All The Beauty and The Bloodshed (18)
Directed by Laura Poitras
★★★★

THIS powerful and haunting documentary by Oscar winning film-maker Laura Poitras is the epic story of artist and activist Nan Goldin, her trailblazing career and her endless fight to hold one of America’s most powerful families to account for the opioid crisis.

It is a compilation of Goldin’s groundbreaking photography, slide-shows, intimate interviews and rare footage, shot by Goldin herself, of her protests against the Sacklers who patronise the arts but whose fortune derives from the profits of Purdue Pharma, and its product, the addictive opiate Oxycontin, whose misuse sparked an epidemic.

Goldin herself became addicted to “Oxy” overnight after she was prescribed it as a painkiller following an operation in 2014.

One of the most poignant scenes in the film is when members of the Sackler dynasty, having avoided comprehensive legal accountability in part by filing for the bankruptcy of Purdue Pharma, are ordered to hear via Zoom court the testimonies of many of the victims of OxyContin. It is some justice to see them squirm on the monitor.

Goldin also talks very intimately and candidly about her life, her upbringing and the suicide of her older sister. It is a real eye-opener for those who are not that familiar with Goldin’s work, and her willingness to put her whole career on the line to achieve justice is remarkable.

MD
Out in cinemas today.

The Fabelmans (12A)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
★★★★

IT has taken almost 50 years but finally Steven Spielberg has shone a lens on his own childhood, his complicated family and what inspired him to become a film-maker in this compelling semi-autobiographical film.

Nominated for seven Academy Awards, The Fabelmans, co-written by Spielberg and Tony Kushner, is a beautifully crafted love letter to his parents (his mother in particular) and to film-making itself.

Set in the late fifties and early sixties it follows Sammy Fabelman (played by Mateo Zoryan and Gabriel LaBelle) who is encouraged from an early age by his artistic mum Mitzi (the iridescent Michelle Williams), a former concert pianist, to pick up his father’s (a phenomenal Paul Dano) 8mm camera and make films, which he does roping in his three younger sisters.

While his father dismisses his passion as a mere hobby, 16-year-old Sammy makes a shocking discovery about his mother which upends his world. Suddenly he can perceive her as a person rather than a parent and their relationship changes. And when the family moves to California Sammy suffers anti-semitic bullying at school, being viciously beaten by two boys, which makes him aware of being an outsider.

Driven by exquisite performances, especially from Williams, this insightful and captivating drama will make you see Spielberg’s past work in a whole new light.

MD
Out in cinemas today.

January (12A)
Directed by Andrey M Paounov
★★★

THIS eerily disturbing debut feature film from acclaimed Bulgarian documentary film-maker Andrey Paounov is a real head scratcher which keeps you off kilter throughout.

Inspired by the play by Nobel Prize Nominee Yordan Radichkov the film, shot in black and white, opens with two middle aged men in a snowed-in hut with a caged bird that has a penchant for alcohol. The cabin is near a dark wood full of wolves.

Strangers keep rocking up at the cabin, all enquiring after their fellow colleague, Petar Motorov, who has gone missing. His horse-driven sleigh mysteriously appears with a frozen wolf in the back but no Petar. As people come and go so does the sleigh bringing yet another lifeless wolf until there are five.

Yet where is Petar? Does he even exist? Is this real or a ghostly limbo between life and death? Or is this an existential examination of communism and capitalism?

A creepy and mind-bending mystery tale.

MD
Out in cinemas today.

Unwelcome (15)
Directed by Jon Wright
★★

A LONDON couple traumatised by a home invasion escape to rural Ireland for the safety of their unborn child, but their new home holds primeval secrets.

Unwelcome opens with a vicious attack on Jamie (Douglas Booth) and his newly pregnant wife Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) by three thugs, which makes difficult viewing. Then, when Jamie inherits his late aunt’s home they both jump at the chance to flee to safety. But they are warned little people called Redcaps (carnivorous goblins) live in the woods at the bottom of their garden and need to be offered  raw meat or they will face the consequences.

This sage grasp of folklore falls, unsurprisingly, on deaf ears.

Alongside the nocturnal goblins are a gang of terrifying local roofers who give Jamie a hard time for being English, for coming over and taking their land.

Co-written and directed by Jon Wright, you can guess where this Irish horror is headed although it does explore male cowardice when confronted with genuine terror, and this kind of realism is refreshing. But it is John-Kamen that saves the day (and the film) by rising to the occasion as a mother who will do whatever it takes to save her child.

MD
Out in cinemas today.