Dance of Reality (15)
Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
5/5

READERS of the pretentious press instinctively know that subtitled films always win the best reviews.

This week, though, Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s exceptional Spanish-language autobiography is a stand-out winner.

Jodorowsky, making his first film in 23 years, delivers a masterpiece of fantasy which is vividly grounded in truth.

This potent work may be imaginary but we’re told that all the characters, places and events are real. What we see is intriguing and, eventually, revealing and riveting to watch.

The filmmaker was born in Tocopilla, a small coastal town on the edge of the Chilean desert, and shot his film there.

The reality of sun-dried locations is vividly set against his vision of a town populated by amputees, dwarfs, beggars, circus performers and mineworkers who the young Jodorowsky grew up with, along with a mother who sings opera-style instead of speaking and a sadistic father.

His extraordinary life and character emerges in a series of often dreamlike but always emotionally convincing scenes involving, among a kaleidoscope of coalescing themes, communism, love, betrayal, homosexuality and family.

A rare film that genuinely defies synopsis and it calls out to be seen more than once.

Review by Alan Fox

Vacation (15)
Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
2/5

THE HOLLYWOOD money machine again seeks profit from reboots rather than remakes with Vacation.

Last week it was the lifeless Man from U.N.C.L.E.

This week it’s a rude, crude and lewd attempt to cash in on a long-dead original, which finds Rusty and Debbie Griswold (Ed Helms and Christina Applegate) and their young sons suffering a mirthless road trip.

The opening credits, which feature a man with a huge erection and copulating pigs, set the tone of a narrative which sees Griswold attempting to rebond with his cliched family while driving across the US to a theme park.

His wife is exposed as a drunken “slut,” one son learns to talk dirty and avenges himself on his younger brother, a trucker is exposed as a paedophile and the family emerge from a hot spring dip covered in faeces.
A grossly overweight Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo, from the 1993 original turn up. 

Don’t make the same mistake, whatever you do.

Review by Alan Fox

Gemma Bovery (15)
Directed by Anne Fontaine
3/5

FIVE years after starring as Tamara Drewe, Gemma Arterton returns to portray another modern-day version of a literary heroine in this whimsical rom com drama set in France.

Arterton plays Gemma Bovery who moves to the same Normandy village where Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary with her furniture restorer husband Charles (Jason Flemyng).

Local baker and Flaubert aficionado Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) becomes besotted with the British newcomer as he works his way into her life.

Soon he starts seeing life imitating art as Bovery, with her husband away on business so often and the idyllic French country lifestyle wearing thin, is transformed into the archetypical bored housewife. She embarks on a torrid affair with a handsome young aristocrat (Niels Schneider).

Arterton’s earthy and winsome portrayal as Flaubert’s doomed heroine lifts this shallow reworking of his renowned novel into a delightfully entertaining French fancy.

Luchini’s wonderful performance as the obsessive borderline stalker Joubert and his amusing running commentary gives it that “je ne sais quoi.”

Based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, who also penned Tamara Drewe, director and co-writer Anne Fontaine’s film is a delicious souffle of French whimsy with a heightened cinematic depiction of the French countryside and village life which will make you want to move to Normandy.

Arterton puts her ample skills and charm to the test here and the result is a hugely entertaining escapism.

Review by Maria Duarte

Sinister 2 (15)
Directed by Ciaran Foy
3/5

2012’s shocker Sinister was an unexpected hit. So, inevitably, the sequel strikes back as director Ciaran Foy serves up this slick scare-fest.

Back, too, is evil spirit Bughuul (Nicholas King), complete with madness, murderous 16mm films and a legion of ghost kids to do his evil bidding.

Three crucified figures are set on fire and a sleeping youngster suffers nightmares whose horrors turn out to be all too real.

This after the boy’s mother Courtney Collins (Shannyn Sossamon) has taken her nine-year-old twin sons to a rural house in Illinois to escape her violent estranged husband Cline (Lea Coco).

Unfortunately she is unaware that the house is marked for death.

Foy deploys coffins-full of murderous ghosts and frequent unpleasant happenings slickly enough to satisfy horror-film addicts and anyone seeking solid celluloid scares.

And, for cliche fans, the “unexpected” Carrie-style makes-you-jump surprise ending turns up right on cue.

Review by Alan Fox