Greed Cert: 15, 1hr 44mins
By and large, I rather admire the film career carved out by Steve Coogan, an actor to whom there’s always been more than the admittedly ridiculously funny Alan Partridge.
He was a revelation in 24 Hour Party People, very good in Philomena, and should have won awards for his outstanding performance as Stan Laurel in Stan & Ollie.
And he’s pretty good here too, as he teams up with regular collaborator Michael Winterbottom to play Sir Richard McCreadie, a fictional fashion tycoon with enough resemblance to the real-life and much-vilified Arcadia boss Sir Philip Green to have caused anxious lawyers more than a few sleepless nights.
Steve Coogan’s (above) pretty good here, as he teams up with regular collaborator Michael Winterbottom to play Sir Richard McCreadie, a fictional fashion tycoon
But it’s also a film scarred by real-life tragedy, in that the very first shot we see is of the late Caroline Flack, playing herself as the hostess of a tacky, in-house awards ceremony at which Sir Richard will hand out prizes to his overworked employees and vulgarly present his own wife (Isla Fisher) with a dividend cheque for £1.2 billion.
But not before the perma-tanned old sleazebag has a good old leer at Flack. ‘Looking knockout in that Monda dress, Caroline,’ he purrs, referencing a fictional high-street brand – I shall leave you to name the real-life equivalent.
It’s a line that might have raised a chuckle a few weeks ago but which is now so sad that a re-edit surely cannot be entirely ruled out. Especially as a fictional reality TV show – halfway between Made In Chelsea and Love Island – will later be woven into the already complex story.
The first hour is good fun as Winterbottom, who writes and directs, adopts an energetic, semi-documentary style to tell the story of the rise and rise of Sir Richard (Monte Carlo, above)
Leaving that horribly unfortunate opening to one side, the first hour is good fun as Winterbottom, who writes and directs, adopts an energetic, semi-documentary style to tell the story of the rise and rise of Sir Richard, who ever since school has been known by the nickname Greedy McCreadie.
In the main time-line, his bullied and regularly humiliated personal staff are desperately struggling to put the final touches to a celebrity-packed 60th birthday party on the island of Mykonos.
‘You can’t buy a view like that,’ he gloats as he gazes from his harbourside terrace: ‘Oh wait, no… I have.’ Coogan is the past master at this sort of narcissistic, self-aggrandising monster.
There are flashbacks to McCreadie’s schooldays, his early business career and a disastrous recent appearance before a House of Commons select committee (above)
In between scenes that see him screaming at the hapless Greek builder attempting to recreate the Colosseum in plywood and plaster, trying on his imperial toga and belittling his already emotionally damaged son (Asa Butterfield) there are flashbacks to his schooldays (look out for Jamie Blackley being seriously good as the young but already very unpleasant McCreadie), his early business career and a disastrous recent appearance before a House of Commons select committee.
Further punctuation comes courtesy of video interviews conducted by a hapless hack (David Mitchell, delivering exactly what you expect) commissioned to write a book that will clearly be more hagiography than biography.
The problem is, he keeps on turning up seriously nasty stuff: the bullying, the exploitation, the financial chicanery…
At an in-house awards ceremony, Sir Richard hands out prizes to his overworked employees and vulgarly presents his own wife (Isla Fisher, above) with a dividend cheque for £1.2 billion
In the end – indeed, some way before that – the film all becomes too much, despite a truly fabulous supporting turn from Shirley Henderson as Sir Richard’s terrifying Irish mother.
Something that begins life as mocking satire driven by well-justified moral anger turns into a melodramatic cautionary tale aimed, like some sort of a cinematic scatter-gun, at targets that range from tax havens to the treatment of refugees, from sweatshop labour conditions to corporate asset-stripping.
As the dramatic improbabilities mount, you can’t help thinking that most of the targets are missed. Shame.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
The Call Of The Wild (PG)
Rating: 
Jack London’s 1903 novel – about the trials and tribulations of a huge mountain dog called Buck during the Klondike gold rush – has been adapted for the screen several times before, but never quite like this.
With Disney very much at the helm, this is a live-action production, with the notable exception of Buck himself, whose furry appearance may be computer-generated but whose movement and expressions are based on a motion-capture performance by a human actor.
One Terry Notary, in fact.
Harrison Ford (above, with Buck) is grizzled and grumbly as lonely old backwoodsman John Thornton – a role previously played by the likes of Clark Gable and Charlton Heston
To say it takes a little getting used to is understating it, especially early on when both physical comedy (Buck is a big, greedy dog) and sentimentality seem to have been dialled up to the max and, more than once, Scooby-Doo comes to mind.
But, rather like Buck as he joins the sled team of a long-distance mail service, the film does eventually find some sort of snowy stride, especially for its intended younger audience.
Some changes have been made to London’s rather brutal story but parents of young or sensitive children should know there are still one or two nasty moments. The French actor Omar Sy and Canadian Cara Gee are nice as the human parts of the high-speed mail team, while Harrison Ford is grizzled and grumbly as lonely old backwoodsman John Thornton – a role previously played by the likes of Clark Gable and Charlton Heston.
Like A Boss (15)
Rating:
Where are all the films with strong female leads? That is one of the big questions of the cinematic moment. And it’s partially answered here by this very loud, in-your-face comedy led by Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne as lifelong Atlanta-based friends Mia and Mel.
They went to school together, they live together, and now they’ve even set up their own cosmetics business together. But the company is struggling financially. So when they receive a generous offer from make-up tycoon Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), they’re tempted.
Ah, but will their friendship survive in the world of big business?
Basically, if you think Haddish – one of the stars of the similarly potty-mouthed Girls Trip – is loud, wait until Hayek, teetering through her scenes in skyscraper heels, arrives on the scene.
This film has its funny moments but subtle it ain’t.
Little Joe (12A)
Rating:
Emily Beecham was the surprise winner of the Best Actress award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival for her central performance in this good-looking but strangely understated oddity from Austrian Jessica Hausner.
Emily Beecham (above, with Ben Whishaw) plays Alice, a committed scientist and single mum who has bred a plant genetically engineered to make humans happy
Beecham plays Alice, a committed scientist and single mum who has bred a plant genetically engineered to make humans happy. As her son is called Joe, she dubs the plant Little Joe, and even takes one home for him to look after.
This may be a mistake…
The Public (15)
Rating: 
Emilio Estevez hasn’t made a live-action feature film for a decade, but he makes up for it here, writing, directing and starring in this quietly rather powerful piece of social polemic.
He plays Stuart, a librarian at the Cincinnati Public Library, which by day becomes a warm, dry haven for many of the city’s homeless.
But when the winter night-time temperatures plummet and people start dying on the streets, the homeless refuse to leave and Stuart has to decide which side he’s on. Alec Baldwin, Taylor Schilling and Christian Slater lead a strong supporting cast in a film that could have done with another polish but still packs a punch.