Film picks: Luca, Jaws re-release, Another Round

101 minutes, available on Disney+ from Friday ( June 18), 4 stars

This sweetly nostalgic story born of a film-maker's childhood memories takes familiar Pixar elements - a setting that blends fantasy with a down-to-earth suburban reality and the idea that leaving home is part of growing up - and turns them into a movie aimed at younger viewers. It should, however, still have plenty of appeal for older audiences.

Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is a scaly, shape-changing creature living in the waters off the Italian fishing town of Portorosso. His overprotective parents, Lorenzo (Jim Gaffigan) and Daniela (Maya Rudolph), want him to stay away from the surface, inhabited by humans who speak of Luca's people as beasts.

Luca meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a young sea creature like him. Alberto, however, scoffs at the tribe's taboos and ropes Luca into setting foot on land, where they magically take on the form of human boys. They embark on an adventure in Portorosso, aware that revealing their true nature could have terrible consequences.

Director Enrico Casarosa, a Pixar animator who made his mark with the Oscar-nominated short La Luna (2011, also available on Disney+), suffuses every frame of his feature debut with an aching remembrance of a lost age - when a Vespa scooter signified unlimited freedom and children played soccer on cobblestone streets.

124 minutes, now showing till June 23

The screenings of this classic thriller from 1975 are a collaboration between the Singapore Film Society (SFS), Golden Village cineplexes and film distributor Park Circus.

In addition to giving millions phobia about swimming in open waters, this shark-attack movie changed cinema history. It helped give birth to the summer blockbuster, a big-budget action thriller that is now a staple of the movie calendar.

It also made director Steven Spielberg a household name - quite an achievement considering that many of the artistic decisions during shooting were forced on him because of the bad ocean conditions and a malfunctioning mechanical shark. The shark glitches explain why the creature is not seen in full till the film's climax.

Where: GV Plaza, 07-01 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road; GV VivoCity, 02-30 VivoCity, 1 HarbourFront Walk; GV Suntec City, 03-373 Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard
When: Till June 23
Admission: Standard ticket rates. SFS Film Fam members get $5 off. Apply for membership at singaporefilmsociety.com/membership
Info: Click here

117 minutes, now showing, 4 stars

In this Danish drama-comedy and 2021's Oscar winner for Best International Feature, writer-director Thomas Vinterberg explores what happens when a group of men test the hypothesis that the slightly drunk person is more creative and confident than the sober one.

Martin (Mads Mikkelsen), a teacher, and his friends and colleagues Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen) and Nikolaj (Magnus Millang), among others, are men in a mid-life crisis.

After putting the alcohol-as-performance-enhancer idea to the test by sneaking sips every few hours at work, they conclude the hypothesis is correct.

Vinterberg makes the point about how alcohol offers a free pass for bad behaviour in Northern European culture, but only in specific social settings such as graduation parties.

Mikkelsen and the other actors deliver beautifully subtle performances as men living lives of quiet desperation, estranged from their wives and jobs.