Selma (12A)
(Ava DuVernay, 2014, US) David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth. 128 mins
With its important civil rights history, impassioned oratory and committed performances, this looks like an Oscar frontrunner, and it plays like one, too – a factor that could ultimately count against it. There is a surfeit of stirring, orchestrally augmented monologuing, it must be said, but it’s a story everyone should know, revealing how strategic, conflicted and political Martin Luther King’s 1965 campaign was and how depressingly relevant it still is.
Shaun The Sheep Movie (U)
(Mark Burton, Richard Starzak, 2015, UK/Fra) 85 mins
Aardman’s gifts for visual slapstick, stop-motion craftsmanship and gentle daftness make this another accessible treat. As with Wallace & Gromit, the scope is cosily colloquial, as Shaun and his flock negotiate the perils of the (not very) big city to retrieve their amnesiac shepherd.
Jupiter Ascending (12A)
(Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, 2015, US) Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne. 127 mins
The rumours and lack of advance screenings do not bode well for this expensive space opera. But spectacle, at least, is guaranteed, in an epic interplanetary power struggle centred on Kunis’s janitor-to-princess Earthling.
The Interview (15)
(Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, 2014, US) James Franco, Seth Rogen, Randall Park, Lizzy Caplan. 112 mins
At last we can see for ourselves how unworthy this movie was of starting a war over. Despite the North Korean assassination plot, there’s little in the way of targeted political satire; more scattershot tomfoolery, mostly aimed at the crotch.
Amour Fou (12A)
(Jessica Hausner, 2014, Aus/Lux/Ger) Christian Friedel, Birte Schnöeink. 94 mins
Hausner punctures the myth of 19th-century romanticism with a wry chamber piece following a self-absorbed poet looking for somebody to commit suicide with.
Still Life (12A)
(Uberto Pasolini, 2014, UK/Ita) Eddie Marsan, Joanne Froggatt, Karen Drury, Andrew Buchan. 92 mins
As he does so often, Marsan carries off an unlikely character: a lonely council worker responsible for tracing relatives of lonely dead people. When his job is axed, the story unfolds somewhat predictably.
The Turning (15)
(Various, 2013, Aus) Rose Byrne, Cate Blanchett. 139 mins
The high-calibre names indicate the esteem in which writer Tim Winton is held in Australia. These 10 short stories (shortened from 18 domestically), set in a fictional coastal town, form a collage of interlocking tales, often raw and emotional.
The Rendlesham UFO Incident (15)
(Daniel Simpson, 2014, UK) Robert Curtis, Danny Shayler, Abbie Salt. 83 mins
Found-footage sci-fi on a shoestring, borrowing heavily from The Blair Witch Project and Monsters in a shaky attempt to put the British UFO site on the map.
Shamitabh (12A)
(R Balki, 2015, Ind) Amitabh Bachchan. 153 mins
Bachchan secretly provides the voice for a mute movie star in this Bollywood satire.
Out from Friday
Love Is Strange Alfred Molina and John Lithgow play a gay couple out of their comfort zone.
Fifty Shades Of Grey Mills & Boon or S&M? The erotic bestseller adaptation finally arrives.
Snow In Paradise An East End hoodlum converts to Islam in Andrew Hulme’s provocative debut.
Coherence A passing comet has strange consequences in this no-budget sci-fi mystery.
Love Is All A century of movie romance distilled into a romantic compilation doc.
Two Night Stand Miles “Whiplash” Teller and Analeigh Tipton overstay their date deadline.
Dancing In Jaffa Doc tackling Israeli-Palestinian divisions via ballroom dancing for kids.
Down Dog Brit comedy revolving around a sex-addicted dad and his son.
The Philadelphia Story Romcom gold with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart.
Fairytale: Story Of The Seven Dwarves German-made kids’ animation.
Coming soon
In two weeks... Feel Jennifer Aniston’s pain in Cake… Experience 70s-styled surrealism in The Duke Of Burgundy…
In three weeks... Richard Gere checks into The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel… Promising British thriller Catch Me Daddy…
In a month... Julianne Moore’s Oscar-nominated Still Alice… Robot dreams in Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie…
