Bruised (15)
Directed by Halle Berry
⭑⭑⭑

OSCAR-WINNING actor turned film-maker Halle Berry pulls no punches as she lays all on the line in this redemption drama about a disgraced MMA fighter trying not only to get back her career, but to be a mother also.

While Berry’s impressive directorial debut feature, written by Michelle Rosenfarb, does not reinvent the wheel, it is gritty and brutal (particularly the fight scenes) and punches well above its weight. This is thanks to a knockout performance by Berry (her best to date since Monster’s Ball) and her phenomenal young co-star Danny Boyd Jr — the son she gave away who suddenly turns up on her doorstep.

Without uttering a word, he emotes through his eyes and captivating face, melting your heart. Having trained for two years, Berry is a terrifying fighting machine who holds her own opposite real-life fighter Valentina Shevchenko, who plays her comeback opponent.

She also shows great and exciting promise behind the camera in this female-driven venture, featuring an all-woman soundtrack, headed by Cardi B.

Maria Duarte
In selected cinemas and on Netflix from November 24

Petite Maman (U)
Directed by Celine Sciamma
⭑⭑⭑⭑

FROM the director of the critically acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire comes a haunting coming-of-age fairytale about loss, abandonment and reconnecting with your inner child.

Celine Sciamma’s new film follows eight-year-old Nelly (Josephine Sanz) who, having just lost her grandmother (Margot Abascal), is helping her parents clear out her house, during which her grief-stricken mother (Nina Meurisse) suddenly takes off, leaving Nelly with her father (Stephane Varupenne).

While exploring the surrounding woods she meets a young girl, who looks like her, building a tree house. Her name is Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), just like her mum, and lives in a house which exactly mirrors her grandmother’s.

With captivating performances from Josephine and her sister Gabrielle, Sciamma delivers a spellbinding intergenerational drama about a youngster trying to understand and make her mother happy again. It is a reminder too of how our parents were also children — once inquisitive and full of wonder.

While relatively small in scale, its emotional impact is huge and unique in the way grief is explored.

Maria Duarte
In cinemas November 19

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (12A)
Directed by Jason Reitman
⭑⭑⭑⭑

THE Rise of Skywalker may have pipped them to the do-over post, but Sony finally gets its time to placate a rioting online fandom with this surprisingly fun sequel to the Ghostbusters series.

Casting off the 2016 reinvention entirely — and even dumping Ghostbusters II into the bay alongside Lady Liberty’s debris — this alternate “Part II” sees the late Egon’s estranged and destitute family inherit a rickety old farm house that may hold not only the key to finding out what ultimately killed Egon, but also answer the mystery of the great Busters’ final case.

Skewing more heavily — and, arguably, wisely — towards the Stranger Things demographic, Afterlife both works and falters on variations of the same points that have always stumped this unlikely franchise, typically the balance between comedy and horror.

With heaps of fan service and a likeable “adult lead” in Paul Rudd however, Afterlife does prove to be a periodically rollicking supernatural romp.

It’s needless, pandering and its plotting can be seen in advance from space but, if you want a whacky good-time ride through the supernatural, who else ya gonna call?

Van Connor

In cinemas November 19

Dear Future Children (15)
Directed by Franz Boehm
⭑⭑⭑⭑

WITH Greta Thunberg firmly telling the Establishment where to stick it, Cop26 fading into the rear view and even Malala getting a happy ending, the timing couldn’t be more perfect for the arrival of first-time helmer Franz Boehm’s Kickstarter-funding ode to the realm of youth activism in Dear Future Children.

Originally developed under the equally loaded title Prayers Do Nothing, Boehm’s film chronicles the daily lives, trials and tribulations of three youth activists in support of their individual causes around the world.

Taking us from Chile, with its rising governmental corruption, to Hong Kong and its controversial Chinese extradition law, and even tackling climate change in Uganda, Dear Future Children delivers a powerful — and, it must be said, quite insightful — portrait of three young women hell bent on nothing more than fighting for the sake of the future.

Incredibly stirring, if a smidge overlong, it’s a powerful story. Three, even. Yet it’s the insight Boehm affords us into the psychology of his subjects — the fuel that drives them back out of bed each morning to resume the fight — that will genuinely inspire.

Regardless of cause, there’s a palpable sense of humanistic aspiration to be found here, and we’d do well to pay attention.

Van Connor

In cinemas November 19