RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
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Film round-up: March 28, 2024
Maternal horror-show, valedictory recital, anger issues, and Kong-scale toothache: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Mother’s Instinct, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, Silver Haze, and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
round up
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
New releases from The Tenementals, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, and Kuunatic
SCOTT ALSWORTH hears the call to burn down and rebuild the video game industry from the bottom up
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
Mothers’ Instinct (15)
Directed by Benoit Delhomme
★★★★
THE darker side of maternal love is explored in this deliciously disturbing and twisted psychological thriller and directorial debut by acclaimed French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme.
It is a remake of the 2018 Belgian film Duelles and is based on Barbara Abel’s novel Behind the Hatred and adapted by Sarah Conradt.
Set in the 1960s it centres on the lives of two housewives who are best friends and neighbours. When one of their sons dies in a tragic accident it upends their world and their friendship. Paranoia, guilt and grief sets in and the drama takes a surprising turn.
Academy Award winners Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain deliver outstanding performances as Celine and Alice who turn from BFFs to enemies. It is a seamless masterclass in acting. Could they be the new Bette Davis and Joan Crawford double act on the big screen? Meanwhile Josh Charles and Anders Danielsen Lie play their loving husbands who take a backseat to the two women.
Slick and exquisitely stylish, the film examines the consequences of loss and bereavement taken to extreme and frankly ridiculous ends. But Hathaway and Chastain sell it brilliantly. And Delhomme does a sterling job directing this gripping drama by winding up the tension slowly and exponentially.
The end result is a very powerful and completely engrossing horror show.
Out in cinemas on Friday
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (U)
Directed by Neo Sora
★★★★
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