DRIVE
Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Cary Mulligan, Albert Brooks

This is the film that that inspired an American woman to launch a lawsuit claiming that the trailer was misleading. It, apparently, led her to expect a Fast & Furious style car-stunt flick and Drive is not that. It is, instead, much much better. Ryan Gosling plays the lead, a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver. In a throwback to Hollywood's ‘70s new wave cinema, he is known simply as ‘Driver' and gets in over his head after falling for his pretty neighbour (Mulligan). The complications come in the form of her jailbird husband whom Gosling agrees to help out on a job. Which – unsurprisingly – goes severely pear-shaped. This is sleek, tough stuff, tantalisingly scratching at the surface of a mean criminal culture that includes Ron Perlman – even heavier than in TV's Sons of Anarchy – and Albert Brooks, previously known a comedian, here chillingly evil and Oscar-nominated as a reward. The cinematography and (particularly) sound editing and score are all strikingly intense, maintaining a brooding atmosphere well-suited to a world of people who like to drive at night. Gosling may be a bit doe-eyed for some but acquits himself well and brings a sense of dangerous cool which permeates the entire film.

Like Contagion, Perfect Sense involves a fast-spreading disease. However, this takes a decidedly more metaphysical approach, with a pandemic that first causes deep grief then loss of the sense of smell. In the midst of this strange affliction Ewen McGregor's chef and Eva Green's epidemiologist meet and fall in love, and the world falls apart as subsequent senses are extinguished. Just in case the philosophical ramifications aren't clear there's a reoccurring voiceover to spell things out in patronising detail. Director David McKenzie enjoys interesting themes and brings considerable style to bear – classy entertainment for highbrow romantics.

Greek mythology has been taking a bit of a hammering in recent times, what with Percy Jackson and Clash of the Titans, but they seem like true stories in comparison to Immortals, which pretty much remakes the whole system and the story of Theseus from the ground up. Which isn't to say that this lacks in vacuous fun. If you enjoyed 300 then this will be right up your alley, easily topping the sloppy Clash of the Titans and reintroducing the idea (from that film's original version) of a bunch of gods swanning around on a mountaintop while humans and various creatures fight it out below.

Is there anything left to say about the Twilight franchise? Sorry, saga. With Breaking Dawn Pt 1 we get more repressive anti-feminist subtext, more cringingly vapid teen anguishing, more anxious lip-biting from Kirsten Stewart, and more dodgy CGI werewolves with a seemingly endless supply of spare tee-shirts… This is the ‘wedding instalment' and the big concern is whether Ed and Bella can have sex without him killing her. Seriously. Turns out they can, but the subsequent pregnancy causes trouble all round. Marriage (but only after she turns 18), honeymoon, baby – these vampires and werewolves make Harry Potter look positively subversive.

The Israeli original arrived on DVD a month back but it was the John Madden remake of The Debt that drew international attention. Helen Mirren plays Rachel Singer in 1997, a Mossad agent who 30 years earlier killed a Nazi war criminal during an heroic mission. Now, just as a book her daughter has written about it is being published, complications arise. Is the famous story true? It's taut, well thought-out stuff, a thriller suffused with moral ambiguity. Mirren cedes much of her screen time to Jessica Chastain, playing Rachel's younger self, as the real story of the mission is revealed.