Capernaum (15)
Directed by Nadine Labaki
★★★★★
 

A 12-year-old boy, jailed for a violent stabbing, sues his parents for giving him life and not living up to their parental responsibilities in this powerful and complex Oscar-nominated Lebanese drama about child neglect, abuse and poverty which makes a compelling case as to why some people should never have children.

Through the candid eyes of the charismatic Zain (Zain Al Rafeea who is a Syrian refugee himself) who survives by his resourceful wits and skills, the film also explores the plight of illegal immigrants, racism and the importance of being documented and counted in Lebanon.

Disgusted that his heartless parents are marrying off his 11-year-old sister Sahar (Haita “Cedra” Izzam) to a man who is more than twice her age so they can continue to live rent-free in their hovel of a home with his numerous siblings Zain runs away and befriends an Ethiopian refugee Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) and her baby son, Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole).

Director and co-writer Nadine Labaki struck gold with her non-professional cast, whose on-screen characters’ lives parallel their own — and she uncovered a hidden gem in Al Rafeea who steals the film with his captivating performance. His innocent demeanour belies his soulful eyes which convey a multitude of emotions and thoughts in just one stare.

Labaki seamlessly intercuts the courtroom scenes with the heartbreaking flashbacks of Zain’s life and how he came to end up in court chained up. It is heartwrenching and difficult to watch at times but it is utterly gripping and the inhumanity is tempered by the sweet and touching scenes between Zain and Yonas.

Capernaum is a stunning piece of thought-provoking cinema and when Zain appeals to the judge to stop his parents having more kids. Hear hear I say.

Fighting With My Family (12A)
Directed by Stephen Merchant
★★★★★

Stephen Merchant and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson teamed up to deliver a knockout punch with this heartwarming comedy based on the incredible true story of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) star Paige and her wrestling family from Norwich.

In 2012 while filming Fast and Furious 6 in London Johnson, unable to sleep, watched a Channel 4 documentary about a teenage girl and her wrestling-obsessed parents and brother and how she won a a trip to the US to compete in the WWE. Johnson saw its cinematic possibilities and the rest as they say is history.

Florence Pugh delivers another standout performance as Saraya Knight aka Paige opposite a phenomenal Jack Lowden as her competitive brother Zak and Lena Headey and Nick Frost on bonkers form as her outrageous parents. Strangely, their real-life counterparts are even more colourful and over the top.

Written, directed and starring Merchant this is an extraordinary underdog tale about sibling love and rivalry, pursuing your dreams and a family’s love of wrestling. It also features a memorable cameo by Johnson who produced the film.

It is as funny as it is heartbreaking and poignant and will put Norwich on the map.

Old Boys (12A)
Directed by Toby MacDonald
★★★

This quirky reworking of the Cyrano de Bergerac story is set in an all-boys private boarding school in 1980s England in which a geeky scholarship student helps the school’s handsome but dim-witted sports hero woo the new French teacher’s daughter.

Toby MacDonald’s impressive debut feature is a slick and stylish comedy of errors which captures wonderfully the heartbreak and thrills of first (and unrequited) love while portraying the horrors of boarding school life (ie the bullying, the hazing and elitism).

Alex Lawther gives a sterling performance as the socially awkward but artistically creative Amberson while Jonah Hauer-King makes a very convincing pretty but dumb Winchester.

Their blossoming friendship provides the film’s emotional core.

Pauline Etienne is perfect as the passionate and feisty Agnes who rocks Amberson’s world.

Full of odd characters and striking a surreal tone Old Boys is a surprisingly bittersweet captivating ride.
 

On the Basis of Sex (15)
Directed by Mimi Leder
★★★★

Struggling attorney and young mother Ruth Bader Ginsburg valiantly opposes the male-dominated US legal system in a radical battle for equal rights for women in director Mimi Leder’s surprisingly persuasive biopic.

Recently the superlative documentary RBG charted Ginsburg’s rise and rise all the way up to US Supreme Court Justice.

Here Leder, armed with Ginsburg’s nephew Daniel Stapleton’s “inspired by a true story” screenplay, focuses on her subject’s early triumph when, teaming up with her lawyer husband Martin, Ginsberg mounts a groundbreaking case before the US Court of Appeals to overturn a century of sex discrimination.

A secondary theme — “The law is never finished — it’s a work in progress” — is convincingly debated too as Ginsburg opposes the male-dominated legal establishment.  

Despite an occasionally drifting US accent, British actress Felicity Jones acquits herself well as Ginsburg, making the most of a role which sometimes owes rather too much to an orthodox made-for-television biopic.

Armie Hammer is up to the demands of his husband-and-colleague role which has him surviving testicular cancer while Kathy Bates leaves no dramatic stone unturned as a pioneering feminist.

While Ginsburg’s story sometimes emerges here as rather more hagiography than biography, it’s still well worth telling — and seeing.
 

Cold Pursuit (15)
Directed by Petter Moland
★★★★

“I’m just a guy who keeps highways open in the winter,” says Rocky Mountains snow plough driver Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) on receiving his Citizen of the Year award.

But when his son is murdered by ruthless drug cartel boss Viking (engagingly hammed to the hilt by Tom Bateman) Neeson mercilessly sets out to terminate the cartel, one man at a time in Norwegian writer-director Petter Moland’s shamefully entertaining blood-and-violence- sodden black-comedy.

Like Tarantino, Moland’s gleeful no-holds-barred remake of his  2014 Norwegian film Krafidioten ruthlessly eliminates any trace of good taste.

Unlike Tarantino, however, Moland tells his totally tasteless tale, fast and furiously and grippingly, serendipitously without any  “Look at me, aren’t I a superlative auteur?” Tarantino-type storytelling tropes.

Neeson drives the blackly comic, shameless show as positively as he drives his snowplough and proves there really is no business like snow business.

Bad taste rarely tastes this flavoursome.