THE BIRTH OF A NATION (15, 120 mins) Drama/Romance. Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Penelope Ann Miller, Gabrielle Union, Colman Domingo. Director: Nate Parker.

Released: December 9 (UK & Ireland)

The media firestorm which has engulfed Nate Parker - director, writer and leading actor of The Birth Of A Nation - casts a long shadow over his historical drama about an 1831 slave rebellion in Virginia.

The furore around a rape charge dating back to 1999, when Parker was a student at Penn State University and of which he was acquitted, has almost certainly torpedoed any chance of his individual contributions being part of the feverish Academy Awards conversations in the coming months.

Judging The Birth Of A Nation purely on its merits, the film provokes the same debates as 12 Years A Slave, albeit with less narrative sophistication and directorial brio.

Behind the camera, Parker is ruled by convention and he struggles to generate dramatic momentum that would make the two-hour running time feel less of a slog.

However, in a year when the lack of diversity in the global filmmaking community has become a hot-button topic, Parker's achievements on a modest budget should not be underestimated.

In his guise as slave-turned-preacher Nat Turner, the filmmaker is far more convincing, surrounding himself with an excellent ensemble cast, who treat the harrowing subject matter with the seriousness it deserves.

Slave owner Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) believes he is more tolerant and understanding than many of his neighbours in Southampton County.

His God-fearing mother Elizabeth (Penelope Ann Miller) raised young Samuel with a slave boy called Nat (Parker) as his playmate, and the imposing matriarch taught Nat to read by referring him to the word of the Bible.

Nat devours every word and grows up with a belief that he must preach to his people.

He falls in love with another slave, Cherry (Aja Naomi King), but when she is brutally assaulted by a gang of white slave owners, led by snarling Raymond Cobb (Jackie Earle Haley), poor Samuel seriously questions the order of his unforgiving world.

His friend and fellow slave Hark (Colman Domingo) suffers a similar hammer blow when his wife Esther (Gabrielle Union) is ordered to provide sexual services to one of Samuel's dinner guests.

These injustices light an unquenchable fire within Nat.

"The Lord has called me - to stand and fight!" he bellows, leading a rebellion that puts Nat on a collision course with Cobb and the pro-slavery establishment.

The Birth Of A Nation is a passionate, yet clumsily conceived, rallying cry for equality, spattered with the blood and tears of men, who acknowledge that violence begets greater violence.

Parker conceives some horrifying imagery,such as Cherry's battered face after she is attacked, but he fails to elegantly weave these jolts into a fluid and constantly engaging character study.

There are noticeable lulls in the second hour and female characters are defined by their suffering, repeatedly abused in order to pour fuel on the flames of Nat Turner's supposedly righteous crusade.

:: SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 6.5/10

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY (15, 105 mins) Comedy/Drama/Romance/Action. Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, TJ Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney B Vance, Kate McKinnon, Karan Sori, Abbey Lee, Jillian Bell, Vanessa Bayer, Randall Park. Directors: Josh Gordon, Will Speck.

Released: December 7 (UK & Ireland)

Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, a trio of screenwriters and most of the cast of Office Christmas Party should land on Santa's naughty list for this relentlessly foul-mouthed comedy of errors.

Hung on the flimsiest of dramatic conceits, this vulgar valentine to behaving badly under the influence of alcohol, drugs and excessive testosterone possesses no airs and graces.

The script plays pass the parcel with thinly sketched characters' emotions, orchestrating romantic entanglements to ensure a generous slosh of saccharine cheer over the end credits, which are festooned with the usual array of out-takes.

Amidst the debauchery, pop culture references and stolen reindeer, there are a couple of decent laughs, but it's hard to know whether credit is due to the actors' inspired ad-libs or a gilded one-liner on the page.

Either way, Office Christmas Party is less the sum of its starry parts and doesn't do justice to an ensemble that includes Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, TJ Miller and Saturday Night stalwart Kate McKinnon, who impersonated Hillary Clinton with aplomb during the ill-tempered presidential campaign.

Hard-nosed CEO-in-waiting Carol Vanstone (Aniston) is unimpressed with the Chicago branch of IT company Zenotek run by her party-loving brother, Clay (Miller).

Determined to prove her steely resolve to the board, Carol makes the cold-hearted decision to initiate cost-cutting redundancies and renege on the promise of end-of-year bonuses.

"All branch Christmas parties are cancelled," she adds with a glare.

Clay and chief technical officer Josh (Bateman) plead with Carol to show compassion and she agrees to cancel the lay-offs if they close a 14 million US dollar deal with Walter Davis (Courtney B Vance) and his company, Data City.

Goofball Clay believes they should invite Walter to the most extravagant Christmas party in the company's history, which he will stage behind Carol's back.

Josh's right-hand woman Tracey (Olivia Munn) and politically correct head of HR, Mary (McKinnon), collaborate on plans for the ultimate festive shindig, but as news spreads about free drinks at the Zenotek offices, everyone in the city descends on the building.

Alcohol flows and nice guy employee Nate (Karan Sori) becomes enslaved to a sassy escort called Savannah (Abbey Lee) and her gun-toting pimp Trina (Jillian Bell), while Clay's caring personal assistant Allison (Vanessa Bayer) discovers her mild-mannered office crush Fred (Randall Park) has an alarming fetish.

Office Christmas Party is a tinsel-strewn vision of Sodom and Gomorrah that will be hair of the dog for undemanding audiences who enjoyed The Hangover.

Aniston manages to keep a straight face as the mean-spirited company exec, who spitefully ruins Yuletide for one unsuspecting child, and she also pockets some of the best physical humour.

Miller essays another lovable goofball, while Bateman maintains a modicum of calm as everyone around him loses their minds and inhibitions over a photocopier.

:: SWEARING :: SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 5/10

SNOWDEN (15, 134 mins) Drama/Thriller/Romance. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage, Tom Wilkinson, Joely Richardson, Scott Eastwood. Director: Oliver Stone.

Released: December 9 (UK & Ireland)

In February 2015, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras deservedly won an Oscar for her riveting picture Citizenfour, which charts the events leading up to Edward Snowden's decision to go public as the CIA contractor who leaked sensitive material belonging to the National Security Agency (NSA).

In her film, Poitras conducts a series of secret interviews with Snowden holed up in a hotel room in Hong Kong in the company of investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian's defence and intelligence correspondent Ewen MacAskill.

When Snowden's whereabouts leaks to the media, he moves to Poitras' room and her film becomes a fascinating portrait of a man on the run from his own government.

This real-life story torn from global news headlines provides the inspiration for Oliver Stone's character study, which dramatizes events that took place between 2004 and 2013 with occasional brushstrokes of artistic licence.

For anyone who saw Poitras' documentary, Snowden is a redundant exercise in glossy repackaging.

Curiously, it's a film lacking in director Stone's trademark fire and brimstone, and his pedestrian trawl through recent history only sparks to life thanks to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's assured central performance as the beleaguered NSA whistleblower.

Snowden opens with Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and journalist Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) meeting Edward (Gordon-Levitt) in Hong Kong.

They place mobile phones in a microwave in Edward's room - a security measure to prevent surveillance tracking - before he recounts his life story in a series of flashbacks.

He recalls his training with the US Army, which leads to a position at the CIA under unit director Corbin O'Brian (Rhys Ifans).

"Secrecy is security, and security is victory," O'Brian tells his young charges.

Edward's impressive coding skills propel him on the fast track to writing programs that will protect sensitive NSA data.

Meanwhile, he begins dating Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), who stands by Edward as he embarks on his momentous course, but is also his voice of conscience.

"It's like I'm on a trajectory I can't turn back from," laments Edward.

"You can always turn back," replies Lindsay sternly.

Snowden is a polished, if suspense-free, political thriller for our surveillance-heavy times that shines a sympathetic light on the lead character.

Stone's screenplay, co-written by Kieran Fitzgerald, fails to sketch events outside of the Hong Kong hotel room in sufficient detail to give a clear sense of the multiple moral dilemmas and the terrible repercussions.

Gordon-Levitt delivers a measured performance, teasing out Edward's naivete as he delivers the script's barnstorming key speeches in favour of disclosure: "It's not about terrorism. Terrorism is the excuse. It's about social and economic control."

Footage of the real Snowden during the film's closing moments is a reminder of the superiority of the Citizenfour documentary.

Real-life voyeurism trumps Hollywood dramatisation.

:: SWEARING :: SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 6/10