The Ballad of Wallis Island ★★★★☆
Directed by James Griffiths. Starring Tim Key, Tom Basden, Sian Clifford, Akemnji Ndifornyen, Carey Mulligan. PG cert, gen release, 100 min
A lottery winner (Key) hires his favourite musician (Basden) to play on a remote island. The singer’s former bandmate (Mulligan) turns up to cause quiet mayhem. If John Carney allowed the regulars from a Richard Osman-hosted game show to ad-lib through one of his low-key musicals, it might play like The Ballad of Wallis Island – a little movie that could. A hot ticket at Sundance, the film has already garnered a cult following and a champion in Richard Curtis, who called it “one of the best British films of all time”. Full review TB
Along Came Love/Le Temps d’Aimer ★★★★☆
Directed by Katell Quillévéré. Starring Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Hélios Karyo, Morgan Bailey, Josse Capet, Paul Beaurepaire. Limited release, 125 min
This diverting French melodrama – spanning decades of postwar French life – follows a single-mother, ostracised after impregnation by a German officer, as she finds a kind of comfort with a sexually conflicted intellectual. Neither principal seems certain how much affection their character feels for the other in this necessarily compromised marriage. But the film does eventually find balance and power in later sections that confront the miseries into which different classes of ostracization have forced both. The film has important things to say – implicitly for the most part – about the unjust expectations placed on women in French society. Full review DC
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The Salt Path ★★★☆☆
Directed by Marianne Elliott. Starring Jason Isaacs, Gillian Anderson, James Lance, Hermione Norris. 12A cert, gen release, 115 min
Marianne Elliott, a respected theatre director, propels Anderson and Isaacs – as a couple simultaneously enduring destitution and serious illness – across the English west country in an attractive, if insufficiently varied, translation of a popular 2018 memoir by Raynor Winn. One does yearn for a little more narrative juice. Hélène Louvart’s cinematography is lovely. Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s adaptation provides some salty dialogue. But the The Salt Path is as committed to travelling unyieldingly in one direction as are its compelling characters. We never quite understand what persuades them to walk the entire South West Coastal Path. Full review DC
Karate Kid: Legends ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Jonathan Entwistle, PG cert, 94 min. Starring Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen
Li Fong (Wang), a kung fu prodigy, relocates from Beijing to New York City with his doctor mother. You can practically hear the corporate chatter as Karate Kid: Legends spreadeagles across the 1984 martial-arts drama; the reboot from 2010; Netflix spin-off Cobra Kai; and The Karate Kid Part III. The blatant product placements (Pepsi, Cheez-Its) amplify the sound of shill. Neither as fun as the early seasons of the Netflix show nor as effective as the retooling, this makeweight relies heavily on franchise favourites while bringing nothing new to the party. Full review TB
