PROJECT NIM

Dir: James Marsh. Starring: Nim, and a whole bunch of ignorant scientists.

Project Nim is a wonderful, heartbreaking documentary. It's central character is a chimpanzee, Nim, who became something of a celebrity in the ‘70s as the centre of an experiment to see if an ape could learn to communicate with human language. To that end he was brought up without contact with other apes, in, basically, human society.
That may have been what the outside world saw but this film delves into what really happened. This was, after all, the ‘70s, a time of consciousness-raising and self-awareness and self-important researchers who thought they ruled the world. Poor Nim was shuffled between environments, had his carers changed with the same regularity that the chief 'scientist” would discard his research students (after having affairs with them) and was eventually abandoned for not producing the required results.
Put together by the same director who made the marvellous Man On Wire, this is an enthralling and subtly appalling story, one that reveals as much about the inhumanity of humans as it does about the humanity on apes. And, damn, you come out of it really wanting to slap around those self-absorbed scientists.

Machine Gun Preacher finds Gerard Butler's mean biker Sam being released from prison, furious that his wife has found god and given up stripping. He leaps straight back into shooting up and stealing drugs. But, before you know it, Sam's got himself baptised and is a changed man, cleaning up his life and moving from the trailer park into a nice house. Then – inspired by a church speaker – he's off to Africa where he ends up running an orphanage in a war zone. It's a story that seems too good to be true, but the kicker is that it is. True that is. End credits show pics of the real Sam Childers and others. It a tough film buoyed by its African locations and topical subject matter: the villain here is the same Joseph Kony currently in the news again.

Putting a supporting character front and centre for their own movie is a risky endeavour, especially from a franchise that went on for about two films too many, but Puss in Boots manages the job admirably. In fact the Antonio Banderas-voiced feline is a lot more fun than anything that has happened in the recent Shrek movies and the fast paced story and – as expected – fantastic animation return to the original Shrek approach of extracting the Michael from nursery rhyme characters (as opposed to the random pop culture jokes that took over). A lot of fun.

It's the year 2027 and boxing is now the domain of 8 foot tall robots. Real Steel is, however, primarily a family film, running on movie clichés, populated by movie caricatures, and powered by an engine of pure schmaltz. Ex-fighter and deadbeat dad Hugh Jackman is reunited with his stubborn smart-ass 11 year old son and together they 'train” an unlikely bot, progressing from underground bouts to the big tournament. Along the way many life lessons are learnt and predictable bonding occurs. And robots fight. It's big and bold and flashy and boys of a similar age to the young protagonist will probably love it.

Frayed is a nasty low-rent horror outing that rips off Halloween, goes nowhere except to a series of illogically stupid final twists, and takes too long doing it. Pre-teen Kurt bludgeons his mother to death and is institutionalised. Years later he escapes and heads home, killing everyone in his path. A cast of unknowns stumble through a mess of predictable shocks, occasionally very unpleasant but hardly living up to the cover warning: 'This film contains one of the most disturbing scenes ever depicted on film.” Even those who view that as a recommendation will be disappointed.