Blitz review – Steve McQueen’s rousing wartime adventure is surprisingly old-fashioned

The director unexpectedly channels The Railway Children as Saoirse Ronan stars as the single mother whose son is evacuated, only to run away in a perilous bid to find her

Almodóvar in English, McQueen at war and Jolie on song: Peter Bradshaw’s picks of the London film festival

Tilda Swinton facing life and death, Saoirse Ronan searching wartime London and Pablo Larraín retelling a grand diva’s last days are just a few of this year’s must-sees

Bunting, bobbies and Doctor Who phone boxes: Dinard, the French film festival that’s mad for Britain

Every autumn, a seaside resort in Brittany hosts a charming festival that celebrates only low-budget, independent British and Irish films. Is this a curious case for Poirot?

‘I wasn’t interested in Churchill’: Steve McQueen on the ‘ordinary people’ in his film Blitz

Director’s second world war feature is a grimy, chaotic look at Londoners navigating their way through hell

Nickel Boys review – Colson Whitehead novel becomes intensely moving story of a racist reform school

Adaptation of Whitehead’s novel about two young friends trapped by institutional abuse is told with piercing beauty by RaMell Ross

On Falling review – the strip mining of an online warehouse worker’s sanity

Laura Carreira’s impressive debut drama sees a quietly excellent Joana Santos endure dehumanising work conditions while looking for a way out

From The Brutalist to Conclave: what is the state of this year’s Oscar race?

With most of the year’s awards-aiming films now premiered at fests, potential nominees are starting to fall into place

The End review – Joshua Oppenheimer’s end-of-days musical is ambitious and exhausting

The documentarian makes his hit-and-miss narrative debut with help from Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon as privileged parents in a luxury bunker

Saturday Night review – tedious SNL origins tale is an unfunny misfire

Toronto film festival: Jason Reitman’s 70s-set comedy detailing the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live is a dull and self-indulgent mess

The Piano Lesson review – powerful yet patchy August Wilson drama

Fantastic performances from Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L Jackson enliven a soulful, if imbalanced, Netflix adaptation

Better Man review – Robbie Williams chimpanzee biopic is a bananas gamble that pays off

The life of the ego-driven showman is turned into an unlikely yet surprisingly entertaining saga with a CGI chimp in the lead

Vermiglio review – secrets and lies in idyllic Italian village in the shadow of war

Maura Delpero’s beautifully-made drama explores the complex dynamics of a sprawling family near the wartime border with Germany

‘I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption’: controversial Netanyahu doc screens at Toronto

Despite a legal attempt to stop it, documentary The Bibi Files, which shows leaked interrogation footage of the Israeli prime minister, made its debut at the festival

Without Blood review – Angelina Jolie’s lacklustre war drama is another misfire

The actor and activist again struggles to convince as a film-maker with a well-meaning yet unconvincing adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s novel

Heretic review – Hugh Grant has devilishly dark fun in talky, twisty horror

The actor takes an unusually villainous turn in a button-pushing descent into hell that works best before its cards are revealed