For a long time, Robin Campillo was known for his association with Laurent Cantet. Having edited Les Sanguinaires (1997) and Human Resources (1999), he shared writing credits on Time Out (2001), Heading South (2005) and The Class (2008) before returning solely to editorial duties on Return to Ithaca (2014). However, Campillo has also been steadily building his reputation as a director since making his debut with the zombie saga, Les Revenants (2004). Now, he follows the provocative realist immigrant drama, Eastern Boys (2013), with 120 Beats Per Minute, an account of the work done by the French wing of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) at the height of the AIDS crisis in the last two decades of the 20th century.

Following an attack on François Rabette, a symposium speaker from the French Agency for the Fight Against AIDS (AFLS), the Parisian chapter of ACT UP gathers for a debriefing under leader Antoine Reinartz. Activist Adèle Haenel is unhappy that Simon Guélat threw a fake blood bomb before she had finished making her protest at the microphone and objects to the fact that Nahuel Pérez Biscayart took it upon himself to handcuff Rabette to the stage set, as it has prompted negative publicity in the press and from sympathetic protest groups. However, the meeting is unanimous in the need to draw attention to the refusal of companies like Melton Pharm to speed up their research into protease inhibitor treatments, as they don't consider helping the LGBT community to be a priority.

Haenel is again to the fore during this raid, which sees 26 year-old Arnaud Valois participate for the first time. He is HIV- and catches the eye of Pérez Biscayart, who is highly protective of Théophile Ray, who has haemophilia. Once again, the splatter walls, windows and logos with fake blood bombs, while arguing with the medics and executives who object to their militancy. Several members of arrested by the police and they discuss their actions on the Métro with a mix adrenaline-fuelled pride and self-guying wistfulness before dancing the night away at their favourite disco.

Specks of dust caught in the lights morph with images of infected cells under a microscope, as Reinartz leads a small discussion group on the latest pharmaceutical developments. Midway through the session, Ariel Borensten keels over and he informs them that his doctor has informed him that his condition is advancing unusually quickly. Everyone is supportive and urges him to see another consultant. He is feeling stronger at the next full meeting, when he volunteers to join Pérez Biscayart in a cheerleading troupe to raise awareness during the Gay Pride march. Reinartz finds the rally dull and is sniffy when Ray's mother, Catherine Vinatier, comes up with the slogan, `AIDS is me, AIDS is you, AIDS is us.' Aloïse Sauvage scolds Reinartz for being so gloomy and Pérez Biscayart leads the assembled in chanting the suggested slogans because anything that causes people to stop and think is better than nothing.

Following a guerrilla visit to a local school (where they receive a mixed reception from staff and students alike), the ACT UP principals wind up in another disco, where Pérez Biscayart and Valois get together. During safe sex, the former reveals how he was infected on losing his virginity to his married maths teacher, while the latter recalls the first time he slept with someone with Kaposi's sarcoma lesions. They are honest and tender, but Pérez Biscayart feels extra responsibility for Valois because he is still negative.

Reinartz leads a delegation to speak with Samuel Churin from Melton Pharm and he insists that he had no trial results to show anyone because the process is proving trickier than anticipated. Valois is unimpressed with his patronising attitude, especially when he criticises them for their attack on his offices. But the room is divided when they report back to the ACT UP membership, with Pérez Biscayart being particularly angry that the drug companies are not doing more to develop treatments. He shocks Valois when he reveals how his condition is deteriorating and he demands that a representative from Melton Pharm should be invited to address them directly rather than hiding behind mediators.

During a break, Valois asks Pérez Biscayart what he does for a living and he replies that being positive takes up all his time. He is touched that Valois knows so much about their fellow members as individuals rather than simply as activists or victims. Shortly afterwards, however, Borenstein dies after urging his comrades to treat his demise as a rallying cry similar to the one that brought about the 1848 revolution that overthrew the monarchy of Louis Philippe. Following on from the funeral, Reinartz issues stickers to use on the homophobic books that have started to appear to whip up suspicion and fear during the AIDS epidemic.

Vinatier also speaks on the need for hospitals to do more to monitor blood supplies, as Ray contracted the disease after receiving an infected transfusion. However, Pérez Biscayart and Felix Maritaud object to her proposal that those responsible should be jailed and a heated argument breaks out, as Haenel implores them to remain focused and show respect for each other. But it's clear that fewer members respect Reinartz's leadership and Valois is surprised by the vehemence of his lover's anger with Vinatier for advocating a cause that is more media friendly than the plight facing gay men, drug users and prostitutes. Most are able to see the bigger picture, however, and they join forces in a protest outside the health ministry to call for needle exchanges to reduce the risks among addicts. However, the police are waiting for them and they are bundled into the back of a van before being able to make much impact.

During a break at the next meeting, Pérez Biscayart asks Valois about his past. He reflects on a lover from Marseilles who had spooked him when he realised he was showing signs of infection. Scared, Valois became abstinent for several years and it was only when he decided to call the man's home that he discovered he had been taken to hospital. Pérez Biscayart is taken aback that Valois made no effort to visit his friend and doesn't even know if he survived his relapse. But he agrees to them moving in together and Valois learns how to change a drip and dressings.

After a lengthy wait, Churin finally agrees to attend an ACT UP meeting. Haenel and Guélat accuse him of engineering a shortage of the experimental drug and Reinartz asks Churin to leave, as a sign of their disgust at Big Pharma's attitude to the disease. But, when he proposes using hospitalised sufferers at Gay Pride to stop them from becoming invisible, Pérez Biscayart brands him an impostor and he storms out. However, he has been told by his doctor that his condition is deteriorating and he is confined to hospital shortly after a brief trip to the seaside with Valois. Reinartz visits him and tries to make small talk and offer encouragement. But Pérez Biscayart can't hide his disdain and he asks him to go. Valois passes Reinartz as he leaves, but says nothing before providing his lover with a little compassionate relief before confessing that he has painted their new apartment white.

Shortly after a lie-down demonstration in which President François Mitterand is accused of being a murderer and Reinartz declares the fight against AIDS to be a war, Pérez Biscayart comes home. His mother, Saadia Ben Taieb, helps Valois prepare his room and sleeps on the fold-down couch to be near her son. That night, however, Valois gives him a fatal injection that is not detected by the doctor when he comes to issue the death certificate. Ben Taieb is touched when so many ACT UP friends come to pay their respects and she agrees to let them have some of his ashes to turn his funeral into a political protest. As everyone chats and sips coffee, Valois asks Reinartz to spend the night with him.

Valois breaks down after making love with Reinartz. But, as the River Seine turns red with homemade blood, both are front and centre when the group infiltrates a party for health insurance bigwigs. In addition to waving placards and blowing whistles, they also scatter Pérez Biscayart's ashes over the buffet and the film ends with the principals dancing in strobe lighting at the disco, as life, like the struggle, has to go on.

Based on the experiences of Campillo and co-writer Philippe Mangeot (who is a leading educator and activist), this is the latest in a lengthening line of powerful pictures about the way in which the LGBT community responded to the AIDS epidemic and how it came to shame politicians and the pharmaceutical industry into finding solutions. Although much is made of ACT UP's role in ministering to addicts, sex workers, prisoners and heterosexuals, the emphasis here is primarily on gay males, with the love story between Pérez Biscayart and Valois providing the emotional focus. But Campillo and Mangeot also echo many of the themes touched on by David France in How to Survive a Plague, his unflinching documentary about ACT UP in the USA.

As in his collaborations with Cantet, Campillo allows the characters to communicate through open discussions rather than intimate conversations. But, while this reinforces the docu-realist tone of the action, the romance always reminds viewers that they are watching a dramatised reconstruction. The performances are admirable, with the Argentinian Pérez Biscayart proving pricklier as the back-row radical `living politics in the first person' than the more puppyishly devoted Valois. Yet, despite the coy disclosures in the bedroom and meeting hall, neither character is delineated in any depth. Reinartz and Haenel are forced to rely even more heavily on their innate screen presence to raise their activism above cipher level, while the majority of their comrades remain part of a largely anonymous claque.

However, Campillo and Mangeot succeed in putting a personal spin on ACT UP's activities and internal divisions at a time when governments and business were either too ignorant or disinterested to recognise the severity of the pandemic. More might have been made of this institutional lethargy and the paranoia and prejudice that the AIDS crisis provoked. But the decision to concentrate on assertive action makes sense and Campillo avoids melodramatising the confrontations with the authorities and the scientists. Similarly, he doesn't dwell on the symptoms and sufferings of Borenstein and Pérez Biscayart or the medical details and legal consequences (if any) of the latter's euthanasia. Consequently, the raw emotionality is markedly less manipulative than in recent Hollywood offerings like Jean-Marc Vallée's Dallas Buyers Club (2013), with Emmanuelle Duplay's production design, Jeanne Lapoirie's photography and Arnaud Rebotini's electronic score all avoiding self-conscious period specificity. Conversely, the occasionally protracted proceedings risk becoming intellectually dry. But this is always a film with its heart in the right place and it deserves to be greeted with much finger-clicking.

A number of overlapping themes arise in James Crump's Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, which charts the tragically short life and times of the Puerto Rico-born artist who transformed the art of fashion illustration from the late 1960s. As in Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe (2007), Crump goes beyond traditional documentary methods to uncover the creative secrets of Antonio Lopez and his trusted sidekick and lover, Juan Ramos. Yet, for all the visual panache achieved by effects artist André Purwo and editor Nick Tamburri, this rarely connects with those not already au fait with Lopez and his milieu.

Over opening remarks by photographer Bill Cunningham, models Dorothy Jordan and Pat Cleveland, Vogue insiders Grace Coddington and Joan Juliet Buck, restaurateur Michael Chow and actress Jessica Lange, we are treated to a montage of monochrome stills of Antonio Lopez at work and some of his dazzling colour drawings. Interview magazine's Bob Colacello sets the scene by suggesting that the underground became the mainstream in the 1970s, while the acceptance of homosexuality allowed the likes of Lopez to come to the fore. Cunningham remembers find him an apartment in Carnegie Hall, while make-up artist Corey Tippin almost swoons in recalling how he first met Lopez when he was an art student and was invited on to the stage to pose with Cathee Dahmen.

Having hooked up with the teenage Jordan and her friend Jane Forth, Lopez and Tippin virtually turned them into an art project, as they found new ways to dress and make them up. They used to hang out at Max's Kansas City in the late 1960s and Cunningham enthuses about the fun they used to have. Artist Paul Caranicas agrees that Lopez and Ramos created a magic circle that Lange and fellow actress Patti D'Arbanville found irresistible. Handsome, charming and witty, Lopez was also a tireless dancer and the little coterie spent their days getting ready to strut their stuff at night.

Often working into the small hours, Lopez would fill the studio with the latest music and create scenarios with Ramos acting as his art director. Caranicas and Cunningham agree that there were a fountain of ideas and the novelty of their concepts and the boldness of Lopez's drawings led to commissions from Women's Wear Daily and Condé Nast, even at a time when fashion designers preferred to rely on photography to show off their latest collections. However, Lopez had such a distinctive eye and such a rapport with his models that he was able to bring an immediacy to images that reflected the vitality and confidence of the new decade.

Lange and D'Arbanville reflect on the way Lopez's breathing changed while he worked and Cunningham suggest that it felt like he was sucking the energy out of his models and channelling it through his hands into his charcoal, pencil, pens or brushes. They remember him teaming with cult designer Charles James, who recognised immediately that Lopez could bring his clothes alive, even if he sometimes sought out male hustlers to find the right torso to suit a particular dress. As a bisexual, Lopez could beguile men and women alike and his affairs were often complicated. Also, as the son of a psychic mannequin maker and a dress designer, he had a complex mind and sometimes needed to dance himself into trance or be hypnotised in order to focus his talent.

As Lopez became known around town, he attracted the interest of Andy Warhol. Jordan and Forth gravitated towards The Factory, but remained part of the Lopez set and D'Arbanville explains that Warhol liked to let things happen around him, while Lopez was the orchestrator in chief. He also had an eye for a model and discovered Jerry Hall and Grace Jones and helped change the way in which models were perceived by the fashion world and the public alike. They became known as `Antonio's Girls' and we see stills of those interviewed for the film, along with Eija, Amina Warsuma, Carole La Brie, Alva Chinn, Renate Zatsch, Coraly Bettancourt and Tina Chow, who aren't.

Cleveland, Lange and D'Arbanville admit to crushes on Lopez, who liked to give to the person he was with without fear of being tied down. But Caranicas believes that Lopez was addicted to sex and recalls him leaving meetings earlier to meet his latest paramour. However, a clash with Vogue over its reluctance to use models of colour prompted Lopez and Ramos to decamp to Paris, where they forged a friendship with Karl Lagerfeld, who recognised that Antonio's Girls had what it took to shake up the stuffy Parisian fashion scene. In truth, Lagerfield formed a closer bond with Ramos, who shared his intellectual preoccupations. But the instinctive Lopez fired his imagination and they put a new vim into the atelier at Chloe.

Being a dedicated follower of fun, Lopez refused to be exclusive and also befriended Yves St Laurent. Colacello sums up the differences between the two cliques, while Cunningham suggests that no social scene was complete without Lopez, as he was the real deal. Whether dining at Café de Flore or dancing the night away at Club Sept, Lopez drew a crowd and Lange, Cleveland, D'Arbanville and Jordan admit they had a wild time. For a while, however, they had to play second fiddle to Jerry Hall, who became so close that there were rumours they were engaged. Coddington remembers the passion between them, but Hall was swept off her feet by Bryan Ferry and Lopez lost the last of his great creations.

The fun didn't stop, however, as Lagerfeld took the cabal to St Tropez, which Jordan, Cleveland and Tippin recall with great fondness. By this time, Ramos and Caranicas had become lovers and tensions has started to simmer with Lopez. But he continued to live as though he was a performance artist, as he flitted between beaches, restaurants and clubs with the sole intention of looking fabulous. But the spell was shattered when Lagerfeld introduced Jacques de Bascher to the group and he drove a wedge between them. Buck and others imply that he was a talentless troublemaker, who used his skills at S&M sex to entice both Lagerfeld and St Laurent into doing his bidding.

During this period, Warhol and co-director Paul Morrissey arrived in Paris to make L'Amour (1973), with Lagerfeld, Jordan, Forth and D'Arbanville in the cast. However, Lopez and Ramos missed their chance to co-star, as they were in Japan working with Tina Chow during the shoot (which Buck and Colacello claim as a forerunner to reality television). Lopez introduced her to Michael Chow (who had been married to Coddington), only they drifted apart before she was diagnosed with AIDS. Lopez discovered he had the disease in 1982 and devoted himself to finding a cure at a time when there wasn't one. Needing money, he asked Lagerfeld if he could work on a campaign for him, but he refused in case Lopez died before the commission was complete. Cunningham sobs as he recalls this act of betrayal and thanks Oscar de la Renta for hiring Lopez and using what he managed to finish before he died at the age of 44 in Los Angeles in March 1987.

Pulling back the curtain on the demimonde that formed around the designers who instigated the ready-to-wear boom, this lively, but limited documentary says much more about Antonio Lopez's times than his life. Cutting between Super 8, 8mm, 16mm and Sony Portapak video, Crump gatecrashes the parties to capture the hedonism of the period. But the dearth of moving pictures of Lopez himself necessitates a reliance on stills and anecdotes that makes it more difficult to convey his personality and fabled charm. It's evident that he was adored by everyone Crump managed to interview. But the absence of Grace Jones, Jerry Hall and Karl Lagerfeld is damaging, as is a considered assessment of Lopez's artistic inspirations, his draughtmanship and his legacy.

The odd academic voice placing his achievement in the context of fashion photography and/or illustration might have stemmed the flow of gushing tributes. Similarly, it would have been nice to know more about his working relationship with Ramos. What role did he fulfil as Lopez's production designer and to what extent did the artist merely recreate his concepts? Crump might also have explored how Lopez's drawings were used in magazines and advertising campaigns and how they supposedly shook up the staid fashion scene, as haute couture was replaced by prêt-à-porter. In this regard, more might also have been said about the racial conservatism of the New York designers and publishers who resisted Lopez's use of black, Hispanic and Asian models.

Instead, we get lots of stories that say as much about the tellers as they do about their subjects. These are presented with plenty of pizzazz, as Crump uses Lopez's distinctive graphics to complement the colourful characters. But there's much more glamour than grit, while the sad truths about Lopez's illness are rather glossed over. Thus, while this reinforces the myth, it offers too few insights into the man.

CinemaItaliaUK returns to the Regent Street Cinema in London on 10 April with Riccardo Milani's comedy, Come un gato tangenziale/Like a Cat on a Highway, which drew three nominations at the prestigious Donatello Awards. Following on from The Soul's Place (2002), Piano, solo (2007), Do You See Me? (2014) and Mom or Dad? (2017), this is Milani's latest collaboration with actress wife Paola Cortellesi, who has recently been seen in Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Wondrous Boccaccio and Massimiliano Bruni's The Last Will Be Last (both 2015).

Think tank intellectual Antonio Albanese returns to Rome from preaching social integration to the European Union to discover that 14 year-old daughter Alice Maselli has started dating Simone de Bianchi, a mixed-race kid from the rundown suburb of Bastogi. Following their bus to see what Maselli is getting herself into, Albanese has his windscreen smashed with a baseball bat when he cuts across the much-tattooed Paola Cortellesi. Naturally, when he parks outside the tenement building where De Bianchi lives, he discovers that his mother is none other than Cortellesi, who lives in a cluttered apartment with her twin sisters, Alessandra and Valentina Giudicessa.

Having spent the last week following her son and his new girlfriend, Cortellesi is no happier about the liaison than Albanese, but for very different reasons. Aware that he is betraying his own political principles, Albanese prepares a speech for when Maselli comes home. But she silences him with a grateful hug for the tolerance he has taught her, as this has allowed her to meet such a wonderful boy from outside her clique. De Bianchi is similarly in no mood to listen to his mother, as she sometimes deals drugs from the flat, while his aunties are kleptomaniacs. However, just as Albanese is worried what ex-wife Sonia Bergamasco is going to say when she returns from harvesting the French lavender crop for her fragrance business, Cortellesi also wonders how husband Claudio Amendola is going to react when he is released from his latest stint in Rebibbia Prison.

Yet, when she tails the pair to a tattoo parlour, Cortellesi figures that getting their initials inked on their wrists is better than leaping into bed and she comes to Albanese's luxurious apartment to suggest cutting the kids some slack. However, she quickly locks horns with surly Russian maid Alla Krasnovitzkaya and warns Albanese that her cleaning isn't up to scratch. She also reveals that Amendola has been inside for most of his son's life for removing somebody's spleen with a pair of scissors. Despite being shocked, Albanese sees the sense of Cortellesi's suggestion and agrees to stop checking up on her so rigorously, only to bump into Cortellesi at the movie theatre where their children have gone with their pals.

Their determination not to interfere is tested again when Maselli and De Bianchi make arrangements to go on holiday to Albania. Albanese pleads with his daughter after she has played in a polo match not to make such a dangerous journey, while Cortellesi pauses from bailing out her sisters for shoplifting to remind her son that migrants risk their lives go leave the country he has chosen as a romantic destination. When they drop the pair off at a party, Albanese persuades Cortellesi to kill time at the pictures and she is bored to tears by an Armenian drama at the nearby arthouse.

As they leave, Albanese tries to explain why the film is relevant to the current world situation. But she dismisses politics as so much `gnam-gnam' and mocks the fact that he earns a living by sitting down and thinking. However, they get along better when they chat about her former job at a supermarket checkout and he sympathises with her dislike of automation. But when Maselli calls to say they have had their phones and wallets stolen at a party for the daughter of Albanese's accountant, Cortellesi marches De Bianchi home in disgust at the way the other half lives.

Having asked his think tank team to look into how automation is impacting on the job market, Albanese tries to apologise to Cortellesi when he comes to collect Maselli. She forgives him and shows him how she amuses herself by criticising her downstairs neighbour's cooking. He is impressed by how much she knows about the different cultures co-existing with seething hostility on the estate and wonders why they don't get along better when they are both Italians. But she reminds him of the class barriers that mean he eats choice cuts from the deli while she subsists on leftovers from the cafeteria where she works in an old people's home. 

The gulf is further emphasised when De Bianchi takes them on a trip to the crowded beach at Dead Skull and Albanese reciprocates by treating them to a day on the exclusive shore at Capalbio. His loathing of the traffic jams and boorish behaviour in the snack bar queue contrasts with Cortellesi's horror at having to walk across parched fields to reach a deserted stretch of coast with no amenities. However, just as she is about to despair, she spots her favourite TV personality, Franca Leosini, and rushes over to say hello. As she is an old friend, Albanese is mortified when Cortellesi insists on phoning the twins to talk to her. But Leosini is charmed and invites them to a soirée, where Cortellesi fills up on vol-au-vents and tries not to let herself feel out of places as her fellow guests discuss the exhibits at the Venice Biennale.

Dropping mother and son in Bastogi, Albanese gives Cortellesi a peck on the cheek and she suppresses a smile of surprise and amusement. That night, however, he has a nightmare that she barges into an EU debate and shames him with her rowdiness. But it's clear she is getting under his skin and he tries to postpone a Sunday dinner date when Bergmasco comes home unexpectedly and gushes patronisingly about Maselli taking their liberal values to heart. However, she quickly comes to realise she has entered another world and things take a downward turn when Amendola shows up and takes an instant dislike to his guests. As Bergamasco swigs from a small bottle of tranquillisers, Albanese defends his corner when Amendola blames him for his community's ills and he avers that people on the lower rung need to take responsibility for their lives rather than steal, swindle or survive on handouts.

As Amendola orders him to leave, Albanese casts a regretful look back at Cortellesi, who is far from pleased to see her spouse. He remains in contemplative mood as he watches Maselli flirting with a boy from their own set at Capalbio and Bergamasco chatting to Leosini. Meanwhile, at Devil Skull, Cortellesi looks on as De Bianchi hooks up with a new girl, the twins target a soft touch for some thievery and Amendola barges his way to the front of the snack bar queue for a beer. Reaching the end of their tethers, each gets up and walks away. But, while Cortellesi takes a bus into the city, Albanese flies to Brussels, where he ditches his prepared speech to recount the recent experiences that have taught him that it's pointless imposing laws on people unless you know and understand their daily lives.

Back in Bastogi, Cortellesi reads up on Albanese's causes online and looks down from the balcony with little pity as Amendola is bundled into the back of a police car. She opens a fast food kiosk with her Bangladeshi neighbour and sells pizzas and samosas, which are delivered on mopeds by the Giudicessas. However, Cortellesi insists on taking one order herself and sings aloud as she crosses the city to join Albanese on a bench in the Piazza Cavour. She shrugs as she takes a bite of the pizza and he tucks into a samosa, as neither have any idea whether they will last. But they are willing to give it a try.

Few will fail to spot where this satirical sitcom is heading, but it doesn't make the journey any less enjoyable. Writing with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda, Milano and Cortellesi keep things light and avoid preaching from a soapbox about the schisms dividing modern Italy. But their points are well made, as Saverio Guarna's camera contrasts the settings in the city and the outskirts, while production designer Maurizia Narducci dots the abodes with telltale details.

However, it's the chemistry between Albanese and Cortellesi that ensures this odd couple saga remains plausible and pleasurable. With her dyed red hair and tight clothes, she brings to mind the kind of characters played Sophia Loren and Stefania Sandrelli in the commedia all'italiana classics of the 1960s, while he exudes the guilt-ridden liberalism one expects from the bourgeois bloke in a cross-tracks romcom. Indeed, they are so good together that one can but hope that the nice people at CinemaItaliaUK can snag the rights to show their teaming in Mom or Dad? some time soon.

Older children might fancy a holiday outing to see Anders Walter's debut feature, I Kill Giants. Adapted by Joe Kelly from the 2008 graphic novel he wrote with Ken Niimura, this has much in common with JA Bayona's interpretation of Patrick Ness's bestseller, A Monster Calls (2016). But it's also possible to detect echoes of Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are (2009) in a dark fantasy that examines childhood traumas with an honesty and sensitivity that is only spoilt by a final descent into sentimentality.

Fifth grader Madison Wolfe lives with older siblings Imogen Poots and Art Parkinson in an unnamed town on the New Jersey coast. Forever wearing a pair of bunny ears as a tribute to her spirit guide, the bespectacled Wolfe spends her days playing Dungeons and Dragons and testing the poisons she makes to protect the town from the giants who live in the woods. While Poots struggles to hold down a job and care for her sister, Parkinson has little time for her eccentricities and they argue when she pulls the plug on the noisy video game that she detests because it requires such little imagination to play. However, things take a turn for the better when Sydney Wade arrives from Leeds and appears to be on Wolfe's wavelength.

Taking Wade to her beachside sanctuary, Wolfe explains about the various forms of giants (while the visuals cut away to a stylised CGI montage of rampaging behemoths) and urges her new friend not to be frightened because evil types like the titans have not been seen in ages. She also tells her about `Coveleski', a secret weapon named after an old Philadelphia Phillies baseball player that she keeps in the embroidered bag slung over her shoulder. However, she parts by warning Wade not to get too close to her because she lives a dangerous life and she can't be responsible for her if a giant strikes.

Prompted by the flight patterns of the birds she spies with her telescope, Wolfe heads into the woods to lay a trap for the giant she fears is on the prowl. She spots it through the trees and crashes off her bicycle into a puddle. But the monster isn't fooled by her plan and she is spooked that night by a voicing calling her name from the darkness. Following a falling out with Wade during a PE lesson, Wolfe is summoned to see Saldana, who is keen to find out more about her in the hope of getting to the bottom of her erratic behaviour. However, Wolfe is good at keeping her defences up and she leaves without revealing anything about herself.

Pleased to get an apology from Wade, Wolfe is about to slip it into her bag when it emits a pinkish red light and she falls to her knees in the corridor. Convinced the town is in imminent danger, she asks Wade if she wants to be a coward or a warrior and the pair run off in the direction of the forest. She puts a pin prick of Wade's blood on a wooden cross to protect her and makes her say a magic spell. But problems begin to mount up when Wolfe punches Saldana for prying during a therapy session and then drives Wade into the orbit of class bully Rory Jackson by accidentally giving her a black eye. When Poots lectures her sister for getting her dragged out of work when her boss is looking for any excuse to fire her, Wolfe runs away as dusk draws in and she feels insecure at the very moment she needs to be strong.

Overlooking Wolfe lashing out in the hope of connecting with her, Saldana asks her about giants and whether she truly believes she can keep the town safe from an attack. However, Wolfe gets into a panic and runs down to the beach to find Jackson and her sidekick ripping up the trip ropes she has hidden under the sand. She glares at the sheepish Wade and reaches into her bag to brandish Covelski. But she is shocked to find that it has diminished in size and looks no more menacing than a seashell on a stick. Sensing her opportunity, Jackson punches Wolfe on the nose and her glasses fall on to the sand as she is subjected to a beating.

Wade takes Wolfe home, but makes the mistake of putting her to bed in her upstairs room rather than in her curtained-off den in the basement. Thus, Wolfe wakes in a state the next morning and tiptoes across the landing the shut the door leading into her mother's old room. She goes to see Saldana at her home and meets her husband (Noel Clarke) and infant daughter before running into the woods convinced that everyone is going to die. When Saldana and Wade call on Poots to see if Wolfe is okay, the latter sneaks into her den and listens to an old cassette recording that the young Wolfe made with her mother (Jennifer Ehle) about how Harry Covelski earned the nickname `the Giant Killer' after helping defeat the New York Giants three times in five days during the 1908 season.

Angry with Wade for betraying her, Wolfe hides out at the board game store and storms off when Wade tracks her down. As she leaves by a rear alley, a giant corners her and warns her that she lacks the power to defeat the foes that are massing in the woods. Yet she manages to lure on creature to the disused train siding and locks herself in the cab of a shunting locomotive to generate the electric current to render the monster harmless. Back in her den, Wolfe prays for Coveleski to return to its former glory and wonders what she can do against the onslaught if she's unarmed.

That night, a storm brews up over the sea and Saldana goes in search of Wolfe to remind her that there are no giants and that she is merely raging against the illness that has felled her mother. But Wolfe is in no mood to listen and makes for the beach for a final showdown. She finds Wade injured on the sand after trying to stop Jackson from destroying Wolfe's defences after being humiliated by her at school. However, she makes Wade take shelter in her hideout while she confronts the gigantic titan that rises from the waves with the restored Coveleski. Yet, as she strikes a blow that brings the monster to its knees, it informs her that it has come for her rather than her mother and it snatches her up and wades back into the water, as the winds and waves rush around them.

But Wolfe isn't ready to perish and she floats up from the depths and returns home to climb the stairs and snuggle on the bed beside her dying mom. Ehle is pleased to see her and holds her close, as Wolfe apologises for finding it so hard to cope with reality. Shortly after returning to school, Wolfe gets the news that Ehle has passed away and she leaves her pink Coveleski bag on the coffin to protect her. Unable to sleep that night, she wanders into her mother's room and sees the giant standing on the foreshore to check that Wolfe is okay. She thanks the creature for its kindness and reassures it that humans are often stronger than they think. Turning away from the window, she climbs into Ehle's bed and settles down to sleep.

Having put so much work into establishing a credible sense of place and a disconcerting mood around Wolfe's quest, Kelly and Walter fritter much of it away in a final reel that not only feels anti-climactic, but also unnecessarily mawkish and manipulative. It's clear from the outset that the giant hunt is a coping mechanism and viewers are left to ponder the source of Wolfe's emotional fragility. But the revelation will leave many wondering how long she has been hiding behind her defences and why it has taken the school and the doctor treating Ehle so long to realise how traumatised she has become.

The Coveleski aspect of the storyline is neatly done, even though it's not entirely clear why Wolfe's nerdiness would encompass both century-old baseball legends and gaming myths. Nevertheless, the 14 year-old plays the part with a quirky mix of vigour and vulnerability that makes one wonder why Hollywood doesn't base more rite-of-passage sci-fi and fantasy pictures around girls. She is ably supported by Wade and Jackson, although their characters are as sketchy as those played by Poots and Saldana, who seems decidedly slow on the uptake for a trained psychologist (albeit one who used to manage a small hedge fund). Interestingly, Wolfe's brother is almost completely marginalised, along with Saldana's husband and the school principal (Don Wycherley) and the only male who makes much sense is the titan voiced by John Boyle.

Given that the end credits run for around eight minutes, it's safe to say that a good deal of effort went into the post-production phase. But Susie Cullen's production design and Rasmus Heise's photography draw the audience into the world of the film and manage to keep the focus on the humans after the superfluous `history of giants' cutaway. which deprives the sighting of the first monster in the woods of much of its impact. Fans are likely to be split over whether Walter has done justice to his source. But one suspects the sudden emotional shift will alienate aficionados and newcomers alike, which is a shame, as Wolfe deserves better.

This is probably not the best time to be releasing a Russian film into UK cinemas. But those grown-ups seeking to give their children a late Easter treat will not miss the ironies that abound in Andrei Galat and Maxim Volkov's CGI animation, Sheep & Wolves. Five years in the making and drawing on the Grimm fairytale, `The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids', this lacks the wit and sophistication of recent American animations. But its lessons about being true to oneself and treating others as you would hope to be treated yourself are well worth learning at any age.

While out photographing insects in the North Meadow, Ziko (Ross Marquand) spots a newly arrived pack of wolves, who have relocated after a clash with some jackals. As Magra (Jim Cummings) the leader is close to retirement, he calls for challengers Grey (Tom Felton) and Ragear (Rich Orlow) to fight to determine who will be his worthiest successor. But, while Grey is busy paying court to Bianca (Ruby Rose), Ragear and his sidekicks defy Magra and go hunting for sheep. Despite the warnings of Belgur (Tyler Bunch), the elderly ram who leads the flock, to stay close to home because he has spilt some salt and fears the consequences, lambs Shia (Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) and Xavi (Sarah Natochenny) wander into the meadow and are lucky to escape the ravenous Ragear when Grey distracts him and he runs into a tree.

Back at the lair, Ragear gets teased about his humiliation and Grey seizes the opportunity to make him look like leadership material. However, his rival bullies the weaker wolves into supporting him and the contest is left as a tie when Bianca refuses to cast her vote. Magra is disappointed by Grey's lack of maturity and he skulks away from the rocks when Bianca informs him that she no longer wishes to marry him. Wandering across the scrub, Grey spots a gathering of smaller creatures and is mesmerised by Mami (Jennie Grace), a fortune-telling rabbit who gives him a potion she hopes will enable him to win back Bianca's love.

Unfortunately, because she doesn't read the label properly, Mami gives Grey an elixir with the power to transform him into several different beasts. However, he gets stuck as a sheep and only just manages to stay out of the clutches of Ragear before he is found next morning by Shia's sister, Lyra (China Anne McClain), who takes him back to the beauty salon she runs from her house. Breaking a mirror in his panic on realising he is no longer a wolf, Grey pretends to be the sole survivor of a flock that was attacked by piranha fish when questioned by Ziko, who fancies himself as a journalist. However, Belgur allows him to stay, even though he is convinced the ill omens are piling up around them.

Keen to impress Lyra (whom he adores, but is too tongue-tied to tell her), Moz (Peter Linz) ignores the teasing of his doughnut-munching buddy Ike (Marc Thompson) and befriends Grey. He thinks he changed species because of a bump to the head and is convinced that another fall should restore him to normal. A montage of death-defying plunges follows, with Ziko becoming increasingly suspicious of the newcomer's behaviour. However, the last jump knocks some sense into Grey and he remembers Mami and the potion. But she has moved on by the time he reaches the place where she had pitched her tent and he skulks back to Lyra's to sleep on the floor.

The following morning, Shia and Moz take Grey to the arena to watch the rams jousting against each other. The undisputed butting king is Louis the Fierce (JB Blanc), whose entry into the arena is greeted with a trumpet blast from Cliff (Jim Cummings), a seagull who thinks he's a sheep. Grey is so amused that a puny animal like Louis is the champion that he is selected as the next challenger and is too inexperienced at locking horns to make his superior bulk count. Ziko scribbles furiously in his notebook, as he tries to remember where he has seen Grey before. But he is hailed as a hero when he chases away dimwitted wolves Skinny (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and Hobbler (Lex Lang) and returns from a close encounter with Mami's guitar-playing friend Baron (Jim Cummings) to find a surprise party being thrown in his honour.

Meanwhile, Ragear has taken control of the wolf pack after pushing Magra off a ledge. Moreover, he has grabbed Shia from the meadow and Grey and Moz set out to rescue him before he is roasted to celebrate Ragear's elevation. Realising Skinny is on guard duty, Grey outfoxes him and lets Moz take the credit for saving Shia, even though he had knocked himself out. This earns him a kiss of gratitude from Lyra, but their happiness only makes Grey miss Bianca and he is tormented by the sight of several creatures in amorous pairs. When he bumps into Bianca beneath their trysting tree, however, she is amazed by his transformation and urges him to run away before Ragear slaughters him. But he has bigger plans and whips the rest of the pack into a frenzy when he accuses the sheep of being a threat to their peaceful existence.

Ragear is not the only rabblerouser, however, as Ziko had caught Grey and Bianca together and he returns to warn the flock that their saviour is really a traitor. Angry with them for behaving like sheep, Grey gives them all a piece of his mind before storming out of the village. He starts to hallucinate and passes out in the meadow, where he is found by Mami, who takes him back to her caravan. She tells him that he drank too much potion for the spell to be reversed by chemical means. However, she also reveals that miracles can be granted at dawn and that he can change back to his old self. But she also lets slip that Ragear plans to wipe out the flock and Grey heads back to the pen to convince the sheep that he is their friend and that they can resist the attack if they make unity their strength.

A night of frenzied activity follows and the flock is ready to withstand the lupine charge. Ragear urges his troops forward, only for them to be peppered with sticky sweets that stick to their fur and make them an irresistible target for the bees dropped from hives by Cliff and his feathered friends. Undaunted, Ragear bursts through the defences and beckons the wolves into finishing the job. But Grey and Ziko have hit upon the clever idea of leading their foes into a network of caves and then sealing the entrances and exits with boulders. Everyone celebrates their triumph until Grey realises that the caves are flooding and that the wolves will drown.

Ignoring Ziko's exhortations not to free them, the sheep push the stone away and the water surges out of the cave's mouth. Seizing his moment, Ragear grabs Shia to force the sheep into surrendering. But Bianca has found Mami and tosses a vial of potion to turn Grey back into a wolf. Initially, the magic doesn't seem to work, as Ragear hurls his rival into a pile of rocks. However, Grey finds new strength and bounds back as his old self to toss Ragear into the raging waterfall. Now a hero to sheep and wolves alike, Grey proposes to Bianca and everyone dances together at their wedding, with Moz even summoning the courage to kiss Lyra.

Political commentators would have a field day analysing a film in which a wolf in sheep's clothing gains the trust of his adopted species and arms them to defend themselves against feared outsiders. While grown-ups will have fun spotting these Putinesque subtexts, however, junior viewers should be carried along by the energetic storytelling and the colourful imagery, There are longueurs along the way and there's nothing special about the artwork. It's also astonishing that the film-makers saw nothing wrong with teaching children to drink from exotic bottles. But, while subtlety is at a premium, this is no worse than Ash Brannon's Rock Dog (2016), which it closely resembles in its rustic sequences.