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© Netflix Diana Nyad is something of an icon when it comes to marathon swimming. In 1974 at the age of 26, she set a record in Italy at the Gulf of Naples race of eight hours and 11 minutes across 22 miles. A year later, she came to national prominence in the US by swimming around Manhattan . Four years later, the former squash player swam from The Bahamas to Florida in record time. © Netflix However it is her determination in her sixties to complete a marathon swim without a shark cage between Cuba and Florida that drives ' Free Solo ' directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's Netflix movie 'Nyad'. Starring Annette Benning as Nyad and Jodie Foster as her close friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll, it's a tale about gritty determination, self absorption and a desire to defy age. From the off, Bening plays Nyad as a tunnel visioned, tough as old boots sporting icon who can't take no for an answer. After turning 60 and having a party thrown for her by B

© A24 Having raised the bar for slasher movies with his wonderfully executed ' X ,' how does Ti West kick on with the second film in his trilogy? The answer is, it seems, by fusing the genre with a period drama that celebrates the early days of cinema. Co-written with Mia Goth, 'Pearl' fills in the back story of one of the characters the London born actress played in ' X '. Pearl was an old woman in the previous instalment who unleashed an orgy of violence on a Texan farm in 1979 where Goth's other character Maxine was making a porn film. © A24 A prequel to 'X,' 'Pearl' is not, however, your typical psycho movie. It's a loving, knowing tribute to the Golden Age of cinema and another meditation by West on the lure of fame and the dangers of developing an unhealthy obsession with it. 'Pearl' begins with Goth's farm girl sporting a fine dress and dancing aeound her bedroom like a Disney character. She's interrupted, however,

© A24 And so to Ti West's 'X' - the first in a series of films that celebrate and shake up the slasher movie genre. Released digitally last year, the film helped establish Mia Goth as the movie industry's pre-eminent cult actress. Made in New Zealand back to back with its prequel 'Pearl,' it should be viewed before watching that film. A loving recreation of Tobe Hooper's ' Texas Chainsaw Massacre ' and John Carpenter's ' Halloween ,' it's a glorious throwback to the days when slasher movies really spooked cinemagoers. © A24 However be under no illusions - 'X' isn't a mere pastiche. Goth takes on two roles in 'X'. The first is Maxine, a stripper recruited by her sleazy boyfriend, Martin Henderson's Wayne Gilroy to star in a porn movie called 'The Farmer's Daughters'. The movie is being filmed in 1979 on the cheap, on a farm deep in the Bible Belt of rural Texas. © A24 Wayne is a man on the make - an

@ Warner Bros & Amazon MGM Studios Distribution  Oh Lordy.  What are we to make of 'Saltburn'? Is the film a work of genius or an empty exercise in audience baiting? Is it a sharp satire or an unholy mess that has jumbled messages about class? @ Warner Bros & Amazon MGM Studios Distribution  Few movies this year have divided audiences and critics the way Emerald Fennell's follow-up to ' Promising Young Woman ' has. Beautifully shot by the Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren, it's deliberately provocative and guaranteed to stir passionate debate. But is it any good?  Set in the early 2000s, Barry Keoghan is Oliver Quick, a young lad from Prescot near Liverpool who initially feels like a fish out of water at Oxford University. @ Warner Bros & Amazon MGM Studios Distribution  Surrounded by hard partying Hooray Henrys, he is initially excluded by them and finds himself hanging about with Ewan Mitchell's overbearing maths genius Michael Gavey. At h