X+Y (12A)
four stars
Dir: Morgan Matthews
With: Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall
Runtime: 112 minutes
ACTING talent plus a heartwarming story equals a moving and amusing couple of hours in the company of this British comedy drama. Sally Hawkins plays Julie, mum to the teenage Nathan (Asa Butterfield). Nathan has mild autism, and finds refuge from the chaos of the world in maths. When it is suggested he works with a tutor (Rafe Spall) to enter an international maths Olympiad, some wonder whether he has taken on too much. No surprises lie in store in Morgan Matthews' picture, but this is a beautifully played, intelligently informed piece.
Bafta Shorts (15)
four stars
Dirs: Various
Runtime: 123 minutes
SUCH is the esteem in which Bafta's short film competition is held you can often catch established stars helping out young filmmakers, and the quality of the films overall is extraordinary. Standouts in the 2015 collection include Scotland's Ainslie Henderson and Will Anderson's poignant short, Monkey Love Experiments, Boogaloo and Graham (short film winner), and The Bigger Picture (animation winner). Watch out for Olivia Colman in The Karman Line. Yes, she cries.
Filmhouse Belmont, Aberdeen, March 18-19; Filmhouse Edinburgh, March 25-26
Dreamcatcher (15)
four stars
Dir: Kim Longinotto
Runtime: 104 minutes
THE heroine of Kim Longinotto's searing documentary is Brenda Myers-Powell, a former prostitute who now devotes her life to the Dreamcatcher Foundation, a charity set up to rescue other women from the streets. The stories are horrifying, the outlook for some criminally bleak, but the goodness of Myers-Powell is a shining light in the gloom.
Glasgow Film Theatre, March 15-19
Chappie (15)
one star
Dir: Neill Blomkamp
With: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman
Runtime: 120 minutes
DOG lovers may stray into this Johannesburg-set science fictioner by Neill Blomkamp thinking it is a documentary about a certain brand of tinned pet food. If only. Instead, the director of District 9 and Elysium serves up a dog's dinner of a tale about a Terminator-style robot acquiring consciousness. Roll up, roll up for awful characters, worse dialogue, and Hugh Jackman sporting a mullet. The film's only saving grace is the Best Exotic's Dev Patel as the robot's creator.
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