REDOUBTABLE ★★★★
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Starring Louis Garrel, Stacy Martin, Bérénice Bejo, Micha Lescot, Grégory Gadebois, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Marc Brun Adryan. Club, limited release, 107 min
Jean-Luc Godard (Garrel) squabbles with wife Anne Wiazemsky (Martin) as 1968 bubbles around him. Suggestions that Hazanavicius's film trivialises Godard and his work are not so much wrong as irrelevant. It transpires that the director of The Artist, known first in France for spy spoofs, has returned to his original taste for broad pastiche. Redoutable is utterly trivial, occasionally disrespectful and hugely amusing. Wiazemsky, an intellectual in her own right, is misused, though. DC
SHERLOCK GNOMES ★★★
Directed by John Stevenson. Voices of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J Blige, Johnny Depp, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Stephen Merchant, Ashley Jensen, Matt Lucas, Ozzy Osbourne. G cert, general release, 86 min
The only film this year that can boast that it is "based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" sees the headliners of the 2011 original relocate to a scruffy London garden. When all of their ornament chums are kidnapped, a bickering Gnomeo (McEvoy) and Juliet (Blunt) team up with Sherlock Gnomes (Depp) and Watson (Ejiofor). Juliet throws herself into her new duties, while Gnomeo goofs off and undermines her efforts. There are not nearly enough jokes and they misuse "wherefore art thou?". But Kung Fu Panda director Stevenson keeps the plot moving at a jaunty pace. Full review TB
TULLY ★★★★
Directed by Jason Reitman. Starring Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Mark Duplass, Ron Livingston, Emily Haine, Elaine Tan. 15A cert, general release, 96 min
Reitman reunites with Theron and Diablo Cody, writer of his breakthrough Juno, for an ingenious (sometimes too ingenious) examination of the rigours of motherhood. Flat-out after the birth of her third child, Theron is gifted the services of a "night nanny" (Davis) to allow some sleep during the small hours. She suddenly realises how annihilated she has become. Not everybody will buy the jarring ending, but the film plays fair with its audience. All the bits fit together and Theron is terrific. Full review DC
LEAN ON PETE ★★★★
Directed by Andrew Haigh. Starring Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Travis Fimmel, Steve Zahn, Amy Seimetz, Justin Rain 15A cert, IFI/Light House, Dublin, 127 min
Charley (Plummer), a motherless 15-year-old Portlandian, happens upon a local racetrack, hardboiled horse owner Dell (Buscemi), and his world-weary jockey, Bonnie (Sevigny). Bonnie repeatedly warns the boy not to get too attached to Lean on Pete, the ill-starred racehorse of the title. But it's already too late. The spirit of Sam Shepard lives on in this unsentimental coming-of-age tale, an unvarnished fable that falls somewhere between The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Grapes of Wrath. Full review TB
MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER ★★★★
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Voices of Ruby Barnhill, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Jim Broadbent, Kate Winslet, Teresa Gallagher, Ewen Bremner. PG cert, limited release, 104 min
Mary (Barnhill) is a red-headed klutz holidaying at her Great Aunt Charlotte's estate. Finding a broomstick, she is whisked away to the Endor School for witches and warlocks, where the headmistress (Winslet) and a mad scientist (Broadbent) mistake her for their newest pupil. A sign reading: "Trespassers will be transformed" suggests this centre for alchemical excellence is not going to be as much fun as Hogwarts. The debut feature from Studio Ponoc was produced by Studio Ghibli veterans, including director Yonebayashi, and it shows. As transporting as any witch's broomstick. Full review TB
THE YOUNG KARL MARX/LE JEUNE KARL MARX ★★★★
Directed by Raoul Peck. Starring August Diehl, Stefan Konarske, Vicky Krieps, Olivier Gourmet, Hannah Steele. Club, QFT, Belfast; IFI, Dublin, 118 min
Released to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, the new film from Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) is no mere biopic, but a superhero-style origins story for The Communist Manifesto. At its heart, The Young Karl Marx is a cerebral, frock-coated bromance between the charismatic, combustible Marx and the rakish Friedrich Engels. Diehl's mesmerising Marx is a force of nature, jollied along by righteous anger and poverty. Two centuries on and, just in time for his birthday, Peck ensures that Marx lives. Full review TB
