Four new films to see this week

Love Lies Bleeding ★★★★☆

Directed by Rose Glass. Starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, Ed Harris. 16 cert, gen release, 104 min

Grubby, sexy, bloody slice of late-1980s noir as a sensitive young woman (Stewart), offshoot of a dysfunctional crime family in rural New Mexico, ends up deep in trouble when O’Brian’s steroidal body-builder saunters into town. One can scarcely imagine anyone else but Kristen Stewart making sense of the role. Like all the great noir actors, she has carved her own space — one accommodating a character who is inventive, open, but ultimately ruthless. The plot doesn’t always hold together, but the atmosphere of fetid unease is intoxicating throughout. Not for the timid. Full review DC

The Fall Guy ★★☆☆☆

Directed by David Leitch. Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, Winston Duke. 12A cert, gen release, 127 min

Who ordered a half-baked revival of a Lee Majors TV show? Anyone? If Crazy, Stupid Love taught us anything, it’s that even a mediocre movie can benefit from the charms of Ryan Gosling. Unhappily, there’s no saving this spittoon of bad ideas, tragically unfunny zingers, and green screen dreck. Watching Gosling as the titular stuntman-turned-bounty hunter in this hub of heel-dragging ineptitude is not unlike witnessing a precious artefact disappear into molten ick. Scientists at Cern don’t possess a precise enough instrument to register the nonexistent screen chemistry between Gosling and miscast Emily Blunt. No, no, no. Full review TB

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Blackbird, Blackbird, Blackberry ★★★★★

Directed by Elene Naveriani. Starring Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chinchinadze, Pikria Nikabadze, Anka Khurtsidze. Limited release, 110 min

Wry Georgian drama that rations its pleasures with great intelligence. Etero (Chavleishvili) is a 48-year-old woman living alone in a small village. Much to the snide amusement of her frilly local contemporaries, Etero has never wanted a husband, preferring blackberry-picking, cake and solitude. One fateful morning, distracted by the bright-beaked thrush of the title, she loses her footing and falls into a ravine. This near-death experience leads to an unexpected romance. Working from a novel by Georgian author Tamta Melashvili, Naveriani and cowriter Nikoloz Mdivani, have crafted a warm, witty, and wise film. Chavleishvili is a marvel. Full review TB

Unfrosted ★★☆☆☆

Directed by Jerry Seinfeld. Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Christian Slater. Netflix, 93 min

Unamusing romp on the development of the Pop Tart. Seinfeld plays an amalgam loosely based on real-life Kellogg’s employee William Post. Meeting a young runway in a diner, he delays him with a tale of how the pastry came into existence. This involves a great deal of terrible jokes, far too many of which rely on retrospective wisdom. There is a Godfather parody. Two cast members of Mad Men shame themselves in a recreation of that series. An overworked JFK gag ends tastelessly at the grassy knoll. And so on. Oh, well. Perhaps the best response to junk food is junk cinema. DC

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