Finding The Way Back (15)
Directed by Gavin O’Connor
★★★

LOSS, forgiveness and a shot at redemption are the dominant themes in this slow-burning but captivating sports drama about an alcoholic basketball coach who is asked to perform miracles with a school team which is on a permanent losing streak.

Ben Affleck plays former high-school basketball phenomenon Jack Cunningham who, having ruined his marriage due to his love of the bottle, is on the verge of hitting rock bottom. But when he receives a call from his alma mater to coach the school team which hasn’t experienced victory since Jack’s glory days, the question is: can Jack finally redeem himself?

Surprisingly this isn’t the usual predictable and schmaltzy underdog-who-wins-the-day story, with the much-loved troubled coach miraculously overcoming his demons.

It’s a gritty drama with unexpected hidden depths thanks to Brad Ingelsby’s compelling and multi-layered screenplay brought to life under Gavin O’Connor’s steadfast direction and by an enthralling and pivotal performance from Affleck — no doubt informed by his own experiences with drink — and his charismatic young co-stars.

Definitely worth a watch.

Available on video on demand.

Black Water: Abyss (15)
Directed by Andrew Traucki
★★

FIVE thrill-seeking friends get more than they bargain for while exploring a remote cave system in Northern Australia in this standalone sequel to director Andrew Traucki’s 2007 crocodile horror Black Water.

Again, a group of people are pursued by a hungry croc, this time as they try to find a way out of uncharted underground caverns which are slowly flooding in a race against the clock.

If you enjoyed The Crawl and The Descent, then this mash-up could be right up your street.

Although peppered with predictable scares, it lacks the nail-biting tension of the original film. Plus it spends more time exploring the relationship dynamics of a group who aren’t worth it, so my money and sympathies lie with the killer croc.

I suspect this is more fun and effective on the big screen.

Out in cinemas.

SCOOB! (PG)
Directed by Tony Cervone
★★★

AFTER the TV cartoon series and live-action films comes the first animated feature exploring the origins of Scooby-Doo and the gang.

In what’s another madcap caper, it’s fun to see how Scooby (Frank Welker) and Shaggy (Ian Armitage/Will Forte) first met and bonded over a meat sandwich and then encountered Fred (Pierce Gagnon/Zac Ephron), Daphne (Amanda Seyfried/Mckenna Grace) and Velma (Gina Rodriguez/Ariana Greenblatt) on one Halloween night which led to the creation of the Mystery Inc Gang.

The film is full of nods and winks to the original series, with the gang debunking ghostly sightings and unmasking villains, but their future is put in jeopardy when Simon Cowell — truly bizarre —  agrees to manage them but minus Scooby and Shaggy who he sees as the group’s weakest links.

The pair then team up with the narcissistic superhero Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) to try and defeat the deliciously evil Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs).

Mayhem ensues in a film aimed squarely at Scooby-Doo fans and certainly very young viewers who will find it wonderfully fun and entertaining. Older fans might just want to revisit the original series.

Love Sarah (12A)
Directed by Eliza Schroeder
★★★

Grief, regret and trying to move on are all explored through the eyes of three generations of women united by a common loss in this surprisingly charming and uplifting romantic drama.

Determined to fulfil her late mother Sarah’s dreams of opening a bakery in Notting Hill, 18-year-old Clarissa (Shannon Tarbet) enlists the help of her grandmother Mimi (Celia Imrie) and her mum’s old friend and business partner Isabella (Shelley Conn).

When Sarah’s ex Mathew (a charismatic Rupert Penry-Jones), a two-star Michelin chef, turns up eager to bake up a storm the women can’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth. Cue a cake-making montage guaranteed to make your mouth water.

All three women reflect on their loss and their shattered hopes and dreams as they pour all their energies into making the bakery a success.

Eliza Schroeder’s debut feature serves up a predictable romantic drama with a bitter-sweet twist and it’s also a celebration of London’s cultural diversity as they whip up pastries from around the world. It is driven by captivating performances by Imrie, always a delight to watch, Tarbet and Conn.

Sheer cake porn — eat before watching.

Out in cinemas.

The Beach House
Directed by Jeffrey A Brown
★★

TWO troubled college sweethearts have their romantic getaway weekend scuppered by a mystery couple and the onset of an environmental apocalypse in this horror which tries to punch above its weight.

The relationship problems of  Emily (Liana Liberato) and Randall (Noah Le Gros) are the least of their worries after Mitch (Jake Weber) and Jane (Maryann Nagel), who seem to know Randall’s estranged father, unexpectedly rock up at the family beach house. It would have taken just one phone call to his dad to confirm the legitimacy of these strangers, but no.

However it becomes academic when a mysterious infection begins to spread, turning its victims into white-eyed zombies, foaming at the mouth.

Despite the cast’s sterling performances writer and director Jeffrey A Brown’s debut feature lacks any spine-chilling moments or harrowing scares.

There are too many moody shots of the local flora and landscape and a pea-soup fog that mysteriously appears out of nowhere as Brown tries to give his horror film an environmental edge.

Certainly the effects of climate change are horrifying but this is anything but.

Spaceship Earth (12)
Directed by Matt Wolf
★★★★

THIS eye-opening documentary recounts the real-life story of the eight men and women who in 1991 took part in a revolutionary experiment to spend two years quarantined inside a specially built replica of Earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2.  

The idea was to see if, cut off from the rest of the world, they could live self-sufficiently, as in Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 film Silent Running.

The experiment was devised by the charismatic John Allen, accused of being a cult leader, with members of his commune at their Synergia ranch in New Mexico. They had identified and began to look into the dangers of climate change 10 years earlier and the experiment was bankrolled by billionaire Ed Bass, who invested in all their environmental projects.

With the detailed and endless archive footage shot by Allen and his team, Matt Wolf's documentary shows the ups and downs of the group inside the sphere. It’s as if you are watching a reality TV show with an explosive and shock finale involving a surprising Machiavellian figure.

It is an extraordinarily bizarre tale but one we can now relate to in the wake of our own lockdown and quarantine experiences sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.