Top five films: the best of the big screen

ALIENS (131 minutes) M

James Cameron put his stamp on the Alien series in this rip-roaring 1986 second instalment, which finds Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) joining a marine unit investigating a disturbance on a seemingly deserted alien planet. Far more than its predecessor, this is the film that cemented Weaver's status as one of the greatest action heroines in cinema. Digitally projected. Selected Hoyts cinemas, today, 7pm (check online for details). Double bill with Alien.

The LEGO Movie.
Photo: Warner Bros Pictures

RAW (108 minutes) R

Billed as horror, this bold first feature from the French writer-director Julia Ducournau can equally be described as a bizarre but non-judgmental coming-of-age story. The teenage heroine (Garance Marillier) has lived all her life as a vegetarian, but after she enrols in veterinary school she starts to feel some very odd urges. Selected.

Justine (Garance Marillier, right) is a young vet science student forced to endure a series of hazing rituals in the film Raw.
Photo: Monster Pictures

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (103 minutes) M

Despite the title, this 1986 Woody Allen comedy-drama about the lives and loves of a group of well-off Manhattanites really belongs to the men. Allen himself is at his funniest as a TV writer in existential crisis, and Michael Caine, as a lovelorn accountant, has the knack for delivering Allen's most sententious lines as if he meant them. Screens as part of an Allen retrospective. Digitally projected. Lido, today, 4pm and Classic, tomorrow, 2pm.

STRANGER IN PARADISE (72 minutes) Unrated 18+

From young Dutch director Guido Hendrikx, this provocative hybrid of drama and documentary pits an actor personifying Europe (Valentijn Dhaenens) against a classroom of apparently authentic African refugees. It's more a study of the gatekeepers than of those who are being kept out, sometimes suggesting an uncommonly harrowing form of reality TV. Screens as part of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival. ACMI, today, 2.30pm.

THE LEGO MOVIE (101 minutes) PG

From Phil Lord and Christopher Miller – the gifted team behind Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and the 21 Jump Street revival – this 2014 computer-animated comedy set in a world of LEGO figurines was the most intellectual toy commercial since Speed Racer. Chris Pratt voices the hero, a boring construction worker destined to overthrow the tyrannical Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Astor, tomorrow, 2pm. Double bill with The Lego Batman Movie

Hannah And Her Sisters - Mia Farrow (Hannah) and Michael Caine (Elliot).
Photo: Supplied

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