Green Book ****
Dir: Peter Farrelly
Starring: Mahershala Ali, Viggo Mortensen 12A 129m
Firmly installed as favourite to land the Best Picture gong at the Oscars, (following its recent triumph at the PGA awards), Peter Farrelly's drama has everything a Best Picture Oscar winner needs, notably a heart-warming true-life story and a pair of top-notch central performances.
Set in 1962, Green Book stars Mahershala Ali as a leading classical pianist who is about to embark on a tour of the racially divided Deep South. When a no-nonsense Italian-American (Mortensen) signs up to drive the maestro around, the stage is set for a mismatched buddy drama with a strong social message.
While that social message is naturally to the fore, the success of Green Book is down to the chemistry between Mortensen's street-smart Italian and Ali's erudite musician, a man who seems singularly ill-equipped to overcome any obstacles he might encounter beyond his ivory tower. That there will be obstacles ahead are apparent by the full title of the guidebook that the pair take on their journey:
The Negro Motorist Green-Book, published to help African-American travellers in the segregated southern US states find safe accommodation. Some critics of the film have baulked at the idea of a 'white saviour' tale, but none could doubt the power and the integrity of both lead performances. 
Vice ****
Dir: Adam Mackay
Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams (15A) 132m
Anybody who watched The Big Short, Adam McKay's original take on the 2008 financial crisis, knows not to expect a bog-standard approach from this screen biopic of former US vice president Dick Cheney. Vice is a rip-roaring polemic that pulls no punches and leaves no fourth wall unbroken in what is ultimately a fascinating study of power, influence and control.
Dick Cheney became familiar during George W. Bush's administration, but he cut his teeth in Washington during the Nixon and Ford presidencies, when Donald Rumsfeld was first his mentor and then ally. McKay's film traces that journey with an approach that channels 60 Minutes in some scenes and Saturday Night Live in others.
In the title role, Christian Bale delivers another of his patented De Niro-style immersive performances, scoffing shed-loads of pies in order to gain 20kg and hitting the gym solely to thicken his neck. The result is a tour de force that makes him a serious contender come Oscar time on February 24.
But Vice features many strong performances. Steve Carell is terrific as the scheming Rumsfeld; Sam Rockwell shines as George Dubya and, best of all, Amy Adams gives Lady Macbeth a run for her money as Lynne Cheney, the driving force behind her husband's transformation from feckless good old boy to Washington power broker or, in the words of one cultural commentator, 'a man whose grasp was equal to his reach.' 
Destroyer **½
Dir: Karyn Kusama
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell 16 120m
In this grim, True Detective-style drama, Nicole Kidman plays a careworn detective who gets an opportunity to revisit a life-changing case from her past when an unidentified body turns up on her patch.
The LAPD is baffled but the investigation (most of which is handled unofficially) offers Kidman's character an opportunity to exorcise many of the demons that have accompanied her for 17 years.
Kidman isn't the first actress to de-glamourise herself for a role but if anything, the fact that the Aussie Oscar-winner does a passable impression of The Wreck of the Hesperus proves distracting rather than compelling. It's as much caricature as character in a movie where the bleakness is unrelenting. 
Blu-ray
First Man (Universal)
Following their Oscar-winning hit, La La Land, director Damien Chazelle and star Ryan Gosling reunited for this biopic of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. The story focuses on the years leading up to the fateful 1969 mission when, in contrast to the astronaut's post-Apollo XI life, Armstrong deliberately backed away from the limelight.
First Man opens in 1961 with Armstrong as a young test pilot who clearly has the Right Stuff for NASA's burgeoning space programme. While the rest of the hot-shots have a Top Gun reputation, Armstrong is focused and unflappable, two qualities that result in him being chosen to command the fateful mission that would (let's hope this is not a spoiler) consolidate JFK's goal of landing a man on the moon before the decade was out. 
Beautifully shot by Chazelle and superbly designed by Nathan Crowley, First Man is as sober and meticulous as its subject. In order to give us the giant leap, the director shows us all of the small steps. In the lead role, an impressive Ryan Gosling gives a suitably unfussy performance; as befits the portrayal of a father who shakes hands with his young son when he might be saying goodbye to him for the last time.
Elsewhere on the acting front, Claire Foy (surprisingly not in the Oscar hunt) provides the emotional counterpoint to her husband's stoicism. Bonus features include a feature commentary, deleted scenes and a number of making-of featurettes.
