The Pearl Button (12A)
Directed by Patricio Guzman
3/5
THE spiritual powers of water and the endangered indigenous people of southern Chile are the focus of Chilean film-maker Patricio Guzman’s powerful and poetic sequel to Nostalgia for the Light.
The film’s title references captain Robert Fitzroy, who bought Jemmy Button for a mother of pearl button in 1830 and took him to England to be Christianised and gentrified.
When Button returned home to his old life he never quite fitted in again.
Accompanied by a melodic and hypnotic voice-over by Guzman, there are stunning shots of water and ice taken from every angle in western Patagonia before the film turns to the demise of its indigenous population’s nomadic way of life on Chile’s waters.
Of the five tribes that once lived there just 20 direct descendants remain and Guzman’s interviews with some of these survivors are the heartbreaking core of the film.
They, together with archive footage, provide fascinating insights into their former customs, language and how they travelled vast distances in small canoe-like boats which are now banned.
The film makes the correlation between these indigenous people and the survivors of Pinochet’s brutal regime, revealing how the sea became the dumping ground for the dead victims of fascism.
Such elements make this a complex and thought-provoking documentary which shows both the raw power of nature and the inhumanity despoiling it.
Review by Maria Duarte

Marguerite (15)
Directed by Xavier Giannoli
4/5
THE French have beaten the Brits to the punch with the first of two films out this year about US heiress Florence Foster Jenkins, an aspiring opera singer notorious for singing atrociously.
Inspired by her extraordinary story, Xavier Giannoli’s flamboyant comedy drama is both cruelly funny and moving.
Set in 1920s Paris, it centres on wealthy socialite Marguerite Dumont (Catherine Frot).
Oblivious to the fact she is the worst soprano ever, and encouraged by the sycophants surrounding her, she is determined to sing in public.
Frot gives a virtuoso performance as the sweet and delusional Dumont, whose singing is an affront to the ears.
Her self-belief is impressive and you can empathise with her nearest and dearest’s desire to shield her from the cruel truth.
With Stephen Frears’s film starring Meryl Streep as Foster Jenkins set to be released soon, it’s well worth watching this French gem first.
Review by Maria Duarte

10 Cloverfield Lane (15)
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
5/5
“UNMISSABLE” is an overused critical cliche. But this one-of-a-kind thriller is exactly that.
If you usually go to the cinema to relax, then think again before seeing this.
A riveting three-hander, it is not a sequel to Cloverfield but a surefire stand-alone classic.
An unrelenting and claustrophobic tension sets in after Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) crashes her car and wakes up in a locked cellar as the “guest” of the survivalist Howard (John Goodman). He has saved her life and now claims he is protecting her and handyman Emmett (John Gallagher Jr) from an apocalyptically destroyed world.
Understandably, Michelle tries to escape and Winstead’s performance as she struggles to do so is terrific. Gallagher’s great too but it’s Goodman’s extraordinary portrayal, seamlessly segueing from benevolent saviour to terrifying captor, that is Oscar-worthy.
He creates a classic psychopath who drives a story that has no let-up.
Dan Trachtenberg, whose first feature film grips like a strangler with rigor mortis, deserves all the plaudits he’s going to get for this.
Review by Alan Frank