28 YEARS LATER: BONE TEMPLE
(18) 110mins
★★★★☆
AS we all currently know, in a world that is in chaos, cult and conspiracy theory leaders will thrive.
This is the basis of the fourth instalment of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s wildly successful saga.
The latest film, directed by Nia DaCosta, starts just after the the last finished — with Spike (Alfie Williams), who had decided to roam solo, being scooped up by The Jimmys.
They are a collection of crazed, wig-wearing sadistic killers led by Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell).
Sick kick
Lord Jimmy believes that he is the son of Satan and needs to destroy his fellow humans to avenge his father’s “demons” — who are the infected zombies.
Spike is immediately thrown from one horror to another — by having to become part of the Jimmy cult with a chilling fight-to-the-death initiation.
It is a start that shows how the rest of the film means to go on — dripping with horror and gore.
And survival in no way means happiness.
Spike is soon donning a blonde wig and tracksuit, walking with his deranged comrades who look like Charles Manson’s followers in fancy dress.
Crystal is a leader desperate to convince himself and others of his own greatness, while getting a sick kick from torturing people he finds en route.
Many of the scenes with the Jimmys do not make for easy watching.
In fact, there was one set in a farmyard barn that made me close off my eyes and ears for a whole two minutes.
Luckily, there’s light relief from brilliant Ralph Fiennes who returns as Dr Kelson.
Still surrounded by his bone temple, he carries on his work finding out what he can about the infected, and puts his theories to the test on Alpha zombie Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).
The pair form a drug- induced bond and they dance to Duran Duran together.
There’s plenty of good crossing over with evil — and a leaner, more straightforward script from Garland makes the story more accessible.
O’Connell is superb as a snaggle-toothed psychopath, but Fiennes is just hypnotic as the doctor who has managed to keep his integrity in a mad world.
This ultra-violent follow- on from Boyle’s brilliance has less humour and attitude, but plenty of bite.
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THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
(15) 89mins
★★★★☆
THIS may not be an easy film to watch, but it feels like one that needs to exist.
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, this powerful and restrained drama retells the final hours of five-year-old Gazan Hind Rajab, whose story is reconstructed through emergency phone calls and the people who tried, and sadly failed, to save her.
The story mostly takes place inside a Red Crescent call centre, where volunteers receive desperate pleas from a family trapped in a car during heavy gunfire from Israeli forces.
What makes the experience especially harrowing is that the voices of Hind and her cousin are real recordings, not actors.
Hania smartly avoids graphic imagery for most of the runtime, instead focusing on the slow, crushing impact of feeling helpless.
The repeated requests for permission, the fear for ambulance crews’ safety, and the endless waiting become unbearable, especially as time slips away.
This is not a film made for comfort or entertainment. It is devastating, sobering and deeply human.
LINDA MARRIC
RENTAL FAMILY
(12A) 110mins
★★★☆☆
BRENDAN FRASER continues his comeback, delivering a tender and quietly funny performance in director Hikari’s bittersweet look at loneliness and connection in modern-day Japan.
While the film never fully explores the intriguing idea of rental family services, where actors are paid to fill emotional gaps in people’s lives, it works well as a gentle character study, carried by Fraser’s warmth and disarming sincerity.
He plays Phillip Vanderploeg, a washed-up American actor whose brief fame came from a Japanese toothpaste commercial years earlier.
Now living alone in Tokyo, he drifts through failed auditions and empty evenings, watching other people’s happiness from a distance.
His routine changes when he’s hired to attend a “living funeral”, pulling him into Japan’s rent-a-relative industry.
Soon, Phillip is taking on increasingly personal roles. The film ultimately settles for sentiment over complexity but is still a quietly moving crowd-pleaser.
Thanks to Fraser, it leaves a genuine emotional impression.
