GRINGO (15)

An honourable man abandons his moral compass to turn the tables on his corrupt employers and unwittingly spins himself into a quagmire of deceit and betrayal in Nash Edgerton’s frenetic comedy thriller. Co-written by Anthony Tambakis and Matthew Stone, Gringo employs a fractured chronology to chart a bungled kidnapping in Mexico that might have been masterminded by the tearful victim (David Oyelowo). Appearances are deceptive throughout Edgerton’s breathless caper and, as voyeurs, our limited enjoyment comes from attempting to second-guess how abrasive characters will double-cross one another in the name of greed and ambition. Some of these hairpin twists are predictable so director Edgerton distracts us from the script’s

manifold shortcomings with breathless action sequences and self-consciously offbeat comic interludes.

MARY MAGDALENE (12A)

A woman’s most cherished asset, her reputation, is at the mercy of jealous, controlling men in director Garth Davis’s revisionist religious drama, which attempts to wash away the stains of ill repute from Jesus’ devoted disciple (Rooney Mara). Co-written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, Mary Magdalene quietly trades in solemnity, echoing the current battle for parity through the eyes of a misunderstood heroine at odds with the suffocating conventions of her time. As a handsomely crafted sermon about spiritual awakening and sacrifice, the film preaches to the art house masses with aplomb. Unfortunately, we observe the title character from such a safe, reverential distance, it’s hard to connect with her on an emotional level beyond her soporific words.

Peter Rabbit (PG)

There are aspects of Will Gluck’s live action version of the Beatrix Potter tale that might have your nose twitching in consternation. Among them is James Corden as the voice of the titular rabbit and a shedload of free advertising for a certain store in London where the new Mr McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) works before inheriting his uncle’s cottage and his rabbit problem. Fortunately, the director of Easy A knows how to keep a comedy bobbing along, there are some nice lines, the wildlife is ridiculously cute and Gleeson and neighbour Bea (Rose Byrne) are not too shabby either. If you liked Paddington this is for you.

The Square (15)

Ruben Ostlund’s art scene satire was up for the best foreign film Oscar but lost out to the big-hearted A Fantastic Woman. Whether the Palme d’Or winner was penalised for its sometimes shocking content (this is not for the easily offended) or its too easy target, we will never know, but there are some genuinely funny moments as Stockholm museum creator Christian (Robert Peston lookalike Claes Bang) tries to make his new installation, the titular square where peace and goodness are meant to roam, the talk of the town and beyond. But with a ridiculously long runtime, be prepared for a long wait between laughs.

TOMB RAIDER (12A)

Swedish Oscar winner Alicia Vikander shoehorns herself into the iconic shorts and vest of acrobatic video game heroine Lara Croft in this reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise directed by Roar Uthaug. As a feisty teenager, Lara (Emily Carey) worships her archaeologist father Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), who travels around the world, solving puzzles to unearth great treasures belonging to ancient civilisations. He vanishes without trace during one perilous expedition and Lara loses direction in her life, haunted by the loss of her idol.

Now 21 years old, Lara is living in London, barely making the rent on the flat she shares with best friend Sophie (Hannah John-Kamen) by working as a motorcycle courier. She refuses to take the reins of her father’s business empire despite encouragement from his trusted partner Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas). Haunted by the past, Lara resolves to unravel the mystery of Croft’s disappearance by travelling to his last known location: an island off the coast of Japan.

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (15)

Based on Jonathan Ames’ novella of the same title, You Were Never Really Here is a brutal and unflinching revenge thriller, which allows

writer-director Lynne Ramsay to plumb the murky depths of the human condition on the streets of modern-day New York. She conjures a nightmarish vision of exploitation and degradation behind closed doors that has us biting our nails down to the cuticles, seen through the eyes of a traumatised war veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who is hired to rescue a teenage girl (Ekaterina Samsonov) from sex slavery. It is a masterclass in tightly coiled suspense. Phoenix delivers a fearless and, at times, heartbreaking performance as a broken man whose quest for redemption seems to be leading him down the road to hell.

Walk Like a Panther (12A)

Remember the awful spectacle of Saturday afternoon wrestling on the telly? Miss it? No, me neither. The folk behind this British comedy caper are hoping you do, though. Made according to the template set out in The Full Monty and its many imitators, Dan Cadan’s tale of old wrestling mates, dubbed The Panthers, staging a comeback to save their local pub is part later series Benidorm, part Last of the Summer Wine, with all the horrors that suggests.

Not even the presence of the usually reliable Stephen Graham as a wrestling wannabe who never got the chance to strut his stuff on telly can compensate for comedy this cheesy.

RED SPARROW (15)

Jennifer Lawrence gives all of herself – physically and emotionally – to the demanding title role of this white-knuckle espionage thriller torn from the pages of Jason Matthews’ award-winning novel, about an injured prima ballerina, who is conscripted into an elite Russian spy programme under the auspices of patriotism. The Oscar winner exposes every inch of her body in scenes of masterful seduction and sickening subjugation, including multiple sexual assaults and stomach-churning bouts of torture. It’s certainly not a film for the squeamish – the camera lingers on the aftermath of snapped bones and one sadistic sequence involving

a skin grafting device is the stuff of nightmares.

Lawrence weathers these bone-crunching blows, then shatters her character’s soul to smithereens when she thinks no one is looking, in the service of a tightly woven narrative, threaded with betrayal and double-crosses.

I, TONYA (15)

According to a title card at the beginning of Craig Gillespie’s blackly humorous biopic, I, Tonya is based on “irony free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews” with US figure skating champion Tonya Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. The film illuminates a grubby episode in sporting history – the 1994 attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan.

Screenwriter Steven Rogers invites the deeply flawed protagonists to talk directly to camera, offering contradictory and overlapping testimonies that make sense of the chain of events that led to Harding’s ban from competitive skating. Margot Robbie inhabits the title role with fearlessness and ferocity, tossing out expletives as if her life depended upon it as Harding suffers grievously at the hands of those closest to her. Sebastian Stan oozes slippery charm as the man who walks Tonya down the aisle and exerts his marital “right” to lay his hands on her in anger. Whether we believe Tonya, she recounts a cracking yarn of triumph againt adversity.

FINDING YOUR FEET (12A)

With its familiar cast and bittersweet approach to getting older, Richard Loncraine’s London-set drama is chasing the Best Exotic Marigold pound as surely as autumn succeeds summer. Imelda Staunton leads the way as Sandra, one-time Greenham Common protester with proud leftie sister Bif (Celia Imrie), but now a betrayed and frightened wife trying to start again. Can she find friendship among Bif’s dancing, adventuring, good-time pals of a certain age? The answer is thunderingly predictable and the tweeness takes some getting used to, but with a cast that also includes Timothy Spall and David Hayman you are in safe hands.

DARK RIVER (15)

Functioning as a sort of antidote to Finding Your Feet is this grim-up-north drama from Clio Barnard. Alice and Joe Bell (Ruth Wilson and Mark Stanley) were close growing up, but Alice fled the farm in Yorkshire as soon as she could, with flashbacks to her life with dad (played

by Sean Bean) making clear why. With her father now dead, Alice goes home to take what she feels belongs to her, but brother Joe has other ideas. While Barnard has been unlucky with timing in that her drama explores some of the same areas as the recently released The Levelling, the performances from Wilson (Luther) and Stanley (Game of Thrones, Love, Lies and Hope) make it well worth a look.

LADY BIRD (15)

Greta Gerwig’s magnificent directorial debut is a sublime coming-of-age comedy drama set in turn of the 21st century Sacramento. Although Lady Bird isn’t strictly autobiographical, Gerwig draws on fond memories of her Californian home town for a beautifully observed valentine to mother-daughter relationships and youthful exuberance, infused with unabashed warmth

for her well drawn characters. The writer-director has a sharp ear for the ebb and flow of pithy conversations and she has attracted a stellar cast led by Oscar nominees Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf as the spunky title character and her hard-working mother who generate friction every time they are in close proximity. Lady Bird is a near-perfect confluence of direction, writing and performance. Being incredibly picky, there are several instances when Ronan’s accent falters and her melodic Irish lilt comes through which momentarily breaks the spell cast by Gerwig’s film.