Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu ★★★☆☆
Directed by Jon Favreau. Starring Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder, Sigourney Weaver. 12A cert, gen release, 132 min
The titular characters go in search of Jabba the Hutt’s son in a big-screen spin-off from the popular Star Wars TV series. Blissfully short on the tedious “lore” that clogged up the most recent trilogy, the film flings us into the action quickly and doesn’t let up until spitting us out after a satisfactory mass of explosions. Pascal lumbers along happily in a film with no pretensions to depth. The simplicity is not altogether a bad thing. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we were happy with that on a rainy afternoon. DC Full review
Finding Emily ★★★☆☆
Directed by Alicia MacDonald. Starring Angourie Rice, Spike Fearn, Minnie Driver, Ella Maisy Purvis, Yali Topol Margalith, Kat Ronney. 12A cert, gen release, 110 min
The amiable Owen (Fearn), a musician who works at a fictional Manchester university, searches for a girl – yes, named Emily – he met briefly on a noisy night out. Another student of that name (Rice), while nominally assisting in the search, secretly decides to use Owen as a case study for her thesis on the toxicity of romantic attraction (or whatever). Got that? It’s not a bad scenario for a romcom. That we know where the story is almost certainly headed is a feature, not a bug. The film maybe does try too hard at selling us Manchester. DC Full review
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Hen ★★★★★
Directed by György Pálfi. Starring Ioannis Kokiasmenos, Maria Diakopanagioti, Argyris Pantazaras No cert, limited release, 96 min
Pálfi, director of the cult 2006 horror hit Taxidermia, is not interested in the tasteful wide-eyed anthropomorphism of common-or-garden nature films or Disney critters. His chicken-themed thriller is an unexpected, quietly disconcerting fable told almost entirely from the perspective of a single hen. The increasingly fretful story accumulates through the ordinary trials and tribulations of chicken life. Mundane routines acquire a creeping dread; barns, kitchens and farmyards – that ugly old rooster! – become landscapes of unspoken terror as the heroine clucks her way through a compelling action story. Utterly original and utterly essential. TB Full review
Tom & Jerry: Forbidden Compass ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Zhang Gang. Featuring Eric Bauza, Ben Diskin, Janice Kawaye, AJ Beckles, Roger Craig Smith, Travis Willingham, Matthew Yang King, Vincent Tong. No cert, gen release, 100 min
Disappointing big-screen outing for the venerable animated enemies. The shift to glossy 3D animation will divide traditionalists, but the hypersaturated palette, exaggerated expressions and ceaseless motion are carefully calibrated for an audience primed for TikTok-speed stimulation. The headlining BDSM-adjacent duo are still sprinting headlong through walls, flattening each other with household objects and graffitiing over the laws of physics. But Tom and Jerry have become supporting players in their own film, pushed aside for an assortment of flimsily sketched newcomers who absorb most of the screen time. Celestial Master and Mega-Rat? No thanks. TB Full review
