Film reviews: Le Havre | This Must Be The Place | Cat in Paris | Bonsai

Published on 01/04/2012 00:00

A roundup of the latest film releases

Le Havre (PG)

Rating: ****

A young African refugee (Blondin Miguel) escapes from a container on a ship docked in the French port town of Le Havre and receives unlikely protection from shoeshine man Marcel (Andre Wilms) and his neighbours. Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki fashions a droll, engaging fairytale, with echoes of Casablanca in its colourful, close-knit Normandaise resistance and even a wry, ambiguous police inspector (Jean-Pierre Darroussin).

Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday

This Must Be The Place (15)

Rating: ***

Sean Penn may seem an odd choice to play Cheyenne, an ageing goth rocker very loosely based on the Cure’s frontman Robert Smith. But then everything in Paolo Sorrentino’s shaggy story seems unlikely, from Cheyenne’s downtime, hanging out in an Irish mall near the sprawling mansion he shares with his firefighter wife (Frances McDormand), to his road trip across America in search of his father’s old tormentor, a Nazi war criminal. Along the way he takes in a Talking Heads gig (and gets a pep talk from David Byrne) and meets the man who patented wheeled luggage (Harry Dean Stanton). It’s an intriguing patchwork of a picture, with all the direction of a wonky-wheeled suitcase.

On general release from Friday

Cat in Paris (U)

Rating: ***

Oscar-nominated French animation about a beloved pet who helps out a cat burglar. It’s a slight story but delicately drawn with a feline, jazzy score.

On general release from Friday

Bonsai (15)

Rating: ***

Bittersweet Chilean story of Julio (Diego Noguera) and two romances, eight years apart. One is a passionate youthful affair, the second a pragmatic bunk-up with an accommodating neighbour. Like a bonsai, Julio is a stunted developer, and this film is a bit of a miniature curio but also pleasantly odd, funny and warm.

Edinburgh Filmhouse and Glasgow Film Theatre from Friday; Belmont Aberdeen and Cameo Edinburgh both on 24 April (for one day only)