The Scotsman

ALSO SHOWING

- Alistair Harkness

Saint Maud ( 15)

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British writer/ director Rose Glass makes a striking debut with this creepy arthouse horror movie about a devout palliative care nurse called Maud ( Morfydd Clark) who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her latest charge ( played by Jennifer Ehle). That Maud’s religious delusions manifest themselves in orgasmic reveries and fleshmorti­fying acts of self- harm hint at a pre- conversion past full of personal and profession­al trauma and the film’s great strength is the subtle way Glass fuses genre elements with nuanced character work to maintain an air of ambiguity about the extent of Maud’s unravellin­g, something that pays huge dividends come the film’s harrowing finale.

In cinemas

Kajilliona­ire ( 12A)

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The latest from Miranda July is her most accessible and entertaini­ng film to date. A surreal crime caper built around a family of inept grifters, it stars Evan Rachel Wood ( TV’S West World) as the 26- year- old daughter of an erratic couple ( Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger) who is starting to realise that her strange upbringing may be the reason she feels so emotionall­y stunted as an adult. July keeps things marvellous­ly offkilter here with plenty of oddball details, but these never compromise the compassion the film has for its characters, whose errant ways are, happily, not entirely irredeemab­le.

In cinemas

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street ( N/ A)

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Though it’s been reclaimed in recent years as a queer horror classic, the formerly little- loved A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge turns out to have been something of a cross to bear for its star Mark Patton,

a young gay actor whose career it ruined just as it was getting going in the mid- 1980s. This documentar­y tells his fascinatin­g story and also examines the way the emerging AIDS crisis forced gay actors back into the closet just as the culture seemed to be opening up.

Available on demand via sqiff. org

My Zoe ( 12)

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Julie Delpy’s latest film as writer, director and star sees her put a sombre take on the precarious nature of relationsh­ips. Casting herself as one half of a newly separated couple embroiled in a bitter custody battle for their young daughter ( Richard Armitage plays her ex; Sophia Ally their eponymous daughter), the film dramatises with almost too- toughto- watch accuracy the point- scoring recriminat­ions that can destroy any hope for civility in such cases. But just as a tragic plot turn makes it almost too much to take, Delpy veers into unexpected, sci- fi- inflected territory that slyly refocuses our attention on the importance of rememberin­g what matters in life. Daniel Brühl and Gemma Arterton co- star. Streaming on demand from most digital platforms

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint ( U)

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Documentar­y about the pioneering Swedish abstract painter Hilma af Klint whose obsession with the atomic make- up of the world led her to try and represent it in a ways that had never been done before, resulting in formal breakthrou­ghs that prefigured those of Kandinsky and Mondrian. First time director Halina Dyrschka fixates on af Klint’s status as a marginalis­ed woman to offset a frustratin­g lack of insight into her work. The end result is a dull primer at best.

Selected release in cinemas and streaming on demand

 ??  ?? Morfydd Clark in creepy arthouse horror film, Saint Maud
Morfydd Clark in creepy arthouse horror film, Saint Maud

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