(15) 97mins
SEX with a stranger can be awkward. But what is it like when you’ve paid that stranger?
This is something comedian Katy Brand explores in the film she has written about the delicate transaction of buying sex.
We are invited to peep behind the velvet curtains of a plush hotel room where nervous widow Nancy (Emma Thompson) has hired a male prostitute, Leo (Daryl McCormack) to help her finally explore her sexuality.
Nancy is a pragmatic RE teacher, wife, mother and daughter.
During all these years of duty, she has barely lived a sex life at all, despite being married to a man who “died prematurely more than 30 years ago.”
Tragically, she’s never had an orgasm — so this is her time to explore.
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But she is lacking confidence and feels very uncertain about her rash decision to pay Leo for sex.
And the dreamy-eyed, silky-voiced Irishman is the perfect antidote to her concerns.
Their pre-coital conversation is hilarious, with Nancy sharing her insecurities and self-doubt about feeling like a dirty old woman.
Looking at Leo, who is 30 years her junior she says: “I’m a pervert — I feel like Rolf Harris.”
“Who’s Rolf Harris?” the young man replies.
This film is mostly a comedy, but littered throughout the many laugh-out-loud moments is something deeply tragic and heart-wrenchingly sad.
While laughing about how bad her husband was in bed — “he would put his pyjamas on afterwards and would go straight to sleep” — she then admits the only time she ever felt lust in her life was towards a waiter on a family holiday in Greece as a teenager.
The tears start to flow as she recounts the memory, and her pain and longing for more feel real.
It is almost entirely a two-character piece set in a hotel room over several weeks, but director Sophie Hyde never makes it feel claustrophobic or drab.
It’s a room full of excitement, expectation and experiments.
It’s difficult to believe that the sexy, impossibly confident Emma Thompson could be believable as a downtrodden RE teacher who has never come near the big O.
But she is. Totally and utterly convincing.
Her bold and beautiful nude scenes should be applauded extra hard.
As for McCormack as the self-assured but clearly damaged Leo, his fine performance stands up to the award-winning Thompson and will, I don’t doubt, have many middle-aged women googling “male escorts in my area”.
This sexy, clever and moving film is what Hollywood has been missing for so long.
And it feels hugely liberating to see it on the big screen.
(PG) 97mins
BUZZ is back in this new offering from Pixar, all about where the legendary character came from.
It focuses on the movie that Toy Story’s Andy – the beloved owner of Buzz, Woody and crew – fell in love with and the reason he was desperate to own a Lightyear.
Buzz (Chris Evans) has spent years trying to return home – and encountered many problems along the way, mostly created by enemy Zurg (James Brolin) who wants to steal Buzz’s fuel source.
Something we’ll all understand with the current petrol prices.
This is a sci-fi adventure rather than a heart-warming Pixar film.
It even has a few nods to Star Wars for super fans.
Being well-trained in the world of Marvel, Evans puts in a solid shift as a superhero.
But it’s his sidekick and feline friend, Sox (Peter Sohn) who steals the show.
The script is patchy and not engaging in parts – and the chase sequences become relentlessly confusing.
Lightyear won’t go down in the Pixar hall of fame like Toy Story 2, Up and Inside Out – instead settling alongside Monsters University.
A big blast, but boy did I miss Woody.
(15) 109mins
COOPER RAIFF writes, directs and takes the lead in this saccharine twenty-something tale, which tries really hard to make you feel good, but ends up being mostly mawkish.
Raiff is 22-year-old Andrew, who has just graduated from college and is struggling to get on the career ladder.
Back where he grew up in New Jersey he’s eager but directionless, living with his mum (Leslie Mann) and her partner, working shifts at food outlet Meat World and saving up to visit Barcelona.
When a job opportunity falls into his lap he finds himself working as the local Bar Mitzvah party starter where he meets Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic teenage daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt).
Andrew forms a bond with Lola and senses a Mrs Robinson-style spark with the older Domino, but although he thinks she might be his soulmate, Domino is already engaged to another man.
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There are manufactured life-affirming moments aplenty, but everything feels too contrived and constantly teeters over into twee territory, ultimately leaving this Cha Cha out of step.
FOLLOWING Paddington’s success at the Jubilee, a third film is in the making.
Lady Gaga is in talks to join the Joker 2.
Uma Thurman will star in The Old Guard sequel on Netflix.
