tick, tick...BOOM! *

 Jonathan Larson, in case you don't know, was the guy who wrote that mega and award-winning hit "Rent" but who was already dead from a brain aneurysm before the opening night. You might call it a tragic success story since Larson never lived long enough to know how much he was appreciated though if Lin-Manuel Miranda's film "tick, tick...BOOM!" is anything to go by Larson always knew just how good he was. He may never have been a 'success' during his lifetime but he was clearly gifted, (Sondheim was a fan), and not lacking in self-confidence.

The movie itself is based on Larson's less well known musical autobiography, a kind of one-man show complete with backing singers and band and Miranda opens it out very nicely so we aren't stuck watching a guy performing in a theatre and as rock-cum-broadway showtunes musicals go, it isn't half bad.

Larson, himself, is played by Andrew Garfield, a remarkably talented actor who can now add a fine singing voice to his CV. Unfortunately, he is also extremely annoying. If this was what Larson was really like let's say I find his brand of chutzpah very grating and Garfield lays it on with a trowel. Yes, it's nice his story is finally being told but I just wish I could have liked him more.

BEING THE RICARDOS ***

 The Ricardos, in case you don't know, were Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, probably the hottest married couple in America in the '50's and certainly the hottest married couple on television and Aaron Sorkin's excellent new film, "Being the Ricardos" is about one week in their lives, a week that began when Walter Winchell announced that Ball was a member of the Communist Party, (and this was during the blacklist), so Sorkin's film isn't a comedy, (though it is often funny), but another political picture from one of America's prime specialists in political pictures.

It's also a memory piece as a few of Lucy and Desi's collaborators in the present look back, not just at the week in question, but further back into the lives of the couple. We see their meeting and follow Ball's career; some of these flashbacks work and some don't. There is, of course, the potential for mawkishness but Sorkin is much too acerbic and canny a writer for that and, as he showed in "The Trial of the Chicago Seven", he's a fine director of actors. Nicole Kidman, in particular, is outstanding as Ball, sometimes bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Lucy I remember from television and while Javier Bardem may not look much like Arnaz he turns in yet another fine performance though it is Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance who almost walks off with the picture.

The period detail, too, is perfectly realised and there are brilliant recreations of some of the television shows that made Desi and Lucy, (and the fictional Ricardos),that most beloved of couples. Unfortunately, while the film is clearly a labour of love for Sorkin is it enough to ensure its success at the box-office? It's certainly relevant; the scars that America suffered during Trump's presidency haven't really healed and much of what's happening in America and American show-biz today, bears a disturbing similarity to the age of McCarthyism. At least Ball and Arnaz challenged the conventions of the time and won and Sorkin's heartfelt film is a tribute to their tenacity. Sadly, what they couldn't heal was the minefield that was their marriage and they divorced shortly after the events displayed but this isn't a sad movie; on the contrary, this pertinent film has its own sense of uplift and is a credit to Sorkin, Kidman, Bardem and all concerned.

LA RELIGIEUSE ****

 I'm not quite sure how seriiously Diderot meant his text to be taken when he wrote his novel "La Religieuse"; it's certainly anti-clerical and it did provoke a scandal. Here was a tale of savagery and what was perceived as sexual perversity within the Catholic Church and amongst nuns no less and, of course, the story told in "La Religieuse" can shock us even now even if we are a little more sophisticated.

Jacques Rivete filmed Diderot's "La Religieuse", (English title, "The Nun"), in 1966 and it's a classic, certainly one of the key French films of the period. It's the story of a young 19th century French girl with no prospects of marriage put, like so many of her contemporaries, into a convent. However, Susanne, (a never better Anna Karina), is a rebel and her rebellion takes the form of a lawsuit against her convent so that she can renounce her vows and go back into the world. However, the nuns have other ideas and she is subjected to all the horrors they can inflict on her.

When she loses her case she is transferred to a, let's call it a more 'open prison', where the nuns gambol and frolic like gay versions of the sisters in "The Sound of Music" and where the Mother Superior takes a more than motherly interest in Susanne and where even the local priest takes a less than religious fancy to her. The contrast to her former convent is deliciously perverse; religion is scorned and debauchary championed and poor Susanne is torn between the devil and the deep.

Rivette, of coursem films all this in his typrically austere style drawing excellent performances from his largely female cast and certainly giving it 'the look' of a proper period piece. It's also one of his most accessible films though it was never likely to pack the local cinema on a Saturday night. This is art-house fare of the best kind; intelligent and gripping and its reputation is richly deserved.