Unspeakable horror of alien manhunt
A QUIET PLACE ★★★★ (Cert 15; 90mins)
JOHN KRASINSKI has been forgettable in a string of bland films from Leatherheads to Aloha. But now he emerges with all guns blazing as the director, co-writer and co-star of A Quiet Place, a clever, suspenseful sci-fi chiller that will have you jumping out of your seat.
A Quiet Place is as taut and gripping as a classic episode of The Twilight Zone and Krasinski wastes no time in plunging us into the heart of the story.
It is day 89 of what appears to have been a global catastrophe. Hostile aliens have landed and roam the planet; their highly developed sense of hearing means they are guided to their human targets by the slightest sound. So in rural America, Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Lee (Krasinski) and their family communicate with sign language and have come to appreciate that silence is golden. Their lives depend on it.
If that premise doesn’t hook you immediately, then nothing will. We then move to day 472 and an upping of the ante. Evelyn is pregnant and we all know that childbirth and children are not renowned for being quiet. Tension escalates as Evelyn’s due date looms.
A Quiet Place is highly resourceful in the way it stretches a modest budget. There are appearances from the scary aliens and fatalities but the film is all about the human emotions of the situation rather than the hollow spectacle of a blockbuster.
It probably doesn’t pay to examine the logic of A Quiet Place too closely but it is highly effective as an exercise in terror and in how people live with the realisation that one noisy false move could spell disaster.
The sound design is so acute that you’re aware of every breath or heavy tread. Life expectancy for snorers must be modest and a bout of hiccups or an attack of flatulence could prove lethal.
When a rusty nail is accidentally prised loose from a wooden step you anxiously wait for the moment when someone steps on it. Will a cry of pain be the last sound they ever make?
Krasinski shows a masterful command of pace and framing, drawing out scenes until the suspense becomes unbearable. He also has an eye for casting.
Noah Jupe recently appeared in Suburbicon and Wonder and is one of the finest young actors currently working. His portrayal of son Marcus captures all his fears and naive faith that the family’s solidarity will see them through this ordeal.
A Quiet Place is not flawless but it is sharp, focused and entirely compelling, pitched somewhere between Hitchcock’s The Birds and M Night Shyamalan’s Signs. Nobody is going to forget John Krasinski after this.
LOVE, SIMON ★★★★ (Cert 12A; 110mins)
LOVE, SIMON has all the ingredients of a typical teenage film. There are crushes and yearnings, peer pressure, bullies and awkward moments of self-realisation.
It could almost be a John Hughes film from 30 years ago apart from the fact that the title character Simon (Nick Robinson) is gay and that alone makes the film a landmark in mainstream American cinema.
Simon is handsome, popular at school and surrounded by a loving family. He hasn’t quite found the right moment to come out and although he suspects that everyone will be supportive, the longer he waits the more of a big deal it becomes.
Then he hears of an anonymous post on the school blog written by a closeted gay student using the name Blue. They are soon exchanging emails, sharing confidences and slowly falling in love without having met. But then sneaky student Martin (Logan Miller) discovers the emails and starts to blackmail Simon.
Love, Simon is sweet, funny and immensely likeable and should persuade even the hardest heart that everyone deserves a great love story.
120 BEATS PER MINUTE ★★★★★ (Cert 15; 143mins)
PERSONAL experience is transformed into a fiercely authentic and deeply emotional epic in 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute). Robin Campillo’s vivid, award-winning, autobiographical drama offers a bustling fresco of the personalities and politics of the Act Up-Paris community dedicated to fighting the prejudice surrounding the Aids pandemic in the 1990s.
There is a documentary-like urgency to the film which shows the passionate debates, sacrifices and conflicts over tactics, reminding you of an underground resistance movement engaged in waging a war.
Individuals gradually emerge from the crowd as we come to know impassioned activist Sophie (Adèle Haenel), haemophiliac Marco (Théophile Ray) and hot-headed Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart).
It is Sean’s deepening love for gravely handsome newcomer Nathan (Arnaud Valois) that provides that most poignant element of a deeply human drama, which celebrates the power of activism to awaken an indifferent world.
WONDERSTRUCK ★★★ (Cert PG; 116mins)
TWO lives and two very different time periods gradually melt into one story in the whimsical fable Wonderstruck.
In 1977, desperately lonely 12-year-old Ben (Oakes Fegley) leaves Minnesota for New York in search of the father he has never known. In 1927, unhappy, hard-of-hearing 12-year-old Rose (Millicent Simmonds) also heads to New York, seeking a glimpse of Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore), her favourite movie star. Rose’s story unfolds in black and white, complete with a pastiche of a Lillian Gish silent film. Ben’s story leads him to the Natural History Museum and a friendship with Jamie (Jaden Michael).
Both youngsters seek a sense of who they are and where they belong in a big confusing world. The connections that bind them together and the answers to their questions make for a charming adaptation of the Brian Selznick children’s novel.
THOROUGHBREDS ★★★ (Cert 15; 93mins)
TWO minds start to plot as one in Thoroughbreds, a darkly twisted thriller that might have been written by Patricia Highsmith. Amanda (Olivia Cooke) has become notorious for her mutilation of a thoroughbred horse. Wealthy, pampered Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) is paid to tutor her and perhaps extend the hand of friendship.
Lily is exasperated by her domineering stepdad Mark (Paul Sparks) and would happily see him dead. Soon the two of them are trying to figure out a way to make her wish come true.
Dripping with malice and deadpan wit, Thoroughbreds is overly mannered but often devilishly entertaining.
I KILL GIANTS ★★★ (Cert 12A; 106mins)
I KILL GIANTS may be entirely predictable but it does have a terrific central character in Barbara, played by Madison Wolfe. Dubbed Nerd Queen by bullying schoolmates, Barbara enthusiastically embraces her status as an eccentric outsider in a small American coastal town. But inevitably her thick-skinned defiance is a defence against a cruel world.
Friendly new girl Sophie (Sydney Wade) and saintly school psychologist Mrs Molle (Zoe Saldana) are determined to crack her tough exterior and reach her lost soul in an imaginative coming-of-age drama that degenerates into a full-blown tearjerker.