Out on Friday 21 October
Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner. A chess story with predictable moves. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake voice dancing gnomes.
For the best movie reviews, subscribe to Total Film.
I, Daniel Blake
Social realism stalwart Ken Loach threatened retirement after 2014’s Jimmy’s Hall, but is back with his best for some years. This Newcastle-set tale follows 59-year-old carpenter Daniel (Dave Johns), ordered not to work by his doctor as he recovers from a heart attack, but told by a box-ticking welfare-state functionary that he must actively seek employment or else lose his job-seeker’s allowance.
Written by Loach’s frequent scribe Paul Laverty and shot with plenty of warmth but zero fuss by ace DoP Robbie Ryan, this is a plainly told drama that never loses sight of its leads as they navigate a maze of Kafka-esque bureaucracy.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Be thankful that Tom Cruise did go back: though lacking the suspense of Christopher McQuarrie’s 2012 original – or, for that matter, an antagonist fit to lick the blood from Werner Herzog’s chewed-off fingers – this sequel sees Cruise grow into the titular role of the tough, taciturn ex-military investigator.
Based, loosely, on the 18th novel in Lee Child’s series, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back sees our hard-arse hero head for Washington to visit the woman doing his old job, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders). Arriving to find she’s been jailed for espionage, he busts her out and the two of them hunt down the truth – or make that three of them, for Reacher learns that teen tearaway Sam (Danika Yarosh) might be his daughter, and she, too, is swept up in the action.
With few words and the odd squint, Cruise hard boils all of his charisma into a clenched fist, but is more than happy to let a dynamic Smulders take the lead in many scenes. The makeshift family dynamic is a surprise and a joy, while digging into Jack’s past makes this the Skyfall of Reacher stories.
Director: Edward Zwick; Starring: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge; Theatrical release: October 21, 2016
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Greg Mottola’s slapstick-stuffed comedy about a nosy couple who discover that their new neighbours are spies wants to combine the glamour of Mr & Mrs Smith with the all-action laughs of True Lies. Too bad it gets stuck mining the married-with-children gags and admittedly cute comic chemistry of Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher’s bumbling suburbanites.
Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot’s sleek undercover agents get short shrift, and the shriek-filled car chases and gun battles don’t raise titters or tension. Even though the ever-reliable Galifianakis has fun bromancing the stone-faced Hamm, the end result feels like a decaff version of Date Night.
Director: Edward Zwick; Starring: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge; Theatrical release: October 21, 2016
Queen of Katwe
A biopic about a Ugandan girl from the slums of Kampala who harbours ambitions of becoming a chess master, Mira Nair’s (Monsoon Wedding) movie rarely makes an unpredictable move. But it has warmth, a lively sense of pace, and a fine breakout turn from Madina Nalwanga, whose Phiona swiftly becomes a gaming success, tasting a life her widowed mum (Lupita Nyong’o) can’t provide.
There are a few choice scenes – most notably when Phiona’s coach (David Oyelowo) pits his young charges against some boarding-school rich kids – but minimal subtlety. Well it is a Disney family film, after all. But while there’s sweetness, the big, sweeping emotions you hope for never quite arrive.
Trolls
Coughing, dancing and farting glitter in the faces of anyone without an upside-down frown, this DreamWorks toy-based ’toon is 90 minutes of pure happy.
Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake voice two whisk-headed gnomes out to rescue their friends from an orc’s cooking pot, but the story is really just an excuse for a lot of singing. Lovely animation evokes a world made from Fuzzy-Felt and Play-Doh.
Sonita
How close should docu-makers get to their subjects? That theme is rousingly addressed in Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s film about an 18-year-old Afghan refugee in Iran with Rihannasized dreams.
Sonita lives in poverty yet wants to be a rapper, an ambition threatened when her mother tries to sell her as a bride. Maghami’s intervention raises complex questions, but fuels a stirring pay-off.
In Pursuit of Silence
When composer John Cage debuted 4’33” (comprising four minutes, 33 seconds of silence) in 1952, the audience nearly ran him out of town. Yet in today’s world, silence is a highly prized virtue, as this vital documentary exploring the philosophy, spirituality and practice of silence points out.
Phantom Boy
In this tender animated caper, our hero is a boy undergoing chemotherapy. When he develops an ability to project his spirit form, he unites with an injured cop against a Picasso-faced villain.
Noirish touches flesh out the wispy plot, yet it’s the old-school animation that engages most: lending clarity to the emotions at stake, ensuring our sickly hero’s resilience tugs on the heart.
