My Favourite Cake (12A)
Directed by Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha
★★★★

THIS beautiful and tender love story lifts the lid on the life of women behind closed doors in Iran as they battle discrimination in a patriarchal society which considers them second-class citizens. 

Co-written and co-directed by Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, the film follows 70-year-old Mahin (Lili Farhadpour), a widow for 30 years, who lives alone after her children have moved abroad. Tired of being lonely she decides to revive her love life and sets her sights on taxi driver Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi), also 70, who she spots in a local pensioners’ restaurant. 

She invites him back to hers where they spend the best night of their lives, eating and drinking wine (which is forbidden), dancing and getting to know each other. 

The sublime Farhadpour and Mehrabi make a delightful couple as they forge a human connection, while her noisy neighbour comes round demanding to know if Mahin has a man in her house which is considered immoral and illegal, even at her age.  

In an earlier scene Mahin comes to the aid of some young women in a local park who are being arrested and shoved into a van by the morality police for not wearing a proper hijab. When she protests on their behalf the officer is rude and obnoxious, clearly drunk with power, and threatens her too. It is the horrendous way they are treated and their lack of rights as women that is truly shocking. 

Ending on a surprising bittersweet note this captivating film shows how even elderly women in Iran still have needs and wants and how they fight against the patriarchy behind closed doors. 

In cinemas, September 13.

Speak No Evil (15)
Directed by James Watkins
★★★★

 
THE perils of meeting up with strangers you befriend on holiday are outlined in this deliciously terrifying psychological thriller by British writer-director James Watkins. 

It is based on the 2022 Danish horror film Speak No Evil penned by Chrisitan Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup, but unlike other remakes it is equally as horrific and tense as the original while featuring some stark differences, including the ending. 

After meeting on holiday in Tuscany, Americans Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) along with their young daughter (Alix West Lefler) are invited by an English couple (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi) with a son (Dan Hough) to spend the weekend at their rural English home. All is not what it seems.  

Watkins ramps up the tension exponentially aided by a tour de force performance from McAvoy who walks a fine line between charismatically charming and disturbingly diabolical. It gives you chills and you are kept on a knife’s edge. 

The film explores toxic masculinity as it pits Paddy’s (McAvoy) controlling alpha male against Ben’s repressed being, representing modern liberal weaknesses. 

You will be a nervous wreck by the end as the heinous twisted denouement is revealed, the moral being: don’t hang out with people you meet on holiday. 

In cinemas now.

The Critic (15)
Directed by Anand Tucker
★★

 
SET in 1934 London against the backdrop of the rise of fascism, the most feared and most vicious theatre critic of the era Jimmy Ereskine finds he is fighting for survival and will do whatever it takes to keep his powerful job, including murder. 

Ian McKellen is on magnificent form as the queer and cattie Ereskine who can make or break careers, and who lives life on the edge both in print and in his personal life. He strikes a Faustian pact with struggling actress Nina Land (a captivating Gemma Arterton), whom he constantly trashes in his reviews, to blackmail his new boss (Mark Strong), the owner of The Daily Chronicle, in exchange for glowing endorsements from him. 

Based on Anthony Quinn’s novel Curtain Call, this is deliciously Machiavellian, full of immoral characters, but it is terribly uneven in tone as it unravels in the second half.  It also fails to explore the growth of Mosley’s British fascists to which it only gives a nod in passing.  

That said, it is worth watching for McKellen alone.

In cinemas, September 13.

The Queen of My Dreams (12A)
Directed by Fawzia Mirza
★★★

 
SET in 1999 Toronto and spanning 30 years in the life of a Pakistani-Canadian family, this a visually arresting and totally compelling debut feature from Fawzia Mirza explores the poles-apart worlds of a conservative Muslim mother and her lesbian daughter. 

This semi-autobiographical dramedy, written and directed by Mirza, is an imaginative delight full of humour, romance, music and Bollywood fantasy. Through flashbacks to 1969 Pakistan we learn how Azra’s (Amrit Kaur) mum (Nimra Bucha) met her loving husband and how she transformed from a rebellious and modern young girl into the super religious older woman. Kaur is the revelation in this colourful drama playing both Azra and her mother as a teenage girl. 

When her father dies suddenly in Pakistan, Azra flies out to join her mum and faces untold sexism which she finds difficult to swallow, such as not being allowed to participate in the funeral rituals because she is a woman. 

She and her mum clash head on as the film examines the fascinating question: how do we become who we are?

In cinemas, September 13.