GOD'S CREATURES

 Anyone who thought "The Banshees of Inisherin", "The Quiet Girl" or even "An Irish Goodbye" were a flash in the pan that is Irish cinema, think again for now we have "God's Creatures", co-directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer from a story by Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly and Shane Crowley. Here is a film that aspires to be a Greek Tragedy by way of Donegal with its very own Oedipus and its very own Medea.

Brian, (Paul Mescal), is the errant son who returns home from Australia, seemingly with nothing to show for his time there, to the small fishing community he left and Aileen, (Emily Watson), is his doting mother. There are family tensions and secrets, both at home and abroad, and by the time the plot finally kicks in, (an accusation of rape), the film has darkened, both literally and metaphorically.

Aileen lies for her son but instantly regrets it. While clearly made from a feminist perspective, Davis and Holmer's film isn't afraid to tease its audience. Mescal is the very epitome of 'the broth of a boy' and yet there is a darkness to his charcter, too. Why, we ask ourselves, did he leave the village in the first place and why did he suddenly leave Australia and come home? These are questions that are never answered and it's left to us to fill in the blanks.

Both leads are superb. Watson remains one of the finest actresses of her generation and Mescal may yet turn out to be one of the best of his generation. It isn't an easy watch, often moving at a snail's pace and leaving as much out as it puts in and you won't come away from it on a high but it's a bold and intelligent picture and a credit to all concerned.

BERGMAN ISLAND

 The title hints at something gloomy or perhaps a documentary but then we know Mia Hansen-Love isn't inclined towards either documentaries or gloominess and this beautiful movie, filmed in English and set on the island where Bergman lived and worked, comes across as her love letter both to the place and the director. Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are the couple who go to "Bergman Island", (Faro), one summer for what might be described as a working holiday.

She's a writer who hopes that living and working in Bergman's home will influence her creativity and yet is afraid to sleep in the bed Bergman used in "Scenes from a Marriage" and who finds all the beauty around her depressing. He's a director of horror films, there to work on a new screenplay and because one of his films is being screened. Early on we feel this may be an anti-love story.

Of course, this is also Hansen-Love's movie about the movies in general as well as about Bergman. Our protagonists spend hours talking about and analysing the director who is like a ghost between them; he's everywhere and every waking moment seems to be about honoring the maestro. It's as if the island exists only as an extension of Bergman..

Then, about the half-way mark, Krieps starts to tell Roth the plot of a story she's writing and which she hopes will make a good film and we see this acted out. This film within the film is about a female film-maker, (Mia Wasikowska), who has made a film about her own life and loves and who has come to Faro for a wedding and is now rekindling that old passion with her former lover, (Anders Danielsen Lie), and with Abba on the soundtrack.

Unfortunately the two halves don't quite gel. Krieps' story with Wasikowska is rather trite and it takes a reversal back to the original story for the film to give us its final, glorious kick as the two films merge and some of the actors blend into their characters. It's a smart move and the least Bergman thing about the film, a triumph finally, not for the gloomy maestro, but for Hansen-Love.

CAUSEWAY.

 Terrific performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry raise this quiet, powerful character piece to an altogether higher plain than it might otherwise have reached without them. She's a former soldier trying to adjust to civilian life having returned from Afghanistan with a brain injury and he's the mechanic who becomes her friend.

"Causeway" isn't quite a two-character piece; there's fine work, too, from Jayne Houdyshell as a rehabilitation counsellor, Linda Emond as Lawrence's slighty flaky mother and Stephen McKinley Henderson as a neurosurgeon but it is Lawrence and Henry who carry the picture. Despite the downbeat and serious nature of the subject matter there are no big dramas on display. This is a picture of ordinary people living ordinary lives and it really is very engaging.

ARGENTINA, 1985.

 The best political thriller since "Z", the difference being that while "Z" was banned in Greece, (despite the fact that Greece itself wasn't mentioned as the country in question), Santiago Mitre's extraordinary film "Argentina, 1985" wasn't just filmed in Argentina but is also Argentina's entry for this year's Oscars.

It's a great film but there is nothing ostentatious about it unless you consider Ricardo Darin's closing arguments as the prosecutor tasked with bringing the Junta to justice, ostentatious. Like "Z" this is a film about one prosecutor standing up to his superiors so as not to make the required trial a show-trial that will lead to the defendent's acquittal. In his determination he wasn't entirely alone having recruited a team of young students and workers to help him as well as a 'deputy prosceutor' probably planted in his team because he came from a military family, (PeterLanzani, superb), a strategy that backfired on the powers-that-be since this young lawyer was very much on the prosecutor's side.

What really distinguishes this film, apart from the significance of the subject matter, is that Mitre never tries to blind us with technical flourishes. This is an old-fashioned courtroom picture that holds us in its vice-like grip simply from what is presented as evidence on the screen. It would be a worthy Oscar-winner in any year.

LIVING

 Kurosawa transformed Tolstoy's novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" into "Ikiru", the study of an elderly man dying of cancer in post-war Japan and in "Living" director Oliver Hermanus has transformed Kurosawa's version into the story of an elderly civil servant, (Bill Nighy), dying of cancer in 1950's London. While never really aspiring to reach the heights of Kurosawa's masterpiece, (often sited among the best films ever made), Hermanus has nevertheless created a deeply moving and surprisingly unsentimental film that, thanks to superb cinematography and design, actually looks like it might have been filmed in the period in which it's set.

While certainly different from the Kurosawa version it can't be considered a poor cousin with Kazuo Ishiguro's brilliant screenplay honoring the maestro at every turn and with Nighy turning in a career-best performance. In fact, there is nothing in the film with which I can find fault, (the entire supporting cast are superb). Of course, it could have been crushingly gloomy but Hermanus, Ishiguro and Nighy imbue it with the lightest of touches making the least likely of sceanarios plausible. Ultimately it may be a film about the death of a human being and yet I found it among the most life-affirming of films.

EMPIRE OF LIGHT

Anyone who goes to see "Empire of Light" expecting another cosy movie about the love of cinema, both the medium and the building, will be sadly disappointed since Sam Mendes' superb new movie is about so much more. Yes, it's a love letter to all aspects of 'cinema' but it's also about racism and mental illness, lonliness and our ability to connect and it works on all these levels.

The setting is an unnamed town on England's South Coast in the early 1980's and the Picture Palace in question, (the Dreamland Cinema in Margate standing in for the Empire), really is a Picture Palace of the old school, (well, the bits of it that are open to the public are, at least), and Hilary, (an Oscar-worthy Olivia Colman), is the unhappy, lonely and mentally challenged duty manager who has allowed herself to drift into a casual sexual relationship with her married boss, (Colin Firth), and who now finds herself drawn to a new young employee who happens to be black, (Michael Ward, excellent).

Today, even with the age difference between them, this wouldn't be thought of as a problem but this was the early '80's and the National Front were on the march and Mendes' 'romance' doesn't shy away from the racism directed at Ward's character or from Hilary's mental problems. But this isn't a glum picture. Gorgeously photographed by Roger Deakins it is indeed a love letter to the movies and if like me you don't go stir crazy over "Stir Crazy", the joys of "Being There" should draw you in. Beautifully written, (also by Mendes), directed and acted, (as another employee Tom Brooke is also outstanding), this moving and intelligent picture really shouldn't be missed.