Sing Sing (15)
Directed by Greg Kwedar
★★★★

 
THE transformative power of art to rehabilitate and restore people’s humanity is at the centre of this stirring prison drama, which refreshingly is devoid of all the usual jail tropes.
 
It’s based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) programme based in Purchase College NY. More than 85 per cent of the cast were formerly incarcerated at New York notorious Sing Sing prison and had gone through the RTA.

They are all phenomenal at playing versions of themselves.
 
The film follows Divine G (Colman Domingo) who was jailed for a crime he did not commit but who found his raison d’etre by acting in this theatre group. He then befriends and signs up angry and volatile newcomer Divine Eye (Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin).
 
While there are no cliched scenes of brutality, co-writer and director Greg Kwedar keeps the tension simmering and on the boil throughout as you expect violence to erupt at any time.
 
The film is anchored by an breathtaking performance from Domingo who goes through a whole gamut of emotions in a single scene demonstrating this raw vulnerability and endless optimism in helping fellow prisoners find themselves as they stage a crazy time-travelling comedy called Breakin’ The Mummy’s Code by Brent Buell (the original video of the performance is shown over the final credits).
 
It is G’s clemency hearing which he has been preparing for meticulously which delivers the greatest gut punch, and the appalling questions and remarks he faces are taken straight from the transcript of the real hearing.

Of course the mantra “trust in the process” is complete BS as it is rigged and broken.  
 
Awe-inspiring yet heartbreaking  — but definitely worth seeing.
 
In cinemas from tomorrow.
 

Mandoob (Night Courier) (15)
Directed by Ali Kalthami
★★★

 
CO-WRITER-DIRECTOR Ali Kalthami’s wonderfully subversive debut thriller shines a fascinating light on current Saudi society in transition.
 
It follows Fahad (a phenomenal Mohamad Aldokhei), a mentally fragile man who having been sacked from his call centre job decides to become a night courier and gets caught up in an illegal alcohol ring. Meanwhile he is desperately trying to get his ailing father much-needed medical treatment.
 
Fahad is a fantasist who makes up his own narrative to justify reality but he is surprisingly charismatic and so keeps you invested and watching just to see how he is going to emerge from the web of lies he is weaving.
 
The film gives you a glimpse into modern-day life in Riyadh and changing Saudi attitudes.
 
Kalthami delivers an impressive directorial debut feature which is insightful and hugely engaging. It will be interesting what he does next.  
 
In cinemas from tomorrow.

Close To You (15)
Directed by Dominic Savage
★★★

ACTOR Elliot Page gives his most personal and standout performance to date in this understated but poignant drama about a trans man who returns home for his father’s birthday to find his family is struggling to accept his new identity.
 
Written and directed by Dominic Savage, the cast improvised all the dialogue which resulted in an organic and realistic rendition.
 
Page plays Sam who hasn’t been back to his parents’ house in Lake Ontario, Canada, in four years and when he crosses the threshold everyone is super polite and walking on egg shells not to say the wrong thing. That is until his transphobic brother-in-law opens his mouth and all hell breaks lose.
 
Meanwhile Sam reunites with Katherine (an impressive Hillary Baack), a childhood friend and love who is the only person who sees him and accepts him for who he is now and an old spark ignites between them, but she is married and is a mother of two.  
 
While this drama does not say anything new it is driven by two raw and multilayered turns by Page and Baack.
 
In cinemas from tomorrow.

The Count of Monte Cristo (12A)
Directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere
★★★★

 
FROM the writers of The Three Musketeers, D’Artagnan and its sequel Milady comes one of the most lavish and gripping adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo.
 
Does the world need another film version of Alexandre Dumas’s famous novel? On the face of it no but this one is the one to beat them all.
 
Co-written and co-directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere, it is a visually stunning remake full of cracking performances particularly from Pierre Niney as Edmond Dantes, aka the Count of Monte Cristo.

Having spent 14 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit he escapes and plans his revenge on the three wealthy men who ruined his life.
 
It is deliciously wicked and chillingly cold as the count delivers his own justice, and it does not feel three hours long.
 
In cinemas from tomorrow.