IT MUST BE HEAVEN ***

 Trying to pin a plot or even a theme on Elia Suleiman's deadpan "It Must Be Heaven" may prove difficult as the director, who is also the central character, observes the world around him through seemingly jaundiced eyes without opening his mouth, (he doesn't speak until about two-thirds of the way into the movie and only then to tell a New York cabbie that he's from Nazareth).

He's a Palestinian Jacques Tati who begins his journey of (self) discovery in Nazareth before flying off to Paris, a city seemingly filled with beautiful women that Suleiman observes, or you might say ogles, to the strains of Nina Simone. It's also a city of the homeless or the dispossed and people running from the authorities who pursue them on various forms of motorised transport. Of course, none of this makes much sense; this is a comedy of the absurd that is never particularly funny.

Midway through this Parisian section it seems to hint this might be a film about the film we're watching. Geddit? Gotit! Good. It then moves to a slightly more vibrant New York where Gael Garcia Bernal makes a brief, funny appearance as himself before going full circle back to Nazareth. Throughout, Suleiman makes brilliant use of the widescreen; visually the film is a constant treat but maybe the taciturn director isn't the best guide, even to his own idiosyncratic world, and 104 minutes in his company may prove too much for some. Stick with it, though, (at least until the scene-stealing little bird appears), and you may find, as I did, that he will win you over.

ELVIS ***

 Perhaps the most surprising thing about Baz Luhrmann's film "Elvis" is just how conventional a biopic it is, at least in terms of what it tells us about the man in question. This is The Elvis Story or rather The Elvis and Col. Tom Parker Story as we might have expected it from anyone of a dozen directors with a beginning, a middle and an end very much in that order. But this is also a Baz Luhrmann picture and if you have seen "Moulin Rouge" or "The Great Gatsby" you will know what that means; Luhrmann's "Elvis" is, if nothing else, a musical spectacle and it looks and sounds terrific. It could just as easily have been called 'The Elvis Show' for that is what it is, a show and in the person of Austin Butler, Elvis Presley is its heart and soul.

Of course, for it to work at all it had to have a convincing Elvis, a star who was, at the same time, an unfamiliar face and in Butler that's exactly what it has. He is not only the best Elvis impersonator imaginable but a very fine actor who can get inside the head and under the skin of the man. Butler delivers on all counts and should find himself an Oscar front-runner next year while as the Machiavellian Colonel a certain Tom Hanks could well be on his way to a third Oscar, this time as Best Supporting Actor. Together they easily overcome the deficiencies in the over-egged screenplay.

And then there's the music and the recreations of those concerts and television specials which are pitch perfect from beginning to deeply moving end, (a cut from Butler as Elvis singing 'Unchained Melody' to the real thing is quite breathtaking), and no Elvis fan will find themselves short-changed. Naturally, the first thing you will want to do after seeing this film is watch those television specials again and marvel at just how great an entertainer he was. Failing that, Butler and this film will do very nicely.

THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES **

 "The Battle of the Sexes" wasn't an Ealing comedy but it may as well have been. It's certainly in the Ealing class and is one of the best British comedies of its period. Of course, it had a great pedigree in James Thurber's short story 'The Catbird Seat' and it had an excellent cast headed by Peter Sellers, Robert Morley and Constance Cummings.

Morley is the new owner of an antiquated Scottish tweed-making business, (his father, the great Ernest Thesiger, died with a dram in his hand), Cummings the officious American efficiency expert intent on modernising it and Sellers, the old accountant who will resort to anything, including murder, to stop her. It's a black farce and a very funny one and it represents something of a high point in the career of director Charles Crichton although, surprisingly, it isn't particularly well-known outside the UK.