Movie of the week – Don’t Breathe
This just might be the most exciting week for new releases we’ve had all year. Don’t Breathe is a white knuckle thriller in which three young burglars bite off more than they can chew when they break into the home of an aging, blind military veteran. Director Fede Alvarez does a great job of building up tension and suspense in a claustrophobic setting. One to see with a nervous crowd.
Hell or High Water
In Texan set crime drama Hell or High Water, brothers Chris Pine and Ben Foster pull off a series of robberies of branches of the bank set to foreclosure their family farm. Jeff Bridges is the grizzled Texas Ranger determined to nail the perpetrators before he retires. The scenario may be cliched, but this is a character study par excellence, and an anger-inducing examination of the effects of the recession on rural American communities.
Captain Fantastic
There’s more anger brimming under the surface in Captain Fantastic, a comic drama starring Viggo Mortensen as a father who has raised his family in the forests of the Pacific North West. When his wife passes away following prolonged cancer treatment, he’s forced to return to ‘civilisation’ in an attempt to stop his deceased wife’s parents from giving her a Christian burial against her dying wishes. A comic but melancholy treat.
Anthropoid
Anthropoid is a gripping WWII thriller detailing the assassination of high-ranking Nazi Reinhard Heidrich by members of the Czech resistance. Our own Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan do an impressive job of mingling with the mostly Czech cast, and the final set-piece is an exciting and honourable tribute to some unsung heroes.
Ben-Hur
There’s a new version of Ben-Hur out this week. It can’t come close to recreating the analog spectacle of the 1959 version, but it features some impressive sequences. At half the length of the Charlton Heston movie, it all feels too rushed however.
The Blue Room
The lowlight of the week is French erotic thriller The Blue Room. Mathieu Almaric directs and stars in a Fatal Attraction type tale that’s certainly stylish but lacks enough substance to keep it engaging.
By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com
