What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Dheepan - Lyrical social realist refugee drama meets Rambo and Straw Dogs. It's exactly as jarring as that sounds.

I was glad Jacques Audiard (following up Rust & Bone and A Prophet) himself and a co-screenwriter were on hand for a Q&A after the screening, because it did help clarify what the film was aiming for in some respects. There's plenty to like in the moment, of course - there's some beautifully realised moments throughout, and plenty that's emotionally and intellectually engaging. A story of refugees adjusting to life in France couldn't feel any more timely than it does now (of Sri Lankan rather than Syrian origin here), and this is generally sensitively observed. But yeah, the quite unhinged clash of genres - the most obvious transition marked very literally by a character crossing a line within the film - is one that needs a bit of reflection afterwards. As the Cannes reaction showed the film has already and understandably divided viewers, particularly with regards to the aforementioned line crossing. I think it just about works, if without question a tad clunky now and then - the differing tones ultimately help Audiard both explore and artfully complicate the psychological makeup of the title character, and the challenging situations he - and his 'fake' family, especially his 'wife' who could accurately be described as the co-lead here - face.

Definitely an interesting film with a story that benefits greatly from being simple and accessible. Not everything works by any stretch of the imagination, but to be fair arthouse social realist action packed romantic thrillers are fairly thin on the ground so it hasn't much in the way of competition.

Not digging the unspoken but potent Drag Me to Hell hate on this thread recently...

I love it, think it's one of the most tonally pitch perfect horror/comedy films of recent times. It's gross without being particularly gory or repugnant. It's creepy but also hilarious. Alison Lohman is totally game, and that her character is a horrible person is a refreshing change from the bland innocents one often sees in the genre. And of course Raimi embraces his best Evil Dead instincts with super stylish filmmaking that is physically intensive and gleefully OTT.

A delightful antidote to typical mainstream horror fare, almost as if Raimi wanted to prove exactly the sort of creativity and cheekiness one could get away with while retaining a PG-13 rating.

Sunset Song - A film of three thirds. Let's call them acts for good measure. Act One is pretty good. Act Two is magical. Act Three is ho-hum.

It's in the hour in the middle that Terence Davies' passion project really sings. It has been building up until that point, but for a good long chunk there's this hypnotic lyricism to the film, offering drama and images full of meaning and beauty. It's a love story, but one where the emotions are complicated, a vague yet oddly powerful sense of melancholy and uncertainty clouding events. Some of the moments and shots are among the year's best. Davies fans are unlikely to be disappointed - it's his usual style but on a more lavish platform than usual.

The final third is therefore troubling and a bit confusing. There's hints of what's so special about the rest of the film, but the wartime melodrama that takes over is disappointingly trite. It's not only that it's familiar, but it feels like the clichéd plot takes over (the clichés semi-forgivable due to the age of the source material). There are far fewer moments of lyricism. There's a crude 180 degree turn in one character's personality, which they could have probably pulled off with even a touch more subtlety. A bizarre flashback near the end fails to gel with the style of the rest of the film (thankfully followed by a sequence where Davies manages to capture the essence of great war cinema in two shots, without a person to be seen). It just about pulls things together for a fittingly elegiac conclusion, but definitely the last half hour or so feels sluggish.

Uneven though parts of the film are, there is one saving grace throughout (well, beyond the often breathtaking compositions, and the care Davies has clearly put into choosing his locations and art design). Agyness Deyn is the perfect fit for lead character Chris Gutrie. The character is put through the wringer several times (and again for good measure), but Deyn captures her strength, intelligence and determination with total conviction. Not only can she handle both the quiet and loud moments, but she even loads the film's occasional voiceover with a sense of poetry and meaning not often heard in that most easily abused of narrative devices. After a few weeks of especially noteworthy performances by actresses, this might just be the most accomplished of the lot. When the filmmaking backs her up, it's beautiful stuff. But that it falls short in other respects is an unfortunate thing to say about a frequently extraordinary piece of work.