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(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (12, 95 mins) Comedy/Romance. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Chloe Grace Moretz, Clark Gregg, Geoffrey Arend, Matthew Gray Gubler. Director: Marc Webb.
“This is a story of boy meets girl but you should know up front, this is not a love story…” begins the droll narrator of Marc Webb’s quirky comedy.
From the opening frames of (500) Days Of Summer, we are acutely aware that this romance on the sun-dappled streets of New York City has no happy ending.
Love can be uplifting and inspiring, but it can also be cruel and unforgiving.
Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber’s polished screenplay defies conventions and expectations at every turn.
Chronology is intentionally fractured to juxtapose contrasting episodes in a relationship, which unfolds over the course of 500 tumultuous days.
Tart one-liners are tossed hither and thither and director Webb even conducts a glorious song and dance sequence through Central Park complete with an animated bluebird that recalls a frolicking Amy Adams in Enchanted.
Scriptwriters Neustadter and Weber cannot resist a cute, upbeat coda.
Love is a battlefield but some survive the melee.
DUNKIRK (12, 102 mins) War/Action/Thriller. Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, Sir Kenneth Branagh, James D’Arcy, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy. Director: Christopher Nolan.
Brevity is the soul of writerdirector Christopher Nolan’s harrowing wartime drama.
In his shortest feature since acclaimed 1998 debut Following, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker crafts a stunning mosaic of personal stories of hard fought triumph and agonising defeat against the sprawling backdrop of the largest evacuation of allied forces during the Second World War.
Nolan adopts a stripped back approach to storytelling that jettisons dialogue for long sequences.
He sets our nerves on edge in a hauntingly beautiful opening scene and steadily tightens the knot of tension in our stomachs until we are physically and emotionally spent.
Pulses race in time with composer Hans Zimmer’s terrific score, which includes a soft percussive beat like a clock ticking down to doomsday, and a new arrangement of Elgar’s melancholic Nimrod from Enigma Variations.
By keeping his script lean, Nolan allows us to remain whiteknuckle taut in our seats for the duration.
GOOSEBUMPS (PG, 103 mins) Action/Adventure/Horror/Thriller /Romance. Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan. Director: Rob Letterman.
Comic whirlwind Jack Black ramps up his manic energy to gale force 10 in a fast-paced fantasy adventure based on the series of children’s books by RL Stine.
Directed with brio by Rob Letterman, Goosebumps is a wicked delight, packed full of spooks and scares that should have adults jumping out of their seats almost as often as little ones.
Explosions of comic book violence, including a slip-sliding tussle between the Abominable Snowman and high school students on an ice rink, are orchestrated with black humour and vim.
Darren Lemke’s lean script barely pauses for breath between eye-popping set pieces but still finds time to flesh out a compelling teenage love story that remains the right side of sickly sweet.
Digital effects are impressive, seamlessly integrated with live action to conjure scenes of largescale destruction including a runaway Ferris wheel and a town under attack from a giant praying mantis.
HEATHERS (15, 103 mins) Comedy/Romance. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk. Director: Michael Lehmann.
Before Mean Girls and Clueless, there was Heathers.
Written by Daniel Waters, this delicious black comedy directed by Michael Lehmann relishes the tribal warfare between high school cliques.
More than 30 years after the titular coterie of bullying harpies first sashayed into view, Lehmann’s picture has lost none of its power to shock and delight, laden with instantly quotable dialogue (“Did you have a brain tumour for breakfast?”; “I love my dead gay son”) that has been endlessly imitated but seldom outshone.
Winona Ryder plays the fourth member of the eponymous harem until she has an unfortunate altercation with Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) at a party.
Battle lines are drawn and in the ensuing melee, Veronica and oddball JD (Christian Slater) kill Heather with drain cleaner and stage her demise as a suicide.
The queen bee is transformed into a martyr and Veronica’s plan spirals wildly out of control.