Suburbicon (2017)

The interesting part in George Clooney's sixth directorial effort, a black comedy based on a Coen Brothers' screenplay, is the desegregation happening in Suburbicon, a fictional suburb of the sort that popped up and spread, uniform and white, across the US in the 50s, but the moving in of the African-American Mayers family at the end of the decade and the ugly reaction of the locals (a situation apparently inspired by the experiences of a real-life 'Myers' family in Levittown, Pennsylvania) is just a broad context of questionable relevance to the Fargo nonsense of the plot - suburbanites get in over their heads in grubby crime - which reduces the more interesting context to just a hubbub that only serves to disguise a gunshot at one point late in the - yawn - story.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Ex Machina (2014)

In this effective psychological thriller, IT company CEO Nathan Bateman summons employee Caleb to a remote hi-tech facility to conduct a Turing test with Ava (a robot he's fashioned after a young woman) that he thinks might finally be an example of true artificial intelligence, so over seven days, Caleb interacts with Ava and is pitted against his exceedingly annoying alcoholic boss in discussions about A.I., philosophy, logic and morality.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Sucker Punch (2011)

Imprisoned girls in fishnets, stilettos and laced bodices are repeatedly forced to perform a cabaret dance soooo unspeakable it becomes necessary for them to dissociate, disappearing into what Zach Snyder probably imagines are empowering feminist dreamscapes - Bjork music video sequences in which the girls wear fishnets, stilettos and laced bodices and annihilate CGI monsters with ninja skills that back in the real world must be some really good twerking or something.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

The Two Faces of January (2014)

This hugely enjoyable, old school suspense drama about a tour guide in Greece who becomes embroiled in the lives of an American couple, is based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith and as is her wont, centres on the power struggle and criminality of the two men as the trio traverse beautiful Greek and Turkish locations.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW