Pig (15)
Directed by Michael Sarnoski
★★★★★

The thing about Nicolas Cage is that after every seven or eight ordinary projects, he loves to throw a curveball and be terrific in something. Such is the case with Pig – at once, the most Cagian-sounding concept for a movie since Willy’s Wonderland and a stone-cold classic of contemporary cinema.

The Best Actor winner goes grizzly for this one as woodland-hermit truffle hunter Rob – whose self-imposed isolation comes to an abrupt end when violent intruders steal his beloved foraging pig. The result, astonishingly, a hauntingly beautiful mediation on loss and grief.

Pig is a movie that challenges unsuspecting audiences to try and find their comfort zone within it, knowing flatly that first-time director Michael Sarnoski and his star have every possible rug ready to be pulled from underneath.

Like Cage himself, Pig is admirably unafraid to delve into exploring each and every facet of itself ensuring it employs every weapon in its arsenal. With subversive casting, brutal violence, outright hilarity and more than a few tears to be found, Pig is one of the high watermarks of this year in cinema, and, equally, for its star.

VAN CONNOR

Reminiscence (12A)
Directed by Lisa Joy
★★★

The idea of being able to access and relive your happiest memories is a seductive notion and one which is explored in this fascinating and intriguing film noir style thriller, by first time director Lisa Joy, with a sci-fi twist.

Set in a dystopian future in which half of Miami is underwater (the poor half) it stars Hugh Jackman as Nick Bannister, a troubled war veteran whose “reminiscence machine” can allow people to tap into their minds.

When the beautiful and alluring Mae (Rebecca Ferguson channelling Jessica Rabbit) enters his joint to find her lost keys and then mysteriously disappears, he becomes obssessed with tracking her down to the chagrin of his colleague Watts (Thandiwe Newton).

It is a compelling and visually captivating debut feature by the promising Joy elevated by the enthralling and charismatic performances from her A-list cast. Less might have been more but its unexpected ending will provide much food for thought.

Maria Duarte

Censor (15)
Directed by Prano Bailey-Blond
★★★★

Anchored by a stirring central performance from Niamh Algar, it’s a reverent ode to the days of the video nasty with the curiously compelling Censor.
Algar is Enid – the titular censor whose repressed traumatic past comes spilling into her present when a new horror movie up for certification bears some uncanny similarities.

As the fervour grows in mid-eighties tabloid culture surrounding the vilification of the horror world, it’s there Enid must travel for the answers she needs.

A kind of conceptual evolution of her 2015 short Nasty, director Bailey-Blond delivers quite the gorgeous production in this, her feature debut. Algar, meanwhile, is tremendous, flanked by a top-tier supporting cast including the always reliable – and, here, deliciously slimy – Michael Smiley.

Alas, it’s laboured pacing that hampers Censor – with eighty-three minutes somehow feeling spread too far and too wide, the captivating performances and stunning production therein sadly less gratifying than you’d hope.

VC

The Night House (15)
Directed by David Bruckner
★★★

This deliciously dark and disturbing horror explores grief and a descent into madness through the classic lens of a haunted house device.

Rebecca Hall gives a powerhouse performance as grieving widow Beth who returns from her husband Owen’s (Evan Jonigkeit) funeral to the empty lakeside home he built for them. It is a stunning looking property which starts to take on a ghostly persona of its own as Beth begins to uncover Owen’s sinister secrets.

From a multilayered script by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski director David Bruckner (The Ritual) delivers a stylish, tension-filled and wonderfully eerie supernatural thriller, with surprising jump-scares. It asks the question – how well do you know your partner and soulmate? – as Beth’s happy marriage along with her mind start to unravel with the stark revelations.

It is worth seeing just for Hall alone.

MD

Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins (12A)
Dirirected by Robert Schwentke
★★★★

Amid an increasing landscape of franchises and cinematic universes, Paramount takes a third swing at making a franchise out of the iconic GI Joe toy line with the mostly solid Snake Eyes.

Rising British star Henry Golding gets his time under a tentpole here with this revisionist rebootquel that reframes the classic ’80s conflict of “Murica v Faceless Foreigners” from the perspective of a newly retooled origin story for fan fave character Snake Eyes.

As the most recognisable face of the brand, conventional wisdom would suggest Golding’s too classically hunky to be “the guy in the mask,” but he brings enough charm along with his private school grit and ladies-man swagger to make a good time of it – working well off of overall scene-stealer Andrew Koji.

A rollicking beer ‘n’ popcorn romp; it’s not groundbreaking, but it’s the best attempt yet at a GI Joe movie.

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