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Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: In honor of “The Florida Project,” which has just started its platform release across the country, what is the greatest child performance in a film?

Jordan Hoffman (@JHoffman), The Guardian, Vanity Fair

I can agonize over this question or I can go at this Malcolm Gladwell “Blink”-style. My answer is Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon.” She’s just so funny and tough, which of course makes the performance all the more heartbreaking. She won the freaking Oscar at age 10 for this and I’d really love to give a more deep cut response, but why screw around? Paper Moon is a perfect film and she is the lynchpin.

Lewis MacDougall is remarkable as a young boy dealing with grief in an excellent adaptation of the Patrick Ness novel

A piercing sadness runs through this impressive adaptation, by Patrick Ness, of his acclaimed young adult novel. You ache for Conor, the 13-year-old boy at the heart of the story, as he struggles to process bereavement. You will be likely to weep with him as he comes to terms with the loss of his mother. This emotional authenticity, the palpable pain in a remarkable central performance from relative newcomer Lewis MacDougall, is both the film’s main asset and a factor that makes it a tough sell. This is not just a film about grief; it’s a film that immerses you in grief’s journey.

With his huge, hungry eyes, MacDougall has the vulnerability of David Bradley’s Billy in Kes. He tackles a complex, conflicted role with a confidence far beyond his years.

★★★★☆ Aside from the furore surrounding Ken Loach's latest Palme d'Or winning polemic on the inhumanities of the British welfare system, I, Daniel Blake, the re-release of his iconic 1969 drama Kes is a chance to explore a more poetic side of the prolific social realist filmmaker. Set in Barnsley in a dysfunctional, single-parent working class household, the narrative concerns itself with the youngest member of the family, Billy (David Bradley), and his bittersweet attempt to escape his bleak and downtrodden existence by capturing and training a wild kestrel.

As a 14-year-old boy from a mining community, he won a Bafta for his role in Ken Loach’s bleak film Kes. He explains why the sequel never got off the ground

David Bradley wants to meet in Barnsley. This is where he grew up. It is where Kes, the film that changed his life, was made, and where he still lives. He is waiting for me in the middle of the road as I come out of the station, waving exuberantly. He then drives me a few miles south to the village of Tankersley. It was here, in 1965, that author Barry Hines’s younger brother, Richard, trained a kestrel, homing her in the air-raid shelter at the bottom of Barry’s garden. Richard wanted to call her Kessy; Barry suggested Kes.

Related: Kes – review

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At the bitter end of a ten-year slide into ever-cheaper productions, The Cannon Group sends stars David Bradley (a nice guy), Steve James (everyone's favorite) and Marjoe Gortner (a stiff) to South Africa for an anemic entry in this series. Cannon is considered a 'fun' subject this year because of those funny documentaries that came out. Savant cut the trailer for this particular picture, so takes the opportunity to talk about the wild life and times in the Cannon trailer department. American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt Blu-ray Olive Films 19 / B&W / 2:35 1:85 widescreen / 1:37 flat Academy / 90 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring David Bradley, Steve James, Marjoe Gortner, Michele Chan,Yehuda Efroni, Alan Swerdlow. Cinematography George Bartels Film Editor Michael J. Duthie Original Music George S. Clinton Written by Gary Conway from characters by Avi Kleinberger & Gideon Amir Produced by Harry Alan Towers Directed...

Film: "Hummingbird"; Cast: Jason Statham, Agata Buzek, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wong, Ger Ryan, Dai Bradley and Victoria Bewick; Director: Steven Knight; Rating: ***

"Getting alive for one summer!" is how Sister Cristina encapsulates "Hummingbird". This film has layers that intriguingly unfurl. At the core of it is an interesting story of a gangster and a nun.

This film, which spans over a period of eight months from spring to autumn, uses the small petite Hummingbird beautifully as an analogy since it makes its presence felt in Britain during this period.

Set in London over a period spanning February to October, writer-director Steven Knight's film highlights the redemption of the protagonist and issues like - the.

The new trailer for Hummingbird is here, starring Jason Statham in the Steven Knight thriller from Lionsgate. Hummingbird tells of an ex-Special Forces soldier who has now found himself homeless. Also in the cast are Lee Asquith-Coe, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wont, Siobhan Hewlett and David Bradley. Knight directs as well as writing Hummingbird while Guy Heeley and Paul Webster produce. Serving as executive producers are Stuart Ford and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. The film is rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic nudity and language.

The new trailer for Hummingbird is here, starring Jason Statham in the Steven Knight thriller from Lionsgate. Hummingbird tells of an ex-Special Forces soldier who has now found himself homeless. Also in the cast are Lee Asquith-Coe, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wont, Siobhan Hewlett and David Bradley. Knight directs as well as writing Hummingbird while Guy Heeley and Paul Webster produce. Serving as executive producers are Stuart Ford and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. The film is rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic nudity and language.

You won’t be surprised to learn that in his new movie “Hummingbird”, Jason Statham plays a badass who uses his badass skills to kick bad guys in badass ways. Though in this one there’s apparently a bit more character and pathos that goes deeper than “he was wronged and now he’s going to kill you” logline you usually find in your average Statham movie. This is probably thanks to writer/director Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises”). But don’t take my word for it. Check out the first UK trailer for Statham’s “Hummingbird” and feel free to decide for yourself. Living homeless after going on the run from a military court-martial, Joey Jones (Statham) is a damaged ex-special forces soldier trapped in London’s criminal underworld. But when opportunity enables him to assume another man’s identity, he is transformed into an avenging angel. Also starring Vicky McClure,...

Catch the first poster for Steven Knight's Hummingbird thriller starring Jason Statham. The Lionsgate release opens in the U.S.. at a yet-to-be-determined date this year. Lucky fans in Russia, can catch it from May 9th, followed by the U.K. and Ireland after that. The story follows an ex-Special Forces soldier who has now found himself homeless. Also in the cast are Lee Asquith-Coe, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wont, Siobhan Hewlett and David Bradley. Knight directs and writes Hummingbird, which is produced by Guy Heeley and Paul Webster, while Stuart Ford and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones executive-produce. The film is rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic nudity and language.

Catch the first poster for Steven Knight's Hummingbird thriller starring Jason Statham. The Lionsgate release opens in the U.S.. at a yet-to-be-determined date this year. Lucky fans in Russia, can catch it from May 9th, followed by the U.K. and Ireland after that. The story follows an ex-Special Forces soldier who has now found himself homeless. Also in the cast are Lee Asquith-Coe, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wont, Siobhan Hewlett and David Bradley. Knight directs and writes Hummingbird, which is produced by Guy Heeley and Paul Webster, while Stuart Ford and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones executive-produce. The film is rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic nudity and language.

Suffering withdrawal symptoms after Euro 2012? This week's clip joint tackles the best football scenes in cinema

This week's Clip joint is by Ashley Clark, who also wrote Clip joints on breaking the fourth wall, mirrors and arguments. He runs the film blog Permanent Plastic Helmet. You can follow it on Twitter at @PPlasticHelmet, and/or him @_ash_clark.

Think you can do better than Ashley? If you've got an idea for a future Clip joint, pop an email over to adam.boult@guardian.co.uk

As the dust settles on tiki-taka titans Spain's soaraway success at the Euro 2012, our thoughts have turned to football's ever-complex relationship with film. Blessed with a fast pace and unpredictable rhythms, the action of the game is rather difficult to capture authentically without looking fake or telegraphed, but that hasn't stopped a number of film-makers trying their luck. Others, meanwhile, have simply used the raw...

Ken Loach's new film The Angels' Share is one of the big contenders at Cannes. Will its star – Glaswegian binman Gary Maitland – finally give up the day job?

Like many people, Gary Maitland juggles two jobs. For both, he must wake at 6.30am. But it's only when he's working as a movie star that he gets chauffeur-driven to work. South Lanarkshire council does not, as yet, extend this service to its binmen.

The Glaswegian's days of merely moonlighting on the big screen – he has already appeared in two Ken Loach films – look to be drawing to a close, though. This week, he will emerge into the limelight: his latest collaboration with Loach, The Angels' Share, is in competition at the Cannes film festival, and he will be there to promote it.

Maitland has been to France before, travelling through by coach to see Rangers play in the Netherlands. This...

We've been enjoying your responses to our My favourite film series, for which Guardian writers have selected the movies they hold closest to their hearts.

Here's a roundup of how you responded in week six, when the selections were Way Out West, Double Indemnity, Tampopo, Back to the Future and Kes

Commence to dancing! For in the sixth week of our My favourite film series you achieved something pretty much unheard of – a Guardian article that provoked absolutely no dissenting opinion whatsoever. Just 156 comments worth of awe and affection for Laurel and Hardy with the odd smattering of praise for Jonathan Glancey's take on their "happily inconsequential" classic Way Out West. Debate be damned! We could get used to this.

"Strung between songs and a creaking plot are gags aplenty and a gloriously wayward score," said Glancey of James W Horne's collaboration with the pair, which sees the boys pop...

In our writers' favourite film series, Simon Hattenstone finds real meaning in Ken Loach's film about a boy and a kestrel

Are your feathers ruffled by this review? Then write your own here or take flight to the comments section below

We didn't come from a very filmy family. I'd only seen two movies before Kes. One was The Poseidon Adventure – all I can remember is going in my pyjamas (I was ill) and being cold – and the other the film of Steptoe and Son. It was a friend's birthday, and I think (my memory might be playing a sick trick here) Albert Steptoe takes a bath in a tin tub and I found it weirdly thrilling.

Then came Kes. By now I was 12 years old, and at a special school, Crumpsall Open Air – or, as we pupils called it, Crumpsall Open Air for Mongs (no, I won't attempt...

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Living in the mining town of Barnsley, Yorkshire, the life and future of 14 year old Billy Casper (David Bradley) is unpromising. Confined to poverty, he is a petty thief, and mediocre student soon to face the unescapably bleak prospect of joining his older brother Jud in the mines. Billy’s mother (Lynne Perry) spends her free time with her admirers in the local, hoping to fulfil her dream of “a nice house and someone to come home to.” To her, Billy is a “hopeless case” who receives little more than nonchalance. Jud, Billy’s bullying older brother rules the house and like their mother, is more interested in the opposite sex. But Billy’s pastimes of reading the Dandy and pilfering milk are soon substituted by raising Kes, the kestrel he ‘discovers’ near his home which brings him real happiness and a new experience of freedom.

Jane Eyre (PG)

(Cary Fukunaga, 2010, UK/Us) Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell

It's customary with literary chestnuts like this to ask whether or not we really need another version. But would you rather have a remake of, say, Eat Pray Love? The power of the source material pulses anew here, thanks to some bold tweaks to the structure, elegantly restrained visuals, and, above all, two handsome, capable leads. And the mix between gothic gloom and slow-burning passion is just about right. So yes, we did need it.

Friends With Benefits (15)

(Will Gluck, 2011, Us) Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson. 109 mins

A non-romcom that almost creams its pants trying to be contemporary (iPads, apps, flashmobs?). The vaunted sex-only pairing is an excuse to critique the old sugar-coated Hollywood formula, but witty dialogue aside, you know it's going to resort to it in the end.

A Lonely Place To Die (15)

(Julian Gilbey,...

Forty-two years on, Ken Loach's social-realist tragedy about a boy who trains a kestrel is still transcendentally powerful

Ken Loach's social-realist tragedy from 1969 looks more luminous, more impassioned than ever, a rich film of flesh and blood. Perhaps, 42 years on, now is the time to restore the co-authorial status of Barry Hines, who adapted his own novel and gave Loach such a great story to work with. Non-professional David Bradley plays Billy Casper, the lad with the unforgettably pinched, shrewd, hungry face at the Barnsley comp where brutal teachers cane kids for things they haven't done. The poster famously shows Billy flicking a V-sign, but that's something he never does in the film, his defiance being more complex. Billy discovers a wild kestrel and realises he can train it: like a Tudor emblem of underdog ambition and power. The scene where Colin Welland's kindly teacher coaxes him...

Kes Quick Thoughts:

Just who is Ken Loach? What are his films about? Why is he so highly regarded? Honestly, I can't answer these questions without any great amount of knowledge, but after watching Criterion's treatment of Loach's second feature film, Kes, I'm beginning to have a greater understanding of the man and why Loach has remained a director appreciated by many since the mid-1960s.

Last year at the Cannes Film Festival I saw my first Ken Loach film, Route Irish. Kes was my second, and considering the British Film Institute named it the seventh best British film of the century my expectations were quite high.

To begin with, you are most likely going to want to turn on the subtitles for this one. The Yorkshire accents are so strong in the opening scene I couldn't understand a word. Things improve as you go along, but the dialect adds to the difficulty.

Once upon a time, child stardom was the road to dysfunction and ruined youth; but Hollywood's new brood of young actors are smart, talented and in complete control

In the last few weeks you can't have failed to be aware of Will Smith's pint-sized 12-year-old son Jaden; he's been unleashed at film premieres from Beijing to Berlin. Sometimes he's even worn a little Michael Jackson outfit. Smith Jr is promoting the remake of The Karate Kid; he stars, mum and dad are producers. To casual observers that might look a lot like the Smith dynasty are simply installing generation 2.0. But it turns out that Jaden Smith is actually pretty good; he plays everykid with as much charm as his dad ever did. And now The Karate Kid is a bona fide international hit, Jaden is likely to join the growing bunch of child actors – scarily professional and highly talented...