PARASITE ****
Dir: Bong Joon-ho (15, 132 mins) This brilliant South Korean drama, from the director of The Host and Snowpiercer, defies expectations, blending comedy, horror and caustic social satire to gripping effect. Kim Ki-taek (played by Kang-ho Song) and his family all live in poverty in the slums, where their ramshackle flat is urinated on regularly and none of them have proper jobs. By chance, thanks to a friend, his son inveigles himself into the lives of the upper-class, wealthy Parks, taking over as a tutor to their daughter. The unemployed family then start to occupy other roles in the household – Ki-taek becoming the family driver, his wife the maid and his daughter an art therapist for the younger son, all by cunning subterfuge. Then events start to get darker and darker. To reveal more would reduce the delightful, arcane twists in the film; suffice to say, events lead to violence. Director and writer Bong Joon-ho always subverts genre, but Parasite transcends into a cutting comment on class, wealth and ignorance. The cast are all superb, the Parks blissfully ignorant of the tribulations of the poor and Song as the patriarch of his own struggling family is magnificent, as events become more farcical and tragic. An original, mind-bending and ultimately moving experience. Opens Feb 7
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE ****
Dir Celine Sciamma (15, 121 mins) This 18th-century tale, set on a remote island in Brittany, lingers long in the memory. Noémie Merlant plays Marianne, an artist commissioned to paint Héloïse (played by Adèle Haenel) by her mother in order to secure her daughter’s wedding and her future in a world where women can rarely make their own way. Marianne lives in the shadow of her father’s work and is desperate to create her own artistic voice. What follows is a very slow-burning love story, conveyed through lingering glances and elliptical gestures, as the superb Merlant and Haenel fall for each other under Sciamma’s brilliant direction. When they can finally reveal how they feel about each other, it’s electric and shot from a female gaze – no prurience here. Can their love survive in a society that will not allow it? Writer/ director Sciamma takes a nuanced approach with flawed yet believable characters, and a final scene that will leave you in tears. Superb. Opens Feb 28
THE INVISIBLE MAN ****
Dir: Leigh Whannell (15, 100 mins) A reimagining of the classic novel by H.G. Wells, this stalker thriller rachets up the tension with Elisabeth Moss anchoring the horror brilliantly. She plays Cecilia Kass, a woman trapped in a controlling, abusive relationship with her scientist husband. When she finally decides to leave him, she is told that he has killed himself and she has inherited $5 million if she can prove she is mentally competent. Weird things start happening – objects moving, a feeling of someone in the room – and it ultimately leads to the realisation that her husband can make himself invisible. Naturally, no-one believes her, and her sanity is called into question. Then the abuse steps up and people start getting killed. From the writer of the original Saw Leigh Whannell (who also directs), this is a brisk, efficient thriller that Moss totally sells, battling against doubts about her own mental stability and the disbelief of others. This is the treatment of the old Universal monster movies that feels relevant today; it lifts the genre with a gutsy performance and uses the source material to make a comment on the #MeToo movement and the uphill battle to get allegations of domestic abuse believed. A horror film with a solid point amidst the enjoyable schlock. Opens Feb 28
THE CALL OF THE WILD ***
Dir: Chris Sanders (12A, 101 mins) Jack London’s classic dog-based adventure gets the fully rendered photorealistic animals treatment that made The Lion King look so odd, as Buck, a bighearted canine, finds himself uprooted from California into the Yukon during the 1890 gold rush. A family film that enables a dog to do outrageous stunts via technology, The Call Of The Wild’s VFX still look a little wrong, but the human performances at least add weight. Harrison Ford is on fine form as grumpy gold prospector John Thornton, who has escaped the world in the wastes of Alaska but whose heart begins to thaw when he discovers Buck – a St Bernard/Scotch Collie cross who leads him back to life. Their adventure takes them through rapids, bear attacks and frozen lakes under the direction of experienced animator Chris Sanders, with cameos from Karen Gillan, Dan Stevens and Omar Sy. A picaresque journey proceeds with charm, if you can get past the CGI. Opens Feb 21
UNDERWATER ***
Dir: William Eubank (12A, 95 mins) An alien clone set on the seabed, Underwater does have some effective moments and well-staged action but ultimately feels constrained by its 12A rating. Kristen Stewart plays Norah, a deep-sea engineer who, along with a predictably ragtag group of co-workers, is drilling six miles beneath the ocean. A seismic event wrecks their rig and kills the majority of the crew, leaving Stewart, captain Vincent Cassel, annoying ‘comic’ relief T.J. Miller, brainy scientist Jessica Henwick and John Gallagher Jr. the task of walking out onto the seabed to reach safety in a main drilling station. Obviously, the seismic incident has unleashed something else from geothermic vents and the underwritten characters are confronted by what they were not meant to have unleashed. Sat on the shelf for years, this rips off Alien, down to its unnecessary underpants sequences, but is a competent creature feature with the occasional flourish. Opens Feb 7
Extreme filmmaker Takashi Miike goes romantic in this violent tale of a boxer and a call girl. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (PG) Finally the video game superstar gets his own film. Weirdly animated and with a gurning Jim Carrey on villain duties. Erm… LIKE A BOSS (15) Limp business comedy seemingly parachuted in from the 80s starring Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne battling against Salma Hayek for little reward. LITTLE JOE (15) Genuinely unsettling drama as a happy plant is cultivated by doctors Emily Beecham and Ben Whishaw which has mind-altering capabilities. Gets under your skin. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG (18) Strong crime western drama set in 1870s Australia based on fact as Ned Kelly goes on the run with his gang with bloody consequences. George MacKay (excellent in 1917) shines in the lead here too. BUZZ 33