A Bread Factory, Part One: For the Sake of Gold
Directed by Patrick Wang
★★★

COMPRISING of a cornucopia of different visual styles and forms, this epic drama from US indie film-maker Patrick Wang is a surreal David v Goliath tale best met with an open mind.

The first in a mini-series of Wang’s work being released in Britain for the very first time, it follows the sudden fight for a small community arts centre’s survival, which Dorothea (Tyne Daly on fine form) and Greta (Elisabeth Henry) have been running for the last 40 years.

The Bread Factory’s funding and future are being threatened by a much larger complex being built down the road, in their fictional town of Checkford, New York.

The political machinations of the local school board, its members’ greed and personal interests, are explored during a series of bizarre vignettes involving oddball characters. A slow-burning drama which finally finds its compelling feet in the final act. 

MD

In cinemas 

A Bread Factory, Part Two: Walk With Me a While
Directed by Patrick Wang
★★★

PICKING up more or less where Patrick Wang’s first film left off, Checkford has not been the same since the last school board meeting when — spoiler alert — The Bread Factory was saved. 

The reporter who runs the local newspaper has mysteriously disappeared and the town is being overrun by bizarre tourists who keep bursting into song and creepy tech start-up workers who weirdly tap dance at inopportune moments, while texting.

It is another bonkers and visually arresting ride from writer-director Wang, intercut with rehearsals for a production of Hercuba by Euripides, being staged at The Bread Factory by Dorothea (Tyne Daly) and Greta (Elisabeth Henry).

The weirdness, which also includes an estate agents’ chorus, reaches new heights when in one scene the tourists and the tech workers sing and tap dance together at the local diner. Strangely compelling, but an acquired taste. 

MD 

In cinemas 

Dog (12A)
Directed by Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin
★★★★

DESPITE a Covid-delayed release, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped back in time to 2007 with this back-to-basics “man and dog” vehicle from Channing Tatum.

Though Dog — which would have felt right at home during its star’s fighting era — does at least benefit from joining an imagined box-set of contemporary cinematic companions such as Cow, Lamb, and Nicolas Cage’s Pig.

Dog would at least be the most cheerful and breezy of the bunch. Its simplistic story — reportedly inspired by Tatum’s relationship with his dog and, one assumes, his time filming G.I. Joe — following the Jump Street vet(eran) as a down-on-his-luck ex-soldier given a shot to get back in the fight in exchange for transporting an unruly military dog to her handler’s funeral.

Predictable not just to anybody who’s seen the trailer, but to anybody with experience of watching a feature film, Dog somehow manages to wring just enough lantern-jawed charm out of its time-tested tale to send an audience home happy.

Tatum, it appears, is well aware of this, bringing his not inconsiderable charms — in front of and, as producer and co-director, behind the camera — to bear on quite a rote but undeniably endearing bout of cinematic dogging.

Van Connor 

In cinemas 

Here Before (15)
Directed by Stacey Gregg
★★★★

NOT to be confused with Clint Eastwood’s mortality mediation Hereafter, Andrea Riseborough brings out her lip-quivering best for Stacey Gregg’s subdued supernatural spine-chiller, Here Before.

Gregg’s feature directorial debut (which he also pens) sees Riseborough as the grieving Northern Irish mother who comes to suspect her new neighbour’s 10-year-old girl might just be the reincarnation of her own deceased daughter.

As the concept for a supernaturally tinged dramatic thriller, it’s admittedly far from the most original; but what sets Here Before apart from its legion of imitators is Riseborough’s central performance. 

Always the game performer in a league of her own, Riseborough delves deep into the emotional turmoil of lead Laura — the resulting psychological carnage making for essential viewing as she fights tooth and nail for the daughter she believed was taken from her.

Gregg meanwhile bolsters this with a striking fusion of aesthetic and atmosphere — his slowly tightening tale amped immeasurably by Chloe Thomson’s captivating photography and an eerily affecting score from Adam Bzowski.

A gritty approach to something easy to imagine as a more heightened Clare Foy thriller, Here Before makes for a jostling emotional ride.

VC

In cinemas