A Monster Calls (12A), directed by JA Bayona

5/5

RANGING from The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters to Pete’s Dragon, Willow and the BFG, boy meets monster is an enduring cinema staple.

So, with A Monster Calls, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s nothing new here.

But you’d be wrong for, as director JA Bayona says, “this is an adventure that anyone can relate to.”

Armed with Patrick Ness’s screenplay from his much-admired novel about a young boy desperately battling to come to terms with his mother’s illness, and blessed with an impeccable cast, Bayona brings the writer’s vision brilliantly to life.

In it, a repetitive nightmare about a gigantic hole that opens in the grounds of a local church torments 12-year-old Conor (the magnificent Lewis MacDougall).

Days are little better. He cannot accept that his mother (Felicity Jones) may never recover, he’s at loggerheads with his frosty grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) and is constantly being bullied at school.

Then things become even worse when the eponymous monster, a giant humanoid yew tree voiced by Liam Neeson, bizarrely comes to life in his dreams and tells Conor that he’s come to get him.

The monster invades his nightmares night after night to tell Conor three fantasy stories that vividly illuminate his plight, a bizarre process that ultimately helps heal the boy, even after being forced to live with his grandmother.

The blend of the real-life pain Conor suffers and the unique fantasy worlds created in the monster’s pungent fairy tales could not be more movingly balanced between agony and laughter or more emotionally true.

McDougall, Young, Weaver, Tony Kebbell as Conor’s divorced father, Neeson and all involved have created a heartrendingly true, unmissable masterpiece.

It’s a pleasure from start to finish and, if you see only one film this year, make it this one.

ROUND-UP

Operation Chromite (15), directed by John H Lee

3/5

THE 1950 Battle of Inchon was an amphibious Korean war invasion, resulting in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favour of the United Nations.

In this visually impressive version film version of the battle, purportedly inspired by true events, the invasion is seen as a turning point in the Korean war. It patently reflects events from a South Korean perspective.

Liam Neeson, as hard-headed US general Douglas MacArthur, give his all to the role of the US commander of South Korean and UN troops, to the extent where he’s accused at one stage of playing tough guy to facilitate another attempt to become US President.

Key roles, however, go to the Korean actors playing members of the South Korean navy special forces who facilitated the US invasion.

If you’ve no quibbles about historical accuracy, the vividly staged combat action and innate suspense might be right up your street.

AF

Uncle Howard (15), directed by Aaron Brookman

4/5

NEW YORK-BORN Howard Brookman was undoubtedly best known for 1983’s Burroughs: The Movie, a deservedly praised documentary about the beat poet.

His sadly short career yielded one more documentary — 1987’s Robin Wilson and the Civil Wars — and his first and only feature Bloodhounds of Broadway, made two years later when he was dying of Aids.

Four years ago his nephew Aaron started searching for his uncle’s “treasury” of unseen footage and discovered “a wealth of history,” says Jim Jarmusch Brookman’s sound man on Burroughs: The Movie and executive producer here.

Using this treasure trove, key interviews and other absorbing material from the film-maker’s life and career, Brookman creates a fascinating portrait of his uncle’s life and career and also, in context, of New York’s gay scene of the period. It culminates in Howard’s race against time to complete making Bloodhounds of Broadway.

AF

Ballerina (U), directed by Eric Summer and Eric Warin

3/5

NEVER give up on your dreams is the poignant mantra of this charming animated feature about a young orphan girl who runs away to Paris to become a ballerina.

Set in 1879 France, it has Felicie (Elle Fanning) and her best friend Victor (Dane DeHaan) escaping from an orphanage so that she can pursue her dream of becoming a dancer at the world’s best ballet school in the French capital and he can become an inventor.

The driven Felicie goes to extraordinary lengths to get into the school, including impersonating a would-be pupil. Even though it is Camille (Maddie Ziegler), an odious and spoilt rich brat, the ends do not justify the menas and certainly not when it is a case of identity fraud.

The film portrays the ruthlessness of the ballet world and the relentless hard work that it takes to become a great ballerina — though why Felicie wears denim shorts in 19th-century Paris is a mystery.

But it will delight young girls and there are enough colourful characters and action to appeal to boys too.

MARIA DUARTE

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12A), directed by Gareth Edwards

3/5

AFTER confusing Star Wars prequels and sequels comes the first stand-alone film set in a galaxy far, far away. It’s a much darker and murkier affair as it explores the rise of fascism and the moral workings of the Rebellion.

Essentially about ordinary people fighting back to the bitter end, Rogue One brings the Star Wars franchise back full circle.

Set just before the original 1977 Star Wars: Episode IV, nothing is black or white here but many shades of grey as the good guys are seen making ethically ambiguous decisions for the greater good.

Despite the political nuances, there are enough ties to the Star Wars mythology to keep die-hard fans in a fit of ecstatic frenzy. Of course, that includes the light relief in the form of a wisecracking and sarcastic robot, K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk).

Felicity Jones, more a cross between Rey and Han Solo than Princess Leia, makes a worthy tough heroine as Jyn Esro. She transforms from someone living on her wits to a key player in the resistance and the fight against the Empire.

She leads a band of unlikely heroes on a mission to steal the plans of the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of mass destruction, which her father (Mads Mikkelsen on stoic form) was coerced to help build after being captured by the evil Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) 15 years earlier. Esro has been raised by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who left the Rebellion to form a militant splinter group — something that is never fully examined.

British director Gareth Edwards delivers a visually spectacular and action-packed spinoff, with the battle scenes stunning in IMAX 3D, though they’re a tad too fast, furious and repetitive.

But one of the film’s jaw-dropping delights is the resurrection of a certain character which is solely down to the technological advances in digital effects.

MD