Can You Keep a Secret
Directed by Elise Duran
★★★

AN IN-FLIGHT announcement about “experiencing some slight turbulence” prompts panicking airline passenger Emma into confessing all her innermost secrets to the stranger sitting next to her, including: “I don’t think anyone has ever loved me”

Safely back in New York Emma (a plausibly charming Alexandra Daddari) remains stuck in her dead-end marketing job and a romance with her boyfriend that’s going nowhere , sex aside.

She faces emotional chaos when meeting her company's trendy CEO Jack (Tyler Hoechlin) who, embarrassingly, turns out to be the stranger she confessed all too on the aircraft.

Armed with screenwriter Peter Hutching’s able adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s best-selling novel, which provides well-rounded and unexpectedly credible characters brought enjoyably to life, it’s an unpretentious but charming rom com whose predictable plot features some gratifyingly acid comments on conscience-free US commerce.

Alan Frank

Selah and the Spades
Directed by Tayarisha Poe
★★★★

THE MINEFIELD that is teenage politics, the intoxication of power and the lengths one girl will go to ensure her legacy are central to this thrilling debut feature by Tayarisha Poe.

Set in a prestigious Pennsylvania boarding school run by five student factions, the film follows 17-year-old senior Selah (Lovie Simone, spectacular), head of the most dominant group, the Spades.

She's searching for a worthy successor and when her second-in-command and BFF Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome) becomes distracted by love, she turns her attention to new girl and protege Paloma (Celeste O'Connor), an idealistic buddy photographer.

But, as the latter's confidence grows, so does Selah's reluctance to relinquish power.

Written and directed by Poe, this is a very stylish and edgy exploration of US school life — think Mean Girls meets Clueless with a soupcon of Divergent sprinkled in.

Yet, fresh and relevant, it's in no way derivative and it’s powered home by a phenomenal and relatively unknown cast.

The future certainly looks bright and promising for Poe and her young stars.

Released on Amazon Prime, April 17.

Maria Duarte

Why Don't You Just Die! (18)
Directed by Kirill Sokolov
★★★★

THIS wonderfully stylised and gory Russian slash-fest will have you laughing, crying and wincing, all at the same time.

It centres on young thug Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), who agrees to kill the abusive father Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) of his girlfriend Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde).

Armed with a hammer, he goes to the latter's flat where he is confronted with a hard-nosed detective who won't die quietly. Matvey is almost impossible to kill too, hence Andrey's exclamation: “Why don't you just die!”

The apartment becomes the focal point of a Tarantino-style bloodbath showdown between dubious characters hellbent on revenge.

According to writer-director Kirill Sokolov, this is a very personal story and the inherent violence is a reflection of the realities of life in Russia.

Despite the relentless use of genre tropes and flashy effects, it's a rip-roaring roller-coaster ride and it's not one for the faint hearted.

MD

We Summon the Darkness (15)
Directed by Marc Meyers
★★★

SET against the backdrop of a satanic killing spree in the US Midwest in the summer of 1988, this classic B-horror movie sees three best friends go on a road trip to a heavy-metal music festival.

The girls meet up with three would-be musicians who agree to go back to their place in the middle of nowhere. But things don't go quite according to the lads' plans.

Perhaps unsurprising, as the girls' top honcho (Alexandra Daddario) is the daughter of a radical religious leader (Johnny Knoxville).

It doesn't take rocket science to work out the twists in a film full of the usual horror tropes but, with decent performances and a killer soundtrack, it's surprisingly good fun.

MD

The Kill Team (15)
Directed by Dan Krauss
★★★

BASED on the same real events that inspired Dan Krauss's award-winning 2013 documentary The Kill Team comes this hard-hitting dramatisation of the same story, which begs the question of why the film-maker would want to make another film on the same topic.

Set in 2009 Afghanistan, it centres on a young US soldier Andrew Briggman (Nat Wolff) who becomes morally conflicted when he witnesses his platoon take part in the murder of innocent Afghan civilians under the direction of their leader Sergeant Deeks (Alexander Skarsgard).

When Briggman voices his concerns, Deeks reminds him: “We kill people that's what we do” and when he suspects that the former is about to blow the whistle, he makes his position very clear: “You don't know what right means yet. I have to threaten you for both our sakes.”

While the names of the characters have been changed, the essence of the story hasn't in a complex and nuanced drama. It explores the psychological and emotional turmoil Briggman is plagued with as he battles between doing what is ethically right or keeping quiet and following orders as Deeks tells him that what happens in the camp stays in the camp.

Wolff convinces as the naive and troubled Briggman while Skarsgard delivers a chilling performance as the unpredictable but charismatic Deeks, Briggman's best friend and biggest champion one minute and his worst nightmare the next.

You can't help but empathise with Briggman's moral dilemma as he realises it could cost him his life as the platoon closes ranks.

Krauss's film questions battlefield morality with a knife-edge intensity as it captures the realities of war and it also shows how soldiers are not above the law and actions have consequences as in 2010, when five US soldiers were charged with the premeditated murder of Afghan civilians.

MD