The Outrun ★★★★☆
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paapa Essiedu, Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane. 15A, gen release, 117 min
Fine adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir following her time spent at home in the Orkneys after a spell in rehab for alcoholism. The film is in touch with nature in a way that allows no sentimentality. But it is Ronan’s central performance that will attract most attention. The Irish actor is extending in more significant ways, showing a brittleness and a latent hostility not previously much in evidence. She powerfully captures the experience of a white-knuckle recovery period, the sense of fearing not just a succumbing to booze, but also to any emotional release. Full review DC
My Old Ass ★★★★☆
Directed by Megan Park. Starring Maisy Stella, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks, Aubrey Plaza, 15A cert, Prime Video, 89 min
A smart, sassy spin on the “letters to my younger self” subgenre, Park’s second feature follows 18-year-old Elliot (confidently essayed by Nashville regular Stella), who obliviously walks out on her birthday party with her two best friends (Ziegler and Brooks). Later, after she has ingested psychedelics, she finds herself getting sage life advice from her 39-year-old self (Plaza). The low-fi sci-fi mines much hilarity from the Elliot exchanges and Plaza’s reliable drollery. My Old Ass sensitively and sweetly negotiates coming-of-age themes, first love, wistful summer recollections, and wise-cracking dialogue. Full review TB
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Megalopolis ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight 15A cert, limited release, 138 min.
The kindest thing to say about Coppola’s already notorious folly is that it strives and fails to contain the life and works of its maker. There’s something of the hermetically sealed worlds of such Coppola joints as One from the Heart and a welcome dollop of the ambition that shaped Apocalypse Now. Driver plays a genius architect caught between the vagaries of corrupt officials in a modern city that too much resembles ancient Rome. It remains something to see, interestingly atrocious, misfiring in the grandest scale, and often best watched through the fingers. Full review TB
Will & Harper ★★★☆☆
Directed by Josh Greenbaum. Featuring Will Ferrell, Harper Steele. 15A cert, Netflix, 114 min
Ferrell and Steele, pals since working together on Saturday Night Live three decades ago, drive across America following the latter’s transition from male to female. This is not a story of a man being won over. Ferrell, as decent as you would expect, could, from the start, hardly be more understanding and accommodating. The documentary works as a feel-good odyssey — salted with some online prejudice — through a country of familiar contrasts. You could, perhaps, see it as the anti-Top Gear special (or whatever the Clarkson Lads’ thing was called on Prime Video). Nicer, warmer, militantly tolerant. Full review DC
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