SHAME
Reuniting the main players behind the stunningly bleak Irish Troubles movie Hunger, this portrait of a New York-dwelling sex addict (played with blank-eyed vim by Michael Fassbender) is similarly uncomfortable viewing. It’s also equally compelling. Fassbender excels as an anonymous corporate type with a talent for charming the fairer sex outside office hours, but who owns a libido so unquenchable that he still stashes all manner of grumble material for his own solitary love-ins. His sister (Carey Mulligan) is almost as vacant here as her previous turn as the excellently blank love interest in Drive, presenting the spanner in the works after moving into his apartment unexpectedly. On the evidence of the beauties Fassbender is bedding before his life alters, it’s tempting to see him less as a victim and more a lucky sod. But the film’s erotic elements are rarely painted out as anything but unfulfilling stop-offs on his troubled journey. The feel bad hit of the winter? Just about.
Verdict: There’s no shame in enjoying this
4/5

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Another issue, another remake. In the original Scandinavian version of this big budget thriller, it was hard not to notice the brooding parallels between lead man Michael Nyqvist and Britain’s own hard-of-jawline superstar Daniel Craig. That didn’t, however, make it necessary to re-imagine the leftfield hit in English with 007 himself onboard, on the evidence of this somewhat superfluous retread. Granted, an idiot of mythological proportions would struggle to entirely ruin the storyline, adapted from the multi-million-selling Millennium Trilogy books. The chief problem – aside from the utter needlessness of revisiting a film scarcely two years old – is that comparative newcomer Rooney Mara can’t quite recreate sociopathic cyberpunk protagonist Lisbeth Salander with as much conviction as her predecessor.
Verdict: Rent the original, unless you’re subtitle allergic
3/5

J EDGAR
It’s been said before, but undoubtedly bears repeating: Leonardo DiCaprio has truly transformed from teen-faced Titanic twerp into one of the finest actors of his generation, and a kitemark for quality cinema. That latter-day maturity is served up in spades once more taking on the role of one of America’s most complex and often controversial figures, former FBI kingpin J Edgar Hoover. His real life narrative is custom-made for the Tinseltown treatment, rife as it was with scandalous allegations of homosexuality and transvestitism. And despite glossing over a significant amount of detail, the manner in which DiCaprio entirely becomes Hoover in front of your very eyes is a performance that allows a margin for error as the plot plays economies with the truth.
Verdict: J-okay
4/5

Adam Kennedy is hoovering up Leonardo DiCaprio