scenes between real-life spouses Holland and Zendaya. It's the stirring humanity beneath the mask that sticks in the memory as much as the pyrotechnics and punch-ups.

An impressive debut feature from visual artist and composer Imran Perretta, this lyrical end-of-childhood tale unfolds in contemporary Luton during the school summer holidays. We first meet the 12-year-old Ish (Farhan Hasnat) when he’s happily playing in the local woods with his Palestinian-British friend Maram (Yahya Kitana).

However, these are dangerous times for young male Muslims, with police vans patrolling the streets and officers using racial profiling to carry out stop-and-searches, while snatches from radio bulletins refer to the government’s anti-terrorist Prevent programme and the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza.

The beautiful monochrome cinematography, courtesy of Jermaine Canute Edwards, adds both a timelessness and a poeticism to the world experienced by the preteen Ish.

Avoiding the nihilism that can overwhelm dramas of marginalised urban youth, the screenplay – co-scripted by Enda Walsh (Hunger) – pays close attention to the tender relationships within the protagonist’s loving family, as they collectively cope with a painful bereavement. And in a film of fine performances, the non-professional leads Hasnat and Kitana are especially convincing.

Christopher Nolan returns to the subject of warmongering with an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, one of the very cornerstones of western literature. Brought viscerally and vividly to life, it feels utterly of the moment.

Matt Damon is Odysseus, the cunning if arrogant warrior-king of Ithaca who recounts the horrors of Troy and the terrors faced by he and his men on their perilous journey home. Nolan blends in the fantasy of Homer – monsters, giants, whirlpools and even a trip to Hades to meet the undead – in a way few other directors can manage.

Shot entirely on IMAX cameras, The Odyssey looks nothing short of spectacular. The performances are equally grounded with Damon leading the line as the egotistical soldier who dismisses the idea of honouring the dead – until he comes to realises the pain of war. But it’s the female performances that stand the tallest – Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Samantha Morton all have their moments, as do Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya.

Filled with blazing action, blood-curdling fights and creatures that truly bring Homer’s epic poem to life, this is Nolan at his finest. Big-screen spectacle, expertly crafted and propelled by yet another masterful score by Ludwig Göransson. A powerful and profound achievement.

George Orwell’s farmyard satire of post-revolution Russia receives a DreamWorks-style makeover in this perplexingly cheery CG animated adaptation.

When the animals of Manor Farm are threatened with the slaughterhouse, they revolt and take over the running of the farm themselves. Soon, though, their utopian community, where all animals are equal, begins to fall apart, as the pigs see themselves as more equal than others.

Directed by performance capture maestro Andy Serkis, this whimsical version of the bleak literary classic, complete with songs, fart gags and cute critters, is unlikely to get a thumbs-up from literary snobs. That it goes off piste to include toothless swipes at capitalism, consumerism and a certain American president before delivering a happy ending may prove even more enraging.

However, if you can pretend you have never heard of Animal Farm before, it’s a decent enough kids' film with great voice performances from the likes of Woody Harrelson, Seth Rogen, Kathleen Turner and Stranger Things's Gaten Matarazzo. There's also plenty of action and Looney Tunes-style anarchy, with a couple of darker moments that almost give away its source material.

A tale of great courage told with great creative cowardice, this live-action remake of the 2016 Disney animation loses so much magic in translation that it can be a spirit-sapping watch. We’re once again in the company of plucky Moana (played by Catherine Laga’aia, taking over from voice star Auli’i Cravalho), who sets sail to save her dying Polynesian island home, despite the disapproval of her father Chief Tui (John Tui).

To put things right, she must restore the heart of goddess Te Fiti, which was stolen by shapeshifting demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson, appearing in person this time), who assists her on her quest. Director Thomas Kail fails to distinguish this remake in any discernible way, resulting in a near-identical but significantly inferior copy that maroons its humans in unattractive CG landscapes.

Johnson is saddled with a distracting wig and his efforts feel like a pale version of his previous, vocal-only performance. Newcomer Laga’aia gives an earnest and likeable turn that’s perhaps lacking a little spark, while Rena Owen’s twinkly, charismatic work as Moana’s mischievous grandmother is a winner.

However, there’s little value in seeing computer-generated animation transformed into computer-generated "live-action", and the film's desperately unambitious approach is its undoing.

This sixth entry in the long-running Evil Dead series pushes the boundaries of horror excess further than ever. It follows Alice (Souheila Yacoub), a woman who is widowed when her controlling husband's car is involved in an accident with a familiar franchise villain. Her lack of grief at the sparsely-attended funeral doesn't go down well with her in-laws, but those squabbles are the least of her concerns after they decamp to the secluded family home – with Deadites soon unleashing their unique brand of chaos.

French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček has been inspired not only by Sam Raimi's originals but by the "New French Extremity" movement, and serves up a relentless, frenetically paced onslaught of mean-spirited horror set pieces. Occasionally, the constant barrage can become numbing, and the film – which runs longer than any previous entry in the Evil Dead canon – would have benefited from more considered pacing or some diversions akin to the slapstick charms of the Raimi trilogy.

But where the film excels is the invention with which Vaniček stages the many ultra-violent – and sometimes fiery – horror sequences, while long-time fans will appreciate the various nods to earlier films and overarching lore.

This latest adventure for the cute, yellow-hued mischief-makers is a lavish love-letter to the movies. It’s also easily the best standalone Minions outing yet. Directed by Pierre Coffin, who once again voices the Minions' gibberish dialogue, Minions & Monsters marks the seventh film in what is the biggest animation franchise of all time.

This adventure follows the Minions as they biggest thing in Hollywood during the Golden Age, starring in films like 'Tiny Barbarians With Chainsaws', residing in a plush Beverly Hills mansion and peddling their own line of merch. They lose their fame and fortune after the advent of sound in movies and instead decide to make their own monster movie.

From here on, the plot goes a bit bonkers, as the Minions must somehow conjure up a real monster for their movie, with the help of Goomi, a green creature (Trey Parker) straight out of H P Lovecraft. Right from the off, the movie references come thick and fast and it’s this that will surely please the movie-loving adults in the audience. Meanwhile, younger viewers will surely delight in the Minions' own brand of insanity, in this charming, frequently funny adventure.

A Private Life

Director Rebecca Zlotowski adds a refreshing entry to the whodunnit canon with this sophisticated mystery, led by a superb Jodie Foster. The star gets to show off her fluency in French as Lilian Steiner, a cigarette-smoking American in Paris who already has enough problems of her own when she finds out one of her patients, Paula (Virginie Efira), has died.

Officially, it’s a suicide, but not everything adds up, and when Lilian finds herself suspecting foul play, she quickly appoints herself lead detective to find out the truth – which, of course, leads her down a bumpy road. Moments of surrealism heighten an already sharp script from Zlotowski and co-writers Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, while a slick cast, including an ethereal Efira as Paula and a charismatic Daniel Auteuil as Lilian’s ex-husband, are equally impressive.

Though a few small narrative misfires and a somewhat anticlimactic conclusion might prove bothersome, they’re small prices to pay for such a witty, stylish, sophisticated little tale.

More than 30 years since its debut, Pixar’s popular animated franchise finally catches up with the reality of being a modern kid, as the Toy Story gang face their stiffest challenge yet: screen time. Rag doll Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack) is in charge of the bedroom of a now eight-year-old Bonnie (Scarlett Spears), with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) her deputy, and Woody (Tom Hanks) off enjoying an alfresco life.

Bonnie’s lack of friends prompts her concerned parents to get her a tablet, Lilypad (Greta Lee), but when Lilypad alienates Bonnie further, the toys are tasked with saving the day. Directed and co-written by Pixar stalwart Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), Toy Story 5 is beautifully animated and largely well executed, if a little overstuffed.

Highlights include Conan O’Brien’s toilet trainer Smarty Pants, while it's great to see Jessie finally coming to the narrative fore. Her emotional arc might be overfamiliar but Cusack's performance is terrific. The threat of screens is an interesting idea, too, feeling like essential fodder for this play-based franchise, though some of the commentary is heavy-handed and hard to square with the fact that Lilypads are included among the film's official merch.

Yet, such is the love and attention to detail that goes into making these films, that even a slightly underwhelming effort remains a cut above most of Hollywood's animated field.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.