FILM OF THE WEEK
SAINT MAUD (Cert 15, 84 mins, StudioCanal, Horror/Thriller/Romance, available from February 1 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, also available from February 1 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Frazer.
SHY, emotionally repressed nurse Kate (Morfydd Clark) has recently turned to religion and rechristened herself Maud following a traumatic incident at a hospital.
"I can't shake the feeling that you must have saved me for something greater than this," she rhapsodises to her God in the cramped confines of a sparsely furnished flat.
Maud walks away from the NHS to work in the private sector as a carer to famed American dancer and choreographer Amanda Kohl (Jennifer Ehle), whose halcyon days of hedonism and artistic expression have been cut short by terminal illness.
The battle between nurse and acid-tongued patient gathers pace as reality and fantasy trade dizzying blows in Maud's warped mind.
Infused with the creeping dread of a modern-day horror story, Saint Maud is a mesmerising portrait of religious fervour and sexual awakening, which artfully navigates the central character's twisted psyche with carefully timed spurts of violence.
Clark's porcelain features seem to hang in the pervasive darkness of the screen like some ghostly apparition.
The combative relationship with Ehle's acerbic patient is elegantly distilled in fractious verbal exchanges that begin with a pitying first impression: "You must be the loneliest girl I've ever seen."
Composer Adam Janota Bzowski's score sets our nerves on edge as much as the stellar performances, leaving almost no time to breathe comfortably between each scene of fateful self-delusion and despair.
Abandon hope all ye who peer through Glass' distorted lens.
Rating: 10/10
ALSO RELEASED
SYNCHRONIC (Cert 15, 102 mins, Signature Entertainment, Sci-Fi/Thriller/Romance, available from January 29 via Premium Video On Demand rental for 48 hours)
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Katie Aselton, Ally Ioannides, Ramiz Monsef.
PARAMEDICS Steve Denube (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis Dannelly (Jamie Dornan) work the late-night shift in New Orleans.
Increasingly, the two men respond to calls where victims have taken a designer drug called Synchronic engineered by Dr Kermani (Ramiz Monsef).
Steve attempts to prevent further casualties by purchasing the remaining tablets just as he contemplates his own mortality: he has an advanced stage brain tumour and could die in as little as six weeks.
When Steve learns that Synchronic could be a time travel pill linked to the disappearance of Dennis' daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides), the terminally-ill paramedic takes one dose to experience the head rush.
"The present is a miracle," he gushes to his shell-shocked partner.
Co-directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, whose previous film was the mind-bending sci-fi thriller The Endless, Synchronic continues to indulge the filmmakers' fascination with the fluidity of time.
A neat central premise builds a dramatic head of steam, allowing for some visually arresting flashes as Steve travels to different eras and learns that the past can kill.
The plot skirts uncomfortably close to preposterousness in a hurried final act but Mackie's sincere performance, as a man with a ticking timebomb in his head, papers over some of the cracks.
Dornan is side-lined for extended periods and when the narrative requires his support, there's not a great deal of emotional heavy lifting required from the County Down-born actor.
Rating: 7/10
KAJILLIONAIRE (Cert 12, 105 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Comedy/Drama/Romance, available from February 1 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services)
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez.
OLD Dolio Dyne (Evan Rachel Wood) is a 26-year-old shrinking violet, who carries out petty thefts with her parents, Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger).
The trio lives hand-to-mouth in a squalid office space, which is blighted by persistent leakage from the neighbouring Bubbles, Inc factory.
To keep a roof over their heads, the Dynes intend to fake the loss of luggage during a round-trip to New York and claim back 1,575 dollars on their travel insurance.
During the turbulent return flight, they meet bubbly chatterbox Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), who is thrilled to learn the tricks of the con trade.
Old Dolio initially harbours resentment towards Melanie but pangs of jealousy are gradually supplanted by fascination and simmering sexual desire.
Weird is exceedingly wonderful in artist and filmmaker Miranda July's off-kilter comedy drama about a family of small-time crooks, who operate on the frayed fringes of present-day Los Angeles.
Imagining Ocean's Eleven with a trio of emotionally stunted, thrift shop charlatans, Kajillionaire dissects the toxic ties that bind a grown-up daughter to her parents as they steal mail and falsify identities to make ends meet.
July infuses her gently paced story of self-enlightenment with trademark visual flourishes like the teardrops of pink chemical foam that ooze down the office walls and Old Dolio's amusingly elaborate gymnastics routine to evade security cameras.
Light-fingered characters reek of dysfunction and July's beautifully calibrated script sketches their foibles in precise, delicate strokes, compelling us to pity the low-rent chancers as we marvel at their gall and ingenuity.
Rating: 8/10
SERIES / BOX SETS
ZEROZEROZERO (8 episodes, starts streaming from February 4 exclusively on NOW TV, Drama/Thriller/Romance)
BASED on Roberto Saviano’s book, ZeroZeroZero is a gritty eight-part drama about the inner working of the drugs trade, which begins this week on Sky Atlantic and streams exclusively on NOW TV.
Edward Lynwood (Gabriel Byrne) is a head of a large shipping company, which facilitates the transfer of large shipments of cocaine from Mexican cartels to powerful Italian crime families.
Don Damiano “Minu” La Piana (Adriano Chiaramida), boss of the ‘Ndrangheta, buys a large consignment of narcotics from Jacinto Leyra (Flavio Medina) and his brother Enrique (Víctor Huggo Martin), who enforce their interests using army soldier Manuel Contreras (Harold Torres).
The shipment is rerouted and the delay sparks a potential power struggle inside the ‘Ndrangheta between Don Minu and his ambitious grandson Stefano (Giuseppe De Domenico).
Meanwhile, Edward’s children, Emma (Andrea Riseborough) and younger brother Chris (Dane DeHaan), become actively involved in protecting the family business from exposure.
FINDING OHANA (Cert PG, 120 mins, streaming from January 29 exclusively on Netflix, Drama/Adventure)
Pilialoha Kawena (Kea Peahu), known affectionately as Pili, is a 12-year-old geocache champion, who has been raised in Brooklyn with her older brother Ioane (Alex Aiono) by their mother Leilani (Kelly Hu).
The family uproots from the concrete jungle of New York to rural O'ahu to care for grandfather Kimo (Branscombe Richmond).
The children are less than thrilled by the prospect of an extended stay without a stable WiFi signal.
Pili's mood changes when she stumbles upon a pirate's journal, which contains clues to the location to a 200-year-old shipwreck laden with treasure.
Pili embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to locate the booty.
Ioane joins his sister on their perilous expedition and two locals – Casper (Owen Vaccaro) and Hana (Lindsay Watson) – become entangled in the mystery, which introduces Pili to her native culture and the untouched beauty of Hawaii.
