I Swear (15)
Directed by Kirk Jones
★★★★★

 

“F**K the Queen” shouts John Davidson as he is about to receive his MBE for charitable work from the late Queen herself. It is a hilarious yet shocking moment which sets the tone for the rest of this frank, humorous, terribly moving and inspirational drama based on John’s life and experiences living with Tourette’s syndrome. 

Written and directed by Kirk Jones it follows John growing up in 1980s Galashiels and shows how he started to exhibit ticks and abrupt movements from the age of 13, followed by involuntary swearing. Both his school and his parents (Shirley Henderson and Steven Cree) thought he was deliberately misbehaving or suffering from madness as little was known about Tourette’s back then. When life at home became untenable John (Robert Aramayo) was taken in by his friend’s mother Dottie Achenbach (Maxine Peake), a mental health nurse, who turned his life around.   

“I don’t think Tourette’s is the problem. People not knowing about Tourette’s is the problem. Educate them!” Peter Mullan’s character tells him, as he gives John his first job. That is the crux of the film as John became an ambassador for Tourette’s, educating people about it. 

The film pulls no punches in showing how he was bullied at school, was brutally beaten by strangers, and was arrested by police because they didn’t understand his condition. Plus the devastating impact on his mental health. It is heart-breaking. 

Aramayo (Elrond in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) gives an extraordinary performance alongside Peake, who is equally impressive as the caring and understanding Dottie. 

Tragic yet funny, deeply poignant and awe-inspiring, you will come out truly touched and enlightened after seeing this.  
MD
In cinemas October 10.

The Woman in Cabin 10 
Directed by Simon Stone 
★★★

THIS film noir-styled mystery thriller is set on a billionaire’s luxury yacht in the Norwegian high seas and takes you on a disturbing voyage into a world of wealth, greed, power and secrecy. 

It is based on Ruth Ware’s bestselling novel, but it lacks its hair-raising tension and intense paranoia as it isn’t a faithful adaptation. 

Keira Knightley stars as a journalist who witnesses someone being thrown overboard from the cabin next door, but when she raises the alarm she is informed everyone onboard is accounted for. Cabin 10 itself had always been empty even though she saw a blonde woman residing there. She is made out to be paranoid and delusional. 

Featuring an impressive cast, which includes Guy Pierce, this is Agatha Christie meets Hitchcock and when the twist is revealed it turns into a survival race against time.

Best read the book. 
MD
On Netflix from October 10.

Tron: Ares (12A)
Directed by Joachim Rønning  
★★



 

SADLY, this doesn’t continue straight on from the end of Tron: Legacy 15 years ago, but instead follows Ares (Jared Leto), a highly sophisticated digital program, who wants to be a real boy in the real world. 

Kevin Flynn’s son Sam has stepped down from his company to be replaced by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), while her nemesis, the Machiavellian Julian Dilinger (Evan Peters), is now the head of his grandfather’s firm. His evil plan is to bring AIs from the grid into our realm and weaponize them. The problem is they only last 29 minutes, but in Legacy Sam escapes with Quorra, an AI who survives in our world, driving a hole through that premise. 

Jeff Bridges returns as Flynn in a memorable cameo in which the Dude meets the Jesus Christ lookalike Ares. 

Visually stunning, it is a rehash of the past Tron films which doesn’t offer anything new. 
MD
In cinemas October 10.

Plainclothes (15)
Directed by Carmen Emmi
★★★★

FALLING for an older man (Russell Tovey), a younger man (Tom Blyth) discovers him to be married with a family, and a church minister. The older man writes a letter expressing his love but ending it, which the younger man’s family finds, outing him as gay.

This meagre plot is the line on which debut writer/director Carmen Emmi hangs an autobiographical film about internalised homophobia, exploring its neurotic quality. To up the ante, he makes the young man a plainclothes cop, charged with gay entrapment, and the film departs reality for something else.

Clearly it indulges the fantasy of an older man, to be adored by someone younger. Clearly too, it is an exercise of the “male gaze,” where the objectified body is that of a man, not a woman. But the relationship doesn’t convince: depths of charisma and charm are demanded from Tovey that just aren’t there, despite a sincere performance.

But, in its obsessive identification with the experience of the young man — rendered as a jagged montage of film and fuzzy video as though the man himself were a camera — its portrayal of internalised conflict and shame has the ring of truth.

Uneven, but intriguing.
AR
In cinemas October 10.