Review of the latest releases
RIDERS OF JUSTICE (15, 116 mins) Thriller/Action/Comedy. Mads Mikkelsen, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lars Brygmann, Nicolas Bro, Gustav Lindh, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Roland Moller, Anne Birgitte Lind. Director: Anders Thomas Jensen.
Bookended by scenes of festive cheer set to a jaunty rendition of The Little Drummer Boy, Riders Of Justice serves revenge ice cold with a generous drizzle of ghoulish black humour courtesy of writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen.
The Danish filmmaker has worked predominately as a scriptwriter, traversing myriad genres with aplomb including his powerhouse collaborations with Susanne Bier on Open Hearts, Brothers and After The Wedding.
His latest meditation on masculinity convenes a motley crew of idiosyncratic, eccentric and tormented misfits, who would struggle to exist plausibly on their own in anyone else’s imagination.
The diversity of this frequently combative brotherhood warrants a passing on-screen comment — “Sometimes, I think people with problems band together” — before Jensen peels onion-like layers of grief, bullying and sexual abuse from his characters and exposes their most primal fears.
A fiercely committed portrayal of tightly coiled rage and militaristic machismo from Mads Mikkelsen energises every frame and complements some of the script’s more outlandish conceits like a running joke about unconventional therapeutic practices that reap surprisingly sweet rewards. The train crash, which sets desperate blood-soaked events in motion, is orchestrated with economical flair from the perspective of unfortunate passengers, who reach the end of the line just as Jensen’s film is picking up speed.
Shortly before he extends a tour of duty in the Middle East, taciturn soldier Markus (Mikkelsen) learns his wife Emma (Anne Birgitte Lind) has been killed in a railway collision.
He sombrely returns to Denmark to comfort teenage daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg), one of the shell-shocked survivors. Statistician Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), who gave up his seat on the train to Emma and consequently survived, becomes convinced that the accident was the result of foul play.
His data indicates it was no coincidence that a prominent biker gang member, due to testify against the Riders Of Justice brotherhood led by Kurt “Tandem” Olesen (Roland Moller), was among the 11 fatalities.
Otto and fellow number cruncher Lennart (Lars Brygmann) approach Kurt with their findings.
“I think you have the right to know it wasn’t an accident,” discloses Otto.
They recruit hacker pal Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro) to gather more evidence, setting in motion a bloodthirsty revenge mission that ensnares Mathilde’s boyfriend Sirius (Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt) and a Ukrainian sex worker (Gustav Lindh).
Riders Of Justice steadily builds tension as Markus and his comrades enact their daredevil plan to punish anyone they hold accountable for the crash.
Jensen’s off-kilter sense of humour keeps us on our toes but when it comes to tying up loose narrative threads, he surrenders to a heavily armed conventional final showdown.
In cinematic punctuation, a fresh bullet wound doubles neatly for a full stop.
OLD (15, 108 mins)
M Night Shyamalan, Oscar-nominated writerdirector of The Sixth Sense, conjures a new phantasmagorical nightmare which toys with the concept of time, based loosely on Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters’ graphic novel Sandcastle.
Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), his wife Prisca (Vicky Krieps), 11-year-old daughter Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and six-year-old son Trent (Nolan River) travel to a tropical paradise only to find that children aren’t permitted to play on the nearest beach.
Prisca goes online and finds a hidden expanse of golden sand enclosed by rocky cliffs, where her brood can run free.
The family encounters other sunseekers at the idyllic cove including Charles (Rufus Sewell), his wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee) and their six-year-old daughter Kara (Kyle Bailey).
As time passes, the families experience alarming rapid ageing and they become convinced that their lives are being compressed into a single day.
Unable to leave from the beach by the route they entered, the frantic holidaymakers seek a way out before they careen into old age and take their final breaths.
THE WORLD TO COME (15, 95 mins)
The heart desires what it cannot have in director Mona Fastvold’s period romance, adapted for the screen by Ron Hansen and Jim Shepard from one of the short stories in his acclaimed 2017 collection of the same title.
Set on the East Coast frontier in the mid-19th century, the story pivots initially around farmer Dyer (Casey Affleck) and his dutiful wife Abigail (Katherine Waterston), who have been driven apart by the recent death of their infant daughter.
Unable to bridge the emotional divide, the couple lead largely separate lives on their property.
When Finney (Christopher Abbott) and his flamehaired wife Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) move onto the neighbouring farm, Abigail finally has someone to talk to and she forges a strong bond with Tallie.
Sisterhood kindles sparks of forbidden sexual attraction and the two women begin a passionate affair that offers them a release from the drudgery of their everyday existence.
OFF THE RAILS (15, 94 mins)
Actress Cassie (Kelly Preston), journalist Kate (Jenny Seagrove) and doctor Liz (Sally Phillips) have lost touch in glorious middle age, severing ties from their carefree university days with a fourth member of the posse, Anna.
Anna dies and she bequeaths tickets to Cassie, Kate and Liz so they can repeat a truly memorable interrailing trip to the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma on Mallorca in time for the annual Fiesta de la Candelaria, which they missed the first time.
There is one stipulation from beyond the grave: the women must take Anna’s 17-year-old daughter Maddie (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips) with them on the nostalgic expedition.
With just five days to reach their destination in time for the festival of light, Cassie, Kate, Liz and Maddie face numerous obstacles to honour Anna’s memory and strengthen bonds that have been neglected over time.