Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland cast a long shadow over the country for more than 30 years. The cycle of bloodletting largely ceased with the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement but deep emotional scars remain, providing film-makers with stories drawn from fact and fiction to recreate these dark decades of murder, reprisals and political meddling. In the mid 1990s, journalist Tom Bradby worked as ITN’s Ireland correspondent and reported on momentous events including the peace process and IRA ceasefire. Soon after, he penned his first novel, Shadow Dancer, a taut thriller set against the backdrop of the brutality he had witnessed firsthand.

This suspenseful yarn, about a young woman’s betrayal of the people she holds most dear, translates elegantly to the screen under Academy Award-winning director James Marsh (Man On Wire). Twenty-something single mother Colette McVeigh (Andrea Riseborough) has never forgiven herself for inadvertently sending her young brother to his death in 1970s Belfast. She harbours a deep resentment for British forces, which fired the fateful bullet, and has assuaged her guilt by becoming an active member of the IRA alongside brothers, Gerry (Aidan Gillen) and Connor (Domhnall Gleeson). Police apprehend her during an attempted bombing of the London Underground and MI5 operative Mac (Clive Owen) leads the interrogation.

He provides evidence that an IRA bullet killed her brother all those years ago then offers Colette an ultimatum: act as a mole, secretly feeding back vital intelligence on terrorist plots, or serve 25 years behind bars and forego precious time with her young son Mark (Cathal Maguire) and mother (Brid Brennan). Reluctantly, Colette agrees to work for MI5 and she provides Mac with details about an assassination attempt spearheaded by Gerry and Connor.

British security forces ambush the IRA, exposing the existence of an informant. The finger of suspicion points at Colette and the IRA’s head of internal security, Kevin Mulville (David Wilmot), ruthlessly questions her but cannot extract a confession. Meanwhile, Mac senses the danger for Colette and attempts in vain to persuade his boss, Kate Fletcher (Gillian Anderson), to move his asset to safety.

Set in the early 1990s, Shadow Dancer is a riveting portrait of an era. Riseborough is mesmerising as a young woman offered an impossible choice between her son and her siblings; Owen is solid as the puppeteer who realises too late that his professional integrity has been irrevocably compromised.

Evan (Ben Stiller) is at the heart of a community in The Watch. He dotes on wife Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt), who is desperate for a child. When security guard, Antonio (Joe Nunez), is murdered, Sgt Bressman (Will Forte) and his team fail to apprehend the culprit. So Evan organises his own neighbourhood watch. Bob (Vince Vaughn), who spies on his teenage daughter Chelsea (Erin Moriarty), wannabe police officer Franklin (Jonah Hill) and Brit abroad Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade) join Evan’s crusade. Little do the hapless do-gooders realise that the person they are chasing is an extra-terrestrial warrior, who has landed on Earth to wipe out the pernicious human race. The Watch misfires on every level, failing to generate laughs or excitement as Evan and his dysfunctional pals search for extra-terrestrials in their midst.

Stiller plies his usual sweetness while Vaughn’s loud-mouthed routine grates to the point that we pray his character is slaughtered by the invaders.