Belfast Cert: 12A, 1hr 38mins
Rating: 
Nightmare Alley Cert: 15, 2hrs 30mins
Rating: 
A Journal For Jordan Cert: 12A, 2hrs 11mins
Rating: 
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road Cert: 12A, 1hr 33mins
Rating: 
I have known that Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast for almost as long as I’ve known there was a Kenneth Branagh at all but, somehow, I’ve never quite believed it.
It just didn’t seem possible that one of the greatest Shakespearian actors of his generation and modest owner of such a mellifluous, beautifully modulated speaking voice could ever have been a wee Belfast boy with an Ulster brogue.
Belfast – clearly a labour of very personal love for Branagh – is the film that puts me right and it does so quite brilliantly.
As Loyalist thugs arrive to force out Catholic neighbours, Ma and Pa must decide what’s best for their sons, especially the curious and precociously articulate Buddy (Jude Hill, above)
Immensely moving at times, properly chilling at others (not surprising, given its late 1960s setting just as The Troubles get under way) it’s also sweet, charming and funny too. If you can get through it without shedding a quiet tear… well, I’ll be surprised and disappointed.
Branagh’s screenplay is his original. He depicts an imaginaryized version of 1969, when his family moved to England.
As Loyalist thugs arrive to force out Catholic neighbours they’ve lived happily next door to for years, Ma (Caitriona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan) must decide what’s best for their two sons, especially the youngest, the curious and precociously articulate Buddy (Jude Hill).
Ah, that’ll be Ken, I think we can safely assume.
Branagh’s screenplay is his original. He depicts an imagined version of the frightening and difficult months that were 1969. Above: Caitriona balfe plays Ma
With echoes of Alfonso Cuarón’s similarly personal Roma, Branagh shoots the past in beautiful black and white.
But, exquisitely, he picks out the things that will offer him his own means of escape – visits to the cinema and theatre – in glorious, life-shaping colour.
Watch out for Buddy, a young boy, sitting at the curbside reading Thor’s Marvel comic. Branagh would then direct the film version 40 years later.
The production design of this film is just as powerful as its violent setting for anyone who grew-up around it. This is a film full of ‘Oh, I remember that’ moments. But, like everything Branagh is involved with, it’s made by its performances.
Yes, Judi Dench is in it – she’s in virtually everything he does – but for once, as Granny, she plays second fiddle.
Jamie Dornan (above), is perfect as Buddy’s dad. He was already traveling to England to work, and will now have to confront Loyalist Gangs on weekends.
Young Jude is a fresh-faced joy as Buddy (we’ve surely all known little boys like that) while Jamie Dornan is spot on as his father, already forced to travel to England for work and now having to face down Loyalist gangs when he returns for the weekends.
But the stand-out performances belong to Ciarán Hinds, who steals every scene he is in as Buddy’s Pop, and to the beautiful Balfe as Ma. Her path to winning awards is clear.
Cate Blanchett has already picked up a Screen Actors Guild nomination for her performance as a scheming psychologist in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley but it’s difficult to see exactly why.
Her performances will be better than these, and del Toro’s films will likely have better acting. Like everything he does it looks fabulous and fantastical but it doesn’t really grip.
That’s partly because the story has a decidedly unsympathetic central character, played here by Bradley Cooper, and partly because this is a disjointed picture of two separate halves.
In the first, Stanton Carlisle (Cooper) is seen running from evil in the shadowy atmosphere of a carnival. He is learning mind-reading tricks and is escaping to safety.
The second, which involves del Toro turning on the classic ‘film noir’ style so strongly even Citizen Kane comes to mind, sees Carlisle going after much bigger prizes. It took a long time.
Denzel Washington directed the film, A Journal For Jordan – the story of an ambitious American journalist (Chanté Adams) falling in love with a career soldier (Michael B. Jordan) in the late 1990s is ponderous, poorly written and springs no surprises at all.
There is so much more to be uplifting. Brian Wilson: Long Promised RoadThe documentary, which may make the former Beach Boy a more comfortable ride (he also co-produces), but nevertheless manages to reveal his true musical talent and is the perfect companion for the 2014 dramatisation, Love And Mercy.
All good vibrations.