The Guard
Fans of In Bruges should definitely put this on their viewing list, as Brendan Gleeson teams up with writer/director John Michael McDonagh (brother of In Bruges's Martin) for a rather brilliant black comedy with a thriller edge. Gleeson turns in what could be a career-best performance as an irreverent Irish cop paired with Don Cheadle's uptight FBI agent on a joint murder/narcotics investigation.
Killer Elite
Not, I'm sad to say, Sam Peckinpah's tough spy movie with Robert Duvall and James Caan, but a disappointing take on Ranulph Fiennes's memoir The Feather Men with the somewhat less starry partnership of Jason Statham and Clive Owen. The murky story concerns a special ops agent called out of retirement to kill renegade SAS soldiers but, with Statham on board, you just know it's going to be more about the pectorals than the politics.
Project Nim
It's Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes ... for real! Well, not quite, but a canny piece of programming meant that this documentary from the director of Man On Wire went into cinemas the same week as the fictional sci-fi blockbuster. Viewed in its own right and not in direct comparison, this study of a 1970s experiment to raise a chimp as a human child, which mixes archive footage and contemporary interviews, grows in stature. Intelligent, engrossing and very moving.
Without You
Anna Friel is enjoying something of a small-screen comeback at the moment. After watching her in Public Enemies the other week, this is a good time to remind ourselves of how good she was at the end of 2011 in three-part ITV drama Without You. She's totally convincing as a grief-stricken schoolteacher who believes her recently deceased husband might have been cheating on her.
Alan Morrison
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