Filmmaker Nancy Meyers has produced a catalogue of lighthearted, fun films, with mature actors and made for mature audiences; think Something's Gotta Give and It's Complicated.

Adam Sandler leading a crew to save the world against an invasion of 80s videogame arcade characters created by aliens who got hold of one of those Nasa space probes with a recording of what we did for entertainment in 1982.

Occupying the most improbable of genres, the musical thriller, this feature-film version of a 2011 National Theatre hit takes an unusual angle of view to explore the effect on the small Ipswich street of the title of a wave of murders in 2006.

Internationally acclaimed South Auckland hip-hop superstar Parris Goebel turns this classic follow-your-dreams dance story into something special, thanks to her electrifying, unique style of choreography and incredible troupe of dancers.

Sicario is less a typical FBI thriller than something akin to Michael Mann's Heat or a Zero Dark Thirty substituting the War on Terror for the War on Drugs.

As slight in scope as it is modest in subject matter, the second-to-last film by Albert Maysles, who died in March, is a charming if occasionally too-reverential portrait of New York identity and self-described "geriatric starlet" Iris Apfel.

If you see only one film this year shot on an iPhone 5s and focusing on transgender hookers in LA, make it this one.

This understated and delightful New York-based comedy starring Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement as a guy grappling with single fatherhood is less weighty than writer/director James C. Strouse's earlier films.

In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials the fight for survival now takes place among demolished cities and desert landscapes.

Remember Dr Dre's brilliantly glamorous video for Still D.R.E? Where he and Snoop Dogg cruise around Compton in Chevys, bouncing on hydraulics and partying with bikini babes?

Winner of the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, this indie coming-of-age dramedy is all about Greg (Mann), a teenage boy whose mother makes him spend time with cancer-stricken classmate Rachel (Cooke).

Meryl Streep's rock'n'roll dysfunctional family drama makes Mamma Mia look authentic.

The film version of a well-regarded stage play, which was itself based on a true story, was always going to be at high risk of being a weepie of cloying sentimentality.

Leaving the theatre after watching this documentary about Carl Boenish, father of the base-jumping movement, I couldn't help but think how far skydivers have pushed the sport.

He's become a real glutton for punishment has Jake Gyllenhaal; whether it's the pounds he dropped for Nightcrawler, the muscle he packed on for this, or the cold he endured to play Scott Fischer in the forthcoming Everest.

The title sequence of this reboot of 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation includes holiday snapshots of butt cracks, animals humping and peeing, vomiting and an erection.

Director and screenwriter Peter Bogdanovich has often looked to the past for inspiration; this time he revives the screwball comedy genre he enjoyed success with in the early 70s.

"You say nobody knows who he is? Who doesn't know who he is?" runs a line early in this splendidly entertaining film about three-time Oscar winner, costume designer Orry-Kelly.

Amy Winehouse really was a musical force of nature. Her voice and her songwriting were incredibly special.

A love letter to a life-changing experience, this portrait of a sextet of walkers on the famous Camino Frances that finishes at Santiago de Compostela tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the undertaking.

If the plays of George Bernard Shaw are more admired than staged these days, this one may explain why.

Tom Cruise's latest Mission: Impossible film is darker and funnier than its immediate predecessor and feels more like a Euro-espionage thriller than a spy story stuck on an action chassis.

"I take notes all the time when ideas hit me," Woody Allen told TimeOut in a 2012 interview, "and I throw them in a drawer. So I have a drawerful of ideas and I could probably make a lot more films."

The debut feature for its young writer-director, this unassuming but engaging French dramedy deserves the prizes it picked up at Cannes and at the country's Oscar-equivalent Cesars.

Wondering what to see at the International Film Festival? Here are our latest reviews from the Auckland leg of the nationwide event.

John H. Watson, MD, has much to answer for; just ask this Sherlock Holmes.

Our reviewer Russell Baillie discovers there's big fun to be found in Ant-Man's small-scale thrills.

Revenge, served at various temperatures, is the unifying theme of this Oscar-nominated Argentinian compendium of six blackly comic short films making a welcome return from last year's festival.