Alison Bailes

Recent findings of water on Mars may be thrilling for NASA scientists but have come too late for astronaut Mark Watley (Matt Damon) who finds himself stranded on a dusty planet with a serious hydration problem in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi survival thriller “The Martian”. Working from Andy Weir’s hugely popular, self-published “geeky” novel, Scott adds to a growing pantheon of survivalist cinema.

With his upturned black leather collar, strangely pale mien and piercing blue eyes with pin-prick pupils, James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) looks a lot like Count Dracula. And director Scott Cooper invites the comparison, shooting Depp as a cold, calculating monster about to devour his enemies. It’s a fair analogy as crime lord Bulger was feared and revered on the streets of South Boston in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He was as much of a mythical creature as a vampire or the monster under your bed.

Just as it’s easier to avert one’s eyes on the street from a passed out homeless person, or a begging vagrant, it might be tempting to avoid this effective docu-drama from Oren Moverman, the director of the equally powerful “The Messenger” and “Rampart”. But that would be a mistake. Moverman, not scared to confront searing social issues, turns his camera on America’s homeless and captures a slice of life with cinema verité observational skill and documentary detail.