PERFUMES/LES PARFUMS ★★★★☆
Directed by Grégory Magne. Starring Emmanuelle Devos, Grégory Montel, Zelie Rixhon, Sergi López, Guave Kervern.Curzon Home Cinema, 101 min
Montel (best known as Gabriel from Call My Agent) plays a chauffeur sent to work for Devos's pushy, domineering perfumier in the sort of enchanting light comedy you get only from the French these days. Much fun is had with the intricacies of the perfume business. What really sets Perfumes apart, however, is the creative friction between two excellent actors. Montel is perfect at frazzle-haired confusion. Devos once again shows an ability to work fragility in with domineering standoffishness. DC
CHEMICAL HEARTS ★★★☆☆
Directed by Richard Tanne. Starring Austin Abrams, Lili Reinhart, Kara Young, Coral Peña, CJ Hoff. Amazon Prime, 93 min
Henry (Abrams), an aspiring writer, lives in borderline harmony with reassuringly middle-aged parents in some hazy, drifty corner of the American suburbs. His life gets knocked about when he is asked to share editorial duties on the school paper with the newly arrived Grace (Reinhart). Poised between a John Green adaptation and something more Sundancy, Chemical Hearts ambles through comforting groves towards a largely familiar place of safety. But it is carried off with such sincerity that only those from the Grumpiest Generation will easily resist. DC
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Thea Sharrock. Starring Bryan Cranston, voices of Sam Rockwell, Angelina Jolie, Danny DeVito, Helen Mirren, Brooklynn Prince, Chaka Khan. Disney+, 94 min
Ivan (voiced by Rockwell) is a silverback gorilla and the supposedly terrifying headliner at the rinky dink Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. His cramped confines are cheered by his best friends Stella (Jolie), an ageing elephant, and Bob (DeVito), a street dog. Adapted from the 2012 prize-winning children's novel written by KA Applegate and illustrated by Patricia Castelao, The One and Only Ivan features some lively one-liners and the starriest voice cast of the year. But it's never as good as a film with Chaka Khan as a chicken ought to be. TB
COUP 53 ★★★★☆
Directed by Taghi Amirani. Featuring Ralph Fiennes, Walter Murch, Taghi Amirani, Malcolm Byrne. IFI Player, 120 min
Iranian filmmaker Amirani and Apocalypse Now's legendary film editor Murch have teamed up for this thorough investigation of the US and Britain's part in the 1953 coup which overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh, the democratically elected leader of Iran. The film moves between their research process, archive footage, and contemporary interviews to uncover the CIA and MI5 skulduggery behind Mossadegh's removal from office. Fiennes reads the transcript. A maddening, gripping portrait of how imperialism works. Well worth seeking out. TB
