Soldier, spy
(Cert 15; 87mins) THE scandals rocking the football world make The Pass unexpectedly topical. This sincere adaptation of the John Donnelly play stars Russell Tovey as a closeted footballer willing to sacrifice everything for his shot at the big time.
The result is highly theatrical and a bit stilted as it unfolds in three hotel room encounters over 10 years.
In Romania, it is the night before a big game and teenage hopefuls Jason (Tovey) and Ade (Arinzé Kene) are sharing a hotel room. Friendly banter, schoolboy pranks and nervous energy are accompanied by lingering glances and an unspoken sexual tension.
The events of that night will haunt Jason throughout a career in which all his professional dreams come true but his personal life is defined by denial and self-loathing. What does a man gain if he loses his soul?
Bitter, arrogant Jason isn’t the most sympathetic of characters and his delusional manner carries echoes of David Brent but Tovey finds the emotional depth beneath the surface bluster and is well-matched by Arinzé Kene’s charismatic Ade.
Crass and heavy handed in places, The Pass still has its merits. (Cert 15; 120mins) THE evils of slavery lie at the heart of Birth Of A Nation, a lurid melodrama from writer, producer, director and star Nate Parker, who attempts to turn the life of Nat Turner into another Spartacus.
It is an overly ambitious enterprise that is wildly uneven in execution.
Turner (Parker) was raised as an obedient, God-fearing slave whose master Samuel (Armie Hammer) was less brutal than some.
Samuel stands to make extra money from hiring Turner out to preach the gospel and calm the simmering rebellion among slaves on other cotton plantations.
But the horrors that Turner witnesses transform him into a righteous avenger who would lead a slave uprising. Sentimental in places, Birth Of A Nation seems a little too fond of sadistic violence and suffering and works too hard to establish Turner as a messiah figure. But it has some powerful, striking moments. (Cert PG; 92mins) LIFE, Animated tells an irresistible true story of a triumph against all the odds.
When he was just three years old, Owen Suskind was diagnosed with a severe form of autism.
He stopped talking and then started to lose his ability to walk and run. However his parents refused to accept that their son would spend his life trapped “in the prison of autism”.
Owen had one passion: he absolutely adored classic Walt Disney animated features and could watch his favourites time and time again.
His parents eventually realised that the gibberish he spoke was actually lines from Disney movies. He could relate to the world and communicate his feelings by citing moments from Peter Pan, Pinocchio or The Lion King.
Owen’s emotional journey to a fuller life and the possibility of independent living is the basis of this inspirational documentary. (Cert 15; 101mins) I AM Not A Serial Killer may have some gloopy, gory moments but rather than the full-on chiller you might expect, it is slow and brooding, gothic and decidedly odd.
In small-town America, introspective teenager John Cleaver (Max Records) has an unhealthy obsession with death and worries that he is capable of murder.
A series of gruesome killings bring him face to face with a monster in his own community in this offbeat tale co-starring Back To The Future’s Christopher Lloyd as an elderly neighbour who is not what he appears to be.