War Pony ★★★★☆
Directed by Riley Keough and Gina Gammell. Starring Jojo Bapteise Whiting, Ladainian Crazy Thunder, Jesse Schmockel, Sprague Hollanderm, Wilma Colhof, Iona Red Bear, Woodrow Lone Elk, Ta-Yamni Long Black Cat. 15A cert, gen release, 115 min
Naturalistic rhythms govern this tale of two young Native Americans wheeling and dealing against a backdrop of socioeconomic deprivation. Pitched somewhere between Chloé Zhao’s carefully calibrated doc-hybrid The Rider and a Richard Linklater slacker ridealong, this Caméra d’Or winner from Cannes was fashioned by debuting co-directors Keough and Gammell, their Pine Ridge reservation co-writers Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Redd, and the larger Oglala Lakota community. Keough, granddaughter of Elvis, successfully transitions to the other side of the camera with a respectful take of a community under pressure. Full review TB
Pamfir ★★★★☆
Directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk Starring Oleksandr Yatsentyuk, Stanislav Potyak, Solomiia Kyrylova. Curzon Home, 103 min
Masculinity has seldom been more toxic than in this compelling snapshot of life in the Bukovina region of western Ukraine, near the Romanian border. The handlebar-moustached hulk of the title, Leonid (known to friends as Pamfir, meaning “stone”), returns home to his wife and son after a spell working illegally in Poland. Leonid hopes to earn an honest living as a water diviner but that seems most unlikely in a lawless, superstitious backwater. A bold, arresting debut that balances muscular, crime-thriller tropes against moments of unsettling beauty, Full review TB
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ★☆☆☆☆
Directed by Steven Caple Jr. Starring Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, voices of Peter Cullen, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Ron Perlman, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Dean Scott Vaquez. 12A cert, gen release, 127 min
The latest terrible film in the franchise abandons the promise of 2018′s lovely Bumblebee with a slump back into all the familiar garbage. There is something about a stolen Porsche, something about a magical shard, something about time portals and something about Scourge, “herald of Unicron”. Before long, Ramos and Fishback, perfectly serviceable leads, are trying to make themselves heard above the same tedious mayhem that once drowned out Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. The last hour is almost entirely taken up with that still-disorienting CGI interspersed with kidult dialogue that shifts between inspirational hokum and tedious exposition. Full review DC
Flamin’ Hot ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Eva Longoria. Starring Jesse Garcia, Annie Gonzalez, Emilio Rivera, Dennis Haysbert, Tony Shalhoub. Disney+, 99 min
After Tetris and Air, with Beanie Baby and Pop Tart films still to come, we are looking at yet another addition to the brand-licking genre. Longoria’s own brandopic tells the (much disputed) story of the spirited Mexican-American man who helped invent Frito-Lay’s Flamin’ Hot line of corn snacks. The broad sentimentality of the Lewis Colick/Linda Yvette Chávez screenplay — not to mention its barely qualified devotion to the corporate ideal — betrays the potential for a properly pungent take on American pipedreams. Good performances. Decent message. Pallid politics. Full review DC
