The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (NC16, 130 minutes, available on Netflix)

3 stars

About an hour into the movie, you may be inclined to think that this could have been a radio play or drama podcast. Not only does it have reams of dialogue - a speciality of director-writer Aaron Sorkin - there are also scenes that exist so characters get to make speeches and score debating points.

In this courtroom drama based on real events, Sorkin the screenwriter treats words as action cinema while Sorkin the director gives him plenty of space in which to indulge. He scoffs at the idea of using action or visuals to tell the story. The words, however, crackle with his usual energy.

The brilliant court drama A Few Good Men (1992) was Sorkin's entry into Hollywood as a writer, a feat that was followed up by award winners such as the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg biopic The Social Network (2010) and sports drama Moneyball (2011). He did not direct these early works, however.

In Chicago 7, his second go at feature directing after the so-so biography Molly's Game (2017), he is in his element choreographing a dream team of argumentative characters, each representing a slice of the political spectrum.

Among those on trial for inciting the 1968 riots is Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), a wool vest-wearing moderate who believes respectability, not radicalism, is the way forward for the American left. On the other end sit Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), sneering longhairs whose courtroom antics drive the peevish judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) mad with fury.

Sorkin has a boomer's nostalgia for a time when his nation had clean fault lines between the young and old, and between those who opposed the war in Vietnam and those who supported it.

More evident is his faith in how the American system is self-correcting. When seven civilians are put on trial, blamed for the brutal actions of the police, he thinks exoneration is inevitable.

But is it? Post-1968, looking back at decades of foreign wars, mass shootings and the power of law enforcement officers to act with impunity, Sorkin's trust at best feels quaint and at worst, misguided.

Nobody (NC16, 92 minutes, opens April 22)

4 stars

Stars take on vanity projects to show their range. They do drastic things, such as lose or gain a lot of weight, shave their eyebrows or learn Aramaic or some other lost language.

Bob Odenkirk is a weedy middle-aged actor known for comedy. He is best known for his sleazy lawyer character of Saul Goodman, also known as Jimmy McGill, in the award-winning thriller series Breaking Bad (2009 to 2014) and Better Call Saul (2015 to present).

He decided that his vanity project would be a martial arts movie. You might scoff, but note that he and Tom Cruise are the same age - 58.

Clearly, Odenkirk is exploiting the Hollywood loophole that lets ageing actors stay lambs while actresses become mutton past 40.

In Nobody, he is very likeable and relatable as accountant Hutch - a bullied and meek nobody of the title who reveals another far deadlier identity after a chance encounter with the Russian mafia.

The plot comes courtesy of Derek Kolstad. He wrote the John Wick (2014 to 2019) action franchise, whose leading man Keanu Reeves is now 56. Kolstad knows he is on to a winning formula when so ideas from John Wick are everywhere in Nobody.

One difference: There is no fantasy element. Hutch's world is middle-class and suburban.

Director Ilya Naishuller, who helmed the viral video-turned action movie Hardcore Henry (2015), puts a focus on hard, bloody action, mostly done with unarmed combat and knives. Guns are saved for the finale.

The hits are sometimes exaggerated for comic effect, but the fights are realistic. Hutch is a skilled brawler rather than a slick martial artist on the level of Wick or, say, the title character (played by Charlize Theron) of another film it resembles, Atomic Blonde (2017).

In a nod to 67-year-old Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, one fight takes place in a city bus, with Hutch using a variety of everyday objects as weapons.

Naishuller and Odenkirk are on to something with the title character, an anonymous dad with deadly hands. It will not be surprising to see him do his taxes, mow the lawn and wipe out an army of thugs - in that order.

All U Need Is Love (PG13, 95 minutes, opens April 22)

Not reviewed

This Mandarin drama has an array of stars - among them Louis Koo, Julian Cheung, Jackie Chan, Candice Yu and Fiona Sit - who play guests and staff members of a hotel in which a Covid-19 outbreak occurs, causing authorities to enforce a quarantine.

In Hong Kong, the film is a benefit project for film industry workers affected by the pandemic.

Late Shift (NC16, up to 97 minutes, opens April 22)

Not reviewed

Billed as "the world's first truly interactive movie experience", this thriller lets audiences use a phone app to choose the direction the story takes.

The plot starts with a student forced to rob a London auction house, after which the audience choices take over.