THE TREE OF LIFE
In a world where most of us are, underneath it all, searching for higher meaning, religious or otherwise, Hollywood regularly attempts to cram the enormity of a person’s entire life, love and loss into a relative eyeblink. Few efforts, however, have come close to The Tree Of Life. Succinctly summarising the plot is nigh on impossible, as edge-of-consciousness strands weave together into a life-affirming bigger picture. But essentially the action centres around an inspirational Brad Pitt as a stern 1950s father and the events that unfold for his family in the years that follow. Sean Penn’s comparative cameo as one of the sons reflecting on those times is his greatest performance since Milk, some benchmark in itself. And while various vaguely relatable movies have proved frustratingly over ambitious – see Synecdoche, New York – The Tree Of Life is a brain-busting existential masterpiece that you simply must see to believe.
Verdict: Overwhelming on a dizzying scale
5/5

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN
Hot on the heels of RedHanded favourite Machete comes another wonderfully tongue-in-cheek trailer from Grindhouse-turned-unlikely-full-length-presentation. Veteran tough nut Rutger Hauer is the eponymous armed and abode-less crusader, attempting to blast justice into ironically-titled sleazy city Hope Town after drifting in on a freight train. For grizzled, iron-jawed lunacy, it’s difficult to imagine who could have pulled off such a bananas role so consummately. Of course, it’s not long before every viewer begins rooting for the hobo avenger as he bumps off crooks, crooked cops and, in a borderline genius touch, a paedophile Santa Claus. Loveably stylised and utterly unapologetically gory, if you’ve come for happy endings, it’s probably best to see what’s showing elsewhere in your local multiplex. For the rest of us, this might very well be the ultimate bad taste exploitation escapade.
Verdict: Homeless, tasteless, but bloody brilliant
4/5

SUPER 8
Cloverfield threw a shaky camcorder into the monster movie works a couple of years back, and its architect JJ Abrams is at it again with science fiction thriller Super 8. In small town late-1970s Ohio, a group of young filmmaking friends inadvertently witness a train derailed by a car. The accident leads to a string of strange occurrences that quickly escalate from conspiracy theories into Close Encounters... territory. Where this differs to Cloverfield is that you couldn’t bring yourself to care whether the majority of that film’s somewhat spoilt New York 20-somethings lived or died. Here, there’s a touching sub-narrative: one of the subtly-observed barely-teenage protagonists is grieving for his recently-deceased mum. Eschewing tired science fiction formulas just sufficiently to keep everything engrossing on two fronts, it’s at least partway toward being a super watch.
Verdict: Almost out of this world
3/5

Adam Kennedy is sponsored this issue by Rolex, Lamborghini and the Sultan of Brunei