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SWAN SONG ★★★★★
Directed by Todd Stephens. Starring Udo Kier, Jennifer Coolidge, Linda Evans, Michael Urie, Stephanie McVay. 15A cert, gen release, 106 min
An aged hairdresser walks across his midwestern town to primp a deceased client. Inspired by a real-life “Sandusky, Ohio” legend, writer-director Stephens crafts an impeccable odyssey that ponders love, loss and attitudinal changes. “I wouldn’t even know how to be gay anymore,” Pat tells Eunice, almost despairingly. Veteran Fassbinder collaborator Udo Kier, who over the past decade has essayed unforgettable turns in such disparate, essential movies as Melancholia, The Painted Bird and Bacarau, puts in a remarkable, possibly career-best performance. Jackson Warner Lewis’s sunny cinematography confirms the mood: death is seldom so much fun. TB
ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME ★★★★☆
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Directed by Andrew Gaynord. Starring Tom Stourton, Charly Clive, Georgina Campbell, Antonia Clarke, Joshua McGuire, Kieran Hodgson, Dustin Demri-Burns, Christopher Fairbank. 16 cert, gen release, 95 min
Pete (Stourton) has recently returned from volunteering in a refugee camp and, as the film begins, heads to a country estate owned by his friend George (McGuire), where he will celebrate his 31st birthday with his old college chums. Americans might call it a cringe comedy. But given its Devon setting, this surefooted British debut is more a horror-comedy of manners. Working from an nervy script (co-written by Tom Palmer and star Stourton), All My Friends Hate Me is a brilliant, blanch-making knot of misunderstood jokes, social discomfort, inappropriate pranks and genuine fear. TB
EARWIG ★★★★☆
Directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović. Starring Paul Hilton, Romola Garai, Alex Lawther, Romane Hemelaers. Lmited release, 114 min
Working from a stubbornly elliptical novel by Brian Catling, author of the Vorrh trilogy, Hadžihalilović's engrossing, peculiar, unsettling third feature concerns — of this much at least we can be sure — the relationship between Aalbert Scellinc (Hilton), a frayed, furrowed youngish man, and Mia (Hemelaers), a child of Cronenbergian strangeness. If I am reading this right, Aalbert generates Mia’s teeth by freezing her own saliva. Hadžihalilović, whose name should be better known, comes as close to transcendence as anyone could manage when cramping so much of their film in a tatty container the colour of last week’s tea. DC
JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Colin Trevorrow. Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy. 12A cert, gen release, 147 min
Lazy, hectic, muddled sixth entry to the dino-saga that seems to have been composed in a last-minute rush around the blockbuster mart. Some “legacy characters”. Some youthful heroes. A bit of Bourne. Some Bond. Maybe even a bit of Jurassic Park. The Supermarket Sweep approach to blockbuster filmmaking reaches its horrible apotheosis — Jurassic World: Fast and Furiosaurus. Never mind how thinly spread the appeal; just marvel at how many markets it covers throughout the planet. The plot has something to do with an evil conglomerate exploiting dinosaurs for nefarious ends. Obviously. Full review DC
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