Is This Thing On? ★★★☆

Directed by Bradley Cooper. Starring Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Bradley Cooper, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds. 15A cert, gen release, 121 min

Cooper translates an origin story for Liverpool comic John Bishop to the unlikely surroundings of New York City. Arnett is the middle-aged Joe who, falling out with his wife (Dern), turns to stand-up comedy for a hobby. This feels like an old-school dramedy for grown-up viewers. They all act their socks off. The conversations have an improvised feel that allows supporting players such as Hinds, as the protagonist’s dad, to properly stretch out. But the loose-limbed screenplay never settles down long enough to explain what exactly went wrong – and so what might again go right – in the central relationship. Full review DC

Nouvelle Vague ★★★★☆

Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Bruno Dreyfürst, Benjamin Clery. 12A cert, limited release, 106 min

Linklater takes on Jean-Luc Godard (Marbeck, uncanny) and the making of Breathless, the French director’s feature debut, in a project that bustles with the choppy energy of the titular new wave. The movement was, for all the adherents’ Marxism, shamelessly in thrall to American popular culture. Linklater repays the debt in a beautiful film that eschews granular analysis for a broad celebration of Frenchness at its most proudly awkward. Sure, this version of the French capital is no less idealised than that in An American in Paris. But even the snootiest cineaste is allowed a moment of escapism. Full review DC

Primate ★★★☆

Directed by Johannes Roberts. Starring Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter. 16 cert, gen release, 89 min

Move over, elevated horror. Following hot on the heels of Anaconda and Dangerous Animals, Johannes Roberts adds to the voguish new canon of creature features with this cheerfully disreputable slasher about a rabid chimpanzee running amok among affluent and nubile American youth. It makes no grand claims for itself, gestures briefly at ethical complexity, then pegs it towards efficient, blood-soaked mayhem. There are moments of wit, however, particularly the well-flagged stupidity of two late-arriving frat boys, and one carefully staged sequence involving a deaf father (a welcome Hollywood role for the Coda Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur). Monkey see evil, monkey do evil. Full review TB

Rabbit Trap ★★★☆

Directed by Bryn Chainey. Starring Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen, Jade Croot. 15A cert, gen release, 87 min

Chainey’s stylish psychological horror arrives wrapped in the commendable swagger of a debut that knows how it wants to feel. Set in the Welsh countryside in 1976, the film follows Darcy (Patel) and Daphne (McEwen) as they retreat to a remote farmhouse to record the natural world. Any sense of idyll is dispelled when they encounter a strange child (Croot). Technically, Rabbit Trap is assured, particularly in its dense sound design. Emotionally, though, it remains hollow. For all its atmosphere, this is folk horror that makes the ears twitch yet rarely finds a way under the skin. Full review TB