Amazon Prime

Oh. What. Fun.

15/12/25

Amazon Prime Video

Honestly, we’re not the target audience for Michael Showalter’s Oh. What. Fun. There are lots of lovely people out there who just revel in a Christmas movie – but we’re not them. Still, as reviewers, it falls to us to watch as wide a range as possible, and – as it’s charting well on Amazon Prime – we feel we really ought to give this one a go. Also, Chloë Grace Moretz is in it, and we’ve liked everything else she’s done. So that’s how we find ourselves snuggled up under a blanket watching a festive film on a Monday afternoon, the very model of the cosy winter aesthetic we usually reject (because summer and sunshine are just better, right?).

Anyway. This is basically Home Alone in reverse. Every year, Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) puts vast amounts of effort into creating the perfect middle-class American Christmas for her husband, Nick (Denis Leary), and their grown-up family. The trouble is, her kids (Felicity Jones, Dominic Sessa and Moretz respectively) kind of resent the pressure she puts on them: they don’t want to feel obliged to come ‘home’ every year, exaggerating their appreciation for all those extra, unasked-for flourishes Claire insists on. It’s the opposite of relaxing, the antithesis of fun.

Needy Claire isn’t happy either. She desperately wants one of her kids to nominate her as a ‘Zazzy Tims Christmas Mom’ so that she can win a ticket to a recording of her favourite TV show, hosted by her role model, Zazzy (Eva Longoria). But of course, Channing (Jones), Sammy (Sessa) and Taylor (Moretz) fail to respond to her many hints, so it seems a trip to California is not on the cards…

…until Christmas Eve, when Claire’s entire family – husband, kids, partners, grandkids – fail to notice that she’s not with them at the theatre for the So You Think You Can Dance tour, which she arranged (and paid for) as an extra surprise. Alone and forgotten in an empty house, Claire decides it’s time to do something for herself. And off she heads to Hollywood.

If it’s nuance you’re after, this is not the film for you. There’s no subtlety at all: everything is laid on with the proverbial trowel, from Taylor’s over-the-top rudeness towards Channing’s well-meaning husband, Doug (Jason Schwartzman), to the unfiltered bitchiness of Claire’s ‘perfect’ neighbour, Jeanne (Joan Chen). What’s more, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Claire, with her massive McMansion and basically decent kin. There’s never any real jeopardy or heartbreak here.

Oh. What. Fun. hasn’t changed my feelings about Christmas films, but it’s not a bad movie. In fact, it’s very watchable. So why not pour yourself a glass of mulled wine, switch on the fairy lights and enjoy a bit of lighthearted… well… fun.

3 stars

Susan Singfield

Kneecap

04/01/25

Amazon Prime

Kneecap, a semi-fictionalised origin story for the titular Irish hip hop band, only had a short theatrical release, despite winning big at Sundance and being shortlisted for two Oscars. We missed it on the big screen, so we are pleased to discover that it has dropped, with barely a splash, onto Amazon Prime.

Liam (Liam Ó Hanneadh) and Naoise (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) are two disaffected teenagers, living in the Gaeltacht (or Irish-speaking) Quarter of West Belfast. At a drug-fuelled party, Liam is picked up by the police and brought into an interrogation room but, true to his father Arlo’s teaching, he refuses to speak any language but his native tongue. Arlo (Michael Fassbender) is a former republican paramilitary, who has been missing-presumed-dead for a decade.

A call for an interpreter is put out and mild-mannered music teacher JJ O’ Dochartaigh reluctantly does the honours but, since the cops can only speak English, JJ and Liam are able run rings around them and report back only a fraction of what they actually say. JJ ends up in possession of Liam’s notebook, which he discovers is full of potential lyrics. By lucky coincidence, JJ just happens to be the proud owner of a ramshackle recording studio in his garage.

He suggests that Liam and Noise might like to lay down some tracks – and, almost before they know it, the three of them are performing in a local working man’s club, stoned to the gizzards on Ketamine with JJ wearing a balaclava in case anybody recognises him. But when a barmaid films a clip of their performance and puts it onto social media, it isn’t long before their foul-mouthed, blatantly political act is reaching the ears of a younger audience…

Kneecap (named after the IRA’s favourite punishment) is a ton of fun, quirky, acerbic and fearlessly provocative, but it does have a more serious subtext about the cultural importance of a country’s native tongue and how it needs to be celebrated and protected. Debut writer/director Richard Peppiatt has created a genuinely funny script, brimming with snarky one-liners, and I love the many comic-book captions and images that pepper the visual storytelling. The three band members do a pretty good job of portraying themselves, while Simone Kirby puts in a great performance as Liam’s agoraphobic mum, Dolores, and Josie Walker is deliciously menacing as local police chief Detective Ellis, enraged when she discovers that her Protestant niece, Georgia (Jessica Reynolds), is having a fling with Naoise – a Catholic!

The songs are mostly an outpouring of curses and boasts, propelled by urgent 4/4 rhythms. I don’t speak Irish, so I’m very grateful for the subtitles (the script is a 50/50 mix of Irish and English), but it’s clear from the concert sequences that Kneecap have already established a fervent following on their home turf and this film is sure to bring their music to a wider audience.

Interested? Head straight to Amazon where the party can be joined at the touch of a button.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney

My Old Ass

26/11/24

Amazon Prime

Maybe because it’s lumbered with what must rank as one of the most unprepossessing titles in cinematic history, this charming film failed to make it into UK multiplexes and can only be found lurking amidst the ‘recently added’ section on Amazon Prime. Written and directed by Megan Park, it’s an engaging story, anchored by a tremendously appealing central performance by Maisy Stella.

She plays Elliott, a teenage girl living in the wilds of Canada. She’s recently finished school and is preparing to head off to university in Toronto. Meanwhile, she’s intent on enjoying her remaining days at home: making out with an attractive female assistant at her local coffee shop (an ambition that’s quickly ticked off the ‘to do’ list), and then heading off with her two pals, Ruthie (Maggie Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks), for an unconventional birthday celebration. The trio have laid their hands on some hallucinogenic mushrooms and plan to spend the night in the local woods, getting utterly wasted. (With typical teenage insensitivity, Elliott is blissfully unaware that her family are waiting at home for her with a birthday cake).

The resulting trip has some unexpected consequences. Elliott encounters a version of herself from the future. Older Elliott (Aubrey Plaza) is thirty-nine, still in college and, judging by the scant information she gives away, living in a dark and unpredictable world. She has only one bit of advice for her younger self. Stay away from somebody called ‘Chad.’ (She refuses to say any more on the subject.)

The following morning, older Elliott has disappeared but she has left her phone number and, it turns out, the two of them can talk to each other across the decades, even exchange text messages. And then young Elliott bumps into a handsome and charming stranger (played by Percy Hynes White) and, despite her previous aversion to boys, she begins to feel powerfully attracted to him.

His name? You guessed it. Chad.

My Old Ass is a charming, bitter-sweet story that celebrates the freedom of youth and, at the same time, points out the futility of trying to deny your inner longings and the inevitability of change. As I said, Stella is tremendous in this and I expect to see her in more movies in the not too distant future. Elliot’s relationship with her mother, Kathy (Maria Dizzla), and her two brothers, Max (Seth Isaac Johnson) and Spencer (Carter Trozzolo), are effectively drawn – I particularly enjoy Spencer’s obsessive preoccupation with the actor, Saoirse Ronan – and the picturesque Canadian settings are beautifully utilised.

Aubrey Plaza makes a welcome addition to any film (she was the best thing about Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis) and my only complaint is that here she’s somewhat underused, popping up only twice in person. But it doesn’t prevent the story from keeping me intrigued and hooked to its charming – and sometimes quirky – worldview.

So, the next time you’re stuck for something new to watch, head to Amazon Prime and give this a whirl. It’s a delight.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Hundreds of Beavers

27/07/24

Amazon Prime

I keep hearing rumours about this film and that it has received a ‘limited theatrical release,’ but can I find a cinema that is actually showing it? No I cannot. And then there it is on Amazon Prime, available to rent for the price of a cup of coffee.

The brainchild of Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Hundreds of Beavers is a decidedly strange beast, rather like a Loony Tunes cartoon recreated by a few actors wearing animal-themed onesies. It recounts the experiences of nineteenth-century adventurer Jean Kayak (Cole Tews) and takes place mostly in the snow. When we first encounter Kayak, he’s making his living by brewing and selling applejack – though he does appear to be drinking most of it. When his latest booze-up results in him inadvertently blowing up the brewery, he finds himself marooned alone in the frozen North, starving and trying ever more ingenious ways to capture some food. There are plenty of rabbits around (played by the actors’ friends), but boy are they hard to catch!

Think of your average Roadrunner cartoon performed by actual people and you’ll have a vague idea of what this is all about. When Kayak sets his sights on marrying The Furrier (Olivia Graves), her father, The Merchant (Doug Mancheski), demands that Kayak brings him hundreds of beaver pelts before he will grant his blessing – and, advised by The Master Trapper (Wes Tank), Kayak must use every trick in the book in order to trap enough critters to secure his future.

Working with a minuscule budget ($150k) and some pretty basic editing software, the two filmmakers have put together an impressive project, full of wit and invention, though it must be said that the running time of one hour and 48 minutes does result in it feeling rather saggy towards the middle – there’s a good reason why Roadrunner cartoons are only a few minutes long. But the film does regain some much-needed momentum in the final furlong, where Kayak enters the beavers’ damn and is involved in an epic log-flume race pursued by… well, it’s all there in the title.

And there are enough silly situations and absurd twists throughout to keep me laughing along: a Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson beaver duo are a particular highlight and I love the repeated motif of an animated woodpecker that appears every time Kayak whistles.

In the end, this is an endeavour to be admired rather than outright enjoyed. Cheslik and Cole Tew have put together a film, the like of which you’ll never have seen before – and that’s something I rarely get to say. I applaud their invention and, more than anything else, their tenacity. Hundreds of Beavers has been years in the making and I’m glad it’s finally out there for everyone to see.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Road House

28/03/24

Amazon Prime

I’ve been a fan of director Doug Liman’s work since watching Go, way back in 1999 – and I’ve rated Jake Gyllenhaal since Donnie Darko in 2001. So when I hear that the two of them are teaming up to create a new version of Road House, a cheesy Patrick Swayze fight flick from 1989, my interest is immediately piqued. Why would anyone bother? Then I hear that Liman has officially disowned the film, because Amazon Studios promised him a theatrical release for it and reneged on the deal. Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, claims he was always told it would go straight to streaming.

Go figure.

Gyllenhaal (who has clearly been putting in some serious time down at the gym) plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC middleweight fighter, now in disgrace after “something bad” happened. When we first meet him, he’s at a scuzzy ‘no holds barred’ event, where a local tough guy is taking on all comers. But one look at Dalton stepping into the ring and he’s off, leaving the disgraced celebrity to take the winnings. On the way out of the club, Dalton is stabbed, something he appears to take in his stride – and then he’s approached by Frankie (Jessica Williams), who owns a nightclub out in the Florida Keys and is looking for a new bouncer. It seems that the titular establishment has been attracting the wrong kind of clientele and punch-ups are now a nightly occurrence.

Dalton reluctantly turns up for the gig, only to discover that – for safety reasons – the bands perform in a chicken wire cage and the staff are of a distinctly nervous disposition. Rough stuff promptly ensues…

This version of Road House is a sizeable step up from its progenitor. It helps that Gyllenhall’s Dalton is a softly spoken, helpful sort of guy, who gives his opponents every opportunity to walk away before, as a last resort, dealing with them, quickly, effectively and with minimum fuss. There’s some chirpy dialogue and some dryly funny observations as the carnage ensues. Along the way, Dalton enjoys a brief romance with the local Police Chief’s daughter, Ellie (Daniela Melchior), and even finds time to establish a quirky friendship with Charlie (Hannah Love Lanier), a teenage girl attempting to run the local book store with her father, Stephen (Kevin Carroll).

The plot thickens when it turns out that all that violence at the club is being orchestrated by local business kingpin, Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen), who – in turn – calls out his father’s preferred honcho, Knox (Connor McGregor in his debut screen role), to back him up. McGregor may not be Laurence Olivier, but he attacks his role with such evident glee that, despite his character’s repulsive qualities, he somehow manages to win me over, if only at the prospect of seeing him get his comeuppence.

Road House starts and finishes explosively and if, like an aging boxer, it gets a little bit flabby around the middle, well it’s certainly a big improvement on the original and a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Dream Scenario

20/02/24

Amazon Prime

Over a long and varied career, Nicolas Cage has developed a reputation for embracing weird movie projects, and writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario certainly fits that description – even if Paul Matthews, a rumpled professor of Zoology at an obscure university, appears to be the most normal guy in the world. Released in 2023, the film barely got a look in at the multiplexes and, having missed it there, I’ve been eager for it to start streaming. It’s finally available to rent on Amazon Prime, and I have to say, it is worth the wait. This bizarre, complex and occasionally shocking film has more twists and turns than the proverbial python on itching powder.

It begins (hardly surprisingly, given the title) when Paul listens to an account of a dream that his daughter, Sophie (Lily Bird), has experienced the night before – a dream in which she is floating helplessly skyward while her father sweeps up leaves in the garden and pays absolutely no attention to her plight. Paul feels weirdly guilty about his inability to do anything to help her, but older daughter Hannah (Jessica Clement) and Paul’s wife, Janet (Juliet Nicholson), assure him he’s just being paranoid.

But then other people start having dreams about Paul and in all of them, he’s just standing there, watching. As these dream scenarios become more common, a bewildered Paul finds himself featuring in the dreams of most of the students in his classes, a situation that seems to make them more receptive to his usually rather dry lectures. It’s not long before he’s a social media sensation. He can’t help but enjoy this new-found celebrity, telling himself that his stalled academic career might receive an invigorating bump from this strange phenomenon. He even engages the services of a team of marketing people, led by the vacuous Trent (Michael Cera), who keeps trying to persuade him to forge a partnership with Sprite.

But then the dreams that feature him take a much darker turn and Paul finds, to his dismay, that his students – and most of his friends and colleagues – are no longer quite so keen on him…

Dream Scenario is a fascinating film, one that works on many levels. It’s tempting to see it as an allegory about the nature of fame in the 21st century, the ways in which the most innocuous events can go viral and affect people’s lives – and also, how easily circumstances can change, resulting in those same people being cruelly cancelled by their former admirers. I like the way in which I find myself increasingly unsure, as the narrative unfolds, as to what’s a dream and what’s reality, the lines between the two realms blurring. Always a gifted performer, Cage is particularly compelling here, capturing Paul’s bumbling persona, as well as his rising doubts and paranoia as he sees his hopes for a more fulfilling career dashed and compromised at every turn.

There’s an interesting coda that takes the whole idea in a slightly different direction, while at the same time remaining true to its central premise. I’m left with the distinct conviction that, had I managed to catch this on first release, it would have numbered among my favourite films of 2023. But, better late than never, I guess.

4.5 stars

Philip Caveney

Air

12/05/23

Amazon Prime

After a brief and unspectacular appearance at UK cinemas, Air moves swiftly onto streaming and is now available on Amazon Prime. It’s hard to understand what attracted Ben Affleck to this story in the first place. It’s essentially an expensive puff-piece for Nike – a film that conveniently ignores the company’s dubious track record of sweatshops and child labour and, instead, offers a story about one man’s ‘heroic’ gamble to launch a new product.

It’s 1984 and, while Nike are doing excellent business in the running shoe stakes, their basketball division is trailing behind Adidas and Converse. The company’s resident talent scout, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), is keen to find a young basketball star to help boost sales, but company CEO, Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), can only find a measly $250k for him to spend on the project – for which he’s expected to engage the services of three or four players.

But Vaccaro decides instead to spend the entire amount on one rising star, Michael Jordan – and, what’s more, to design a shoe based around the young player’s identity: the Air Jordan. But how can he convince the man not to sign with one of Nike’s powerful competitors? Vaccaro directs his pitch to Jordan’s influential mother, Deloris (Viola Davis), sensing that she’s the real power behind the throne.

Directed by Affleck and written by Alex Convery, Air captures the look and feel of the early 80s, with plenty of bad haircuts, nasty brown furniture and some truly horrible fashions. It also offers a propulsive soundtrack of MOR hits – Springsteen, ZZ Top… what could possibly go wrong? Well, plenty as it turns out. The main problem is that Air sets itself up as an edgy game of chance. Will Vaccaro’s risky gamble actually pay off? Or will it go tumbling down in flames? The problem, of course, is that we all know the outcome from the word go, a fact that effectively robs the story of any sense of jeopardy it might have hoped for.

The overriding result is that it’s very hard to care about what happens.

It’s also galling to see a true story that revolves around a young, Black sportsman peopled almost entirely by prosperous white males. These unlikeable figures spend most of their time hurling insults at each other, especially powerful sports agent, David Falk (Chris Messina). Oddly, Michael Jordan himself appears only as a voiceless figure with his back turned to the camera (apart from a brief post-credits sequence with Jordan eulogising his mother in a speech). This only serves to emphasise how little authority he has in a business deal that will earn him – and Nike – billions of dollars in revenue.

And no amount of placatory strap lines about charity donations and sports foundations can lessen the fact that this is a rather sordid story about rampant capitalism, which comes cunningly disguised as a tale of maverick heroism.

Jog on, Nike.

2. 4 stars

Philip Caveney

The Son

15/04/23

Amazon Prime

The Son, Florian Zeller’s follow-up to the hugely successful The Father, is every bit as bleak as the first instalment in his adapted-from-the-stage trilogy. (The Mother – yet to be made into a film – is, by all accounts, no cheerier.) The Son is simpler and less complex, without any of the clever disorientation that earned its predecessor a ‘best picture’ gong. But that’s okay: the telling suits the tale.

Although Zen McGrath plays Nicholas, the titular son, this is really Peter (Hugh Jackman)’s story: the focus is on his perception of his relationship with his child. Peter loves Nicholas, that much is clear, but his marriage to Kate (Laura Dern), Nicholas’s mum, is over. He’s got a new girlfriend, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), and a new baby boy, Theo (Max and Felix Goddard). The split has not been easy: Kate is devastated, unable to refrain from sharing her hurt with Nicholas, and Beth is struggling to cope with the demands of a new baby. “You’re working. All. The Time,” she tells Peter – repeatedly. Nicholas can’t cope. He feels lost and abandoned. He stops going to school and begins to self-harm. And then he asks to move in with his dad.

The Son is a detailed account of the myriad tensions that form relationships, the delicate threads we weave and break in our clumsy attempts to love. Despite all the trappings – good jobs, swish apartments, private schooling, therapists – the adults around Nicholas are clueless; they don’t know how to help him. It’s a convincing portrayal of depression seen from the outside: Nicholas is closed and inarticulate, angry that no one understands him, but unable to say what’s wrong. He veers between sullen silence and long, rambling attempts to explain his pain. None of it helps. Peter desperately wants to be a better dad than his own father (a scene-stealing cameo from Anthony Hopkins), whose ‘man up’ putdowns are breathtakingly cruel. But there’s a limit to what anyone can do. The film feels like an illustration of a tragic truth: depression is difficult to live with, and there’s not always a way to help someone ‘get over it’, no matter how much you love them.

McGrath inhabits his role convincingly, his misery etched large. Dern and Kirby also make the most of what are, it must be said, quite limited roles, circling around the pivotal father-son. But just as this is Peter’s story, so it is Jackman’s film, and he proves that he really is a triple threat. From Marvel hero to all-singing, all-dancing Showman, he’s done it all – and here, he’s demonstrating that he can do gravitas too.

Slow-paced and claustrophobic, The Son isn’t a big film like The Father. Instead, it’s a quiet and sometimes chillingly sad meditation on a young man’s mental health problems in a world that’s ill-equipped to deal with them.

The tragedy is that it seems so ordinary.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

The Quiet Girl (An Cailin Ciuin)

18/02/23

Amazon Prime

Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl (An Cailin Ciuin), based on a short story by Claire Keegan, is a beautiful film, as intense as it is languorous. It’s a simple story, elegantly told. The titular girl is Cáit (Catherine Clinch), and she’s quiet in many ways: tongue-tied, illiterate, watchful, an outsider. When we first see her, she’s hiding – in a field and then under her bed. She seems choked with secrets and longing, simultaneously yearning to be seen and to disappear.

Her home life is one of poverty and neglect. The house is full of children, and there’s another on the way. Her Mam (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) is exhausted; her Da (Michael Patric) is a wastrel, gambling their meagre income and failing to do any work. He spends his time, predictably, with other women or in the pub, and Cáit’s mistrust of him is palpable. Is he abusive in other ways?

The kids at school call Cáit a weirdo, so it’s no surprise she wants to run away. And it’s no surprise to us that Mam can’t cope, and packs her off to spend the summer with some distant relatives – although it’s certainly a shock to Cáit, who isn’t told anything about where she’s going, before being bundled into Da’s car.

But her banishment proves her salvation, and – under Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and Seán (Andrew Bennett)’s gentle care and tutelage – Cáit blossoms. The healing is a two-way process: these stand-in grandparents have their own sorrow, evident in the carefully preserved child’s bedroom Cáit sleeps in, with its train wallpaper and wardrobe full of ‘just the right size’ clothes. Bairéad captures the sense of endlessness that comes with the long school holidays, while cinematographer Kate McCullough bathes the Irish countryside in a golden glow, making this month of respite seem like a whole new life.

There’s a raft of narratives out there that plumb the same notion: a single summer that shapes a person’s life – Willy Russell’s One Summer, Noel Streatfeild’s The Growing Summer, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, to name but a few (in fact, Heidi features as a bedtime story here, although – of course – her tale is the reverse of Cáit’s). But this Irish-language film stands out, perhaps because of Clinch’s heartbreaking performance – you can almost feel her aching with loneliness and love. Despite the overt simplicity of the tale, there’s a lot to uncover.

With an Oscar nomination for best international feature, The Quiet Girl seems destined to make a lot of noise.

4.7 stars

Susan Singfield

Boiling Point

14/01/22

Amazon Prime Video

Stephen Graham is one of the most ubiquitous actors in the business. This is not to detract from his considerable powers as a performer, but he seems to be popping up all over the place in a whole range of different guises. Boiling Point, written and directed by Philip Barantini (and developed from his 2019 short of the same name), features Graham as head chef Andy Jones, currently helming one of Dalston’s trendiest and most in-demand fine-dining restaurants. Christmas is coming but Andy hasn’t got time to sit back and soak up the festive vibes. He’s running late.

When we first encounter him, he’s already in motion, trying to get to the restaurant for a sold-out pre- Christmas sitting, whilst fielding angry phone calls from the wife he’s recently separated from. She wants to know why he hasn’t been in touch to wish his son a happy birthday. Awkward.

It’s just the start of a breathless journey into a world of relentless high pressure – indeed, this may just qualify as the most stressful viewing experience I’ve had since Uncut Gems – and I mean that in a good way. The conceit here is that Andy’s night is ingeniously filmed in one continuous tracking shot, a device that only serves to amplify the ensuing claustrophobic madness. Unlike many films that are cunningly created using hidden edits, this is the real McCoy. One can only wonder at the pressure the actors must have been under to keep the casserole bubbling. (Trivia fans might care to know that the crew only had time for four takes – and they used the third!)

Once at the restaurant Andy has more problems waiting for him. An officious environmental health inspector is in the process of downgrading the venue’s certificate from five stars to a three; Andy’s team leader, Carly (Vinette Robinson), is pressing him for a wage increase; and it turns out that his old boss, celebrity chef Alistair Skye (Jason Flemying) has booked in to dine and has brought influential food critic Sarah Southworth (Lourdes Faberes) along as his guest…

Throw in the Instagram influencers who want something that’s not actually on the menu, and a boorish customer who keeps insulting the waiters, and you have a recipe for disaster.

What follows can only be described as riveting viewing. There are arguments, misunderstandings, conflicts and catastrophes for Andy to handle and, as the proceedings go from bad to worse, we learn more about his current situation and realise that his career – and possibly his life – is hanging in the balance. As the temperature steadily rises under a metaphorical pressure cooker, we actually relish the leisurely moment where one of the dishwashers strolls outside to empty the rubbish bins, before returning to the madness.

I have only one issue: one particular impending crisis is too heavily signposted, so when it finally comes to fruition, all the dramatic tension has been squandered.

But I’m nitpicking. All kudos to Barantini and cinematographer Matthew Lewis, who come close to rivalling the genius of Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria, another genuine one-shot wonder. Those who enjoy propulsive, high stakes entertainment should strap themselves in for a memorable ride.

Those of you who hanker after a career in fine dining… maybe this frenetic feast won’t be to your taste.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney