Sorry, Baby ★★★★★
Directed by Eva Victor. Starring Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch, Hetienne Park, ER Fightmaster. 15A cert, gen release, 104 min
Victor, best known for her online videos, move into features with a comedy that dares to treat the aftermath of sexual assault. The director plays a university lecturer processing that trauma as she celebrates her best pal’s pregnancy. Here we have an unmistakable effusion of the contemporary boho set that delights in poking fun at that cadre’s pretensions and delusions. It likes almost all of its characters and – the attacker aside – extracts enormous humour from those it abhors. “There’s a reason, even if I can’t see it, that I’m alive,” the heroine says. Well put. Full review DC
The Life of Chuck ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Mike Flanagan. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill. 15A cert, gen release, 110 min
Ultimately depressing adaptation of a Stephen King novella that begins well with the end of Earth. Ejiofor and Gillan play a former couple trying to stay aloft as the coastlines crumble and technology falters. But who is this Chuck (Hiddleston) who is mysteriously appearing on billboards? All good and surprising. Unfortunately the movie then continues backwards into increasingly mawkish territory as we meet Chuck and learn he is trying to make the best of a shortened life. The sort of supposedly “inspirational” film – actually sentimental and facile – that people press upon blameless friends at parties. Full review DC
RM Block
Eddington ★★★☆☆
Directed by Ari Aster. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Amelie Hoeferle, Clifton Collins jnr. 15A cert, gen release, 149 min
Following on from the divisive sprawl of Beau Is Afraid, Eddington is Ari Aster’s most ambitious swing yet: a political satire, pandemic chronicle and western-themed psychodrama all funnelled into a film that never quite justifies its 149-minute bloat. Phoenix plays a sheriff in a town torn apart during the Covid lockdown. Aster’s gleeful plague on both houses gives way to a lopsided final act. Eddington never recovers from the loss of a major character. And the Rambo-style coda heavily promoted by the film’s marketing campaign feels smugly nihilistic. Full of sound and fury, signifying ... what? Full review TB
Oslo Stories: Sex ★★★★☆
Directed by Dag Johan Haugerud. Starring Jan Gunnar Roise, Thorbjorn Harr, Siri Forberg, Birgitte Larsen, Hadrian Jenum Skaaland, Theo Dahl, Anne Marie Ottersen. No cert, limited release, 125 min
Haugerud’s subtle trilogy has been one the summer’s delights. The final episode to reach is – never mind the title – the talkiest and least erotic instalment of the novelist turned film-maker’s Norwegian triptych. A gentle exploration of masculinity, marriage and sexual orientation, Oslo Stories: Sex unfolds mostly through long, searching conversations between two unnamed Oslo chimney sweeps – a thoughtful, Christian boss (Harr) who has recently started to dream about David Bowie and his oversharing subordinate (Jan Gunnar Roise). Several pleasingly bizarre interludes culminate in a campy song-and-dance number, a fitting spectacle to round off this appealing trilogy. Full review TB
