Hair to the throne…
★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS
Is there life after Caesar? That’s the question for Wes Ball’s franchise restart, tasked as it is with following one of the strongest fantasy trilogies of recent times, albeit without Andy Serkis’ pivotal character.
Set ‘many generations’ after 2017’s War…, KotPotA takes place on an ape-ruled planet that’s largely forgotten Caesar’s teachings. Yet as much as young chimpanzee Noa (Owen Teague) would like to live his life in eagle-rearing ignorance, he can’t prevent the outside world from paying him a visit that ends in catastrophe.
The apes have come a long way since 2011’s Rise…, not just in guile, but in the mo-cap used to bring them to life. Yet on the storytelling front, Kingdom is a bit of a regression. Noa’s quest to liberate his tribe has a generic rites-of-passage quality – until, that is, Kevin Durand’s Proximus Caesar arrives, at which point KotPotA adopts an old-school Bond vibe. There’s even a secret lair to be infiltrated in the second half, plus a right-hand woman in the form of Freya Allan’s capable Mae.
Try as he might, alas, Teague just isn’t as compelling as Serkis in a sequel that lacks the Caesar trilogy’s grand thematic sweep. And while the vision of a California overtaken by foliage dazzles, there’s not enough that’s fresh here to make you salivate for the future instalments the ending invites.
THE VERDICT Kingdom offers spectacle and thrills, but lacks the ambition, smarts and gravity of its immediate predecessors.
SLOW TBC
★★★★☆ OUT 24 MAY CINEMAS
A sweetly tender Lithuanian love story with a difference, this Sundance favourite sticks to dancer Elena (Greta Grinevičciuūte) and sign-language interpreter Dovydas (Kęstutis Cicėenas) like a second skin, as they attempt to combine their big love with a non-typical sexuality. Director Marija Kavtaradze’s romantically grainy shots, complex characters and body-conscious filming style let intense performances from the leads work up a giddy, volatile romance. The leisurely pace sometimes earns Slow its title, yet this is a film that manages to embrace intimacy while avoiding voyeurism.
BLACK STONE 15
★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS 10 JUNE DIGITAL
In this award-winning debut by Greek writer/director Spiros Jacovides, a documentary crew gatecrashes the house of Haroula (Eleni Kokkidou) to look for her missing son Panos (Ahilleas Hariskos), a civil servant accused of fraud. The mockumentary format brings a DIY energy to the chronicling of the quest, which is mainly mined for absurdist humour but sprinkled with earnest emotion: Kokkidou switches gears effortlessly. And when Black taxi driver Michalis (Kevin Zans Ansong) joins the search, Jacovides
