Pinocchio ★★★☆☆
Directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson. Starring Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton. Netflix, 114 min
Del Toro, one of cinema’s great visual stylists, has a grand and original plan for the 140-year-old story of the mischievous animated marionette. The director’s stop-motion animation takes place in fascist Italy between the wars, a setting that allows for much contemplation of mortality, a dramatic bombing sequence that robs the carpenter of his only (human) son, and a cameo appearance by Benito Mussolini. The lighting and recreation of period Italy is exquisite. The character designs can be inspired. Swinton’s Blue Fairy is impressively unsettling. The twig-brown title character, however, is considerably less pleasing to the eye. Full review TB
White Noise ★★★☆☆
Directed by Noah Baumbach. Starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy, André Benjamin, Jodie Turner-Smith, Winnie Richards, Don Cheadle. 15A cert, limited release, 135 min
Fitful adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel concern a midwestern academic family threatened by an “airborne toxic event”. The visuals are always striking, even if one wonders to what end. The obsession with mid-century packaging offers opportunities to shoot primary colours, but, 70 years after the high period of pop art, the endless blizzard of Tide, Birds Eye and Cheerios fails to sweep in any fresh insights. The costumiers and make-up folk have worked hard on Gerwig and Driver, but both still look dressed-up for a particularly boring Halloween party. What saves it is the sly, black humour retained from DeLillo’s book. Full review DC
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The Silent Twins ★★★★☆
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska. Starring Letitia Wright, Tamara Lawrance, Leah Mondesir-Simmonds, Eva-Arianna Baxter, Nadine Marshall, Treva Etienne, Michael Smiley, Jodhi May, Jack Bandeira. 16 cert, gen release, 113 min
Imaginative, visually striking study of June and Jennifer Gibbons, British twins who, after sinking into mutually supportive isolation, were scandalously detained in Broadmoor for 11 years. Wright, currently serving Black Panther, has already proved her versatility in Steve McQueen’s Mangrove and Frank Berry’s recent Aisha. Here she finds a new, more antic energy as June — playing riffs off her sister like an avant garde jazz musician while the audience fails to catch up. The less well-known Lawrence is, if anything, even better as the marginally more sombre Jennifer. Full review DC
Return to Dust ★★★★☆
Directed by Li Ruijun. Starring Wu Renlin, Hai Qing. Digital download, 133 min
Simple Chinese farming drama that unfolds in a small village in Gaotai, the director’s home province, where life is dominated by natural rhythms and wheat harvesting. Here, an inconvenient, ageing fourth brother is hastily married off to an incontinent, barren and disabled younger woman. The stoical, quiet, affecting beast of burden in Ruijun’s much-admired drama is emblematic of the film’s larger appeal. It’s unfortunate that the charm of the director’s sixth feature has been overshadowed by reports concerning the suppression of Return to Dust in China. Full review TB
