Black Bag ★★★★☆
Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, Pierce Brosnan. 15A cert, gen release, 94 min
Relentlessly stylish espionage thriller that eschews action for verbal duels. Fassbender and Blanchett play husband and wife, British agents on the hunt for a mole at the top of their service. Could it be one of those two? Black Bag addresses Soderbergh’s unending addiction to the pop iconography of the 1960s. The technology, the architecture and the clothes are very much of the moment. But this class of conversational cruelty has never been so in fashion as it was in that odd postwar renaissance. Some may find it a tad too arch. Soderbergh aficionados will be in heaven. Full review DC
Sister Midnight ★★★★☆
Directed by Karan Kandhari. Starring Radhika Apte, Ashok Pathak, Chhaya Kadam, Smita Tambe. 15A cert, gen release, 107 min
Hugely imaginative comedy starring Apte as an Indian woman drifting into surreal madness after an arranged marriage. Kandhari’s repeated flat compositions cannot, though derived from Buster Keaton, fail to remind the viewer of Wes Anderson. There is something of that director’s adjacency to the antic surreal here also. But the British-Indian filmmaker’s feature debut nonetheless remains endlessly refreshing throughout. So joyous and inventive is each individual scene that it proves easy to disregard the ambling lack of plot. The actors grasp the singular aesthetic with glee. It also has the best goats of the season. Full review DC
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Opus ★★★☆☆
Directed by Mark Anthony Green. Starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder. 15A cert, gen release, 103 min
The messianic fervour around pop stars is the barndoor target of writer-director Green’s inventive, frustrating horror debut. Edebiri is Ariel, an overlooked Girl Friday and unlikely invitee to the compound of reclusive pop star Moretti (Malkovich) for the launch of his first album in 30 years. Things rapidly turn weird. Malkovich – no better man –makes for a gregarious and creepy nutjob. His hip-thrusting alone is worth the admission price. Released under the voguish A24 banner, Opus is, however, less than the sum of its parts. Too much expository blah blah. Full review TB
The Electric State ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate. Netflix, 128 min
Humanity (again) finds itself in trouble after a battle with the robots. Netflix spent $320 million on this woebegotten actioner from the Russos, who worked for more than seven years bringing this to the screen. They need not have troubled themselves on our account. Unlike the similarly pricey Joker: Folie à Deux, you can see where the Avengers filmmakers spent the money. There are CGI bells and whistles, celebrity-voiced automata, and Chris Pratt throwing Chris Pratt shapes. But The wide-eyed Spielbergian magic the film strives for is not part of the Russos repertoire. Full review TB
