Dalíland

Ben Kingsley and Barbara Sukowa are convincing as the Dalí spouses, in Mary Harron’s (American Psycho) sharp portrait of the artist couple in Manhattan in 1973.

Gallery errand boy James (Christopher Briney) catches the attention of Surrealist giant and eccentric Salvador Dalí and his wife and lifelong companion Gala, and soon has a new job as the couple’s assistant. He is starstruck and naïve, but from his new perspective from the inside, he soon becomes aware of the grotesque and corrupt underbelly of the art world. A theme that Mary Harron also touched on in I Shot Andy Warhol, and she once again demonstrates a masterful ability to deconstruct and reconstruct icons and myths. Kingsley captures both Dalí’s inflated persona and fragile psyche magnificently, and the Fassbinder, von Trotta, and von Trier favorite Sukowa is as brilliant as she is lovable in the role of Gala.

• Johan Blomqvist