From the moment columnist Naomi Wolf compared Kathryn Bigelow (the first woman to win the Academy award for best director) to Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl (no, really), it was clear that Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Universal, 15) was never going to get a sensible hearing. Claims that this gripping account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden somehow justified or endorsed torture were fuelled by stories of CIA co-operation, stories that the intelligence agency promptly debunked in an attempt to distance itself from harrowing scenes of water-boarding, humiliation and worse.
Yet, as Bigelow and writer Mark Boal point out, if you watch the film (rather than read the hysterical press), you'll find no evidence that "harsh tactics" produce anything other than rotten results. Indeed, the great irony of ZDT's complex narrative is that the CIA is too busy putting the screws on detainees to realise that the information it seeks is already in its files, something the film's most vociferous critics have conveniently chosen to overlook.
For those who can see beyond the controversy, this is a typically well-executed and intelligent actioner from one of Hollywood's most visceral directors, a journey into the heart of post-9/11 darkness in which characters become numb, death becomes mundane and victory is never anything bu pyrrhic. Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Ehle are both terrific as the strong women at the centre of the drama for whom this is anything but a man's world. Since we all know how the story ends, it's a tribute to Bigelow that the final raid is such a nailbiter, boasting tension on a par with the most gruelling moments of The Hurt Locker. As for the politics, what recent film has stirred more debate about an issue that remains both worryingly contemporary and alarmingly unresolved?
There's a topicality, too, about Steven Spielberg's historical drama Lincoln (2012, Fox, 15), although neither the 16th president nor the abolition of slavery is the real heart of the drama. That honour falls to Thaddeus Stevens, the hardline radical who must learn to accept the compromises of realpolitik in the pursuit of a goal that is more important than dogma. In this pivotal role, the embattled face of Tommy Lee Jones has never seemed more craggy, nor better cast, providing an emotional point of entry for audiences who may otherwise have found this a somewhat dry history lesson.
As the titular leader, Daniel Day-Lewis (bagging his third Oscar) gives a monumental performance – in the sense that he often looks like a living monument, a statue brought to life. No wonder Sally Field's Mrs Lincoln seems so frustrated at dealing with an institution rather than a husband, albeit an institution with a fondness for telling stories, who appears on occasion to rule by anecdote. As for Spielberg, he keeps his lenses "quiet" and his visuals sedate, consciously stepping back from cinematic spectacle as if almost overawed by the subject matter (think Oliver Stone and World Trade Center). The result is a film that is both literary and performance-led; wordy, worthy, but worth it for those willing to listen and learn rather than watch and wonder.
Having underperformed in the US, A Good Day to Die Hard (2013, Fox, 15) fared better in the UK after being cut for a theatrical 12A rating. Inevitably, those cuts have been reinstated for home viewing, cementing a depressing post-Taken 2 business model in which action movies are cynically diluted for the big screen and then equally cynically resold in "harder" versions on DVD and Blu-ray. You may not like it, but one look at the sums tells us that it's the way of the future, particularly for the kind of flatulent franchise fodder in which money is the only thing driving the boat.
For this fifth interminable instalment, Bruce Willis dusts off his "bald man in a singlet sucking a lemon" pout and heads off to Russia, where everyone is cannon fodder except John McClane and son (Jai Courtney), who are not only bulletproof but also apparently impervious to radiation, which is useful when they go to Chernobyl. Bystanders are killed, cars crashed, guns spent and helicopters exploded. Blah bloody blah – literally. Apparently Die Hard 6 ("Die Hardest") is on its way. Just shoot me now.
Time to clear the air with For Ellen (2012, Soda, 15), evidently a labour of love for Paul Dano, who plays a wannabe rock star travelling to wintry climes to finalise his divorce and make things right with his estranged daughter. Stuck somewhere between adolescence and adulthood, our shoe-gazing antihero takes young Ellen (a terrific Shaylena Mandigo) to the park, the bowling alley, the mall, where their tentative interaction is touchingly real; a scene in a toyshop is particularly well observed. Korean-born director So Yong Kim continues to impress, building upon the promise of 2008's Treeless Mountain in this, her first US-set feature. Meanwhile, Jon Heder is unrecognisable as the star-struck lawyer desperate to be his client's friend, still struggling to escape his own childhood, just a little boy lost in a big man's shirt.
