SHORTCUTS

Frozen: This animated comedyadventure, inspired by The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersenalthough it bears little resemblance to the fairy tale – has a sweet and very modern message, plus strong characters. More important, the movie blends the music-minded mentality of yore with the more recent ambition (thank you, Pixar) of truly appealing to all ages. ★★★★ In a World: A low-budget feminist comedy set in the male-dominated world of Hollywood movie trailer voice-overs, In a World... is an unexpected delight. Written, produced, directed by and starring the hitherto little-known Lake Bell, the film is smart, funny and affecting. ★★★★ Blue Jasmine: This film may not be a comeback in any aesthetic or professional sense, but it nevertheless feels like director Woody Allen has come back: to the psychic space and collective anxieties of the country of his birth and a real world that he seemed to have left behind. ★★★★ The Counsellor: Isn’t Cormac McCarthy – author of No Country for Old Men and The Road – supposed to be the master of macho toughness

NEW RELEASES

and spare stylistic control? You wouldn’t know it from this selfconsciously nasty piece of borderland noir, in which his familiar tropes by now look hackneyed and pathetic. It treats viewers to at least two baroquely staged beheadings and countless courtly disquisitions on morality, mortality, regret and heaven knows what else. It’s an actor’s paradise, all this poetic, run-on musing, but it results in a movie that, despite its strenuous efforts to appear hardened and sexy and sleek, is unforgivably phony, talky and dull. ★★ Last Vegas: Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas demonstrate the easy chemistry and excitable energy of old friends reconvening after years apart. Although its predictable in places, the movie aims to do little more than serve up laughter. Even the sentimental moments are couched with punch lines. All in all, Last Vegas is a brisk and goofy adventure. ★★★

ON CIRCUIT

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: Behold the second instalment of Peter Jackson’s trilogy. This time, Bilbo (Martin Freeman), with Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the dwarves, soldiers on, avoiding the dangers of wood elves and big spiders before arriving at Lonely Mountain, home of the dragon Smaug. ★★★★★ Escape Plan: Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger can still carry an action flick, albeit one as flimsy as this. Yet there is modest pleasure to be had watching the Italian Stallion, at 67, and the 66-year-old Austrian Oak delivering justice to those who would disrupt their retirement. ★★★ The Fifth Estate: As a piece of filmed entertainment, this shows why things like authorial point of view and visual sensibility are essential in bringing such stories to life. Unlike its predecessor, The Social Network, this film doesn’t have much of either. ★★★ Tyler Perry’s A Madea’s Christmas: Madea dispenses her unique form of holiday spirit on a rural town when she’s coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit for Christmas. Not reviewed. Mud: As the slippery central figure of Jeff Nichols’s richly observed comingof-age fable, Matthew McConaughey injects a note of danger into a bayou noir story of youthful adventure that is lyrical yet sobering. ★★★★ Ender’s Game: There’s a moral heft that lends ballast to this science-fiction adventure. ★★★★ Young and Beautiful: The mysteries of adolescence, and in particular the sense of control and power that can accompany an attractive girl’s discovery of her sexuality, are explored with hypnotic focus. ★★★★ Free Birds: Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler lend their voices to a trio of animated turkeys determined to remove the traditional bird from the inaugural Thanksgiving menu. Although it seldom approaches the inspiration of its plucky premise, Free Birds avoids being branded a holiday turkey. ★★★