Donald Clarke

There are certainly good times to be had in Brand New Day. Jon Bernthal offers gruff entertainment as his version of Bronsonian vigilante The Punisher. Holland’s sweet charm generates real poignancy as Peter negotiates a world that knows him only in his super-powered incarnation.

Maybe the film, as is sometimes the case with Nolan, lacks an emotional core. But the sensory overload is so enormous that it proves hard to care. Shot fluidly on 70mm Imax cameras by Hoyte van Hoytema, and scored with symphonic wit by Ludwig Göransson, this take on the epic return of the sometime Ulysses should wear away even the most passionate resistance.

Alas, the film is a corrupt mess of blaring music, mawkish soppiness and (you’re ahead of me) supposedly comic flatulence. Not all films are equal, but few are less equal than this.

Rosebush Pruning looks absolutely beautiful. (The scenery is working hard.) The anger at vulgar excess is justified. But here is a film too smug in its own show-off depravity.

Nothing much of any value is added in this lifeless, halfhearted picture.

The Invite is, in truth, most memorable for its zippy invention in the field of creative cruelty. No sane person would enjoy being at such a party. Only an utter bore would pretend not to enjoy hearing about one.

The key cast have, nonetheless, established a refreshing chemistry that should carry Ms Holmes comfortably through another few films. Who could resist the heroine discharging a rifle at a presumed brigand from the roof of a hurtling stagecoach? The right kind of fun.

All of which would be fine if the team didn’t seem so exhausted.

This remains a shamelessly minor work without a single fresh idea in its head.

The miracle is that, from tragicomic opening up to a closing blast of Fontaines DC’s In the Modern World, Nino remains an affirmative experience throughout. Highly recommended.