The Old Man And The Gun (PG13)
94 minutes / 3.5 stars
Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford) is in his 70s, but is in no hurry to slow down his bank-robbing career. Police detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck) is intrigued by Tucker's confidence and takes a personal stake in the case. Tucker meets Jewel (Sissy Spacek) and tries to woo her without revealing his double life.
This is the film that Redford has picked to close his career, and it is a fitting one. Tucker is a senior whose bank robbing job requires him to pretend to be someone else to win the trust of his target. And, very much like an actor, Tucker's skill in maintaining a front is crucial to the success of the enterprise. It is easy to think of this picture as a latter-day postscript to Redford's 1969 classic, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.
Capernaum (NC16)
123 minutes
This Lebanese drama picked up the Jury Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. After its premiere there, it reportedly won a 15-minute standing ovation.
The story is seen from the point of view of a boy, Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) - a Syrian refugee in Lebanon and a child who has taken his parents to court to sue them for giving him life. He has been born into unimaginable hardship and wants his parents punished.
Lebanese film-maker Nadine Labaki sees the work as giving voice to a generation born into war and poverty.
WHERE: GV Paya Lebar WHEN: Jan 25 and 26, 7 pm ADMISSION: $13.50 INFO:www.anticipatepictures.com
True Detective Season 3
Now showing on HBO and HBO Go / 4 stars
After the quality slump of Season 2, this drama about the lives of moody cops and their worst cases seems to have picked itself up, if the first two episodes are anything to go by.
Wayne Hayes (Mahershala Ali) is a black detective working in a nearly all-white Southern town, and dealing with the mistrust that follows. In a story spanning decades, Hayes has to discover truths about a case of child abduction and murder before everything is lost to his deepening dementia.
Ali's powerful performance is backed up by those of Carmen Ejogo, who plays his wife Amelia, and Stephen Dorff , who ishis partner Roland.
