ARTS 31
10 August 2019 THE WEEKFilmAnimalsis a“dark, comedic drama” about female
friendship that “should delight anyone who watches
it”, said Greer McNally in Time Out. It’sakind of
female version ofWithnail and I,with atouch of
Trainspotting.Holliday Grainger’s heroine aspires
to beanovelist, but spends too much time getting
wasted with her chaotic, charismatic best friend
(Alia Shawkat) to ever write anything–and their
30th birthdays are looming. An adaptation of Emma
Jane Unsworth’s “visceral” novel, the film moves the
action, for no good reason, from Manchester to
Dublin, said Kevin Maher in The Times. The book’s
sensitive interior voice has gone, and instead “we are treated to endless scenes of our protagonists
downing cheap wine”. Some of the “wisecracking dialogue” falls “a bit flat”, said Peter Bradshaw
in The Guardian, yet the movie is kept upright by “the steely core” of Grainger’s excellent
performance. Both the leads are terrific, said Beth Webb in Empire. “Animalsis apassionately
performed film about women baring their flaws and still being not just likeable, but loveable.”
That’s something that too “rarely makes it to the screen”, and when it does, it should be applauded.Animals
Dir: Sophie Hyde
1hr 49mins (15)AfemaleWithnail and I★★★★This spin-off from the high-octaneFast&Furious
franchise is “unexpectedly fun”, said Peter Bradshaw
in The Guardian. The plot sees the eponymous
muscle-bound Hobbs and Shaw (Dwayne Johnson
and Jason Statham) teaming up, despite their mutual
dislike, to combatacyber-enhanced bad guy, played
by Idris Elba. Along the way, they receive help from
Shaw’s hard-bitten cockney mum (Helen Mirren)
and kick-ass secret agent sister (Vanessa Kirby). It’s
brainless, but is “cheerfully silly”. Brainless is right,
said David Sims in The Atlantic. This steroidal James
Bond clone is even faster and more furious than the
“lunkheaded” car-chase movies from which it was spun off. But its two “genuinely compelling”
leading men seem to be on autopilot, “dispensing swift kicks and crude bon mots with bored
efficiency”. Overall, this isa“barely adequate sequel, zooming into theatres on the sheer force of
name recognition, and vanishing from memory just as quickly”.Hobbs&Shawfeatures “two or
three genuinely fantastic action sequences”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. But witharunning
time of two-and-a-quarter hours, getting from one to the next starts to feel likeabit of “a slog”.Fast &Furious:
Hobbs &Shaw
Dir: David Leitch
2hrs 16mins (12A)Cheerfully silly action film
with Dwayne Johnson
★★
This debut feature from Swedish director Isabella
Eklöf containsa“harrowing, nearly unwatchable”
rape scene, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. Yet I’ve
now watched the film three times, and “admired it
more with each viewing”. In this “pitiless study” of
the life ofatrophy girlfriend, the heroine (Victoria
Carmen Sonne) isablank-eyed, self-involved moll
who joins her gangster boyfriend (Lai Yde) in his
glittering holiday villa on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
There he treats her as his personal possession, and
brutally punishes the smallest perceived transgression.
So when she catches the eye ofahandsome yacht
owner, it lights the touch paper for an explosive finale. The film takes its time, but when the violence
comes it’s grisly and mesmerising, said Ian Freer in Empire. This “striking” debut raises “burning
questions about control and consent”. It’s not clear, though, if it has any answers, said Peter
Bradshaw in The Guardian. The danger is that it merely fetishises sexual violence, without shedding
much light on it. Even so, there’s “no doubting the verve and style of Eklöf’s film-making”.Holiday
Dir: Isabella Eklöf
1hr 32mins (18)Violent study of a
gangster’s moll★★★
Photographis a“nuanced, tender” romantic comedy
about two people you might actually “want to see get
together”, said Ian Freer in Empire. In Mumbai,ashy
street photographer (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is under
pressure from his grandmother (Farrukh Jaffar) to
get married. One day, he takesachance snap of a
winsome student (Sanya Malhotra), and posts it to
his granny, telling her they’re engaged. When the old
woman comes to stay, our hero must produce his
“fiancée” to keep up the deceit. Ritesh Batra’s film
has charm “by the boatload”, said Nigel Andrews in
the Financial Times. The two main performances are
touching; Jaffar plays the grandmother “with cranky fizz and then some”; and the camerawork is
fabulous. “But the script wanders likeathing distracted.” And the action is “slow, slow–sovery
slooooooow”, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator.Ilike non-action films, but “here the longueurs
have longueurs which, in turn, have longueurs”. The romance is conducted largely in looks and near-
silence. “I wanted to shake them all and implore: ‘For God’s sake, just say or do something!’”Photograph
Dir: Ritesh Batra
1hr 49mins (15)Slow-moving
Indian romance