Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 12/10/2017)

Following Fred Frith's Shadows-like reworking of `Jerusalem' over the Woody Allenesque credits, we see a visibly shaken Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) open the door of her London home and point a gun at the unseen person on the doorstep. Flashing back an hour or so, dishevelled academic Bill (Timothy Spall) puts Bo Diddley's `I'm a Man' on the record player, turns up the volume and sinks into a chair with a bottle of red wine. As he stares blankly, he catches sight of an urban fox sniffing at the open patio door.

In the kitchen, his wife, Janet, tries to make vol-au-vents while fielding calls from colleagues congratulating her on becoming shadow health minister and asking her for favours. Old friend April (Patricia Clarkson) arrives with her life coach boyfriend Gottfried (Bruno Ganz) and they temper their enthusiasm with waspish witticisms that betray how far they have strayed from their former idealism.

April notes that Janet's pinny gives her a `postmodernist, post-post-feminist' look and sidles into the living-room, where Bill is having trouble making small talk with Gottfried, who has stopped drinking and is sitting cross-legged on the floor. Newly married lesbian Martha (Cherry Jones) arrives to add her voice to the chorus of approval and joins April in teasing Bill about his wife being more brilliant than he is. As he tries to focus a mind that seems to be elsewhere, Janet talks to her mother and then a well-wisher who is obviously something of a secret admirer. She urges him to stop calling as she peers through the window to see Martha in earnest conversation with pregnant partner Jinny (Emily Mortimer), who has just discovered she is expecting triplets. When the caller rings again, Janet blows him a hurried kiss and slips the phone under her shirt and back into her bra.

While they get over the shock, banker Tom (Cillian Murphy) arrives without his spin doctor wife Marianne and nips into the bathroom to do a line of cocaine on the edge of the tub and fiddles with the gun he is carrying in a shoulder holster. Hurrying into the kitchen, April is amused that Janet will now be Marianne's boss, as she has nothing but contempt for her. She also fails to share Janet's concern that Bill seems a little down and advises her to remind him that his duty now is to follow in her wake like the Duke of Edinburgh and Denis Thatcher.

As a wired Tom stumbles into the kitchen to congratulate Janet and shuffles into the living-room to find Bill, Martha admits to Jinny she was just getting used to them being a couple and isn't ready for them to become a collective. However, they rejoin the party to make their announcement and April notes that Martha sounds more like someone crying for help than proclaiming tidings of joy. Thus, she ignores their news and, having broken a pane in the patio doors with the cork, toasts Janet becoming a minister.

Martha chides Bill for not making an effort and he girds himself to make an announcement of his own. It turns out, he has been diagnosed with multiple terminal conditions that means he hasn't got long to live. Still smarting from April's assertion that this will be their last date, Gottfried tries to console him with the view that doctors know nothing, but Tom rushes to the bathroom in a panic and Jinny feels sick after a single sip of champagne. Dropping to her knees (and cutting her knee on a piece of broken glass), Janet angrily sends her phone to voicemail and vows to resign so that she can care for her husband, as he has always been there for her.

Bill doesn't want a fuss, but Janet is disappointed that he went to a Harley Street specialist because their GP couldn't see him for two weeks. When April browbeats Bill for betraying his wife's party's principals, Janet says she wants the best for him and is shocked he seems to have such a short time left. Gottfried again declares Western medicine to be voodoo and gets into an argument with Jinny, who has endured a torrid time while undergoing IVF (which Martha notes was very private and very expensive).

Meanwhile, Tom (who has just been trying to toss his gun into a wheelie bin) has gone back to the bathroom for another line and emerges in time to challenge Gottfried's contention that Big Pharma exists only to make money. As a capitalist, Tom sees nothing wrong with this and April and Martha join in the ensuing political dispute while Janet tries to break up with her lover by text because her husband is dying. April tries to apologise for her German boyfriend because the Nazis didn't exactly have it right when it came to medical ethics.

When Gottfried protests, April insists that a fascist lurks beneath every aromatherapist and he bridles because he is a life coach and a healer. Martha leaps to his defence by averring that the sins of the father should not be revisited upon subsequent generations and April mocks her for being an atheist who uses religious terminology just in case God is listening. A smell of burning from the kitchen sends Jinny (a former runner-up on Masterchef) to rescue the vol-au-vents, while Janet begs Bill's forgiveness for not noticing that he was ill. She asks him to speak and he cites the various theories he does and doesn't believe in before asking the most basis question of all: `why me?'

April brands Gottfried an embarrassment when he tries to find words of solace and Janet slumps to the floor in frustration because her ideals and achievements can do nothing to help her spouse. Martha leaps to Gottfried's defence and says she gets called a lot worse online and April expresses no surprise she is trolled because she is a professor in `domestic labour, gender differentiation and American utopianism'. But she agrees with some of Gottfried's observations about healthcare and is fascinated by Bill's sudden readiness to ditch the beliefs of a lifetime in order to cling to existence.

While Martha backs Bill's right to find answers anywhere he likes, Jinny asks Tom what he was trying to throw into the bin before dashing off to the loo to vomit. Nauseated by the sound, he ambles back into the living-room as Martha lauds Bill's book on Roman civilisation, Reason, Roads and Religion, and reminds Tom that Bill supervised Marianne's PhD thesis. Tom sneers at the connection and suggests that Bill begins his journey towards inner truth by coming clean about his affair with his wife.

Aghast at this revelation (while conveniently forgetting her own infidelity), Janet slaps Bill across each cheek and splits his lip and eyebrow before begging April to make her stop hurting a dying man. As he tries to apologise, Bill lets slip that they have been trysting in Martha's flat and Janet is appalled that a fellow feminist could be capable of such treachery. April tuts that the sisterhood is an outmoded concept, as Tom strains to contain his fury and he rushes outside to get rid of his gun. Meanwhile, Jinny has turned on Martha because Bill has revealed that they slept together a couple of times when they were university roommates.

Fighting back the urge to lash out, Janet goes to the bin to throw away the charred vol-au-vents when she sees the gun. Locking herself in the bathroom, Janet takes another call from a party colleague and tries to work out what to do next. April knocks on the door and declares that this is no time for parliamentary democracy, as it requires a swift solution like murder. Tom has already reached the same conclusion, although Gottfried tries to show him that he and Bill have feelings in common through Marianne and that they should pool their masculine power to find a resolution. Ignoring the New Age waffle, Tom responds to Bill's taunt that Marianne prefers him by lashing out. However, the punch to the gut floors Bill and, while Gottfried tries to bring him round, Tom changes records in the hope of finding something inspirational.

While Martha and Jinny try to settle their differences outside, April joins Janet in the bathroom and informs her that she will have to change her hairstyle if she is ever to lead the party and govern. She also suggests that she drops the fake political certainty, as no one believes her party has the answers any longer. But, just as Janet is about to confess to her affair, Tom bursts in to vomit in the bath and Martha asks April to come and check on Bill (if possible without bringing Janet).

Rushing to her husband's side, Janet gives him CPR and he jolts back into life and looks up into her eyes and asks how it has come to this. April whispers to Gottfried that she is beginning to think they have the best relationship in the group, as there is a knock on the door. Realising who it must be, Janet barges into the bathroom to recover the gun she has hidden in the linen basket and opens the door to point it at Marianne and accuse her of treachery - after they had sworn eternal love to one another.

Few will be surprised by this final twist, but everything else about Potter's succinct screenplay is top notch. The zingers relished by Patricia Clarkson are undoubtedly the highlights, but the gentle drip of damning detail and the inexorable emergence of the secrets and lies on which this incestuous group has built its friendships is judged to perfection. It helps enormously that Potter has chosen to film the action like a stage or television play, as the confined spaces intensify the emotions and ensure that each new revelation cuts deeper than the last. Luis Buñuel and Lindsay Anderson would be proud. But so would Noël Coward and Alan Ayckbourn.

Fittingly, the result of the Brexit referendum was declared during the two-week shoot for this bleakly hilarious study of broken Britain. But, ironically, events have rather overtaken it and the lament for the left's seemingly fatal redundancy has been replaced by the gasps of incredulity that greeted the collapse of one nation conservatism. They do say that the secret of good comedy is timing and this is exhibited by every member of the exceptional cast. Exuding self-satisfaction as she savours the prospect of power, Kristin Scott Thomas manages to maintain her veneer of control (and deceit) in spite of everything (and the opening image that gives away how she will ultimately react), while Timothy Spall drolly succeeds in fooling himself into thinking that Bruno Ganz's mumbo jumbo can save him.

Emily Mortimer and Cillian Murphy limn different levels of desperation, while Cherry Jones does a nice line in midlife dread. But the acerbic Clarkson (who channels both Bette Davis and Celeste Holm) manages to upstage her co-stars, with a world-weary faith in realism that enables her sneeringly to look down on everyone. Alexsey Rodionov's shimmering monochrome photography, Carlos Conti's impeccable production design and Emilie Orsini and Anders Refn's nimble editing are also outstanding. But special mention should be made of a knowing diegetic soundtrack that comments on the action through Sidney Bechet's rendition of Cole Porter's `What Is This Thing Called Love', Albert Ayler's interpretation of the Gershwin classic `Summertime', John Coltrane riffing on `My One and Only Love' and Henry Purcell's `Dido's Lament', as well as contributions by members of the Buena Vista Social Club, and Osvaldo Pugliese's take on `Emancipacíon', the tango written by Alfredo Bevilaqua to mark the centenary of Chilean liberation from Spanish rule. Maybe Theresa May might raise a smile after all.

Born in Glasgow, but based in the United States since she was a teenager, Marianna Palka has never been afraid to challenge preconceptions. Having made an impact in Lena Dunham's landmark TV series, Girl, the 26 year-old Palka ruffled feathers with her directorial debut, Good Dick (2008), which she followed with I'm the Same (2014) and Always Worthy (2015). However, the star of the Netflix wrestling saga, GLOW, is set to rattle more cages with her latest outing as star-writer-director, Bitch, which has been inspired by unconventional Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing's account of a case of empty nest syndrome. Yet, while it has more than its share of shocking moments, this feminist fable about people becoming conditioned by their treatment by others seeks less to denounce chauvinism than to coax male viewers into reassessing their attitudes. As an Alsatian sits on a lawn in a leafy American suburb, Marianna Palka climbs on the dining-room table and fixes her husband's belt to the chandelier. Fighting back her fear, she steps off the edge and dangles in mid-air with dogs barking outside. However, her weight pulls the light fitting out of the ceiling and she crashes to the floor and the watching dog bolts through the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, Jason Ritter is fooling around with secretary Sol Rodriguez when he is summoned to the boardroom amidst a sudden panic in the corridor. When he creeps into the dark house later that night, Palka notes that he smells of perfume and asks if she can go on a fortnight painting retreat and leave him in charge of their four children. However, he says now is not a good time, even though he denies anything is wrong at work, despite a story on the local news.

The next morning, teenage daughter Brighton Sharbino informs Palka that younger sister Kingston Foster has wet the bed again and they exchange glowers as Palka strips the sheets. At breakfast, she reminds teen son Rio Mangini to collect Foster after football practice, while middle child Jason Maybaum only pipes up when Ritter pops in before the kids head to school. Palka grabs his wrist and hisses that she is frightened she is going to do something awful and he promises to get her some pills for a good night's sleep. He hugs his offspring in an easy manner that suggests they prefer him to their mom, who is singularly unimpressed when Ritter fobs her off with a lazy `love you', as she leaves for the school run.

Arriving at work to find that Rodriguez has been fired, Ritter hopes to use his charm with boss Roger Guenveur Smith to get her reinstated. However, he has fired 179 other people already and informs Ritter that he could save them all if he simply tendered his resignation. Deciding that Rodriguez is a small price to pay for survival, Ritter slips away. But he is late home for dinner and Palka phones him as dusk falls and the Alsatian returns to its spot outside her window. After supper, Foster and Maybaum lose patience while asking to be excused from the table, as Palka stands motionless with her back to them. Mangini seems unconcerned, but Sharbino is unnerved when she asks her mother if she is okay and she snarls at her.

The following morning, Sharbino is woken by the Alsatian snuffling beside her bed and she comes down to find her siblings have made a mess in the kitchen in Palka's absence. She wakes Ritter, who has overslept and bundles the kids into the family car (he doesn't know how to drive) and takes them to school oblivious to Foster's complaint that she is wearing neither underwear nor socks. He draws gasps of incomprehension from Foster's teacher when he asks her to provide lunch for his daughter and a look of sheer incredulity when he runs away from the screaming child with reassurances that everything will be fine when Palka gets home.

Fielding an angry phone call for being late for work, Ritter has a momentary fainting fit by the climbing equipment in the playground before returning to his vehicle to launch into a furious tirade about his wife's selfishness. However, he has forgotten that Maybaum is still strapped into the backseat and he has to pretend that all is well and that he hadn't forgotten him, as he slings him over his shoulder to rush him into class.

Relieved to reach the sanctuary of his office, Ritter calls sister-in-law Jaime King and asks if she has seen Palka. She agrees to meet him after work, but they reach home to find the kids in a state of near hysterics because they have found their mother stark naked and smeared in faeces in the basement. When Ritter goes to investigate by torchlight, Palka turns and growls at him before barking loudly as she chases him up the steps. Hoping to keep things quiet, Ritter calls the doctor with great reluctance and annoys King by blaming Palka for taking a break while he is slaving to save his job and provide for the family. Eavesdropping on the row, Sharbino covers Maybaum's ears and he puts his hands over Foster's, as she does the same to her toy elephant.

Specialist Jean St James recommends psychiatric care. But Ritter accuses her of spouting jargon he could find online and demands a prescription that will restore his selfish wife to health. King is more amenable and tries to persuade him to listen. However, even though he is little more than a man-child, Ritter insists he knows what's best for him family. When he goes to work, King creeps into the basement singing a reassuring song from their childhood in the hope of soothing Palka. But she barks in her face as she scuttles back up the stairs to safety.

Tossing Palka some pills in a meatball, Ritter gets drunk and lets his wedding band slip down the guttering of the shower. He comes downstairs to find the kids have put up a Christmas tree and King look on in astonishment as he tries to force Foster into putting the star on the top. They are interrupted by a couple of cops at the door, who insist on seeing Palka on Aaron's recommendation. Ritter protests that he has a right to do what's best for his wife and, when the cops persist in their request, the horror of being shown up in public prompts Ritter to bolt for the nearby woods, where he slumps against a tree stump and wonders why this is happening to him.

Waking from a dream in which Palka suggests they go away without the kids and he keeps mentioning how different she looks, Ritter returns to the house and is stunned when Mangini attacks him and orders him to leave for deserting them. But he stays and ignores phone calls from his in-laws, workmates and medical staff, as the kids make mess wearing animal costumes and King fights a losing battle to keep the place tidy. When Ritter has a meltdown, as he fears he is about to be fired and defines himself by his job, she tries to console him. He explains that they might have to sell the house and their cars and send the kids to public schools and King strives to be kind to him, even though she can't avoid the fact that he has failed her sister. Such is her good nature that even when he forgets her husband's name and complains that he is being punished for being so well endowed, King attempts to see things from his perspective and understands his resistance to letting her parents see Palka because she knows they will be damningly judgemental.

Waking the next morning, Ritter has to calm Sharbino from a panic attack because they are running out of food. He gathers the children and promises they are still a family and that things will work out, even of Palka remains convinced she's a dog. However, Smith fires him because his situation is no longer tenable and he offers a three-month severance package as Ritter pleads on his knees to be allowed to work from home or to hire a nanny or nurse with an advance on his bonus.

On his way home, he buys brightly coloured cuddly toys for the kids to show to Palka in the hope of luring her out of the basement. When the tactic fails, they go for ice cream and Ritter seems to be rebuilding some bridges. But, as they walk back from the shop, he sees Rodriguez waiting for him and Palka smells her perfume when the children open the front door. She begins barking and frenziedly scratching the door, as Ritter pleads with Rodriguez to accept that their affair is over. King arrives as they are talking and she realises why her sister has had a breakdown and she berates Ritter for being such a loser. He begs her not to abandon him now, but they are silenced when Palka bursts out of the basement and goes running along the street on all fours, with the hint of a smile on her face as she savours freedom.

As darkness falls, Ritter and King go searching for Palka and find her exhausted at the side of the road. They bring her home, where hippy uncle Zak Clark is caring for the kids. Ritter reads them a bedtime story and comes down to find King and Clark discussing the court order they have taken out to get custody over Palka. Clark suggests that Palka might have done Ritter a favour by causing him to lose his job and downsize, as he might have suppressed the wild nature she has remembered. But, swigging beer and mocking Clark for his long hair and beard, Ritter fumes at them for their treachery in taking him to court and orders them to leave while vowing to fight to retain control of his family.

Parents Bill Smitrovich and Caroline Aaron join King in a meeting with a family lawyer and ask Ritter to let go without a hearing so they can begin to repair the family. He gets emotional, as he admits he has been an idiot who failed to realise how much he owed to Palka for raising the kids and keeping the household running. Welling up, he recalls that she used to buy her own Christmas presents and that he took the credit to look good in front of his kids. Aaron reassures him that they love him and will let Palka visit when she starts to recover. King promises him that he is not alone and Ritter agrees to letting them take Palka away.

Having cleaned the basement and started to learn how to be a dad, Ritter puts the house on the market. A plumber finds his wedding ring in the pipes just before they move into a smaller apartment, where they all put on animal pyjamas and play a card game together. The Alsatian seems to have followed them and sits with its head inclined on the road outside. After a while, Palka comes to visit and the kids stay with King. She is calm and dressed, but still walking on all fours, as Ritter takes her to a popular dog walking spot. He encourages her to play with her new friends and drops on to his hands and knees to scamper and bark and roll over, as the impassive Palka looks on. The dogs are curious and some come over to nuzzle him, with one even taking a stick out of his mouth. But Palka fails to respond and lolls her head out of the open window as they drive home.

During the night, Palka wakes and wanders into the bathroom. Ritter follows and turns on the shower in case she wants to wash. But she barks and snaps at him before leaping on him and pinning him into a corner as she thrashes at him. She stands on two feet and suddenly seems to realise who she is. But she crumples again and Ritter tells her that he understands that she needs to be who she wants to be and that he will support her, providing she doesn't leave him. He tells her that he loves her and she begins to sob, as she lets him hold her and he swears he has changed. The next morning, Palka wakes and sees Ritter on the pillow beside her and they exchange half smiles as the screen fades to black.

As bleakly dark as satire gets before it becomes horror, this is an unflinchingly bold picture that is bound to spark debate. Many will see this blistering assault on patriarchal arrogance as a Trumpist parable. But, even though the focus falls squarely on Ritter after Palka's transformation, this is as much about the pressure placed on white men to survive the dog-eat-dog world of work in order to provide for their families as it is the misogynist tyranny that many impose on their households in order to sublimate their sense of emasculation. We are not expected to empathise with Ritter, who is a rat of the first water, as he cheats on his wife and takes no interest in the lives of his children. But we are asked to avoid rushing to condemn him, as he prioritises saving face over helping his spouse.

Behind some rather blunt symbolism and the effectively sketched backstory, the plotline and characterisation hardly bear close scrutiny. Why does nobody notice the shattered chandelier and why do Palka's parents stay away when something is quite clearly seriously wrong with their daughter? Doctors, cops and teachers also remain unpersuasively on the periphery, as does the nebulous job that Ritter insists defines him. Palka is evidently lambasting a system that protects privacy rather than people in peril. But, while her rage is justified and the film needs its ugly edge, the premise begins to feel strained because it remains rooted in its own carefully tailored space and not in the real world. Given that he is Palka's ex-partner and her regular co-star, Ritter deserves plenty of credit for playing such a grotesque narcissist with such blithe hissability. Palka's script provides him with plenty of wince-inducing dialogue, with the excruciating school run sequence being the high/low point of his awfulness. The juvenile quartet also impress, with Foster and Maybaum particularly stealing the limelight, while King proves a thoughtful foil to Ritter's boorish brute. The courageous Palka also contributes a devastating display of suppressed pain, as she channels Béatrice Dalle in Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day (2002) while prowling her confined space awaiting the moment to strike.

It will be interesting to see what Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon makes of her prominent thanks in the credits. But Palka also owes a good deal to powerful friends like Elijah Wood, who is credited among the producers, as well as cinematographer Armando Salas, production designer Ryan Brett Puckett, sound editor Jeffrey Alan Jones and composer Morgan Z Whirledge, whose inventively shape-shifting score reinforces the unsettling atmosphere. Palka will make subtler films, but, she will have to go something to produce anything more abrasive, offbeat, fearless or audacious.

Although it's often credited with helping launch the 1980s vogue for neo-noir, Joel and Ethan Coen's Blood Simple (1983) owes as much to the horror films of their buddy and sometime collaborator Sam Raimi as the hard-boiled fiction of Dashiell Hammett, who first coined the eponymous term for demented violence in his 1929 novel, Red Harvest. In the classic postwar noir, a hapless sap is lured off the straight and narrow by a femme fatale with an ulterior motive. But the Coens subvert this and many other genre conventions in a shoestring debut that returns to cinemas in a `director's cut' that first appeared in 1998.

In an opening monologue that seems eerily relevant given the current revelations about a certain Hollywood mogul, private investigator Lorren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) opines that even if `you're the Pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year; somethin' can all go wrong'. Such a situation is undesirable at the best of times. But, as bartender Ray (John Getz) discovers after he spends the night with Abby (Frances McDormand) - who just happens to be the wife of his boss, Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) - it's inevitably worse in Texas, as everyone is on their own down there.

While Ray plays pool at Julian's house while Abby gathers some things, Visser delivers some incriminating photographs to the owner of the Neon Boots bar and taunts him about being cuckolded. Julian responds by noting that messengers bearing bad news were beheaded in Ancient Greece, but Visser seems unconcerned as his picks up an envelope full of cash and reminds Marty that he is always available when needed. Bottling up his fury, Marty asks barman Meurice (Samm-Art Williams) if he has seen Ray and gets short shrift from blonde customer Debra (Deborah Neumann) when he tries to flirt with her.

An electric flycatcher fizzes as Marty sits outside watching two men tossing rubbish into an incinerator. He barely looks up as Ray appears to demand his back pay, but warns him that Abby isn't the winsome innocent she pretends to be and says a day will come when she will betray him. Leaving with a warning not to return or face the consequences, Ray returns home to find Abby hanging up the phone after Marty silent called her. Already convinced she is trying to dupe him, he offers her the bed while he sleeps on the couch. But Abby insists he sleeps in his own bed and a neat montage follows as she looks at the ceiling fan in the shadows while Marty does the same in his dimly lit office at the bar. Eventually (to the accompaniment of a plaintive piano riff), Abby creeps down the corridor towards the sleeping Ray, who reaches up to her and she sinks down beside him, as the windy rain whistles beyond the window blinds.

The next morning, Abby sits up and pads into the living-room. She is surprised to hear Marty's Alsatian, Opal, panting and turns to see him sitting in a corner, as Marty grabs her from behind. He lifts her off the ground and puts his hand over her mouth, as he tries to drag her out to his car. But Abby manages to turn on him and he vomits on the lawn after a swift kick to the crotch. Ray comes out of the front door, as Marty struggles to the car and Opal bounds through the window into the backseat before they drive away. He heads for a local dating spot to meet Visser, who sits sweating in the front of his battered Volkswagen Beetle, with a fly nestling in the greasy hair beneath his cowboy hat. Joking about being open to all legal offers, Visser agrees to kill the lovebirds and recommends that Marty makes himself noticed on a fishing trip to give him an alibi.

But, while Marty suggests that Visser uses the incinerator to dispose of the bodies, he has another plan in mind. Reckoning that Marty is a loose cannon who may well let regret get the better of him, Visser creeps into Ray's place and steals Abby's gun before taking a photograph of the pair lying on the bed asleep. He doctors this to make it look as though they have been killed and goes to the bar to present the evidence and get paid. However, he intends shooting Marty with Abby's gun and absconding with the cash and enough planted evidence to ensure the embittered spouse is blamed for the crime.

Marty slaps down some of the fish he caught during his trip and asks to see the evidence that the deed has been done. He rushes to the bathroom to vomit and returns to open the safe and give Visser his $10,000. As he places the wads on top of the photo envelope, Marty pushes them across the desk with the heel of his boot and orders Visser to go. But he pulls Abby's gun and fires a single shot into Marty's chest, with a sneering retort about who is looking foolish now. However, in his hurry to leave, Visser fails to notice either that Marty has placed the folded picture in the safe or that he has left his trademark lighter under the putrefying fish.

No sooner has Visser left than Ray uses his key to open the front door. He has come for his wages and is peeved to find no money in the till. Seeing a light under the office door, he goes to see Marty, who is sitting in his chair. Not seeing the gun on the floor, Ray kicks it and it fires as it skids across the floor. Realising Ray is dead and convinced that Abby has shot him, Ray puts the weapon in Marty's jacket pocket and uses his own coat to clean the blood off the floor, as the ceiling fan thuds relentlessly and the computer gurgles on the desk. As he rinses it out in the sink, Meurice arrives (off screen) with Debra and puts the Four Tops hit `The Same Old Song' on the jukebox.

While they have fun, Ray drags the corpse to his car. He contemplates using the blazing incinerator, but opts for a shallow grave in a ploughed field advertising new homes after Marty moans on the backseat and crawls out of the vehicle when Ray pulls over in bind panic. Having narrowly missed being hit by a speeding truck on the unlit highway, Ray tosses the undead Marty into the hole and starts filling it in. However, Marty finds the gun in his pocket and points it at Ray, only for it to click three times without firing. Redoubling his efforts, Ray shovels the dirt until Marty is no longer a problem. He has a momentary panic when his car fails to start, but he gets away without being seen and stops at a pay phone to tell Abby he loves her. She thanks him before going back to sleep and says little when he arrives at her new apartment and falls asleep at the table.

Meanwhile, Visser has discovered that Marty swapped a photograph for a handwashing sign from the bathroom. Moreover, he realises that he left his lighter at the Neon Boots and silent calls Abby just as she is trying to fathom what Ray is talking about when he says he has cleaned up her mess. She repeats the very line about not doing anything funny that Marty warned she would use and Ray is more convinced than ever that she is in cahoots with another lover when Visser calls and Abby thinks it's Marty putting the frighteners on her again.

Across town, another phone call spooks Meurice, who finds a message from Marty accusing him or Ray of stealing a large sum from the safe. He drives over to see Ray, who just manages to cover the bloodstains on the backseat of his car, as Meurice warns him not to mess with Marty. The disappearance of his body unsettles Visser, but he is more interested in using a hammer to open the safe than finding a wandering corpse. He is forced to hide, however, when Abby shows up looking for Ray and is puzzled by the rotting fish on the desk and the hammer marks on the safe dial. She goes home and has a nightmare about Marty breaking into her apartment and warning her that Ray will try to kill her. So, when she finds Ray packing up to flee and confessing that he buried Marty alive, she is so scared that she seeks out Meurice for advice.

He tells Abby to stay away from Ray because he's gone nuts. But he is just beginning to see what has been going on, as he has found the doctored photograph in Marty's safe and recognises the VW outside the bar when he leaves. When Abby gets back to her apartment, Ray tells her to turn off the lights, as he is sure they are being watched. She is still confused, but scuttles for cover when Ray is felled by a single bullet and she has to throw her shoe to break the light bulb to plunge the room into darkness.

Checking that Ray is dead, she hides in a small room abutting the bathroom as the glass in the front door is shattered and Abby hears the slow tread of cowboy boots on the wooden floor. Visser leaves her pistol on the table, as he ventures into the bathroom. He sees the window is half open and looks out, but realises it's too high for Abby to jump. Reaching out, he feels along the wall and finds another sash window and pushes it up with his gloved hand. However, Abby grabs him and plunges a large knife into the back of his hand and cowers in the corner as Visser fires bullets into the party wall that fill the room with rays of light. As she slips out, Visser punches the panelling and manages to knock through a hole large enough so that he can remove the blade. Waiting in the shadows, Abby points the gun and shoots through the bathroom door and hears a body fall. She shouts out to Marty that she's not scared of him and the dying Visser laugh on realising he is the victim of mistaken identity and assures her that he will pass on the message if he sees him.

With Carter Burwell's ominous keyboard melody being supplemented by the heightened noises in Lee Orloff's disconcerting sound mix, this stealthy thriller still has the power to set pulses racing 34 years after it was made. In the interim, we have come to love the Coens for their snarkily off-kilter comedies. But the calculated edginess that seeps through their debut also inflects darker offerings like Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) and No Country for Old Men (2007), which suggest that the Minnesota siblings may still be closer in spirit to Sam Raimi than their old school Hollywood heroes.

Although Joel is the designated director and Ethan is credited as the producer, the harmony of their vision is evident in the screenplay and the use of their famous Roderick Jaynes pseudonym to share the editorial credit with Dan Wiegmann. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld and production designer Jane Musky also merit mention, with the former creeping his camera through the wonderfully atmospheric sets. It remains something of a mystery what Visser hoped to achieve by blindly reaching out for an open window, but the stabbing scene remains one of many standout moments.

Most critics highlight the performances of M. Emmet Walsh, who certainly makes the most of some choice lines and intrusive close-ups, and Dan Hedaya, whose affronted inability to comprehend his wife's adultery evokes many a cuckold in the classic noir canon. But, while John Getz doesn't quite cut the mustard as the smitten palooka, Frances McDormand is simply superb as the put-upon woman who has tired of being a trophy wife and can't understand why her knight in shining armour is behaving so oddly. It's as though she's crossed June Allyson with Gene Tierney, although the look of shock on her face when she hears Walsh cackle is pure McDormand.

Any horror film containing a Ron Weasley gag can't be all bad and the one in Benjamin Barfoot's feature bow, Double Date, is particularly good, as it involves Georgia Groome (who has dated Rupert Grint) and Danny Morgan, who played Harry Potter's best pal in Barfoot's 2012 short, Where Did It All Go Ron? Fortunately, the Devonian debutant has more to offer than a canny close-up and he builds on the fine reputation forged with the shorts Drive Too, Who Is Albert Plum? (both 2012) and Fist (2016) with a bullishly played comic romp that leavens the essence of grindhouse with dashes of Edgar Wright and Ben Wheatley to laddishly amusing effect.

Following a pitiless act of butchery to the accompaniment of Yazoo's `Only You', red-haired schlub Danny Morgan meets up in a pub with cocksure buddy Michael Socha. Dismissing the fact that Morgan has just been text dumped by his girlfriend of three months, Socha is amused that he is still a virgin despite approaching his 30th birthday and sets him up with a stranger at the bar, who turns out to be a grieving widow who vomits in her handbag in the taxi home and winds up getting Morgan arrested.

When Morgan (who has a profile on a dating site for virgins) next encounters Socha, they run into drug dealer Liz Kingsman, who gives them tickets to see her boyfriend's band. Later in the evening, Socha spots sisters Kelly Wenham and Georgia Groome and sends Morgan over to buy them a drink after the former gives them the eye. Instantly tongue-tied, Morgan's small talk leaves much to be desired and an hilarious conversation ensues when the spellcheck on his phone keeps correcting the Cyrano-like chat-up lines that Socha keeps sending him in order to make a good impression.

Much to his astonishment, Morgan manages to get a double date, even though he has made a buffoon of himself. However, the timid Groome also has misgivings about the arrangement and endures a nightmare involving a butterfly and Wenham chanting an incantation before waking with a start. She has every reason to fear her sibling, however, as a shot of Wenham kickboxking and knocking the block off her target suggests. But, as Groome lies in the bath, Wenham reminds her that they owe it to their father to see their plan through to fruition and she goes through an intense wardrobe and make-up session in order to make the most of their rendezvous. Across town, Morgan has also had second thoughts and informs Socha that he would rather stay in and finish his balsa wood dinosaur. Nevertheless, he finds himself being dragged along to a nightclub, where the conversation is just as stilted as it was when they met because the girls don't drink. Fearing a washout of an evening, Socha suggests that the go to the Krabs gig and, when the music turns out to be execrable, he attempts to spike the drinks with ecstasy. However, Morgan has developed a crush on Groome and smashes her glass before she can take a sip. Suspecting something untoward is going on, Wenham suggests that they repair to a hot rap club where Big Narstie is the headline act. No sooner have they arrived, however, than Morgan gets a message from his mother inviting him offer for a birthday surprise and, because she has been warned not to let him out of her sight, Groome has no option but to drive him to the family home.

On arrival at the quiet suburban address, Morgan is mortified to be greeted with evident glee by mother Rosie Cavaliero, father Robert Glenister and sister Olivia Poulet. They are all wearing t-shirts bearing his picture and Groome is given a discard with a distorted image so she doesn't feel left out. The walls are covered with holy pictures and Morgan squirms with embarrassment as he opens a penknife that had belonged to his late nana. However, the drug in his drink is beginning to kick in and he murmurs `kill me now' as his family start to sing a birthday song in his honour before using a large knife to slice into a cake with his face in the icing. Groome thinks it's all rather quaint and gives Morgan reassuring looks, as Cavaliero breathes a sigh of relief that her son has finally found a good girl to date.

Back at the club, Socha resents the fact that Wenham gives him the brush-off and he throws a drink over her when she dismisses his protest. Steaming with rage, Wenham seeks sanctuary in the washroom. However, she is disturbed by bouncer Lee Shone checking for drugs and opens the door to her cubicle and slaughters him. She emerges just as Groome and Morgan return and she suggests that they go back to her house in the country. Much to her annoyance, Socha manages to wangle his way into the car. But she's grateful for the offer of his father's car when they crash while speeding along and Groome gets a nasty nosebleed and has to sit next to Morgan while she recovers.

Socha's dad turns out to be sleazy Dexter Fletcher, who lives in a caravan and tries to pass off the prostitute with whom he has been consorting as his cleaner. He manages to embarrass Morgan with an anecdote about his childhood love of Jaffa Cakes and he beats a hasty retreat to the local shop to buy some drinks and snacks. While they are away, the sisters lock themselves in the bathroom and Wenham tells Groome to stop making doe eyes at Morgan, as they need him for their ritual. As they chat, Fletcher see a television news report about a pair of `maneaters' and the siblings have to chloroform him because Groome is too squeamish to kill him.

When the boys return, Wenham insists that Fletcher fell asleep at the end of a long day and Socha kisses him fondly on the forehead before piling everyone into his car to continue their journey to the country estate. While Groome and Morgan are left to get acquainted, Wenham takes Socha upstairs. However, he is on his guard and resists her efforts to kill him and a titanic struggle sees them smash each other into walls and windows before Wenham survives having a shelving unit dropped on her.

Downstairs, Groome allows her feelings to get the better of her and she confesses that he has been lured into a trap because they need a virgin for their ritual to work. Morgan curses his luck that the first girl who really like him is a psychopath, but accepts her invitation to flee before Wenham can catch up with him. She proves much quicker than he is, however, and knocks him out in the grounds with a single blow. When he wakes, Morgan finds himself tied to a chair in the basement and looks up to see Wenham wheeling the withered carcass of father James Swanton into the room. As he looks on in dismay, the sisters start chanting. But Morgan remembers nana's penknife in his pocket and just manages to free his hands as Swanton bears down on him with an enormous blade.

Reaching up, Morgan snaps off Swanton's bony hand and manages to stab him in the head. Incandescent, Wenham hurls herself at Morgan and he is relieved to see Socha stagger into the room. However, he proceeds to keel over and Morgan is only saved when Groome knocks out Wenham with a club after she has buried a knife in Morgan's shoulder. All is not quite over yet, however, as Swanton struggles to his feet, only for Morgan to kick his head clean off his shoulders. Yet Groome still kisses him before she is taken away by the police, so it hasn't been an entirely wasted evening.

Fans of the Johnny Vegas sitcom, Ideal, will doubtlessly recognise Danny Morgan as the gormless Jake. But, while he also cropped up in Walter Salles's On the Road (2012), Morgan has done a lot of his best work in combination with Barfoot, who entrusted him with the script for his first feature. Apart from a drop in pace in the middle third and the odd gag falling flat, the pair can be pretty proud of their efforts, as this is one of the best British slapstick slashers in a while.

Rocking along to a pulsating soundtrack by Goat, the action is moodily photographed by Laura Bellingham and edited with pugnacious confidence by the self-taught Barfoot, who directs with contrasting set-pieces like the birthday party and the punch-up with equal aplomb. Taking a leaf out of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson's playbooks, he even makes a virtue of the low-grade effects and prosthetics and coaxes fine performances out of his leads. Reuniting with Barfoot and Morgan after Fist, Wenham makes a wickedly ruthless femme fatale, while Socha contributes a chauvinist swagger that masks the soft centre he reveals during the otherwise misfiring visit to Fletcher's caravan. As for Morgan and Groome, they make such a sweetly gauche couple that few would object if they were teamed again.

A true-life story is related with technical aplomb but little dramatic finesse in Scott Waugh's 6 Below: Miracle on the Mountain. Adapted from Crystal Clear, the account of his ordeal that former French Olympic ice hockey player Eric LeMarque wrote with Davin Seay, this owes obvious stylistic debts to Danny Boyle's 127 Hours (2010) and Joe Carnahan's The Grey (2011). But Waugh, who made the transition from stuntman to director with Act of Valour (2012) and Need for Speed (2014), struggles to integrate a string of melodramatic flashbacks into the spectacular footage amassed in the High Sierras.

Over an aerial shot of snow-covered mountains, Eric LeMarque (Josh Hartnett) explains that he always needed to go that little bit further to feel a rush and developed an ability to bounce back from anything that sport or life could throw at him. As the story starts in February 2004, as LeMarque spends the first day snowboarding to prepare himself for a court date after he crashed his car while under the influence of crystal meth. His mother Susan (Mira Sorvino) had despaired of him for throwing away his athletic career on an addiction she fails to understand. But he can't help himself and has to break the cabin door down after he locks himself out in bare feet while taking a hit of a supply that he has stashed on the verandah.

Propping the door shut with a chair, LeMarque has to run for the bus and is forced to accept a lift from Sarah (Sarah Dumont), a passing motorist on her way to work at the local mountain rescue station. Her Alsatian shows affection as LeMarque sits in the back of the flat truck and Sarah wishes him a good day's fun in the sun. All seems to be going well, as LeMarque makes several runs to driving rock music and he keeps topping up his buzz from a supply in a tin in his jacket. He calls Susan, but she lets the message go to voicemail and LeMarque decides to have one last run as visibility begins to deteriorate.

Instead of sticking to the familiar route, however, he decides to take the advanced run and quickly finds himself lost and unable to get a signal on his phone. Unable to see where he is, as the weather closes in, he snaps off his board and begins to trudge down the mountain. Slumping in exhaustion beside a tree, he thinks back to his father David (Jason Cottle) chewing him out for falling over on the ice when he was a kid (Kale Brady Culley) and this determination not to quit prompts LeMarque to get back on his board, as the dusk falls and the view clears. However, he doesn't know the route and has to grab a tree to stop himself from speeding off a precipice.

Having failed to get his matches to light to start a fire, he also has to use his board to scare off a pair of wolves that block his path and he bellows at them to send them scuttling before dashing through the snow to dig himself a hole in which to shelter for the night. As he lies under the board, he remembers coming downstairs to see his father raging at his mother for allowing his son to grow up soft and she catches sight of him peering through a half-open door.

The next morning, LeMarque tries to get his bearings, but ends up writing the he is a lost idiot in the snow with a branch. He makes good downhill progress until he comes to a flat expanse and begins schlepping across. As he plants his board in the snow and reaches into his pocket for his meth, LeMarque falls through the ice into a lake and dives down after the little plastic packet before struggling back to the surface.

Freezing cold, he shivers against a rock and thinks back to the coach of the Boston Bruins (Marty McSorely) lecturing him for not being a team player after he scored a solo goal in training and then picked a fight with a teammate who disapproved of his showboating. Stripping naked to dry his clothes, LeMarque vows to get off the mountain and empties the bag of meth into the snow. As dusk falls, he sees lights twinkling from a hotel on a nearby hill and he howls with the distant wolves as he dresses in the knowledge that he is going to be okay.

Yet, when he wakes next morning, the pain in the leg he cut kicking the door open intensifies and a lack of food and the cold causes him to hallucinate and feel weak. As he collapses in the snow, he recalls an ex-teammate offering him drugs for the first time to recapture the excitement of playing top class sport. He is reluctant to snort at first, but feels obliged to his host and his downward spiral begins.

As another day passes, he wakes to find his leg is starting to discolour and he has to rip the bandage off the dried scab in order to soldier on. Looking up, however, he can no longer see the resort on the neighbouring peak and he falls to the ground cursing God. A cutaway shows Susan reading her Bible and leaving a message on his phone and a flashback shows her trying to stop him smashing the trophies in his den because his addled self regards them as a yoke around his neck.

As Day Five dawns, LeMarque realises that he has frostbite in his right leg and he tries to compose himself before lowering the bandage. Having survived thus far on frozen snow in his meth bag, he nibbles at the scab before storing it in his pocket. With his phone battery now dead, he only has his radio transmitter to depend on and he falls asleep hoping that someone will come looking for him.

Fortunately, when he misses his court date, Susan calls one of LeMarque's pals and she drives to the mountains to find the cabin empty. She goes to the search and rescue station and Sarah recognises LeMarque from his photo and goes up in a red-and-white helicopter to find him. As she flies over him, however, he is hidden by a clump of trees and he lies on his back in despair as the search ends for the night. Back at base, Susan reminds Sarah how much she means to her mother and pleads with her to find her son or her life will no longer have meaning.

The next morning, with Sarah reluctant to send out another flight, LeMarque struggles to the top of the highest peak he can reach and records a message for Susan on his transmitter. He flashes back to the day his dad walked out on him, the day he quit the Bruins and blames himself for being a coward after all. Just as Susan is about to give up hope, a bleep comes through on the system at the rescue station and Sarah spots LeMarque unconscious in the snow. She is lowered with a stretcher and tends to him as the chopper returns to base, where Susan's prayers have been answered.

Cutting to a shot of the real Eric LeMarque giving a pep talk to a young ice hockey team, the film ends with captions explaining that he lost both legs from the knee down and now relies upon prosthetics. However, he returned to board down the mountain that had almost claimed him - rather as Kevin Pearce did in Lucy Walker's exceptional documentary, The Crash Reel (2013) - and insert footage shows him with his family and making the most of his second chance as an inspirational speaker.

The decision to end a fictional reconstruction with footage of the subject of the story always begs the question why the film-maker didn't make a documentary with reconstructions to illustrate the more dramatic incidents. This would certainly have made more sense here, as Madison Turner's screenplay singularly fails to merge the backstory with Josh Hartnett's heroic performance. He also struggles in the flashbacks, however, as the cookie-cutter dialogue offers such little insight into his personality and the self-destructive demons that drove LeMarque down the path to ruin. Poor Mira Sorvino is even more poorly served by speeches that sound like they have been imported from a mid-1970s TV-movie. But she is such a fine performer that even the 11th hour heart-to-heart with Sarah Dumont's cipher rescuer sounds less garishly mawkish than Nathan Furst's ever-swelling orchestral score.

On the visual side, Waugh and cinematographer Michael Svitak do a fine job capturing the forbidding majesty of the terrain and Hartnett's insignificance, as he becomes little more than a moving speck. But the over-reliance on melodrama consistently threatens to undermine the magnitude of LeMarque's achievement of beating the wilderness and getting his life back on track.

The latest presentation from CinemaItaliaUK is Fabio Mollo's Il Padre dItalia/There Is a Light, a road movie starring Luca Marinelli and Isabella Ragonese that is screening at the Genesis Cinema in London on 15 October. Taking cues from both Ettore Scola's A Special Day (1977) and Gianni Amelio's The Stolen Children (1992), this odd couple odyssey explores current Italian attitudes to homosexuality and unmarried motherhood, as well as the changing nature of male and female expectations.

Having failed to win back ex-boyfriend Mario Sgueglia on a Turin dance floor, Luca Marinelli returns the following night and finds himself rushing to hospital with the pink-haired and heavily pregnant Isabella Ragonese, who collapsed beside him. He follows her on the bus when she checks herself out and lets her sleep in his bed. But she is anything but grateful and browbeats him into talking boss Esther Elisha into letting him take her to her boyfriend in Asti. However, he has not only dumped her, but he has also fired her as the singer of their punk band and Ragonese pleads with Marinelli not to abandon her by putting her on the train home to Rome.

Feigning illness, he uses the firm's delivery van to drive Ragonese to the capital. However, she was only crashing at a flat that has been sublet and Marinelli has to book them into a hotel for the night. Banging on his door, Ragonese complains of hunger and tries to kiss Marinelli by the vending machine on the corridor. But he tells her he is not that was inclined and she is intrigued, as she is usually good at reading people. As he puts her to bed, she asks about his childhood and he says he has a mother somewhere, while she confesses that the father of her baby lives in Naples before asking Marinelli to sing her to sleep and he whispers the words of Loredana Bertè's `Il Mare d'inverno' .

The next morning, he calls Sgueglia from a motorway bridge to tell him he is moving on. Ragonese is delighted when he announces that he is taking her to Naples and she tries to shout down the phone as he explains to Elisha why he won't be in work. As they drive along, she asks Marinelli what he wants to be when he grows up and he insists that, even though he wanted to be a carpenter or an architect, he is happy with his lot. However, Ragonese teases him that he is anything but okay and he smiles as she lets the wind blow through her hair.

On arrival in Naples, however, Marinelli loses patience when Ragonese discovers that the man she had claimed as the father of her child has been dead for a year. She swears she has not lied to him, but he sees no point in chastising her and takes her to a bridal shop in the city centre. He smiles as she tries on dresses while sipping champagne and goes along with it when she accuses him of sleeping with her fiancé. The assistants look shocked and try to remain calm, as Marinelli and Ragonese shout insults at Sgueglia before bolting into the narrow alleyways beside the shop. People stand aside, as they run in slow-motion through the streets and joke around with some customers at a snack bar. Ragonese keeps the dress on, as they hit a nightclub and Marinelli hugs her when she has second thoughts about abandoning him for a casual pick-up.

They go back to their hotel room and kiss as they undress. When he wakes the next morning, Marinelli sees Ragonese naked on the balcony and she slips into bed and asks why he broke up with Sgueglia. He says he wanted to settle down and have a family and Ragonese scolds him for avoiding responsibility. But she is touched when he takes his load of flatpack furniture to the orphanage where he grew up and he sits silently with elderly nun Franca Maresa, who remembers him as being such a quiet boy. As Marinelli thinks back to his mother leaving him behind, Ragonese wanders the corridors and sees bored nuns caring for alienated and lonely children. One boy rushes up to her and looks up into her eyes, as he presses against her for some human contact. But it unsettles her and she tells him to run along.

As they sit in the van, Ragonese asks Marinelli about life in the orphanage and he recalls being up for adoption with couples who rejected him. He has never tried to find his mother and has no intention of doing so. But Ragonese is reunited with Anna Ferruzzo when they drive on to Calabria and a family confirmation party and Marinelli is made welcome by all of the relations, who seem pleased to see Ragonese with a decent young man. Alone that night, Ragonese puts make-up on Marinelli and scoffs at his idea that they stay for a while, so he can do up the house and she has family around her when the baby is born. But Ragonese insists she has reached no firm decisions yet and he is puzzled by her lack of concern with the delivery only a matter of months away.

Trusting Marinelli's judgement, Ragonese agrees to stay and enjoys everyone from the insular village watching them stride boldly to the beach in loud Hawaiian patterns. She tries to teach him to swim in the shallow tide, but he is scared and relieved when she finally lets him return to the shore. When her grandmother asks what the baby will be called, Ragonese says `Italia' and she approves (unlike her father, who merely gave her a nod of recognition when she called to see him). However, Ferruzzo's welcome soon runs out and she browbeats Ragonese in front of her aunts and cousins about being a wastrel who will have to knuckle down if she is to care for her daughter.

Having sobbed in frustration at allowing herself to be ticked off like a child again, Ragonese slips away before Marinelli wakes from a dream of seeing her sing The Smiths's `There Is a Light That Never Goes Out' with her band. She has left her wedding dress hanging on the balcony and Marinelli is stung when Ferruzzo tells him to let her go because she only knows how to be selfish and hurt the people who love her. This prompts Marinelli to call Sgueglia because he is 1300km from home with no money. He confesses that the idea of the hetero family appealed to him and he could finally see a future for himself in a country sinking to its knees. But Sgueglia shrugs that he is entitled to his dreams.

Shortly after he returns home, Marinelli gets a call from a maternity unit in Sicily. He travels down immediately and social worker Saverina De Fazio explains that Ragonese fled soon after giving birth. However, she left instructions that he is the father and he goes along with the lie because Italia is his miracle and deserves better than the backward glance he got from his mother (Sara Putignano) as she walked out of his life. Standing in the sea with his trousers rolled up, Marinelli knows he is ready to take his biggest step.

Affecting without being entirely convincing, this road movie might steer away from the familiar landmarks, but it's certainly not afraid to venture into some contentious moral territory, as it considers the qualities that make a good parent. Ultimately, Mollo and co-scenarist Josella Porto hedge their bets about gay fathers, while balancing their two runaway mothers with Ferruzzo's tough love and Maresa's forgetful affection. But, while this may not be as politically pugnacious as it might be, it still has its share of touching dramatic moments.

Nicely photographed by Daria D'Antonio and designed by Luca Servino, the action is deftly counterpointed by a Giorgio Giampà score that is notable for its melodic restraint. Unrecognisable from his stint in Gabriele Mainetti's They Call Me Jeeg Robot (2015), Luca Marinelli exudes sensitive pragmatism as he puts up with Isabella Ragonese's antics. But, while show-stopping scenes like the bridal shop outburst are amusing, the pair are more effective in their quieter moments, when they allow their neediness and vulnerability to show through. Yet, it's the orphanage sequence that leaves the deepest impression, as it's possible to see the young Marinelli in the eyes of the small boy clinging to Ragonese.

As a new university year gets under way and schools approach half-term, Neasa Ní Chianáin's documentary, School Life, may well have parents and pupils casting an envious glance in the direction of Headfort, an exclusive boarding primary housed in an 18th-century mansion in Kells in Country Meath. Founded in 1948 and situated some 50 miles from Dublin, Headfort takes 110 students between the ages of 7-13. Consequently, this genial study comes closer in tone to Nicolas Philibert's Être et avoir (2003) and Julie Bertucelli's School of Babel (2013) than such classic American studies as Frederick Wiseman's High School (1968), Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman (2010) and Vanessa Roth and Brian McGinn's American Teacher (2011). Moreover, it represents something of a departure for Ní Chianáin, who examined the private life of poet Cathal O Searcaigh in Fairytale of Kathmandu (2007) and the reclusive existence of Neal MacGregor in The Stranger (2014).

Amanda and John Leyden have been at Headfort for over 40 years and live with their three dogs in a cottage on the edge of the estate. As the opening credits roll, an aerial shot follows their car along a lushly canopied woodland road to the imposing edifice with interiors designed by Robert Adam. The new term is about to start and children mill around in their grey uniforms under the watchful eye of a couple who have become the school's equivalent to Charles and Katherine Chipping.

Headmaster Dermot Dix addresses an assembly in the hall and reminds new and old students alike that they have a duty to seize the opportunities being presented to them. As John wanders the grounds to monitor pupils playing on a tree swing and playing the piano in the music room, assistant matron Renee Ryan reassures homesick newcomers that everything will be okay and that they will soon be reunited with their parents.

A new day dawns and Dermot (who was taught by the Leydens) congratulates John on breaking the schools long service record. He notes that Amanda was appointed two weeks before him and started first, as he remained at home with the Head's permission because the trout fishing was so good that summer. John is always able to remember Amanda's birthday because it comes at the start of term and he interrupts a reading class to present her with a book and a garish piece of metal art that still has a discount sticker on the rear. The kids are amused by the intervention and enjoy popping the bubble wrap and Amanda's sense of panic when Dermot shows a prospective parent around and reminisces about Amanda getting him to read the Famous Five.

Pottering around the cottage at night, the Leydens talk shop, as Amanda reminds John that a group he sometimes finds difficult to control have a tight bond from being dormed together and tend to fizz at once because they're so in sync. He has more fun at sports day introducing the school's different nationalities in a cod-Olympic procession. These are privileged kids from around the globe, but no mention is made of the institution's politics or fees. Instead, Amanda teaches a class about the link between `Oranges and Lemons' and public executions and how quickly time ticks away. She talks about the history of the school and the fact that she will soon have to move out of the cottage and, during a cigarette break with John, they wonder what they will do with their days when they don't have lessons.

John certainly keeps busy, as he flits between English, Latin, Maths and Religion lessons and tries to find new recruits for the school rock band. He holds auditions in a graffiti-strewn outbuilding that some of the kids want to renovate and others want to use for art. He puts some aspiring singers through their paces and co-opts a girl named Barbara to be his drummer. They run through the Undertones classic `Teenage Kicks' with a charmingly hesitancy that John commends with a good-natured brusqueness.

During his schooldays, Dermot had led a rebellion against the choir master and he is asked about it by one of his classes. He recalls being beaten by the Head and made to build some steps leading down to the tennis court. Relaxing at the cottage, he reminisces about the incident with the Leydens and insists that he had been something of a conformist until he had visited the United States when he had been appalled by the right-leaning views he had encountered. Dermot shares his liberal views with a class during a discussion on same-sex marriage and some of the confused thinking of the students is both alarming and amusing, as he tries to get them to consider the possibility that God might not exist and that humans are the only animals that set much store by marriage.

Among the new intake, 12 year-old Eliza Somerville seems to be struggling. She is allowed to change dormitories because she is unsettled and John attempts to get her involved with his band. However, she merely seems content to have somewhere to go and similarly joins the choir without having any intention of singing. John mentions her to Amanda, who is casting the school play, and vows to bring her out of herself so that she can develop a new-found confidence.

While she runs around cheerfully enough during games lessons, she returns to being taciturn in the classroom and John teaches her a keyboard part so she can play along with a performance of Ellie Goulding's `Burn' in the art hut that is attended by some of the other students. Tidying away afterwards, John jokes to Amanda that the four girl singers had got all the notes right without getting them in the right order. By the next rehearsal, however, an assistant named Olive helps him break the news to the more discordant singers that they are flat and she organises them to sing within their ranges. Following a lovely shot of a misty morning, we see the school blanketed by snow and the four white horses that are used for riding lessons seem reluctant to venture out of their stable. A dyslexic 11 year-old named Ted Lyons in Amanda's class is similarly reticent when it comes to taking the part of the Ghost in a playlet about Shakespeare's company rebelling about performing Hamlet. However, he is keen to play in the rugby team and is disappointed to be substitute for the next game. As he returns to school with the first aid kit, John asks if he is carrying his lunchbox and the joke seems to pass him by. Similarly, the kids trying to put on their duvet covers miss the dry wit as John suggests that making beds should be on the curriculum. But an older colleague also fails to see the funny side when Olive admits that she told some of the dorm boys about a prank she had played in her student days, as he doesn't think she should be giving them any ideas.

Shortly afterwards, Dermot delivers an assembly on Gandhi lobbying against a salt tax that he considered immoral and he urges the students to take the lead in advocating change. By contrast, Amanda seeks a little more co-operation, as she rehearses Hamlet on the stage and Ted has difficulty remembering his lines. She finds him in the woods while out walking her dog and he informs her that he is both taking photographs for an art project and running away. While he continues to plough his own furrow, Eliza seems to have found her place in the band and she contributes a keyboard solo to a rendition of `Wild Thing'. She also gets picked first for a class quiz and John enjoys teasing the kids about how dim they are as he gives the answers and how cunning they are when they all claim that their team has won. That night, he tells Amanda how pleased he is that Eliza is joining in more. But he wishes she didn't keep living life five paces behind everyone else, as she is very bright and has a lot to offer.

Dermot hopes that the school can also work its magic on Florence, who has lost a bit of confidence after doing some modelling. She proves to be a capable drummer, but bursts into tears during a rehearsal and John tries to jolly her round. He also recommends that a boy who needs the laces of his cricket boots tying gets another brother because his own can't tie his shoes, either. John soon finds Florence a role painting on the walls in the music room and she seems quite content.

He is also chosen to speak to Ted before his confirmation to discuss taking a pledge not to drink alcohol before he is 18. John suggests that he learns how to drink sensibly with his mates, but reminds Ted that he has to make his own choice. However, Amanda is more concerned that the ceremony is on the same day as the school concert and that Ted won't be back in time to perform. But he takes his place and makes a good Ghost and Amanda is so pleased with her little troupe that she rewards them with a big bag of sweets.

While Ted and Eliza seem to be making progress, Florence is struggling to find her niche and Amanda browbeats John for throwing her out of the band room because she hadn't been for 10 days. She reminds him that she is a sensitive soul, although she's aware she is also troubled and gets into hot water for winding tape around the head of a boy who punched her. Florence takes out her frustration on a drum kit and her solo is used over a battle between rival groups in the forts that the pupils are allowed to build in the woods. Dermot reminds an assembly that the forts are designed to foster collaboration not rivalry and he warns that he will put them out of bounds if he hears of any more confrontations.

Exam time comes and the staff meet to discuss results and the pupils who are leaving for pastures new. Ted is among those to go and Amanda is pleased he is going to a school in Wales that understands his difficulties and will allow him to flourish. Congratulations are in order for lads who make it into Eton and Harrow and they enjoy being teased by John in a toff accent about the size of the family yacht. At prize-giving, Eliza wins three awards and comes to the podium on each occasion with her trademark poker face. But the Leydens are delighted with her, as she has made such great strides over the course of three terms that John wishes he could bottle the secret and sell it.

Eliza helps serve the guests during a school function and plays in the band with Florence on John Newman's `Love Me Again', which goes down well with their classmates in the audience. On the last day, however, the focus falls on Ted as he says his tearful goodbyes and saves his last big hug for the groundsman who has always kept an eye on him. As for the Leydens, Amanda takes the dogs for a walk and John retreats to the band room to play an ornate rendition of `Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on the keyboard, with the odd bum note summing up the offbeat charm of this beguiling documentary, which was originally shown in the Republic of Ireland under the much suitable title, In Loco Parentis.

It says much that when Neasa Ní Chianáin and co-director husband David Rane asked to film at Headfort, only one child failed to secure parental permission. Indeed, such was their confidence that they had found the perfect subject matter that they enrolled their own two children and Rane (who had boarded as a boy while his parents were in Nigeria) was able to exorcise many ghosts during the shoot. Interestingly, Dermot Dix had previously taught at the Dalton School in Manhattan that was profiled by parent-directors Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster in American Promise (2013). But Ní Chianáin and Rane remain firmly behind their respective camera and microphone while creating the atmosphere of trust that allows staff and pupils to be themselves at all times.

Obviously, the Leydens are the stars of the show, with Amanda's eyebrow piercing and John's Professor Pat Pending hairstyle typifying their unconventional approach to education. Dermot clearly adores them and the kids evidently respond to Amanda's earth motherly fussing and John's dry wit and refusal to talk down. Shown only in passing, the other staff members seem to adopt a similar approach, as the day students and boarders alike are given the space to develop as individuals within a supportive framework that also teaches them respect and emotional honesty.

When it first opened, Headfort was branded a West Brit institution, as it was seen by many as a colonial outpost. Yet, while it now has a very international feel, it does feel like a throwback, as there are no scenes in the film of the kids playing video games or texting on their phones. Indeed, calls appear restricted to land lines and boarders are encouraged to read books rather than watch screens. Amanda certainly keeps the library well stocked and the look of shock on her face when she finds a Stephen King book in Florence's desk is very revealing. However, John's School of Rock sessions suggest he is au fait with current musical tastes, even though he does slip in the odd Troggs number from a pre-Headfort past that remains shrouded in mystery.

Discreetly photographed by Ní Chianáin and briskly edited by Mirjam Strugalla to capture the bustle of school life, this may not win any prizes for documentary innovation. But its strong sense of place and personality ably conveys the philosophy and spirit of Headfort and its dedicated staff.