PICK OF THIS WEEK’S FILMS

SUPERFLY (15) THE NUN (15)

It’s not easy being a dope dealer without living like one. So says the lead character of Director X’s soulless update of the 1972 blaxploitation caper Super Fly, which starred Ron O’Neal as an enterprising criminal with “a plan to stick it to The Man” and a ghetto fabulous wardrobe to complement the hip soundtrack masterminded by Curtis Mayfield. Every frame of Superfly looks expensive but while the price of characters’ threads might be ridiculously high, the quality of Alex Tse’s script is cheap and cheerless. Director X’s version adheres closely to the plot of the original albeit with a few timely updates plus a gratuitous softcore threesome in a shower. Leading man Trevor Jackson has the fast car and voluminous hair to match Ron O’Neal’s earlier incarnation swagger for self-conscious swagger, but his chancer’s lack of emotion under pressure gives us no compelling reason to root for the enterprising bad boy.

In the 2016 horror The Conjuring 2, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are terrorised by an ashen-faced, demonic nun with glowing eyes called Valak. The origin of this hell-bound harpy in a habit, teased in a post-end credits scene in last year’s Annabelle: Creation, provides a couple of predictable jolts, but no lasting shivers in Corin Hardy’s creaky supernatural horror. The Nun employs familiar tropes to pit a battle-scarred holy man and a fresh-faced postulant against ancient evil, which can assume myriad forms and heralds its approach by inverting crucifixes. Every brush with death is telegraphed and characters repeatedly bid farewell to common sense by investigating strange sounds on their own down darkened corridors. Abandon hope of spine-chilling terror all ye who enter a cinema showing The Nun.

PUZZLE (15)

A selfless fortysomething mother pieces together her future by prioritising her desires for a change in director Marc Turtletaub’s nuanced character study. Based on an Argentinian film released in 2010, Puzzle observes the ebb and flow of family life at close quarters, gently exposing the unspoken dreams, careless criticism and fractured self-confidence which bind a dysfunctional clan in the suburbs of New York, where religion and routine hold sway. Kelly Macdonald blossoms before our eyes as the downtrodden homemaker, who is reborn when she discovers a gift for completing jigsaw puzzles at speed. She expresses her wife’s maelstrom of emotions with a tremulous gesture or lingering glance, which speak louder than screeds of dialogue. Pleasingly, the various elements of a gently paced script don’t slot neatly into place – Turtletaub’s drama is merely a cornerpiece of a much larger picture.

SEARCHING (12A)

A father’s quest to track down his missing