PILLION****

I thoroughly enjoyed writer-director Harry Lighton's brave, bold and strangely heart-warming coming-of-age drama PILLION. Harry Melling, last seen as Call-Me Risley in Wolf Hall, stars as geeky, shy Colin, who lives in a bleak British town and sings in a barbershop quartet with his dad. As the movie begins, Colin meets the desperately handsome Ray (Alexander Skarsgard) and begins a relationship that is all about being subsmissive and not at all about genuine intimacy or romance. At first, Colin seems genuinely happy, adopted by Ray's biker friends and experiencing his first true physical fulfilment. But as the movie and Colin develop, we and he realise that he needs and deserves more. He asks Ray for a normal day-off where they can on a date, and as much as Ray is willing to give it a go, it's just not him.

What I love about PILLION, aside from its moments of genuine hilarity, is that it deals with a lot of serious stuff in what feels like a real and authentic way. I loved a scene where Ray goes for dinner with Colin's parents (Lesley Sharp and Douglas Hodge) and we see their concern for their son played back to them as bigotry. And I also loved the denouement. Without spoiling it, it's fascinating to see which of the characters is truly brave.  

PILLION has a running time of 107 minutes. It played Cannes, Telluride and London 2025. It was released in the USA last October and in the UK last November.

THE SALT PATH*

Theatre director Marianne Elliott has adapted Raynor Winn's best-selling but now controversial book about her and her husband's epic walk around the south-coast of England. Sadly I watched this after the controversy broke so I am not sure how far I was influenced by accusations that key elements of the biographical book were faked.  I hope I just watched the film on its own terms.  But boy this is a tedious film.

It opens with middle-aged husband and wife Raynor (Gillian Anderson) and Moth (Jason Isaacs) destitute, homeless and hiking around the pretty southern coast of England.  They both have regional accents, with Isaacs pulling his off better than Anderson.  They look rough, sun-burned and stressed. They have no money - are reduced to busking - and Moth has a degenerative illness. So the film starts in bleak dull tones and a reduced aspect ratio.  However, the apparently literally regenerative power of being one with nature and walking in beauty allows the film's colour scheme to become sunnier and the aspect ratio to widen. I cannot imagine a more on-the-nose directorial choice.  But I saw no real signs of enlightenment and I was not moved by the couple's plight. The pace was slow and nothing really happens beyond the odd stranger donating a pot of hot water or momentary stress at whether their kids are okay. Apparently there is some malarkey about being "salted" but I was unconvinced and unmoved. I also thought the landscape and seascape photography would be more impressive.

THE SALT PATH is rated 12, has a running time of 115 minutes and is on release in the UK. It played Toronto 2024.

ALICE, DARLING****

Actor Mary Nighy (MARIE ANTOINETTE) makes her feature debut with the beautifully observed, urgent drama ALICE DARLING.  The film, written by Alanna Francis, stars Anna Kendrick (PITCH PERFECT) as a woman trapped in a coercive control relationship. The problem is she's been making compromises and adjustments and catering to her partner's fragile ego for so long that she doesn't even realise she's being abused.  When we meet her, the normally ebullient smart Kendrick seems to small and quiet and numb it's a shock to audiences familiar with her presence.  

The good news for Alice is that she has two amazing friends, played by Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country) and Kaniehttio Horn.  They persuade Alice to join them on a special birthday weekend in the country, not realising that she lied to her partner to manage to get away. As the weekend unfolds they realise how controlling he is, and how lost their friend is, and miracle of miracles, they actually manage to get through to her too.  It's a wonderful and little seen testament to the power of female friendship.  Of course, in the real world we know that it takes abused women  many attempts to leave their abusers, so horrific is the damage done to their self-esteem and so claustrophobic the feelings of shame. As with TO LESLIE I found the ending a little.....American....and easy. But I loved the journey, the central performances, and the centring of the female experience of coercive control.  Mary Nighy may be a nepo baby but she is an assured director with a sensitive and authentic approach to difficult subject matter. Kudos.

ALICE DARLING is rated R and has a running time of 89 minutes. It played Toronto 2022 and is currently on release in cinemas and on the internet.