The Accountant 2 review - belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter

★★★ THE ACCOUNTANT 2 Belated return of Ben Affleck's lethal bean-counter

Horror, humour and mind games combine in Gavin O'Connor's sequel

It’s been nine years since Ben Affleck’s original portrayal of Christian Wolff in The Accountant, who’s not only an accountant but also a super-efficient assassin working for the highest bidders. In this follow-up, again directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque, Affleck barely seems to have aged, and he's still solitary, anti-social and probably autistic.

Queer review - Daniel Craig meets William Burroughs

★★★★ QUEER Luca Guadagnino's film is crazy but it just might work

Luca Guadagnino's film is crazy but it just might work

Judging by a Sunday Times interview last weekend, Daniel Craig now enjoys wearing brilliantly-coloured sweaters and extraordinary trousers, very much like a man running as fast as possible in the opposite direction to James Bond. He has goodbye-Bond-esque quotes to go with it.

Sorcery review - a tale of shapeshifting revenge

★★★ SORCERY A tale of shapeshifting revenge

A girl's righteous revenge quest combines with her native beliefs in this Chilean tale

Islands off the coast of southern Chile, to the Spanish and German settlers of the 19th century, represented the edge of the world. To the Huilliche, the people who’ve lived there for centuries, the land and its isolation are only the beginning.

The Settlers review - a western populated only by anti-heroes

★★ THE SETTLERS No-one comes out well in this film based on Chile’s bloody past

No-one comes out well in this film based on Chile’s bloody past

From its opening shot – of a flock of sheep backlit by the sun’s rays – The Settlers is visually stunning. But the beauty ends there; as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that everything else about this episode in Chile’s history is cruel and ugly.

10 Questions for 'The Settlers' film director Felipe Gálvez Haberle

Why he made a Western to condemn the Chileans responsible for the Selk'nam genocide

Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s Chilean Western The Settlers traces the roles played in the genocide of the country’s indigenous Selk’nam people by the Spanish businessman José Menéndez (1846-1918) and his brutal Scottish sheep station manager Alexander McLennan (1871-1917).

Antidote review - two films in one that lose sight of their message

Taking Ayahuasca becomes a metaphor for saving the planet in Marc Silver's documentary

“I believe Ayahuasca is something very deep,” says spiritual leader José López Sánchez in the documentary Antidote. “It’s not like selling palm oil or rubber. How many gringos have been healed with Ayahuasca? How many have discovered things about themselves and made positive changes? We should create an alliance with the Westerners; it would be a new path.”

The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future review - a sensually strange eco-fable

★★★ THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE A sensually strange eco-fable

Chilean debut mixes magic realism, family battles and soulful cattle

Francisca Alegría’s debut is an eco-fable about mourning and enduring love, for a mother and Mother Earth. We start by Chile’s River Cruces, where a mill pumps poison, and the fish hear a death-song in the previously “sweet and clear” water. Magdalena (Mia Maestro), who drowned herself here decades ago, breaks the surface, gasping and suddenly alive, and walks back into the world.

Album: Lucas Santtana - O Paraiso

A timely hymn to nature from Brazil

Perfect timing for the release of Lucas Santtana’s new album release. The return of Lula to the presidency of Brazil has been received with a surge of optimism and joy. We have witnessed the end of Bolsonaro’s corrupt, opportunistic and authoritarian years, in which the Amazon forest was opened up further to those who would destroy it, along with the indigenous people who struggle to survive against the depredations of greed.

Music Reissues Weekly: Perú Selvático - Sonic Expedition into the Peruvian Amazon 1972-1986

PERU SELVATICO 1972-1986 Salute to Perú’s cumbia-influenced regional grooves

Salute to Perú’s cumbia-influenced regional grooves

"Descarga Royal" by Los Royal’s de Pucallpa opens proceedings. After flurries of wobbly wah-wah guitar, a driving percussion bed interweaves with a rolling guitar figure. Then, about two minutes in, the guitarist steps on the fuzz pedal. Groovy. Psychedelic too. The band’s name is taken from the tropical east-Perú city of Pucallpa, located on the Amazon tributary river Ucayali.

Utama review - incandescent portrait of a dying way of life in Bolivia

Anthropological film-making meets luscious imagery in this moving drama

Utama won the World Dramatic Prize at Sundance this year and is tipped for an Oscar nomination, too. The film is set in a remote region in Bolivia’s arid highlands. Its gentle pace and non-professional actors give it a documentary feel but there is real narrative skill deployed.