Movie Review Round-Up: The New Releases

Superheroes galore this weekend with Aquaman and Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse opening, but there's also sublime cinema with the black-and-white masterpiece Roma, and a fine rock climbing documentary in Free Solo.

Aquaman **

Ranging from resolutely po-faced to downright silly and everything in between, Aquaman's first standalone outing is an outrageous, gaudy, dizzyingly over-the-top superhero epic which takes no prisoners.

Over the course of the (horribly bloated) 143-minute duration it runs the gamut from action, horror, adventure caper and even rom-com. Tonally uneven doesn't even come close to describing it.

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And yet...

Propelled in large part by Jason Momoa's tirelessly charismatic performance as the half-human, half-Atlantean superhero, the film is definitely watchable. Read our full review here.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ****

These days, searching for new themes and stories in endless superhero movie franchises is a job for some kind of caped crusader itself.

Overkill and saturation point reached several times over, even the most dedicated Marvel fans must be feeling jaded (Spider-Man: Homecoming was only released last year, Venom only a few months ago) so kudos to The Lego Movie and 22 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for their latest creation - a Spider-Man movie that does something different, sends up the whole sprawling world of super heroism, and delivers a feel-good message movie all at the same time.

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And unlike so many superhero movies, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse looks and feels like the viewer is actually stepping into a moving comic book. It embraces the variation on a theme with style and wit. Read our full review here.

Roma *****

We just never know where we're going to run into angels in this life - a bus, a waiting room or, in this case, a cinema.

That may all sound a bit too soft for some, but you'd really need to have a heart like a cement mixer to watch Roma and not feel that you've been touched in some way by director Alfonso Cuarón's (Gravity, Y Tu Mamá También) storytelling and the light that shines in newcomer Yalitza Aparicio's awe-inspiring performance as hero-for-the-ages Cleo.

This is one present that must be opened before December 25 - Roma is on Netflix from December 14 and is also screening at The Light House Cinema, Dublin and Pálás, Galway. Read our full review here.

Free Solo ***1/2

Conquering El Capitan - 3,200 feet of sheer rock in Yosemite National Park in the US - is the ultimate quest for free climber Alex Honnold, as documented in this captivating National Geographic film. If Honnold succeeds, he will have managed what is arguably the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

Alex is obsessed with so-called 'free climbing' - climbing without ropes or safety harness - a particularly dangerous sport which has cost the lives of quite a few climbers. Some of the names of those who have died are recorded in this absorbing new film, which you should not attend if you suffer from severe vertigo. Or maybe yes, in fact - go and face your fear.

The odds are that the somewhat opaque subject of the film will lose his life if he keeps devising gruelling challenges for himself, such as scaling El Capitan. It is dominated by a long and useful crack in its face within which to grapple and claim tiny holds with hands and feet. Read our full review here.

Still Showing:

The Old Man and the Gun ****

If this really is the end, Robert Redford has truly gone out with a bang.

Having starred in one of the greatest stick-up movies of all time, it was always going to take something special for the 82-year-old to go on the lam again.

Sure enough, this wry character study about ageing, seventy-second chances and the thrill of the chase (in more ways than one) has given him the role he has essentially waited a lifetime to play, that of real-life bank robber Forrest Tucker. Read our full review here.

Mortal Engines **

Written by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, this ambitious sci-fi fantasy about a post-apocalyptic future where predatory cities roam the planet runs out of road very quickly.

"We should never have gone into Europe. It's the biggest mistake we've ever made!" thunders Lord Mayor of London Magnus Crome (a great Patrick Malahide) in this bonkers adaptation of Philip Reeve's young adult fantasy sci-fi epic Mortal Engines.

Earlier in the movie, there’s also a nice dig at Trump’s immigration policy. But what this strange and lopsided movie has in decent and pertinent one-liners, it lacks in the vision thing. Read our full review here.

The Belly of a Whale **

Unsurprisingly, Pat Shortt is the best thing in this uneven tale of redemption and very bad things in a depressing Irish seaside town, a location which is so often a last redoubt of Irish filmmakers.

When we first meet Ronald Tanner (Shortt, looking like a cross between Gerry Adams and Ricky Tomlinson) he is having a very bad day indeed.

He's hawking teddy bears to the owner of an amusement arcade in a desperate bid to raise funds for a heart operation for his ailing wife. He's also struggling not to fall off the wagon again. Read our full review here.

Sorry to Bother You ****

This is the kind of film that gives us hope for the human race.

In recent years we've seen the rise of Trump and the far right, as the rich get richer, the poor and the immigrant get blamed, and people rely more on emotion and anger rather than logic and empathy.

Then along comes Sorry to Bother You and it's like a shaft of light in a darkening world.

Boots Riley's debut film centres on Cassius Green (superbly played by Lakeith Stanfield, who also stars in the excellent Atlanta), a man with zero prospects, who is financially bereft, and living in a garage. The only positive in his life is his girlfriend Detroit (an even more impressive Tessa Thompson), an optimistic artist who's also a political activist. Read our full review here.

Movie Review Round-Up: The New Releases

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