Timbuktu (12A)
(Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014, Fra/Mau) Ibrahim Ahmed, Toulou Kiki, Abel Jafri. 96 mins
It’s taken over a year for this insightful drama to reach UK screens, but it’s only become more relevant in that time. Sissako’s film deals with the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, calmly contrasting the cultural richness of a Saharan town with the hardline authoritarianism of its new masters, who ban music and football, coerce women into marriage and dispense arbitrary justice. The tenderness and lyricism Sissako brings to this brutal incursion makes his statement all the more powerful.
San Andreas (12A)
(Brad Peyton, 2015, US) Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Daddario, Carla Gugino. 114 mins
Who can singlehandedly realign America’s tectonic plates when the Big One kicks off? Well, not quite, but The Rock’s rescue pilot/concerned father is in a hard place when this disaster epic brings California crashing down spectacularly.
Danny Collins (15)
(Dan Fogelman, 2015, US) Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Bobby Cannavale. 106 mins
Prompted by a lost letter from John Lennon, Pacino’s sellout rockstar has a change of heart, address and musical direction, which makes for an amiable comedy, and Pacino’s best performance in years.
The Goob (18)
(Guy Myhill, 2014, UK) Liam Walpole, Sienna Guillory, Sean Harris. 85 mins
The landscape of modern-day rural Norfolk (stock-car racing, migrant labour, roadside cafes) is artfully observed in an up-to-date coming-of-age tale that’s stronger on mood than plot.
The Connection (15)
(Cédric Jimenez, 2014, Fra) Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Céline Sallette. 135 mins
As in The French Connection, but in French. This 70s Marseille-set thriller covers similar ground, and a great deal of it, with the two leads on opposites sides of the drug-trafficking game.
Search Party (15)
(Scot Armstrong, 2014, US) Thomas Middleditch, Adam Pally, TJ Miller, Alison Brie. 93 mins
Unfunny, Hangover-like misadventures are wrung out of a wedding-gone-wrong scenario, taking an unsuspecting bachelor party into stereotypically lawless Mexico.
Results (15)
(Andrew Bujalski, 2015, US) Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders, Kevin Corrigan. 105 mins
Pearce and Smulders’s personal trainers prove to be emotionally out of shape when a new client comes into their uptight lives, making for a casually chaotic character comedy.
Man Up (15)
(Ben Palmer, 2015, UK/Fra) Lake Bell, Simon Pegg, Olivia Williams. 88 mins
An accidental blind date for Bell’s terminal singleton yields unexpectedly pleasant results, for her and us, in this charming Brit romcom.
The Dead Lands (15)
(Toa Fraser, 2014, NZ/UK) James Rolleston, Lawrence Makoare, Te Kohe Tuhaka. 105 mins
Tribal warfare in ancient New Zealand makes for a novel revenge fable with moments of bracing action.
Sword Of Vengeance (15)
(Jim Weedon, 2015, UK) Stanley Weber, Annabelle Wallis, Ed Skrein. 85 mins
Low-budget medieval actioner that’s no more remarkable than its title.
Out from Friday
Listen Up Philip Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss head up a literary comedy.
Spy Melissa McCarthy is an unlikely secret agent in this Bond spoof.
Survivor Transatlantic spy thrills with Milla Jovovich.
Black Coal, Thin Ice Chinese noir thriller following a trail of murders in an industrial town.
Insidious Chapter 3 More supernatural shocks in a prequel to the hit series.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films Celebration of 1980s Hollywood’s trashiest producers.
Four Corners South African thriller tracking gang violence in Cape Town.
1971 Documentary on a 1970s citizens’ exposé of the FBI’s reach.
Queen And Country Hope And Glory director John Boorman remembers his National Service days.
Second Coming Idris Elba is perplexed by a modern-day immaculate conception.
Shooting For Socrates Northern Irish drama centred on the 1986 World Cup.
Coming soon
In two weeks… Prehistory repeats itself in Jurassic World… Indonesian genocide doc The Look Of Silence…
In three weeks… Vincent Chase goes feature-length with Entourage… Ian McKellen plays retired sleuth Mr Holmes…
In a month… Michael Fassbender saddles up his horse for western thriller Slow West… Watch out for the Minions…
