Movie picks

Movie picks

KILL YOUR DARLINGS (R21)

Spectacles become Daniel Radcliffe - nerdy, round ones especially.

The Harry Potter star is so mesmerising as budding poet Allen Ginsberg that it does not matter if you do not know anything about the Beat Generation.

He and the equally magnetic Dane DeHaan, who plays the charismatic and manipulative Lucien Carr, will keep you riveted to your seat.

Set in the 1940s, this biopic follows Ginsberg as a wide-eyed and inexperienced freshman at Columbia University, getting drawn into a world of sexual realisation, drugs and literary revolution.

The story is much like a coming-of-age drama and a love story of sorts.

Ben Foster as William Burroughs and Jack Huston as Jack Kerouac also deliver, making you overlook the predictable plot.

3 DAYS TO KILL (PG13)

I used to be a big fan of McG, who directed Charlie's Angels.

I used to be an even bigger fan of Luc Besson, who directed The Fifth Element.

Both started out creating vivid, lively and fun pictures, but have ended up churning out generic stuff like 3 Days To Kill.

Written by Besson and helmed by McG, what we have here is basically a Liam Neeson movie without Liam Neeson.

Instead, we get Kevin Costner, who has been out of the spotlight.

He stars as a dying CIA agent who takes one last job to get the cancer medicine he needs.

He also spends a lot of time trying to win back his estranged wife (Connie Nielsen) and daughter (Hailee Steinfeld).

Predictable and rather dour, this flick could not end soon enough for me.

FILTH (R21)

This is a deeply unpleasant film about a deeply unpleasant man.

James McAvoy stars as Bruce Robertson, a cop at the end of his rope.

He is supposed to be solving a murder, but he's more interested in sabotaging his colleagues so as to secure a promotion for himself. He also befriends a wealthy nerd whose wife is getting prank calls.

Suffering from a mania fuelled by misery and narcotics, he is haunted by faces from his past, and suffers from nightmarish visions.

Filth is shot with a real sense of urgency, and is reasonably stylish. But ultimately it lacks humanity.

It is weird without being particularly smart, sort of a dumb guy take on a Guy Ritchie flick.

That said, McAvoy is as charismatic as ever, and a lot of fun to watch.


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