DEATH ON THE NILE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Emma Mackey, Annette Bening, Tom Bateman, Ali Fazal, Russell Brand, Sophie Okonedo, Letitia Wright, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders. 12A cert, gen release, 127 min
Branagh's follow-up to Murder on the Orient Express finds Poirot encountering (what else?) murder among vacationing socialites. It's been a struggle to get here from the filming in 2019. Covid. Gal Gadot's Imagine video. The serious abuse allegations against Armie Hammer. Yet, for all the problems here, Death on the Nile is more successful than Orient Express. The action is livelier. The humour is sharper. The cast seem more energised. Death on the Nile remains the sort of harmlessly enjoyable entertainment they used to make when… well, way back when they made this film. Full review DC
FLEE ★★★★☆
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Featuring Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh, Milad Eskandari, Belal Faiz. 15A cert, limited release, 90 min
Fascinating, heavily Oscar-nominated documentary uses animation to tell the story of Amin, an Afghan refugee to Copenhagen. The director and the pseudonymous subject have known each other for many years; the animation works to protect Amin's identity and allows for the dramatisation of events he is reluctant to speak of. There are obvious parallels between this and such similarly constructed animations as Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir, although Flee's rugged lines are never as polished as anything found in that film. The sense of catharsis and the heartfelt voiceover, however, offset the roughhewn aesthetics. Full review TB
THE DANCE ★★★★☆
Directed by Pat Collins. Featuring Michael Keegan-Dolan. 12A cert, limited release, 87 min
It says something about Pat Collins's typically bracing documentary that viewers – if they have not been lucky enough to catch Michael Keegan-Dolan's Mám in the flesh – will be left yearning to see more of the ecstatically received dance piece. Collins begins with shots of the finished production and then takes us back to weeks of rehearsal on the Dingle peninsula. The sessions occasionally take on the flavour of therapy. "You support one another in the collective journey," the cast are told. At least one dancer is consoled after bursting into tears. But something extraordinary gradually emerges. Full review DC
WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY ★★★★☆
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Starring Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Katsuki Mori, Shouma Kai, Fusako Urabe, Aoba Kawai. Limited release, 121 min
Romantic anthology from the director of Drive My Car. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is not quite the equal of the director's current Oscar contender. Both films, however, share a deceptively languid pacing and find an aching humanity in middle-class people in crisis. The first story involves confusion in a taxi. The second and weakest section concerns a student who persuades his lover to partake in a honey trap for the professor who flunked him. The final and most satisfying tale takes place in a world where an internet virus has wiped out everyday interconnectivity. Full review TB
