Life, Animated (PG)

four stars

Dir: Roger Ross Williams

Runtime: 92 minutes

WHEN Owen Siskind was three years old he “disappeared”, say his parents, lost to autism. Wall St Journal reporter Ron Suskind and his wife Cornelia thought he would never be able to communicate, but they had reckoned without Owen’s determination and his obsessive watching of Disney movies. Through the animated pictures, Owen found a way to interact with others. Roger Ross William’s brilliant and moving documentary follows the now twenty-something Owen as he prepares to leave home and live independently. As much a story about a family as it is an individual’s tale, Life, Animated shows what the power of love, and a lot of help, can achieve.

The Birth of a Nation (15)

three stars

Dir: Nate Parker

With: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer

Runtime: 120 minutes

NATE Parker’s period drama about a slave rebellion in America was the biggest story to come out of Sundance this year when it sold to Fox for $17.5 million. It certainly looks the part for a major studio release, and the story, based on real events, is one that deserves to be brought before a wider audience. But Nate Parker, who writes, directs, and stars as Nat Turner, the preacher who finds a new calling in life, takes a ridiculous amount of time to get to the key events; and while he turns in a remarkable performance in the lead, the other characters, Armie Hammer’s slave owner in particular, could have done with more fleshing out.