Do we really need to hear Norwegian killer’s racist views?
When he’s not making Jason Bourne thrillers, director Paul Greengrass regularly returns to his documentary making roots with largely well-judged dramatisations of real-life tragedies, such as United 93 and Bloody Sunday.
But whether the 2011 killings on the Norwegian island of Utoya and in Oslo by the far-right extremist Anders Breivik is a useful addition to that body of work is a debatable point. Yes, 22 July (15) ★★★ gets the horrific killing spree over relatively swiftly – leaving plenty of time to deal sensitively with the aftermath for the survivors and the complexities of Breivik’s trial. But be warned, the killer’s views get almost as much screen time as the trauma of his victims.
Smallfoot (PG) ★ ★ ★ ★ is a nicely visualised and cleverly written children’s animation about a community of giant yetis living happily above the clouds in the Himalayas, blissfully unaware that their creation myths aren’t worth the stones they are written on.
And then Migo, a young Yeti voiced by Channing Tatum, narrowly avoids a crashing plane, terrifies its human pilot and realises that the ‘smallfoot’ – we humans – aren’t the mythical creatures Yetis have always believed them to be. Really good fun.
With echoes of Tarantino’s Hateful Eight, Bad Times At The El Royale (15)★★★ is far too long. However, it oozes Sixties style, features Jeff Bridges and Chris Hemsworth, and definitely has its moments.
From an opening shot of Nicolas Cage wielding a chainsaw, we’re pretty sure Mandy (18) ★ is not going to end well. One for Cage fans only and even they may struggle.