DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD 18
Safety-video games…
★★★★★ OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS
A near-three-hour dark comedy about a frazzled production assistant interviewing candidates for a workplace safety video might not sound like many cinemagoers’ idea of a good time. Throw in a cameo from controversial filmmaker Uwe Boll, nods to the repellent Andrew Tate and inserts of 1981 social-realist drama Angela Goes On, and Radu Jude’s latest might seem an avant-garde provocation too far. But this restlessly inventive and scabrously funny film taps into universal and relatable truths.
When she’s not delivering tirades at fellow road users or making X-rated clips as Tatesatirising TikTok alter-ego Bobita, Ilinca Manolache’s Angela proves that she’s as smart as she is cynical – notably when she’s running rings around Nina Hoss’ entertainingly aloof exec.
Jude boldly flips from gritty black-and-white to colour for the tragicomic third act: a static long shot depicting the filming of the video that grows ever more hilarious and exasperating. With Manolache relegated to the sidelines, some of the film’s spark is lost. But its critique of corporate culture comes through as loudly as Angela’s potty-mouthed rants.
THE VERDICT Expect plenty from this surprising and twistedly funny film – and to hear more from its spellbinding star.
THE INVENTOR PG
★★★★★ OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS
Stephen Fry plays Leonardo da Vinci in this modestly engaging whistlestop(-motion) tour of the Renaissance man’s life and work. Also featuring the voices of Daisy Ridley (sidekick Marguerite de Navarre), Marion Cotillard (patron Louise de Savoy) and Matt Berry (the Pope), its somewhat meagre story documents da Vinci’s quest to uncover the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Written/ directed by Ratatouille scripter Jim Capobianco (and co-helmed by Pierre-Luc Granjon), it’s nothing groundbreaking, but its visuals (using puppetry and traditional 2D animation) and gentle humour frequently charm.
DRIVING MUM 12A
★★★★★ OUT 1 MARCH CINEMAS
Iceland’s Hilmar Oddsson puts the dead into deadpan with this marvellously mordant B&W comedy. When Jon’s (Pröstur Leó Gunnarsson) mum passes away, she isn’t any less truculent in death than life. Duly, he honours her demand to drive her body – glassy-eyed in the backseat – to her childhood village for burial. And slowly, surely, Jon learns to reconnect with the world. Against beautifully framed landscapes, an elegantly droll coming-of-middleage road movie emerges, shot through with flashes of dawning life: the Yes Sir, I Can Boogie karaoke scene is a particular treat.
FOUR DAUGHTERS 12A
★★★★★ OUT 1 MARCH CINEMAS
Writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania’s fascinating Oscarnominated documentary relates the story of Tunisian woman Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, two of whom fled to Libya in 2015 to join Islamic State. Shooting in a disused Tunis hotel, Hania experiments boldly with form, using first-person testimony from Olfa and her two younger children, rehearsals with actors playing the mother and the absent older siblings, and filmed reenactments of family memories. What’s revealed is a cycle of suffering in which traumatic experiences are tragically passed from generation to generation.
THE NEW BOY TBC
★★★★★ OUT 15 MARCH CINEMAS
Heavy on symbolic imagery, light on plot, writer/director Warwick Thornton’s (Sweet Country) drama follows a nameless Aboriginal boy (newcomer Aswan Reid) as he’s brought to an outback mission run by Cate Blanchett’s troubled nun. Wilful and near-silent, he’s treated with curiosity, before suspicion and fear creep in as he’s revealed to possess strange – possibly divine – powers. More a loose collection of scenes than a cohesive narrative, it’s still an enveloping audiovisual experience, with Thornton’s gorgeous lensing almost matched by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ expressive score.