The Thicket review – Peter Dinklage is a bounty hunter in harsh western with unusual chill

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Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis star in a horse opera set in a snowbound world of bars, brothels and wide open spaces Here is a western starring Peter Dinklage, but forget hot sun-baked gullies and leather-skinned cowboys riding sweatily through rattlesnake country. The Thicket takes place in a hard, snowbound wilderness interspersed with equally hard, snowbound little townships consisting mainly of bars and brothels. You can see the breath in the air and the blood on the snow. The plot is staple horse opera: a kidnapped maiden must be rescued by a motley group of good-ish guys with mixed motives, headed up by Dinklage playing a bounty hunter character offering a similar vein of dry, world-weary cynicism as his breakthrough role as Tyrion in Game of Thrones, only much less aristocratic. He is joined by Gbenga Akinnagbe as his right hand man, with whom Dinklage has nice chemistry, and Levon Hawke, as a naive young Christian whose sister has been kidnapped by ruffians. The ruffians a...
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Crossing review – terrific Istanbul-set culture-clash drama

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A stern Georgian ex-teacher on a mission to make amends with her trans niece learns a thing or two in Levan Akin’s rich, rewarding ensemble film

“I have no future and thus no plans. I’m just here until I’m not.” Stony-faced and severe, Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired schoolteacher from Batumi, Georgia, is not in the business of mincing words. But she’s not being entirely honest about her plans. There is one final thing that she hopes to achieve: she aims to track down her niece, Tekla, to make amends for failing her years before in a time of need.

Her quest takes her across the border to Istanbul; tagging along with her is Achi (Lucas Kankava), an opportunist kid who has talked his way on to her trip as an interpreter, but really just sees her as a way of escaping his dead-end life in a Black Sea beach shack with his bullying brother. Following a series of false starts, and a few too many evenings of heavy drinking, the pair connect with Evrim (Deniz Dumanli), a trans woman, lawyer and advocate for trans rights.

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