All of Us Strangers ★★★★★
Directed by Andrew Haigh. Starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy. 16 cert, gen release, 105 min
Scott stars as a young gay writer who summons up visions of his late parents (Bell and Foy) while struggling with an autobiographical piece. Mescal is the troubled neighbour with whom he begins an affair. It adds up to an emotional, intelligent experience that, drawing on rich, glassy cinematography from Jamie Ramsay, is simultaneously mournful and celebratory. Scott is coiled and fraught. Mescal, a perfect complement, has a looser and more dangerous energy. So successful is the concoction that one is prepared to forgive it an emotional overreach in the dying seconds. Full review DC
The Colour Purple ★★★☆☆
Directed by Blitz Bazawule. Starring Taraji P Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, Fantasia Barrino, Louis Gossett Jr. 12A cert, gen release, 141 min
Decent translation of the Broadway musical based on Alice Walker’s famous novel. There has been much chatter of late concerning the quality of modern screen musicals, specifically the lack of hummable hits in Wonka and Mean Girls. The Colour Purple, similarly, lifts lovely leitmotifs from spirituals, gospel and blues without producing anything that sounds like a showstopper. Tellingly, the best hook comes from Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister), a Quincy Jones song bequeathed from the 1985 Spielberg film. Stuck with a question as old as Walker’s novel: why on Earth would the impossibly glamourous Shug (Henson) ever hook up with Mister (Domingo)? TB
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Samsara ★★★★☆
Directed by Lois Patiño. Starring Amid Keomany, Toumor Xiong, Simone Milavanh, Mariam Vuaa Mtego. Limited release, 113 min
Stunningly ambitious art film that takes an elder lady from her death in Laos to rebirth as a goat in Zanzibar. In the transition we are asked to close our eyes as a light show makes patterns through the skin. It is unfairly facetious — but irresistible — to note that, in another era, Samsara would have played to the sweet scents of hand-rolled smokables. Spanish director Patiño does, however, have a more serious aim in mind: areal attempt here to connect with the beliefs and hopes of unfamiliar cultures. An utter original. DC
Padre Pio ★★★☆☆
Directed by Abel Ferrara. Starring Shia LaBeouf, Cristina Chiriac, Marco Leonardi, Salvatore Ruocco, Asia Argento. 15A cert, gen release, 104 min.
The holy men in turmoil at the heart of Martin Scorsese’s Silence look positively fun-loving set beside LeBeouf’s tortured Italian saint. Controversialist Abel Ferrara’s portrait of the cult-worshipped Capuchin crafts a superhero origin-style story. At the end of the first World War, men return from the frontlines to the grim immiseration of San Giovanni Rotondo. Future saint Francesco Forgione’s affliction and self-flagellation is tied to the blood of the oppressed people. The narrative can feel disconnected, but in its messy, imperfect way Ferrara’s film is wrestling with a dynamic that has divided the Catholic Church since its inception. TB
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