Film

Four new films to see in cinemas this week

West Side Story, Don’t Look Up, Lamb, Clifford the Big Red Dog

Ariana DeBose (centre) in West Side Story

Donald Clarke
Tara Brady
Sun Dec 12 2021 - 06:00

WEST SIDE STORY ★★★★☆
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Rita Moreno, Corey Stoll, Brian d'Arcy James, Josh Andrés Rivera, Iris Menas. 12A cert, gen release, 156 min
Spielberg and Tony Kushner, author of the new screenplay, have found worthwhile ways of reinventing West Side Story for our times. We get a sense of looming gentrification. Latinos now play the Puerto Rican characters. None of which would matter if the numbers didn't zing. Happily, this version retains – and sometimes exceeds – the musical and dramatic verve of the 1961 film. The leads (Elgort and Zegler) are grand, but DeBose is electric as Anita and Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for that part 60 years ago, charms in a new role. A pleasure to sink into. Full review DC

DON'T LOOK UP ★★★☆☆
Directed by Adam McKay. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett. 15A cert, gen release, 139 min

Jonah Hil, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence in Don’t Look Up

Astronomers DiCaprio and Lawrence fail to convince America that a comet is about to destroy the planet. Six years after winning an Oscar for The Big Short, McKay returns with a satire of more or less everything that's wrong with the United States. The most obvious target here is governmental sluggishness on climate change, but further swipes are taken at celebrity culture, social-media distraction, political nepotism, messianic tech gurus and the politicisation of science. There are decent jokes all the way through, but, even with a groaning running time, the film feels overstuffed – and the central premise doesn't come off. Full review DC

LAMB/DÝRIР★★★★☆
Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson. Starring Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Sigurdsson. 15A cert , gen release, 107 min

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Noomi Rapace in Lamb

Farmers in remote Iceland discover something odd among the sheep in this arresting art horror. Rapace is wonderful, conveying both tenderness and desperate maternal instinct, in a performance that couldn't be further from her hardened turns in the Millennium Trilogy. The SFX and the script, co-written by director Jóhannsson and former Sugarcube Sjón (who also co-authored Robert Eggers's incoming The Northman), is both lean and consistently surprising. The wild conceit is, against all odds, through smart writing and clever use of CGI and puppets, made palatable. The denouement is pleasingly shocking. TB

CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG ★★★☆☆
Directed by Walt Becker. Starring Jack Whitehall, Darby Camp, Tony Hale, Sienna Guillory, David Alan Grier, Russell Wong, John Cleese. PG cert, gen release, 96 min

Clifford the Big Red Dog

This latest translation of Norman Bridwell's children's books clings to the canonical construct that Clifford's unnatural girth is brought about by the equally large love of his owner, Emily Elizabeth, albeit with a little help from a twinkling John Cleese. The former Python is charming as the curator of a travelling animal rescue tent, an operation that – in common with the mysterious circus in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao – has a knack for disappearing. It's loud, it's silly, it's over-saturated; the smaller viewers at the family screening I attended were wildly impressed. TB