IT LIVES INSIDE 15

★★★★★ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS

Assimilation anxieties abound in Bishal Dutta’s classy horror. Indian-American schoolgirl Sam/Samidha (Megan Suri) is just trying to fit in, but something supernatural is killing the local immigrant kids and her friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) has it trapped in a jar. Borrowing a few scares from the classics, this isn’t quite the finished article. But it’s spooky, expertly made and well-acted (Krishnan is especially haunting), plus the powerful subtext means that, even in its most generic moments, the film has something interesting to say.

ANGELHEADED HIPSTER: THE SONGS OF MARC BOLAN & T. REX 12A

★★★★★ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS

Brimming with stars and killer glam riffs, this stirring and affecting doc uses the making of a tribute album as a cue to celebrate Marc Bolan. With Bolan’s impish charisma on full display, covers of his songs bang gongs for his writing skills. Beth Orton, U2, Father John Misty and a magisterial Nick Cave – a gorgeous Cosmic Dancer – dig deep into the T.Rex goldmine, while archive chats with David Bowie speak warm volumes about the man who ‘brought glitter to the masses’.

BOLAN’S SHOES 15

★★★★★ OUT 15 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS

Trauma and T.Rex-mania merge tenuously in this awkward feature debut from actor-turneddirector Ian Puleston-Davies. In 1976, a busload of kids taken to a Rex gig in Manchester crashes, leaving the survivors with lingering emotional scars. Timothy Spall and Leanne Best impress solidly as grown-up versions of these kids, haunted in variable yet largely over-written ways. Despite his laudable ambition, Puleston-Davies bites off more than he can chew, cramming in themes of bullying, survivor’s guilt, manslaughter and forgiveness on the way to a contrived finale.

FREMONT 12A

★★★★★ OUT 15 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS

Very much in the tradition of Jim Jarmusch’s monochrome 1980s US indies, this deadpan yet quietly affecting tale from Iranian-born filmmaker Babak Jalali concerns 20-something Afghan refugee Donya (impressive newcomer Anaita Wali Zada). Having fled her hometown of Kabul, where she worked for the US army as a translator, she now lives in Fremont, California, separated from her loved ones and troubled by feelings of survivor’s guilt. Artfully shot in the boxy Academy ratio, and featuring several droll supporting characters, Fremont merits its unexpectedly romantic resolution.

STRANGE WAY OF LIFE TBC

Tender is the fight…

★★★★★ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS

Pedro Almodóvar brings us his second English-language short in three years with this 31-minute queer western. While The Human Voice (2020) was the Spanish master’s take on a Jean Cocteau tale, Strange Way of Life is an original, starring Ethan Hawke and man-of-the-hour Pedro Pascal.

In Bitter Creek, we find Hawke’s sheriff Jake ordering a coffin. Hunting for a murderer, he soon has something else to contend with: the arrival of Silva (Pascal), a cowboy from his past. And after some heavy drinking, Jake and Silva wind up in bed together.

‘It’s not every day that someone crosses the desert to see you,’ says Silva, who seems keener on this rekindling of old fires than Jake. Further complications ensue when it emerges that Silva’s son Joe (George Steane) is the chief suspect in Jake’s murder hunt. Despite flashbacks to the ageing cowboys’ more carefree youth, you know this situation isn’t going to end well.

Typically for Almodóvar, this is a distinct-looking piece, partly thanks to his collaboration with Anthony Vaccarello, the creative director at Yves Saint Laurent – Pascal’s emerald-green shirt alone deserves to spark a trend. But Almodóvar goes beyond the surface trappings of the western. He creates a world where men can protect each other and find solace in each other’s company, delving into the male psyche for a sweet and sour tale, full of longing.

THE VERDICT Almodóvar puts a fresh, colourful, but also melancholic and meaningful spin on the western. Yee-haw!