Caught Stealing ★★★☆☆
Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Starring Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne. 15A, gen release, 107 min
Aronofsky, never easy to pin down, follows up The Whale with a careering comedy thriller set in down New York during the late 1990s. Butler is a barman thrown into danger after reluctantly agreeing to mind his neighbour’s cat. If we were being unkind we would compare it with the various substandard Quentin Tarantino rip-offs that came our way after Reservoir Dogs. But it’s better than that. Like all the director’s films, it never allows a boring shot when an unusual one is possible. It has compelling momentum. It features charismatic actors. A bit inconsistent in tone, though. Full review DC
Christy ★★★★☆
Directed by Brendan Canty. Starring Danny Power, Diarmuid Noyes, Emma Willis, Helen Behan, Chris Walley, Jamie Forde, Alison Oliver. 15A cert, gen release, 99 min
A young man (Power), bounced from foster parent to foster parent, is sent to live with his brother (Noyes) in this fine debut from a talented Cork director. There is nothing here we haven’t seen in a dozen other social realist yarns – the tension between the straight life and dissolution has always been a useful narrative peg – but that is not really where Canty’s focus lies. This clattering, noisy, mostly joyful film, winner of a prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, revels in the texture of life around the Knocknaheeny area of the city. Full review DC
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Young Mothers ★★★★☆
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Starring Lucie Laruelle, Babette Verbeek, Elsa Houben, Janaïna Halloy Fokan, Samia Hilmi. No cert, limited release, 106 min
The Dardenne brothers, among the great social realists of our age, return with a film set among inhabitants of a Belgian shelter for underage mothers. Each one of five women is grappling with early motherhood, abandonment, familial discord and too little preparation. The empathetic story unfolds through patient film-making that exemplifies the principles of direct cinema; the nuts and bolts are intimate moments such as feeding routines, nappy-changing tables and plaintive phone calls. The strain of absent fathers, generational addiction and the cycle of poverty are carefully countered by resilience, love and the flicker of youthful possibility. Full review TB
Little Trouble Girls ★★★★☆
Directed by Urska Djukic. Starring Jara Sofija Ostan, Mina Svajger, Sasa Tabakovic, Natasa Burger, Stasa Popovic, Mateja Strle. No cert, limited release, 90 min
Djukic reimagines the dog-eared trope of the oppressed Catholic girl’s sexual awakening with haunting visual complexity. Marian grottos, menstrual rituals, old wives’ tales and vaginal imagery abound as 16-year-old Lucija (Jara Sofija Ostan), a shy, underdeveloped teen, journeys to rural Italy for a convent choir retreat. A major prize-winner at Berlin and Tribeca, Little Trouble Girls, named for a Sonic Youth song, is underpinned by the same cryptic energy that defined Kim Gordon’s work. Djukic’s feature debut echoes the sensitivities of Céline Sciamma’s early coming-of-age stories but with a bold, cinematic bent. Full review TB
