Westside truly is Birmingham’s capital of entertainment for the whole family.
With Ice Skate Birmingham, the Big Wheel and other rides now open in Centenary Square, why not enjoy the fair AND take in a film at one of Westside’s brilliant 12-screen multiplexes?
A visit to Cineworld Broad Street or Odeon Luxe Broadway Plaza could also leave you thirsty and hungry, so make a whole day of it by enjoying one of the many nearby pubs, bars or restaurants as well. Meanwhile, here’s what to watch …
Heretic (15, 111mins). When two young female Mormon missionaries knock at the door of Mr Reed (Hugh Grant) they discover they are not in the place where they might ordinarily want to be. He even has a physical model of what lies beneath…
The verdict: ☆☆☆☆
Hugh Grant enjoyed great, early-career success by starring in blockbuster romantic comedies Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones and Love Actually.
Despite this mountain of evidence suggesting he’s a very good British actor, the impression was that he didn’t actually like acting all that much, certainly not in the way that Michael Caine devoured his craft.
Perhaps not since Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) has the now 64-year-old Grant taken a ‘risk’ as big as this cat-and-mouse-thriller.
Heretic is not just an entertainingly enjoyable, Saw-lite horror where the wrong choices can mean nasty surprises in near total darkness, but it will also make anyone who believes in religion think long and hard. They might think ‘What am I being told?’ and why and whether or not they are being controlled for reasons they are too blind to see.
Grant is terrific playing against type behind a pair of dodgy spectacles. One hopes he hasn’t left it too late to eye up even more challenging roles in future.
Anora (18, 139 mins). Young Brooklyn stripper Anora meets the son of a Russian oligarch and gives him more time than his riches are worth. When his parents find out they are hopping mad and soon en route to New York…
The verdict: ☆☆☆☆
If an X-rated cross between Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike character, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and Noomi Rapace as the revengeful Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sounds appealing, then this is top-drawer, adult entertainment for you.
The first American film to win the coveted Palme D’Or at Cannes for more than a decade stars Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) in a truly breakout role as a fearless nighttime economy worker.
Stretching Madison’s impressive talents far beyond what has ever been needed to play even the feistiest Bond girls, Anora is soon up to her neck in trouble with characters played by mostly Russian actors.
All that from being tempted by the heady lifestyle of spoiled rich kid Anton (Mark Eydelshteyn – aka Eidelstein – channelling a wiry, Russian version of New York-born heartthrob Timothy Chalomet).
If Anora is overloaded with dispassionate sex for an hour, it then becomes a turbocharged Meet The Parents comedy thriller, albeit with violence never far away.
Director Sean Baker (The Florida Project / Red Rocket) loves filming stories about immigrants, sex workers and marginalised people. With the action here taking us from from Coney Island to Vegas and back, there are also plenty of Hangover tones in his brilliantly-shot, cautionary tale about everything from sexual taboos to the potential perils of inherited wealth. Ouch!
Juror #2 (12A, 114 mins). A court will determine whether the death of a woman after a row in a bar is a clear case of murder at the hands of her partner. But when Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy) is called up to the jury, will his own personal information lead to a fair trial in the podcast age?
The verdict: ☆☆☆☆
Whether you judge him on longevity, productivity, charisma or achievement, there will never be another career like Clint Eastwood’s, the legendary actor turned leading producer and director who celebrated his 94th birthday on May 31.
Having been lucky enough to meet Clint three times, enjoy what is likely to be his last film behind the camera while you can see it on the big screen.
Clearly inspired by a key car scene in The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and directing with his trademark economy, Juror #2 poses heartfelt questions about truth, honesty and just desserts with Hoult’s character as imminent father Justin Kemp tested to the limit by a moral dilemma.
Taglined ‘Justice is blind. Guilt sees everything’, the film has a couple of jumps in the storytelling but Toni Collette delivers as the unglamorous prosecutor Faith Killebrew. Roles for co-stars JK Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland are underwritten.
Juror #2 might be no match for what I think was Clint’s best film this century, Gran Torino (2008). But given that it’s not easy to come up with a gripping new courtroom drama, this moral maze and dissection of the limits of the law makes it a clear upgrade on the late-career likes of The 15:17 to Paris, The Mule and Cry Macho.
- Your reviewer: Graham Young has been reviewing films for the media in Birmingham for the last 35 years, serving the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury, BirminghamLive and BBC WM. He was the 1996 Regional Film Journalist of the Year, and runner-up 1997-99.
PICTURES: Juror #2, Warner Bros; Heretic, Entertainment; Anora, Universal.
ENDS
