Empire UK

VERDICTDoesn’t register emotionally

in the way it strives for but is diverting

as a portrait of the nascent celebrity

industry with fine performances from

Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson.

straight man opposite Dane DeHaan’s

purringadorable James Dean but what

the film does well is show how the line

between star-fucker and fuckee isn’t

a clean one. As erstwhile BBC film

authority Barry Normanonce observed

“All critics are parasites — but parasites

can be useful.” So it goes with journalists

and photographers; there is mutual back-

scratching until one eclipses the other.

Director AntonCorbijn — who

has photographed everyone from

The Rolling Stones to Joy Division

(the subject of his first feature film

Control) — knows all about this of

course. Pattinson’s photographer

adds to the heat around Dean the

sense that he is going to make it big

(although perhaps we dear audience

are supposed to be a little worried

about the actor’s interest in speed —

both literal and pharmaceutical).

What the film doesn’t do is justify

its dwelling on a drama-light quest —

the snapper’s attempt to get the star

to pose for a soul-baring photo shoot

— over virtually all of its running time.

There is only so much time you can

sympathise with a coy pin-up and his

ambitious attendant no matter how

The Visit
★★★
OUT NOW / CERT. 12A / 94 MINS.
DIRECTOR M. Night Shyamalan
CAST Olivia DeJonge Ed Oxenbould
Deanna Dunagan Peter McRobbie

➞ Bloodied but unbroken by his
recent run of big-screen fl ops M. Night
Shyamalan has gone low-budget and
lo-fi. Originally pitched for anthology
series The Night Chronicles The Visit
is the hoot-inducing tale of two siblings
who discover that their grandparents
go berserk after dark. Camcorder horror
has been done to death and Shyamalan
doesn’t fi nd much new to do with the
format. But it’s good to see him gleefully
return to his spooky roots and the last
half hour is a barmy pile-up of shock-
jumps as the movie goes full Blair
Horlicks Project. Decent twist too. NDS

The D Train

★★★

OUTNOW/ CERT. 15 /101 MINS.

DIRECTORSJarrad Paul Andrew Mogel

CASTJack Black James Marsden

Jeffrey Tambor

➞Black dips his toe back in the dark

end with this almost-comedy about a

high-school loser who convinces the

most popular guy in his year — hunky TV

ad star Oliver Lawless (Marsden) — to

return to Pittsburgh with him to impress

his old classmates at their reunion.

There are winning moments — the new

buddies’ distinctive method of bonding

is a highlight — but it’s hard to root for

Black’s Dan whose increasing obsession

with Lawless exposes few qualities bar a

desperate desire to be liked. Marsden’s

uninhibited faux celeb is spot on but

the rest falls short of the mark. KP

Maze Runner:

The Scorch Trials

★★★

OUTNOW/CERT.12A/131 MINS.

DIRECTORWes Ball

CASTDylan O’Brien Kaya Scodelario

Patricia Clarkson Aidan Gillen

➞The first Maze Runner dropped us

right into the action and left us without

resolution beyond our heroes’ escape.

This loose adaptation of the second book

similarly dispenses with such luxuries as

a beginning or end and just races with

Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas and his friends

as they run from the mysterious WCKD

and the genuinely scary zombie-like

Cranks. There are Spielbergian nods

colourful characters and thoughtful

moments amid the mayhem. So while

it’s a woefully incomplete middle chapter

it’s never boring. HOH

DID

YOU

KNOW?

M. Night

Shyamalan

rotates the

posters in

his offi ce.

Currently it is

The Exorcist

Jaws and

Akira

Kurosawa’s

High And

Low.

gifted the performers. If the playfulness

and sensuality of DeHaan were matched

by the fi lm’s pace and composition then

it might sustain such a slight story but

the tone and sense of its own importance

are captured by the title: Life. This

is a movie that is pretty sure it has

Something To Say though isn’t quite

sure What That Is. Though wildly

contrasting in genre and look it brings

to mind another picture about pictures

featuring LIFE magazine: Ben Stiller’s

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. It is

similarly a little too self-regarding

and desperate to move you. The fi lm’s

strength and weakness is captured in

Dean’s train-set story about dealing with

his mother’s death. DeHaan is brilliant

and then brilliant and then brilliant

some more as the scene is stretched for

what feels like the journey. Similarly the

ending reaches for the sky because it

doesn’t quite know where to land.

NEV PIERCE