Sarah Bradbury

After earning acclaim for British-set dramas ‘Weekend’ and ‘45 Years’, director Andrew Haigh has crossed the Atlantic with his first film set in the US: a slow-burn, elegiac adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel ‘Lean on Pete’. It’s about a troubled teenager (Charlie Plummer) who heads cross-country with a past-its-prime racehorse in Oregon.How did you come across Willy Vlautin’s book?‘My partner read it and loved it and he thought I would too. It was just after I made “Weekend” and I really fell in love with the novel. I’m quite picky about my projects but it lodged itself in my head and refused to disappear.’What was it that you connected with?‘I loved the way it plays with your expectations of genre: it’s an on-the-road journey set in the American West about people living on the margins, and it’s about [a boy] coming of age. But it’s more than that. Like my previous films, it explores our need for understanding, acceptance and stability, only in a very different, larger context.’ ‘‘Emotionally complex scenes are a challenge. The horse was actually very well-behaved.’ The film rests on Charlie Plummer’s shoulders. Did it feel risky to rely so heavily on such a young actor?‘It was scary because Charlie is in every frame of the movie. But I saw an audition tape he sent in and knew he was the person. He’s very good at drawing you close without giving everything away.’  Charley (Charlie Plummer) and his pal head across country You were working with horses and sprawling landscap

Southend-born director Ed Lilly returns to his home town with a hip hop drama that’s full of conviction, if underpowered at key moments. It follows a troubled teen, foster kid Adam (Connor Swindells), as he discovers his voice in the hostile world of rap battling and finds a way to articulate past wounds. A kind of British twist on ‘8 Mile’, it’s a sinewy trip through the scene, complete with scathing rhymes and reclaimed urban spaces – just in Essex instead of Detroit. As with any film seeking to depict underground culture, ‘VS.’ faces challenges of realism and authenticity. Despite its credentials – real-life Mancunian rapper Shotty Horroh appears as Adam’s rival Slaughter – too many moments come off as clichéd or contrived. Swindells is at his best in seething scenes with those closest to him, as he struggles to come to terms with his life on the radar of social services. Still, it’s exciting to see this underground scene finding an outlet on screen. As an exploration of contemporary youth culture, masculinity, identity and sexuality, as well as life at the margins, ‘VS.’ is topical and energising. Thanks to a generous pinch of self-awareness (‘It’s not exactly Papa Doc versus B-Rabbit, mate,’ Adam teases Slaughter, ‘it’s a battle on the beach. Street life? You’re at the seaside!’), it’s easy to forgive any flaws.

This taut thriller follows ex-diplomat Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) back to Beirut a decade after a tragic event led him to flee the place. It’s 1983, the city is shattered by civil war and divided up into complex networks of terrorists, paramilitaries and spies. Not the sort of place, in other words, for a jaded ex-State Department man with a drinking problem. But it’s within this urban jungle that Skiles must negotiate the release of a kidnapped American with the help of CIA operative Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike) and the hindrance of just about everyone else. Surprisingly, the script by sharp screenwriter Tony Gilroy (‘Michael Clayton’) doesn’t linger on the complexities of Beirut’s conflict. It’s all about the ticking-clock tension as Skiles hares around the city trying not to get killed. Director Brad Anderson – recreating Beirut in Tangier – finds neat contrasts between the shell-battered and largely deserted city outside and the bars and hotels in which his characters horse trade. As he proved with ‘The Machinist’, Anderson is a dab hand at capturing a man in the full throes of internal crisis and he draws a nicely pitched turn from Hamm as a world-weary but decent man negotiating this den of snakes. Pike, meanwhile, is quietly fierce as an agent operating in a world where even the so-called good guys dismiss their female peers as ‘the skirt’. If the machismo gets close to suffocating at times, ‘The Negotiator’ delivers enough grit and tension to make it well worth holding

Un thriller de rehenes de antigua escuela, fascinante y ambicioso, que sigue al exdiplomático Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) en su viaje de regreso a Beirut, una década después de que un trágico le obligara a huir por patas. Estamos en el 1983, la ciudad está sacudida por la Guerra Civil y dividida en complicadas redes de terroristas, paramilitares y espías. No es el tipo de lugar, en otras palabras, para un hombre traumatizado con un serio problema con la bebida. Pero es dentro de esta jungla urbana que Skiles debe negociar la liberación de un estadounidense secuestrado, con la ayuda de una agente de la CIA, Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike), y la desconfianza del resto del mundo. Quizás sorprende que el guión de Tony Gilroy no profundice en la complejidad del conflicto bélico, ni tampoco en otros hechos que aparecen en la historia como la masacre de Múnich de 1972. Todo se reduce a las tensiones entre el personaje y el entorno.

Un thriller d'ostatges d'antiga escola, fascinant i ambiciós, que segueix l'exdiplomàtic Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) en el seu viatge de retorn a Beirut, una dècada després que un tràgic esdeveniment el fes fugir per potes. Som al 1983, la ciutat està sacsejada per la Guerra Civil i dividida en complicades xarxes de terroristes, paramilitars i espies. No és el tipus de lloc, en altres paraules, per a un home traumatitzat amb un seriós problema amb la beguda. Però és dins d'aquesta jungla urbana que Skiles ha de negociar l'alliberament d'un americà segrestat, amb l'ajuda d'una agent de la CIA, Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike), i la desconfiança de la resta del món. Potser sorprèn que el guió de Tony Gilroy no aprofundeixi en la complexitat del conflicte bèl·lic, ni tampoc en altres fets que apareixen en la història com la massacre de Munic de l'any 1972. Tot es redueix a les tensions entre el personatge i l'entorn.

The opening scenes of ‘Path of Blood’, a documentary following Al-Qaeda cells in Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of 9/11, play out like outtakes from ‘Four Lions’. Martyr ‘Brother Ali’ struggles to keep a straight face during his piece to camera explaining his one-way mission to ‘destroy the infidels’; another suicide bomber is told before he films his obituary: ‘Keep the bandana, your hair looks amazing.’ Jihadi trainees at a boot camp in the depths of the Saudi desert break from target practice to compete in wheelbarrow races. But the giggles and banter quickly become bitter as ever-more horrifying scenes of gunfire, explosions, blood-splattered walls and the aim to ‘bring slaughter’ by the cadre fill the screen. Director Jonathan Hacker’s doc is assembled from an extraordinary archive of home-video footage shot by Al-Qaeda footsoldiers and later seized by Saudi security services. As eye-opening as it is disturbing, with little in the way of commentary, it’s a patchwork of raw, brutal images that weave a chilling narrative of youthful naivety and adventure being warped into death and destruction. Equally revealed is the plight of Muslim security agents fighting to protect civilians on their own soil from a fanatical minority – a reality often overlooked by media in the West.

In the wake of the London Marathon comes the aptly-timed release of award-winning US documentary ‘Skid Row Marathon’, chronicling one man’s mission to transform lives through the pursuit of running. In his day job, Superior Court Judge Craig Mitchell doles out life sentences to criminals guilty of dire crimes. In his spare time, he trains an unlikely crew of recovering addicts and ex-convicts to run marathons through the squalid streets of LA’s sprawling homeless district: Skid Row. Following five of the Midnight Mission runners over a four-year period – Ben, Rebecca, David, Raphael and Mody – we discover how the discipline, camaraderie and mentorship provided by the club empower these individuals forgotten by society a fresh chance to redefine who they are. Director Mark Hayes expertly crafts a moving tale of recovery and redemption, capturing dawn-lit shots of feet hitting Tarmac, creating a studied, three-dimensional view of his troubled subjects, as well as bone-chilling scenes of deprivation in the First World shanty town. The pricey trips to run international marathons in Ghana and Italy may spark scepticism in some but the sentiment of the overall project is undoubtedly convincing and Hayes’s film overwhelmingly compelling. It’s a story of achievement against all odds, of community and kindness in the darkest places, and of the simple power of putting one foot in front of the other to reclaim a life. I challenge even the coldest of heart to not be touched by its messag