The Thing with Feathers (15)
Directed by Dylan Southern
★★★

THERE is much to admire in Dylan Southern’s debut feature. Atmospheric and unsettling, it features a subtle and moving performance by Benedict Cumberbatch. And it’s a bold attempt to adapt a meditative and linguistically playful novel for the screen. However, while Southern is beyond reproach for his ambition, aspects of his storytelling lack originality and nuance.   
                                 
In remixing Max Porter’s original tale of grief and art, the film draws heavily on the domestic horror genre. Following his wife’s death, an unnamed father (Cumberbatch) struggles to work, look after his children and bear the agony of loss. His torment is conveyed through a series of formulaic disasters – burnt toast, family tantrums and excruciating encounters with people trying to be supportive. These scenes could have been eminently forgettable, but Cumberbatch’s detailed and specific portrayal of emotional pain rescues them from cliché.      

When the family home is occupied by Crow – a seven-foot corvid-humanoid hybrid – the film’s symbolism becomes even more heavy-handed. The father’s verbal and physical battles with this noisy, thrashing personification of grief are fought in the debatable territory between dream and reality. Crow (voiced by David Thewlis) is essentially good: there’s a therapeutic aspect to his brawling and cajoling; meanwhile, an entirely malevolent shape-changing demon, Despair, tries to invade the house. 

Southern is a talented filmmaker. He draws compelling performances from his supporting cast, creates arresting imagery and conjures a sense of threatening claustrophobia. Sadly, an important secondary theme of this film – the consolation of art – is obscured by a fog of portentous allegory.  
AH
In cinemas November 21  

Train Dreams (12A)
Directed by Clint Bentley
★★★★

QUIETLY powerful, this beautifully shot drama paints a moving portrait of an ordinary logger and railroad worker through the course of his life in America in the early 20th century. 

Based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, it is a wondrous celebration of a simple but full life and the study of a rapidly changing country. It is carried superbly by Joel Edgerton who has minimal dialogue but conveys every emotion his character Robert Grainier experiences, from love to anxiety and loss, in a career-defining performance. The chemistry between him and Felicity Jones as his wife is magical and totally believable. While Robert is the soul of this film Grace (Jones) is the heart. 

With a melodic and hypnotic narration by Will Patton, and gorgeous landscapes, this gently paced drama by co-writer director Clint Bentley is allowed to breathe, and you have no sense of the passing of time. It is an exquisite and haunting depiction. 
MD
On Netflix from November 21
 

Sisu: Road to Revenge (15)
Directed by Jalmari Helander
★★★

THE legendary former Finnish commando Aatami (a phenomenal Jorma Tommili) is back on the road to revenge following the brutal murder of his wife and two young sons by the Red Army in this nonstop white knuckle ride sequel to the sleeper hit Sisu. 

Tommili teams up with writer-director Jalmari Helander again to reprise his role as the renowned one-man killing machine that is Sisu, which means extraordinary courage and unimaginable determination in Finnish.

Set in 1946, two years after the first film, Aatami is determined to move the family cabin from former Finnish land captured by the Russians to Finland proper. However he is being hunted by the Red Army commander Yeagor Dragunov (a chilling Stephen Lang) who has been ordered to kill him.

Containing minimal dialogue, actions certainly speak louder than words here as the two men fight it out in the most relentless and bloody never-ending pursuit, resulting in a jaw-dropping finale on a moving train. 

While not as good as the original Sisu, Road to Revenge is hugely entertaining and has its unforgettable moments. 
MD
In cinemas November 21

Wicked: For Good (PG)
Directed by Jon M. Chu
★★★

AT least three to five years have passed as we return to a totalitarian Oz, where animals have no rights and are banned from public places, dissenters are tortured, and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is seen as the epitome of evil and dubbed the Wicked Witch of the West in a flurry of fake news. 

While Glinda (Ariana Grande) is struggling with her role as the poster girl for good, she has to keep quiet about the duplicitous con artist, the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), who will do whatever it takes not to be uncovered.  
Despite director Jon M Chu being at the helm again, this second part isn’t as thrilling or as gripping as Wicked, and it does not contain any memorable songs either. Erivo and Grande are, nevertheless, formidable on the singing front. It feels like it has been padded out to make it into two films. The fans deserved better. 
MD
In cinemas November 21