Fury is all the rage
UNHINGED
Cinemas today
Russell Crowe rampages back into cinemas in this brutal road rage thriller which courts controversy by offering sympathy for his maniac character who drives the action.
The Oscar-winning star of Gladiator is one of my favourite actors and he delivers a double-barrelled performance as Tom, a regular guy who’s suffering a breakdown of the nervous variety.
He begins a campaign of terror against a fellow motorist who impatiently beeps at him on the school run and refuses to apologise when Tom asks her to.
This sly attempt at victimblaming by the script is a tactic to lure us into a moral trap by encouraging us to sympathise with Tom, a self-pitying brute,
FLASH GORDON
Cinemas today, digital & disc August 10 and the manifestation of the frothing anger of a certain type of disenfranchised middle-aged blue collar bloke.
The relatively unknown actress Caren Pistorius is equally terrific as the single mother subjected to Tom’s violent fury and she’s given a brilliantly funny killer line which will probably define her career.
The moral waters are further muddied by her realistic flaws such as using her phone while she drives, while Tom uses smartphone tech to target her family and friends en route to kidnap, arson and some serious vehicle damage.
With a career-long appetite for meaty roles which allow him to chew the scenery, Crowe now appears to be twice the man he used to be, and his enormous bulk provides a Terminator-like imperviousness during Tom’s remorseless pursuit. Tom proves
INFAMOUS
Digital today a target after beeping her horn
release
such a relentless and magnificent monster that this movie almost qualifies as a horror film, and it can be parked alongside Michael Douglas’s 1993 classic Falling Down for its mix of topical social commentary and popcorn thrills.
Unhinged was a great re-introduction to cinema on my first trip since lockdown and as part of a safe and socially distanced audience it was brilliant to once again experience the unique excitement of watching films on the big screen.
Cinemas today
Gemma Arterton continues to forge her unique place in British cinema as she illuminates this expertly chosen, thought-provoking and wonderfully crafted Second World War drama, which uses the relationship between her coastal recluse and a young London evacuee to become an uplifting meditation on love, longing and loss.
On her big-screen directorial debut, playwright Jessica Swale handles the changes of tone with absolute assurance, mixing aching melancholy with the giddy first flush of romance and heart-racing melodrama to powerful effect.
And Swale’s theatre experience inspires marvellous performances from a first-rate cast, not just a wonderfully spiky Arterton who shows terrific range as Alice, but Lucas Bond as her unlooked-for lodger, Dixie Egerickx as his precocious classmate, the dignified Tom Courtenay as their kindly schoolmaster and a conflicted Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Aterton’s romantic partner Vera.
With this mixed-race same-sex romance swirling around doomed pilots and visions of the afterlife, Summerland is a very 21st century response to 1946 classic A Matter of Life and Death, though it’s not so modern it can’t celebrate the simple joys of eating chips on the beach.
THE FAIRY PRINCESS AND THE UNICORN
UCinemas today
Magic and music take flight in this fantasy animated adventure based on the Bayala kids’ toy range and offers gentle entertainment aimed squarely at little ones.
In a world divided into tribes of sun elves and shadow elves, the brave Princess Surah is a product of both regimes and must learn to control her growing magic powers while on a quest to recover a stolen dragon egg and prevent war.
Various story elements are reminiscent of fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, but with all the darkness stripped out and replaced with pretty rainbow-coloured design. Even the peril comes wrapped in giant swirls of purple neon ribbons.
An environmentally friendly message of kindness, co-operation, tolerance and acceptance can’t be sniffed at. There are fun comic sidekicks in the shape of pet wolves, parrots and skunks, all the principal characters are female, most of the men are foolish and the young girls are the heroes.
It’s not up to Disney’s standard, but if your kids are familiar with the characters, they’ll probably enjoy it more than I did.
A sly attempt at victim blaming is a tactic to lure us into a moral trap
DEATHSTROKE: KNIGHTS & DRAGONS
Digital Wednesday, disc August 17