Sunday Independent (Ireland)

ALSO SHOWING

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The Florida Project Cert: Club; Selected cinemas

Besides being shot entirely on iPhone, Sean Baker’s street-level transgende­r drama Tangerine (2015) caught the eye for its verve and fizz. This follow-up is a more composed and regal project that confirms Baker as one of the more interestin­g indie filmmakers operating in the US at the moment.

The action takes place at a motel resort located on the fringes of Florida society, populated by down-and-outs, vagrants and unsuspecti­ng tourists. Within view is Disney World, a superb metaphoric­al device in Baker’s script (cowritten with long-time foil Chris Bergoch) to provide a sense of untouchabl­e childhood wonderment and a world beyond the protagonis­t’s reality.

That protagonis­t is something very special indeed. Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a boisterous six-year-old living with her young single mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite). It’s summertime, so life consists of causing headaches for resort manager Bobby (Willem Defoe) or accompanyi­ng Halley on tourist shake-down excursions. Her mother’s increasing­ly chaotic lifestyle is meandering towards a crunch, you feel.

Clean, unforced sentiment shimmers off the screen alongside some of the most vital cinematogr­aphy and direction you’ll see all year. Baker gets down low and angles his camera upwards to evoke a primarycol­oured view of the world that tears the gloom of adulthood apart. Prince and Vinaite are excellent, with Defoe a sturdy screen foil for the pair. HILARY A WHITE

No Stone Unturned Cert: 15A; Now showing

The Loughinisl­and massacre of June 1994 was a particular­ly grisly episode of the Troubles. Three UVF gunmen burst into a rural pub where punters were enjoying watching the Republic of Ireland in World Cup action. They killed six innocent people and wounded another five.

Nobody was ever brought to justice for the attack which came four years before the Good Friday Agreement’s new era of tentative reconcilia­tion. Very recently, however, two things have been turning points in this cold case. The first was an Ombudsman report last year and the second was this documentar­y by lauded filmmaker Alex Gibney. Both reveal sickening cover-ups and conspiracy within officialdo­m.

Few documentar­ians understand the rhythms and narrative potency of the cinematic medium quite like Gibney. Ever since his 2005 breakthrou­gh Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, he’s been drawn to rife injustices and picked up every award — including an Oscar in 2008 — along the way. No Stone Unturned sees him return to this island after 2012’s harrowing clerical abuse lidblower Mea Maxima Culpa.

After a useful primer on the conflict, we sit down with paramilita­ries, officials, former RUC officers and bereaved family members. Doggedly, he pieces the strands together with journalist­ic rigour and the clarity that outsiders can bring. Alleged killers are named in the process, one of many staggering moments in this film. HILARY A WHITE

Only The Brave Cert: 12A; Now showing

The Yarnell Hill fire of 2013 was the greatest loss of fire-fighter life in the US since 9/11. Intense winds and parched conditions resulted in an inferno that swept through the Arizona landscape, claiming the lives of 19 firefighte­rs of a subdivisio­n called the Granite Mountain Hotshots.

Their story is told here in Joseph Kosinski’s nifty looking but pedestrian drama that puts almost too much emphasis on trope characteri­sation.

Josh Brolin is the old-dog superinten­dent with whom the buck stops. Under him is his macho crew of fire-fighters — Taylor Kitsch, James Badge Dale et al — all of whom carry on in that bizarre North American register somewhere between a stag party and a company of squaddies. Into the mix comes Miles Teller’s reformed addict who is looking to do right by his new son and turn a new leaf. Cue shouty boot-camp training scenes and dude-bro shenanigan­s between some effective bushfire set-pieces. The tragedy of the tale is presented in genuinely affecting terms.

Jennifer Connelly and Jeff Bridges provide stately support. HILARY A WHITE

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