FIRST TRAILER: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Emily Blunt continues her slow, quiet, inevitable world domination by securing her first, belated Oscar nomination for The Girl on the Train. Not that it's already happened, rather that it definitely will happen. The adaptation of Paula Hawkins' popular crime novel aims to capitalise on the financial success of David Fincher's Gone Girl two years ago; unlike that film, however, the directorial talents of The Help's Tate Taylor aren't quite up to the same high standard. Still, pulpy thrillers like this are right up my street, so I'm looking forward to this one. Out in the UK and the US alike on the 7th of October, aka the Gone Girl slot...

REVIEW - HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT (KENT JONES)

When an old text, set for adaptation to the screen, has maintained its relevance, its vitality, its healthy stock of inspiration over the years since its creation, the temptation is often to produce a dry, straightforward adaptation. Not so with Hitchcock/Truffaut, a film already suffused with the history of cinema, and intent upon dwelling on that past only as tribute, and as its own source of inspiration for the future. A discussion between two of the all-time great filmmakers was enough for Francois Truffaut's book, and enough for today's filmmakers, who appear here in impressive number to proffer their interpretations of it. Their contributions are enough for director Kent Jones, when added to the material from the book, thereby securing the theory established by Truffaut and his brethren that Alfred Hitchcock's mastery was unrivalled, his influence undying. Hitchcock/Truffaut the film is thus immensely engrossing, expounding upon the technique of the former director in a level of detail that the book could never hope to achieve (and with yet further analysis, courtesy of informed voices like Olivier Assayas, David Fincher and Kurosawa Kiyoshi), and too upon the technique of the latter. Jones appreciates both the essentiality of his source text and the inadequacy of it through a dry, straightforward adaptation - in commenting upon both its contents and its creation, he creates his own text for tomorrow's crop of cinephiles. Not only enlightening, Hitchcock/Truffaut is also most entertaining, as editor Rachel Reichman selects the choicest cuts from Hitchcock's back catalogue, shaping a new work out of old ones, both for analytical and pleasurable purposes. This year, Hitchcock/Truffaut turns 50; here's to 50 years from now, and the ever-enduring legacy of true genius.

REVIEW - SOLACE (AFONSO POYART)

This run-of-the-mill cop thriller has all of the whats and the hows, and none of the whys. It tells us that the killer did it, naturally, but it can't tell us why the killer did it, despite numerous scenes of expository pseudo-psychoanalysis from one character about another (or about themselves). It tells us that there's a paranormal angle to this case, but it can't tell us why, nor even what gargantuan suspension of disbelief is required in order to excuse this, at least as long as the film can be bothered acknowledging it. It tells us that it exists, but alas, Solace can't tell us why it exists, nor why we ought to care. Its origins as a sequel to David Fincher's Se7en show through in its basic design, though not in Afonso Poyart's dreadfully simplistic direction. His stylistic affectations come off as accidental lurches, like moments where the executives fell asleep and failed to pick up on the pretensions they had excised everywhere else. It's all fairly beige until the woman in red multiplies and strips naked, or until the pre-teen kid is autopsied and his brain is sliced open. But even that's easier to stomach in this context than the very existence of Solace in the context of the American film industry. More whys: Why does Colin Farrell appear about two thirds of the way through? Why did Abbie Cornish's career have to amount to this? Why did Anthony Hopkins even show up? Hopkins is just about Solace's saving grace, though I'll admit that run-of-the-mill cop thrillers like this are my soft spot, and I'll almost always give them a watch, if not a pass. Solace doesn't earn a pass. It was close enough, until it debased itself with a vile homophobic association that categorically ruled it out of receiving a pass from me. And you? You just ought to pass altogether.