Film

Six of the best films to see at the cinema this weekend

New movies include Christian Bale in Vice, Clint Eastwood in The Mule and Irish horror film Cellar Door

Power couple: Amy Adams and Christian Bale in Vice

Donald Clarke
Tara Brady
Fri Jan 25 2019 - 05:45

VICE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Adam McKay. Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Jesse Plemons, Lily Rabe, Tyler Perry, LisaGay Hamilton. 15A cert, general release, 132 min
McKay brings the same class of ribald pastiche he used for The Big Short to an examination of Dick Cheney, vice-president under George W Bush (Rockwell). The problem with his approach here is that little of what's being discussed is difficult to understand. We don't need to be talked down to. But Vice is never boring. Bale's performance offers a grand example of what Orson Welles used to call "king acting", while Adams is solid as Lynne Cheney. At least 50 percent of the gags zing home. Full review DC

THE MULE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy Garcia, Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga, Ignacio Serricchio. 15A cert, general release, 117 min

The great man plays a nonagenarian who drives drugs across the US for the Mexical cartels. It's messy and tonally unsure, but there are worse ways of spending your time than watching Clint snarl, shuffle and frown his way through another geriatric meltdown. The other stars appear cowed, as if performing before a personification of the US constitution. Indeed, the whole film seems flattened by the distinction of Eastwood's presence. It scarcely matters that little else is up to scratch. Full/trailer review DC

CELLAR DOOR ★★★☆☆
Directed by Viko Nikci. Starring Karen Hassan, Catherine Walker, Mark O'Halloran, Una Carroll, Ian McElhinney. 15A cert, limited release, 90 min

READ MORE

Interesting, experimental Irish horror that seems to concern a young woman searching for her baby in an institution run by the Catholic Church. Before long, the connecting thread from one sequence to the next gets lost in the creative jumble. Too much of Cellar Door feels like an unstructured juxtaposition of striking sequences. It does, however, come together in its closing minutes and – no small compliment – will repay a second viewing. A cult following awaits. DC

A DOG'S WAY HOME ★★★☆☆
Directed by Charles Martin Smith. Starring Ashley Judd, Jonah Hauer-King, Alexandra Shipp, Wes Studi, Edward James Olmos, voice of Bryce Dallas Howard. PG cert, general release, 96 min

A simple variation on The Incredible Journey (the celebrity-voiced 1993 version, not the gently narrated '63 original), this very American pet tale pivots around Bella, a pitbull puppy who is raised by stray cats and voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard. When Bella is adopted by kindly VA hospital worker Lucas (Hauer-King) and his war veteran mom (Judd), the pooch seems set for life. Even dog-loving viewers may flinch at some of the schmaltz. Just the same, this is a decent family film. TB

COLETTE ★★★★☆
Directed by Wash Westmoreland. Starring Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson, Denise Gough, Aiysha Hart. 15A cert, general release, 112 min

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Knightley) is a pigtailed teenager living in a corner of Burgundy who is not adverse to a roll in the hay with her parents' slick and much older friend Willy (Henry Gauthier-Villars, played by West). It's only after the naive country girl has married and moved to Paris with Willy that she and we come to realise that he's a literary fraud. A womaniser, a bully, and gambler, Willy is reluctant to let the brink of poverty come between him and whoring, so he tells Colette to write a novel. She writes a bucolic tale recalling her childhood. He trashes it and demands a rewrite with a focus on the schoolgirls. The second draft is an overnight sensation, published under Gauthier-Villars's name. It takes a while for Colette to emerge from his shadow, but she does so with gusto in this good looking cradle-to-grave biopic. Full review/trailer TB

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS ★★★☆☆
Directed by Josie Rourke. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, David Tennant, Guy Pearce. 15A cert, generla release, 124 min

Perfectly adequate retelling of Queen Mary's unhappy demise, featuring a determined Ronan as the Scotswoman and a wracked Robbie as her rival Elizabeth I. It's a pretty unimaginative affair with too many baffling diversions from the facts. (Why does Mary, raised in France, speak with a Glaswegian accent?) Still, the pleasures of a classy production with classy performers are not to be wholly dismissed. It's the best Sunday-night telly at the cinema this Friday. Full review/trailer DC

Other ★★★★☆ and ★★★★★ movies out and about: Bohemian Rhapsody, Bumblebee, The Camino Voyage, The Favourite, Free Solo, The Front Runner, Monsters and Men, RBG, Shoplifters, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Stan & Ollie, A Star Is Born