Film releases: Mama | We are Northern Lights

Mama (15)

* * *

Two young sisters (Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelissekok), presumed dead, are found living alone in a cabin in the woods. Taken in by their uncle (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his unmaternal girlfriend (Jessica Chastain), it soon becomes obvious to everyone who has seen a horror movie that something feral has also been brought back from the wilderness.

On general release from Friday

We Are Northern Lights (PG)

* * *

Scots all over the country contribute to a patchwork of life experiences in this documentary. A mixture of the flip and serious, personal and political, it sometimes strains too hard to conjure up a feelgood nation of hikers, bikers, haggis eaters and banjo fans, with little mention of, say, religious and social rivalries. Still, it’s got some engaging and heartfelt moments.

Selected release: following yesterday’s Glasgow Film Festival premiere, the film tours regional cinemas across Scotland until the end of March

Song For Marion (PG)

* *

Terence Stamp plays a grump who reluctantly wheels his ailing wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) to take part in an OAP choir each week, while he has a fag outside. You can see the sentimental direction Paul Andrew Williams is taking from the first middle C, and the depiction of the singing senior citizens as eternally twinkly good-hearted idiots starts to get old, fast (“what’s a sound check?”). However, Stamp is terrific and affecting.

On general release from Friday

Beautiful Creatures (12A)

* *

This promising combination of Twilight’s cross-species love (this time it’s witches) and Footloose (in a town where Kurt Vonnegut is banned) fails to cast a spell. The star-crossed teens are a little dull, but as the adults fighting over their souls, Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson serve up enough ham to cause distribution problems in some parts of the Middle East.

On general release

Film releases: Mama | We are Northern Lights | Beautiful Creatures