FILM OF THE WEEK

SELMA (12A, 128 mins)
Drama/Romance.
David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, Alessandro Nivola, Common, Dylan Baker. Director: Ava DuVernay.

Released: February 6 (UK & Ireland)

More than 45 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, director Ava DuVernay honours the memory of the leader of the US Civil Rights Movement with this impassioned biopic.

While there are lingering doubts about the historical accuracy of Selma, the emotional wallop the film delivers is beyond question.

In particular, the recreation of the iconic march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge chills the blood.

Oxford-born actor David Oyelowo delivers a breakout performance replete with Georgia accent as the activist.

He is mesmerising and would surely have been in Oscar contention as Best Actor later this month had Paul Webb's script gifted him a few more barnstorming speeches.

DuVernay opens with a chilling act of violence that exemplifies racial tensions of the era.

In 1960s America, political bureaucracy and prejudice deny the African-American electorate the chance to vote in the forthcoming election in which President Lyndon B Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) hopes to be returned to the White House by the people.

Martin Luther King Jr (Oyelowo) entreats the President to right this democratic wrong but Johnson and his adviser Lee C White (Giovanni Ribisi) don't consider voting rights to be high on their list of priorities.

So King and his team head to the community of Selma, Alabama to lead a peaceful protest march with their friends from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The President seeks a private audience with J Edgar Hoover (Dylan Baker), the first Director of the FBI, to discuss how to remove this thorn from his side.

"We can weaken the dynamic, dismantle the family," explains Hoover, referring to tensions between King and his wife Coretta Scott King (Carmen Ejogo).

In Selma, local police under the jurisdiction of Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth) attack protesters with batons as TV cameras capture the brutality for horrified viewers.

Consequently, pressure grows on Johnson to intervene while King takes temporary leave of his wife and family to spearhead a second march.

Selma skilfully ebbs and flows between events in Alabama and Washington, relentlessly cranking up the tension between figures on both sides of the debate.

Oyelowo is supported by a terrific ensemble cast including Ejogo as the dutiful wife, who stands by her man despite his dalliances away from home.

"Do you love me?" coolly asks Coretta in one of the film's most memorable scenes. "Do you love the others?"

Roth chews scenery as the Governor who believes resistance should be met with extreme force, while Wilkinson brings a touch of desperation to the most powerful man on Capitol Hill.

Luther King Jr had a dream and through the lens of DuVernay's film, we are minded that we must all continue to chase it.

:: SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 8/10

 

RELEASED THIS WEEKEND

 

SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE (U, 85 mins)
Animation/Family/Comedy/Action.
Featuring the voices of Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes. Directors: Richard Starzack, Mark Burton.

Released: February 6 (UK & Ireland)

Bristol-based Aardman Studios works its stop-motion animated magic on a colourful big screen adventure for the mischievous sheep, who first appeared in Wallace and Gromit's 1995 escapade A Close Shave and has been baad to the bone in a self-titled CBBC series since 2007.

Drawing loving inspiration from other Aardman films including Chicken Run, Shaun The Sheep Movie is a shear delight, melding slapstick and subtler humour to appeal to young fans and their wranglers.

Directors Mark Burton and Richard Starzack shepherd this boisterous romp through various twists and turns at a breathless pace.

They litter the screen with wry visual gags, including an airborne cow clearing the roof of the Over The Moon public house.

Stop-motion visuals burst with colour and action sequences are orchestrated with mind-boggling technical precision.

As usual, Shaun is at the centre of the madcap action.

The flock grows tired of the daily routine on Mossy Bottom Farm under the watchful eye of Bitzer the sheepdog.

So the animals hoodwink the Farmer into taking a well-deserved day off so they can do the same.

Unfortunately, this cunning plan goes awry and the Farmer ends up with a nasty bout of memory loss after a high-speed journey to The Big City inside a runaway caravan.

Off the hoof, Shaun and his fleecy friends board the 62 bus from Mossy Bottom to the metropolis, determined to bring their beloved master back home.

Unfortunately, they attract the attention of a nasty animal containment officer called Trumper, who doesn't want any farmyard escapees on the lamb on his patch.

Aided by an orphan dog named Slip, the sheep disguise themselves as humans to pull the wool over the eyes of unsuspecting residents of The Big City and track down the Farmer.

In human form, the sheep enjoy haute cuisine at a bistro called Le Chou Brule, while the Farmer discovers a new calling with hair clippers at an upscale boutique.

Back at Mossy Bottom, The Naughty Pigs run amok in the farmhouse, oblivious to the hare-brained antics of the other four-legged residents.

With half-term grazing on the horizon, Shaun The Sheep Movie will have families flocking in droves to local cinemas.

There's nothing woolly about Burton and Starzack's screenplay, which doesn't pause to bleat between set pieces, propelling the narrative forward without sacrificing the characterisation.

There are some lovely interludes here like Shaun's temporary incarceration in an animal shelter, which also houses a psychotic cat from the same litter as Hannibal Lecter and a dog with BARK and BITE tattooed on its knuckles.

As with other Aardman offerings, the animators' imprints are occasionally visible in the expressive clay protagonists, which is part of the film's undeniable charm.

Ewe won't be disappointed.

:: NO SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 7.5/10

JUPITER ASCENDING (12A, 127 mins)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Action/Romance.
Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Tuppence Middleton, Douglas Booth, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Ajala, Doona Bae. Directors: Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski.

Released: February 6 (UK & Ireland)

Hollywood needs - but probably couldn't afford - more filmmakers like Lana and Andy Wachowski.

In 1999, the Chicago-born siblings pioneered the slow-motion "bullet time" effect in The Matrix and its impenetrable sequels, and three years ago, they delivered an admirable yet flawed rendering of David Mitchell's supposedly unfilmable novel, Cloud Atlas.

The Wachowskis are daredevils, willing to go out on a limb to realise their epic visions, even if the limb snaps under the weight of their bold ambition.

The bough certainly breaks during Jupiter Ascending, a bombastic space opera with a muddled narrative glued together by jaw-dropping digital trickery.

In 3D and IMAX, the writer-directors serve up a feast for the senses, choreographing aerial battles at dizzying speed to the propulsive clatter of Michael Giacchino's score that take heavy choral nods from the most recent Star Wars trilogy.

Once the computer-generated dust settles and the good-looking cast attempts to distil the plot, you sense any logic was jettisoned out of an airlock in order to accommodate the state-of-the-art thrills.

The queen of the royal alien house of Abrasax is murdered, leaving behind three heirs: Balem (Eddie Redmayne), his sister Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) and playboy younger brother Titus (Douglas Booth).

The siblings own various planets in the universe, which they harvest for resources, and the most valuable is earth, which belongs to greedy Balem.

In an outrageous quirk of genetic fate, Balem learns that an immigrant cleaner called Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) possesses a rare DNA combination, which matches his late mother and therefore entitles her to stake a claim to earth.

He dispatches hench-creatures to slay Jupiter so possession reverts to him.

Meanwhile, Titus scents an opportunity to usurp his older sibling and hires a genetically engineered ex-military hunter called Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) to protect Jupiter and deliver her to the altar so he can claim earth through marriage.

This covert mission is compromised when Caine develops feelings for the nubile and feisty earthling.

Jupiter Ascending is a lavish slice of sci-fi hokum, punctuated by occasional lines of loopy dialogue - "Bees are genetically disposed to recognise royalty" - and lukewarm on-screen romance.

The Wachowskis conceive one neat visual trick: Tatum's rocket-powered boots, which allow the strapping actor to skate around skyscrapers and through exploding artillery of the myriad melees.

Oscar nominee Redmayne hissy-fits as the chief villain, whose plans to liquidise humans to make a youth-regenerating serum are thrown into disarray by Jupiter and her hunky protector.

Supporting cast pout and growl in underwritten roles but they are invariably drowned out by the sound and fury of the special effects wizards razing downtown Chicago and Abrasax outposts in the glittering firmament.

You get what you pay for and Jupiter Ascending is a dazzling, cacophonous yet almighty mess.

:: SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 5/10

THE INTERVIEW (15, 112 mins)
Comedy/Action.
James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang, Timothy Simons, Reese Alexander. Directors: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg.

Released: February 6 (UK & Ireland)

If all publicity is good publicity, then Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's contentious action comedy has been a marketing dream.

The film monopolised column inches and airtime last year after hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace attacked Sony Pictures, releasing confidential data about employees and A-list stars on the company's roster.

The scale of the cyber attack against a corporation with a strong technology pedigree was dizzying, culminating in threats against American cinema chains that were planning to screen The Interview.

After all of the brouhaha and vociferous debate about free speech, The Interview turns out to be a crass, lumbering and toothless political satire.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's bad taste puppet satire Team America: World Police trampled over similar ground in 2004 with considerably more gumption and style.

Their marionettes jumped to a pulsating soundtrack of original songs including "Freedom Isn't Free" but all The Interview can muster is James Franco caterwauling Katy Perry.

"Baby you're a firework," he croons.

No, baby you're a damp squib.

Dave Skylark (Franco) is the gregarious host of entertainment show Skylark Tonight, which prides itself on headline-grabbing celebrity exposes.

Long-time producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) learns that Kim Jong-un (Randall Park), Supreme Leader of North Korea, is an ardent fan of the show, so he casually approaches the President's advisors for an on-air interview.

Miraculously, the notoriously secretive regime agrees.

"All questions will be supplied by the Supreme Leader," confirms the President's right-hand woman Sook Yung Park (Diana Bang).

Shortly before they depart for Pyongyang, Dave and Aaron meet with CIA Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan), who wants the duo to poison Kim with ricin during their private audience.

The lads agree but the covert operation gradually falls apart when Lacey discovers her inside men are buffoons.

The Interview starts promisingly with a North Korean anthem awash with politically incorrect lyrics against the west and a Skylark Tonight episode devoted to rapper Eminem, who outs himself during a chat with Dave about his homophobic lyrics.

"I've been leaving a breadcrumb trail of gayness," explains the rapper, bounding out of the closet.

The uncomfortable giggles end there and for the next 90 minutes, Dan Sterling's script careens from one clumsy homophobic interlude to the next, until Dave determines that Kim must die because, "That's the American way!"

The central pairing of Franco and Rogen grate before they have departed American soil, long before Kim has proudly shown off a vintage tank, which was a gift to his country from Stalin, and Dave has corrected him: "In my country, it's pronounced Stallone."

Mindless violence explodes in the final act including a slow-motion face-off between the boys and Kim that averts nuclear Armageddon with all the subtlety and finesse of a sledgehammer to the sternum.

:: SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 4/10

Damon Smith