NOTHING COMPARES ★★★★☆
Directed by Kathryn Ferguson. Featuring Sinéad O’Connor. 15A cert, gen release, 100 min
Excellent documentary on (more than anything else) Sinéad O’Connor’s period of greatest success and greatest controversy. Ferguson takes a fluid approach to her montage — composing the film almost entirely of archival footage, with new interviewees, O’Connor among them, appearing as audio alone, unaccompanied by talking heads. The effect is to thrust you back into an often grim period of Irish life. O’Connor’s enormously engaging dry wit — a humour unique to Dublin, perhaps — keeps the film lively through its darker valleys. She is never painted as a mute victim. She remains always an engaged presence. Full review DC
VICKY ★★★★☆
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Directed by Sasha King. Featuring Vicky Phelan. 12A cert, gen release, 88 min
Fine study of Vicky Phelan, the woman who helped expose the CervicalCheck programme. King’s documentary chronicles the murky world of laboratory testing and tenders in the US, where companies disappear or move on while their shoddy, bottom-line work can end lives. Following on from her High Court case, Phelan refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement, vowing instead to fight on for those impacted. Subsequently, 208 women tested between 2008 and 2018 were identified among those for who a “screening test could have provided a different result or a warning of increased risk or evidence of developing cancer”. Powerful. Moving. Full review TB
THE WOMAN KING ★★★★☆
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Starring Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, John Boyega. 15A cert, gen release, 135 min
There are issues with this action flick focused on the west African kingdom of Dahomey in the early 19th century. It is a bit glossy. Certain aspects of the slave trade are glossed over. Those reservations noted, The Woman King remains an absolute riot. Hollywood has been sweetening, cleansing and mythologising white history for well over a century. So it is about time that it had a crack at doing the same for black stories. Viola Davis is triumphant — angry, dignified, athletic — as general to a female army brawling through endlessly thrilling (if somewhat bloodless) set pieces. Full review DC
AMSTERDAM ★★☆☆☆
Directed by David O Russell Starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro. 15A cert, gen release, 135 min
For almost an hour one keeps hoping that Russell’s exhausting, muddled comedy from will settle down. A wacky caper inspired by the Business Plot, a supposedly Fascist 1933 political conspiracy in the US. Stay tuned for the heavily signposted Contemporary Parallels. The absurdly starry cast can do little to rescue the wholly misconceived script. Gorgeous cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki, Judy Becker’s excellent production design, and Albert Wolsky’s fabulous costumes add to the frustration. One has to hand it to Robbie: even in this misfire, she can certainly wear a hat. A good-looking waste, but a waste nonetheless. Full review TB
