Movies to see this week: George Clooney in full movie-star mode, a new horror and a Gaza doco

Diabolic
★★
(MA) 95 minutes

If Shakespeare could write plays set in Denmark and ancient Rome without anyone questioning their cultural relevance to the British public, I’m not about to insist Australian films need be overtly Australian.

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Still, pretending we’re on the other side of the world does add a degree of difficulty, which may account for some of the limitations of Daniel J. Phillips’ horror film Diabolic, set in Utah but shot in South Australia.

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
★★★★
(M)112 minutes

Perhaps the greatest strengths of Iranian director Sepideh Farsi’s heartbreaking documentary about life under siege in Gaza lie in the film’s flaws.

It invites us to sit in on a series of conversations between Farsi and Fatma Hassona, a 25 year-old Palestinian woman who manages to keep smiling through all the hazards and privations she experiences. The internet connection is highly temperamental. Their talks are frequently disrupted by power cuts, buffering and Fatma’s need to move whenever Israeli shells hit a nearby street. Yet somehow she maintains her contact with Farsi for a year, shifting from her family’s apartment to a neighbour’s house whenever the line is down.

And in between their conversations, she writes poetry and goes outside to photograph the wreckage in which she and her family exist. And still the smile persists.

Jay Kelly
★★★ ½
(M) 132 minutes

Is George Clooney a movie star, or just an actor who specialises in playing one? He looks sharp in a suit, and has outwardly been in the sweet spot of middle age for the past three decades – both movie star qualities. But there are fewer hits than you might expect – or at least, fewer movies that became hits because the public was drawn to Clooney in particular.

Jay Kelly, on the other hand, is definitely a movie star. But Noah Baumbach’s new comedy-drama Jay Kelly is not a portrait of Clooney, although Clooney slips smoothly into the role of Jay, and whatever charisma Jay possesses is Clooney’s first.

Jay too has been around for decades, and has done it all, without losing his credibility or cool. His pampered life outwardly leaves him with little to worry about, not that he was ever the fretful type.