Film

Four new films to see this week

Here Before, The Beatles and Charlie Chaplin in cinemas, Texas Chainsaw streaming

Andrea Riseborough in Here Before

Donald Clarke
Tara Brady
Sun Feb 20 2022 - 06:00

HERE BEFORE ★★★★☆
Directed by Stacey Gregg. Starring Andrea Riseborough, Jonjo O'Neill, Niamh Dornan, Martin McCann, Eileen O'Higgins.15A cert, gen release, 84 min
Riseborough plays Laura, a grieving mother in a small town who becomes increasingly enamoured with Megan (Dornan), a young girl who moves in next door. She makes increasingly unsettling connections between the child and her own dead daughter. Director Gregg's script stumbles a little around the reveals and the film doesn't quite yield the deliciously malicious Bad Seed-Gaslight mash-up that Megan's character initially promises. Still, this is an intriguing psychological thriller and a carefully calibrated study of maternal mourning. Riseborough's central performance is characteristically layered. Full review TB

THE BEATLES: THE ROOFTOP CONCERT ★★★☆☆
Directed by Peter Jackson. Featuring The Beatles. 12A cert, limited release, 65 min

The Beatles: The Rooftop Concert

Jackson's Get Back, an ambient doc on The Beatles, was a little too massive for many casual viewers. A theatrical feature edit sounds like the ideal compromise, but, clocking in at just over an hour, The Rooftop Concert turns out to be simultaneously too much and not quite enough. As the title suggests, the film is largely concerned with the famous concert on the roof of the band's Mayfair headquarters in early 1969. We get to see and hear that great music on the big screen with excellent sound. But the repetition of songs suggests a modestly sized album with too many "bonus tracks". Full review DC

THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN ★★★☆☆
Directed by Peter Middleton, James Spinney. Featuring Pearl Mackie, Jeff Rawle, Paul Ryan, Anne Rosenfeld. 12A cert, limited release, 114 min

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Charles Chaplin with Paulette Goddard in Modern Times (1936)

Documentary on the legendary star. Middleton and Spinney, the British filmmakers behind Notes on Blindness, concede the impossibility of capturing Chaplin from the get-go with a quote from Chaplin's friend Max Eastman: "Enjoy any Charlie Chaplin you have the good luck to encounter. But don't try to link them up to anything you can grasp." Thus, much is omitted. Against that, The Real Charlie Chaplin contains some remarkable unearthed archival footage, including an in-depth interview he gave to Life magazine in 1966. The film is as complete a portrait as we may ever get – which is not especially complete at all. Full review TB

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE ★★☆☆☆
Directed by David Blue Garcia. Starring Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham, Jacob Latimore, Moe Dunford, Olwen Fouéré, Alice Krige. Netflix, 83 min

Old Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Compromised sequel to the 1974 classic that ignores the many, many intervening sequels. Latimore plays (ahem) Dante, a young black man who, upon encountering a Confederate flag in the town, makes the sort of noises we hear in Jordan Peele horrors. Fisher, so good in Eighth Grade, turns up as a young woman still traumatised after suffering serious injuries in a school shooting. Gentrification is addressed. One would hardly wish the thing longer than its lurid 83 minutes, but none of these potentially fecund storylines receives more than a cursory sketch. The film is, nonetheless, satisfactorily revolting (if that's what you're after). Full review DC