The best films to watch at the cinema this week – and what to avoid
The pick of the week is A Hidden Life, the story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary conscience. It expands into a Second World War epic.
Bombshell is a bright, watchable film on a subject that ought to make us squirm. Sexism in the Fox newsroom for the #MeToo generation.
Just Mercy is a rather square social-issue drama starring and produced by Michael B. Jordan.
Waves is a painful coming-of-age thriller about real teen love that goes wrong, set against a beachside Florida backdrop.
And finally, Weathering With You is an animated visual treat from director Makoto Shinkai, with a beautifully-rendered teen romance plot.
A Hidden Life ★★★★★
Terrence Malick makes a grand comeback with this spiritual war epic about an Austrian farmer who faced execution during the Second World War for conscientious objection. It’s a stirring tribute to an utterly non-performative protest against state power.
Bombshell ★★★☆☆
The downfall of predatory Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, one of those #MeToo-triggering scalps, is retold in watchable if plasticky fashion, with an uncanny Charlize Theron as his golden girl Megyn Kelly, and Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie playing her fellow accusers. The film supplies a kind of canned outrage where depth is lacking.
Just Mercy ★★★☆☆
Michael B Jordan plays real-life attorney Bryan Stevenson, who set up his own legal practice to appeal against dubious murder convictions for clients on Death Row. Facing the inbuilt prejudice of Alabama’s criminal courts, he’s this generation’s Atticus Finch, in a middleweight prestige drama lifted by a sterling Jamie Foxx as his cause célèbre.
Waves ★★★★☆
This kaleidoscopic coming-of-age melodrama hits hard in its opening movement, then enthrallingly twists into more introspective forms. Kelvin Harrison Jr and Taylor Russell excel as Floridian siblings whose lives are derailed by a horribly avoidable tragedy, while director Trey Edward Shults balances vibrancy and grit.
Weathering With You ★★★★☆
The unflaggingly dazzling new animation from Japan’s Makoto Shinkai is another magical teenage romance in the Your Name vein – this time between a Tokyo runaway and a girl with mysterious meteorological powers. It’s a sweet first-love fable, with the metaphor dial cranked up to apocalypse.
Have you watched any of the “must-see” films on this list? We want to hear what you thought of them in the comments section below.
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