A cynical petty crook is inspired when he sees a freelance camera crew and decides to go into business filming crime scenes and accidents in NIGHTCRAWLER (15: Entertainment One).
He sells the footage to news broadcasters, but his determination to stay ahead of the competition leads him down a dark path as his methods become increasingly ruthless.
On the surface, this is a state-of-the-nation address that uses California – with its lurid early-morning news reports covering car crashes, homicides and shoot-outs – as the rest of the USA in microcosm.
Yet at its heart, this dark and entertaining drama is a fascinating character study, with a skinny Jake Gyllenhaal as its antihero, the smart, calculating and possibly sociopathic Louis Bloom.
A loner searching for work, Bloom invests in a camera and starts his own career as a video journalist when he sees the crew combing the streets of LA. He sells his wares to Nina (Rene Russo), manager of a local TV station, and as Bloom’s media empire takes off, ethics quickly fall by the wayside and Nightcrawler begins to reveal itself as a modern morality tale.
The nightmares that Bloom is selling are immaterial. What terrifies more is the cut-throat corporate culture that so willingly pays him – and pats him on the back.
> THE IMITATION GAME (12: Studio Canal), the biopic of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), the genius cryptographer who cracked the infamous Enigma code during the Second World War, is fascinating and thrilling.
His work translated seemingly unbreakable Nazi codes as well as pioneering the development of computer technology.
The film explores his methods, his clashes with colleagues and his homosexuality, which was illegal in Britain at the time and had much to do with the tragic end to his life. While the subject matter is potentially dry, particularly as much of the movie is set in a shed, it’s an absorbing journey throughout.
Cumberbatch delivers a career-best performance, betraying his character’s innermost feelings through delicate inflections. He also has fine sparring partners in Charles Dance, as Turing’s superior, and Keira Knightley, as his confidante and fiancée.
The Imitation Game keeps you gripped by always offering a reminder of what’s at stake, as well as exploring the mind of a brilliant but unfairly treated war hero who should never be forgotten.
> Comedy drama THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY (PG: Entertainment One) looks at racial differences in soft focus through the lens of director Lasse Hallström.
Helen Mirren holds her nose in the air as Madame Mallory, the snooty owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant in rural France who is very unhappy to catch a waft of curry when Papa (Om Puri) and his brood open for business across the road.
A game of one-upmanship ensues as each tries to get punters through their door. But when the prodigious culinary talent of Papa’s son Hassan (Manish Dayal) catches Madame’s attention, a bridge starts to be built between the two. There are few insights into what really makes these characters tick, but the always-good-value Puri, best known for East Is East, delivers some wry laughs and it really helps that Dayal is a likeable presence.
His slow-cooking romance with fellow gastronome Charlotte Le Bon is thrown in just to bulk up the stew, but even though the whole thing lacks depth, it is made with passion