Wander Darkly (15)
Directed by Tara Miele
★★★

THE pressures of juggling a relationship with being first-time parents and battling with trauma is explored to haunting effect in this surreal and complex drama.

Inspired by writer-director Tara Miele’s own survival from a car crash, it stars Sienna Miller and Diego Luna, who are absolutely phenomenal as a troubled couple who, following a traumatic road accident, undertake a disorientating journey through the key moments of their romance to save their relationship.

A concussed Adrienne (Miller) is convinced that she is dead and in limbo, while Matteo (Luna) asserts that she is very much alive and well. The film’s look and tone appears as if you are in another reality or in a never-ending dream as it drifts from one vignette to another.

It is a fascinating and compelling drama that keeps you off kilter and guessing to the very end.

Maria Duarte
Available on digital download March 8

Moxie (12a)
Directed by Amy Poehler
★★★

THIS engaging coming-of-age story is a rousing call to arms for teenage girls to call time on any sexist, discriminatory and toxic behaviour they encounter.

Directed, produced and starring Amy Poehler, it follows the shy 16-year-old Vivian (Hadley Robinson) who, inspired by her mother’s (Poehler) rebellious past, decides to launch Moxie! — an anonymous “zine” to expose bias and wrongdoing at her school, which is being enabled by the headteacher (Marcia Gay Harden).

In the process Vivian sparks a teenage revolution.

Based on Jennifer Mathieu’s novel, it is a wonderfully captivating film about the strength of female friendships, with girls discovering themselves on their own terms, rather than through a romantic relationship.

It also features a range of male characters who run the gamut from male chauvinistic jocks to more sensitive and enlightened guys who listen more than they talk, which is refreshing.

It is great fun, and will hopefully inspire teenage girls to reclaim their voice and speak out.

MD

Available now on Netflix

My Donkey, My Lover & I (12a)
Directed by Caroline Vignal
★★★★

OFFERING up, if nothing else, one of the more memorable movie titles of the year thus far, Girlfriends director Caroline Vignal returns to screens this week with My Donkey, My Lover & I — a charming and very rustic French comedy with roots in Robert Louis Stevenson’s tome, Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes.

A very endearing but loveably flawed Laure Calamy is Antoinette, the school teacher who follows her married lover and his family (which includes one of her pupils) on a surprise trekking holiday through the mountain ranges of the Cevennes.

The film works largely on the back (and overworked shoulders) of Calamy’s performance — her turn here often hilarious, though not lacking in emotional resonance and always in full ownership of an ever-present vulnerability sitting just beneath the surface.

She makes for a powerful team with the no-trick-missed Vignal, delivering an engaging screwball “dramedy” with some solid momentum.
Van Connor
Available on demand

Coming 2 America (12A)
Directed by Craig Brewer
★★

THOUGH a sequel to one of the biggest comedies of both the 1980s and its star’s career to date, Coming 2 America is actually more of a mystery story.

How, for instance, did this take 33 years to come about, despite feeling like it was written in 1991? How bored is Eddie Murphy these days? Why not bring Eriq La Salle back too? And is this really nothing more than a horrifying facsimile of an imagined Adam Sandler Black Panther?

The film answers none of these questions, bar possibly the latter — with Murphy and co. (yes, even John Amos) returning for a laughter-free and comically neutered sequel in which now middle-aged King Akeem of Zamunda must attempt to groom his illegitimate love-child into a future monarch, in the face of otherwise inevitable conflict with maniacal rival ruler, General Izzi (Wesley Snipes).

Snipes is having a ball, but he’s decidedly on his own in doing so, with literally nobody else in front of nor behind the camera especially interested in being there. And why should they?

Approximately 70 per cent of Coming 2 America is taken up by dance numbers in different party sequences taking place in the same ballroom. All things considered: La Salle got off light.

VC
Available on demand

Raya and the Last Dragon (PG)
Directed by Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada
★★★★★

HAVING antagonised the internet with the unmitigated audacity of getting a Star Wars gig, intriguing young actress Kelly Marie Tran finally gets the spotlight to herself with what might be the biggest swing Disney has taken with one of its “princess” movies to date: they’re going for the Playstation crowd!

Yes, post-apocalyptic dystopia — with elements of Chinese mythology, Game of Thrones, and even steampunk — are par for the course here, as the House of Mouse effectively takes the Moana train out for a dragon-shaped makeover, with Tran’s titular Raya tasked with reuniting pieces of an ancient and forgotten magical gem. Aided by a talking dragon, naturally.

Released as another of Disney+’s Premier Access titles, Raya and the Last Dragon effortlessly becomes the streamer’s most solidly produced feature film to date, with superb voice casting (including a predictably scene-stealing Benedict Wong) and bright, vivid visuals sure to capture the youthful imaginations that so readily lapped up the likes of Trolls: World Tour, Onward, and Soul this past year.

It’s a fantasy adventure tale with arguably the greatest mass-audience crossover appeal of any Disney movie ever. What’s more: it actually delivers too.

VC

Available on demand