QuickTakes

The Painted veil
Directed: John Curran

Starring: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones (125 mins)

A PENETRATING and subtle adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s novel, which manages to successfully combine a strong-limbed narrative about marital frustration with a painstaking account of the British imperial presence in 1920s China.
Both Edward Norton and Naomi Watts grapple successfully more than most other non-Brits, it should be added with accent and period mannerisms, while pulling off genuinely affecting performances: Norton as introverted bacteriologist Walter Fane, and Watts as the brittle socialite who accompanies him as he takes up a government post in Shanghai.
Their difficult relationship provides the meat of the story, the horizons of which are considerably widened by the film-makers’ determination go deeply into the historical context as Fane forces his wife to travel up-country into the middle of a cholera epidemic as Kuomintang-inspired unrest is on the rise. One or two lines seem rather obviously designed to appeal to China’s contemporary sense of self-esteem but, that aside, this is faultless, powerful film-making.

Scott walker: 30 Century man
Directed: Stephen Kijak
Starring: Scott Walker, David Bowie, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn, Alison Goldfrapp (95mins)

A PAINFULLY reverent study of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s more outre characters, tracing Scott Walker’s journey from 1960s moptopper to control-freak avant-gardist.
There’s an undeniable rock-nerd edge here, as one talking head after another showers praise on the man; director Kijak compensates for limited visuals by commissioning lots of jazzy graphics.
Nothing, however, is nearly as weird as a clip of Walker performing Jacques Brel on The Frankie Howerd Show.

Next
Directed: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann (96 mins)

ANOTHER  lumpen thriller gouged out of a Philip K Dick story: this one experiments with the putatively brain-frying idea of a man who can see two minutes into the future.
Nicolas Cage, looking more than ever like a waxwork dipped in butterscotch, delivers his particular brand of single-expression robotics, while that talented performer Julianne Moore is completely wasted as a Fed in a flak jacket.
The days when Cage could hold together a large-scale action movie seem a long time ago.

The breed
Directed: Nick Mastandrea
Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Taryn Manning, Oliver Hudson
(87 mins)

A CHEAP and not especially cheerful attempt to wring chills out of the idea of a pack of unfriendly Alsatians menacing a cabinful of buff student types.
Despite the presence of Wes Craven as a producer, this is really a pretty unscary effort; the maestro must have been out taking his dog for a walk during the script conferences. The cast, led by Michelle Rodriguez, do their best in ropey circumstances; but even they find it hard to keep a straight face when the mutts steal their seaplane.

The puffy chair
Directed: Jay Duplass
Starring: Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins, Julie Fischer (85 mins)

AFTER Funny Ha Ha, another modest low-budget indie introducing more potential saviours of American cinema in the form of the Duplass brothers, who co-wrote and individually direct and act here.
On paper it looks they bought a make your own movie kit in Wal-Mart: it follows an aimless, uptight 20-something, his flaky girlfriend and his neo-hippie brother on a road trip to pick up a La-Z-Boy chair for their father. The Duplasses have a real feel for character: beyond the “dudes” and “likes”, the dialogue captures the awkwardness and frustration of young adulthood with loving accuracy. Promising stuff.

Typhoon
Directed: Kwak Kyung-taek
Starring: Jang Dong-kun, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Mi-yeon, David McInnis (124 mins)

IT looks like no expense has been spared on this Korean action movie that flits from Seoul to Bangkok to Vladivostok, cramming in big action scenes at every opportunity.
Aside from the obligatory North-South Korea angle, it’s a generic Bond/Mission Impossible knock-off, in which a tough Southern agent (Lee Jung-jae, looking like Korea’s answer to Daniel Craig) must defy a crazed North Korean pirate-cum-terrorist. The climax is as desperately overblown as anything Hollywood has ever concocted, involving a knife fight on a ship carrying a deadly nuclear cargo which has been torpedoed in a typhoon.