SPENCER ★★★★★
Directed by Pablo Larraín. Starring Kristen Stewart, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Sean Harris, Jack Farthing, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry.12A cert, gen release, 117 min
A stressed Princes Diana faces up to the hollowness of her marriage during a fraught Christmas with the in-laws at Sandringham in 1991. The director of Jackie hits all the right notes with another wilfully peculiar study of a lonely woman caught up in an establishment power structure. Stewart is inspired casting as a royal on the brink of escape from a superficially comfortable prison. Who better to play a person remembered for her perceived shyness than the current maestro of hooded introspection? Jonny Greenwood's score – formal classical bleeding into free jazz – heightens the impression of a polite Hades. DC
THE CARD COUNTER ★★★★☆
Directed by Paul Schrader. Starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe. 15A cert, gen release, 112 min
Isaac, seldom better, plays "William Tell", a military interrogator who has committed war crimes in the Middle East. Sentenced to military prison while his superiors, including Dafoe's major, go free, he teaches himself to count cards and emerges as one of the best poker players in the world. If Schrader's First Reformed mined his own religious sense of guilt, The Card Counter pivots around a more secular variant. Fuelled by despair and salvation, powered by tart political urgency, the film is an awkward marvel. TB
LOVE YOURSELF TODAY ★★★★☆
Directed by Ross Killeen. Featuring Damien Dempsey. 12A cert, gen release, 80 min
It's hard to classify Damien Dempsey's music, although many have tried. He's the Northside Dylan. The new Luke Kelly. An old-school singer-songwriter, the former boxing hopeful from Donaghmede: Damo to his chums and acolytes has long raised the rafters with robust street anthems. This excellent monochrome documentary winds the stories of ordinary, troubled Irish folk in with one of Dempsey's famous homecoming gigs. The film becomes a safe space for its participants and a semi-spiritual occasion, one that will leave viewers wanting to punch the air. TB
ETERNALS ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Chloé Zhao. Starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek. 12A cert, gen release, 156 min
A diverse bunch of indestructible superheroes do their best to save the world from its original intergalactic creators. It seems as if the Marvel Empire, in a greatly accelerated echo of its Roman predecessor, is entering the early stages of decadence and monied complacency. At least those ancients had some fun. The superhero conglomerate tempts the gathering Goths with an entertainment so po-faced you half-expect it to come with footnotes and a study guide. Zhao composes some nice shots, but the drama is tepid and the dialogue inert. The MCU's dullest film to date. DC
