An innocent in the big smoke with a dash of Hitchcock DVD
Greta 15A ★★★★★
Remember Single White Female, about the seemingly pleasant flatmate who turns out to be something very different? Well, Neil Jordan’s Greta is a bit like that but with a generous smattering of Hitchcockian flourishes thrown in for good measure. All of which comes as a bit of surprise coming from the Sligoman. He normally likes to serve up both art-house atmosphere and sophisticated twists alongside his drama but here delivers something more straightforward and watchable.
Chloë Grace Moretz plays Frances, a young graduate who has just moved into a fashionable New York apartment but is yet to forsake her rather attractive smalltown ways, such as small acts of kindness. So when she finds a handbag on the subway she doesn’t even think of keeping it but tracks down its owner and returns it. Which is how she meets Greta, played by the brilliant Isabelle Huppert.
Right from the start, it’s made clear that the lonely Greta is not what she appears. Yes, what ensues relies rather too heavily on people doing stupid things and other genre clichés but it’s nicely acted by the two female leads and does feature two Jordan hallmarks – a haunting theme tune, which in this case is the very apt Where Are You sung by Julie London, and a cameo appearance from Crying Game star Stephen Rea.
Dragged Across Concrete 18 ★★★★★
By careless accident, I’ve now seen S Craig Zahler’s nasty police thriller twice, which is two times more than most people will need to unless they have a real penchant for pictures that, despite all the initial swagger and style, turn out to be unpleasantly violent, overreliant on Quentin Tarantino for wordy, blood-soaked inspiration, are demeaning to women, and that go on – criminally – for over twoand-a-half hours. Mel Gibson stars as an ageing detective in sudden need of money but it’s only co-star Vince Vaughn who emerges with his reputation halfway intact.