Sugarcane (15)
Directed by Emily Kassie & Julian Brave NoiseCat
★★★★

 
THIS powerful and haunting debut documentary by Emily Kassie & Julian Brave NoiseCat investigates the abuse and missing children at a Native American residential school in Canada run by the Catholic Church. 
 
It follows the discovery in 2021 of evidence of unmarked graves at St Joseph’s Mission in British Columbia and the reluctance of the authorities to investigate properly. 
 
The filmmakers interview numerous survivors who attended St Joseph’s Mission, including Julian’s father, who slowly reveal the extent of the sexual abuse that was perpetrated there by Catholic priests along with their own heartbreaking experiences. This encompasses the babies that these priests fathered, which were incinerated, and the trauma that the children suffered at the hands of religious figures of authority.  
 
In some cases this abuse affected several generations of the same families who were all attacked by priests, allowed to get away with it while their traumatised victims suffered in silence. 
 
Kassie and NoiseCat deliver a detailed yet sensitive portrait as for nearly three years they lived alongside their participants feeling their pain and bearing witness to the bravery in their resilience and documenting their own investigation. Survivors’ testimonies prove heart-wrenching. 
 
The film also follows a Native American delegation as they head to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis to seek answers and an apology. 
 
It is a very hard watch and will leave you incensed at the injustice and how much the Catholic Church has to answer for. 

In cinemas, September 20

The Substance (18)
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
★★★★★

 
THRILLING writer-director Coralie Fargeat takes a sledgehammer to Hollywood and society’s obscene obsession with youth and beauty and the unattainable pressures they place on women in this audacious yet totally insane and jaw dropping body-horror flick. 
 
Demi Moore, in the performance of her career in which she bares body and soul, plays fading celebrity Elizabeth Sparkles who, in order to remain relevant, takes the Substance, a black market drug that creates a more perfect, more beautiful, younger version of herself. This is after her vile boss (a phenomenal Dennis Quaid who replaced Ray Liotta when he died), informs her over a prawn lunch (which will put you off shellfish for life) that “people always ask for something new, it’s inevitable and at fifty, well, it stops.”
 
Fargeat takes this toxic beauty culture, and the culture that cancels older women, and turns it on its head in this brutal yet visually stunning takedown. It’s smart, it’s visceral and literally stomach churning, and not for the faint-hearted. Think Death Becomes Her but taken to a whole new painful level, for the procedure is excruciating. 

Elizabeth gives birth to Sue (played brilliantly by Margaret Qualley), always seen from the male gaze, who becomes her biggest nightmare.  
 
It has a very 1980s look with a bold and colourful production design reminiscent of The Shining but by the shocking finale it feels more like The Elephant Man meets Carrie. 
 
This madly gory mindf*** is in fact a call to arms for women to become liberated from  patriarchal beauty constraints and empowered to become comfortable in their own skins. 

In cinemas, September 20

His Three Daughters (15)
Directed by Azazel Jacobs
★★★

 
 

THREE estranged sisters are forced to face each other and really see one another for the first time as they take care of their dying father in his final days, in this poignant and tense powderkeg of a drama from writer-director Azazel Jacobs (French Exit). 
 
The roles were written specifically for Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Elisabeth Olsen (WandaVision) and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) who give powerhouse performances showcasing their innate skills. Coon plays Katie, a controlling Brooklyn mother who bosses her siblings around; Olsen is the free-spirited mum of one, Christina, who is the peacemaker, and Lyonne portrays their stepsister Rachel a sports-betting stoner who walks away from confrontation and has never left her father’s home. 
 
It looks and feels like a play, a three hander set in the single location of a New York apartment. It is claustrophobic and tense as the film explores grief and the troubled family dynamics.
 
It is exceedingly powerful and moving but I also found it very triggering (DNR orders and end of days) hitting too close to home for me. 

In select cinemas now and on Netflix from September 20

Girls Will Be Girls (15)
Directed by Shuchi Talati
★★★
 

 
SET in a strict boarding school in the Himalayas, this bittersweet coming of age tale follows the sexual awakening of a 16-year-old girl whose experience is threatened by her young mother who completely missed out on her own. 
 
Writer-director Shuchi Talati delivers a haunting debut feature which is led by a captivating performance from Preeti Panigrahi as Mira, the new head girl and straight A student, whose head is turned by the arrival of new student Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron). Her mum (Kani Kusruti) also seems to be taken by him as he butters her up in order to be allowed to see Mira. 
 
The film takes the mother-daughter dynamic and gives it an unexpected and slightly disturbing twist. It is fun to see the strict and uptight Mira blossoming into a rebellious and sexually adventurous teen though we know it will all end in tears. 
 
However, nothing can destroy the mother-daughter bond as Mira discovers in the end, when it is her and her mum against the world. 

In cinemas, September 20