Cargo (****) is a very good-looking German sci-fi presented here in both German and English editions. It finds the human race in a dystopian future living in giant space cities. But there is a rumoured planet where all is paradise. The film picks up on Laura Portman, a doctor trying to raise money to reunite with her family, and a cargo crew on a deep space run. Three years in, with the rest of the crew asleep, creepy things start happening and Laura thinks something is moving in the cargo compartment. Soon mysteries are piling up, about the ship, the crew, everything, making for a tense thriller that draws on the gritty seriousness of Alien and the more recent Pandorum.

Devil (***) got completely slated at the cinema, probably because producer M Night Shayamalan is the whipping-boy de jour (with some reason). It's not that bad. The set-up is simple: five people are trapped in a lift and one of them is You Know Who… And the film plays out swiftly and efficiently, the gore not too gory, the suspense intermittent. The voice over, insisting on giving things away and making sure you don't miss anything, is an irritant, but this happily romps along in the spirit of the Twilight Zone stories aiming for and achieving nothing more.
Films that Luc Besson ‘presents', from Taken to District 13, are usually violent commercial actioners without redeeming social values.

Human Zoo (****) is a far more serious proposition, beginning with mentally-scarred heroine Adria's horrifying past in Kosovo. Then the introduction of a cartoon-like American boyfriend somewhat unbalances things, despite the film's grimy trawl through immigrant culture and war-torn Serbia's criminal underbelly. The result, as we see the dots joining between Adria's past and present is an unexpected thriller complete with philosophy, politics, sex and violence, in a mix of Serbian, French and English. Given that this was written and directed by lead actress Pie Rasmussen it is a stunning achievement.

The Marc Pease Experience (***) is a strange little comedy of embarrassment, which looks like it should have been a mock-documentary, but plays it straight. It's really a two hander: Ben Stiller's driven, subtly egotistical drama teacher is producing the school musical while Jason Schwartzman's weirdo loser is eight years out of school and still obsessed with Stiller and a dubious a cappella group he hopes will make him a star. Made with beautiful detail and great observation (Stiller really is brilliant) the odd mix of drama and comedy will lose many, but there is good stuff on display here.