ALSO SHOWING
News of the World (12)
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Given the high-pressure intensity of their previous collaboration, the ocean hijacking drama Captain Phillips, one might expect a western starring Tom Hanks and directed by Paul Greengrass to be a similarly nerve-jangling affair. But The Bourne Supremacy director eschews his signature shaky-cam aesthetic in order to take a slow-burn approach to the genre.
Hanks plays Jefferson Kidd, a former captain in the Confederate army who now goes from town-to-town across Texas keeping the locals up to speed on the latest news from around the country. A decent guy whose combat experience has wearied him enough to see the senselessness in fighting a lost cause in defence of the indefensible, Kidd finds a new purpose after coming upon a lynching and finding a young white girl called Johanna (newcomer Helena Zengel) hiding at the scene. She was in the process of being transported back to relatives she doesn’t know after being liberated from the Kiowa tribe that slaughtered her family and kidnapped her as an infant; Kidd, inevitably, feels dutybound to deliver her to her kin. What follows is very blatantly an inverted spin on The Searchers and while it’s interesting up to a point to see a modern film with a more nuanced understanding of America’s indigenous cultures riffing on that problematic John Ford/john Wayne collaboration, the power of The Searchers – as Martin Scorsese has frequently pointed out – remains its status as a portrait of America at its absolute worst. By contrast, News of the World buries this lead a little too effectively. It’s still a handsomely made film with some fine performances, and at least one set-piece that reconfirms just how good Greengrass is at staging action, but by keeping any racialised violence off-screen or pushed to the margins, the film’s themes don’t land with the force they perhaps should.
Netflix
Slalom (18)
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French director Charlène Favier makes an auspicious debut with this uncomfortable film about a 15-year-old female skier (Noée Abita) being groomed for success by a predatory coach (Jérémie Renier). Subtly detailing the insidious ways the trainer/prodigy power dynamic can be abused, the film really comes into its own in the way Favier puts us in her protagonist’s headspace with brilliant use of music and a strong visual style that lets us understand what Lyz (Abita) is experiencing without, in turn, exploiting her trauma for cheap dramatic effect. Curzon Home Cinema
Willy’s Wonderland (15) ✪✪
This exploitation movie throwback stars Nicolas Cage as a wordless loner who has to take on a series of murderous animatronic cartoon characters after being lured to a derelict theme-park-restaurant and served up as a human sacrifice. It's fun for about 30 minutes, but struggles to live up to its gonzo premise.
Digital Demand
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (15)
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In this laugh-free comedy vehicle for Kristen Wiig and her Bridesmaids co-writer/co-star Annie Mumolo, the two play a pair of middle-aged BFFS who spend every waking second together. When they both lose their jobs,they take it as a sign that they need shake up their lives, so d take a trip to a Florida resort, where they become embroiled in a diabolical plot by a Dr Evil-style megalomaniac (also played by Wiig) who wants to kill all the locals with a swarm of genetically modified mosquitoes. As that description perhaps indicates, the film — which Wiig and Mumolo co-wrote — has the feel of an improv sketch run amok. Avoid.
Digital Demand