SECOND SCREEN
Love, Simon (12A) would be very much a standard, American coming-ofage movie but for one modest twist: the ‘huge-ass secret’ that our likeable high-school hero Simon (Nick Robinson, below) is gay. In 2018, that’s hardly the biggest deal, you might imagine, but it’s still not a storyline that makes it to mainstream teen movies very often so, in that sense, the film is more important than it looks.
Thankfully, it’s nicely made too: well acted, as funny as it is gently moving, and genuinely intriguing, as we watch Simon respond to online posts by the mysterious ‘Blue’, who admits he is gay but won’t reveal his identity. Can Simon, in the grip of the online equivalent of first love, find out who Blue is while confronting his own sexuality?
Normally, a new Todd Haynes film would be big news given the successes he’s had with Carol and Far From Heaven. But Wonderstruck (PG) feels like a misfire, mired in the sort of sentiment we expect from Disney rather than one of arthouse cinema’s favourite sons.
Two stories, one set in 1927, the other in 1977 and both involving deaf children in New York , play out (dreadfully slowly) in parallel and, surprise, surprise, they’re connected. Despite at times looking more like an ad for the National Rifle Association, Eli Roth’s remake of the film that made Michael Winner famous is still a guilty pleasure. Yes, Death Wish (15) is politically incorrect and yes, it’s difficult to believe that a surgeon would turn vigilante quite so readily, even if his wife had been killed by burglars. But, hey, it’s got Bruce Willis shooting a lot of bad guys – what’s not to like? Thoroughbreds (15) is a stilted American drama about two teenage girls (below) in Connecticut awkwardly renewing their friendship after some years of separation. Both have troubles – one, we know, has done something dreadful to a horse, the other has lost her father, been expelled from school and is now having trouble with her creepy stepfather. This is improbable, melodramatic and not worth the effort, sadly. Ghost Stories (15) is a would-be British chiller about a professional sceptic (Andy Nyman) investigating three inexplicable stories of ghostly goings-on. Actually, it turns out to be more complicated than that but, despite the odd scare and supporting turns from Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse, no more interesting.