Out this week, Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge fared surprisingly well in Tuesday’s Academy Award nominations, picking up a total of six nods. This high-octane wartime drama suffers from a penchant for syrupy sentimentality, but there’s no denying the raw power and technical accomplishment of its spectacular climactic battle sequences. Pablo Larraín’s Jackie plunges the viewer straight into the chaos of JFK’s assassination, and builds a startlingly visceral portrait of his grieving widow. The Oscar nominations it picked up for Natalie Portman’s mesmerising central turn, Mica Levi’s unsettling score, and Madeline Fontaine’s exquisite costume design are all thoroughly deserved. If you’re hankering for something a little more leftfield, Ma Loute (Die feine Gesellschaft) is a gleefully absurd skewering of period drama tropes from French auteur Bruno Dumont. Whatever you watch this week, just make sure you resist the temptation to check out the latest by the once-great Wim Wenders. Les Beaux Jours d`Aranjuez is an utterly interminable stage adaptation that plays out almost like a parody of art film pretentiousness.
