Film reviews: Carancho (15), Michael (18), Wanderlust (15), Khodorkovsky (12A)

Published on 26/02/2012 12:00

Carancho (15)

****

In this grimly satisfying noir, a corrupt ambulance-chasing lawyer (Ricardo Darin) falls for a beautiful doctor (Martina Gusman) who works in the casualty department where he picks up most of his clients. There’s no shortage of customers for both of them because, startlingly, Argentina ratchets up 8,000 fatal road accidents a year.

Glasgow Film Theatre, Dundee Contemporary Arts and Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from Friday

Michael (18)

***

A mild-mannered Austrian paedophile imprisons a ten-year-old boy in his basement in Markus Schleinzer’s chilly drama. There are echoes here of the abduction and eight-year confinement of Natascha Kampusch: by day Michael (Michael Fuith) is a thirtysomething insurance clerk; at night he goes home for dinner and watches TV with his young captive. Explicit scenes are brief but the film fails to make a distinction between dispassionate filmmaking and lack of concern.

Glasgow Film Theatre from Friday; Dundee Contemporary Arts from 9 March; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from 16 March

Wanderlust (15)

***

Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd are jobless and disillusioned by the rat race when they stumble across a commune and decide to sign up for an alternative lifestyle. Free love, at least one nudist, and an alarming lack of privacy are amongst the predictable plot points in this strained comedy.

On general release from Friday

Khodorkovsky (12A)

**

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once the wealthiest of Russia’s oligarchs but is now serving 14 years in a Siberian prison. German filmmaker Cyril Tuschi suggests his real crime was threatening Vladimir Putin’s powerbase, but an interview with Khodorkovsky, vox pops with ordinary Russians and some weird animation fail to secure contributions of great significance, let alone clarify basic issues of guilt or innocence.

Filmhouse. Edinburgh, Friday and Saturday