Horror / 1982 / 109 minutes

Famously rejected by audiences and critics upon its 1982 release, John Carpenter’s The Thing – a remake of the atomic age classic The Thing From Another World – has since earned a well-earned reputation as one of the greatest creature features in cinema history, thanks in no small part to the incredible practical effects work of Rob Bottin. The set-up is near-perfect for effective terror; a snowbound team of Antarctica scientists find themselves besieged by a shape-changing space monster that can assume the identity of any of them, turning the already psychologically frazzled and isolated men against one another. A celebrated master of suspense thanks to this breakout film the original Halloween, Carpenter expertly brings the atmosphere of tension and paranoia to a nail-biting boil, culminating in explosive scenes of mind-bending body horror that showcase Bottin’s masterful creature work and give his all-male cast – led by the ever-charismatic Kurt Russell – some real dramatic turf to chew on. With Wilfred Brimley, Richard Masur and Keith David.

Drama / 2018 / 84 minutes

There is some small synergy to the fact that Jonah Hill’s directorial debut Mid90s should be such a masterful dissertation on the pains of male adolescence; Superbad, the teen comedy that put him on the map, was a rite of passage film for teens of the mid-aughts. But where the latter was an homage to male posturing, Hill’s film – which he both wrote and directed – seeks to dig deep into the hardened heart of the male experience through the story of a 13 year-old LA kid (Sunny Suljic) who seeks refuge from a highly dysfunctional home life with a group of older skateboarding teens during the titular mid-90s. Deftly managing a cast of non-professional actors – all of whom deliver convincingly authentic performances – Hill’s film leans on nostalgia while retaining a clear-eyed integrity; like last year’s Lady Bird, Mid90s is a welcomingly frank and funny coming-of-age story that marks an auspicious beginning for its author as a cinematic storyteller. With Katherine Waterson.