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Out on Friday 27 November
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara display the look of love. Tom Hanks, Spielberg and the Coens team up for a Cold War thriller. Johnny Depp as youve never seen (or probably heard) him before. Yes, heres this weeks new releases. Click on for our reviews of The Good Dinosaur, Carol, Bridge Of Spies, Black Mass, My Skinny Sister, Radiator, Being AP, Unbranded and Doctor Zhivago. For the best movie reviews, subscribe to Total Film.
THE GOOD DINOSAUR
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, was a phrase the late Pixar co-founder Steve Jobs was fond of, and it could almost be a maxim for The Good Dinosaur. 2015 marks the first time two Pixar films have been released in one year, and in a lot of respects, this second effort couldn't be more different from summers Inside Out. While the first 2015 Pixar film out of the gate gloried in its complexity, personifying emotions and making tweenage brain processes of a piece with the action, The Good Dinosaur as the title hints feels at heart like a childs picture book, from the bright, colourful characters, to the simple linear plot. That comparison isnt intended as an insult; this is a rich and rewarding family film. That it doesnt quite reach Pixars highest standards for invention and storytelling verve is unfortunately exacerbated by its proximity to the insta-masterpiece released earlier this year. The fact that two Pixar films ended up being released in the same year is down to well-documented production problems: The Good Dinosaur was postponed when original co-director Bob Peterson was moved to a different project, leaving Peter Sohn (director of short Partly Cloudy) solely at the helm. The film thats been salvaged kicks off 65 million years ago, with the asteroid destined to destroy Earth narrowly missing, meaning that some millions of years later, humans and dinosaurs co-exist. As the story proper begins, dino-parents Momma (Frances McDormand) and Poppa (Jeffrey Wright) raise three kids on their farm. Gangly Arlo (voiced by Jack McGraw, and later, when hes a little older, by Raymond Ochoa) is the runt of the litter, struggling to live up to his fathers expectations. Oddly, the family are farmers, ploughing fields and tending to crops, but this particular concept of industrial dinosaurs isn't really explored much after tragedy strikes and Arlo finds himself lost in the wilderness, with only a feral human child named Spot for company. Maybe the idea was played down as part of the behind-the-scenes shake-up, as none of the other dinosaurs Arlo encounters on his journey have evolved to use machinery. A four-legged, long-necked klutz, Arlo is ostensibly an Apatosaurus, but that sort of information isn't offered up readily. The filmmakers might earn a few science points for giving some Velociraptor-like beasts feathers, but its likely that these dinosaurs will simply be classified as the green one, the funny one, the scary one, as opposed to any technical genus. It feels like a confident, conscious decision, rather than a lack of research (although as is always the case, the food chain is glossed over). The bold hues of the prehistoric creatures only stand to make the mountainous backdrops all the more stunning. Paying homage to the western with lush ranges and treacherous rivers (even some cattle herding), the scenery is among the most beautiful to ever spring from a computer, and the rain is so gorgeously executed you can practically smell it. That landscape certainly gives Arlo a rough time of it battered, bruised and tormented, hes one of the more put-upon animated heroes of recent times, and some of the rival species he comes across could prove a touch too scary for the youngest viewers. One scene, in which a pack of helpers turn threatening on a dime is genuinely tense. Theres also a nice balance of adult-friendly gags (fermented berries! Paranoid triceratops!) thrown in with the visual humour, while pop-culture references are pretty much absent. Where TGD really comes into its own is in Arlos interactions with Spot. Sohn has always been upfront about this being a boy and his dog story, with the killer Pixar twist here being that the human is the dog. Arlo and Spot form the customary road-tripping odd couple thats become as much as mark of Pixar as the Luxo lamp. While Arlo will no doubt sell more merchandise, Spot is an incredible creation, skittish, snarling, scrambling around on all fours. The inevitable relationship that develops between the two has real heart, and will have you feigning grit in your eye more than once. In one of the finest moments, Sohn musters more emotion with stick figures and dirt than lesser animations manage in a whole movie. Certain flaws keep The Good Dinosaur from earning a spot on the Pixar podium. For all the scares thrown in en route, it never really feels that Arlo is ever that far away from home. The parental figures have a tendency to talk in platitudes, and the human/prehistoric creatures dont feel as fresh as some other Pixar creations; this territory won't feel entirely unfamiliar to anyone who's seen Ice Age or The Croods. But for a film of uncomplicated pleasures, there's much to delight in. THE VERDICT: Simple but effective, The Good Dinosaur doesnt reinvent the wheel, but its still damn fine family entertainment. Slow to get going, it comes into its own when its heroes buddy up. Director: Peter Sohn Starring: Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Steve Zahn, AJ Buckley, Anna Paquin, Sam Elliott, Frances McDormand, Marcus Scribner, Jack Bright Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Matt Maytum
CAROL
He used to make bracing art-core films, but Todd Haynes and classic Hollywood style have got a thing going now. After riffs on Citizen Kane (Velvet Goldmine), Douglas Sirk (Far From Heaven) and noir/melodrama (TVs Mildred Pierce remake), Haynes is a perfect fit for Carol, crafted from writer Phyllis Nagys long-nurtured adaptation of Patricia Highsmiths 1952 novel The Price Of Salt. A romance so gorgeously played its riches seem effortless, Haynes movie is a ravishing seduction in a vintage mould: stealthy, swooning cinema to relish. The directors control is clear the moment he segues from the title sequence across rainy 50s Manhattan streets to a charged restaurant encounter: all rhyming gestures, loaded looks, suggestive words. An innocent Likewise drips with feeling. We flash back in time, to department-store attendant Therese (Rooney Mara) locking eyes with married mother Carol (Cate Blanchett). Attraction sparks across the dead-eyed china-doll floor: one leave the glove behind ruse later, love blooms. Carols estranged husband and repressive 50s America complicate matters, but Haynes avoids heated melodrama. With slow-burn focus, he zeroes in on Carol/Therese to show how love emerges from a grey backdrop to consume them, a contrast beautifully conveyed by the films style. Departing from Far From Heavens sumptuous flushes, Haynes and DoP Ed Lachman sketch emotional currents in smoke-stained sepia with flashes of red, like an Edward Hopper painting pulsing with yearning; Carter Burwells score moons to their tune. The to-die-for cast tune in too, etching character studies in fine detail. Blanchetts full-bore charisma total Bette Davis nails how tough a to-be-divorced mum in the 50s would have to be, yet she somehow taps reserves of feeling for later shows of tenderness and turmoil. At another extreme, Maras inscrutable reserve makes sense of a young woman trying to find herself, on alert for a revelatory return gaze through those popping eyes (shes a would-be photographer looking means everything here). On the fringes, Sarah Paulson exudes savvy in the best friend role and Kyle Chandler imbues a potentially hateful hubby with caricature-busting conviction. Some jolting shocks on a Christmas road trip are the closest Carol comes to Highsmiths twisty Mr. Ripley mode. Otherwise, everything from a sensitive sex scene to an agonising custody battle orbits around carol and Thereses intense attraction with an understated focus so sure, you hardly even notice its hypnotic hold until the grip releases at the sublime climax. Youre in a trance, Therese is told. Likewise. THE VERDICT: Under Haynes sure hand, Blanchett and Mara deliver a love story to melt to. Every glance means something, no strain shows: its filmmaking as natural as breathing. Director: Todd Haynes Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy, Sarah Paulson Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Kevin Harley
BRIDGE OF SPIES
In 1957, with the Cold War at its most ice-bound, Soviet spy Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested in New York by the FBI. Reluctantly, lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) agrees to defend him, arguing in court that Abels no traitor but a brave man serving his country. The outcome of the trial sees Donovan incur widespread public hostility... But then US pilot Gary Powers is shot down over Russia in his U-2 spy-plane and Donovan, yet more reluctantly, is persuaded by the CIA to travel to East Berlin and negotiate a swap, though with no official government backing. At which point, just to complicate things further, the Berlin Wall goes up and a nave American student, Frederic Pryor, is trapped behind it and jailed. Donovan conceives an impossible notion a two-for-one swap. All he has to do is somehow persuade the CIA, the Soviet government and the East German government all with their own conflicting agendas to go along with him... Its fascinating to imagine how John Le Carr might have handled this real-life spy-swap story. But this is Steven Spielberg so for all the treachery, bad faith and compromise involved, we still fight through to an upbeat ending. Hanks, his furrowed brow and bewildered eyes offset by the firmness of his jaw, is as good as hes ever been as a man determinedly pushing his concept of justice against near-insuperable odds. But hes almost out-acted by Rylance, whose Abel is a wonderfully sly portrait of a gifted man concealing his intelligence behind the drabbest of facades. You dont seem worried, Donovan remarks as the prosecution demands the spys death. Would it help? comes the deadpan response. Spielberg skilfully captures the paranoid mood of the era and the barbed political labyrinth Donovan has to negotiate in trying to reconcile all the mutually suspicious interests involved. The tension of the climax on Berlins wintry nocturnal Glienicke Bridge, snipers poised on all sides, is utterly nail-gnawing. To collaborate on British playwright Matt Charmans original script Spielberg called in the Coen brothers, no less, and their sardonic touch makes itself relishably felt take the scene in East Berlins Soviet Embassy where Donovans confronted by the phony bunch cobbled together as Abels family, all headscarves, expostulations and theatrical weeping fits. The films only disappointment is Amy Ryan, stuck with the worried but supportive wife at home role. THE VERDICT: Political intrigue abounds as Spielberg grippingly recreates a famous real-life spy-swap case of the Cold War, with both Hanks and Rylance on top form. Director: Steven Spielberg Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Scott Shepherd, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Philip Kemp
BLACK MASS
Having been hit-and-miss in his previous portrayals of real-life criminals (coke kaiser George Jung in Blow, mobster John Dillinger in Public Enemies), Johnny Depp finally hits the mother lode in Black Mass, an enthralling portrait of Boston bruiser James Whitey Bulger that halts the stars mid-career slump with all the force of a baseball bat in the kisser. Barely recognisable behind a balding pate, ice-blue contact lenses and a pirate-y bad tooth (perhaps the only link here to captain Jack Sparrow), Depp serves up a chillingly amoral turn that will almost certainly secure his fourth Oscar nomination. Yet hes far from the only reason to catch Scott Coopers (Out Of The Furnace) gripping cops and robbers tale, a film that, like The Departed before it, blurs the lines that separate these supposedly inviolable factions. Divided, overly neatly maybe, into three acts that span a decade (1975 to 1985) of nefarious activity, Black Mass tells how Bulger, a small-time hood from Bostons close-knit Southie neighbourhood, was encouraged to turn snitch by an old schoolmate turned G-Man who was prepared to give him a free pass if he helped bring down the citys Italian-American Mafiosi. Out to impress and keen to advance, FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) thinks he has made the deal of the century. Once the gangsters are gone, though, Whitey swiftly sets about shoring up his own illegal empire, knowing he has too much on Connolly for the Feds to intervene. With its beatings, shootings, stabbings and throttlings, Coopers film certainly doesnt want for GoodFellas-style carnage. Yet Black Mass is the rare crime saga in which the dialogue scenes carry an even greater charge. Coopers clearly fully aware that two great actors going head to head in a room can be as potent as any bullet ballet or ruthless execution. A scene in which Connolly attempts to ensnare Bulgers Teflon politician brother (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a treat to behold, as is that much-trailed episode in which Depp goes Joe Pesci on one of Edgertons subordinates. In a film in which even the lowliest thug gets a moment to shine, though, its a shame the female characters are so poorly shaped and scripted: the likes of Dakota Johnson, Julianne Nicholson and Juno Temple spending the majority of their screen time being harangued or mistreated. THE VERDICT: Though the women could be stronger and the accents occasionally jar, coopers study of moral corruption enthrals. The Johnny-ssance starts here! Director: Scott Cooper Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Neil Smith
MY SKINNY SISTER
Tsanna Lenkens own history of eating disorders informs the Swedish directors debut feature, about young misfit Stella (Rebecka Josephson, endearing) who discovers her glamorous older sibling (Amy Deasismont) is secretly battling anorexia. Torn between breaking a confidence and a potentially life-saving betrayal, Stella finds herself in an impossible situation that generates considerable tension and poignancy until the grown-ups and histrionic melodrama get involved. For the most part, though, this is a touching exploration of a thorny subject and the lies we tell the people we love. Director: Sanna Lenken Starring: Rebecka Josephson, Amy Deasismont, Annika Hallin, Henrik Norlen, Maxim Mehmet, Iga Lindbom Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Neil Smith
RADIATOR
The everyday trials of caring for ageing relatives are unstintingly laid bare in Tom Brownes understated yet richly poignant drama, a homegrown Amour that incidentally lists Barbara Broccoli and Rachel Weisz among its executive producers. Richard Johnson (who died earlier this year) dominates as a geriatric terror determined not to make it easy for his ailing wife (Gemma Jones) and the adult son (Daniel Cerqueira) who has guiltily come to tend to him. But the true star of this quietly affecting chamber piece is its cottage setting: a cluttered Cumbrian warren in which the directors own late parents lived. Director: Tom Browne Starring: Gemma Jones, Richard Johnson Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Neil Smith
BEING AP
Most sports documentaries focus on their subjects rise to greatness, but, as Anthony Wonkes film on award-winning jockey A.P. McCoy proves, a more interesting portrait can be drawn at the end rather than the peak of a career. In the jockeys own words, its the moment he becomes a has-been, and its as saddening as it is fascinating to watch this meticulous, driven star having to confront a future lacking the thing he loves. Wonke obtains intimate access not least scenes of marital tension although close-ups of McCoys weathered face tell their own story. Director: Anthony Wonke Starring: AP McCoy, Chanelle McCoy Theatrical release: 23 November 2015 Stephen Puddicombe
UNBRANDED
Aint nothing better than ridin a fine horse through a new country, reads the opening scrawl to Phillip Baribeaus frontier doc. Fine horses, new country and plenty of ridin is exactly what you get for two hours as Texas horseman Ben Masters and his buddies adopt a herd of wild mustangs and ride them 3,000 miles from the Mexican border to the Canadian Rockies all to raise awareness for the animals plight in government corrals. The big-sky vistas are all incredible, but with the boys mostly just farting around the campfire, its a bit like watching a beautiful western full of boring cowboys. Director: Philip Baribeau Starring: Ben Masters, Jonny Fitzsimons, Thomas Glover, Ben Thamer Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Paul Bradshaw
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
The Russian Revolution proves a mighty inconvenience to Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in David Leans sumptuous 1965 adaptation of Boris Pasternaks novel, a slow-burning history lesson whose moments of high spectacle are juxtaposed with a timeless, if sudsy, tale of doomed amour. Sharif, patently miscast, almost had a breakdown during a two-year shoot that nearly killed one of his castmates. No matter: like Lawrence Of Arabia before it, this is cinema on a monumental scale that should be seen on the biggest screen available. Director: David Lean Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard Theatrical release: 27 November 2015 Neil Smith
