Now Showing Mother! By My Side Kingsman: The Golden Circle

LET’S get this out of the way first: Mother! is certainly not for everyone.

This surreal film features a nameless couple living at a home in the middle of nowhere. The female protagonist played by Jennifer Lawrence is the calm homemaker in this relationship while her husband (Javier Bardem) is an irritable, narcissistic poet.

The lady’s sense of serenity begins to dissipate when a mysterious man (Ed Harris) shows up and makes himself comfortable in her home. As more and more people (including a scary Michelle Pfeiffer) show up at her home, the lady’s irritation and fear of her unwanted guests is magnified.

Too bad nobody listens to her whenever she says “no”. Worse, her husband enjoys all the attention coming from these strangers.

It’s in these frenzied, agoraphobic scenes of the lady feeling helpless in her own home that compels viewers to leave the cinema halfway. You can get a break from all that when the film zooms in on Lawrence’s eerily radiant face, and your mind starts wondering ... like why is she glowing like a K-pop idol? Is she supposed to be an android?

If you can stomach all that chaos, then perhaps you’ll be better equipped for what is going to happen next. Warning: it doesn’t get any better for her.

Overall, Mother! is a tragic, painful reminder of the madness that exists in the real world. This psychological thriller could be an exhilarating, cathartic experience for some. But this also depends on how you make sense of all it all. – Angelin Yeoh (★★★✩✩)

THIS poignant tale of first love speaks of nostalgia, childhood-teenage memories, and choices in life. It’s a very Malaysian movie. If you’re a Malaysian, you would most likely identify with the scenes, locations, occurrences, language, and even humour in the story.

It’s a very “pretty” movie: light tones, pastel colours, beautiful honeymoon-like local scenery, and sweet songs, including KoreanAmerican musician David Choi’s song By My Side ... that I almost feel like I’m watching a specially-made wedding film! And even though I rarely watch romance drama, I did enjoy watching this one. As in many romance movies, there’s also an element of sadness and “what if?” in this one. – Ming Teoh (★★★✩✩)

WITH the Bond and Bourne franchises taking themselves a little too seriously nowadays, a Kingsman movie is just what we need to smack a little stiffness off ye olde upper lip when it comes to the superspy genre.

Featuring some effective emotional moments and the best use of Take Me Home, Country Roads ever (forget Alien Covenant), The Golden

Circle expands the over-thetop world of the first film by introducing the heroes’ American cousins, the Statesmen.

The villain this time is drug baroness Poppy (Julianne Moore, oozing sinister charm), who has a really evil plan rolling around in her head and, oh, a rather famous celebrity captive too (Best. Celebrity. Cameo. Ever.). She also has killer robot dogs, a henchman with a lethal bionic arm, and – in waging the war on drugs from the other side – she thinks nothhenchmen ing of dropping her into the meat grinder (wink).

While the freshness of the first film is gone, director Matthew

Vaughn keeps the irreverence, silliness (which doesn’t cross over into stupidity), style, and camaraderie flowcompensate. ing fast and furious to

The Golden Circle sometimes buckles under the weight of that drive, and the Statesmen frequentdevice ly seem like a plot rather than a natural fit in the story. But in unveiling Poppy’s grand plan, and a certain world leader’s response, it actually leaves you quite morally torn – especially given recent tragedies – between the two sides of the argument. How many cheeky spy movie homages can lay claim to that? – Davin

Arul

Stronger

(★★★★✩)

IN Stronger, you hear the falls. Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), recovering from a tragedy that left him a double amputee, falls a lot, and he

falls hard: from the toilet, from his bed, from the artificial legs with which he must reacquaint himself, slowly and painfully, with walking. The movie doesn’t soften the harshness with which he hits the floor – you flinch at every thump – which makes it all the more affecting as he picks himself up again.

We’ve all seen plenty of inspirational recovery-from-injury dramas, but Stronger is better than most – it mostly, if not entirely,

avoids sentimental cliche – and provides an eloquent backstory to a moment many of us will recognise.

Bauman, a 27-year-old who worked in a Costco deli and dreamed of getting back together with his ex-girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany), was among the victims of the bombings at the Boston Marathon in 2013; a photograph of a dazed, bleeding Bauman being wheeled away from the site became internationally famous. It’s a scene we see replicated in the early moments of

the film. Most of Stronger is devoted to what came afterward: how Jeff, with help from Erin and his loving, boisterous family, began to recover.

Gyllenhaal, with a rumpled Boston accent and a lazy smile, is immensely likeable as Jeff, who movingly struggles with the notion of heroism (“I’m a hero for standing there and getting my legs blown off?”) and with the way people need to see him as a symbol of strength against terrorism. Miranda Richardson, as Jeff’s alcoholic mother, has some lovely moments, particularly one scene early on as she gazes at Jeff in his hospital bed, uncharacteristically silent, it’s as if all light has drained from her face.

Stronger, ultimately, leaves its audience feeling a little stronger; we fall with Jeff, and we stand with him. – Moira Macdonald/The Seattle Times/Tribune News Service

The Lego Ninjago Movie

(★★★★✩)

THE Lego Ninjago Movie is impressive for introducing several new concepts, themes and moral lessons unexplored in the previous Lego films. Yet it seems sometimes to lack the desirable originality typical of its predecessors.

The film feels very much like a tribute to the ongoing 2011 TV series Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, though retaining key elements from the movie series.

The comedy, though a little cheesy at times, is apt for those happy to laugh at all and sundry. While several action scenes come off as a little convoluted and unnecessary, the newer Kung Fu Panda-esque martial arts theme is a breath of fresh air, alongside the call to wholesome attitudes to life.

There is redemption, family closeness and second chances, affirming the sense that the film touches the right “family” notes.

The animation style is smoother, more fluid and natural compared to the earlier Lego films, giving us astounding visuals, though some might argue it detracts from the signature stiff stop-motion movements from the mini-figure characters and visual effects.

This is not a film to blow your mind away. Rather, it is a heart-warming message of forgiveness and togetherness. Ideal for the entire family. Of course, it is. Jackie Chan’s in it too! – Edmund Evanson