ARRIVAL ★★★★★
Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Nathaly Thibault, Mark O’Brien 12A cert, gen release, 116 min
Adams plays a linguist asked to interpret visiting aliens in a tricky, gorgeous, intellectually satisfying drama from the director of Sicario and Prisoners. The intricacies of Adams’s linguistic researches remain plausible and intriguing throughout. As they progress, Arrival develops an emotional backbeat that becomes properly overwhelming in the final reel. The personal is blended with the intergalactic to singular effect. Adams is committed and nuanced. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score is lovely. Essential. DC Review/Trailer
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN ★★★★★
Directed by Kelly Freon Craig. Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Blake Jenner, Hayden Szeto, Haley Lu Richardson 15A cert, gen release, 99 min
Craig’s splendid directorial debut harks back to John Huges hits such as Sixteen Candles and improves on the formula by adding real-world, dank dialogue. Scooch over Mean Girls: Hormonal strife is seldom this joyous, and the tremendous verbal sparring between Steinfeld and Harrelson brings a modern, post-ironic gloss to the rat-a-tat delivery of Golden Age Hollywood comedy. Atli Örvarsson’s score adds unexpected textures to the mayhem. An unqualified delight. TB Review/Trailer
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM ★★★★
Directed by David Yates. Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Colin Farrell 12A cert, gen release, 133 min
Against the odds, Yates’s spin-off from the Harry Potter series proves to be more coherent and emotionally grounded than any of its predecessors. Redmayne plays a sort of magical naturalist who brings the titular beast to beautifully recreated 1920s New York. Mayhem breaks out. With no real source material to fret over, the film-makers are free to make something fresh of the new film. It zips. It buzzes. And it surges with great performances. DC
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS ★★★★
Directed by Tom Ford. Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor- Johnson, Isla Fisher, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Sheen 16 cert, lim release, 116 min
Ford’s follow-up to A Single Man casts Adams as a neurotic LA gallery owner confronted with a manuscript by an old lover (Gyllenhaal). As she reads, we enter the world of the book: Gyllenhaal doubles up as a young man stuck in noir hell with Shannon’s ailing lawman. The film then evolves into a fascinating, bifurcated shaggy dog story (mostly in a good way). The result is sleek, exciting, clever and just a little empty. TB Review/Trailer
PATERSON ★★★★★
Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Starring Adam Driver, Barry Shabaka Henley 15A, lim release, 118 min
Paterson (Driver) awakens at every day at 6am, eats a bowl of Cheerios and heads out to work. Every day, he composes some poetry on the steering wheel of the bus he drives, exchanges pleasantries with a stressed colleague, then pulls out of the depot. That’s pretty much it. Once again, Jarmusch makes something nuanced of a micro-light story. There are profundities in every syllable Driver delivers. One of Jim’s best. TB Review/Trailer
SULLY ★★★★
Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn, Autumn Reeser, Holt McCallany, Jamey Sheridan 12A cert, gen release, 96 min
Eastwood finds an ideal subject in the story of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Hanks), the pilot who landed a stricken airliner on the Hudson on 2009. It works fine. Hanks wisely eschews his trademark twinkle in favour of furrowed analytics. There will be no high-fiving with First Officer Jeffrey Skiles (Eckhart). The absence of buddyism ensures that the fleeting moments of camaraderie between them feel entirely sincere. Hard to resist. TB
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