It's a bumper weekend. Alicia Vikander swings into action in Tomb Raider and Domhnall Gleeson squares up to Peter Rabbit. If you're after something serious, Mary Magdalene, Unless and The Square are all on screens too.
Tomb Raider ***1/2
Hard to believe that it's all of 17 years since Angelina Jolie ambled around the cineplexes of the planet as the star of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Compared to your average Spider-Man reboot, this one has taken forever to arrive.
But was it worth the wait? We certainly think so.
Here, the wonderful Alicia Vikander takes on the Lara Croft mantle, and - typically - gives everything to the role. As anyone who's seen her in films as diverse as The Danish Girl and Ex Machina will tell you, the Swede punches well above her weight, and here she does that in a more literal sense as her limbs do most of the work. It's that kind of film. Read our full review here.
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Peter Rabbit ***1/2
The good news for anyone who regards Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit as something that mustn't be messed with is that their hero's in safe hands with movie director Will Gluck and star Domhnall Gleeson.
Gluck was reared on the exploits of the jacketed Peter, and passed on the love by reading the stories to his own children. And what he's created here is a broadening out of the tale, without losing any of the original's charm. No mean feat. And it's timeless, so no baseball hats, hoodies or mobile phones for the BP bunny, who is voiced by James Corden.
And the real magic here is the remarkable job done in terms of the CGI. It's ridiculously good. At this point, you don't even notice the blend of animation and real-lifers. It's seamless. Read our full review here.
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Mary Magdalene ****
Rooney Mara has just made March her own. And how.
Amid the post-Oscars scramble to catch films while they're still in cinemas, here's another with a central performance that is too good to miss. Chances are it won't be playing as long as its gilded contemporaries, so plan accordingly.
Reuniting with Lion director Garth Davis and Her co-star Joaquin Phoenix, Mara's work in this travelogue of the soul deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as her Oscar-nominated turns in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Carol. It's a struggle to imagine any of her peers bringing quite as much to this most misunderstood of figures - the mystery of Mara off-camera makes her all the more powerful on-screen. Read our full review here.
Unless ***
Alan Gilsenan's adaptation of Carol Shields' final novel Unless has the delicate touch and the humanity that characterise his documentaries. Yet somehow one is left wanting more, and thinking too that Gilsenan's screenplay should have been based on a stronger novel.
We are in suburban, snowy Toronto and two decidedly middle-class parents are suddenly challenged by bad news. Dad, Tom Winters (Matt Craven), is a doctor; mum, Reta Winters (Catherine Keener), is a novelist. One of their three daughters, Norah (Hannah Gross), has dropped out of college and is sitting outside a bargain emporium on a sidewalk downtown. She is holding a piece of cardboard bearing the single word 'goodness'. Read our full review here.
The Square **1/2
Christian (Claes Bang) is the museum director who ends up in serious trouble in Ruben Östlund's The Square, which was pipped to the post for Best Foreign Film by A Fantastic Woman at the Oscars. File under 'ho hum' or 'much ado about nothing', although it is engrossing.
It all begins with the wealthy museum gallery director Christian, whose phone, wallet and cuff-links (yes) are stolen in a three-person scam in a public square in Stockholm. Christian is on his way to work and having arrived there eventually he is more amused at his carelessness than angry. In fact, you could say he almost admires the ingenuity of the scam. Read our full review here.
Still Showing:
Sweet Country ****
Set in the year 1929, the brooding Sweet Country promises something appealing with that title, but it is a tale of extreme violence and cruelty, culminating in an impromptu courtroom drama held in the open in a small town in Australia's Northern Territory.
This is a film which celebrates the mysterious, harsh landscape and those shimmering horizons of the Northern Territory. Along with taut drama, it is also a work of visionary cinematography. Read our full review here.
You Were Never Really Here ****
The excellent film that you never want to see again - to that harrowing honour roll we now add You Were Never Really Here. This pared-to-the-bone thriller from We Need to Talk About Kevin director Lynne Ramsay is relentless as Joaquin Phoenix's force-of-nature protagonist is plunged ever deeper into conspiracy and crisis. From scene to scene you never know what he will walk into next. And it's exhausting.
Phoenix's Joe is a former soldier who now works rescuing children from the sex trade and exacting revenge on their abusers. From the first time we see him there's the sense of a man teetering on the edge of the abyss, as if every day could be his last. There's no question of his clinical brilliance at his job - but can he save himself when his latest case spirals out of control? Read our full review here.
The Lodgers ***1/2
Tony Bennett reckons that the way to get on in life is to be good at two things, and it's wisdom that has been taken to heart by The Lodgers director Brian O'Malley. After showing his skill for siege shenanigans with the blood and guts of 2014's Let Us Prey, O'Malley has chosen something very different for his follow-up: an Irish ghost story with the War of Independence as its backdrop. No one will ever confuse either film.
Sister and brother Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner) have turned 18 in their falling-to-pieces big house. They are shut-ins whose lives are slipping away in a trap of daylight dread and night-time terror. And it's not all in their heads... Read our full review here.
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Gringo **1/2
An impressively strong cast - Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo, Thandie Newton - can't save this convoluted, tonally uneven action-comedy from descending into mindless chaos.
The fast-paced action and twists and turns in the plot make the almost two-hour running time pass by relatively fast, but the confusingly erratic tone, dearth of actually funny moments and lack of characters to root for make it all feel a bit, well, pointless. Read our full review here.
Wonder Wheel **
There is nothing wonderful here, apart from Kate Winslet.
Set in 1950s Coney Island, Wonder Wheel tells the story of Ginny (Winslet), a failed actress in an unhappy marriage who works as a waitress beside the amusements. When her husband's (Jim Belushi) estranged daughter from a previous marriage (June Temple) turns up on their doorstep on the run from her gangster husband, Ginny finds herself engaged in an affair with a local lifeguard and aspiring playwright (Justin Timberlake), who also narrates proceedings. Read our full review here.
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Walk Like a Panther *
Walk Like a Panther is The Full Monty meets pro-wrestling, but this time with leotards, '80s bangers, and a script that's not hot stuff.
Dan Cadan's feature directorial debut has a reasonable enough starting point, but it won't be long until viewers will be begging to give their ringside seats away. Read our full review here.
