Tag along for a bit off un with Helms and Co
No summer is complete without at least one knockabout ensemble comedy, and this year an early offering is Tag (15)★★★, which stars Ed Helms from the Hangover franchise, Jake Johnson from TV’s New Girl, John Hamm from Mad Men and, ooh, Isla Fisher – just when it was becoming a bit blokey.
Based on a true story, it’s about a group of former childhood friends who have been playing the same game of tag for almost 30 years. For the duration of May, they each go to any lengths possible to make one of the others ‘it’. Nothing is sacrosanct – players have been tagged at births, funerals, even the losing of virginities.
In 30 years, however, Jerry (Jeremy Renner) has never been tagged, but now he’s distracted by his own nuptials, the others think this might finally be the moment. But what sort of comedy would it be if it was that easy?
Think The Hangover meets Horrible Bosses and you get a good idea of the supposedly ‘adult’ humour style of a film that, despite the occasional lapse in taste, entertains without ever really surprising.
Macho Josh Brolin? Check. Supercool and faintly mysterious Benicio del Toro (right)? Check. Convoys of SUVs driving very fast in close formation? Check. Yes, it must be Sicario 2: Soldado (15) ★★★, sequel to the slick original thriller. Only this time it’s not people the Mexican cartels are smuggling over the US border, including – possibly – Islamic terrorists. So definitely time to call in black ops. Once again, the opening hour is impressive but slowly the film falls somewhat apart, a victim of its own complexities, assorted loose ends and misjudged plot twists that leave one confused and not really caring. Best performance of the week comes from 17-yearold Thomasin McKenzie in Leave No Trace (PG) ★★★★,a beautifully constructed drama from Debra Granik. McKenzie plays Tom, who lives in an Oregon forest with her battle-traumatised veteran father, Will (an impressively restrained Ben Foster). So when social services find them, it’s not just one life that could fall apart but two. It’s both thought-provoking and life-affirming. Patrick (PG) ★★ is a one joke British comedy about singleton Sara (Beattie Edmondson), whose unhappy life is transformed when her gran leaves her her spoiled pug (top). The Bookshop (PG) ★ is a dreadful adaptation by Isabel Coixet of a Penelope Fitzgerald novel about a widow (Emily Mortimer) who opens a bookshop in a seaside town in the late Fifties. Mortimer is wasted, Bill Nighy dreadful and Patricia Clarkson, (above), all at sea.