JOAN OF ARC/JEANNE ★★★★☆
Directed by Bruno Dumont. Starring Lise Leplat Prudhomme, Jean-Francois Causeret, Daniel Dienne, Fabien Fenet, Robert Hanicotte, Yves Habert, Fabrice Luchini. Curzon Home Cinema, 137 min
Dumont follows up The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2017) – a heavy metal fantasia – with a wilfully inactive drama concerning the saint's later triumphs and tragedies. The proceedings witter in a way that serves to highlight the preposterousness, as does the young age of the star, a detail that diverges from the conventional died-at-19 narrative and leaves the viewer to ponder grown men taking military orders from a child talking to a cloud. Droll. Peculiar. Lyrical. But not for everyone. TB
7500 ★★★☆☆
Directed by Patrick Vollrath. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Aylin Tezel, Aurélie Thépaut, Carlo Kitzlinger, Paul Wollin. Amazon Prime, 92 min
Gordon-Levitt co-pilots a Paris-Berlin flight that gets hijacked by terrorists wielding shards of glass. This clever first feature from writer-director Vollrath (Oscar-nominated for his 2015 short film, Everything Will Be Okay) is strong on aviation detail. The darkened cockpit setting creates a sense of confinement, even if the film is seldom as convincingly claustrophobic as such one-setting thrillers as Doug Liman's The Wall or Rodrigo Cortés' Buried. Decent entertainment. TB
THE DAY AFTER I'M GONE/HAYOM SHEACHREY LECHTI ★★★★☆
Directed by Nimrod Eldar.Starring Menashe Noy, Zohar Meidan, Alon Neuman, Sarit Vino Elad. Mubi, 95 min
Hugely impressive Israeli film concerning a middle-aged widow's faltering efforts to process his daughter's suicide attempt. The debut director initially keeps the young woman out of frame or out of focus to illustrate how disconnected the two family members have become. On a fraught visit to the occupied territories they gain a smidgeon of understanding, but not so much to nudge the film into sentimentality. An incisive, grown-up drama powered by excellent performances. DC
RESISTANCE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Clémence Poésy, Matthias Schweighöfer, Félix Moati, Géza Röhrig, Karl Markovics. VOD, 120 min
Who knew that Marcel Marceau – who was to mime as Anton Karas was to the zither – worked bravely for the French Resistance during the occupation? This efficient film explains how he and his brave colleagues helped thousands of Jewish children across the Swiss border to safety. Eisenberg is not really up to the mime, but fortunately the picture is largely concerned with the protagonists underground heroics. It's sometimes corny and often sentimental. But it works. DC
