Film reviews: Paul Mescal rises to the challenge, but Gladiator II's plot is unconvincing

Plus: The Piano Lesson delves deep into American history's darker corners; Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat shines a pale light on the US' soft-power conquest of Congo

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II (2024).

• Gladiator II
• ★★★★☆
• In cinemas

Those who are about to die, we salute you once more. 

Gladiator II (15A) opens with the warrior Hanno (Paul Mescal) preparing to defend his adopted African home against a Roman invasion led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal). 

Hauled away in chains, Hanno is branded (literally) as a gladiator, fated to fight or die in the arena for the entertainment of bloodthirsty Romans. 

Until, that is, he comes to the attention of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), whose apparent willingness to provide entertainment for the twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) masks a desire to destroy Rome from within. 

There’s no doubt that Ridley Scott’s belated sequel to Gladiator (2000) has lofty ambitions: much is made of Marcus Aurelius’ ‘a dream of Rome’ and an empire built on justice and brotherly love, an ideal that stands in sharp contrast to Geta and Caracalla’s tyranny, where ‘violence is the universal language.’ 

Paul Mescal pictured at the Irish Premiere of Gladiator II in the Light House Cinema, Smithfield. Picture Brian McEvoy

Both aspects are bound up in Hanno himself: a force of nature in the Colosseum, and a gladiator who lusts for revenge against Marcus Acacius, Hanno is nevertheless a man of noble instincts (we quickly learn that the so-called barbarian ‘Hanno’ is in fact the Roman-born Lucius, the son of Maximus, who was played by Russell Crowe in the original, and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the daughter of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius). 

All of which lends itself to a potentially fascinating backdrop to the superb action sequences, in which Mescal, who has already proved himself an excellent actor in more emotionally intimate films, proves that he can also carry an epic on his impressively broad shoulders. 

But while the arena set-pieces are terrific, the political shenanigans – strong echoes of Spartacus here – are less convincing. 

Ridley Scott takes considerable liberties with the characters of the emperors Geta and Caracalla, rendering them a pair of brattish, half-baked Neros; meanwhile, the swift and inexorable rise of the barbarian Macrinus to a position of power in the Roman Senate is improbable, to say the least.

That said, the film is rarely less than entertaining, and worth your time for the awesome sight of a leather-clad Paul Mescal unleashed.

• The Piano Lesson
• ★★★★☆
• In cinemas/Netflix from November 22

Set in Pittsburgh in 1936, The Piano Lesson (12A) stars John David Washington as Boy Willie, who arrives from the Deep South with a truckload of watermelons and a plan to sell a beloved heirloom, a piano carved with the history of his family’s enslavement, in order to buy a farm back home. 

Standing in his way is his sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) and their uncle Doaker (Samuel L Jackson), who refuse to countenance the sale of a heritage that symbolises the blood, sweat, and tears of their ancestors.

Adapted by Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington from August Wilson’s play, with Washington directing, this slow-burn domestic drama delves deep into the dark corners of American history.

It’s a little stage-bound (most of the story takes places in Doaker’s Pittsburgh home) but the performances are terrific, with Danielle Deadwyler in particularly fine form as a woman being pulled asunder as she tries to straddle the fault-lines in her family’s and her country’s history.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat.

• Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
• ★★★★★
• In cinemas

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (12A) is a documentary by Johann Grimonprez about the murder of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba in 1960, shortly after the Congo achieved independence from Belgium. 

‘America’s weapon was a blue note in a minor key,’ we’re told, as America despatched ‘jazz ambassadors’ — Louis Armstrong in the vanguard — to Africa to promote its ‘goodwill mission’, but the musicians were so many pawns in a filthy game being played by Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Belgium, and the United Nations.

A superb historical documentary featuring jaw-dropping footage that is wholly relevant today given that the war for Congo’s resources continues apace.