Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Total Film

THE SMARTER MOVIE MAGAZINE I’ve met and interviewed Robert Pattinson numerous times over the years since he was jettisoned to stardom with Twilight, and have always enjoyed the quirky frankness that comes from conversations with him. He’s so anti-celebrity and fiercely independent in his choices that it should have come as no surprise to anyone when he was announced as the leftfield candidate to reinvent the Dark Knight for a new audience. Like Bruce, Pattinson views his world with a smirking irreverence but is deadly serious when it comes to the work – I’m intrigued to discover what he does with Mr. Wayne, and our allaccess look into The Batman this issue should whet your appetite for his latest outing. Is it a reboot, a requel or a reinvention? We…

Jacques Audiard may be best known for masculine movies like prison drama A Prophet and the remake of Fingers, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, but don’t suggest the Frenchman is all about testosterone. “Read My Lips was about a woman and Rust And Bone also has a strong female character,” he says. Still, it’s a common criticism of his work. “Would they say this to Scorsese or Eastwood? I don’t know. I never heard it said very much about Scorsese!” Sitting in the Cannes office of production company Memento, the 69-year-old director can now point to his new film, Paris, 13th District, as another female-centric title. An anthology of interlocking stories, it’s based on the 2015 comic-book stories by Adrian Tomine. “I wanted to talk about love and those…

Five years ago, Dan Erickson sent a script for a pilot episode of a new show to Ben Stiller’s production company, Red Hour Films. Creative executive Jackie Cohn was so impressed she passed it straight to Stiller. “I said, ‘We have to make it, ’” says Stiller, who directed six of the nine episodes himself, with the other three helmed by Aofie McArdle (Brave New World). “The framework reminded me of a specific kind of office–comedy genre that I’d credit to Mike Judge with Office Space, and obviously Ricky Gervais and the original Office, and the American Office, and Parks And Rec. It’s an amazingly funny genre that is very specific. But then Dan had this other layer, surreal, almost absurdist. I was like, ‘Oh, this is really unique. It…

JANE EYRE 2006 Wilson had only one screen credit to her name – in Channel 5 sitcom Suburban Shootout – when she landed the career-launching title role in the BBC’s lavish adaptation. “In a way, she’s a very modern character,” Wilson said at the time. LUTHER 2010-2019 Wilson’s long-running portrayal of Alice, the psycho-genius frenemy of Idris Elba’s moody DCI, has always been a highlight. Not that playing a killer was serious business: “[Luther’s] actually a bit like a comic book, but without the leather outfits.” THE AFFAIR 2014-2019 Though Wilson’s messy Alison was undermined by her S4 exit, she made the troubled Montauk waitress appointment viewing. As Alison and Noah (Dominic West) cheated on their spouses, their interior lives unravelled. THE LITTLE STRANGER 2018 In Lenny Abrahamson’s period chiller,…

★★★☆☆ OUT 25 FEB CINEMAS There’s no ‘De Bergerac’ appended to the latest screen adap of Edmond Rostand’s play. Nor does its hero brandish a giant hooter. Instead, it’s Peter Dinklage’s dwarfism that stops him professing love for cousin Roxanne (Haley Bennett), choosing instead to put his words in the mouth of a dashing dullard (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). The epistolary romance that ensues works well in Joe Wright’s good-looking, well-acted frock opera, which is let down, alas, by a drearily unmemorable musical element that only manages to impede the narrative and leave the stars exposed.…

★★★★☆ OUT 25 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Blurring the line between documentary and fiction, Swiss writer/director Fred Baillif – a former social worker – offers a critical portrait of the embattled juvenile care system, focusing on a group of at-risk teenage girls and staff members at a Geneva residential home. Split Rashomon-style into various chapters, in which events are replayed from the perspective of different characters, La Mif (French slang for ‘family’) is steeped in authenticity, thanks in no small part to the (non-professional) cast’s performances and prior experiences in care.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW PRIME VIDEO Taken takes to the Highlands in this thriller about a father desperately searching for his abducted seven-year-old, a quest that not only reunites oil worker Edmond (James McAvoy) with estranged wife Joan (Claire Foy), but also sees him utilising a blowtorch in ways even Liam Neeson might find a tad excessive. McAvoy only learned the story of Christian Carion’s movie as he went along, which may explain why the dialogue sounds so stilted. Yet the end result still grips enough to make you contemplate a compare/contrast with Carion’s 2017 French original.…

★★★★☆ OUT 7 FEB DIGITAL Folksy horror meets surreal sci-fi in this woozy feature debut from writer/director Kelsey Egan. It’s set in a world ravaged by The Shred, a chemical toxin that wipes the memories of those exposed to it. Established power dynamics are challenged when a stranger infiltrates the glasshouse home of a closely guarded family, causing tensions to rise and questions about the link between identity and memory to be explored. The world-building is rather thinly drawn, but an ever-present sense of fragility and gut-punching final revelation make for a memorable watch.…

1959 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentary, Featurettes, Booklet “I’ll think of this story as of the horror of forgetting,” states one of the lovers in Alain Resnais’ bold and beautiful debut feature. Essentially one long conversation between two lovers, French actor Elle/‘Her’ (Emmanuelle Riva) and Japanese architect Liu/‘Him’(Eiji Okada), HMA sees the French master blurring the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction to haunting effect. The result is a poetic, tragic and stylish meditation on the nature of memory viewed through the prism of love and conflict. Disc offers interviews old and new.…

TOYS/COLLECTIBLES DOCTOR STRANGE LEGO OUT NOW This Multiverse Of Madness set comes with three cool minifigures – America Chavez, Benedict Wong, Benedict Two – but really, you’re going to buy for the eye. The magnificent monocular monster is the centrepiece of Gargantos Showdown, rocking long, jointed tentacles that can be twisted and turned to create all sorts of bother for any interfering wizards. Please say someone’s working on a doorbell version. Set your sights on lego.com. TOYS/COLLECTIBLES THE BATMAN LEGO OUT NOW If this month’s cover feature has left you asking, “Does it come in… brick?” then you’re in luck. New set Batcave: The Riddler Face-Off has it all – jail cell, motorbike, coded messages – except for a Batmobile, available in a separate, ready-to-combine set. Another version of Wayne’s…

★★★★★ OUT NOW PS5, XBOX SERIES X/S From cartoon arcade hit Dragon’s Lair to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the notion of the ‘interactive movie’ has been around for decades. Its imagined ideal – a playable game using real-time graphics of a standard indistinguishable from film footage – is a white whale the videogame industry has chased with increased vigour in recent years. Now, that improbable dream seems close enough to touch, with The Matrix Awakens setting a new visual benchmark that developers will be chasing throughout the new console generation and beyond. Given its reality-questioning conceit, and its pioneering influence on contemporary gaming culture and digital-age filmmaking (not to mention the perfect get-out clause for any technical shortcomings), The Matrix is the perfect choice for such a showcase. And it’s a…

Q In Vacation Friends, John Cena and Lil Rel Howery join a fox hunt for some stag-do hijinks. Comedy fiction or realistic pursuit? A Octavia Pollack, Country Life Magazine There are packs of foxhounds in 38 states and six packs in Georgia where the film is set. Foxes are hunted in Virginia and Maryland, where the sport was founded by British incomers who brought packs of hounds and the foxes to hunt with them. Everywhere else, foxhounds hunt coyote, native grey foxes and bobcats. Hunting is more formal in the US and more elitist than in the UK. In Georgia, it’s very welcoming, often in shirt sleeves as it’s so hot, and the social side is tremendous. But it wouldn’t be very easy for an uninitiated rider to join, unless…

Why it was a good idea (on paper) Post-WALL•E, Pixar’s high-flying Andrew Stanton chose to stay in orbit. Films from Star Wars to Avatar had plundered writer Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian sci-fi saga in the past. But with a manly lead upfront, Stanton would return the material to the source for a new, far-reaching franchise: Raiders Of The Lost Thark beckoned. What went wrong? Arguably, Carter was a non-starter from the title and trailer on. Losing the “…Of Mars” qualifier was a dim-bulb move, leaving only a who-what-why title. Trailer 1 muddied the plot and muffled the novel’s haul of romance and adventure under rain-sodden imagery and Peter Gabriel’s dolorous voice. Known cast faces might have softened the harm; Taylor Kitsch’s chest and hair could not. Compounding the damage, trailer…

In Ruben Östlund’s satire on the art world, one 12-minute scene stands out for its audacity and discomfort. As Dominic West’s artist attends an elegant gala dinner for rich art benefactors, a performance artist (Terry Notary) arrives and literally goes ape. Amusing at first, the topless man becomes aggressive and threatening – smashing glassware, invading personal space and staying in character to the point that he chases a no-longer entertained West from the room and terrorises the guests left behind. Awkward and disquieting, the moment is one recognised by anyone who’s ever witnessed something tip from daft to dangerous; whether a scuffle at a taxi rank, a joke that becomes verbal abuse or an implied threat that escalates fast. Östlund brought in Notary – famous for his motion-performance work on…

BREAKING FREE Born in 1926, the film-loving Roger William Corman landed a job at 20th Century Fox in 1948, quickly working his way up the studio ranks from the mailroom to story analyst. However, when he didn’t get the credit he believed due for his notes on the script for Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter (1950), Corman quit. Within a few years, he had set up his own company, Palo Alto Productions, with younger brother Gene. FAST AND FURIOUS Shrewdly recognising the need for a steady supply of ‘B’ pictures to feed popular drive-in and grindhouse cinemas, Corman produced a run of lucrative exploitation quickies with lurid titles like It Conquered The World, Women In Cages and The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. His success on the big screen continued…

EASY 1 “I hope she dances better than she welds,” is a quote from which Flashdance referencing movie? 2 Which hoofing holiday-romance mega-hit was directed by Emile Ardolino? 3 True or false? Rudolf Nureyev biopic The White Crow marked Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut. 4 Which future Guardian Of The Galaxy made her feature debut in 2000’s Center Stage? 5 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers co-starred in how many films? a) 10; b) 7; c) 5. MEDIUM 1 In which movie do Nick Frost and Olivia Colman play siblings and former dance partners? 2 Breakin’ (1984) was retitled as what for its UK release? 3 What is Magic Mike’s real, off-stage name? 4 Rap legend Missy Elliott plays herself in which 2003 dance drama? 5 Name the hip-hop duo who head up…

After making films about vengeful ghosts (Tormented), bloodsucking aliens (Grabbers) and world-conquering automatons (Robot Overlords), writer-director Jon Wright turns to Irish folklore for his latest movie, Unwelcome. The film’s diminutive antagonists are malevolent goblins, the ‘far darrig’, colloquially known as the Red Men or Redcaps. So called because they dip their hats in the blood of their victims, the Redcaps are far removed from the old Irish cliché of leprechauns hoarding a pot of gold. “They enjoy violence. That’s what distinguishes them,” Wright explains. “They take gleeful pleasure in what they do. There’s no guilt or remorse there. There’s a joy… a joy and violence!” With Wright penning the script with regular co-writer Mark Stay, Unwelcome follows Maya (The Stranger’s Hannah John-Kamen) and Jamie (The Riot Club’s Douglas Booth), a…

Ben Whishaw has been tarred and feathered (Criminal Justice), electrocuted (Nathan Barley) and eaten alive (Perfume). But life on a labour ward in the BBC’s new comedy-drama This Is Going To Hurt set a new standard for unpleasantness. “It’s the most disgusting show I’ve ever worked on,” he laughs. “There have been a lot of bodily fluids – inevitably, given where it’s set. Have you got to the vomiting episode?” Teasers has not, and isn’t greatly looking forward to it. Adapted by Adam Kay from his memoir of this same name, the seven-part series follows Whishaw as ‘Adam’, a fictionalised version of the real-life doctor-turned-author who, in 2006, was also an acting registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology (aka “brats and twats”) at a London hospital. Exposing the insane working weeks…

“THE ONLY THING I’M ASKING IS THAT I GET TO RIDE A SANDWORM.”JAVIER BARDEM HAS ONE HOPE FOR DUNE: PART TWO. “Large swarms of flies kept following me around, and I truly began to believe that [Patrizia Reggiani] had sent them.”LADY GAGA THOUGHT SHE WAS HEXED ON HOUSE OF GUCCI. 12 PERCENTAGE OF FILMS DIRECTED BY WOMEN IN THE 100 HIGHEST GROSSING FILMS OF 2021, DOWN FROM 16% IN 2020. £10 THE AVERAGE COST OF A CINEMA TICKET IN THE UK. HOW DOES YOUR LOCAL COMPARE? “I TOLD [DIESEL] DIRECTLY THAT I WOULD NOT BE RETURNING TO THE FRANCHISE.”THE ROCK RULES OUT A RETURN TO THE MAINLINE FAST FILMS. “IF YOU APPEAL TO EVERYONE YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. AND WE OFFENDED A LOT OF PEOPLE.”PETER DINKLAGE REFLECTS ON GAME OF…

INT. DINER – DAY. A wolf and a snake sit opposite each other in a window booth, each nursing a cup of coffee. They joke around about snack food for a few minutes before an unbroken camera follows them out of the diner, across the street and into the bank as the funk soundtrack kicks in. “Let’s bounce” says Wolf. Cue titles. “This is absolutely a Tarantino movie for kids,” laughs director Pierre Perifel. “It’s Reservoir Dogs with animals!” Screening a few key scenes of The Bad Guys for Teasers, the French director is proud of all the grown-up influences he’s worked into the coolest looking DreamWorks animation in years. “We have all the usual suspects,” he says. “Tarantino, Scorsese, Soderbergh, the Wachowskis, Luc Besson… we also have The Usual…

In March 1999, the Kosova village of Krusha e Madhe was the site of a massacre that left 240 dead or missing. Hive, a true story, is set seven years on, as Fahrije (Yllka Gashi) continues to search for her husband and corrals a band of women into selling jars of homemade pepper preserve to the local supermarket. This start-up business is a matter of survival. But women so much as holding a driving licence are disdained by the patriarchal order. “I felt really inspired by her,” says writer/director Blerta Basholli, whose excellent debut won the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award and the Audience Award in the World Cinema strand of the Sundance Film Festival. “I thought, ‘We all need to see this strong character – women, men, girls,…

Adapted by Anthony Horowitz from his own bestseller, six-part drama Magpie Murders toys with timelines and the border between fact and fiction. Stars Lesley Manville, Daniel Mays and Timothy McMullan lead Teasers through a minefield of spoilers… How does the story fit together? Lesley Manville (Susan Ryeland): I play an editor at a very successful publishing company whose leading author is the crime writer Alan Conway [Conleth Hill], a difficult client to say the least. But Alan dies before he can finish the last book in his Atticus Pünd ‘Magpie Murders’ series, so Susan has to go to his house in Suffolk and solve the mystery around his death – was it murder, suicide or an accident? She finds possible connections and parallels in his unfinished manuscript. Timothy McMullan (Atticus…

It’s a good time for lovers of all things Norse. In April, Robert Eggers’ The Northman (see p12) will blow into cinemas, with its tale of a vengeful Viking prince. But for those that need their fix sooner, there is Vikings: Valhalla, the new Netflix-streamed spin-off of Michael Hirst’s Vikings that moves the action on a hundred years from the original show’s tales of legendary warrior Ragnar Lothbrok. While there will be nods to that six-season series here, they will be subtle, promises creator/showrunner Jeb Stuart. “It’s not like a Marvel show where we start with the Easter eggs, and then you build a story around that,” he says. “I do think that what was very important for us was to be familiar to our audience, but it’s a different…

BATMAN 1989 Tim Burton’s superhero blockbuster needed a special set of wheels. “We had a manufacturer in Detroit who wanted to build the Batmobile – but they wanted three years to do it! So Tim Burton came to me and said we would make it back in London. We got a couple of Chevrolet Impala Convertibles which we could cut up and stretch, and we used the chassis as a base for the vehicle. We then used a clay model or maquette to get the shape right, cast it off in plaster and put the shell over the existing engine. “We had a big sculpture made of white polystyrene and Tim came to look at it. He said, ‘Terry, it’s absolutely great, but how do you get in it?’ I’d…

★★★★★ OUT 4 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Studio Chizu’s Mamoru Hosoda edged close to Studio Ghibli’s anime heights in 2018 with the Oscar-nominated Mirai, a homely and heartfelt twist on A Christmas Carol. Four years on, Hosoda closes the gap with his radical variant on another classic tale, Beauty And The Beast. Between story, soundtrack and sumptuous world-building, the Japanese writer/director’s immersive cyber-fable envelops you in colour, feeling and emo-pop epiphanies: even before the speaker-encrusted whales fly into view, Belle asserts itself as a feast for the heart and senses, mounted in dazzling shows of vision and ambition. An enthralling opening sequence swiftly establishes the allure of ‘U’, an expansive virtual world where teenagers can generate self-idealised avatars based on “biometric information” – an irresistible invitation to the emotionally troubled or introverted.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 11 FEB DIGITAL Straight from the pre-credits scene, Black Friday sells itself as a horror-comedy. Unfortunately, scares are not on offer and it quickly runs out of laughs. As the mismatched staff at a corporate toy shop fend off a shopping onslaught turned monstrous rampage on the most hellish shopping day of the year, the film trudges through a formulaic cast picking-off, an insipid script and gloomily shot, unfocused action. Devon Sawa offers a lone spark of vivacity among a mostly wooden main cast, while Michael Jai White is fun but underused, and Bruce Campbell’s jaded manager somehow needs more ham.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 4 FEB CINEMAS A high saccharine tolerance is a prerequisite for this starry but by-numbers caper, in which a group of elderly Vietnam vets, led by James Cromwell’s enterprising Bronson, plot to break out of their nursing home. Some moments of spiky humour undercut the sentimentality, while Cromwell’s twinkly-eyed charm elevates a romantic subplot, where Bronson attempts to reunite with lost love Norma (a fine but underused Jacki Weaver). However, despite game support from the likes of Dennis Waterman and Roy Billing, the script’s mawkish contrivances leave a sickly aftertaste.…

★★★★☆ OUT 11 FEBRUARY CINEMAS DIRECTOR Kirill Serebrennikov STARRING Semyon Serzin, Chulpan Khamatova, Vladislav Semiletkov SCREENPLAY Kirill Serebrennikov DISTRIBUTOR Sovereign RUNNING TIME 146 mins Off screen, the story behind Petrov’s Flu is one of imposed restraints. On it, altogether more liberated visions erupt. Adapting a novel by Alexey Salnikov, writer/ director Kirill Serebrennikov (The Servant, Leto) wrote the script while under house arrest in Russia on – allegedly – politically motivated charges; when the film reached Cannes, he was unable to leave Russia. No such boundaries hinder his film: splicing grotesque realism, dirty surrealism, dystopian horror, absurdist comedy and more, Petrov’s Flu maps out a carnivalesque trip through a psychogeographical hellscape with bracingly messy vigour. Played by a deadpan Semyon Serzin, Petrov is a fever-wracked comic-book artist. First encountered coughing…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL A familiar home-invasion set-up is offset by refreshingly rounded characterisation in this sharply written thriller, which subverts tropes and offers layers of moral complexity. Visually impaired actor Skyler Davenport plays Sophie, a blind former skier who takes a cat-sitting job in a large, isolated mansion. When violent thieves break in, Sophie finds an ally in remote helper Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), who guides her via a support app called ‘See For Me’. Alongside a steady stream of narrative surprises, there’s a laudable focus on our hero’s capabilities rather than her vulnerability.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW PRIME VIDEO The bouncy, family-friendly franchise switches things up with this fourquel, as a misused ‘Monsterification Ray’ zaps a delighted Johnny (Andy Samberg) into a towering dragon and Dracula (Brian Hull) and his pack into puny humans. Kids who love the series’ reliably silly, squash-and-squeeze antics will enjoy the undemanding high-energy slapstick that ensues when Drac and a goofy, Godzilla-esque Johnny search for a cure up the Amazon. But adults missing Adam Sandler’s voicework and earlier Hotels’ ingenuity might find it time to check out…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Featurettes Three videogame-shop workers find themselves confronted with an unearthly threat when the ‘reality’ part of a virtual-reality update to a classic game takes over the world. Occasional LOLs and a spirited approach can’t overcome the glitchier moments, though, with ambition quickly running out of budget bandwidth and the plot lagging heavily in the second half. Hassie Harrison’s naturally funny turn as Liz stands out among the lead cast, while Kevin Smith and Martin Kove offer game support in entertaining (if superfluous) cameos.…

1956 ★★★★★ OUT 21 FEB BD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Documentary, Featurette, Essay Douglas Sirk’s ’50s melodramas for Universal become more vivid with each passing decade, and this is one of his finest. It’s the tale of alcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack), the son of a Texas oil baron, who marries the woman (Lauren Bacall) whom his poor BFF (Rock Hudson) loves. Sirk conjures an electric mix of chic camera moves, lush lighting, sumptuous music, overwrought performances and eye-popping phallic symbolism. Dorothy Malone excels as Kyle’s hellcat sister. Top extra: 2008 doc Acting For Douglas Sirk.…

1962 ★★★★★ OUT NOW 4 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Celebrating its 60th birthday with a big-screen re-release, Francois Truffaut’s vivacious French New Wave tale of an unorthodox love triangle in pre-WW1 France is still one of cinema’s most enduring romances. The nonconformist attitudes of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) and her pair of lovers, Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre), are a direct reflection of the director himself, who infuses the ménage à trois with trendsetting technique. Freeze frames, wipes, archive footage and handheld camerawork are all used to dazzling effect – and without snatching attention from the performances.…

Across a free-ranging career, Michael Winterbottom has repeatedly tapped into one reliable resource of drama and feeling. From films named after Elvis Costello (I Want You) and U2 (With Or Without You) songs, to lusty dramas (9 Songs) and Wolf Alice docs (On The Road), pop music has been a constant for the director. After nods to New Order, Joy Division and Happy Mondays in earlier films, Winterbottom’s passion peaked with his tribute to Manchester’s Factory Records. Twenty years young this year, 24 Hour Party People is magnificent in-flight and crash-down entertainment, a chemical cocktail of fact, fancy and Bez-eyed gurning issued with full-pelt fervour. Punk’s impact gobs the Party into life, reflected by a holy trinity of formative bands. In honour of their influential, if under-attended 1976 Manchester gigs,…

★★★★★ KEVIN GOETZ SIMON & SCHUSTER Test screenings. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’ve become a vital part of Hollywood’s process, albeit one shrouded in secrecy. Until now. Kevin Goetz, a guru of audience analysis, knows more about test screenings than anyone. Given the understandable caveat that much of Goetz’s work is bound by confidentiality, this is still an indispensable insight into exactly what happens. Combining his own experiences with anecdotes from major players, it’s a treasure trove of stories. Some of the tales are purely entertaining, from Titanic’s cloak-and-dagger debut to the horror show of audiences failing to show up. Of most benefit, though, are the forensic studies of how filmmakers tweaked their stories to raise those vital test scores. Obviously, these decisions tend to favour business over art,…

WHAT? The fortified medieval village where Maximus Decimus Meridius shouts, “Are you not entertained?!” WHERE? Aït Benhaddou, Morocco GO? Gladiator’s arena was created for the film with the town as a backdrop, but this historic ksar on the trans-Saharan trade route is a UNESCO World Heritage site for it’s earthen clay architecture. It’s played Yunkai in Game Of Thrones and was the citadel destroyed in the fighter-jet escape in The Jewel Of The Nile.…

FOR SALE Beautiful Illinois mansion with numerous family rooms and an extensive attic so large you could forget someone was up there. In a friendly street with strong neighbourhood-watch ethos and great local restaurant delivery options, the house boasts a staired entrance and back door (please note, de-icing measures should be taken during winter months) and treehouse in the backyard. Recently renovated to a high standard after accidental damage by homeowners’ child, this gorgeous property can be enjoyed alone as much as with a large family. Available for sale immediately after Christmas period. HINDSIGHT CORNER EDDIE REDMAYNE THE DANISH GIRL December 2015 “I hope that in some ways our film continues the discussion, because us learning to be allies to the trans community is so important.” November 2021 “I wouldn’t…

It was intimidating and daunting,” says writer/ director Robert Eggers of upscaling from the intimacy of his first two movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse, to the epic reach of his third, The Northman. Buy hey, it goes with the territory – any filmmaker whose first films are so exemplary is going to be granted bigger toys by a studio, and a Viking picture lends itself to vast landscapes and sweeping battles. “I was utterly terrified, but it’s a major privilege to be able to do something like this,” Eggers continues. “It’s been exciting. The studio let me use all my head of departments from my last two films, and I was able to work with the top Viking historians in the world, which was incredible.” Based on the story…

JAMIE GRAHAM @JAMIE_GRAHAM9 There might be no way home for Spidey, but he sure knows his way to the top of the box office. After a $260-million domestic opening weekend – the second-biggest in history, behind only Avengers: Endgame – Tom Holland’s web-crawler swung past the billion-dollar mark worldwide in little more than a week. At the time of writing, he’s scaled his way to $1,542bn, making Spider-Man: No Way Home the eighth-biggest film ever. Given the box-office woes endured by cinemas since March 2020, when Covid-19 first caused our beloved picture palaces to shutter, you’d think such astronomical figures would make for ecstatic reading. But perhaps all is not quite so Marvel-ous as it first seems, for it was reported that US cinemas were cancelling showings of Guillermo del…

Considered the thinking man’s Bond by some, bespectacled secret agent Harry Palmer was memorably portrayed by Michael Caine in 1965 spy classic The Ipcress File, and four diminishing return sequels, culminating in dismal ’96 made-for-TV movie Midnight In Saint Petersburg. Now, 60 years on from the character’s literary introduction, Palmer is returning to the screen in a new, six-episode adaptation of The Ipcress File starring Joe Cole as the short-sighted spook. It’s a long overdue revival for Her Majesty’s other suave, suited, food-obsessed spy. But where Bond has moved with the times (chronologically, anyway), The Ipcress File is staying true to Len Deighton’s original novel and Sidney J. Furie’s film by retaining the not-so-swinging ’60s setting. “James [Watkins, director] and I both wanted to inhabit the world that the character…

DIRECTOR Michael Showalter STARRING Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio SCREENPLAY Abe Sylvia DISTRIBUTOR Disney RUNNING TIME 126 mins ★★★☆☆ OUT 4 FEBRUARY CINEMAS During much of her promotion for this passion project, Jessica Chastain – who bought the dramatic rights to Tammy Faye’s story after seeing the same-named 2000 doc – has stressed her yearning to create a film that celebrates kindness and inclusivity. In Chastain’s eyes, these are the hero qualities of the titular Tammy, a real-life superstar in the world of TV evangelism whose stairway to heaven came crashing down when her husband, Jim Bakker, was found guilty of fraud, having funnelled viewers’ cash into a series of dodgy enterprises. And it’s the good in Faye that this telling focuses on with the sort of…

DIRECTOR Joanna Hogg STARRING Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, James Spencer Ashworth, Richard Ayoade SCREENPLAY Joanna Hogg DISTRIBUTOR Picturehouse RUNNING TIME 107 mins ★★★★☆ OUT 4 FEBRUARY CINEMAS If Fellini and Truffaut could make multi-film memoirs about their artistic lives, why shouldn’t a female British director do just the same? Joanna Hogg’s critically acclaimed auto-fiction The Souvenir (2019) smuggled a fragile portrait of the artist as a young film student into an ‘80s-set romantic tragedy. This delicate if occasionally overinvolved sequel finds the bereaved and reeling Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) rockily exploring that doomed love in her graduation film. Hogg shows off her gift for creating subtle emotional portraits by letting the naive Julie stumble clumsily through mourning (a sudden, grief-fuelled hookup, a mortifying visit to the deceased’s drug dealer)…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Mixing fairytale whimsy with hard sci-fi, this sweet anime from director/co-writer Yasuhiro Yoshiura tells an adorable story about a human-like AI starting at high school to test whether she can believably pass as a student. Cute pop songs ensue as the personable android mysteriously homes in on her creator’s teen daughter and her friends, but an exploration of more cerebral themes runs deep. Combining some delightful characterisation with hints of existentialism, Sing A Bit Of Harmony strikes a rewarding balance, capped by a satisfying final-act revelation.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS As much sequel as reboot, this could have been called Scream 5. Why it isn’t, other than putting off younger viewers who’ve not seen the first four instalments, is explained, naturally, by one of its movie-literate characters: it is, á la the Star Wars sequel trilogy, or the new Halloween movies, or Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a ‘requel’, telling a new story (which is much like the old story) with new characters but ensuring that legacy stars return to keep fans happy. But all good things to those who wait. For while old favourites Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) come into play as the story unfurls and the body count escalates, it all starts off with a new gang of…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS With tender care, Brent Wilson’s (no relation) affectionate, insightful doc justifies another look at the Beach Boys’ surf-pop savant. While supportive pal/ journalist Jason Fine drives, Brian visits old Cali haunts, touching on the stories surrounding them. Even if Wilson hardly dominates the convo – mental-health issues still trouble him – his reticence suggests the deep-seated feelings he transformed into ineffably sweet, sad song. Alongside loving A-lister contributions (Elton, Bruce…), Wilson’s damaged genius is given air to breathe and move: anyone got sand in their eye?…

★★★☆☆ OUT 7 FEB DIGITAL This directorial debut from Nicholas Ashe Bateman is steeped in the stunning aesthetics he’s known for as a visual-effects artist (check out The Green Knight). It’s set in Anmaere, a post-apocalyptic world where people from the city Whithren hope to travel alongside an annual shipment of horses to Levithen to make better lives for themselves. There’s much to admire, not least the committed performances, but this lyrical sci-fi tale is dreamy to the point of befuddling. There’s no denying how gorgeous it all is, yet it ultimately rings rather hollow.…

2001 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Storyboard comparisons, Deleted scenes, Video essay, Booklet, Art cards Tensions boil over and old secrets are uncovered as a clean-up crew races against the clock to remove the asbestos from an abandoned former asylum in Brad Anderson’s slow-burn psychological chiller. If the final twists are telegraphed a little too obviously to truly hit the spot, the unnerving atmosphere of decay S9 generates (helped in no small part by filming at the actual Danvers State Mental Hospital) and Peter Mullan’s potent lead performance ensure it still gets under your skin. Stacks of new extras.…

Though you-know-what turned 2021’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) into a virtual event, this year saw the tech extravaganza make a welcome return to Las Vegas. Despite a few big players getting cold feet about attending, there was plenty of new home-cinema tech on show to get excited about. Here’s what to look out for this year and beyond… PANASONIC LZ2000 OUT SUMMER, £TBC Panasonic’s new flagship OLED TV is built with movie-watching in mind, having been tuned for colour accuracy by Hollywood colourist guru Stefan Sonnenfeld. It comes in 55in and 65in panel sizes, along with a new 77in version for an even more cinematic effect. With sound tuned by cult audio brand Technics, the TV also supports Dolby Atmos 360 sound thanks to its upward- and side-firing speakers. The…

1 PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES When Neil (Steve Martin) falls in with loudmouth Dell (John Candy) on the way home for Thanksgiving, Dell drops a lit cigarette, then spins and drives the wrong way between two oncoming trucks… only for their car to burst into flames. 2 FINAL DESTINATION 2 In a series known for its inventive kills, the opening – and franchisetopping – carnage of the second Final Destination saw a barrage of logs come loose from a flatbed truck before smushing straight through the head of a driver just behind. Timber! 3 THE OMEN Parents Robert (Gregory Peck) and Katherine (Lee Remick) try to get son Damien into the car for a family day out. They may not yet know that their boy is the Antichrist, but parents…

There’s plenty that’s implausible about Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man, from the genetically modified arachnid bite and organic web-shooters, to all that swinging between skyscrapers. But the movie’s biggest curveball is how a high-school student with zero tailoring experience crafts himself a slick, figure-hugging spandex outfit. How Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker upgrades his tie-dye tracksuit to a snazzy raised-web design is never explained. Unless The Incredibles’ Edna Mode stepped in to fill the mentor-shaped void left by Uncle Ben’s passing, it makes no sense. And yet I’ll happily take old-school Spidey’s unlikely haute couture over the fantastical nanotech costumes from the MCU. The days of diligently hiding your super-suit under your civvies are long gone, now that Lycra, weaponised armour and robot spider legs can materialise from microscopic particles floating in…

The first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, Sidney Poitier died on 6 January, aged 94. Born into poverty to Bahamian farmers, Poitier was raised in Nassau. At 15, he joined the army, then faked a psychiatric disorder to get discharged. His acting career began at Harlem’s American Negro Theater, and he made his film debut in No Way Out (1951), playing a doctor who is racially harassed. Poitier’s star began to rise when he portrayed a student at an unruly New York high school in Blackboard Jungle (1955), which grabbed attention for its rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack, and an on-the-run convict chained to fellow escapee Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones (1958). In the 1960s, as the Civil Rights Movement came to prominence, Poitier became…

Back in June 1992, Tim Burton joined Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito at the press junket for the big-budget comicbook blockbuster, Batman Returns. The theatrical release of the superhero sequel was a couple of weeks away, but the trio of actors behind Batman, Catwoman and The Penguin attended interviews alongside the acclaimed director and introduced the world to the highly anticipated (and deliciously dark) movie. As Batman Returns celebrates its 30-year anniversary in 2022, Total Film hits the archives to rediscover their discussions on the Caped Crusader, claustrophobia, contracts, costumes and more… ON CONTINUING THE SERIES Michael Keaton: I’m glad I trusted my instincts about Batman. I’m glad I was willing to take the chance to play this role. If Batman had been a failure, it would have…

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS 1960 ★★★☆☆ The most famous example of Corman’s filmmaking philosophy, this knockabout horror-comedy was shot over a couple of days for just $28,000. THE INTRUDER 1962 ★★★★★ William Shatner stars in this criminally under-seen racial-integration drama, which Corman claims is the only film he made that lost money. THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH 1964 ★★★★★ Nicolas Roeg’s striking cinematography adds extra lustre to the best (and most colourful) of Corman’s eight Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. THE TRIP 1967 ★★★★☆ Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper star in this Jack Nicholson-scripted, LSD-fuelled counterculture classic – which was refused a BBFC certificate until 2002!…