Inside Out (3D)
Directed by Pete Docter and
Ronnie del Carmen
5/5

THE MYSTERIOUS inner workings of a child’s mind are explored in what must be Pixar’s most ambitious film to date. It’s set to become an instant classic.

With not a man in a white coat in sight, Inside Out takes an insightful and colourful peek inside a kid’s head which will engage both youngsters and adults.

It centres on 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) whose five emotions go into overdrive when she is uprooted from Minnesota to San Francisco.

When their leader, the super-positively charged Joy (Amy Poehler) is flung with Sadness (Phyllis Smith) to the far recesses of Riley’s mind, Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) are left manning the controls.

Joy and Sadness team up with Riley’s forgotten imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind) as they try to head back to headquarters via Long Term Memory, Imagination Land, Abstract Thought and Dream Productions.

Inventive and full of delightful characters, the film’s wonderful fun and oozes charm. It’s also very moving in its treatment of parenting.

Another Pixar winner you’ll want to revisit time and again.

Review by Maria Duarte

Southpaw (15)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
3/5

IF YOU’VE never seen a boxing film then Jake Gyllenhaal and company should do the business, even though you can see every key point in the story coming like a punch to the nose.

Fortunately, Gyllenhaal, impressively bulked up as pugilist hero Billy Hope, is so dedicated to knock you out with his characterisation that, against the odds of the mostly predictable screenplay, he succeeds.

At the start, Gyllenhaal’s character has the lot — lovely wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams), money, a palatial home and the light heavyweight championship of the world.

But when tragedy strikes, everything goes pear-shaped and he ends up broke until an encounter with local run-down gym owner Forest Whitaker triggers personal and career redemption.

Even though cliche-ridden, it all kind of works because everyone, including director Antoine Fuqua, takes everything so seriously.

Review by Alan Frank

Best of Enemies (15)
Directed by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville
4/5

ALMOST 50 years after they were broadcast, you can’t help but watch transfixed. The explosive televised debates between the conservative William F Buckley Jr and liberal Gore Vidal, which revolutionised TV news and gave birth to TV punditry, still inspire awe.

Their titanic verbal clashes are the focus of this riveting and thought-provoking documentary which analyses and contextualises them through fascinating archive footage and inspired talking heads.

ABC, considered the underdog, took a shot in the dark by hiring these two intellectual titans to participate in 10 live debates on the Republican and Democratic national conventions in 1968 in a bid to compete with the mightier NBC and CBS and thus made history

Buckley and Vidal mutually loathed each another, believing each other’s ideologies were dangerous for the US. What became a high-brow blood sport made for compelling TV and ratings gold. Their masterful and learned exchanges over policy and personal insults were delivered with intellectual sophistication and aplomb yet in the most civilised manner.

It wasn’t until the ninth debate when Vidal struck the killer punch by accusing Buckley of being a “crypto-nazi.” Buckley snapped and called Vidal a “queer” warning him that if he didn’t stop he would “sock him in the goddamn face,” thus handing victory to Vidal.

Thus began a long and bitter feud resulting in legal suits which lasted years.

Best of Enemies is an enthralling and humorous documentary which makes you yearn for the intellectual punditry of Buckley-Vidal, as opposed to its modern incarnation — the ill-informed screaming matches of Fox “news.”

Review by Maria Duarte

Maggie (15)
Directed by Henry Hobson
3/5

THIS debut feature by British director Henry Hobson isn’t yet another zombie film — it’s an unexpectedly moving emotional drama.

Mocking Arnold Schwarzenegger is usually a critical must, especially after his recent wreck Terminator Genisys.
But for once the Midwest farmer as Jade Vogel faces an unbeatable adversary.

A virus that transforms the living into the living dead has decimated mankind. Once bitten, victims face government quarantine and then execution.

When his 16-year-old daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) is infected, Schwarzenegger rescues her and brings her home but death is inevitable.

Breslin is excellent, credibly mutating from all-American teen to zombie and is authentically moving in her deteriorating relationship with her father.

The real surprise, however, is Schwarzenegger. Bearded and only infrequently violent — he even allows a policeman friend to use his trademark line “I’ll be back!” — his understated performance is genuinely moving.

Maggie’s no masterpiece but it has its fascination.

Review by Alan Frank

Eden (15)
Directed by Mia Hansen-Love
HHIII
FOR former garage and French house music fans this may prove a delightful nostalgic trip down memory lane. For the rest, it’s a tortuous and never-ending drama.
It relates the story of 20 years in the life of a DJ which starts in ’90s Paris where aspiring teenage DJ Paul (Felix de Givry) forms the duo Cheers with his best friend. As they enjoy a euphoric but short lived rise to fame, Paul indulges in drugs, sex and financial laissez-faire.
Inspired by the DJing career of director Mia Hansen-Love’s brother, it is an interesting premise which would have worked better as a documentary.
It lacks drama or tension and is full of unsympathetic characters, starting with Paul who sponges off his mum for two decades to pay for his coke habit as he faces financial ruin.
Less would have been more. Eden proves one hard slog.
Maria Duarte