Pride (15)

Directed by Matthew Warchus

4/5

In 1984 a group of gay and lesbian activists in London made history, supporting the striking miners by raising thousands of pounds for them.

It was a surprising act of unity which led to the Labour Party finally embracing gay rights and enshrining them in its manifesto.

That remarkable story is now the subject of this warm-hearted and passionate comedy drama aimed at a mass audience.

Although light on politics and political messages it does focus on the human cost and the plight and the struggles of two radically opposing groups battling to survive in Thatcher’s Britain.

They are united by their mutual hatred of her, the police and the tabloids.

Newcomer Ben Schnetzer plays Young Communist League general secretary Mark Ashton, the charismatic real-life leader of Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) who, having been turned down by the NUM, decide to raise money for a small Welsh mining community.

The LGSM also includes Joe, a young man yet to come out publicly, flamboyant thespian Jonathan (Dominic West) and his boyfriend Gethin (Andrew Scott), who make numerous trips to meet up with their adopted Welsh mining community.

Initially, they are met with a lot of prejudice and resistance which they eventually overcome thanks to Jonathan’s disco prowess.

The Welsh contingent includes Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Paddy Considine, all on superb form.

Theatre director Matthew Warchus and screenwriter Stephen Beresford deliver a rousing, poignant and extremely witty drama in the same ilk as Billy Elliot, Brassed Off and Made in Dagenham.

Like those films, Pride unashamedly pushes all the emotional buttons at the key moments and you’d be hard pressed not to be moved by Considine’s impassioned address as Dai, spokesman for the Welsh miners, to a rowdy gay nightclub audience, the mining community’s heartbreaking rendition of Bread and Roses or the miners reciprocating their support by attending the 1985 gay and lesbian Pride rally.

Staunton wielding a pink dildo is a sight to behold, along with the Welsh participants taking part in the Pits and Perverts fundraising gig, named after the Sun’s appalling headline. I’d have liked a little more grit but Pride does a surprisingly good job in dealing with gay rights, trade unionism and the emergence of Aids in a palatable form for a mainstream audience.

It’s an extraordinary story which deserves to be widely known and seen — could be this year’s The Full Monty.

Maria Duarte

A Most Wanted Man (15)

Directed by Anton Corbijn

4/5

John Le Carre’s grey and stark world of espionage is recreated beautifully in this taut and chilling thriller, set in the present.

Based on Le Carre’s novel, it stars the late and great Philip Seymour Hoffman as the head of a secretive anti-terror unit which works for Germany’s intelligence services to cultivate sources in Hamburg’s Islamic community in the wake of the September 11 2001 attacks.

When a brutally tortured immigrant, believed to be a terror suspect by Interpol, turns up in the city it is a race against time to discover if he is a victim or a militant jihadist about to strike.

Directed by Anton Corbijn, this is a slow-burning thriller which captures the unglamorous lives of spies while dealing with the intricate politics in the German intelligence services and their ominous relationship with the CIA.

And it’s a slick and totally engrossing ride due to the captivating performances by Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Robin Wright and Willem Dafoe.

This is one thriller not to be missed, just for Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal alone.

Maria Duarte

Darkness (15)

Directed by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell

2/5

Artist-musician AA Lowe portrays a drippy-hippy community spouting new age nonsense before pointing out that everyone’s an “arsehole” in a film closing with a crescendo of dread-heavy metal music.

While the US wages war on the world it’d be preferable to see some guerillas of the imagination positing alternatives rather the deluded narcissists seeking clones in acolytes obsessed with artistic worship on show here.

With the best of intentions, A Spell... comes across as a parody, drowning in a surfeit of aesthetics and mysticism that will appeal no doubt to those seeking comfort-zone spiritual solace.

Jeff Sawtell

In Order of Disappearance (15)

Directed by Hans Petter Moland

5/5

Nordic-noir continues to illuminate with crime dramas that have encouraged Hollywood pastiches.

So it’s not surprising that the influence be inverted, as Hans Petter Moland does so successfully in this sophisticated satire of the gangster genre.

It’s a blacker-than-black comedy contrasting with and complementing the wide, white wasteland of a Scandinavian snowscape.

On the surface the film appears to be an old-fashioned revenge saga when snowplough driver Nils, brilliantly evoked by Stellan Skarsgard, sets out to kill those who murdered his son.

But as Nils starts knocking them off, the local mob bossed by The Count (Pal Sverre Hagen) initiates a war with Serbian boss Papa — Bruno Ganz at his most menacing.

Suddenly, the stereotypes transform into characters raising issues from geographical and cultural differencpes to illustrating the values of social welfare.

As one smiling Serb points out, if they get caught prisons provide rehabilitation, work for wages with a pension and great dental work.

Threaded through with personal issues arising from abused relationships that fuel the angst, there’s added enjoyment in trying to fathom out the films this one references.

No doubt they’ll be spelled out in the Hollywood remake.

Jeff Sawtell