PICK OF THIS WEEK’S FILMS

DEADPOOL 2 (15)

Directed by “one of the guys who killed the dog in John Wick”, Deadpool 2 is a rollicking, gleefully irreverent and potty-mouthed sequel, which proves you can have too much of a good thing. The weight of giddy expectation on David Leitch’s slam-bang follow-up compels returning screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to chase bigger laughs and outlandish thrills with tongue-in-cheek contributions to the script from leading man Ryan Reynolds. Consequently, these rumbustious two hours are crammed to bursting with pop culture references, droll one-liners and machine-gun profanities that try a smidgen too hard to push an envelope that had already been licked to absurdity. In a filthy-minded tug of war with the first film, Leitch’s sequel comes off a fitfully entertaining second best.

JEUNE FEMME (15)

Meet thirtysomething Paula. Her boyfriend has dumped her, her friends won’t take her in, ditto her mother. What else is there for her to do but roam Paris with a fluffy white cat for company? Leonor Serraille’s drama could have been just another charming yet slight tale of a young woman trying to find her way in the world, but it ends up so much more. A nicely paced screenplay allows Paula’s true character to emerge slowly from the ruins she has made of her life. It is the barnstorming performance of Laetitia Dosch as Paula, however, that raises Serraille’s drama to a cut above. A film and a heroine that refuse to settle for easy, straightforward answers.

ON CHESIL BEACH (15)

Skilfully adapted by Ian McEwan from his Booker Prize-nominated novella, On Chesil Beach is a heartbreaking portrait of doomed love that generates one sobering emotional crescendo after another, like waves crashing against a forlorn shore. Three-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle are impeccably cast as trembling virginal newlyweds who are ill-equipped to navigate the minefields of each other’s insecurities and sensitively handled intimations of sexual abuse by one parent. There is a tragic inevitability to the trajectory of the couple’s fragile relationship, and a quiet devastation shared by us and the characters as awkwardness, shame and incomprehension press a self-destruct button, inflicting deep wounds that will never heal. “I am ... most terribly sorry...” whispers the young wife as she fumbles for the right words – no, any words – to soothe her spouse. Dominic Cooke’s film elegantly reveals the chinks of pain and regret in each stuttering syllable.

ENTEBBE (12A)

The real-life hijacking of an Air France flight in June 1976 by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and a subsequent rescue mission led by Israeli Defence Forces are terrific raw ingredients for an edge-of-seat geopolitical thriller. Director Jose Padilha would seem to be the perfect Elle Fanning plays young punk Zan in How To Talk To Girls At Parties

choice to mercilessly crank up tension as the fates of terrorists, hostages and commandos collide head-on at Entebbe airport in Uganda. But the most exciting element of Padilha’s underwhelming film is a contemporary performance piece that punctuates all of the turgid to-ing and fro-ing. Dancers are expressive and expertly choreographed, but the dramatisation that waltzes around them is flat-footed.

HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES (15)

Based on a short story by Neil Gaiman and set in Croydon at the height of punk, John Cameron Mitchell’s romantic comedy is “out there” in more ways than one. Alex Sharp plays teenager Enn, who rocks up one night with his friends at what turns out to be a gathering of aliens visiting Earth. To quote the Buzzcocks, one of their number, Zan (Elle Fanning), is someone Enn should not be falling in love with, but hey ho. After a strong start, Mitchell’s film starts to meander before delivering a barnstormer ending. In the meantime, there’s plenty to enjoy in the soundtrack and Nicole Kidman as a punk godmother.

BREAKING IN (15)

Home is where the heartbreak is in James McTeigue’s invasion thriller, which pits a grieving and resourceful mother (Gabrielle Union) against four criminals who have taken her daughter and son hostage inside her hi-tech childhood home. Stripped bare of extraneous plotting and characterisation, Breaking In swiftly establishes the tense stand-off between intruders and a family in crisis, then delights in turning the tables on the aggressors in sweat-drenched skirmishes. McTeigue’s picture may not be pretty, punctuated by flashes of mild violence, or original, but it is ruthlessly efficient, neatly contained with a 90-minute timeframe before the house’s compromised security system

automatically alerts police to a burglary in progress.

SHERLOCK GNOMES (U)

John Stevenson’s computer-animated sequel to the 2011 family comedy Gnomeo & Juliet is a lacklustre misappropriation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s private detective. Vocal performances fall flat, including Johnny Depp’s plummy take on the titular sleuth, and the script clumsily incorporates characters and phrases from the pages of the books. Sherlock Gnomes is elementary in the most unflattering sense.

REVENGE (18)

First-time French writer-director Coralie Fargeat seizes the exploitation horror subgenre by its privates and refuses to let go as she puts a feminist slant on the bloodthirsty battle of the sexes between a rape victim (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) and her attackers, to echo the fiery indignation of the Me Too and Time’s Up movements. Shot on location in Morocco, but set in an unspecified sun-baked wilderness, Revenge gleefully embraces gore-slathered visual excess including one whoop-inducing scene of the heroine forcibly removing a sliver of glass with trembling fingers from her eviscerated foot. The aptly titled Revenge serves up that courageous, ballsy retaliation with lashings of stylistic flair.

TULLY (15)

Mother doesn’t know best – she is teetering on the precipice of a nervous breakdown – in Jason Reitman’s beautifully crafted and bittersweet portrait of modern parenthood. The third collaboration between the Montreal-born director and screenwriter Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for her exemplary script for Juno, conceals poignant home truths behind trademark snappy dialogue and a mistimed sleight of hand that leaves a satisfying lump in the throat. There is undeniable pleasure in unravelling the many layers to Reitman’s delicately observed film and the flawed yet deeply sympathetic characters, who struggle to articulate their fears to each other and prefer to suffer in anguished silence. Charlize Theron is the picture’s steady emotional heartbeat.

I FEEL PRETTY (12A)

I feel many things about writer-directors Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn’s romantic comedy of female empowerment and body fascism, but none of them is particularly pretty. As someone who has struggled with weight issues since childhood and suffered fat-shaming, I’m acutely aware of the deep emotional and psychological wounds that can be inflicted every time you look in a mirror. I’m certain that I Feel Pretty doesn’t mean to offend. Lead actress Amy Schumer has brilliantly lampooned issues of self-esteem, femininity and suffocating convention in her TV sketch show and the hilarious 2015 film Trainwreck. Here she is at the mercy of Silverstein and Kohn’s script, which piles on misery and self-loathing in the opening hour until it becomes impossible to achieve redemption, even with Schumer.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (12A)

War demands sacrifices: civility, morality, compassion, responsibility and, ultimately, torn flesh and innocent blood. There are many heartbreaking sacrifices – far more than expected – in Avengers: Infinity War, a blockbuster battle royale choreographed at dizzying speed by directors Joe and Anthony Russo to unite characters from across the sprawling and sinewy Marvel Comics franchises. The head-on collision of The Avengers with protagonists from Black Panther, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor promises an eye-popping spectacle. A small army of special effects wizards conjure some truly jaw-dropping setpieces, razing New York, Edinburgh and otherworldly realms in the process.

BEAST (15)

Shot partly on location in Jersey, Beast is a brooding adult fairytale of female empowerment and sexual awakening that might have tumbled from the pen of Angela Carter. Jim Williams’ disquieting orchestral score offsets the rugged beauty of island locales, captured in suffocating close-up by cinematographer Benjamin Kracun, who is finely attuned to the paranoia that drips from every line of director Michael Pearce’s lean script. Jessie Buckley delivers a searing lead performance as a guilt-riddled twenty-something who becomes embroiled in the hunt for a serial killer shortly after she falls under the spell of the prime suspect. Pearce’s engrossing thriller certainly doesn’t pull its punches, scenting the air with discomfort until the threat of sickening violence almost chokes us.