Fatherland (12A)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s wildly ambitious $160 million gambit, about the grotesque pageantry of our contemporary hellscape, is a hoot.

Tom Cruise dons convincing old-man prosthetics and a fat suit to play Digger Rockwell, an ageing Texan oil tycoon who cares for nothing but the money flowing in from his wells and his unnervingly mangy pet cat. Digger is finally forced to face the consequences of his actions when his rapacious drilling in Greenland causes an ecological catastrophe that could kill millions. After saving the world so many times, Cruise is now playing one of its destroyers.

To say any more would be to spoil the wonderfully metatextual reveal about thirty minutes in - one that re-frames the entire film (and is all the better for it) - but suffice to say Cruise is surrounded by actors that can match (and even outperform) his larger than life persona: including Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemmons, and John Goodman.

It’s a gonzo, gorgeous (the production design is nothing short of breathtaking), and at times baffling auteur driven spectacle that is both bleak, and oftentimes bizarrely hilarious. Don’t miss