Hollywoodgate (12A)
Directed by Ibrahim Nash’at
★★★★ 

 
 “WHY is he filming? asks a member of the Taliban. “He is making a documentary… Documenting our everyday lives both civilian and military for a year. If his intentions are bad he will die soon.” Chilling words from a Taliban commander about Egyptian film-maker Ibrahim Nash’at. 

The Taliban agreed to let him film Mawlawi Mansour, the new head of Afghanistan’s air force whose father was killed by US forces, and MJ Mukhtar, a former Taliban fighter now with dreams of an illustrious military career, from the moment US troops left Kabul and Taliban forces took the city on August 31 2021. 

He captures Mansour and his team entering Hollywood Gate, a secret CIA base, and checking what the US left behind.

According to the Pentagon, they abandoned $7.12 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan. Mansour orders his men to take inventory of everything including all the medicines they find and to fix the damaged fighter jets, Black Hawk helicopters and other equipment. The US left all the parts it needed. 

It is an audacious and brave fly-on-the-wall debut documentary although Nash’at was only shown what the Taliban wanted him to see. However their candid and sexist remarks, especially about women being covered up, are very telling. The film lifts the lid on their mindset and real intentions. And there is even a surreal moment when they try out  the gym equipment in the US base.

It is frightening to see how quickly the Taliban transitioned from an insurgent militia to a highly armed military regime. They fixed all the US aircraft, setting their sights now on Tajikistan. 

The US and the rest of the world should be afraid, very afraid. 

In cinemas August 16. 

Only The River Flows (15)
Directed by Wei Shujun
★★★ 

 
THE river seems to meander slowly in this deliciously dark and puzzling Asian film noir crime thriller set in 1995 in a small town in rural China.

It is strangely hypnotic and at times it is difficult to know what’s real and what is imagined as co-writer-director Wei Shujun blurs the lines between the two with great skill and craft. 

Based on Yu Hua’s novella Mistake By The River, it follows Ma Zhe (Yilong Zhu), the chief of police, who heads up the investigation into the murder of an elderly woman, called Granny Four, whose body was found by the river.

She was taking care of a man named Madman who has since gone missing. The plot thickens as the bodies start piling up. Aand alongside this story, Zhe’s wife is expecting their first child who they are informed could be born with mental health issues.

Gritty and dirty in look, yet wonderfully atmospheric, this film requires patience and stamina. 

In cinemas August 16. 

 
Jackpot!
Directed by Paul Feig 
★★★ 

 
SET in 2030 in a dystopian Los Angeles which stages a Purge-like Grand Lottery in which anyone can kill the winner before sundown and legally take their multibillion-dollar jackpot. But they can’t use guns. 

The clueless Katie (Awkwafina) who has moved to LA to return to her acting career following her mother’s death discovers she has mistakenly won and is suddenly pursued by hordes of jackpot hunters.

She reluctantly teams up with freelance lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena) who will do everything to keep her alive for 10 per cent of her winnings. 

Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy) this is an action-packed comedy which explores the darker side of LA, people’s greed and their desperation to escape poverty.

Awkwafina and Cena make a great double act and convincingly ordinary people with a heart and a moral compass. They are joined by Simu Liu in a dazzling white suit. 

This is what I term entertaining pants. 

Available now on Prime Video.

Alien: Romulus (15)
Directed by Fede Alvarez
★★★ 

 
THERE have been eight films in the Alien franchise, if you include the two Predator crossovers, and this new one takes place in between the classic 1979 Alien and Aliens (1986), and once again the Company are putting their interests ahead of their slave workers. 

Produced by Ridley Scott but co-written and directed by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead), it does bring some new ideas to the franchise and features a surprise cameo. It poses more questions than it answers. It is best to suspend your disbelief as you follow a group of young (non-smoking) space colonisers who go to a derelict space station to scavenge its cryosleep pods where they are confronted with hordes of facegrabbers and the terrifying alien.

Cailee Spaeny does a solid job as heroine Rain aka the new Ripley (though there will only be one Ripley/Sigourney Weaver) alongside David Jonsson as her synthetic brother Andy who is the most interesting character in the film. 

It feels like deja vu and is best seen on the biggest screen possible. 

In cinemas August 16.