Sentiment is taken to the max but remake even tually finds its stride
The Call Of The Wild PG ★★★★★
Jack London’s 1903 novel – about a huge mountain dog called Buck during the Klondike gold rush – has been adapted for the screen several times before, but never quite like this.
With Disney very much at the helm, this is a live-action production, with the notable exception of Buck himself, whose furry appearance may be computer-generated but whose movement and expressions are based on a motion-capture performance by a human actor.
One Terry Notary, in fact.
To say it takes a little getting used to is understating it, especially early on when both physical comedy (Buck is a big, greedy dog) and sentimentality seem to have been dialled up to the max. But, rather like Buck as he joins the sled team of a longdistance mail service, the film does eventually find some sort of snowy stride, especially for its intended younger audience.
Some changes have been made to London’s rather brutal story but parents of young or sensitive children should know there are still one or two nasty moments. The French actor Omar Sy and Canadian Cara Gee are nice as the human parts of the high-speed mail team, while Harrison Ford (left, with Buck) is grizzled and grumbly as lonely old backwoodsman John Thornton .
Little Joe 12A ★★★★★
Emily Beecham was the surprise winner of the Best Actress award at last year’s
Cannes Film Festival for her central performance in this good-looking but strangely understated oddity from Austrian Jessica Hausner. Beecham (left, with Ben Whishaw) plays Alice, a committed scientist and single mum who has bred a plant genetically engineered to make humans happy. As her son is called Joe, she dubs the plant Little Joe, and even takes one home for him to look after. This may be a mistake…
Like A Boss 16 ★★★★★
Where are all the films with strong female leads? That is one of the big questions of the cinematic moment. And it’s
partially answered here by this very loud, in-your-face comedy led by Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne as lifelong Atlanta-based friends Mia and Mel.
They went to school together, they live together, and now they’ve even set up their own cosmetics business together. But the company is struggling financially. So when they receive a generous offer from make-up tycoon Claire Luna (Salma
Hayek), they’re tempted. Ah, but will their friendship survive?
Basically, if you think Haddish – one of the stars of the similarly potty-mouthed Girls Trip – is loud, wait until Hayek, teetering through her scenes in skyscraper heels, arrives on the scene.
This film has its funny moments.
The Public 16 HHHHH
Emilio Estevez hasn’t made a liveaction feature film for a decade, but he makes up for it here, writing, directing and starring in this quietly rather powerful piece of social polemic. He plays Stuart, a librarian at the Cincinnati Public Library, which by day becomes a warm, dry haven for many of the city’s homeless.
But when the winter night-time temperatures plummet and people start dying on the streets, the homeless refuse to leave and Stuart has to decide which side he’s on. Alec Baldwin, Taylor Schilling and Christian Slater lead a strong supporting cast in a film that could have done with another polish but still packs a punch.