Film of the week  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (18)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino HHHHI

 IT’S Tinsel Town in 1969 (vividly realised by cinematographer Robert Richardson and production designer Barbara Ling, both deserving Oscars) where former TV Western series star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) has flopped in movies.

Fortunately Dalton he has best friend (and former stunt double) Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) to rely on as his driver and, more importantly, as an emotional sounding board.

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s  ninth movie elicits potent performances from his leads as the narrative takes Dalton to Italy where the typically drivelling movies of the period he stars in fail to reignite his comatose career and he returns to Hollywood where (remember, this is a Tarantino film) he and Booth live near director Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate.

Surprisingly, given his blood-soaked cinematic backstory, Tarantino does not recreate Tate’s monstrous murder but settles instead for serving up heartfelt (for him, at any rate) homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

That said, Tarantino introduces Tate (played rather better than the screenplay deserves by Margot Robbie) seen spending an afternoon in the cinema happily admiring her own performance in a gaudy action movie.

Fortunately, while never really justifying its excessive length (it would appear Tinsel Town’s legendary auteur is permitted to do what he wants whenever he wants), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was, for me, far and away Tarantino’s least affected, most entertaining movie.

Two scenes stood out in particular, neither of them likely to end up being worshipped at the altar of Tarantino the auteur.

The most impressive was the close encounter of the genuinely funny, emotionally truthful kind when Dalton, his TV career in the toilet, is neatly disposed of by a preternaturally smart eight-year-old child star (Julia Butters), a scene that — unusually for Tarantino — has honest emotional warmth and vividly sends up the essentially ego-driven personalities of actors.

Then there’s the memorable encounter of the martial arts kind between Dalton and Bruce “my hands are registered as lethal weapons” Lee.

In the final analysis it’s Tarantino worshipping himself as usual.
But, to be fair, it was — for me — his best, most enjoyable offering to date.
Alan Frank
 
Transit (12A)
Directed by Christian Petzold
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With the invading German troops fast approaching Paris, Georg (played rather better than his sometimes over-schematic role deserves by Franz Rogowski) flees to Marseilles knowing that, by using the documents of an author who has taken his own life and posing as the dead man, he will be guaranteed a visa from the Mexican consulate and can escape the nazis.

Drama is catalysed when Georg, befriending the son of his late friend who failed in his escape bid, falls in love with Maria (Paula Beer) who is hunting for her missing husband.

In synopsis, director Christian Petzold’s screen adaptation of Anna Seghers’s eponymous 1942 novel is redolent with potent tropes of WW2 Hollywood.

However, if his storyline recalls vintage WWII Hollywood — think Casablanca revisited but (regrettably?) without Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid — in the final analysis I found Petzold’s film rather more clever in concept than compelling in execution.

The emotional storyline draws attention, as do the central performances, but I felt Petzzold’s auteuristic decision to restage WWII  in contemporary Marseilles while visually clever and, inevitably, emotionally disturbing, ultimately dilutes the impact of an emotional-dramatic storyline driven by attempted WWII subtexts.
AF
 
 
Good Boys (15)
Directed by Gene Stupnitsky
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This coming of age comedy about a group of tweens walks a fine line between sweetness and charm, and utter filthy debauchery and it is unashamedly laugh-out-loud funny.

Gene Stupnitsky’s impressive directorial debut feature centres on three potty-mouthed 12-year-old boys who call themselves the “bean bag boys.” When the leader Max (Jacob Tremblay) is invited to a kissing party he and his friends Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas (Keith L Williams) embark on a fact-finding mission to learn how to kiss a girl which involves a drone, a sex doll, them accidentally carrying drugs and being hunted by two 16-year-old girls.

It is Superbad meets Stand by Me with great performances by Tremblay (The Room), Noon (Boardwalk Empire) and Williams (The Last Man on Earth) who deliver Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg’s wise-cracking dialogue and killer one liners like old pros.

They are hilarious yet somehow it feels wrong to see these kids swear like troopers and deal with adult themes and sex toys but the characters’ innocence and awkwardness — in comic situations — makes it more palatable and believable.

Plus there are some priceless visual gags and a hysterically funny surprise cameo, which I won’t spoil for you.

Nevertheless it is a terribly sweet gross out comedy and a sure must see.
Maria Duarte
 
 
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (PG)
Directed by James Bobin
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Dora the Explorer’s live action feature film debut captures wonderfully the spirit and essence of the original TV show with its problem solving and Spanish language teaching skills set as a riveting Indiana Jones style adventure.

A 16-year-old Dora (an impressive Isabela Moner), with her trusted backpack and her monkey Boots (voiced by Danny Trejo of Machete fame), leads her cousin Diego (Mark Wahlberg’s nephew Jeff Wahlberg) and school friends on a mission to rescue her missing archaeologist parents (Eva Longoria and Michael Pena) and solve the mystery of Parapata — the ancient lost city of gold.
 

Moner is a tour de force as Dora, she personifies her innocence, her boundless curiosity and uber optimism to a tee even when she tackles the jungle of high school life.

Featuring the beloved characters from the TV show, lots of Spanish and even cartoon versions of Dora and her friends (after inhaling hallucinogenic spores) young fans of the series won't be disappointed.

It is great fun and a hugely entertaining big screen adaptation — “delicioso.”
MD
 
 
UglyDolls (U)
Directed by Kelly Asbury
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This animated feature, full of colourful characters, celebrates individuality, the importance of character and being different.
 
The story by Robert Rodriguez centres on the overly optimistic Moxy (Kelly Clarkson), who lives in Uglyville, and whose dream is to find a child who will love her. Unbeknown to her she along with the rest of her fellow residents are reject toys.

She discovers the ugly truth when she embarks on an escape mission with her close friends and they end up in the Institute of Perfection headed by the evil Lou (Nick Jonas) whose motto is “pretty makes perfect.” None of them conform to this mantra.

It is a sweet film (aimed at the under-sevens) with an enviable voice cast in which the odd looking dolls really grow on you and the message that you don’t have to be perfect to be amazing is ever pertinent in a world in which you have to be Instagram presentable.
MD