THE RETIREMENT PLAN 15

★☆☆☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL

Michael Caine bought his mum a house with his fee for Jaws: The Revenge. Let’s hope Nicolas Cage makes a loved one happy with this comedy thriller, because it surely won’t leave viewers feeling that way. Cage plays an estranged dad whose daughter (Ashley Greene) seeks his help when she gets caught up in a criminal enterprise. It’s lame and cheap-looking, but at least gives us the Cayman Islands to ogle. Shooting there during the early part of the pandemic surely explains a cast that includes Ron Perlman, Jackie Earle Haley (misspelt in the credits) and Ernie Hudson.

NOBODY HAS TO KNOW 12A

★★☆☆☆OUT 3 NOVEMBER

CINEMAS

Bouli Lanners co-directs, co-writes and co-stars in this measured, melancholy drama set in the Scottish Highlands. It offers a unique story of late love, albeit one that unfolds at a glacial pace. Lanners plays Phil, a middle-aged farmhand who suffers a stroke and subsequently loses his memory. Cared for by Millie (Michelle Fairley), he discovers that the two were recently romantically involved. Thoughtprovoking scenes explore ideas about identity and missed chances, but the tone - by turns twee and maudlin - hampers much of the tension and intrigue.

GOLDA 12A

★★☆☆☆OUT NOW CINEMAS

Whatever your take on the casting of non-Jewish actress Helen Mirren as former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, it’s hard to deny that this snapshot of the steely politician’s time in office during the 19 days of the 1973 Yom Kippur war never really gets off the ground. Obscured by cigarette smoke, a grey wig, and prosthetic nose and jowls, Mirren never seems fully at ease, bar her enlivening, imploring exchanges with Liev Schreiber’s US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Recalling Mirren’s earlier war-room drama Eye in the Sky (2015), albeit without the same nervy tension, this is a plodding affair.

ROCK HUDSON: ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWED 15

Idol moments…

★★★☆☆OUT 23 OCTOBER DIGITAL

Amidwestern hick’ (his words) from Winnetka, Illinois, the matinee idol formerly known as Roy Fitzgerald lit up the screen in Douglas Sirk melodramas (see 1955’s All That Heaven Allows) and Doris Day romcoms (1959’s Pillow Talk). ‘He was a great performer,’ notes one contributor in Stephen Kijak’s breezy documentary. ‘Not just in acting, but in life.’

Hudson (1925-1985), who was gay, arrived in a post-World War Two Hollywood fixated on hyper-masculine heroes. Gradually, he turned himself into one of the biggest but, as noted here, to fully become Rock, he had to erase Roy. Although he was forced to keep his sexuality secret, it was coded into films such as Pillow Talk, which saw him camping it up to get close to Day. It also proved a source of conflict with James Dean on 1956’s Giant, for which Hudson was Oscar-nominated.

Mixing archive footage, well-chosen clips and new interviews with Hudson’s ex-partners and pals, the film moves nimbly from celebrating his many achievements to offering details about his love life, albeit in somewhat salacious fashion.

In 1985, Hudson would die from AIDS-related complications, but his heroic admission to go public with his diagnosis would help those silenced by the stigma – something he understood all too well.

THE VERDICT An entertaining and, at times, moving profile of one of Hollywood’s most charming and conflicted stars.

MIND-SET 18

★★★☆☆OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL

Brit-indie realism and cliché combine in this engaging but naggingly over-determined comedy drama from Mikey Murray. Eilis Cahill and Steve Oram play a couple whose love is parched; can she resist the urge to stray? A slumped Oram and a superbly acerbic Cahill provide spiky focus amid Murray’s crisp black-and-white images, but the subtexts (mental-health issues), set pieces (bad parties, really bad sex) and supporting characters run to the contrived. Despite Murray’s persuasive flair for cringey intimacies and masturbation scenes, the sour finale overplays the film’s hand.