Macbeth

This masterful interpretation of the "Scottish play" from director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) delivers an onslaught of visual and emotional bravado, setting its story of spilt blood amid billowing smoke and red, raging fire. Michael Fassbender makes a mighty, all-comers-slaying Macbeth, a general who - inspired by a prophecy and urged on by his wife - kills a king. Eeriness abounds, with Kurzel and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw liberally employing filmic audacity to reinvigorate an oft-told tale. Their ferocious imagery complements the grandiose dialogue, every syllable of which is uttered with total conviction by an exemplary cast (which includes David Thewlis and Sean Harris). As Lady Macbeth, Marion Cotillard makes for an effective counterpoint to Fassbender's battle-scarred brute, a woman whose soft, saucer-eyed beauty can't disguise her steel. Ablaze with ambition and harnessing the power of the elements for its agenda, this sensational Shakespeare adaptation is fit to excite a new generation of admirers. The setting is simple, the story well-known, yet the film is so searing it'll have you pinned to your seat.