FEMME TBC

Revenge served bold…

Jules puts on quite a performance…

★★★★★ OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS

Crumbling identities are at the core of Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s impressive debut, which channels Scorsese, Shame and the Safdie brothers to craft a queer revenge thriller that feels genuinely fresh.

Based on the writer-director duo’s BAFTA-nominated short, it introduces Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Misfits), a drag artist who suffers a homophobic attack. Three months later, he spots the perpetrator, an in-denial thug called Preston (George MacKay), in a gay sauna, and they begin a relationship that moves from rough sex towards cautious tenderness. But can a dressed-down Jules really pass in Preston’s hyper-masculine world? And is he out for revenge? Falling in love? Or a toxic cocktail of the two?

All this plays out in a neon-flecked night-time London, expertly rendered by James Rhodes’ crepuscular cinematography and given a racing pulse by Adam Janota Bzowski’s ominous score. But it’s the performances that really sell the tension. As Jules, Stewart-Jarret gives off a deep, watchful intelligence behind the damage, while MacKay’s Preston is truly scary, with apoplectic eyes and tattoos wrapping too tight around his throat. Though polar opposites, they both dress up to project, or protect, certain aspects of themselves – and their scenes together have an intensifying sense of danger, as you realise it’s only a matter of time before all the facades come tumbling down.

THE VERDICT An electrifying, sexually charged first salvo from some exciting new talents.

ANATOMY OF A FALL 15

Hüller crunch time…

★★★★★ OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS

Aman lies dead in the Alpine snow below the chalet he shared with writer wife Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and their 11-year-old son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). Did he fall? Did he jump? Or was Samuel (Samuel Theis) the victim of some fatal foul play? Suspecting the latter, the authorities try Sandra for his murder.

So far, so courtroom drama. But in Justine Triet’s riveting Palme d’Or winner, the trial is only the beginning of a forensic exploration of a complicated defendant, a couple at odds and a mother’s relationship with her son. Before an implacable judge (Anne Rotger) and a relentless prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz), Sandra is forced to account for every action, fiction and extramarital liaison that might be used to refute her protestations of innocence. Visually impaired Daniel, meanwhile, sits in court conflicted, his love for his mum battling with his terror she may indeed be guilty as charged.

Nothing comes easy in a two-and-a-half hour chunk of multilingual legal talkiness that reaches its dramatic peak in a pivotal flashback scene featuring the bitterest spousal argument since Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. But stick with it through its many twists, turns and cul-de-sacs and you will leave emotionally gratified and intellectually invigorated by a thriller every bit as intriguing as Hüller’s ambiguous star turn.

THE VERDICT A compelling and cryptic conundrum that rewards the effort needed to tease out its secrets.