Trash (15), directed by Stephen Daldry

4/5

Few would claim that Stephen Daldry’s film of Andy Mulligan’s novel, which somewhat surprisingly has been scripted by rom com maestro Richard Curtis, is intended as a searing exposé of contemporary corruption in Brazil.

Following three penniless teenagers who survive by picking through trash in a dump in Rio, only to be sucked into a dangerous slew of political and police corruption and brutality after they discover a discarded wallet in the rubbish, it’s essentially a South American riff on Slumdog Millionaire.

But it certainly works well as a tense and thrilling adventure for teens.

It’s also highly effective in its all-too-credible representation of endemic corruption in a city whose money-driven high life is vividly contrasted with slum dwellers fighting for survival in the favelas.

Daldry’s excellent use of Brazilian locations showcases unforgettably realistic performances by Rickson Tevez, Eduardo Luis and Gabriel Weinstein as his young heroes. All three are non-professionals, which lends credibility to their junior 007-style action-packed adventures. Martin Sheen as a local priest and Rooney Mara as an aid worker do what they have to do well enough, although their relatively minor roles indicate their casting was probably essential when it came to funding the film.

Daldry doesn’t pull his punches and neither do the police. Their brutal beating up of one of the teens defuses any traces of Slum Dog Millionaire-style sentimentality and, unlike the latter, Trash does not end with an upbeat song-and-dance-number.

For once here’s a feel-good film armed with a valid and vital message.

Ethan Carter

Kingsman: The Secret Service (15), directed by Matthew Vaughn

4/5

Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn puts the fun back into the spy genre in this old-fashioned tale of espionage with a contemporary social and political edge.

A homage to the James Bond films, with a touch of The Avengers from the 1960s thrown in, Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman deliver a stylish, entertaining and high-octane action adventure feature which tackles class warfare, our insane obsession with mobile phones and environmental issues along the way.

Based on Mark Millar’s graphic novel, Kingsman is an elite Oxbridge-run organisation of gentlemen spies who operate from a Saville Row tailor’s shop.

To inject new blood into the snob-ridden firm and pay back a colleague’s life-saving debt Harry Hart (Colin Firth) recruits his son Eggsy (Taron Egerton), a street kid from a council estate and mentors him My Fair Lady-style.

Firth, channelling 007, Harry Palmer and John Steed, shows he has a bright future as an action hero kicking serious ass with an umbrella.

Meanwhile Egerton — last seen in Testament of Youth — shows exciting promise as he holds his own admirably opposite Firth, Michael Caine, Mark Strong and Samuel L Jackson.

Jackson is superlative as the megalomaniac villain who hates violence but who wants to cull the population to save the planet.

Full of clever film references, razor-sharp repartee and riveting action sequences, Kingsman is a nostalgic and fun-packed love letter to the spy films of the 1960s and ’70s.

Maria Duarte

Pelo Malo (15), directed by Mariana Rondon

5/5

Ever since teenagers used Brylcreem to create a facsimile of a teddy-boy quiff, kids have tried to fashion their hair into the latest craze.

In Pelo Malo it’s nine-year-old Junior (Samuel Lange Zambrano) who’s having a “pelo malo” (bad hair) day as he seeks to straighten out his curls and wear shiny suits to ape the antics of a singer.

Unsurprisingly, that doesn’t go down well with his hard-working single mother Marta (Samantha Castillo). Apart from the disruption it causes, some are suggesting that he’s straying from the straight and narrow.

Writer-director Mariana Rondon’s film offers a twist on the macho-conscious in Venezuela, along with a illustration of the measures it takes for many women simply to survive.

Apart from looking for a father figure for her son and having to accommodate her abusive boss, she has a crazy mother who’s only too wiling to help her son fulfill his tonsorial ambition.

This is a truly bitter-sweet coming-of-age tale that emphasises that the path to life burdened by poverty and ignorance requires determination and ingenuity.

It’s a remarkable slice of life that has universal application.

Jeff Sawtell

Inherent Vice (15), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

4/5

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of those blessed directors whose work is automatically hailed by reviewers for whom auteurs are infinitely more important than the actual films they make.

That’ll probably be the case with this multi-layered detective story, based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel, which finds pot-head private eye Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) drawn into a complex web of mystery, murder and mayhem by a former girlfriend.

Plenty happens — much of it confusing — as Sportello engages with a bunch of enjoyably weird characters, including a cop (James Brolin) whose lugubrious claim to fame is that the Los Angeles Times once described him as a “renaissance” detective.

Much of the time, I was in the dark as to what Anderson’s convoluted storytelling amounted too. Strangely, this approach worked, given that Phoenix didn’t appear to know what was going on either.

Ethan Carter

Son of a Gun (15), directed by Julius Avery

3/5

Although there is nothing particularly ground-breaking about this prison breakout heist film, it’s nevertheless compelling.

First-time director Julius Avery delivers a solid, gritty crime drama about teenage youth JR (Brenton Thwaites) who is saved from being raped in jail by Australia’s most notorious criminal Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor). In exchange he has to help Lynch escape and take part in a gold robbery.

Thwaites and McGregor, chilling as the badass convict, make a riveting team while Alicia Vikander shows her extraordinary versatility as the love interest.

A very competent drama which punches above its weight thanks to its fine cast.

Maria Duarte