The Hunger Games:
Mockingjay, Part 1 (12A)
Dir: Francis Lawrence
With: Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore
Runtime: 123 minutes
THE Hunger Games draws to a close in the Harry Potter way - in two parts. This first instalment finds our heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) engaged in all-out war with the hated Capitol.
Rebel forces led by Julianne Moore's president and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's spin-doctor are trying to overthrow the regime, but it is hard, bloody going. Mockingjay Part 1 is a slow-burn affair, a warm-up for fireworks to come, but it boasts a couple of nifty action scenes and fans of the franchise will be delighted to see the old faces. It is hard-core for a 12A picture.
Get On Up (12A)
Dir: Tate Taylor
With: Chadwick Boseman, Dan Aykroyd
Runtime: 139 minutes
HAVING played one legend in 42, the biopic of the baseball player Jackie Robinson, Chadwick Boseman dons a pompadour wig and an Apollo theatre-full of attitude to play James Brown.
The godfather of soul's life is traced from his grindingly poor childhood to international fame, and while some lows are not ignored, the music takes precedence over the man.
Boseman has clearly worked ferociously to play the hardest-working man in showbusiness, and it pays off.
My Old Lady (12A)
Dir: Israel Horovitz
With: Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline
Runtime: 107 minutes
ISRAEL Horovitz's play about fathers and sons and mothers and daughters is brought to the screen by a royal family cast. Maggie Smith plays Mathilde Girard, resident in a splendid Paris apartment that Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline) has inherited.
The New Yorker's desire for a quick sale and big payday are frustrated by both the French legal system and Mathilde's daughter (Kristin Scott Thomas). One might overlook the stagey air given the film's origins.
l Glasgow Film Theatre, November 21-27; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, November 21-December 4
What We Do in the Shadows (15)
Dirs: Taika Waititi, Jermaine Clement
With: Jermaine Clement, Jonathan Brugh
Runtime: 85 minutes
FOR those who love wackiness comes a vampire house-sharing comedy that draws blood and a lot of laughs. Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi write, direct and star in the tale of a band of undead brothers navigating modern life and flat-sharing, one row over the washing- up at a time. A particular giggle is the rivalry they have with a gang of local werewolves, who surely deserve a film of their own. Nicely deranged.
Winter Sleep (15)
Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
With: Melisa Sozen, Haluk Bilginer
Runtime: 196 minutes
TURKISH auteur Nurge Bilge Ceylan once again achieves the seemingly impossible in making a three-hour-plus film riveting. Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), a writer and hotelier, prepares to hunker down for the off-season with his wife and sister. As snow falls, the tension rises in a marriage that has hit a rough patch and a sibling relationship that has always had its jagged edges. The Chekhovian-style drama, winner of this year's Palme d'Or, is beautifully calibrated, there is barely a duff note in the dialogue and the performances are outstanding.
l Glasgow Film Theatre, November 21-30; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, November 28-December 11.
9 Month Stretch (N/C 15+)
Dir: Albert Dupontel
With: Sandrine Kiberlain, Albert Dupontel
Runtime: 82 minutes
part of the French Film Festival, this ultra-silly comedy is about opposites attracting. Sandrine Kiberlain is a successful Paris judge about to fly higher. But she lets her hair down at a New Year's Eve party. Some months later … you've guessed, but who is the father? The humour borders on pitch-black, but daftness conquers all. Watch out for splendid cameos from Terry Gilliam and Jean "The Artist" Dujardin.
l Glasgow Film Theatre, tonight, 6pm; Eden Court, Inverness, December 3, 7.15pm
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