A REAL PAIN (Sony). A new slant on the Holocaust. Two Jewish cousins, wildly different in character, join a small group tour to Auschwitz. The film is sensitively written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg who also plays one of the cousins. Kieran Culkin plays the other with immensely likeable and mischievous zeal. There’s also a fine performance by Will Sharpe as the tour guide.
EMILIA PEREZ (Netflix). Jacques Audiard’s film, which is about organised crime in Mexico, has caused enormous controversy because of its portrayal of gender identity. A notorious cartel leader (Karia Sofia Gascon) fakes death and transforms himself into a woman. There’s a terrific performance by Zoe Saldana as a lawyer who abets him. The production has considerable visual flair and originality.
WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL (BBC Iplayer). The much-loved couple make a highly welcome return after a long absence. They confront an evil penguin and a nice robotic garden gnome who turns nasty. The cartoon is a visual delight. Gromit deserves an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
JUROR #2 (Apple TV) Clint Eastwood directs a sober murder trial drama in which a juror (Nicholas Hoult) discovers that he could be the guilty one and that it is he who should be in the dock and on trial. What should he do? Will he do the right thing? Will justice, conscience and morality prevail?
A TOUCH OF LOVE (StudioCanal). Margaret Drabble’s award winning polemic, The Millstone, changed attitudes in the 1960’s. A single middle-class virgin (Sandy Dennis) decides to keep the baby she had after a one-night stand. She is treated badly by society and the NHS in particular. Since she does not want to marry the man (Ian McKellen) who made her pregnant, public opinion thinks she should have either an illegal abortion or give the baby away.
THE REBEL (StudioCanal). Tony Hancock’s first film was released in 1961. He plays a talentless painter, who is deluded that his infantile work is genius. He throws in his humdrum clerical job and goes to Paris where he is feted. This satire on modern art suffers from a poor script.
THE PUNCH AND JUDY MAN (StudioCanal). Tony Hancock’s second and last film, was released in 1962. A street entertainer, unhappily married, working in a rundown seaside resort, confronts his social-climbing wife and the petty local council. Hancock’s fans did not want to see him in serious kitchen sink role and the film failed badly at the box office.
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