Accused
Directed by Philip Barantini
★★★★

FROM the director of Boiling Point comes another tense and nerve racking thriller, this time in the guise of a home invasion film following an online xenophobic frenzy.

Set against the backdrop of a terrorist bombing at a central London station a young man is wrongly identified as the attacker. As the police are looking for him he becomes the target of violent, incensed vigilantes seeking revenge for the victims of the bombing.

Harri (Chaneil Kular from Sex Education) is dog-sitting alone at his parents’ remote country home when two masked and armed “would be heroes” track him down.

Co-written by Barnaby Boulton and James Cummings, who also penned Boiling Point with Barantini, this is a compelling yet brutal psychological thriller which examines the deadly effects of fake news and the mob mentality fuelled by social media run amok and devoid of ethics or moral responsibility.

This results in an innocent 20-something being, erroneously, racially profiled and labelled a terror suspect.

Since many people live vicariously by sharing their lives online it isn’t difficult for the house invaders to track down Harri’s whereabouts so be warned.  

More disconcerting is his girlfriend’s eagerness to question his innocence as incorrect news reports are broadcast, and her failure to listen to his protests.

Accused is driven by a powerful performance by Kular as his character convincingly runs through a gamut of emotions from joy to fear and horror ending in shell shock as he has to deal with the trauma of being victimised and vilified.

It is a surprisingly thought-provoking thriller which highlights the darker side of unaccountable social media-whipped frenzies — the recent disappearance of Nicola Bulley’s a case in point.

Available on Netflix from Friday.

The Lesson (15)
Directed by Alice Troughton
★★★★

IT IS said that you should never meet your heroes — a motto an aspiring young writer discovers in this deliciously subversive film noir thriller directed by Alice Troughton.

Written by Alex MacKeith it follows Liam Somers (Daryl McCormack) as he takes up a tutoring position at the estate of his idol and legendary writer JM Sinclair (Richard E Grant) whose mantra is “great writers steal.”  

Liam has been hired to instruct Sinclair’s son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) on how to pass the Oxford entrance exam. While at it Liam slowly discovers that the family, who are still grieving the loss of their oldest son, harbours a dark secret.

Troughton’s taut and wonderfully disturbing drama is punctuated by a deliciously Machiavellian turn from Grant who is on exquisitely pompous and elitist form as the narcissistic author who can’t accept criticism on his work when he asks Liam to proof-read his latest novel.

Grant’s repartees with McCormack are a delight to watch and an acting masterclass in themselves. Julie Delpy is captivating yet unnerving as Bertie’s enigmatic French mother who comes into her own in the “third act.”

As the film heads to its predicted finale it manages to end on a haunting killer twist.  

Out in cinemas Friday.

Ballywalter (15)
Directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah
★★★

A YOUNG female taxi driver and a middle-aged would be stand-up comic strike up an unlikely friendship in this bittersweet comedy drama set in Northern Ireland by actor turned director Prasanna Puwanarajah.

Seana Kerslake as Eileen and Patrick Kielty as Shane are totally captivating throughout.

Eileen is this bolshy 20-something cabbie and Shane her regular fare who she takes from Ballywalter to Belfast to attend a comedy course.

Both consider themselves failures. She having returned from a failed college course in London to live with her mother again and her pregnant sister while Shane’s marriage has broken down and he rarely sees his child which is killing him.

These two lost souls slowly form a human connection on their regular cab ride to Belfast in this darkly humorous yet deeply moving drama and a hidden gem of a film.

Out in cinemas Friday.

Expend4bles (15)
Directed by Scott Waugh
★★

SYLVESTER STALLONE and Jason Statham reunite for the fourth outing in the franchise which lacks the action power of previous films and is beginning to look expendable.

After half an hour or so Stallone disappears and it turns into the Jason Statham show in which he is a one-man killing-machine “battling to avert World War III?”

He is joined by 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa and Andy Garcia. Fox and Levy Tran provide the female quota in the most two dimensional characters possible.

Full of pyrotechnics and fights scenes — mainly featuring Statham — it lacks the humour of its predecessors as the one liners fall flat.

Well past its sell-by-date, it’s time this franchise was permanently retired.

Out in cinemas Friday.