Shameless Self Expression

An alien craft lands in rural America, and hippy-ish childless couple Elizabeth Banks and David Denman adopt the human-looking ‘child’ found inside. It takes about 12 years for them to realise they’re no Ma and Pa Kent, and this ‘kid’ they’ve been raising at gonna be no Superman. Played by Jackson A. Dunn, he’s got superpowers alright, but he’s dark, creepy, violent, and has no intention of saving the world. In fact, he might just end up doing the opposite. A lot of people got strangely “Kick-Ass” morally offended on this one for reasons I can’t quite figure out now I’ve seen this 2019 anti-superhero flick. Directed by David Yarovesky (who mostly comes from a short background) and scripted by cousins Brian and Mark Gunn (The fabulous sounding “Bring it On: Again” ), it all seems much ado about nothing. I didn’t outright reject the idea of an anti-superhero film, nor one with a youngster in that role, though I did worry the film would end up more “Omen” clone than anti-super

Long-serving Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) was there in 1963 when Kennedy was shot, and hasn’t ever quite shaken the sense of failure in all the years since. Out of the blue, he starts getting calls from a would-be assassin who goes by the moniker Booth (John Malkovich), who claims he’s going to assassinate the current President unless Frank can stop him. Frank’s a lot older now obviously, and has a hard time convincing people he should be on Presidential security detail. However, his communications with Booth ultimately see his boss Sam (John Mahoney) find reason to keep his long-time friend on the gig, despite strong opposition from arrogant head of Presidential detail Bill Watts (Gary Cole) and even the President’s Chief of Staff (Fred Dalton Thompson). So the game of cat-and-mouse is on. Rene Russo plays Secret Service agent Lilly Raines, Dylan McDermott is nervy Secret Service partner Al, whilst Patrika Darbo and veteran William G. Schilling (best known

Set in Ohio in 2045, Tye Sheridan (in his least compelling turn to date) is a young gamer who lives in a crappy part of the town. He gets to escape his existence somewhat through an avatar called Parzival as part of a hugely popular virtual reality multi-player RPG (role-playing game) called OASIS. It basically amounts to a computerised “Yogi’s Space Race” or “Wacky Races” . It’s how the lower socioeconomic class generally makes a living through OASIS’ prize rewards for gameplay. With the recent passing of OASIS’ Willy Wonka-esque co-creator (Mark Rylance), things are about to get interesting in OASIS. Rylance had no heirs, and thus set up a virtual treasure hunt for OASIS players where the ultimate prize is the multi-million dollar inheritance and the keys to the kingdom: Control of OASIS. Obviously Sheridan’s gonna want in on that, as does a skilled player so far only known through the avatar Art3mis (Olivia Cooke). Also taking an interest is Rylance’s former colleague Ben Mende

Richard Burton is Father Goddard, a humourless but reasonably decent teacher of Latin at a Catholic boarding school for boys, who gets on the wrong side of one of his students named Benjie (Dominic Guard). Although Father Goddard is quite fond of the student, Benjie has recently been heading off into the nearby woods to meet up with a laidback vagabond named Blakey (Billy Connolly), against Father Goddard’s wishes. Perhaps for a bit of a lark, Blakey suggests Benjie get back at Father Goddard by confessing a (fake) criminal activity to torture the religious man with the details, knowing that the seal of confessional prevents Father Goddard from doing a damn thing about it. And later he comes to confess another, even greater sinful act, horrifying Father Goddard even more. David Bradley plays nerdy, disabled student Arthur who tries to befriend the delinquent Benjie, whilst often earning the disapproval of Father Goddard. Brian Glover turns up briefly as a brutal copper who tries to