Moebius (18)

Directed by Kim Ki-duk

4/5

Director-writer Kim Ki Duk has travelled some since the success of his Marxist take on Buddhist meditation in Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring in 2003.

His last, Pieta, entered the Christian realm of sacrifice and redemption. Moebius goes into the land of Greek tragedy — complete with a cast of a modern-day Zeus, Jocasta and Oedipus.

Devoid of dialogue and graphic depictions of sexual violence — rape, castration, sado-masochism and obsessive disorders — it’s intended as a modern morality tale.

Kim describes then as  “connected as like the Moebius strip” with the pubescent son’s physique and psyche being shaped by the misdeeds of his parents.

They’re nameless petty-bourgeois stereotypes — the violent, philandering patriarch (Cho Jae Hyun), the abused and vengeful mother (Lee Eun Woo) and their callow, desensitised son (Seo Young Ju).

Sufficient to say it’s shocking and perversely comic at the same time as when a severed penis is swallowed before they look for alternatives, from transplants to experimenting with self-abuse.

Rather than satiating lust, it’s clearly attacking the machismo used to seeking substitutes for life, love and the pursuit of pleasure without recourse to ruthless exploitation.

By no means his best effort, it’s well worth watching an artist struggling to push the limits rather than being satisfied with churning out for commerce.

Can’t see it taking off in Arkansas despite their alleged affinity for the practice of kissing kith and kin. 

Jeff Sawtell

God’s Pocket (15)

Directed by John Slattery 

3/5

This gritty and rather bleak dark comedy set in the fictitious working class community of God’s Pocket makes an interesting directorial feature debut for Mad Men’s John Slattery. 

Based on Peter Dexter’s novel it stars Philip Seymour Hoffman (in one of his last performances) as Mickey whose annoying stepson is killed on a construction site but the incident is covered up. His mother Jeanie (Christina Hendricks) is convinced it wasn’t an accident and demands to know the truth. 

This is essentially about a community closing ranks and their intolerance of outsiders even if, like Mickey, they have lived there for years. 

Hoffman, is superb as the beleaguered and soulful Mickey who plays the straight man to all the crazy antics that occur around him. 

Hendricks is stunning and wonderfully vulnerable as the grieving mother who at times shows the fragility of Marilyn Monroe. 

Slattery coaxes some great performances from the rest of his enviable cast which includes John Turturro, Eddie Marsan and Richard Jenkins. 

Although he doesn’t nail the tone down it is the sublime acting that saves this film. 

You can’t help but marvel at the depths of Hoffman’s skill and talent and the waste of what could have been. 

Maria Duarte 

Lilting (15)

Directed by Hong Khaou

3/5

This is an intimate and moving drama about love, grief and cultural differences. 

Set in London it centres around a Cambodian Chinese mother (Pei Pei Cheng) who is mourning the loss of her only son Kai (Andrew Leung) who she feels dumped her in an old people’s home where she can’t communicate with anyone.  

Kai’s lover Richard (Ben Whishaw) desperately tries to connect with her via an interpreter but Junn never knew her son was gay so the attempts are excruciatingly awkward. 

When he tries to help Junn with her budding romance with fellow resident Alan (Peter Bowles) it all goes to pot as the language barrier was the only reason they got on so well. 

Through flashbacks and ghostly encounters you learn of their shared grief and pain. 

With riveting performances by Whishaw and Cheng you can’t help but be touched by this compelling tale. 

Maria Duarte

Welcome to New York (18) 

Directed by Abel Ferrara

3/5

With the most prolific disclaimer issued at the beginning it is made clear this drama is inspired by a court case but the characters and their actions are totally fictitious. 

Unfortunately former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn disagreed and announced he was suing the filmmakers for defamation after it was screened in Cannes this year. 

Set in New York it stars Gerard Depardieu as Devereaux, a powerful French financier with presidential aspirations who is arrested for raping a hotel maid. 

Depardieu gives a towering and hard-core performance as the sexually depraved Devereaux — who believes he can force himself on any woman — as he lays everything bare in this no holds barred portrayal. 

The first 20 minutes makes very difficult and uncomfortable viewing as Depardieu partakes in several debauched orgies with prostitutes in a hotel room before assaulting the housekeeper. It is all rough and nasty. 

What is interesting is how after he is apprehended he is treated like anyone else by the authorities undergoing a dehumanising strip search. 

Meanwhile Jacqueline Bisset is magnificent as Devereaux’s ballsy long-suffering rich wife Simone. She takes on Depardieu and gives as good as she gets in their scenes together which are electrifying.  

The problem is that you learn nothing substantial about the man or the reason for his behaviour which is dismissed as an illness. 

It is an odd film which makes no judgement or sheds any light on the subject. 

Maria Duarte