SHORTCUTS

NEW RELEASES Zootropolis: Just when it was looking like animated animal movies had run out of anything original to say, along comes the smartly amusing, crisply relevant Zootropolis to handily demonstrate there’s still plenty of bite left in the anthropomorphic CG menagerie. Boasting a pitch-perfect voice cast led by a terrific Ginnifer Goodwin as a righteous rural rabbit who becomes the first cotton-tailed police recruit in the mammal-centric city of Zootopia, the 3D caper expertly combines keen wit with a gentle, and very timely, message of inclusivity and empowerment. ★★★★ Anomalisa: Whether in his screenplays for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or his directing debut, Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman’s surreal, cerebral chronicles of despair, obsession and failure are like nothing else out there. So it was a given that his first animated feature, Anomalisa, co-directed with stopmotion specialist Duke Johnson, was going to be another idiosyncratic entry in a small but wildly distinctive body of work. However, that doesn’t nearly do justice to the beguiling poignancy and emotional nuance of this funny-sad, haunting meditation on depression, disguised as a melancholy love story. ★★★★ London has Fallen: After the death of the British prime minister, the world’s most powerful leaders gather in London to pay their respects. Without warning, terrorists unleash a devastating attack that leaves the city in chaos and ruins. Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler, reprising his role from Olympus has Fallen) springs into action to bring US President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) to safety. When Asher falls into the hands of the sinister organisation, it’s up to Banning to save his commander in chief from a horrible fate. Not reviewed

ON CIRCUIT

Room: Adapted from Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel, this unsettling captivity narrative about a woman and her young son living in the forced intimacy of a small garden shed is no one’s idea of a feel-good story. Yet in the hands of the author – who wrote the screenplay – and director Lenny Abrahamson, what could have been a lurid, opportunistic glimpse into the heart of darkness instead becomes a probing, extraordinarily tender portrait of maternal devotion and youthful resourcefulness. The most handy comparison for filmgoers may be the 1997 Holocaust parable Life is Beautiful, in which a father desperately tries to protect a child from the horrors of his world by infusing it with joy, resilience and enchantment. ★★★★★ Solace: Neo-noir police thriller with Anthony Hopkins as John Clancy, a retired police doctor who happens to have psychic powers, including the ability to see into the future. He’s persuaded back on to the beat to help track down a serial killer who, he gradually realises, also has psychic powers. The film steps up when the killer Charles Ambrose (Colin Farrell) appears and the action builds to a gripping confrontation. Hopkins gives full value for money as the troubled medium, and Farrell, even with short onscreen time, demonstrates why his star is rising in the US. The chemistry they achieve is a powerful argument for giving Solace a chance. ★★★ The Boy: It’s a wonder dolls are manufactured anymore, seeing how many turn out to be haunted or demonically possessed, at least in the movies. Now joining cinema’s psycho pantheon (that of Chucky and