by Gemma Williams 

The lovely and talented Anna Kendrick has been gracing our screens for quite some time now, but it wasn’t until the past few years that she started getting bigger roles and she became a must watch actress. In her new film, Into the Woods, she plays Cinderella and gets to show off her singing prowess in a completely different genre to that for which she has become known. If you don’t know who she is yet, here is a list of films that you really should consider watching.

by Cookie N Screen

Peter Jackson is affiliated with everything Middle Earth. You think Jackson and you are immediately going to think of hairy feet, wizard fights and a massive eye in the middle of a volcano. The Lord of the Rings and the subsequent Hobbit trilogy is coming to a close today. Unless Warner Bros. feels to need to lift the Silmarillion out of its dusty cupboard so we can have another 23,905,720,502 hour long series, we wont step our foot in a Tolkien based novel again. As some breathe a sigh of relief and others sob into their elven robes, let’s take a moment to look at Jackson’s body of work because he wasn’t always the master of Hobbitses.

Here are some essential movies for you to plunder.

by Jennifer Drewett 

There are some actors who are incredibly talented and very much overlooked. Many reasons can dictate this: someone else is more outrageous; another person may be more appealing to the tabloids that generate celebrity or simply because the actor has just not been properly noticed. Some eventually get recognition and manage to attract enough attention to receive endless offers of lucrative roles only to find that money isn’t always enough to satisfy wanting to perform in well-scripted stories. They may turn away from film in favour of other platforms such as television or theatre.

Christopher Eccleston is an actor many people will immediately know as the 9th incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who, but he is far more than that. As much as he is known for being picky about the roles he takes on, he is a talented dramatic actor who has tackled a variety of different roles and films. He is known for having a preference for drama, but his film performances deserve recognition. Here are some films he’s been in you definitely need to see.

by Cookie N Screen 

Jude Law. For a while, he was an actor who skimmed a lot of great roles and fell head first into bad ones. There are those out there who do not like him, whether that’s because his personal life affected our perception of him or because they didn’t like his acting. Either way, there are many naysayers. However, when you look at the collection of movies under his belt – ranging from great blockbusters to brilliant independents – you’ll find that Law is actually brilliant. His acting can really get to the heart of a character and translate that onto screen.

For the release of Black Sea today, let’s have a look at some of Law’s best work.

Honourable Mention: Dom Hemmingway. Because whilst the film is lacklustre, Law’s performance is pure gold. And Contagion, it’s the scariest virus movie of later years but I wanted to be a bit diverse. 

by Sean Narborough

Today not only marks the release of one of the biggest films of the year, Interstellar, but also the return of one of the best directors of our generation to the big screen, Christopher Nolan. Nolan has been able to establish himself as a great visual director and a master of the blockbuster. Critics and fans alike love him, which has made him one of the most popular directors around. While nearly everyone will know Nolan best for The Dark Knight Trilogy, there are other films that deserve high praise as well. So to prepare you for Interstellar, here are the essential Christopher Nolan films to watch.

by Robbie Jones

Being paraded as one half of Hollywood’s favourite couple can make it easy to forget that Brad Pitt is an incredibly talented actor. Perhaps one of the best known names in show business (And one of the most attractive, according to the ladies), Pitt has been making great films for years, and almost always delivers great performances. Well, it looks like that could be happening again as today sees the release of Fury, a WW2 film with Pitt in the lead role. It’s getting great reviews so far, but what are the other essential films from Pitt’s career?

Honourable mentions: Plenty of good films to check out from this man’s career, such as Ocean’s Eleven, Moneyball, Snatch, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Interview with the Vampire, Sleepers, Thelma and Louise, Burn After Reading, Killing Them Softly, True Romance and 12 Years a Slave, of which the latter two would definitely be Essentials were it not for the fact that he only plays a small role in both of them.

by Robbie Jones 

There are some celebrities whose names just immediately come to mind when you think of the word “awesome”. Neil Patrick Harris, for example, or Jennifer Lawrence. But in recent years, no name has come up alongside that word more often than Robert Downey, Jr., whose personality onscreen and off has lead him to be one of the most well-loved actors in Hollywood. He’s taking a break from franchise films this weekend and starring inThe Judge, where he plays a lawyer who must put his differences with his father (Robert Duvall) aside to defend in him in court after returning home for his mother’s funeral. The film is garnering decent reviews (You can check out Gloria’s review here), which a lot of people have been glad to hear, but what are the other essentials in RDJ’s career?

Honourable mentions: I haven’t seen these flicks myself, but fans would likely want mentions for films like The Soloist, Natural Born Killers, Weird Science, Bowfinger, Good Night, and Good Luck and A Scanner Darkly, all of which I’ve taken on good word to be pretty great. But let’s skip out on The Shaggy Dog, yeah?

by Hayley Charlesworth 

The greatest man to ever wear fishnet stockings, Tim Curry is the undisputed star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which continues to be beacon of all things wonderfully filthy after all these decades. In celebration of the man, the voice, and the corset, we take a look back at some of his greatest hits: from making an enemy of Macauley Culkin to terrorising children as a clown. Along the way, expect to find a lot of singing.

by Robbie Jones 

David Fincher is my favourite director of all time. He is an auteur, and delivers excellence almost 100% of the time (Okay, so Alien 3 and The Game aren’t great, but you know.. Shut up). It would seem this streak of excellence continues with his film Gone Girl, based on Gillian Flynn’s novel, starring Ben Affleck as his wife (Rosamund Pike) goes missing, and is soon accused of her murder. You can check outJo’s review of Gone Girl on the site now, but if you haven’t already, it’s time you saw these cracking films from Fincher’s filmography.

by Robbie Jones

Ben Affleck: the man who saved his career. After years of giving terrible performances in terrible movies, he finally showed the world what he was made of and proved he was a fantastic director. Now, he’s back on track, and next year will be playing the Caped Crusader in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but right now, he’s accused of murdering his wife in David Fincher’s Gone Girl. To celebrate, let’s take a look at his best films. (Yes, he does have good films).

Honourable Mentions: Quite a few good films that didn’t quite make the cut, such as his Oscar winning Argo (not the most deserving of the award that year though), Dazed and Confused, Shakespeare in Love, the director’s cut of Daredevil and of course, the phenomenal Gone Baby Gone, which he doesn’t star in but it was his directorial debut that he hasn’t quite improved on yet. Oh, and I haven’t seen it myself, but apparently he was the bomb in Phantoms yo.