WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Olivia Newman. Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer Jr, David Strathairn, Jayson Warner Smith. 15A cert, gen release, 125 min
Largely awful version of Delia Owens’s novel concerning a rural wild child (Edgar-Jones) charged with murder by the intolerant citizens of North Carolina town. As the trial progresses we flashback to her difficult upbringing and early love affairs. Those hoping for Carson McCullers reimagined by Foghorn Leghorn are in for disappointment. Box-fresh and laundered to a fault, the blandly attractive characters spend their time wandering along shorelines as if in an evasive American television commercial for prescription incontinence medicine. There is not a rough angle in the piece. Oh for a nugget of southern-fried gothic. Full review DC
ROBUST ★★★★☆
Directed by Constance Meyer. Starring Gérard Depardieu, Déborah Lukumuena, Lucas Mortier, Megan Northam, Florence Janas. Limited release, 95 min
The filmmakers have here made the extraordinarily brave decision to cast Gérard Depardieu as an overweight, difficult film star with a habit of blundering in where he is not wanted. The story kicks off with Aïssa (Lukumuena, excellent), a patient young black woman, being appointed as his driver, bodyguard and general factotum. The film’s refusal to wheel out the familiar tropes of the mismatched-couple flick may leave some viewers disappointed. But it does come to a satisfactory conclusion that invites Depardieu to deliver a flamboyantly self-pitying monologue. Twice. He grasps the opportunity with indecent relish. DC
NOTRE DAME ON FIRE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Starring Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikaël Chirinian, Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Élodie Navarre. Limited release, 110 min
Annaud dramatises the 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral that collapsed the 13th-century building’s spire. The film, scripted by the director and his regular co-writer Thomas Bidegain, preserves a ripped-from-the-headlines feel with a series of carefully curated archival clips, rolling news commentary, and an appearance by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, playing herself. The urgency of the project ironically detracts from the drama. The story is simply too recent and too fresh to yield any surprises on the big screen. TB
KURT VONNEGUT: UNSTUCK IN TIME ★★★☆☆
Directed by Robert B Weide and Don Argott. Featuring Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Edie Vonnegut, Nancy Vonnegut. Limited release, 127 min
Filmed over 30 years, this extensive yet scattershot documentary portrait of a unique literary great has many scenes to recommend. As co-director Robert Weide concedes from the start, the sprawling production schedule and the friendship borne from the same rules out any possibility of a conventional biopic with a runtime less than, say, that of Fassbinder’s 894-minute Berlin Alexanderplatz. Taking cues from Vonnegut’s countercultural classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Unstuck in Time jumps between periods and themes, using the friendship between the director and his subject as an anchor. Some Stockholm syndrome sets in. But Weide remains an engaging guide. TB
