FALLEN LEAVES ****

 Ansa, (Alma Poysti) and Holappa, (Jussi Vatanen), are the "Fallen Leaves" of the title, cast adrift on the winds of fate and finally blown together as people often are. You might say they are two of life's losers; she works in a supermarket but is fired for taking home out-of-date produce while he is an alcoholic manual worker, fired after having an accident at work while drunk. In fact, you could say they are destined to be together.

Often laugh out loud funny, touching and melancholic in almost equal measure "Fallen Leaves" is one of cinema's great love stories and confirms director Aki Kaurismaki as one of the finest and most original directors alive today, a man whose empathy with the characters he has created is totally true and utterly lacking in condescension. I can't think of another director who could have told their story in this way without resorting to digs at the characters just to please his audience. Rather Kaurismaki and his two wonderful actors draw us in gradually until no outcome other than the one he gives us could possibly be the 'right' one. This is his best film in years and is quite simply a small masterpiece.

HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE ***

 It may not have the most appealing title and there's a conspicuous lack of 'stars' but this independently made 'eco-thriller' may be the best thriller you will see this year. Basically you could say it does what it says on the tin as a group of 'eco-warriors', (good performances from a largely unknown cast), set out to sabotage the pipeline of the title. Think of it as a heist performed by eager, well-intentioned amateurs but with the pipeline standing in for the bank vault while director Daniel Goldhaber displays the same ability as the young John Sayles for eliciting first-rate work from his fresh young cast and for giving the film the feel of a documentary.

It's also genuinely exciting; for starters these guys are dealing with high explosives that could go off at any time with deadly results and secondly, whether or not you agree with their agenda, they remain a sundry bunch of criminals packing weapons and perhaps capable of anything. A neat ending, too, that isn't as predictable as you might think. All in all, one worth seeking out.

A VIGILANTE no stars

 The title says it all and not in a good way. "A Vigilante" has another abused woman fighting back scenario wrapped up as piece of cheap exploitation rather than as a serious study with the opening five minutes telling us all we need to know about what will follow. We are clearly in 'Death Wish' territory but this highly offensive film makes the Michael Winner movie seem like some kind of progressive masterpiece which it clearly wasn't.

Olivia Wilde is the kick-ass, (and a lot else), vigilante of the title who takes it on herself to rid abused women and children of their abusers. Written and directed by a woman, Sarah Daggar-Nickson, (Daggar? Can she be real?), the film, rather than highlighting the issues of abuse, by the sheer offensiveness of its tone and the almost total lack of talent up on the screen, seems almost misogynistic in its treatment of women. Shocking as in shockingly bad.

REINDEER GAMES **

 The critics hated it, (and basically so did the public), but John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games" is a surprisingly enjoyable movie let down only by a weak performance from Ben Affleck as the ex-con who finds himself embroiled in a Christmas heist, hence the title. It may not be one of Frankenheimer's better films but it's certainly not the Christmas turkey that its reputation might suggest and if Affleck lets the side down there's compensation in the form of Charlize Theron, Gary Sinise and Dennis Farina.

As written by Ehren Kruger it's a piece of pulp fiction with no pretensions to being anything else and it's a lot more violent than you might expect; it may be set during the season of goodwill but there's very little of that on display. In fact, it's just the kind of Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies. The plot may be totally daft but that's half the fun and Sinise makes for a terrific villain. A cult movie if there ever was one.

THE BURIAL ***

 Two absolutely terrific, Oscar-worthy performances from Jamie Foxx as a hot-shot, ambulance chasing lawyer and Tommy Lee Jones as his client, a funeral director suing a multi-million dollar company raise this feel-good courtroom movie to an altogether higher level. "The Burial" is a David and Goliath story based roughly on fact and it's hugely entertaining helped considerably by a cracker of a script by Doug Wright and director Maggie Betts from Jonathan Harr's 'New Yorker' article and a first-rate supporting cast that includes Jurnee Smollett, Bill Camp, Alan Ruck, Mamaudou Athie, Pamela Reed and Dorian Missick, all at their best. Indeed, "The Burial" is the kind of funny, smart, big-hearted movie we see much too seldom these days. I loved every minute.