list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
POLITICAL DRAMA TIMBUKTU (12A) 96min ●●●●●
ROMANTIC DRAMA A LITTLE CHAOS (TBC) 116min ●●●●● SCI-FI COMEDY HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 (15) 93min ●●●●●
Cinematographer Sofian El Fani ensures that The sharp dialogue eschews faux period-speak
this is a stunningly beautiful, precisely composed film. It’s suffused with compassion as it celebrates the inner strength and quiet defiance of individuals at the mercy of a world where a shared humanity becomes the first casualty when intolerance and hatred take hold. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 29 May. for something more modern, which occasionally backfires with the odd jarring word or phrase. But what A Little Chaos lacks in historical accuracy, it certainly makes up for in entertainment, thanks to strong performances, an engaging story and confident direction. (Matthew Turner) ■ General release from Fri 17 Apr.
There could hardly be a more relevant film than the Oscar-nominated Timbuktu. Inspired by events in Mali during 2012, it follows the imposition of a brutal jihad. Director Abderrahmane Sissako opts for a measured approach that makes his film all the more heartbreaking. An area populated by farmers, fishermen and
nomads, and defined by a sense of harmonious co- existence, is suddenly a land where the gun rules. Smoking is forbidden. Music is forbidden. Football is forbidden. Women who do not cover up are sinful. The list is endless and infringement is mercilessly punished. ‘Where is the leniency? Where is forgiveness?’ asks the local imam (Adel Mahmoud Cherif). Farmer Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) and his wife Satima (Toulou Kiki) live with their children in the desert, with events ultimately placing them in the heart of this nightmare.
Alan Rickman’s sophomore directorial effort is a crowd-pleasing period drama. Kate Winslet plays Sabine de Barra, a 17th-century Parisian widow commissioned to work on the gardens of Versailles after she impresses landscape architect André Le Nôtre (Matthias Schoenaerts). Their increasingly close connection enrages Le Nôtre’s wife (Helen McCrory), despite the fact that they have an open relationship to allow for her social-climbing assignations at the court of King Louis XIV (played by Rickman with an eyebrow frequently raised). The moderate success of Hot Tub Time Machine owed as much to a resurgence of nostalgia about middle-aged machismo as it did to hefty servings of frat-boy humour and anarchic pop culture references. Returning director Steve Pink’s sequel loses John Cusack’s morose hero Adam, centring on the less likeable Lou (Rob Corddry) who, along with pals Nick (Craig Robinson) and Jacob (Clark Duke), uses the titular time machine to head forward to 2025 in a bid to discover who shot Lou in the groin in 2015.
Winslet is wonderful as de Barra, whose outward Adam Scott features as Adam’s grown-up
determination and capability mask her struggle with a haunting event from the past. She generates touching chemistry with Schoenaerts and there’s flamboyant support from Stanley Tucci, while McCrory finds a hint of sympathy for the duplicitous Madame Le Nôtre.
son, but is largely an onlooker as the team find themselves in a Terminator-style alternate universe. The scenarios are little more than an excuse for the kind of low-brow, genital-related humour that was a staple of 80s comedy. The original managed to throw in some darker
notions about the responsibilities of adulthood but, despite frenetic work from the talented cast, this over-complicated sequel never amounts to more than a series of cheap laughs. Fans of the first film will note a lack of balance: without Cusack’s notably sour contribution, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 sinks in a sea of its own bodily fluids. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 10 Apr.
COMEDY DRAMA FORCE MAJEURE (15) 119min ●●●●●
A family skiing holiday turns rivetingly sour in Swedish writer- director Ruben Östlund’s impeccably executed, discomforting dramedy, which holds humanity under an unflattering, unflinching microscope. It benefits from a simple but terrifically fruitful premise: when confronted with what he believes to be a life-threatening avalanche, a husband abandons his family, including his two young children, pausing only to pick up his gloves and iPhone. When all is revealed to be well, the fallout from his actions brings a marriage to its knees. Set over five days in an idyllic resort in the French Alps,
it follows a picture-perfect Swedish family as they implode following the craven behaviour of patriarch Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke). His wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) can’t shake the implications of his hasty departure and becomes consumed with resentment, which she bitterly voices in their interactions with others, leading to exquisitely uncomfortable, frequently fascinating discussions, alongside ample humiliation for the in- denial Tomas.
Kongsli is captivating as a woman who’s haunted by her husband’s instinct to save only his own skin, as is Kuhnke playing a man forced to confront his cowardice, who becomes increasingly and comically pathetic when his failings come pouring out. Östlund’s fourth narrative feature is unhurried and insightful, exploring the disintegrating familial relations with impressive poise, credibility and wit, confronting us with static compositions, and impishly immersing us in the awkwardness.
A penetrating study of human weakness, Force Majeure shows us things about these characters, and by extension ourselves, that we might not want to see. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Selected release from Fri 10 Apr.
2 Apr–4 Jun 2015 THE LIST 81