Wendy Ide’s pick of other films: Elio, Red Path, Rust and more

Elio

(98 mins, PG) Directed by Adrian Molina, Domee Shi, Madeline Sharafian; starring Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Brad Garrett

Pixar, at its very best, delivers the full package. Its most successful pictures represent the old standard in studio animation because they cover all bases: the stunning design and immersive, obsessively detailed worlds; the cutting-edge animation; a genuinely fresh and original story; top-tier voice talent; heart and humour. Meanwhile, mid-level Pixar – and the perfectly pleasant but unexceptional Elio fits this category squarely – ticks at least some of the genius boxes but misses out on a few crucial ingredients.

Elio is the story of the eponymous space-obsessed orphan (Yonas Kibreab) whose dreams come true when he is abducted by aliens, only to discover that he has been mistaken for the leader of planet Earth. What’s more, he finds himself volunteering to negotiate a peace deal with a war-like species of armour-plated space slugs.

It looks rather lovely (I preferred the more muted tone of the earthbound scenes to the zingy sensory overload of sequences set in the “Communiverse” – a kind of inter-galactic United Nations). But the story is essentially familiar: it boils down to the same mismatched buddy/loner-kid-finds-unconventional-friendship narrative that was already thoroughly mined in 2021’s Luca.

There’s plenty of heart here, particularly in an emotion-bludgeoning opening that shows the newly bereaved little boy and the spark that ignites his passion for space (brace yourself for the close-up of a single tear rolling down his cheek as he gazes, awestruck, at the stars). But there’s less in the way of humour: the astringent sting and needle-sharp perceptiveness of, say, Inside Out or The Incredibles is missing. Still, it’s a marked improvement on the recent quality lull of Elemental and the barely watchable Lightyear.

Red Path

(101 mins, 15) Directed by Lotfi Achour; starring Ali Helali, Yassine Samouni, Wided Dabebi

Fourteen-year-old Achraf (Ali Helali) and his older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni) may have quit school to step into the family business (they herd goats in Tunisia’s Mghila Mountain region), but both still have one foot in boyhood. They banter and tease, they goof around in the crisp waters of a hill stream. Then a violent encounter with the jihadists who have claimed the area as their territory abruptly ends childhood for both boys. Nizar is murdered there and then on a mountain. And Achraf – bleeding, traumatised, his eyes blank with fear – is instructed to deliver his cousin’s head back to his family.

This brooding, bleak second feature from Lotfi Achour (his first, Burning Hope, was a moderate success on the festival circuit) is all the more harrowing when you learn that it was based on a real event – the killing of 17-year-old Mabrouk Soltani in 2015. It’s the aftermath of the murder, seen largely through shell-shocked Achraf’s eyes, that makes up the main body of the film. A grimly compelling drama which is carried by a mercurial and expressive performance from acting newcomer Helali.

The Last Journey

(95 mins, PG) Directed by Filip Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson; starring Filip Hammar, Lars Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson

Former schoolteacher Lars Hammar has lost his spark. And in this heartfelt Swedish documentary, his son Filip sets out to reignite it. Filip, who co-directed the film with his friend and colleague Fredrik Wikingsson (also in the movie)attempts to recreate some of Lars’s happiest moments, embarking on a road trip to the south of France and even buying a rattling crate of a vintage Renault 4 for nostalgic authenticity. But he has underestimated his elderly father’s frailty and resulting fear.

A record-breaking hit in Sweden – it’s the most successful documentary in the country’s history and was the Swedish submission to the Oscars last year – The Last Journey is a gentle, bittersweet portrait of a father and son, who are both striving to reclaim a mirage-like moment from the past. The film’s appeal in Sweden may have something to do with the celebrity of Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson, a television double act whose robust repartee wears a little thin for non-Swedish speakers.

Holloway

(86 mins, 12A) Directed by Daisy-May Hudson, Sophie Compton

Shortly before the demolition of Holloway women’s prison, six former inmates returned to the empty building for a five-day “trauma-informed” therapy circle within its flaking walls. This film, co-directed by Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson (whose excellent first feature, Lollipop, is currently on release), is an empathetic and respectful account of the process. With some similarities to the American film The Work, about the inmates of Folsom Prison, this is a bruisingly honest documentary that discovers that, though the building is no longer a functioning prison, it has lost none of its emblematic power and significance for these six women. Common threads of chaotic childhoods, abuse, broken homes and substance issues link the women. But most striking is the recurring theme of failure on the part of the authorities charged with protecting the most vulnerable people in society.

Rust

(140 mins, 15) Directed by Joel Souza; starring Alec Baldwin, Josh Hopkins, Patrick Scott McDermott

This western is notorious for being the production on which the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died by accidental shooting after a prop gun was mistakenly loaded with live ammunition. It’s a weighty legacy for any picture to carry.

While this sober tale of Lucas (Patrick Scott McDermott), a 13-year-old boy on the run with his estranged outlaw grandfather Harland (Baldwin), is a handsome, if somewhat generic frontier adventure, the fetishisation of firearms – as much a part of the western genre as horses, hats and sweeping vistas – feels jarringly inappropriate given the circumstances.

Photographs provided by Disney; Universal Picture; Artistes Producteurs Associés; AP