A Most Violent Year (15, 125 mins)

Director: J.C. Chandor

4 stars

"In five years the Corleone family will be completely legitimate". That was Michael Corleone's promise to Kay in The Godfather, although he was probably trying to convince himself as much as her.

It's also the kind of mantra you'd be likely to hear from Abel Morales, a successful but embattled businessman in New York City circa 1981, and the central figure of J.C. Chandor's gripping crime drama, A Most Violent Year.

What's more, if the search had been on for the new Godfather, it can now be called off, because Oscar Isaac embodies the 70s version of Pacino as Abel; it's not just the physical resemblance, but his whole air and demeanour, calm but steely and authoritative.

Abel sells oil, but his trucks have been getting stolen regularly in recent months, possibly by one or more of his rivals, possibly by the Mob. Some, like his advisor (Albert Brooks) want Abel to arm his drivers but he preaches non-violence and is trying to be as legitimate as possible in all his dealings.

His wife (Jessica Chastain) is less concerned with niceties, understandable since her family is connected, with Chastain delivering probably the best Lady Macbeth since Laura Linney in Mystic River and their scenes together crackling with a tense dynamic.

Without preamble we dive straight into this world, very much a Sidney Lumet world of grey morality and dark corners. And yet it's a curiously under-explored area, that netherworld between shady pursuits and outright gangsterism, and so provides something unique if not always necessarily completely dramatically satisfying.

Abel may look like a hood, but in reality he's the victim of a corrupt system in a rancid city. He's just made a deal to buy a patch of land that will help expand his business, but between the thefts and the possibility he won't be able to afford to close the deal, it's in danger of going south.

On top of that, the D.A. is after him for what may be dodgy business practices, and with all these forces closing in, he's struggling to hold his life's work together.

All that makes for weighty viewing, populated by strongly constructed scenes that may sometimes take a while to show how they're part of the bigger picture, but which are always fresh and designed to keeping the film and the audience on its toes.

Chandor, following on from Margin Call and All Is Lost, is definitely one to watch, finding plenty of angles to explore in a fine movie that is just slightly lacking that killer punch, but which is in most regards first rate.

See it if you liked: Prince of the City, God's Pocket, City Hall

The Gambler (15, 111 mins)

Director: Rupert Wyatt

3 stars

This fairly straightforward remake of a 1974 drama sees James Caan recast as Mark Wahlberg, playing Bennett, a professor of English with a serious gambling problem.

He's a quarter of a million into his bookie and has a week to pay it off before things start getting ugly. Though more likely to vocalise what might have gone unspoken in the original, this is generally sturdy stuff.

A haggard and gaunt Wahlberg is an unusual bit of casting, but then so was Caan, while a monstrously good John Goodman steals the small number of scenes he's in as a big-time lender. You'll want to give Bennett a shake due to his seeming lack of interest for either the predicament he's in or his wellbeing, or the people trying to help him, but that's the character and that's what makes it compelling as he lurches on, unable to resist the next bet.

See it if you liked: Hard Eight, The Cooler, Casino

Ex Machina (15, 108 mins)

Director: Alex Garland

3 stars

In a subtly realised near future, programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is summoned to the remote home of his billionaire software tycoon boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan has been working on a new kind of artificial intelligence and introduces Caleb to Ava (Alicia Vikander), the synthetic being he has created.

Caleb is tasked with determining whether she can be distinguished from a human, which plays out as a series of sessions between them that quickly becomes overly talky and results in Caleb falling for her, par for the course with this sort of thing.

There's no faulting the performances in Ex Machina, with Isaac particularly impressive as the dark and troubled Nathan in what's going to be some year for him (he and Gleeson will be back in a little something called Star Wars).

It's very contained and a little repetitive but digs deep into human nature and is clearly very smart in its workings. But beyond the face value, what exactly is the point?

Things happen for the sake of plot rather than feeling organic and, as ever, artificial intelligence is treated as something to be feared instead of a source of scientific worth. Still, a dynamite ending helps considerably, although even then it can't quite quit while the going is good.

See it if you liked: Her, Transcendence, A.I.

Beyond Clueless (15, 89 mins)

Director: Charlie Lyne

3 stars

Comprised entirely of spoiler-heavy clips from teen movies and narrated by The Craft star Fairuza Balk, Beyond Clueless is a neat attempt to analyse and categorise the high school movie.

Dealing with the rules, the cliques and the hierarchies, it's a celebration of why they're loved by many, without really pausing to comment on their clichés or strict adherence to formula.

Majoring on genre mainstays like Mean Girls and The Faculty, writer-director Charlie Lyne's dissertation is smart, informed and insightful, but with its unchanging structure and narration, it can sometimes take on the guise of a lecture.

It's often at its best when the multitude of clips are allowed to speak for themselves on a particular theme, with the excerpts tastefully chosen and expertly edited, backed up by a terrific soundtrack.