THE BIG SCREEN
Adapted from Andre Aciman’s novel, Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s sensual, rhapsodic and gorgeously restrained romance is a film to reinvigorate your belief in the power of cinema to perfectly reflect the vagaries of the human condition. Three is the magic number for Marvel Comics’ dreamy incarnation of the hammerwielding Norse god of thunder. Portrayed on screen since 2011 by Chris Hemsworth with flowing golden locks, gym-sculpted abs and laid-back Antipodean charm, Thor finally gets into an otherworldly groove in this third solo outing directed to the comic hilt by Taika Waititi. Breathe is the inspirational true story of a dapper young man (Andrew Garfield), who contracted polio in 1950s Kenya and was confronted with the grim reality of spending his final days confined to a hospital bed, paralysed from the neck down and reliant on machines to carry out basic bodily functions. Scriptwriter William Nicholson cuts back and forth between the central love story and medical miracles, delivering gentle tugs to our heartstrings as setbacks embolden the seemingly powerless to risk everything for one more day in the sun. Dean Devlin, producer of Godzilla, Independence Day and its sequel, nestles in the director’s chair for the first time to wreak meteorological havoc in a big budget action thriller co-written by Paul Guyot. By turns preposterous and mind-numbingly predictable, Geostorm hordes every disaster movie cliche and regurgitates them in a blizzard of special effects wizardry that blows itself out well before the film’s laughable final hour replete with a countdown to the apocalypse. Glasgow-born writer-director Armando Iannucci continues to make hay from the grubby business of politics in The Death Of Stalin. A vast arsenal of one-liners is delivered at a delirious and frenetic pace by a well-drilled ensemble cast. A murdered college student (Jessica Rothe) is forced to relive the gruesome day of her demise in Christopher Landon’s sprightly slasher, which splices uproarious comedy Groundhog Day with self-referential teen horror Scream. Gore frequently trumps giggles during Happy Death Day but the tantalising dramatic conceit of a distraught heroine stuck in a tragic groove provides screenwriter Scott Lobdell with a rich seam of black humour and female empowerment.