It’s more quality than quantity this week with just three films, all of which are recommended.
Exclusively on Curzon Home Cinema is Slalom. Lyz Lopez (Noée Abita) is a 15 year old skiing protégé of trainer Fred (Jérémie Renier) who is based in a French skiing school. As she starts to fulfil her potential, Fred’s interest in Lyz takes a more sinister turn.
This is obviously a tough subject and some people may find it hard to watch as Fred grooms the eager to please Lyz. The way Fred gradually changes from a quite demanding instructor to someone who projects himself as genuinely interested in Lyz, gaining her trust and ultimately her apparent ‘consent’ feels all to realistic. It also seems very timely in the wake of a number of scandals involving young female athletes, most notably the Larry Nassar case that was shockingly depicted in Athlete A last year.
Abita and Renier are all to convincing in their roles and director Charlène Favier’s is able to show how the abuse is committed without it appearing as prurient.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
You can purchase the documentary Assassins on most platforms for about a tenner and also rent it for half that price on Rakuten.tv.
This is a startling story about the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a Malaysian airport in 2017. Caught on CCTV, the assassination is clearly committed by a 28 year old Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong and a 25 year old Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah. However, the women claim that they were duped into thinking they were taking part in a prank TV show and a shocking attempt by Kim Jong-un to consolidate his power becomes exposed.
If this was not a true story then it would probably be considered too far fetched, as this is jaw dropping stuff. As well as having a gripping narrative, it also shines a light on a generation so desperate for fame above anything else. The format is not ground breaking, mixing interviews with footage from the murder and the events surrounding the trial. However, the contributors are especially interesting, particularly the local journalist Hadi Azmi who was in court every day and his American counterpart Anna Fifield who offers a valuable historical perspective.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Just shading Assassins for film of the week is Netflix’s News of the World. Tom Hanks stars as Jefferson Kidd, an ex-army captain who fought in the US Civil War and now works as a non fiction storyteller, travelling across the country reading from newspapers to crowds of people. Helena Zengel is Johanna, a 10 year old child of German immigrants who was snatched by the Kiowa tribe six years earlier and was being taken to her Uncle and Aunt, her only surviving relatives, when the man taking her was killed. Jefferson finds Johanna and ends up escorting her to her folks when the authorities don’t want anything to do with her, Their journey is long and with many hazards.
Director Paul Greengrass is best known for his kinetic thrillers such as the last three Matt Damon fronted Bourne movies and United 93. Here, though, he provides a much more old fashioned leisurely paced film. The nature of the story, means that it is a little episodic but there were no lulls or drab passages. Hanks and Zengel are terrific with the growing bond that they share feel entirely natural.
The Western genre has not been well served in recent years but this arguably the finest example since the Coen’s True Grit, a film that it resembles in some ways.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10