Three new films will open at the Ross on Friday.

While the Nazis bombed England during the Battle of Britain in World War II, a pair of sisters hid out on a farm in Sussex, broadcasting the future using a television device that receives programs from the 60s and 70s, including The Kinks and David Bowie before their birth.

Recording themselves on a movie camera, Martha (Stephanie Martini) and Thomasina (Emma Appleton) decide that they can use the machine, which they call Lola, to inform the British military where German bombers will strike.

Of course, in a screwball time-bending thriller, there are plot holes big enough to fly a Junker through. But as Lola’s visions change the war and the lives of the sisters, director and co-writer Andrew Legg and his collaborators have created a picture that is as gripping as it is innovative.

The film uses vintage newsreel footage that has been altered to reflect the new story created by Lola and the sisters, and also uses “scratched” black and white footage for the sister portion of the film, which tells a somewhat plausible story. about sisters—the more passionate Martha and the cool, scientific Thomasina—who, for better or worse, reap what their work with Lola has sown.

The low-budget film – just a few locations and a tiny cast – flies by in just 80 minutes. And he’ll fly out of Ross on Thursday. It’s worth catching this week. Grade: TO.

A young woman working at a fish canning factory nervously calls her father, who abandoned her decades ago. Now a wealthy restaurateur, he invites her to visit his luxurious villa on an island in the Mediterranean, where she meets his extremely nasty wife and her calculatingly cold daughter, who is plotting to take over the family business.

That’s the premise of director Sebastien Marnier’s darkly satirical thriller Nothing Is As It Seems, which takes a vicious look at the self-absorbed rich and reveals a criminal element with a very unexpected twist.

Origin of Evil is directed by Laura Calamy, who plays Stefana, a cannery worker who, on repeated trips to the villa, must deal with her prison lover (Suzanne Clément) as she becomes embroiled in a web of family intrigue. .

Jacques Weber copes with the demanding role of patriarch Serge, who has suffered a stroke and does his best to ward off the housewives – his wife Louise (a very good Dominique Blanc), who does her best to spend money. he’s broken, and manipulative George (Doria Tillier).

There’s a key death and plenty of motivation, but Origin of Evil isn’t a detective story or a mystery of any kind. Rather, it is a very well-crafted picture that is both funny and exciting. Grade: TO-.

Thomas is a gay German director who, on the night of a wrap party for a film he is making in Paris, ends up sleeping with a French woman from the crew and runs home in the morning to tell his English husband about it.

This is how “Passages” opens, by American director and co-writer Ira Sachs.

Superbly played by the great German actor Franz Rogowsky, Thomas is completely self-absorbed, demanding attention and affection and seemingly oblivious to the impact of his behavior on the confused patient Martin (Ben Whishaw) and Agatha (Adele Exarchopoulos), who is desperately wants to fall in love and start a family.

“Passages” made some headlines earlier this year when it received an NC-17 rating, primarily, I believe, due to its lengthy, semi-explicit gay sex scene. So it was released unrated, which is fine, given that the film’s audience is unlikely to be shocked or offended by its content.

Instead, they’ll likely be put off by Thomas, who, thanks to Rogowski’s performance, is completely unlikable. This creates something of an emotional hole at the heart of “Passages”, turning it into a character study of a man you really don’t want to know. Grade: B+.