FIGHTING (15)
STRUTTING down similar avenues to David Fincher's Fight Club, albeit without that film's biting wit and directorial pizzazz, Fighting is a no-holds-barred tale of one young man's introduction to the bare-knuckle brawl scene in present day New York City.
Writer-director Dito Montiel, who made an assured debut with A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, reunites with rising star Channing Tatum, who copes magnificently with the physical demands of his role.
Montiel unleashes a series of unflinchingly brutal brawls set to a thunderous soundtrack of R&B and hip-hop beats courtesy of Rick Ross, Robin Thicke, Amerie and Ghostman MC.
Competitors pile-drive one another's heads into marble floors and smash ribs to smithereens, accompanied by sickening sound effects that leave us wincing in our seats.
The Marquess of Queensberry rules hold no sway here: it's win at all costs even if that means your rival leaves the arena in a wooden casket.
STAR RATING: **
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (15)
WRITER Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind) assumes the directorial reins for this off-beat comedy about a beleaguered theatre director pushed to breaking point by the effort of realising his unconventional production of Death Of A Salesman.
Reality quickly fragments as painter Adele Cotard (Catherine Keener) calls a time out from her marriage to director Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and decides to head for Germany with their four-year-old daughter Olive (Sadie Goldstein) to give the relationship a little breathing space. Caden falls under the spell of box-office vamp Hazel (Samantha Morton).
STAR RATING: **
