Force Majeure (15)
four stars
Dir: Ruben Ostlund
With: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli
Runtime: 119 minutes
PICTURE the scene. Mum, dad, and their two children go for lunch al fresco while on a ski-ing holiday in the French Alps. As they drink in the scenery an avalanche starts. What happens next forms the roots of this devilishly smart comedy drama. Think a Swedish Abigail's Party with salopes as director Ruben Ostlund puts the family through their paces. A prize-winner at Cannes last year, Force Majeure went down a (snow) storm as the closing gala at this year's Glasgow Film Festival.
Good Kill (15)
three stars
Dir: Andrew Niccol
With: Ethan Hawke, January Jones
Runtime: 100 minutes
ETHAN Hawke plays a US fighter pilot home from the frontline to do duty in a tin hut flying drones. The war is "over there", in Afghanistan, but Major Tommy Egan is but a drive away from his wife (January Jones) and family in the 'burbs. Can a man kill remotely and remain detached? That is one of the questions posed by writer-director Andrew Niccol. More than a few grandstanding speeches from Bruce Greenwood as Tommy's CO mean the picture often plays like a liberal version of Top Gun, but Hawke and Jones swoop to conquer any boredom.
Lost River (15)
two stars
Dir: Ryan Gosling
With: Christina Hendricks, Eva Mendes
Runtime: 93 minutes
POOR Ryan Gosling. After a string of hits as an actor he steps behind the camera only to have his directorial debut booed at Cannes. Some of the criticism was justified in that his tale of lives adrift in a small US town hit by financial whirlwinds is a film badly in need of a good shake, and there is a fair bit of first time director pretentiousness at work too. But it looks terrific and a classy cast, including Scotland's Iain De Caestacker, deliver a piece that suggests Gosling should not give up the director's chair just yet.
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