Top Gun: Maverick review - Tom Cruise makes a thrilling return
This ‘absurdly’ entertaining sequel is an ‘edge-of-your-seat, fist-pumping spectacular’
This “disturbing and compelling” Norwegian film poses the question, “What would happen to little children if they suddenly developed superpowers?” Its answer, said Kevin Maher in The Times, is that they would “do very bad things” indeed. Set on a high-rise housing estate in Oslo over the course of a long, hot summer, The Innocents follows a group of “mildly neglected latchkey kids” who suddenly find they can do anything from “shamanistic spirit-jumping” to mind-reading. The most powerful of these “preteen demigods” turns out to be Ben (Sam Ashraf), a “dead-eyed tyke” who initially uses his new-found skills to fling rocks, but then deploys them to torture his own mother from afar, and hijack the bodies of susceptible adults, in order to use them to commit murder. The premise is of course fanciful, but with no “Marvel-style effects shots, laser lighting or bombastic orchestral cues”, this “chilling” film feels “more Ken Loach” than Doctor Strange.
“Any film driven by child performances is particularly dependent on quality casting,” said Wendy Ide in The Observer. “In this, the film is first-rate.” The four main actors are “utterly persuasive, even as they are wielding cast-iron frying pans with their minds”.
Director Eskil Vogt “never falls into the trap of explaining” how their superpowers have come about, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman, but instead focuses on the far more interesting “specifics of each kid’s individual home life”. Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw was turned into a film called The Innocents, and this one offers a “similarly creepy and psychologically nuanced portrait of the terrors of adolescence”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Band Aid 40: time to change the tune?
In the Spotlight Band Aid's massively popular 1984 hit raised around £8m for famine relief in Ethiopia and the charity has generated over £140m in total
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Starmer vs the farmers: who will win?
Today's Big Question As farmers and rural groups descend on Westminster to protest at tax changes, parallels have been drawn with the miners' strike 40 years ago
By The Week UK Published
-
How secure are royal palaces?
The Explainer Royal family's safety is back in the spotlight after the latest security breach at Windsor
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Ed Park's 6 favorite works about self reflection and human connection
Feature The Pulitzer Prize finalist recommends works by Jason Rekulak, Gillian Linden, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 fantastic homes in Columbus, Ohio
Feature Featuring a 1915 redbrick Victorian in German Village and a modern farmhouse in Woodland Park
By The Week Staff Published
-
Drawing the Italian Renaissance: a 'relentlessly impressive' exhibition
The Week Recommends Show at the King's Gallery features an 'enormous cache' of works by the likes of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael
By The Week UK Published
-
Niall Williams shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The Irish novelist chooses works by Charles Dickens, Seamus Heaney and Wendell Berry
By The Week UK Published
-
Patriot: Alexei Navalny's memoir is as 'compelling as it is painful'
The Week Recommends The anti-corruption campaigner's harrowing book was published posthumously after his death in a remote Arctic prison
By The Week UK Published
-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: a 'magical' show with 'an electrifying emotional charge'
The Week Recommends The 'vivacious' Fitzgerald adaptation has a 'shimmering, soaring' score
By The Week UK Published
-
Bird: Andrea Arnold's 'strange, beguiling and quietly moving' drama
The Week Recommends Barry Keoghan stars in 'fearless' film combining social and magical realism
By The Week UK Published
-
Kate Summerscale's 6 favorite true crime books about real murder cases
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Helen Garner, Gwen Adshead, and more
By The Week US Published