MOVIES: Top movies to kickstart 2020

YOU’LL find it hard to pick a bad movie at the cinema this week. 

With two absolute crackers, ‘1917’ and ‘JoJo Rabbit’, still playing, and a host of solid new releases that once had distant Oscar ambitions, this is the best time of the year to catch a flick or two.  

‘Seberg’ stars the always on-point Kristen Stewart in a biopic of American actress Jean Seberg, famous for her turn in the 1960s French classic, ‘Breathless’. 

Seberg was a supporter of the civil rights struggle and became romantically involved with one of its black leaders, something the FBI took exception to. 

This is a well-directed, well-acted offering that looks great, and will keep you hooked throughout. We award it a review score of four breathless stars.   

Almost every film out of the States these days has something to do with race relations, and two more releases continue this trend. 

‘Just Mercy’ stars Michael B. Jordan as a lawyer defending his client, played by Jamie Fox, a seemingly innocent black man who ends up on death row. This riveting true story will keep you on the edge of your seat and is more than worth the ticket price. 

‘Waves’ is a reflective and hard-hitting look at a Florida based black family who come under pressure when their son goes off the rails. 

His downward spiral causes ripples throughout the household and especially affects his sister. This is a powerful drama, superbly acted, and not for the faint-hearted. 

‘Bombshell’ stars Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in a “based on real life” telling of the sex scandal that brought down the man in charge of Fox News. While the story may resonate better in the States, the theme is universal and the acting is top drawer. 

And finally for indie fans, ‘A Hidden Life’ sees acclaimed director Terence Malick offer another real life story of an Austrian farmer who refuses to fight for the Nazis during WWII. 

It’s three hours long, and includes lots of people standing in fields thinking, but if that’s your bag, you’ll have a blast. 

Paul O’Rourke