Brutalisation, bigotry, home and exile: the loss of innocence engendered by violence is a sober theme, treated in contrasting ways by two new films. One is grim, verging on portentous, the other humorous to the point of flippancy. Both methods have their strengths.

In Stop-Loss, director Kimberly Peirce confirms the grasp of tensions seething under the surface of American small-town normality that she displayed in Boys Don’t Cry. A group of soldiers are feted by their Texan community on their return from Iraq, but drunkenness and brawling reveal a state of emotional near-collapse. When a decorated hero is told on the day he’s due to leave the army that he is being sent back on service, he rebels. This cancellation of military contracted terms, a modern equivalent of the press gang that indefinitely extends a soldier’s service, is the infamous “stop-loss” loophole. Known as “the back-door draft”, it has affected more than 80,000 American servicemen and women, and has sent Vietnam-style refuseniks to seek refuge across the Canadian and Mexican borders.