At the invitation of the Swedenborg Society, Best For Film is publishing a special series of reviews to follow its ‘Images of the Afterlife in Cinema’ film season, which will be exploring life, death and everything in between. This week we take a look at what happens when there’s a mix up in heaven in A Matter of Life and Death.

Thierry Guetta is obsessed with filming things. Whether it be the morning routine or a trip to the shops, the L.A. based Frenchman won’t let his camera miss it. But when his cousin, a French street artist known only as Space Invader, introduces Thierry to the temporary nature of his craft, suddenly his recordings take on new purpose. With street art fast becoming his obsession, Thierry sets his sights on the daddy of them all; Britain’s master prankster, Banksy. Little did Thierry know that it would be the elusive artist who ended up turning the camera on him…

What do you do when you fall off the horse? Why, you jump back on, of course! Or rather, on every attractive female twenty-five years younger. But aside from the sleaze, Solitary Man pushes (albeit, a few ) buttons, mainly as we question whether Ben Kalmen (Michael Douglas) is a troubled human being going through a tough time or a creep with no morals, no manners and the mind of a confused adolescent.

The lunatics are taking over the asylum, or that’s what Martin Scorsese’s impeccably crafted Shutter Island would have us believe. But then perception and reality are completely blurred in this 1950s-set mystery, adapted by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis from the best-seller by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone).

Sad boy meets sad girl. Said sad boy and sad girl inevitably fall in love. Whilst it would be easy to summarise Remember Me as such, it would be crude to reduce R Patz’ latest venture to such terms. Remember Me is a dark, brooding, and occasionally heart-wrenching affair (yes, really), but unfortunately this new Robert Pattinson film fails to reach its potential.

Released in 2005, the original Nanny McPhee was a strong successor to Mary Poppins in every way. Adapted from the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand, the film pitted seven mischievous tykes against an ugly woman with a snaggle tooth, warts and an oversized nose, who had a few tricks up her sleeve when it came to childcare. Susanna White’s colourful sequel casts an even more bewitching spell, introducing the mysterious nanny to a family in crisis in wartime Britain.

Another day, another remake. But before you throw your computers across the room at the mere sight of the dreaded ‘R’ word, take heart – Breck Eisner’s The Crazies is actually a pretty good horror film, and a definite improvement on George A. Romero’s original.

With the final instalment of the Toy Story trilogy opening in cinemas this week, it’s no wonder that parents (and grown-ups furtively pretending to be parents in order to justify their DVD collection) are stocking up on the celebrated parts one and two. Already being hailed as one of history’s most successful film trilogies, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more DVD love from Woody, Buzz and the entire Toy Story team. And we couldn’t be happier about it.

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief juxtaposes the battle of the Gods on Mount Olympus and the exploits of a teenage boy destined for greatness, based on the first of five books by Rick Riordan. Echoes of Harry Potter are uncomfortably palpable, but Percy at least offers significantly more laughs than the first outing of the earnest Brit wizard.

At the 2009 Cannes film festival, Antichrist was released onto the world to sneers of disgust. Its graphic portrayal of sex and violence left even the most steely of critics gaping in disbelief.  There is no doubt that Antichrist is monstrous, leaving the majority of audiences reaching for their torches and pitchforks, but like most monsters, Antichrist has been criminally misunderstood.