(15) 102mins
WE’VE all had a holiday we’d rather forget.
And this trip to a petrifying private island is one guests would definitely rather not remember.
This is where waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) finds herself after serving drinks at a fundraiser for tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum).
Having put on a cocktail dress, she and bestie Jess (Alia Shawkat) sneak into the party and are invited to Slater’s paradise island with a motley crew of pals.
They include Vic (Christian Slater), Sarah (Adria Arjona) and Tom (Haley Joel Osment).
Champagne is on tap, guests’ bedrooms are filled with designer clothes, and there’s fine dining every night.
Wild days blur into even wilder evenings filled with free-flowing drinks and drugs, until Frida becomes curious as to why she was invited to the retreat . . . and why the charming host seems to desire her over everyone else.
No one has much recollection of what happens after dark or even what day of the week it is any more.
But, as Slater King says: Forgetting is a gift.
Things soon take a dark turn when Frida’s friend Jess disappears and the other guests claim to have no recollection of her.
Even stranger is the masses of staff who are all smiling mutes, aside from an elderly groundswoman who collects dead snakes from the gardens.
Frida also notices daily unexplained dirt under her manicured nails.
Feeling as though she is losing her mind, she starts to scratch beneath the shiny surface of what is really happening on the island.
And, needless to say, it’s very twisted indeed.
Yes, there are clear influences in style and delivery from the brilliant horror Get Out, with a sprinkling of Saltburn and Knives Out, too.
But, for her directorial debut, Zoe Kravitz is revealed as a great filmmaker.
Her real-life partner, Tatum, gives the performance of his career and there is a smattering of old-school acting greats including Geena Davis and Kyle MacLachlan too.
Fierce, feisty and even funny, it’s not one you’ll forget.
(12A) 89mins
“EVERYONE has their own mountains to climb in life” says ex-professional rugby player Ed Jackson at the beginning of this life-affirming and humbling documentary.
And no one knows the true meaning of those words better than he does.
In 2017, aged 28, the former sportsman, from Bath, suffered a near-fatal spinal injury when he mistakenly dived into the shallow end of a swimming pool.
The accident left him quadriplegic and paralysed from the shoulders down. Doctors told him he was unlikely to walk again.
But six months later he proved them wrong and took his first steps.
And one year later, in an incredible show of resilience, strength and determination, Ed climbed Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales.
This was followed by further expeditions to the French Alps and the Nepalese Himalayas.
It led Ed to set up the charity Millimetres 2 Mountains, which uses the outdoors and adventure to help others afflicted in similar ways.
Polly Steele’s raw and emotive documentary allows Ed, his wife Lois and his family and friends to recall the events of the past eight years, intercepted with real and reconstructed footage.
An inspirational and remarkable watch.
LAURA STOTT
(15) 111mins
THIS comedy of a Jewish man having a crisis of faith after the death of his wife is too frantic and chaotic to ever feel true affection for.
Ben (Jason Schwartzman) is a cantor – someone who sings passages in the local synagogue.
But since a tragic accident that left him a widower, he has moved in with his two mums and is unable to perform in front of the congregation.
He spends his days teaching bored kids before their Bat Mitzvahs and nights being set up on dates with inappropriate women.
Then he meets Carla (Carol Kane), his former childhood music teacher. The pair form a strangely intense friendship, with Ben reluctantly agreeing to prepare her for a Bar Mitzvah, even though she is not Jewish.
Schwartzman puts in a decent comedy turn as the hapless, emotionally incompetent Ben who is full of self-loathing and suicidal thoughts.
But the character is not likeable enough to warm to, you find you dislike him almost as much as he does.
Written and directed by Nathan Silver, it seems “quirky” was high up on his desires for this film.
The juddery camera work and messy dialogue become frustrating – and I found Kane’s high-pitched, innocent-eyed performance just plain annoying
