Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (12A), directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

4/5

DIVIDED into cheesy chapter headings, there’s nothing twee about this brutally funny and exquisitely written coming-of-age tale about a teenage lad forced to befriend a cancer-stricken classmate.

This adaptation by Jesse Andrews of his young adult novel of the same name is a wonderfully quirky and grounded drama, devoid of sentimentality — think a male version of Mean Girls meets The Fault in our Stars.

It centres on Greg (Thomas Mann), who navigates high-school life by staying under the radar and blending in with every clique while avoiding deeper relationships.

He describes his childhood friend Earl (RJ Cyler), with whom he has made 42 spoof short films of classic movies (A Sockwork Orange and Senior Citizen Cane), as a co-worker.

But his world is turned upside down when his mum makes him hang out with Rachel (Olivia Cooke) who has been newly diagnosed with leukemia. An unlikely friendship ensues.

Refreshingly honest and smart, with cracking performances from the young cast, just as the film is about to plunge into romantic or sentimental ground it veers in the opposite direction.

Don’t miss.

Maria Duarte

Ricki and the Flash (15), directed by Jonathan Demme

4/5

MY HEART sank when Meryl Streep, sporting a guitar, dangerously high heels and braided hair, starts to sing in Ricki and the Flash. I’d already suffered her warbling in Into the Woods. But I was wrong to be apprehensive.

She plays rock singer/guitarist Ricki, whose career — and life — is going nowhere and she’s filed for bankruptcy.

Then, former husband and father of her three grown-up children Pete (Kevin Kline) asks her to help their daughter Julie (Mamie Gummer), who’s a wreck after her husband leaves her.

Initially, Ricki’s a fish out of water in her ex’s palatial gated-estate mansion. But you don’t need to be a genius to predict the feel-good ending.

Happily, thanks to ideally cast key players and director Jonathan Demme’s handling of Diablo Cody’s sweetly perceptive screenplay, getting there is unexpectedly enjoyable.

Julie, who admits to attempting suicide, is played by Streep’s real-life daughter, making their on-screen relationship and rebonding all the more poignant — especially since, for once, Streep leaves scenery unchewed and is all the better for it. Kline, in his third film with Streep, is excellent, too.

Her manager tells Streep’s character, in her daytime job as a supermarket cashier: “I need you to satisfy and delight the customer.”

She, and everyone else involved, does just that here.

Alan Frank

No Escape (15), directed by John Erick Dowdle

2/5

A US family is caught up in a violent coup in south-east Asia in one of the most nail-biting thrillers of the year which, disturbingly, lacks any political depth or context.

In it, Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) moves with his family to “somewhere in Asia” — which looks very much like Thailand — to head his water company’s new plant there.

When a rebellion breaks out, headed by armed rebels who are executing foreigners, Jack enlists the help of a mysterious British tourist (Pierce Brosnan) to get his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and their two daughters (Claire Geare and Sterling Jerins) to safety.

Director John Erick Dowdle displays innate skill in delivering a nerve-rackingly tense and heart-stopping action thriller in which you totally empathise with Dwyer and his wife’s agonising plight.

It’s brutal stuff and the pair are superb and totally convincing as a married couple caught up in a terrifying situation. Yet Brosnan seems the odd man out, playing a shady and jaded 007-type agent straight out of a different film.

But a little more thought should have been spent on the two-dimensional rebels who are portrayed for no apparently good reason as evil, xenophobic and mindless thugs.

If you can screen that out, then this is one hell of a ride.

Maria Duarte

The Transporter Refuelled (15), directed by Camille Delamarre

2/5

IT’S impossible to imagine The Transporter franchise without Jason Statham in the driving seat.

But fans can enjoy a reboot which is just as slick and stylish with stunts as insane as in its predecessors.

Ed Skrein is the newly suited and booted crack mercenary Frank Martin who will deliver anything for a price.

Although he lacks the charisma and ebullience of Statham, that flaw’s overcome by his being teamed up with the suave and rugged Ray Stevenson who oozes enough charm for the both of them as his father, a retired spy.

Martin is tricked by a femme fatale (Loan Chabanol) in the south of France into helping her and her three sidekicks bring down the Russian human trafficker who forced her into prostitution 15 years earlier.

What ensues is a ludicrous but brainlessly fun non-stop action- packed thriller from director Camille Delamarre which should appeal to fans of the franchise.

Maria Duarte

American Ultra (15), directed by Nima Nourizadeh

3/5

JESSE EISENBERG practically pleads for critical lambasting by dumping art films for this noisy action thriller.

He’s fun as Mike Howell, a hapless and apathetic stoner living with girlfriend Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart) who works in a cash-and-carry and whose only interest is writing a graphic novel.

He’s prone to panic attacks too and that makes his unmasking as a highly trained, CIA sleeper agent who bloodily disposes of two assailants with lethal panache all the more surprising.

While this tall tale of corrupt CIA agents and governmental chicanery is more twisted and even more implausible than a politician’s press release, director Nima Nourizadeh drives it fast and furiously enough to entertain even though credulity is increasingly stretched.

Fans of kitchenware killing are taught how spoons and a frying pan can be employed to lethal effect, while addicts of suspense and adrenaline-surging if illogical action delivered ad lib without intellectual pretension should get their money’s worth.

As a drug-driven film, not to be sniffed at.

Alan Frank

Dope (15), directed by Rick Famuyiwa

3/5

MALCOLM (Shameik Moore) is a geeky teenage African-American hero in Rick Famuyiwa’s quirky coming-of-age comedy-drama who lives in a rough, tough Californian neighbourhood.

When his disapproving headmaster tells him: “You’re pretty damn arrogant,” Malcolm would agree.

He wants out and, being smart, hopes to make it to an Ivy League university but — obsessed with 1990s hip-hop and dressed like a rapper from that era — he’s unmercifully teased.

But everything changes when, after attending a drug dealer’s birthday party, he ends up with 20 kilos of eminently profitable dope.

Geek turns entrepreneur and markets his unexpected treasure trove for bitcoins by using the dark web while having to keep vengeful hoods at bay.

The sheer unabashed enthusiasm of everyone involved is infectious, making this morally dubious fable of crime and no real punishment an unexpected pleasure.