Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 25/5/2017)

Having fled the fighting in Aleppo, Sherwan Haji stows away on a coal freighter and lands in Helsinki in the hope of finding the sister who has resettled somewhere in northern Europe. As he crosses a deserted streetlit road, he nearly runs into travelling salesman Sakari Kuosmanen, who has just walked out on seemingly unconcerned wife, Kaija Pakarinen, who pours herself another drink before stubbing out a cigarette on his discarded wedding ring. While he checks into a hostel, Haji takes a shower in a station washroom before claiming asylum at the nearest police station. He is photographed and fingerprinted and placed in a small cell with Simon Hussein Al-Bazoon, an Iraqi who gives him one of the cigarettes he has hidden in his sock.

They are transferred to a detention centre, where smoking is the only pastime. After a few weeks, he receives an ID card and travels by bus to recount his experiences for bureaucrat Milka Ahlroth. She listens impassively, as Haji describes how he had returned from work to discover that his family had been killed in a missile strike. Neighbours had helped him dig the bodies out of the rubble before his mechanic boss (who was also the father of his late fiancée) gave him the money to escape abroad with his sister. They had crossed the border into Turkey and paid traffickers to get them to Greece. Thence, they had travelled through Serbia before being separated in Hungary, where Haji had been jailed for a short time. He had searched for his sibling in Austria, Slovenia and Germany before returning to Serbia. But, while he had found no trace of her, he has never stopped believing she is alive.

Meanwhile, Kuosmanen pays his last visit to outfitter Kati Outinen, who confides over a glass in her office that she has had enough of Finland and plans to party the rest of her life away in Mexico City. He then sells the rest of his stock and wins enough at stud poker to purchase a fish restaurant called the Golden Pint. Haji also visits a bar and listens to the guitar-singer (as he had earlier tipped a rockabilly busker) before being menaced at the bus stop by a trio of neo-Nazi thugs, who throw a beer bottle at the window after Haji manages to scramble aboard. The couple sitting behind him change seats and the driver looks back nervously, but he drives off without further incident.

Having hired business agent Puntti Valtonen to help him find suitable premises, Kuosmanen meets doorman Ilkka Koivula, bartender Nuppu Koivu and chef Janne Hyytiäinen and watches as they serve tinned sardines to their only customer. They haven't been paid in ages (as the last owner was a crook who stole their tips before heading straight for the airport on striking a deal with Kuosmanen) and they take it in turns to knock on the new boss's door and ask for an advance. Across the city, Haji and Al-Bazoon find a bar with a live folk duo. They smoke outside and Al-Bazoon reveals that he used to be a nurse in Iraq, but has only managed to find menial cleaning jobs since coming to Finland. As he needs at least three salaries to pay smugglers to rescue his family, he pretends to put on a happy face, as sombre migrants are always the first to be deported.

However, Haji remains phlegmatic during his second interview with Ahlroth, who asks about his faith. He insists that he ceased believing in gods while digging in the rubble for his parents and younger brother and just wants to belong and make a life for his sister. Ahlroth asks why he chose Finland and he admits that he arrived by chance after seeking refuge on a ship after being attacked in Gdansk. A crew member had hidden Haji in the hold and kept him fed, but he had fled Syria to avoid war rather than find paradise and, consequently, he is happy to embrace any culture willing to give him a chance.

However, Ahlroth rejects his application and he is returned to the detention centre in handcuffs, where he watches the latest bad news coming out of a city the Finnish civil service consider perfectly safe. Faced with a flight to Turkey the next morning, Haji bids Al-Bazoon farewell with a melancholic tune on a borrowed saz. But orderly Elina Knihtilä helps him slip out of a back entrance when the cops arrive to escort him and he climbs a fence and disappears into the city. He hides out in a bar and listens to a lively combo of rockabilly veterans before being followed into the dark streets by three members of the Liberation Army of Finland. They douse him in petrol, but he is saved by a group of homeless guardian angels who appear from the shadows to disperse the foe.

At the Golden Pint, Kuosmanen orders Koivu to get rid of Koistinen, the cute terrier she is hiding in the kitchen. He goes out to the bins and finds Haji slumped in a corner. When he tells him to leave, Haji punches Kuosmanen on the nose and gets knocked out for his trouble. However, Kuosmanen takes pity on him and gives him some soup and a cleaning job. He also lets him sleep in his old stock cupboard and hides him away (with Koistinen) when the health and safety inspectors come calling. Eager to avoid any further trouble, Kuosmanen pays Koivula's nephew, Elias Westerberg, to hack into the immigration system and not only make Haji a legal resident, but also create him a fake ID. This works a treat when Haji is stopped on the street, but he still asks Al-Bazoon to use his contacts to smuggle him out of Finland.

Meanwhile, Kuosmanen is losing money, as Hyytiäinen is such a lousy cook. During a brainstorming session, Koivula suggests that they start serving Japanese food and the restaurant re-opens as Imperial Sushi. However, nobody expects them to get a coachload of Japanese tourists on the first night and they quickly run out of traditional ingredients and have to smother salted herring in wasabi. The ruse clearly fails, as the party traipses out joylessly at the end of the evening and Kuosmanen sits sullenly in the darkness after the jukebox fuses. But Koivulu has another idea and a live band is playing for dancing customers when Al-Bazoon turns up to inform Haji that his sister has been found in a displaced persons camp in Lithuania.

Rather than let Haji risk being arrested in transit, Kuosmanen asks trucker pal Tommi Korpela to smuggle Niroz Haji on to a container ship and they meet her at the docks with more relief than joy. She returns with them to the rebranded Gandhi Indian restaurant and informs her brother than she wants to apply for legal asylum. He complies with her wishes. But, when he returns to the lock-up, he is stabbed by the skinheaded leader of the LAF (who mistakes him for a Jew). Packing his bag, Haji vacates the room before Kuomanen pays an unexpected visit after reconciling with Pakarinen and offering her the post of head waiter. Hiding his wound, Haji wishes his sibling well at the police station and slumps under a tree to smoke. He looks out on an unprepossessing view of a Helsinki factory, but raises a smile when Koistinen scurries up to lick his face.

Ending with another feel-good jolt of Tuomari Nurmio's irresistible music, this often seems like a parting plea for a return to the values of yesteryear in solving the problems of today. This sense is reinforced by the presence of a Jimi Hendrix poster on the restaurant wall and such erstwhile titans of Finnish cinema as Jörn Donner, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Hannu Lauri, Atte Blom, Juhani Niemelä and Jukka Virtanen among the poker players. But the fact the film recalls the theme and tone of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's recently revived Feat Eats the Soul (1973) also bolsters the notion that Kaurismäki is looking over his shoulder as he departs the scene.

Some have criticised the picture for being too passively retrospective and overly naive in its depiction of a maligned migrant being rescued from callous bureaucrats and fascistic thugs by well-meaning margin-dwellers. But admirers will relish the Capracorniness as much as the deadpan delivery of the estimable ensemble, the Bressonian stillness of the camera, the Melvillean grasp of place, the Lynchian sense of the absurd and the Jarmuschean fondness for oddballs and outsiders. But, for all the self-reflexivity, this is pure Kaurismäki, with the generous helpings of foot-tapping music recalling Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). It would be a shame if this really is Kaurismäki's swan song, as the world needs the skewed humanist vision he seems to concoct with such disarming facility with cinematographer Timo Salminen and production designer Markku Pätilä. But, if it is goodbye, this quintessentially quirky and quixotic charmer is a fine way to bow out, if only for the solemn way in which Haji responds to being asked whether he is male or female with the line, `I don't understand humour.'

Having teamed with Hugh Laurie in a delightful series of Jeeves and Wooster scrapes, Stephen Fry knows all about the neverland that PG Wodehouse created around the stately homes of England. But, while he deftly updated the format in his bestselling 1994 debut novel, The Hippopotamus, screenwriters Tom Hodgson and Blanche McIntyre get themselves and sophomore director John Jencks into a frightful muddle in trying to rework its epistolary eloquence for the big screen. They might trim the odd secondary character and use texts and Skype to pay lip service to the text's emphasis on languid, but lacerating letters, but Hodgson and McIntyre solve none of the problems posed by the screed of narrative contrivances that accrue during a half-hearted pastiche of the drawing-room whodunit that relies more on bawdy humour and bodily functions than anything Plum or Agatha Christie might have concocted.

Having realised that TS Eliot had it right when he suggested that literature was like turning blood into ink, failed poet Roger Allam resigns himself to the fact that he is better suited to transforming whisky into journalism. However, having resorted to fisticuffs after being confronted by the star of an inept homoerotic production of Titus Andronicus, Allam loses his job as a theatre critic after informing editor Russell Tovey that he doesn't deserve to have someone of his calibre writing about `loose stooled effluent'. Back in his flat, Allam curses the fact that musicians and artists can hide behind props while writers are exposed to the whims of words. But he finds solace at the bottom of a glass in Soho's Harpo Club, where he bumps into goddaughter Emily Berrington, whose mother is Allam's old flame, Geraldine Somerville.

Somewhat intriguingly, Berrington invites Allam to her apartment, where she informs him that she has been diagnosed with incurable leukaemia. Since visiting 16 year-old cousin Tommy Knight, however, she feels she has much longer to live than the three months allotted to her by the doctors and she offers Allam £25,000 to travel to Norfolk to see whether Knight really does have the power to cure the sick. Taken aback by the commission, but needing the money, Allam agrees to see what his godson is up to and sets off for Swafford Hall to renew his estranged acquaintance with Knight's parents, Matthew Modine and Fiona Shaw.

Met at the station by Knight's older brother, Dean Ridge, Allam spends the jalopy ride home composing rude limericks. He is met with gushing enthusiasm by Knight, who sends Allam monthly letters full of news and verse. However, he is just as devoted to Modine, an American who earned a peerage for doing dark deeds for Margaret Thatcher before marrying into the elite. Modine mistrusts Allam because he once hurt Somerville. But Shaw is glad to see him, as she is concerned that Knight is unusually socially gauche for sixteen.

Settling into his room, Allam manages to pull down the curtain rail. But this enables him to see Knight striding around the grounds at 5am and Allam feels duty bound to follow him. He drops a whisky bottle into a bucket after tripping over it in a field and returns to his room in a huff to text Berrington that the game is afoot. However, his pitch is queered by the arrival of three strangers, who are identified for him by butler John Standing as theatre director Tim McInnerny, who has come to Swafford in the hope that Knight can cure his angina, and French socialite Lyne Renee, who has come to buy a horse named Lilac for her maladroit daughter, Emma Curtis. While the newcomers unpack, Allam goes rowing on the lake with Knight, who regales him with a poem he has written about masturbation. Suitably repulsed, Allam urges Knight to avoid overrated hacks like William Wordsworth and Gerard Manley Hopkins. But he feels the need to inform Shaw of her son's choice of subject matter while drying out after falling in the water. However, Shaw is called to the stables by Ridge, who is concerned that Lilac has suddenly been stricken down. The vet declares that the animal should be put down, but Knight is convinced he can ease its suffering and Shaw agrees to a stay of execution.

During supper, the flamboyant McInnerny relates a risqué anecdote as a preamble to coaxing Modine into backing his next play. But he is squarely rebuffed and tries to save face by proposing a toast to Lilac and miracles. Renee asks why everyone talks incessantly about sex and Allam wonders again what he has let himself into. But he finally gains some insight when Modine explains that his father had acquired a reputation as a faith healer back in Massachusetts after aiding a wounded boy during the war. He thinks the gift has skipped a generation and describes how Knight not only cured Berrington, but also revived Shaw after a potentially fatal asthma attack. But he is not sure whether to protect Knight or share his talents and asks Allam to earn the title of godfather by assessing whether he could cope with the pressures of adulation.

The following morning, news comes that Lilac has made a full recovery and McInnerny is so excited that he wades into the swimming pool to entreat Knight to mend his broken heart. However, Knight makes himself scarce and Modine dispatches Allam to find him. He goes for a buggy ride around the estate with Ridge, who admits to not knowing whether his brother has special powers, even though he witnessed Shaw's seemingly miraculous recovery. The sceptical Allam feels sorry for Ridge and notes Standing's verdict that Knight is an oddball who is always hiding and wandering the grounds in the small hours.

However, Allam also feels sympathy for Curtis after Renee asks Knight to make her as beautiful as her mother, although he quickly comes to question her virginal purity when he catches her fellating Knight in the gardens and is forced to rush the youth to the local GP after Curtis accidentally bites him with her buck teeth. Convinced that Allam is confessing to paedophilia, doctor Emma West threatens to take immediate action and the apoplectic writer storms out of the surgery to interrogate Knight on the drive home. He claims that he is able to heal with his hands, blood and seed because he has a pure soul and regrets that Ridge lacks the spiritual intensity to claim his birthright. But, while he is willing to accept his godson's conviction in his abilities, Allam is appalled to discover that he ministered to Berrington by sleeping with her.

Back at Swafford, Allam gets a frosty reception from Somerville, who pours gin over his head while recalling how he had once humiliated her on her own arts show, Stanza. She is livid with him for taking advantage of Berrington's vulnerability and he video calls her to decline the money. However, Berrington is more concerned about her godfather's welfare and implores him to ask Knight to cure him of his own ailment. Scoffing that he is not about to kick the bucket, Allam is suddenly struck by a thought and rings off to consult the vet about Lilac's condition.

That night, Allam asks Shaw about her asthma attack and he dines with a look of quiet satisfaction on his face. As Modine, Somerville and McInnerny debate how best to promote Knight, Allam declares that he has no special powers, but has come to believe he is some sort of superhero after saving his mother. But, in fact, it was Ridge administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation that had revived her and Knight had only laid hands on her as it began to take effect. Nevertheless, Knight had got it into his head that he could heal as long as his semen remained unblemished and he had employed his unique bedside manner on Berrington, McInnerny and Lilac.

Amidst gasps, Allam reveals that Lilac had merely been drunk because she had lapped up the whisky he had dumped in her water bucket and she had bled from her mouth and anus because she had swallowed slivers of broken glass. As for Berrington, her treatment had coincided with a natural remission. But he has no such good news for McInnerny, whose nocturnal agonies will continue unabated.

Unfortunately, Knight has been eavesdropping at the door and he disappears into the grounds. But he is found in a shallow grave with his dog, Soda, and is rushed to hospital after Ridge performs CPR. With Modine following behind bemoaning the fact he has been a terrible father, Allam is left alone to take the phone call that Berrington has died. He is forced to break the news to Somerville, who accuses him of always needing to be the smartest person in the room. Allam is in no better odour at Berrington's funeral when he opines that she will follow the millions of famous and anonymous people who have passed before her into a vast nothingness. But the solemnity of the occasion reawakens his muse and he rushes home to write seven poems in a single day. He continues to drink, however, and drinks a toast to miracles before telling the audience to eff off because he has work to do.

This gratuitous ending rather sums up a picture that consistently tries to shock without ever remotely succeeding. With just John Paul Davidson's Seve the Movie (2014) to his credit, Hodgson lacks the experience to guide the debuting McIntyre (who is primarily a theatre director) through the tricky task of adapting an intricate text by one of this country's liveliest minds. Consequently, while Allam is able to sparkle while rattling off the Fry bon mots that made the final draft, the rest of the cast has to subsist on platitudes and crass witticism that barely raise a smile. Modine, Shaw and Somerville are particularly short-changed, while McInnerny tries too hard to make the most of a resistible caricature. Most ruinously, however, Knight lacks the charisma to suggest a Rasputin-like aura that is rooted in the misguided innocence of a neglected runt seeking attention and approval.

As he often is, Allam is splendid as the world-weary cynic, whose feud with the musclebound Shakespearean thesps he keeps prompting from the auditorium writes comic cheques the rest of the scenario can't cash. Indeed, the showdown with a wasted Russell Tovey immediately tips proceedings into the red and there they remain until the last of the tragicomic contrivances is played out. It seems a shame that Fry has to descend into the smutty realms of pederasty and bestiality. But so much of the book is missing that he has to be exonerated and the same goes for the maliciously mellifluent Allam, cinematographer Angus Hudson and production designer Stéphane Collonge, who makes the most of the imposing West Wycombe Park setting. Yet there's no escaping the fact that this is essentially Peter's Friends Go Mad At Brideshead.

Even though he has won prizes galore, few will be familiar with the name Michael Dudok de Wit. That is all about to change, however, with the release of The Red Turtle, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This is not Dudok de Wit's first Oscar success, as his 1994 charmer, The Monk and the Fish, was nominated for Best Short Film (while also winning a César and the Cartoon d'or), while the charcoal-drawn Father and Daughter (2000) won the category, as well as the top prize at such prestigious animation festivals as Zagreb and Annecy.

This exquisite circle of life study caught the eye of the powers at Studio Ghibli, who invited the Dutch-born, London-based animator to be their first overseas director. He entered into the spirit of this arrangement by using tea to draw the abstract designs in The Aroma of Tea (2006), But his debut feature, which he has scripted with Pascale Ferran (whose 2014 feature, Bird People, was mystifyingly denied a UK release), feels like an undiscovered fable by Hans Christian Andersen or something that Charles Darwin might have written on the homeward voyage of HMS Beagle and left in a desk drawer. Consequently, it has none of the breakneck bustle associated with modern Hollywood animation, while its hand-drawn graphics will delight traditionalists seeking refuge from all those pixels. Swept by huge Hokusai waves, a nameless man is washed on to the shore of a desert island. No one else appears to survive the presumed wreck and he is woken by a crab crawling up his white trouser leg. Struggling to his feet, he wanders inland and swims in a freshwater pool in a clearing in a bamboo forest. He finds food in a fruit tree and feels refreshed enough to explore. As he clambers on to a granite headland, however, he loses his footing and falls into a deep pool inside a ravine. Holding his breath, he squeezes through a narrow gap in the underwater rocks and emerges in the sea.

After acclimatising himself to his new surroundings, the castaway begins gathering bamboo for a raft. Exhausted by his labours, he lies on the sand and watches some baby turtles scurry to the tideline to let the water carry them away to swim. Dozing on the moonlit beach, he dreams of a long wooden jetty and whoops as he runs along it before flying low over the planking. But he wakes to find himself flat on his back looking up at a clear blue sky. Along the bay, a crab finds a dead turtle and drags it back to its hole in the sand.

Drawing on all his ingenuity, the man builds his craft and uses creepers to lash the wood together. He uses some spare logs to roll the raft to the water's edge and allows the wind to catch the foliage he is using as a sail. Satisfied with his work, he shares some fruit with the ever-curious crabs, who form a farewell committee as the stranger embarks on his escape. However, he is still in sight of the island when an unseen creature buffets the timbers and he is forced to abandon the shattered shell and swim for shore.

Undeterred, the man begins to construct a second craft. But this meets with the same fate and he feels so crushed by his failure that he collapses in the woods and sleeps heavily. A crab gets a fish stuck in its sand hole, while a spider closes in on an insect trapped in its web. Birds circle overhead and a millipede crawls over the comatose man's foot. He hallucinates that an 18th-century string quartet is playing on the beach and he howls in anguish when he realises they are an illusion. With his beard growing longer and his pants in tatters, the man skins a dead seal to make some new clothes so that he can make a start on a new raft. The inquisitive crabs hasten aboard, but the man ushers them off before setting forth once more. A short way out, he spots a large red turtle swimming beside him and he grabs hold of a pole to try and defend himself. But the creature rams the fragile structure again and looks deep into the man's eyes, as he curls in a foetal ball under the surface. The turtle seems protective towards the man, but he is furious and hurls a rock into the sea on regaining land. He stalks into the forest and, as dusk falls, he sees the turtle come ashore from his high vantage point. Hurtling through the undergrowth, he rushes at his assailant as the sky turns red and clubs it over the head. Beside himself with rage, the man tips the dazed animal on its shell and leaves its head and flippers dangling as he jumps on its belly with a terrifying sense of triumph.

Helpless, the turtle lies in the hot sun while its conqueror carries logs for yet another escape bid. But, as he works, the fellow starts to feel remorse. The following morning, he tries to catch a fish to tempt the creature. But it has already perished and the crabs shuffle in to devour the fish on its wooden spear. Racked with guilt, the man drifts into sleep and dreams that the turtle floats towards the heavens. On waking, he splashes its face with sea water and is alarmed when the carcass suddenly cracks. Then, to his amazement, a red-haired woman emerges from the scales and the man hurries to bring some drinking water.

He also builds a shelter to keep off the sun, while the crabs play with the smaller twigs. Unsure what to do for the best, he sits by the canopy until he decides it needs more leaves. While he is in the woods, however, the woman is revived by a downpour and she has disappeared by the time the man returns. He searches the island, but there is no sign of her, apart from some footprints by the pool, and he frets that she is punishing him for his intemperate cruelty.

The next morning, the man is relieved to see the woman swimming offshore. He gallantly leaves his shirt on the sand and retreats to the woods, so that she can dry and dress herself. He returns to the beach to see her pushing the shell out to sea and he reciprocates by abandoning his raft. They circle each other in the water and strike up a rapport. Back on dry land, she feeds him shellfish and he is so moved by her generosity and gentleness that he turns away in shame for having slaughtered the turtle. But the woman reassuringly touches his arm and face and they chase each other up the beach before stopping to kiss and this delicately shaded top shot segues into images of the pair swimming together before they float into the clouds in contentment. As sunset bathes the island in a red glow, a toddler crawls towards a crab as it ventures out of its lair. The boy is fearless and reaches out to grab the crustacean and pop it in his mouth. He soon spits it out, however, and the bewildered creature is about to rush for cover when it is snatched by a swooping bird. Joining his parents, the child finds a glass bottle with a stopper wedged in the sand and brandishes it with great pride. His father draws their little family in the sand and is busy sketching some of the animals he remembers when the woman stoops to outline a turtle.

One day, the boy falls into the pool that had nearly claimed his father. But his mother stops him from diving in because she wants her son to finds his own way out. He makes contact with a giant turtle by the headland before his relieved parents rescue him. But this independent spirit grows with him and, while he enjoys playing with his father in the grassland, he loves diving from the high rocks and swimming in the clear blue-green sea, with the twin turtles who have befriended him. But, as the boy reaches adolescence, a tsunami crashes on to the island and flattens much of the forest. In blind panic, he locates his mother. But, even though his father appears to have been swept away, the youth enlists the assistance of three turtles to search for him. Eventually, they find him out to sea, clinging to a bamboo trunk. One of the turtles swims beneath him to support him with its shell, as he starts to sink. But the son brings his father home, where he is embraced by the woman before they stagger across the no man's land that was once their paradise.

Determined to salvage the situation, the family builds a bonfire and the boy is delighted to find his treasured water bottle by the drinking pool. As he holds it up, he imagines what lies beyond the horizon and daydreams about being buoyed away on a towering green wave. Feeling that the time has come to spread his wings, he lies with his parents in a heart-shaped clearing and tells them of his decision. They spend their last night together before he bids them farewell at the water's edge and swims away with his turtle friends.

Time passes and the couple grow old. But they still dance together in the scarlet sunset until, one night, the white-haired man looks up at the moon across the water and wonders about his son and those he left behind all those years ago. In a touching long shot, the woman wakes to find her partner has died and she kneels over him in sorrow. As she lies beside him, however, her hand turns back into a flipper and the red turtle eases herself back to the water and swims away.

Apart from the odd shout and laugh provided by Tom Hudson and Emmanuel Garijo, this is a wordless celebration of humanity's relationship with Nature. But, although there's no dialogue, this is never silent, thanks to the wondrous soundscapes designed by Alexandre Fleurant and Sébastien Marquilly. Indeed, Dudok de Wit might have been advised to rely solely on them and dispense with the melodic Laurent Perez del Mar score that occasionally intrudes upon proceedings that are so delicately delineated by the animators that there's no need for his over-insistent and emotionally manipulative orchestrations.

But this is the only misstep in a beautiful and deceptively simply saga that moves at its own pace without ever seeming to tarry or rush - which is apt, given that the project took almost a decade to realise and that Dudok de Wit once made a commercial called `The Long Sleep' for Macallan malt whisky. But, while the minimalist graphic style is very much the director's own, wisps of Ghibli spirit (largely provided by the great Isao Takahata) infuse the action and add considerably to its charm, as it slips between authenticity and enchantment.

However, credit should also go to supervising animation director, Jean-Christophe Lie, a Disney alumnus who had worked on Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendez-vous (2003) and Michel Ocelot's Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) before making his own feature bow with the winning, Zarafa (2014). The characterisation is efficiently expressive, with the absence of a backstory proving no obstacle to ready identification with either the marooned hero and his noble struggles or the chelonian woman and her docile acceptance of fate. But it's the vistas and the sublime use of light, perspective and colour that will linger in the memory and ensure this poetic meditation on life and love will remain a classic of the form.

Those looking for a half-term treat for the little ones would be better advised to try The Red Turtle than Aaron Woodley's Spark, a low-budget CGI space opera that has somehow managed to attract the vocal talents of Patrick Stewart, Susan Sarandon, Hilary Swank and Jessica Biel. Designed by Goran Delic and Hee Kyung Kang and animated by Daryl Graham, this is full of rib-diggingly blatant references to the Star Wars and Transformers franchises, as well as William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Disney's The Lion King (1994), Pixar's WALL-E (2008), Mike Hodges's Flash Gordon (1980) and Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers (1997), which have clearly been included for accompanying grown-ups, who would surely not have allowed their tots to see anything as darkly disturbing as the latter. But the story is dull, the imagery bland and the sound effects booming. Consequently, this is only likely to appeal to the least demanding audience.

When Spark (Jace Norman) was still a baby monkey, the evil General Zhong (Alan C. Peterson) used the space Kraken to create a black hole to swallow up part of the idyllic planet of Bana that was ruled by his benevolent brother. Although he lost his parents in the disaster, Spark was rescued by his robot nanny, Bananny (Susan Sarandon), who retells him the story of how the Kraken's slick tore his home planet in half and he came to live on a rubbish dump outpost with Vix the Fox (Jessica Biel), Chunk the warthog (Rob DeLeeuw) and a gang of cockroaches led by the ever-hungry Floyd (Aaron Woodley). Having just turned 13, Spark is eager to join Vix and Chunk on their spaceship resistance missions, but a martial arts lesson with Vix reveals that he is not yet ready for such onerous duties.

Back on Bana, Zhong has informed his queen (Hilary Swank) that he intends summoning the Kraken to decimate another planet so that the entire universe will fear him. She is not impressed, but his gormless gorilla henchman, Koko (Athena Karkanis), thinks it's a splendid idea and gets a fit of the giggles after flicking the sculptor creating Zhong's statue into a sulphurous pool. Koko is nowhere to be seen, however, when Spark blasts off in the Bananastar (Shannon Perreault) spacecraft to follow an intercepted message to Vix. He finds himself in the royal palace and just manages to evade the guards in order to rendezvous with the Queen, who turns out to be leading the fight against her husband. She entrusts Spark with a kraken-finder that could save the universe. But, rather than giving it to Vix and Chunk, as instructed, he rejoins Floyd in the ship and embarks upon the next phase of his adventure.

Unsure how to make the kraken-finder work, Spark tries everything from reading it a story to blasting it with a blowtorch. Eventually, it starts to pulse and Spark tracks down the Kraken. But, instead of it devouring him, it gets a crush on the Bananastar after hearing its tooting horn and placidly follows it through the heavens to the Garbage Shard. However, Zhong has sent Koko to arrest Vix and Chunk and Spark arrives in time to see Bananny conk out. He is also thrown into a cell in the royal palace, where Vix ticks him off for being so headstrong and giving Zhong untold power. At that moment, Zhong and the Queen enter the dungeon and he shows the captives how he has trapped the Kraken in a force field. He also gives them a demonstration of a slick in action and the trio are swept away into the cosmos.

Fortunately, the swirling force forms a wormhole that deposits them on the last fragment of another shard. Here, in the remnants of the king's old battle cruiser, Spark meets the Captain (Patrick Stewart) and a band of renegades dedicated to reclaiming Bana. Recognising a birthmark on Spark's hand, the Captain informs him that he is the king's son and that Zhong's queen is his mother. His father had died trying to save his subjects during a storm. But they carved a memorial in the last tree trunk and this preserves the spirit that comes to Spark and implores him to save Bana.

First, he has to rescue Vix and Chunk from a giant insect that has cocooned them in green thread. With Floyd for assistance, he manages to overcome this behemoth and enlists its help to attack the palace. Chunk manages to create a wormhole to lift them back to Bana and not only repairs Bananny, but also weaponises her. Prince Spark (as he is now known) thinks this is cool and he gives his troops a Henry V rallying speech before the invasion begins, with Vix looking on proudly that she has fulfilled her promise to the Queen to protect her boy and prepare him to lead.

The mother of all battles follows a breakneck ride through the multicoloured wormhole and Vix takes on Koko paw-to-paw, while Spark seeks out his mother. Unfortunately, while they are hugging, they are arrested by two guards and brought to Zhong, who is furious at having to postpone a Kraken attack on a disobedient planet. He orders his minions to destroy the cruiser when its power fails. But the Captain uses the fact he has been struck by lightning so many times to reboot the system and Spark wins the day, while the Queen punches Zhong so hard that he disappears into a black hole.

As the film ends, Spark is crowned and the people of Bana cheer under the watchful gaze of the tamed Kraken. Such a scene seems as much a cue for a sequel as a happy ever after, but it's hard to think why anyone would want a second instalment of this lacklustre Canadian-South Korean saga. The vocal cast works hard, with Alan C. Peterson channelling his inner Jeremy Irons-cum-Tim Curry as the cacklingly wicked tyrant and Patrick Stewart limning Sean Connery to distinguish his characterisation from any other intergalactic captain he might have once played. But Jace Norman is grindingly chipper as the simian Skywalker, while poor old Susan Sarandon suffers the indignity of being vocodored in order to transform her (pun intended) into an R2-D2-shaped Mary Poppins droid.

The visuals are serviceable, but Woodley includes far too many perspectival theme park hurtles to induce visceral sensation. He also has a tin ear for comic dialogue, although he has fun chucking out space jargon while Chunk explains why he needs to harness lightning. But Robert Duncan's booming score is as witless as the special effects and much of the character design, which is so devoid of charm that it could be animated clipart.

A populist who has often been compared to Steven Spielberg, Feng Xiaogang is one of China's most commercially successful film-makers. Born in Beijing in 1958, he started out as a stage designer with the Beijing Military Region Art Troupe before moving into television as an art director in 1985. He made his directorial bow with Lost My Love (1994), but came into his own by exploiting the `Hesui Pian' or `New Year Celebration' genre with Dream Factory (1997). A string of similar comedies and satires followed, including Be There Or Be Square (1998), Sorry Baby (1999) and Big Shot's Funeral (2001), which saw him become the first Mainland director to have a film backed by Columbia TriStar's short-lived Hong Kong production unit.

Feng also proved he could handle melodrama with A Sigh (2000). But he forged an international reputation with Cell Phone (2002), a media satire that helped make a star of Fan Bingbing (more of whom anon). Having reworked William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts for the period epic, The Banquet (2006), Feng returned to lampooning nouveau riche mores in If You Are the One (2008) and If You Are the One 2 (2010). In Aftershock (2010), however, he also started to explore darker topics like the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, although this approach led to clashes with the censors (he considers submitting films for approval a torment) and a group of online critics, whom he branded `cultural Nazis' after they attacked his war sagas Assembly (2007) and Back to 1942 (2012).

More recently, Feng reunited with favourite leading man Ge You for the wish fulfilment comedy, Personal Tailor (2013), and he remains in a satirical mood in I Am Not Madame Bovary. Adapted by Lin Zhenyun from his own novel, this has been rather clumsily retitled for Western audiences, as the original Chinese refers to the murderous adulteress Pan Jinlian, whose name has become synonymous with female wantonness. Moreover, while this bureaucratic dramedy has nothing to do with Gustave Flaubert's unhappy heroine, it does bear a marked resemblance to Zhang Yimou's The Story of Qiu Ju (1992).

Following a brief prologue montage of paintings recapping the myth of Pan Jinlian, the story harks back 10 years (in a circular mask that persists for much of the picture) to show Lian Xuelian (Fan Bingbing) arriving by boat in a downpour to meet with Guangming County Justice Wang Gongdau (Da Peng). She explains in a roundabout manner that they are tenuously related and presents him with some unwanted gifts before revealing that she wants a divorce from her truck-driving husband, Qin Yuhe (Li Zonghan). The only problem is, she has already secured a legal separation as part of a plot to force Qin's tea company bosses to give him a better apartment. But, having moved into the new property, Qin promptly married another woman and left Lian without a husband or a home. She wants Wang, therefore, to sue Qin so that the divorce can be annulled in order for her to ditch him again with interest.

When the case comes to court, Qin fails to appear. But Gu Daxing (Yin Yuanzhang), the Civil Affairs assistant for Guaiwan Town testifies that the divorce was genuine and he admonishes Lian for lying to him and the government. This persuades the judge to declare the divorce valid. But, as narrator Feng Xiaogang confirms, Lian refuses to accept the verdict and badgers a retired chief justice (Feng Enhe), as he leaves a party to celebrate his golden wedding to a wife whose mantra for a happy marriage is `tolerate until it hurts'. Standing in the rain, Lian summarises her situation and is dissatisfied when the venerable judge advises her to go to appeal. When he drives off, Lian turns her attention to Justice Xun (Liu Xin), despite the police chief (Zhao Yi) testily urging her to leave them alone and take her case to the municipal intermediate court and report her suspicion that Wang took bribes from Qin to the procuratorate.

Pushed into a puddle, Lian bounces straight back up and, the following morning, throws herself in front of the car of county chief, Shi Weimin (Zhao Lixin). She holds up a cardboard sign and draws a crowd, as she requests Shi's help in bringing law suits against Qin, Wang and Xun. However, he pretends to be his own secretary and gives her the slip by switching coats with an underling and disappearing through the back door of his office. Undeterred, Lian goes to Ping'an City to stage a sit-down protest outside the headquarters Mayor Cai (of Jiang Yongbo). He wants her gone before Governor Chu Jinglian (Huang Jianxin) arrives to open a civilisation exhibit and his sidekick calls some heavies to abduct Lian and force her to take a refresher course in civic duties at the National Stability Office.

However, as is often the case when Chinese whispers echo down the corridors of power, someone gets hold of the wrong end of the stick and Lian is detained by the Public Security Bureau in order to appease the mayor. She pours out her woes to the cow she keeps in the backyard and decides to drop the case. But she insists on making Qin face up to the distress he has caused her and confronts him while he is drinking with his mates. She asks him to admit that he reneged on their deal, but he refuses to incriminate himself and, when she accuses him of divorcing her to have sex with another woman, he drags up the fact that she was not a virgin when they met and shocks his pals by comparing her to Pan Jinlian.

Outraged by Qin's slur, Lian asks her brother Yingying if he would be willing to kill Qin. But he refuses to risk jail, while pork butcher Lao Hu (Liu Hua) declines a one-sided deal involving a night's passion in return for five murders. Concluding that all locals are fools, Lian decides to go to Beijing to seek redress. As she travels by motor tricycle and bus, the aspect ratio switches from an iris mask to an Academy frame. But her options remain limited, as the National People's Congress is taking place in the capital and her coach is stopped and searched before it is allowed to continue.

Lian does have a trump card, however, as classmate Zhao Datou (Guo Tao) is now a chef at the NPC building. He lets her sleep in his storeroom and takes her round the miniature landmarks exhibit at World Park (where the Twin Towers still adorn the Manhattan skyline). She feels guilty at taking up so much of his time, but her ears prick up when he tells her that Governor Chu will soon be attending a meeting with the Party Chairman (Gao Ming). As the delegates file into the debating chamber, the governor and the chairman take their places at the top table. Much to the former's dismay, the latter reveals that he has met a woman from his county and has been appalled by the buck-passing negligence of officials at every level.

Keen to watch his own back, Chu fires Xun, Cai and Shi. But, as she prays at a Buddhist shrine, Lian insists that she will not rest until Qin pays for duping and insulting. The screen returns to its circular shape as Lian returns home and the narrator informs us that she has spent the last decade pursuing Qin and making an annual pilgrimage to Beijing to petition the NPC. Wang comes to visit her at the small restaurant she runs in the town and begs her to drop the suit or he will lose his job. He calls her cousin and outlines how closely they are actually related. But she swears that she has lost interest in the case and is not going to the NPC this year.

Wang is unconvinced and goes to see new county chief Zheng Zhong (Yu Hewei), who is inspecting the fire extinguishers at the wax museum. He believes that Lian has a right to pursue her claim, but Wang explains how she has come to represent four symbolic women in Little Cabbage, Pan Jinlian, Dou E and Lady White Snake and that she represents a palpable threat to their futures in all in each guise. They agree to persuade Lian to sign a guarantee that she will drop the case. But their solicitousness makes her suspicious and she not only refuses to sign, but she also declares that she may well go to Beijing after all.

New mayor Ma Wenbin (Zhang Jiayi) chides Zheng for his clumsy tactics and pays Lian a visit at her restaurant. He praises her home cooking and sends Wang to fetch oil for the lanterns when there's a power cut. But he is surprised when she explains that the cow convinced her to drop the case. However, there is a difference between the cow fearing she will lose and the mayor hoping she won't win and, therefore, she will delay her decision until the NPC is about to start.

Realising Lian will go her own way, Mayor Ma decides to put pressure on Qin to remarry and agree to a divorce on Lian's terms. But he is no position to back down, as his current wife has been subjected to a decade of finger-pointing because of Lian and she has threatened to sue him if he ever shows his ex any mercy. Datou is also keen to move on and marry Lian. But, while she keeps stalling him, she does allow him to announce their engagement so that she can get the four police bodyguards imposed on her by the community drunk enough to slip away by raft during the night.

Zheng is livid with the police chief for letting Lian escape. But he is also aware that Ma will be after his hide and he conspires with his secretary (Tian Xiaojie) to speak to the mayor alone. Stopping Zheng in his tracks as he tries to save face through self-criticism, Ma warns him of the consequences of letting Lian reach Beijing. But she has had a change of plan after Datou rapes her in a hotel near Huangshan Mountain and she feels so like a new woman that they agree to stay for a few days and let her enemies chase their tails.

As the county chief leans on the police chief and he complains to Wang, Zheng is sought out by court justice Jia Congming (Zhang Yi). He has been helping Datou with an issue with his late wife's will and has managed to coax him into marrying Lian in return for a good job for his son and the money that will enable him to open up the small hotel above her restaurant. Jia shows Zheng the photographs that Datou has been snapping of Lian and he is cock-a-hoop at the prospect of boosting his own profile as the man who kept her away from the NPC.

However, Lian overhears Datou arguing with Jia on the phone and throws a vase at him. He pleads with her through the locked door that he cares more for her than his son and that it's still possible for them to outwit the authorities. But Lian wants nothing more to do with him and stalks out of the hotel with renewed determination. As she walks through the snow-covered streets, however, she realises that her aim now is to remove the Pan Jinlian stain from her reputation, especially now that Datou has sullied it for real.

Travelling without papers (as the screen rectangles again) and convincing a cop searching the coach that she is seriously ill, Lian finds herself in hospital outside the capital. Needing money to pay her healthcare bill, she is escorted to the Beijing street market to find the cousin who runs a nut stall. But she is pounced upon by Wang, who detains her long enough for her to learn that Qin has died. Bawling with frustration that he has ruined her life and left her with an indelible stigma, Lian is led away and the good news is relayed to Ma on the last day of the NPC. Instead of being delighted, however, he is annoyed that it took a random occurrence rather than meticulous planning to solve their problem and he deduces that this is a poor way to govern. He wonders what drove her to persevere for 10 years when the court's initial decision had been fair. But he also concedes that the establishment's timidity had contributed to the saga dragging on and, while it was good that the law had been upheld, it didn't reflect well on anyone.

Trudging through the countryside in despair that she has become a laughing stock, Lian tries to hang herself in an orchard. But owner Guo Nong (Fan Wei) stops her, less out of concern for her well-being than the fear that no one will want to work in the scene of a suicide. He suggests she uses a tree belonging to his rival and Lian smiles and looks up into the sun. As the frame expands to widescreen, we learn that a year has passed and that she now runs a restaurant in Beijing. One of her customers reveals himself to be Chief Shi and he explains that he went home to Hunan to become a carpenter are he was fired.

He asks whether the second apartment was worth all the fuss and Lian reveals that they were trying to bypass the law on second children and thought they could register a second baby to her as a single woman before they remarried. But Qin deceived her and she miscarried and vowed to fight for her unborn child. Smiling sadly and urging her to treat the past like smoke. But as the narrator concludes, Lian never quite came to terms with what she had been through, although she was relieved that people stopped telling her story as a nudgeworthy joke.

Much has been made of the distractingly gimmicky nature of the periodic shifts in frame size. But these transitions are handled with an unimpeachable diegetic logic and with such stylistic finesse that they greatly enhance a film whose gentle satirical wit is slyly driven home by the restrained performances that almost give the action a docudramatic feel. Following in the dogged footsteps of Gong Li's Qiu Ju, Fan Bingbing's Lian is a pugnaciously tenacious character, although many will raise eyebrows at her acquiescence in Datou's rapacious assult in the country hotel room. But the wry smile in the orchard is exquisitely judged, as is the simple confession of her true motive for pursuing her treacherous spouse. Drawing on classical Chinese art for the look of the circular and oblong images, production designer Han Zhong and cinematographer Luo Pan succeed in creating some of the most striking visuals of recent times. The spherical compositions are particularly mesmerising, as they recall the painted glass slides used in magic lantern shows. But Wu Jiang's sound design and Du Wei's score are equally affecting, as they provide an audio equivalent to the majestic mise-en-scène. Yet, even though they capably reinforce the extent to which Lian is becoming increasingly boxed in by her ruinous obsession, the aesthetic choices often feel inelegantly arch and a touch gratuitous for a realist exposé of the hypocrisy, corruption, incompetence, indifference and the face-saving and self-preservatory instincts of Chinese officialdom.

A very different side of China emerges in Joe Piscatella's documentary, Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower, which launches this week on Netflix. As with Piscatella's debut outing, #chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on a Dictator (2013), the focus falls on a teenage rebel combating an implacable foe. But, while 19 year-old Chicago college student Ala'a Basatneh sat in her bedroom and used Facebook and YouTube to co-ordinate opponents of the Assad regime in Syria, 13 year-old Joshua Wong took to the streets of Hong Kong to challenge Beijing's bid to impose a national education curriculum on the Special Administrative Region in 2012.

As South China Morning Post contributor Jason Ng avers, Wong made a momentous impact because of his youth and media studies specialist Clay Skirky draws comparisons with Joan of Arc. Indeed, he had yet to be born when Britain ended a 150-year association by handing Hong Kong back to China on 1 July 1997. Martin Lee, who served in the Legislative Assembly, recalls the promise made by President Jiang Zemin to follow a `one country, two systems' policy that guaranteed the territory a 50-year transition period, during which all democratic institutions would remain in place, along with freedom of the press and the right of assembly. And Ng and historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom remember being surprised that little changed during the first phase of the transition.

Then, in 2012, Beijing announced the National Education scheme that was designed to dissuade students from thinking in an unpatriotic way. However, Wong detested this effort to impose nationalist sentiments on the former colonists and he founded Scholarism as a focus for teenage protest against what he considered to be a form of brainwashing. He found an able deputy in Christian Fellowship classmate Derek Lam, who proved an ace recruiting sergeant by invoking the spirit of Bruce Lee and suggesting that the best way to defeat Darth Vader was by training Jedi.

As CY Leung was sworn in as the new chief executive in March 2012, however, it became apparent to other activists groups that Wong's campaign could enable them to prepare for opposing other Communist dictates. But, when Wong met Leung at a Facebook event, he was dismayed by the CEO's dismissive attitude to Scholarism and began handing out flyers and holding impromptu street corner sessions to try and raise the movement's profile so that he would be forced to take it seriously. In May, Wong organised the first rally and was encouraged by the turn out. But the interviews he gave at the end of the day went viral on YouTube and 100 new members signed up, among them Agnes Chow, who quickly came to respect the focus and energy of her 14 year-old leader.

Radio stations also began clamouring for interviews and Wong's profile raised sufficiently for the police to monitor Scholarism's meetings. Law professor Michael Davis and historian Steve Tsang note how Hong Kongers were hesitant about provoking Beijing, as they didn't want a repeat of the Tianenman Square Massacre in June 1989. But Wong was fearless and organised a camp in the area in front of the administration's headquarters and Leung was forced to come to Civic Square to meet him in front of the waiting media. He hoped to use the exchange as a PR exercise. But, as the rain began hammering down, the older generation felt shamed by the commitment of youth and the support for the campaign began to snowball.

Day Four of the protest marked the first day of the National Education scheme and Wong was encouraged by the sudden arrival of a large crowd to join in chanting slogans against the reform. Leung again felt duty-bound to put in an appearance, but the black clothing protest on Day 9 brought an angrier mob of 120,000 on to the concourse and, on 8 September, Leung amended the act to let schools decide whether to accept the curriculum or not. But, while his parents proudly show off their scrapbook and Wong enthuses that student power forced Beijing to back down, Chew admits that she was as nervous as she was excited.

Her fears started to be realised soon after Xi Jinping became Chinese president in 2013 and he started putting the squeeze on Hong Kong. The various experts note that this provoked fears that the universal suffrage that had been promised in 1997 would never be delivered and law professor Benny Tai responded by founding the Occupy Central Movement and organising a referendum that saw 800,000 people voting to send a message of President Xi. But, in August 2014, he called Tai's bluff by agreeing to let the populace vote, but only for pre-approved candidates.

In order to reinforce the occupation of the Central commercial district on 1 October, Wong calls a student strike and Nathan Law helps with the planning. After four days of marches and sit-ins, Wong decided that the crowd of 1500 at a night rally on 26 September would be sufficient to ensure another raid on Civic Square. But the police were ready for them and Wong, Lam and Law were among those arrested. Calls for their release were swift and the latter pair were free within four hours. Wong remained in custody for 46 hours, but his scaling the fence outside the government offices prompted Tai to launch Occupy With Love and Peace before his planned launch date and Wong admits that he has a better understanding of how social movements work than his older comrade.

Dressed in riot gear, the police responded with tear gas. But, while there were casualties, the protesters were not intimidated, as they used umbrellas to fend off the smoke. Their numbers grew on the second day and a chopper shot shows the extent of the turnout, as the umbrella became a symbol of defiance and other areas of the city came out in sympathy, including Mong Kok. This neighbourhood held firm for 61 days until business leaders began to lose patience with falling profits and 150 were arrested as the police helped bailiffs tear down the street camps. Once again, Wong was singled out, as he had now become the international figurehead for the movement and he exploited his celebrity by going on hunger strike to keep the protest alive after Tai handed himself over in the hope of preventing bloodshed. After five days, Wong had become so weak that he was forced to eat and Leung told the press that all forms of resistance in Hong Kong would be futile.

The sense of failure after 79 days crushed Wong and his supporters. But they came out in force when he was summoned to a police station in January 2015 and made a defiant victory gesture as he rode the upward elevator. By the end of the year, he was facing possible prison time for a number of charges relating to unlawful assembly. But Hong Kong had a new concern, as five booksellers disappeared for selling volumes critical of Xi's increasingly dictatorial regime. Aware that they were possible targets, Wong, Lam and Chew decided to disband Scholarism and announce plans to form a new political party to run in the elections for the Legislative Council.

Following a farewell party for Scholarism (at which Wong proved to he hopeless at video games), he launched Demosisto in April 2016, with Lam, Chew and Law in the ranks. They believe fervently that Xi is scared of the younger generation (the name `Joshua Wong' has been blocked on all Mainland search engines) and that they have what it takes to fight to the end. Despite being found guilty of unlawful assembly, Wong was spared jail and he was able to celebrate Law being elected to the Council. He hopes to run himself in 2020 - when he is old enough.

Despite providing a cogent account of the Umbrella Movement, this engaged and energetic documentary rather wastes its unique access to Joshua Wong by failing to disclose much about his personality or his relationships with his fellow freedom fighters, one of whom describes him as `robotic'. His commitment to the cause is clearly unwavering and Piscatella and editor Matthew Sultan make effective use of news reports, social media posts, phone clips and original footage to piece together his involvement in a pair of epochal campaigns with a pugnacity and sense of urgency that reflects Wong's modus operandi. But we learn little about a remarkable young man, who appears nerdishly devoid of charisma until he addresses a crowd or confronts an adversary.

It might have been interesting to hear from classmates not engaged in Scholarism or from some of the teachers whose lessons Wong was missing in order to crusade for their democratic rights. Similarly, it could have been instructive to assess the leadership dynamic, as it's sometimes possible to detect a little tension in Law's reflections on Wong as an iconic figurehead. Otherwise, the talking heads make sense without resorting to hyperbole in putting the astutely indomitable Wong's achievement in its wider political context, while Piscatella ably conveys the David and Goliath nature of the pro-democracy struggle and the very real danger that Wong faces from Xi's increasingly impatient authoritarianism. But, as a character study, this barely scratches the surface.

Following the success of his first two features, Creep (2004) and Severance (2006), Bristol-born film-maker Christopher Smith was asked by his mother why he kept making scary movies. The events of this week have more than confirmed his contention that there is plenty of horror in everyday life. But, following the muted response to Triangle (2009) and Black Death (2010), Smith lightened up unexpectedly with the festive romp, Get Santa (2014). Thankfully, he returns to more familiar ground with Detour. But, while it pays homage to Edgar G. Ulmer's seminal 1945 noir of the same name, this teasing thriller also owes much to Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) and Peter Howitt's parallel universe comedy, Sliding Doors (1998).

Los Angeles student Tye Sheridan has little time for buddy Jared Abrahamson's ramblings about why a patch of his hair has turned grey, as his mother is about to have her life support switched off after crashing a car while drunk. Sheridan blames stepfather Stephen Moyer for the accident and despises him for visiting his wife once during her three-month ordeal because he keeps shuttling off to Las Vegas to meet with his teenage mistress. Drinking late in a seedy bar, Sheridan catches the eye of Emory Cohen, a hard case who likes the college boy's moxie and encourages him to tell his tale at the strip club where his girlfriend Bel Powley dances.

Withholding the next shot of bourbon, Cohen asks Sheridan to imagine a parallel world in which he could punish Moyer without having to face the consequences and, as the screen splits, only one of the two Sheridans remains silent. Consequently, he is surprised when Cohen shows up on his doorstep the following morning and suggests that they borrow Moyer's Mustang to drive to Nevada and mete out some street justice. Wearing a yellow windcheater that is supposedly designed to contrast with the red one sported by James Dean in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Sheridan protests that he had merely been shooting his mouth off. But Cohen is not the sort to take no for an answer.

Once again, the screen splits and, while Sheridan A joins Cohen and the scar-faced Powley on the road, Sheridan B closes the door and vomits in the kitchen sink before having a sneering exchange with Moyer, who insists that he is too busy keeping a roof over their heads to visit his fading spouse. Sheridan A is keen to learn the results of his mother's latest tests, but he has forgotten his phone and is reluctant to borrow Cohen's. Sitting in the back seat, he looks at Powley and hears Tom Neal reflecting on Ann Savage in Ulmer's B gem: `She was facing straight ahead, so I couldn't see her eyes. She was young. Not more than twenty-four. Man, she looked like she had just been thrown off the crummiest freight train in the world. Yet, in spite of this, I got the impression of beauty. Not the beauty of a movie actress mind you or the beauty you dream about when you're with your wife, but a natural beauty. A beauty that's almost homely because it's so real.'

At precisely the same moment, Sheridan B is watching the film on television. But he turns it off to eavesdrop on Moyer chatting to his mistress on the phone and reassuring her that his stepson has no idea about them. Having already placed a carving knife in Moyer's bag, he calls Abrahamson and asks if he can get hold of a large amount of weed to ensure that his stepfather gets into plenty of trouble at the airport. But, while he is scheming, Powley is urging Sheridan A to catch a bus from the service station before Cohen gets his hooks into him. She warns him that Cohen will blackmail him for the rest of his life and Sheridan A lets slip that he knows Cohen has power over her because she once shot someone.

Waitress Reine Swart recognises Powley from school and Cohen spins a yarn about them heading to Vegas to further her singing career. But Powley is on edge and goes outside to smoke, while Sheridan A uses a pay phone to call the hospital. He is digesting the news that his mother no longer showing signs of brain activity when cop Gbenga Akinnagbe rolls into the diner. Swart tips off Cohen that he has been asking questions about him and they make a quick getaway.

Back home, Sheridan B has found his mother's will and uses a camcorder to film the air tickets that prove she was in New York on the day the doccument was signed. When Moyer bursts in demanding to know why there is a knife in his luggage, Sheridan B leaves the camera running and accuses him of forging his wife's signature. Moyer claims he was merely trying to protect Sheridan B's interests, but they get into an argument over the cocktail waitress and the ensuing brawl culminates in Moyer falling into the pool with the blade in his chest (and the screen splitting to show him face down in the water and what seems to be Sheridan B relaxing on a water bed).

Out on the open road, Akinnagbe flags down the car and cuffs Cohen when he lies about being an Afghan vet. He reduces Sheridan A to tears as he searches him, but Akinnagbe is the one doing the whining when Powley pulls a gun on him and forces him into the boot of the car. Meanwhile, Sheridan B has fished Moyer out of the pool and is wrapping him in plastic sheeting when Abrahamson arrives. He apologises for not being able to get hold of the weed, but hands over a vial of acid while mentioning something about caves where it would be impossible to find a body.

Crossing into Nevada, Sheridan A withdraws some money from the bank before Cohen makes a detour to visit drug dealer John Lynch. He owes him $50,000 because the last cocaine consignment he sold him was baking powder. But, while Lynch is willing to write off the debt if Powley joins his bikini-clad harem, Cohen refuses to sacrifice her and endures having whisky glasses thrown at his head before being dispatched to settle his debt within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Sheridan B has dumped Moyer's corpse in the boot of his Mustang and he is about to leave when Cohen and Powley ring the doorbell. This time, Sheridan B agrees to go to Vegas (as the screen splits to show Sheridan B thinking fast and the cave venue for a rock festival). As the car drives towards the mine shaft where Sheridan A had proposed to dispose of Akinnagbe, he laces a bottle of water with LSD and forces the cop to drink before he runs off into the wilderness in a blind panic. Relieved to see that Moyer's body is still in the trunk, Sheridan returns to the passenger seat and tells Cohen to head for Vegas.

After a quick tour of the neon-lit sights, the trio book into a ritzy hotel. Cohen heads for the bar, but Sheridan (you note there is no A or B any longer) informs Powley in the lift that he is going to rent a car and vanish. She only just makes it to the vehicle at the allotted time, as Cohen had brought a trick back to the room. But he winds up in custody because Sheridan has reported the body in the trunk and the Vegas cops are in no mood to listen to Cohen's fears that Powley is in danger. Sadly, neither is she, as she tosses her phone into a motel pool when he tries to call her. She has no idea, therefore, that Lynch has sent henchman Tamer Burjaq to abduct her.

Sheridan is also in the dark and thinks he is doing the noble thing when he leaves Powley at a service station with the cash he withdrew from the bank. But, as he heads towards Mexico and Burjaq closes in on Powley at the bus stop, the cops arrive at the family home and interview nosy neighbour, Deon Lotz. As a search of the property begins, we see the camcorder has been taken from its hiding place and is now in the rental car with Sheridan. He waits nervously in a queue at the border, but is allowed to pass and let Powley out of the boot before explaining (via a triptych screen) why he came back for her and why she was able to escape without resort to the gun in her bag.

A neat twist involving a dictaphone plays out as Sheridan hurls the camcorder into the sea on a magic hour Mexican beach. But any suggestion of a happy ending for anyone but the tripping, partying Akinnagbe is negated by Powley's voice-over recalling Cohen's maxim that a murderer needs to dig a grave for his victim and himself. Such ambiguity sits well with what has gone before and, although the odd plot piece needs a little more force than others to slot into place, this is a slick piece of storytelling by a director with a solid sense of pace and places.

The characterisation is a touch thin, with Cohen and Powley being asked to trade a touch too heavily on identikit variations on the cold-eyed psycho and the tart with a heart. Sliding Doors alumnus John Lynch is also left rather stranded in a subplot that turns out to be little more than a self-reflexive circumvention. But, in heeding his lecturer's advice to `know the rule of law and you can bend it', Sheridan handles a demanding role with aplomb, as he ceases to be a grieving son in a crash course in growing up that forces him to learn how to take responsibility for his own actions.

The references to Jack Smight's 1966 Paul Newman thriller, Harper, and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are not as deft as Smith imagines, while his dialogue could be sharper. But he and cinematographer Christopher Ross meld locations in South Africa, California and Nevada into a plausible whole (in spite of the surfeit of canted angles), while well-chosen songs like Goldfrapp's `Stranger' and Aurora Aksnes's `Murder Song' flesh out an effective score by Toydrum's Pablo Clements and James Griffith. But, while the split screens turn out to be something of a MacGuffin, Smith should be most indebted to editor Kristina Hetherington, whose unfussy assembly helps keep this twisting neo-noir heading in the right direction.

Next Thursday sees the quinquagenarial anniversary of the release of the landmark Beatle album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. Taking its cue from the opening line of the title track, John Sheppard's 1987 documentary, It Was 20 Years Ago Today, explored the making of the album and the cultural and political world that spawned it. Sadly, this is no longer available on disc or online and, thus, Fabs fans will have to make do with Alan G. Parker's undistinguished cash-in, It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt Pepper and Beyond.

Being the memorabiliaholics they are, most Apple Scruffs will fork out to see this cynical slice of nostalgia on the big screen before buying a DVD and/or Blu-ray copy to sit on the shelves alongside the various incarnations of the deluxe repackaging of the original LP. They will also put up with the fact that the producers failed to coax Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr into sharing their recollections, as they will know what key roles NEMS aide Tony Bramwell, fan club secretary Freda Kelly and Mersey Beat editor Bill Harry played in the Beatle story. Biographers Hunter Davies, Ray Connolly and Philip Norman are also well respected, while the presence of John Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird, George Harrison's sister-in-law, Jenny Boyd, and first drummer Pete Best (whose grandfather's medals appear on the cover) will reassure those suspecting that this is little more than an opportunistic exercise.

But many will know as much, if not more about the genesis and impact of this Parlophone classic than the film-makers themselves, who spend the first third rehashing the `Bigger Than Jesus' controversy that Ron Howard covered in plentiful detail in Eight Days a Week. It's important to know how the decision to quit touring impacted on the 1967 agenda and Steve Turner (the author of Beatles `66) capably steers the viewer through the familiar territory. But Parker keeps jumping between topics like Paul being the Londoncentric bohemian while the supposedly avant-garde John lazed around in Weybridge, the effects on the quartet of drugs and the Maharishi, and masochistically homosexual manager Brian Epstein having less to do once there were no concerts to organise.

Amidst the endlessly recycled archive clips, it soon becomes clear why Parker has adopted such a circuitous approach. He has failed to secure the rights to a single note of Pepper music and, thus, is unable to assess the aesthetic value of the tracks in isolation or as a whole. Mention is made of the Liverpool concept album that was due to contain `Strawberry Fields Forever', `Penny Lane' and `A Day in the Life', while the anecdotes about the origins of `Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds', `Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite' and `She's Leaving Home' are dusted down for a fresh look. Merseybeats Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley also recall Paul playing `When I'm 64' during a power cut at The Cavern back in 1963, while Epstein's secretary, Barbara O'Donnell, remembers throwing away the handwritten lyrics to songs like `Within You Without You' after George had deciphered them for her. But, otherwise, the deafening silence prevents Parker from presenting any meaningful analysis of the innovative recording techniques employed during the Abbey Road sessions that lasted between November 1966 and April 1967.

Several cuts are not even mentioned by name, although much time is devoted to EMI's concerns about the contents of Peter Blake's seminal cover design and the cost of the packaging. Andre Jerreau (who spent almost a quarter of a century as George in The Bootleg Beatles) and Evan Jolly do what they can with a psychedelic pastiche score, but the embarrassing situation of making a movie about a record that cannot be heard ruinously undermines the entire project. Hence, the `Beyond' bit of the title, as this gives Parker the chance to ruminate at length upon Epstein's death in August 1967 when The Beatles were studying transcendental meditation in Bangor. Davies, O'Donnell and Simon Napier-Bell, who all knew Epstein well, revisit the tragic details. But no one will ever know whether he meant to commit suicide and there's something rather distasteful about Napier-Bell (who was in Ireland at the time) chuckling about his honourable folly in erasing the increasingly incoherent answerphone messages that his friend had left him during his tormented final hours.

With Epstein no longer there to protect them, the Fabs began taking expensive gambles like Apple, which was designed to give talented people a chance to express themselves. Napier-Bell and O'Donnell are right to lambaste the liggers who took the company for a ride. But loyal aides like Neil Aspinall, Peter Brown and Mal Evans are mentioned by first name only without any clarification and such carelessly cluttered thinking epitomises the whole film. Blithely ignoring the live recording of `All You Need Is Love' and its effect on the Summer of Love and the damage that The Magical Mystery Tour did to the Beatle brand in December 1967, Parker careers off to India in February 1968 and the Rishikesh sojourn that hastened a split with Maharishi before the Apple Boutique was closed in August during the making of the White Album.

How enviously Parker must be looking over the fence at Francis Hanly's hour-long BBC special, Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution, which sees Howard Goodall draw on out-takes, instrumental and vocal tracks, and studio chat to examine the album's legacy. Goodall also crops up in Radio 2's two-parter, Sgt Pepper Forever, which includes an in-depth contribution by Giles Martin (the son of Fifth Beatle George Martin, who revisited the four-track tapes to create the new stereo mix), as well as interviews with Peter Blake, Mike Leander (who arranged `She's Leaving Home' at McCartney's request), Beatle press secretary Derek Taylor and Martin's assistant, Tony King. They even managed to get superfans like Brian Wilson, Adrian Mitchell, Jimmy Webb, Tom Petty, T Bone Burnett and Dave Grohl to share their enthusiasm. By contrast, the best celebrity Parker can rustle up is Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle.

Radio 4 Extra also has a splendid day of programming planned for 3 June around the famous faces featured on the Pepper cover. But, before anyone levels any accusations of pro-BBC bias, it must be said that Paul Merton on The Beatles sounds less enticing, as the comedian takes a look at Fab Four cover versions before speculating on how the post-66 material might have sounded live and which tracks from John, George, Paul and Ringo's solo careers would make a fantasy album. But you never know. Sadly, in the case of It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! we already do. Dressing as models as the Penny Lane nurse and Lovely Rita the meter maid. Really? Yet, us Beatlephiles will watch it anyway and, to paraphrase George's comments on A Hard Day's Night on Another Beatle Christmas Record (1964), `spect a lot of you will see it more than once.

A quarter of a century after Jennie Livingston's Paris Is Burning (1990) explored the Ballroom scene that made gave the world voguing, Swedish documentarist Sara Jordenö puts an LGBTQ spin on the Black Lives Matter campaign in Kiki, which returns to New York to see how gay and transgender teens of colour have found a haven for self-expression around the Christopher Street Pier in the West Village that also provides these often vulnerable QTPOC youngsters with the information they need to face up to racism and homophobia, as well as the threats posed by drugs and unsafe sex. Four years in the making and taking its name from the slang term for a fabulous party, this Berlin Teddy Award winner has a sharp political edge. But the emphasis is more on strident activism than cosy entertainment and, consequently, Jordenö spends more time on street level than she does in the heady milieu of costume, performance and alter ego.

Following a bustling introductory sequence that flits between a gang of African-American friends meeting in a waterfront park to competitors strutting their stuff at a Kiki ball, we meet Twiggy Pucci Garçon, the head of the Opulent Haus of PUCCI, who describes his chief characteristics before conducting a rehearsal session ahead of a forthcoming ball. As he gets a haircut, he recalls how his father had freaked when he had come home from school all excited because he had been taught to dance to a song called `Peaches and Cream'. But he has long been reconciled to the fact he is different and has dedicated himself to ensuring other QTPOCs have somewhere to go to find their feet.

The prejudice Twiggy has faced is caught on camera when some young black kids taunt Gia Marie Love and she gives as good as she gets. But, as footage taken early in the project reveals, she has only recently become so comfortable in her trans skin and it's touching to see the support she receives from her family, with her mother and younger brother declaring her a role model for the courageous decisions she has taken to find her true self. She is the Queen Mother of the House of Juicy Couture and commentator Kenneth `Symba McQueen' Soler-Rios explains how balls allow people to display their vanity and humanity.

As the head of the House of Unbothered Cartier, Chi Chi Mizrahi is more pugnacious and he lays down the law to some bickering acolytes in order to stress the importance of securing the election of Barack Obama, as the Republicans are planning to withdraw funding from numerous bodies striving to educate and succour the QTPOC community. He is an item with Izana `Zariya' Vidal, who was 16 when he first found the Kiki enclave and was taken aback when Chi Chi paid him such lavish complements. But he is working towards his ideal look and plans to start transitioning and commit to living as a woman in the near future. However, no pressure is ever placed on anyone to commit one way or another, as Divo Pink Lady discovered when he joined the House of Pink Lady, whose workshops emphasise the breadth of choice open to QTPOCs and the fact that they will only be judged in competition and not in daily life.

While Divo freestyles with his pals on the Pier, Chi Chi goes shopping for boots for his next outfit and he is clearly unhappy with his placing and complains that he should have someone sympathetic to his cause after all he has done to establish the Kiki scene. But nothing is said about what a judge would be looking for in a walk and what role costume, moves and attitude play in the scoring process. Much more instructive is a brief clip about the way the NYPD treats the Kiki crowd and a trip that Twiggy and Chi Chi take to the former's home town in Virginia, where he was drummed out of the church for being gay. His mother states that no one has the right to steal somebody's redemption and she regrets that she took time to accept her son's identity and that his father blamed her for failing to bring him up correctly.

Divo returns to his neighbourhood in Brooklyn and rejects Jordenö's off-camera suggestion to vogue, as this is not the kind of place you flaunt your sexuality. He recalls his mother throwing him out and Zariya also had to leave home. But she knows she did the right thing, as she shows the camera the tiny scar left from shaving her Adam's apple and the line under her wig where she had her hairline changed. Her procedures are expensive, but Chi Chi and her friends are highly supportive. Indeed, the houses have their own surrogate parental system and we sit in on a meeting discussing the rising rate of HIV infection among African-American males. Symba tells the story of how he decided to get tested and the dismay he felt at becoming a statistic.

Twiggy leads a candlelight vigil to a lost friend and his mother attends a ball on the site of Rockland Palace in Harlem, which was where the ballroom movement started in the 1920s. He is disappointed that so little has been done to record the gay African-American experience and that progress has wiped away so many of its historical landmarks. Gia walks without her wig and she reveals how hard it was growing up in poverty and unsure of who she was. As a result, she acted out and she resorted to self-advocacy to escape from her mother. Chi Chi also has regrets about his past, as he did a lot of drugs and he often wonders whether he might have spent the time improving himself instead of just living in the moment. Christopher Waldorf also feels he wasted a lot of nervous energy withholding the truth about himself from his father. Yet, when he finally confirmed his suspicions, he felt a huge sense of relief and he is now winning prizes for his walks.

Twiggy is appointed Senior Programme Officer at the True Colors Fund that Cyndi Lauper set up to combat homelessness among LGBTQ youth. Chi Chi accompanies him to a reception at the White House (whose title offends Chi Chi, who suggests a rainbow makeover), where Obama gets cheered for pushing for same sex marriage. But, while Twiggy is in Washington, he is evicted by his landlord and can't disguise his pain at the irony of being homeless while working for a related charity. He, Chi Chi and Gia are also less than impressed by the gay marriage bill, as they consider this to be a white bourgeois initiative that is less pressing to them than social stigmas, workplace prejudice and the health issues related to depression, addiction and unsafe sex.

Zariya and Gia discuss sex work and how it can bring a degree of validation, as well as the financial rewards that can help pay for transitioning treatments and secure greater independence. But they would not recommend it for everyone and would never look down on anyone who took that option (providing they were safe and responsible). Gia reads Maya Angeou's poem about her phenomenality, while Chi Chi and Twiggy get their first passports to teach voguing in Belfast. But Twiggy is under no illusion that there is still much to be done on his own doorstep, as America is so resistant to change.

Jordenö is well aware of the distance travelled and the hardships yet to come and does a fine job in giving seven genial people a soapbox to advance their wholly noble causes. Yet, because it reflects the restlessness of the lifestyle and was filmed over such a prolonged period of time, this lacks coherence and a concerted sense of message. Simply stating, `we're here, get used to it' is fine, but Jordenö, co-writer Twiggy Pucci Garçon and their speakers are more erudite and engaged than this and seem to miss the chance to make their socio-political points with much greater trenchancy.

There are plenty of poignant contributions, but the focus falls more on emancipation and empowerment, as the septet explain how their choices have defined rather than confined them. Eruptions of music from MikeQ and Qween Beat provide more impetus than the prosaic photography and editing that rather thuds home the documentary's didacticism. It might have been interesting, perhaps, to learn why the basic voguing style has not evolved much over the last quarter century and how it has been influenced (or not) by developments in hip-hop or new dance forms like krumping, which came under the spotlight in David LaChapelle markedly superior, Rize (2005).

Something on the Kiki community's relationships with the established Ballroom scene and the other ethnic groups in the vicinity of the Pier might also have given the study some sociological legitimacy to go with its laudable commitment and compassion. As it is, it feels a little regimented and rehearsed and lacks the urgency, immediacy and ebullience that made Livingston's film so significant. But, then, she was accused of exploiting performers like Paris DuPree and being `an enabler of cultural appropriation' by feminist author bell hooks. Seems like there are some topics where you just can't win.