The Emoji Movie (U)

Two stars

With: Anthony Leondis

Voices: James Corden, TJ Miller

Runtime: 86 minutes

DOUBTLESS someone will review Anthony Leondis’s animated adventure using the techno squiggles of the title, but that way madness and inadvertent cultural offence lies (what does the aubergine mean anyway?). Enough to say that the tale of Gene (TJ Miller with James Corden as his pal Hi-5), a young citizen of Textopolis, is firmly aimed at the age range that starts and finishes in single figures. Gene is meant to be the “Meh” emoji, a character conveying utter boredom, but he is too full of life for that. Can he find a way to change? After 86 minutes of this soulless caper what can one say but … Meh.

England is Mine (15)

Three stars

Dir: Mark Gill

With: Jack Lowden, Jessica Brown Findlay

Runtime: 94 minutes

WHAT a year Borders-raised Jack Lowden is having, first starring in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, and here playing one Steven Patrick Morrissey. This is the Smiths’ frontman in his Seventies, pre-gladioli waving days, an origins story if you will, involving dreary jobs, stifled ambition and an art student pal (Jessica Brown Findlay) who lights a way out of the gloom. Mancunian director Mark Gill, here making his debut, gets the vibe of the times just right, even if he is prone to over-using the good visual ideas he has, with Lowden supplying a witty, dry as dust turn as the ego on legs.

GFT, August 4-13; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, August 25-29