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LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND 15
Breakdown in communications…
★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS 8 DECEMBER NETFLIX
Remember being trapped inside your house while a global event raged? In Sam Esmail’s glossy but uneven dystopian drama, this time it’s a case not of pandemic but pandemonium.
The Sandford family’s idyllic weekend in a luxury rural rental is upended when strangers George (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la Herrold) claim to be the property owners, forced back home by a New York blackout. Esmail nimbly cranks up the suspense as TV, GPS and the internet suddenly shut down after nationwide alerts, while grumpy mum Amanda (a nicely unsweetened Julia Roberts) and husband Clay (an amiable Ethan Hawke) clash with the cohabitants.
Yet as a series of mysterious crashes occur in the neighbourhood, the film seems torn between exploring its Get Out-style racial tensions and mounting CGI-heavy background disasters. When the two strands collide, the movie really starts cooking. Otherwise, it’s mostly on a low simmer, never quite achieving the dread of, say, Take Shelter (2011).
Adapting from Rumaan Alam’s bestseller, Esmail paints a scarily plausible picture of how fast chaos and conflict erupt when our computerreliant systems fail. But endlessly bickering characters stop us caring whether their world ends with a bang or with a whimper.
THE VERDICT Favouring family clashes over fearsome set-pieces, this dystopian drama wins points for ambition, mood and Julia Roberts’ prickly performance.
BAD BEHAVIOUR 15
★★★★★ OUT NOW ICON FILM CHANNEL 5 JANUARY CINEMAS
Actor Alice Englert makes her feature-length filmmaking debut with this tragicomic tale that examines - with mixed results - a singular mother-daughter dynamic. Jennifer Connelly stars as Lucy, a former child star who visits a spiritual retreat (led by Ben Whishaw’s laughably out-of-hisdepth guru) and, after a violent altercation, reconnects with her stunt-performing daughter (Englert), who’s dealing with issues of her own. Both Connelly and Englert deliver admirably committed performances, but the script struggles to satisfyingly resolve several of the threads it introduces.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES 12A
★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS
This Panem-saga prequel shares a nagging issue with Suzanne Collins’ source novel: President Snow’s backstory isn’t as engaging as the plot’s other main strand, in which the 18-year-old Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) mentors Hunger Games tribute Lucy Gray Baird. Making terrific work of the latter’s survivor’s instincts, Rachel Zegler emerges as the film’s core asset. The production design and supporting cast (Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage) also provide chewy pleasures, but the final third struggles to deliver the desired pay-offs.
THE MARVELS 12A
★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS
A follow-up to 2019’s Captain Marvel (by way of Disney+ series WandaVision and Ms. Marvel), the latest addition to the MCU canon struggles to make much sense throughout its relatively brief running time. A lively montage in which our heroes (Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris) harness their powers-based place-swapping reveals the potential of this disjointed mini-Avengers, but is symptomatic of the way Nia DaCosta’s film introduces ideas only to swiftly abandon them. For the most part, there’s a distinct shortage of fun and indeed chemistry - although in a Star Trek-esque subplot, the cats are Flerken great.
SOUND OF FREEDOM 15
★★★★★ OUT 25 DECEMBER DVD, BD, DIGITAL
One of the most successful indies in box-office history (grossing more than $243m globally), Alejandro Monteverde’s mushy melodrama takes us into the world of child trafficking. Jim Caviezel plays Tim Ballard, a real-life Homeland Security agent who embarks on a mission to rescue two Honduran children kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. Costarring Mira Sorvino (as Ballard’s wife) and Bill Camp (his ex-cartel contact), the result may shine a much-needed spotlight on this horrifying network of abuse, but the sickly, sentimental approach unseats any credibility. Decidedly underwhelming.