Film

Six of the best films to see at the cinema this weekend

New this week: Oprah in A Wrinkle in Time, and a Steven Soderbergh iPhone movie

Goddess of Empowerment: Oprah Winfrey in 'A Wrinkle in Time'

Donald Clarke
Tara Brady
Fri Mar 23 2018 - 06:00

A WRINKLE IN TIME ★★★
Directed by Ava DuVernay. Starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Peña, Storm Reid, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Pine. PG cert, general release, 109 min
A young girl (Reid, very good) searches mysterious dimensions for her missing father (Pine) in a messy, wild but very enjoyable sci-fi epic. A Wrinkle in Time's colouring-outside-the-lines is matched by an alarming sincerity. No wonder Oprah literally towers over the picture and the excellent young cast. An empowering motion picture for 10-year-old girls, this is the movieverse's answer to broccoli: a film for smart, earnest little girls like Lisa Simpson to enjoy between recycling projects. Full review TB

I GOT LIFE/AURORE ★★★★
Directed by Blandine Lenoir. Starring Agnès Jaoui, Thibault de Montalembert, Pascale Arbillot. Club, IFI, Dublin, 90 min

Unusual, very welcome cinematic investigation of the menopause. As middle age properly sets in, Aurore (Jaoui) is cast adrift on a mini-odyssey. She reassesses age, race, social status and the importance of sex. At times, the film comes across like a less cerebral version of Mia Hansen-Løve's Things to Come – Jaoui doesn't strive for Huppert's intellectual heft – but it never loses its easy, digestible, amusing tone. An unheralded gem. DC

UNSANE ★★★
Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah, Juno Temple, Amy Irvine, Polly McKie, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Gibson Frazier. 16 cert, general release, 97 min

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Soderbergh latest experiment – shot entirely on an iPhone – is one really good one and one very unsatisfactory one. The good one sees Foy imprisoned against her will in a mental facility. Are we seeing her hallucinations? Is it really an insurance scam? In the last third, sadly, it turns into a disappointingly crude Gothic melodrama. Everyone's very good in it. The director makes a virtue of his still-novel shooting method. But the script needed work. Full review DC

THE SQUARE ★★★★
Directed by Ruben Östlund. Starring Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Linda Anborg, Christopher Laesso. 15A cert, IFI/Light House, Dublin, 151 min

Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Östlund's baggy satire takes on the form of the art gallery within which much of its action takes place. There a great scene involving confrontational performance art. There is a weird moment with a monkey. If you don't like those then move on to the next exhibit. There is a holding narrative, but we drift away from that story for uncomfortably long stretches. Often spectacular. Occasionally confusing. A welcome oddity. Full review DC

MARY MAGDALENE ★★★
Directed by Garth Davis. Starring Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tahar Rahim, Ariane Labed, Denis Menochet, Lubna Azabal, Tchécky Karyo. 12A cert, general release, 120 min

The film is here to contradict the myth that Mary Magdalene, first witness of Christ's resurrection, was a prostitute. That aside, the film-makers' purpose remains obscure. The picture is peppered with feminist asides, but those philosophies don't power the narrative as we might expect. Yes, the story is told from Mary's perspective. Her eyes are, however, always on the Nazarene. Still, it is well cast and nicely shot. Mara is a rooted Mary, Phoenix a charismatic Jesus. Full review/trailer DC

PETER RABBIT ★★★
Directed by Will Gluck. Starring Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, Sam Neill, Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki, Margot Robbie, James Corden, Sia. G cert, general release, 94 min

Having seen off the mean-spirited elder Mr McGregor (Neill), Peter and his woodland chums fall out with a younger, high-strung McGregor (Gleeson). Cordon's Peter doesn't bear much resemblance to Beatrix Potter's naughty creation. Still, though there are shades of the dreaded Alvin and the Chipmunks, director Will Gluck (Easy A) has a flair for slapstick and comic sadism. Yes, it's a travesty of the original material, but a passably amusing travesty. Full review/trailer TB