I Swear ★★★★☆
Directed by Kirk Jones. Starring Robert Aramayo, Scott Ellis Watson, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullan. 15A cert, gen release, 120 min
Touching drama starring Aramayo as John Davidson, a Scottish man celebrated for dispelling misunderstandings about others with Tourette syndrome. The film recognises how difficult it was for those around him but doesn’t hold back in revealing unnecessary cruelties. We feel for his stressed mum (a typically sympathetic Shirley Henderson), who ultimately can’t cope. We have less sympathy for furious teachers who as recently as the 1980s were still enforcing discipline with a leather strap. Aramayo has plainly devoted himself to a study of the condition. It is an uncanny turn that engenders sympathy without risking mawkishness. Full review DC
Good Boy ★★★★☆
Directed by Ben Leonberg. Starring Indy, Shane Jensen, Larry Fessenden. 15A cert, gen release, 73 min
You don’t often call a horror film both deeply unsettling and utterly adorable. The latter derives from Leonberg’s decision to tell his story from the perspective of a dog. What a dog this Indy is. You need a mutt with a slightly worried expression – no bouncing Jack Russell will do – and, with downturned brown eyes and occasionally hunched posture, the Nova Scotia duck-tolling retriever meets the bill perfectly. This is essentially a haunted-house flick. Our human lead is not nearly so unnerved by the early warnings, but Indy has more senses to work with. Recommended. Full review DC
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A Want in Her ★★★★☆
Directed by Myrid Carten. Featuring Myrid Carten. 15A cert, limited release, 81 min
In her fascinating hybrid documentary feature, Carten returns to Ireland from London to search for her missing mother and to turn the camera on her own fractured family history. What begins with the harrowing image of Carten’s mother, Nuala, unconscious on a Belfast bench with a bottle to hand grows into a reckoning with intergenerational trauma. Carten’s project is not without its ethical provocations. A Want in Her invites serious reflection on the power dynamics of documentary film-making, especially when the director is also a family member. Nuala, at times, objects to the camera. Questions abound. A consistently provocative work. Full review TB
Tron: Ares ★★★☆☆
Directed by Joachim Rønning. Starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Gillian Anderson. 12A cert, gen release, 119 min
If you walked out of Tron: Legacy and consoled yourself with the thought that at least the Daft Punk soundtrack was great, prepare for deja vu. Nine Inch Nails, standing in for the Dafts, do most of the heavy lifting in a sequel that nobody wanted At its best the kinetic third Tron film could pass for a visual album. There is a premise, but only in the same sense that a fashion collection has a story. Leto’s titular hero, a superintelligent AI programme, is sucked into the real world by a cackling tech-bro supervillain, Julian Dillinger (Peters). And so on. No, thanks. Full review TB
