50
Benin State
This introductory film sheds light on a role-playing event to teach children how politics works, organized by the American Legion. Here the Texas version is examined, as debates and power struggles culminate in a mock election. Read the full review.
49
White riot
A documentary about the groundbreaking “Rock Against Racism” movement that helped stem the rising tide of support for the extreme right in 1970s Britain, with its informative shows featuring the likes of Clash and Tom Robinson Band. Read the full review.
48
Only animals
This is a witty and brilliant thriller by French director Dominique Molle (Harry, he’s here to help), featuring the interconnected stories of six disparate people and stretching from southern France to the Ivory Coast. Read the full review.
47
Boycott
There is a harsh Icelandic background to this ruthless, spoiled drama: Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir plays Inga, a farmer who takes up the mafia that runs the local cooperative, in an attempt to circumvent the monopoly by selling products online. Read the full review.
46
The ideal candidate
The fourth feature of Oujda director Haifa Al-Mansour, you see the Saudi director returning home for a politically influential drama interrogating the supposed neo-liberalism in the country, after a doctor tried to run for a position after she was denied permission to travel abroad. Read the full review.
45
Bakurao
Western Brazilian horror with an exceptionally unsettling tone, directed by Clipper Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelis. A woman returns to a remote town – the fictional settlement of Bakurao – that appears to have fallen off the map, as a violent group of foreigners congregate nearby. Read the full review.
44
Shirley
Mad Men Elisabeth Moss plays acclaimed horror writer Shirley Jackson (famously for The Lottery) in a fictional autobiography that predicts what happens when a young couple interrupt her lukewarm home life with her husband Stanley (Michael Stollberg). Read the full review.
43
Borat’s next movie
Individual films don’t often change the course of history, but by insulting Donald Trump’s assistant Rudy Giuliani, this follow-up to the successful 2006 comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen may have done just that. This time, the Kazakh journalist is trying to unload his daughter Totar (Maria Bacalova). Read the full review.
42
Invisible Man
A bold adaptation of the classic HG Wells, reconfigured for the #MeToo era by horror specialists Blumhouse. Elizabeth Moss is a woman who thinks her controlling boyfriend is stalking her, who he thought was killing himself. Read the full review.
41
St. Francis
Latifa noticed an American indie movie starring Kelly O’Sullivan, who plays a woman in her mid-30s whose unexpected pregnancy coincides with her getting a job as a nanny for a child named Frances (Ramona Edith Williams). Read the full review.
• Appointments were calculated by weighted average score from the critical vote. Voters are: Peter Bradshaw, Cath Clark, Ellen E. Jones, Leslie Filbrin, Phil Hood, Mike McCahill, Benjamin Lee, Kathryn Shord, Andrew Pulver and Steve Rose
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