Film reviews: John Carter | A Man’s Story | Trishna | House of Tolerance

Other films screening this week...

John Carter (12A) ***

Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) combines live action and motion capture in this adventure fantasy based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. Taylor Kitsch plays the Civil War soldier abruptly transported to Mars, Willem Dafoe is a tusked praying mantis warrior and Lynn Collins is a bikini-wearing princess (tusk-free). Lavish and lengthy, it has the spectacle and spirit of a Saturday matinee movie but not its fleetness or fun.

On general release from Friday

A Man’s Story (15) ***

There’s no mistaking Ozwald Boateng’s suits, as immaculately good-looking and colourful as the British designer himself. For 12 years, filmmaker Varon Bonicos has trailed Boeteng’s triumphs in America and his failure to hold together his marriage to Russian model Gyunel.

Boateng is ebullient, assertive and adored by celebrities. In one matey exchange, the designer offers to make Prince Charles a suit, without “rude words” in the lining à la Alexander McQueen. There’s much to enjoy here, even if the documentary fails to unclothe the kind of striking fashionista insights that made The September Issue so compelling.

On selected release from Friday, including Glasgow Film Theatre, from 25 March

Trishna (15) ***

Freida Pinto plays a latterday Tess of the D’Urbervilles relocated by Michael Winterbottom to a modern Indian setting, where she’s a hotel worker who attracts Riz Ahmed’s wealthy playboy. It’s absorbing, but both leads are out of their depth when the film moves on to darker themes.

Glasgow Film Theatre from Friday, Dundee Contemporary Arts from 16 March

House Of Tolerance (18) ***

Sex work at a Paris brothel in 1900 is given a languorous, claustrophobic treatment by writer/director Bertrand Bonello. There’s plenty of flesh on display but the stories are far from erotic.

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from Friday