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Four new films to see this week: Mother Mary, Rose of Nevada, Michael, Exit 8
Mother Mary ★★★★☆
Directed by David Lowery. Starring Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, Sian Clifford, Atheena Frizzell, FKA Twigs. 15A cert, limited release, 111 min
Complex, spooky drama – featuring more Denis Wheatley nods than expected – that casts Hathaway as a pop star reuniting with Coel’s dress designer at a moment of crisis. The stubborn murkiness is certain to put some audiences off. Featuring spooky, slippery songs by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX and FKA Twigs – now the plausible sound of worldwide success – Mother Mary is not revealing its secrets without a struggle. The film is about the cost of success. It is about the emptiness of fame. It is about the companionship of women. Recommended for the adventurous. Full review DC
Rose of Nevada ★★★★☆
Directed by Mark Jenkin. Starring George MacKay, Callum Turner, Francis Magee, Edward Rowe, Rosalind Saleazar, Mary Woodvine. 15A cert, limited release, 114 min
Jenkin, director of the gruelling Bait and the bizarre Enys Men, brings his old-school film-making techniques – 16mm shot on wind-up cameras – to time-travel weirdness on the Cornish coast. MacKay and Turner play fisherman whose reclaimed vessel take them back to their village three decades previously. Whereas Enys Men, though brilliant in its weirdness, distanced itself from its characters, the new picture is sticky and briny with rough humanity. For all the eccentricity of its premise, Rose of Nevada has things to say about how easily we can become disconnected from the relatively recent past. Full review DC
Michael ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Antoine Fuqua. Starring Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Laura Harrier, Juliano Krue Valdi, Miles Teller, Colman Domingo. 12A cert, gen release, 128 min
Backed by the kind of production budget normally reserved for resurrected dinosaurs running amok in a theme park, this long-gestating biopic of Michael Jackson offers two solid hours of cosplay karaoke. Jaafar Jackson does a good job channelling his late uncle Michael, and the tunes remain as toe-tapping as ever. But you wonder why the Jackson estate didn’t option the wildly successful stage shows MJ: The Musical and Thriller: Live instead. There’s no Elizabeth Taylor, no Janet Jackson and absolutely no suggestion of impropriety. It will, nonetheless, make a fortune. Expect a sequel featuring equally chasm-sized obfuscations. Full review TB
Exit 8 ★★★★☆
Directed by Genki Kawamura. Starring Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu. Cert 12A, gen release, 95 min