Jacques Audiard’s latest is a meandering melodrama that finds the emergence of companionship and perhaps love in people broken emotionally and physically. Starring Marion Cotillard alongside relative unknown Matthias Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone is a bruiser of a film that ultimately fails to pack an emotional punch.

Stunningly good, A Prophet, the latest film from The Beat That My Heart Skipped director Jacques Auidiard grabs you from the start, pulls a burlap sack over your head and doesn’t let up with its intensity and drive for any one of its 155 minutes. A gruelling masterclass in taut, engaging and wholly believable cinema, A Prophet is one release that’s going to be essential not only for fans of crime drama, but also those who like to take their cinema seriously.

Released on the 22nd January, A Prophet is the next film from the multi award winning French director Jacques Audiard, whose 2005 The Beat That My Heart Skipped earned a gritty, world-weary place in the hearts of critics and audiences alike. A Prophet looks set to do the same, so make sure this is one you check out.

From Brit-grit gangsters in 44 Inch Chest to hard-hitting drama in Brothers, Best For Film looks at all the upcoming releases and lets you know what’s worth the price of admission. Also up this month we’ve got the hotly anticipated crime drama A Prophet, rom-coms from Sandra Bullock, The Book of Eli, Up in the Air and heist action in Armored.