Men ★★★☆☆
Directed by Alex Garland. Starring Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, Gayle Rankin.16 cert, gen release, 100 min.
Peculiar, imaginatively shot folk horror starring an excellent Buckley as a bereaved woman who encounters various manifestations of toxic masculinity while holidaying in the English home counties. Kinnear stretches out to play every ghastly man in the village. For all the busyness of the action and the braveness of the performances, Men does, however, have trouble locating a satisfactory route out of its weird set up. You couldn’t say there were any insights into how men get this way and how they might become something else. Maybe the creative eccentricity is enough in itself. DC
I Am Zlatan ★★★☆☆
Directed by Jens Sjögren. Starring Granit Rushiti, Dominic Andersson Bajraktati, Cedomir Glisovic, Merima Dizdarevic, Håkan Bengtsson, Selma Mesanovic. 15A cert, limited release, 98 min
Surprisingly successful dramatisation of footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović's rise. Rushiti has remarkable screen presence and an intensity to match the person he is portraying. Playing Zlatan from his teenage years onwards, he keeps his chin up, despite an impoverished upbringing, characterised by petty theft, classroom fidgeting, and undisciplined spells on the pitch. There’s a genuine sense of how precarious Zlatan’s talent is. Director Sjögren moves between different time periods - kudos to the production team and their careful period details - for a drama that will engage even the football agnostic. TB
Olga ★★★☆☆
Directed by Elie Grappe. Starring Anastasiia Budiashkina, Sabrina Rubtsova, Caterina Barloggio, Théa Brogli, Jérôme Martin, Tanya Mikhina. Limited release, 85 min
Here is an interesting, beautifully acted if somewhat underpowered drama about the connections between the public and the personal in the life of a Ukrainian gymnast during the 2014 Maidan disturbances. Budiashkina, a gymnast in real life, plays the title character, who escapes for Switzerland as the protests against the sitting government swell. The lead and her co-stars work hard at creating a drama about the tensions of close collaboration. But one does yearn to get a bit more engaged with the technical rigours of the gymnastics game. DC
Bergman Island ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. Starring Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, Grace Delrue, Mia Wasikowska, Anders Danielsen Lie, Hampus Nordenson. 15A cert, limited release, 114 min
Two married film directors (Krieps and Roth) travel to Fårö to complete an artist’s residency. The set-up and the use of the bed from Scenes of a Marriage promises a Bergmanesque relationship implosion that never comes. Instead, we get mere hints that there is tension generated by his greater success as a filmmaker. Even these potentially corrosive aspects fizzle. Despite solid performances and Denis Lenoir’s bright cinematography, this is disappointing from the director of Eden and Goodbye First Love. TB
