I watched all of these by renting them from Amazon. They should also be on other services like Sky Store and Rakuten.

Wild Men
Suffering a mid life crisis, Martin (Rasmus Bjerg) leaves his family without warning to live in the Norwegian mountains. He meets Musa (Zaki Youssef), an on the run drug dealer and they form an unlikely friendship whilst being pursued by the police. There is fun to be had from Martin’s attempts to live from his wits/off the land in a modern day setting and some laughs from the mostly inept cops following the pair. However, the film does drag a bit at times.
Rating: 6 out of 10

The Worst Person in the World
Probably the most critically acclaimed film of the year so far, I struggled a bit with The Worst Person in the World until the latter stages. The brilliant Renate Reinsve stars Julie, a woman struggling to navigate her life through her mid to late 20s. You might think that the film’s title refers to Julie as she is infuriatingly selfish and aimless, but it is a quote from a male character describing themselves. Whilst admiring the performances of Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie as Aksel, her boyfriend for the main part of the movie, I found it difficult to feel a connection to the people on screen. But in the final couple of chapters – the film is split into 12 of those with a prologue and an epilogue – Julie is forced to think of someone other than herself, and I found some of the scenes really affecting.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Paris 13th District
In the titular run down part of the French capital, the lives of 4 people, Émilie (Lucie Zhang), Camille, (Makita Samba), Nora (Noémie Merlant) and Amber (Jehnny Beth) intertwine. I suppose some people may have a likeability problem here in the same way I did The Worst Person in the World, but I found the characters much more relatable, their situations more believable and the performances at least on a par. Merlant is great as we have come to expect but it is the fantastic Zhang who plays the volatile but captivating Émilie is the stand out. Director Jacques Audiard and his cinematographer Paul Guilhaume filmed in stark and startling black and white to great effect, and a varied score by Rone ties everything together well.
Rating: 8 out of 10

The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Jessica Chastain gives a bravura performance of televangelist Tamny Faye Baker in this biopic based on a documentary of the same name from 2000. Aside from Chastain there is nothing to recommend in this outrageously dishonest hagiography. It attempts to simultaneously portray the corrupt woman as crucial to the ministry, remarkably generous and in touch with everyday folk, highlighting her support of AIDS victims, whilst also trying to make us believe that she was totally naïve and oblivious to her husband Jim’s criminal activities whilst the funds from those provided her with a life of luxury. No mention is made of her support of Jim even when his fraud became common knowledge or when rape accusations were made. The film leaves out her splitting from Jim once he no longer provided her with the lifestyle she was used to, only to marry another fraudster. Leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
Rating: 2 out of 10

The Innocents
4 kids discover and experiment with their telekinetic powers over the course of one summer in this disturbing Norwegian horror. It is a hard movie to stick with at times because two of them are plain evil, torturing and killing a cat and inflicting pain on a disabled child. If you can get over that, and persist with a run time that is 20-30 minutes too long, a fair amount of tension is built up by writer/director Eskil Vogt towards the climax.
Rating: 6 out of 10

X
In 1979, a group of filmmakers arrive at a remote farm to film a porn movie with dreams of becoming rich and famous thanks to the home video boom. However, when the old, odd owners of the property find out what they are doing, things turn deadly. Director Ti West has a good track record in this genre and this may be his best film yet. The era is evoked well and the film they are making looks really authentic. I appreciated the time taken to introduce and flesh out the characters. Things do turn gruesome in the second half with my own real issue being that with the events taking place at night, it is hard to make out what is happening at times. A decent cast is headed by Mia Goth and Jenna Ortega. For those interested in this story, a prequel was shot simultaneously and a sequel will be following soon.
Rating: 7 out of 10

Compartment No: 6
Finnish student, Laura (Seidi Haarla) is staying in Moscow with her new girlfriend Irina (Dinara Drukarova). She has plans to travel to Murmansk to see the petroglyphs and, when Irina is unable to go with her, she takes the train on her own. On the journey, she shares a compartment with Lyokha (Yuri Borisov), who she initially finds deeply unpleasant. Over time, though, the very different pair get to know each other and an attraction builds. From a fairly simple premise, based on a book by Rosa Liksom, director Juho Kuosmanen provides a fresh and touching story. Haarla is absolutely terrific as Laura’s starts to realise that what she has with Lyokha is more real than anything she imagined she had with Irina. Borisov is remarkable too, He comes across and sexist and boorish to start with but gradually reveals something much deeper in his damaged character.
Rating: 9 out of 10