Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Total Film

They say the war tore a hole in the sky, the sun came down, burned everything, everyone…’ said Denzel Washington's blind drifter Eli, rather cryptically, in 2010 post-apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli. Well, now a prequel series starring John Boyega as Eli is set to answer what, exactly, happened to turn the US into a wasteland. Boyega will also be an executive producer, while the movie's directors Albert and Allen Hughes (Dead Presidents) will shepherd the show to our screens. You can expect the prequel to answer other key questions left dangling by the film: how did Eli become blind? Where did he learn his marksmanship and combat skills? And perhaps most important of all, how did Eli gain possession of the last Bible, key to humanity's salvation? News…

IF IT'S SHIT, HE'LL GET SLAPPED AGAIN.’ ANOTHER ROUND DIRECTOR THOMAS VINTERBERG ON CHRIS ROCK DIRECTING A US REMAKE. 376 THE PERCENTAGE BY WHICH ONLINE SEARCHES OF ‘WATCH OPPENHEIMER’ INCREASED WHEN NOLAN'S EPIC RECEIVED 13 OSCAR NOMINATIONS. ‘PEOPLE TALK AND MOVE AROUND A LOT. I'M SHORT AND THERE'S ALWAYS A BIG PERSON IN FRONT OF ME.’ MARTIN SCORSESE ON WHY HE DOESN'T SEE HIS OWN FILMS IN PUBLIC. HIGH FIVE SPIKE LEE AND DENZEL WASHINGTON WILL TEAM UP FOR A FIFTH TIME TO REMAKE KUROSAWA'S CRIME THRILLER HIGH AND LOW. GOOD THING BAD THING RIP ANIMATION DIRECTOR MARK GUSTAFSON (FANTASTIC MR. FOX, GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO) DIED OF A HEART ATTACK, AGED 64. ‘I was the first kid in the UK to watch Star Wars… I hated it.’ JONATHAN GLAZER…

As Carrie in Disney+ superpower comedy Extraordinary, Sofia Oxenham has the ability to channel and embody the dead. It's this shape-shifting quality that has served the RADAtrained star of Poldark, Cursed and the upcoming A Very Royal Scandal – which dramatises the Prince Andrew Newsnight interview – well as she heads into Extraordinary's second series and beyond. How much of you is in Carrie? I like to think that I'm as good a friend as Carrie is. I definitely have moments of being unsure of myself and being a bit shy, which Carrie definitely has more than me. It's the stuff that you try to hide in your own life, but then being able to explore that on screen is kind of therapeutic. Carrie can channel the dead – which…

Some television moments are forever etched into the public consciousness. The moon landing. The JFK assassination. Moonlight's Best Picture win. And, of course, Prince Andrew using Woking's Pizza Express as an alibi. Prince Andrew's car-crash interview with Emily Maitlis in November 2019 is now the subject of the Netflix film Scoop, based on the former Newsnight editor Sam McAlister's book. The always phenomenal Billie Piper plays Sam, who acts as our guide. ‘We come into the story through Sam,’ says director Philip Martin. ‘She's not someone who goes to Buckingham Palace, so her dealings with the palace and Andrew's team come from the point of view of an outsider.’ This starkly contrasts with Martin's previous stint directing the first two seasons of The Crown, where ‘you're inside the castle bubble…

‘I had an incredible team around me. I recognised that if you're going to do something like this, not only is it about the aesthetic in a lot of ways, but it's also about the functionality of being able to do stunts day after day. A lot of these fights, we were shooting from 7pm to 5am. ‘I had somebody waking me up in the morning before work, and we'd work out for an hour-and-a-half. And then I'd get to set, and we would have to figure out what the scene was. And I would work out in the morning depending on what was called for in the stunt, or how much energy I needed. ‘It's weights. It's also fight training. It's also running. It was everything. The fight training…

What excites you the most about Frozen Empire? I'm excited to see the OGs in their ghostbusting suits. Honestly, it's the biggest thrill to be in the room when they're doing their thing. How heavy is a proton pack? Heavier than you think. It's not the most comfortable thing. They started to set up these stands so that we could rest the packs easily while we were standing around with them on between takes. What do you make of the movie's newcomers? Kumail, Patton and James are hilarious. They're all smart and funny comedians – and big Ghostbusters fans. They are also really great guys, which is nice because it's fun to hang out with nice, funny people. What's James Acaster like? James is a great comedian and a real…

MONSTERS VS ALIENS Susan is a sweet girl until a meteor hits her on her wedding day, then turns her the size of a skyscraper. You're literally something on the bottom of her shoe. MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND G-Girl has superpowers that make her a great mate, until she's dumped by her feckless boyfriend a powerful, vengeful former flame. Don't piss off a supe. WANDAVISION Wanda is a model wife to Vision, until she recalls the real reason for her creating their world. Then all hell breaks loose. Well, what is grief if not love persevering? ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN Wealthy socialite grows gargantuan and goes after her philandering, murderous ex-hubby for revenge. You do you, Nancy. And in a makeshift bikini bedsheet. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN Pre-teen…

OUT 22 MARCH CINEMAS Do androids really dream of electric sheep? Robot reveries turn out to be far more rich and soulful than Philip K. Dick suggested in Pablo Berger's heartwarming (and sometimes heartbreaking) Oscar-nominated animation about a lonely New York City dog and his robot buddy. Surprisingly, this vibrant, moving story about the very human need for friendship and connection has zero humans in it, because Dog is pining for a pal in a bustling, Zootropolis-style animal-packed 1980s Big Apple. His solitary life of Pong-for-one and ready meals is transformed when he literally makes a friend, laboriously constructing Robot from a TV-advertised kit. The second sizeable surprise is that this cleverly compassionate film also has no dialogue. Director Pablo Berger's lush silent-cinema take on Snow White, 2012's Blancanieves, proved…

SCREEN OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS A near-three-hour dark comedy about a frazzled production assistant interviewing candidates for a workplace safety video might not sound like many cinemagoers’ idea of a good time. Throw in a cameo from controversial filmmaker Uwe Boll, nods to the repellent Andrew Tate and inserts of 1981 social-realist drama Angela Goes On, and Radu Jude's latest might seem an avant-garde provocation too far. But this restlessly inventive and scabrously funny film taps into universal and relatable truths. When she's not delivering tirades at fellow road users or making X-rated clips as Tatesatirising TikTok alter-ego Bobita, Ilinca Manolache's Angela proves that she's as smart as she is cynical – notably when she's running rings around Nina Hoss’ entertainingly aloof exec. Jude boldly flips from gritty black-and-white to…

OUT 1 MARCH CINEMAS Writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania's fascinating Oscarnominated documentary relates the story of Tunisian woman Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, two of whom fled to Libya in 2015 to join Islamic State. Shooting in a disused Tunis hotel, Hania experiments boldly with form, using first-person testimony from Olfa and her two younger children, rehearsals with actors playing the mother and the absent older siblings, and filmed reenactments of family memories. What's revealed is a cycle of suffering in which traumatic experiences are tragically passed from generation to generation.…

SCREEN OUT 1 MARCH CINEMAS CURZON HOME CINEMA Following on from 2017's 120 BPM, director/co-writer Robin Campillo again draws on personal memories for this languid coming-of-age drama set on a French military base in Madagascar during the early 1970s, when the nation had its own growing pains. Sensitive eight-year-old Thomas (Charlie Vauselle) quietly observes the often-mysterious adult world around him and takes refuge in the exploits of masked superhero Fantômette. Sensually shot and making evocative use of period songs, Red Island imaginatively blends the personal and the political.…

OUT 15 MARCH CINEMAS As a drought devastates their small village in northern Senegal, a young married couple (Khady Mane and Mamadou Diallo, their chemistry sizzling) navigate their star-crossed romance in the face of local obligation and tradition. The feature debut of FrenchSenegalese director RamataToulaye Sy, this haunting modern fable moves with poetic grace, juggling lingering views of the idyllic yet sun-ravaged desert with intimate close-ups of the townsfolk. The beauty belies the growing horror at the heart of the story, as a once-passionate love is engulfed by superstition and circumstance.…

OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL Lizzy (Michelle Williams) wears a perma-frown. A sculptor in Portland, she has a show in a week's time, but life won't let her focus on the twisted figures her fingers painstakingly craft. For starters, she has no hot water – and her landlady Jo (Hong Chau), who happens to be a more successful artist with a happier disposition, keeps putting off fixing it. And then Lizzy's cat brings in a wounded pigeon that needs to be cared for… Will healing the bird prove a salve for Lizzy's sourness? Can we expect a frenzy of inspiration to ensure the show's a success? And will Lizzy's dysfunctional family – Judd Hirsch and Maryann Plunkett as her divorced parents, John Magaro as a brother with mental-health issues –…

OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL Ageing hitman Wilson (Ian McShane) lands in the Canary Islands for one last job that starts to feel more like a retirement holiday. But then trouble arrives in the form of Adam Nagaitis’ younger assassin, and the nature of Wilson's brief is belatedly revealed. Until the inevitable violent climax, Gonzalo LópezGallego's film is a beguilingly languid mood piece, distinguishing itself via the twin landscapes of McShane's rugged features and the similarly handsome Fuerteventura scenery. There's fine support, too, from Nora Arnezeder as impetuous expat Gloria.…

SCREEN OUT NOW DIGITAL There's a dash of Tarantino and a pinch of the Coens in this lively debut from the Burghart brothers (Ben and Jacob). A Kansas-set slice of pulp fiction, it stars Aaron Jakubenko (Tidelands) as Kat, an escaped con who, at the outset, is seen with his own revolver being held to his head by an unknown aggressor. How many bullets has the gun fired? That's part of the mystery, as Kat recalls prior events across several interlinked chapters. It's nothing new per se, but it's still a brisk 80-minute ride that boasts some ace supporting characters, intricate plotting and dialogue that occasionally fizzes.…

OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS Kevin Macdonald's (Touching the Void) nuanced documentary charts the rise, fall and comeback of British fashion designer John Galliano, who was sacked as creative director of Dior in 2011; a French court later found him guilty of antisemitic and racist rants in a public setting. Alongside illustrative film clips (The Red Shoes, Abel Gance's Napoleon) and footage of his workaholic subject's headline-grabbing shows, Macdonald interviews friends and high-profile colleagues of Galliano, as well as the man himself. Just how repentant he is remains ambiguous.…

OUT 11 MARCH BD DIGITAL The latest from writer/director Luc Besson is a curious tale of one man and his dogs. The man is Douglas (Caleb Landry Jones), who's been arrested for an initially unspecified crime. Wounded and bloody, he's dressed in a blonde wig and a pink evening dress. In the back of his van are his ‘babies’, a pack of dogs that obey his every command. In his cell, Douglas meets Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs), a kindly psychiatrist to whom he feels compelled to reveal his backstory. Given its depiction of a lonely soul in the city, some may compare this New Jersey fable with Besson's 1994 classic Léon. Here, Douglas only truly finds companionship with his furry friends. Their only flaw? Trusting humans, he says. Jones relishes…

OUT NOW NETFLIX You wouldn't call Emma Yarlett's cosy kids’ book and arthouse fave Charlie Kaufman natural bedfellows. But DreamWorks’ charming animation finds the sweet spot, as Kaufman's script nimbly spins anxiety-ridden Orion's (Jacob Tremblay) bedtime fears into a wild, globetrotting ride with Paul Walter Hauser's wisecracking Dark. Despite its CGI good looks, the film has an indie, handmade feel. Small kids might struggle with the sudden changes of storyteller, but the smart explorations of fear and feelings are clear-cut, wrapped snugly in a rollicking adventure.…

SCREEN 1939 OUT 11 MARCH BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Essay The Great War, the Great Depression, a love quadrangle, four musical numbers… Centred on James Cagney's rising/falling bootlegger, Raoul Walsh's decade-spanning gangster epic is stuffed to the gritty gills, but retains the lean punch the genre was famed for in the 30s. Director and star reteamed for the more-revered White Heat (1949), but at its best – Cagney trading quips with Gladys George, or barbs with Bogie – this burns just as bright.…

1951 OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Intro, Featurettes, Gallery Out of the Past, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie… French director Jacques Tourneur made more famous films, but this thriller is an overlooked gem. Blending Hitchcockian mystery and humour with the eccentricity of a windswept Powell and Pressburger romance, Circle of Danger sees Ray Milland travel from Florida to England, Wales and Scotland to investigate the death of his younger brother. Colourful and compelling, it gleams in this 4K restoration.…

2017 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Documentaries, Featurettes, Essay A well-deserved Criterion release for director/co-writer Dee Rees’ powerful historical race drama. Nominated for multiple Oscars, this adap expertly weaves together several narrative threads as it follows two farming families – white landowners and Black tenants – during World War Two. Prejudice, vulnerability and bitter human truths come to light in a movie distinguished by Rees’ grounded, intimate direction. Unsurprisingly, the array of extras highlight the dedication and resourcefulness that went into the production.…

1991 OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted/extended scenes, Shorts, Storyboards, Music video, Booklet ‘If you have a problem with the men in the movie, I think you're probably identifying with the wrong character,’ says Geena Davis of the response from some viewers to Ridley Scott's groundbreaking road movie. While Criterion's 4K restoration will do nothing to change their minds, for the rest of us there's plenty to savour, not least the disc's handling of the film's stunning widescreen vistas. Expanded extras include Scott discussing his formative years in the industry.…

1985 OUT 22 MARCH CINEMAS It may be one of Martin Scorsese's less-celebrated films, but this darkly comic trawl through New York's underbelly is still a beguiling work, especially in this big-screen 4K restoration. Griffin Dunne is Manhattan office drone Paul Hackett, who escapes his drudgery by pursuing Rosanna Arquette's stranger into an increasingly fraught world of subway journeys, sculptures and sleazy nightspots. An early entry in the yuppies-inperil subgenre, its rogues’ gallery (everyone from Cheech Marin to Linda Fiorentino) and off-kilter plotting make for a compellingly wild ride.…

IMMORTALITY OUT NOW PS5 Half Mermaid's mesmerising cinematic triptych – in which you match-cut between three fictional films to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of actress Marissa Marcel – belatedly arrives on Sony's console. With newly added controller audio and haptic feedback, it's more tactile and unsettling still, making this the definitive version of a modern masterpiece. PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE LOST CROWN OUT NOW PC, PS4/5, SWITCH, XBOX ONE/SERIES X/S Ubisoft's smart, sidescrolling reinvention of this venerable series combines exhilarating acrobatics with intense, satisfying combat. Protagonist Sargon gets to command not just time but space, though the best of his powers lets him tag screenshots to the in-game map so you need never get lost in this labyrinthine world.…

EDITOR-AT-LARGE (ACTING NEWS EDITOR) JAMIE GRAHAM @JAMIE_GRAHAM9 When discussing Civil War on Zoom, Alex Garland was a thoughtful talker. In every way. He carried his laptop with him to open his hotel door to room service rather than leave me behind. DEPUTY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR FAY WATSON @FAYANNAWATSON I got to witness Sam Rockwell and Bryan Cranston having a lightsaber fight on the Argylle premiere red carpet. Lucasfilm, they're waiting for your call… REVIEWS EDITOR MATTHEW LEYLAND @TOTALFILM_MATTL At this year's London Film Critics’ Circle awards, best speech – or rather, best bantz – went to Anatomy of a Fall's real-life partners Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JANE CROWTHER @JANEVGCROWTHER Loved chatting to Kristen Stewart about Love Lies Bleeding. She told me I sounded so much like her…

I am happy. I feel very alive,’ says Sean Penn, the 63-yearold American actor-director, who is loving life right now. And well he might. A regular behind the camera (including the recent Flag Day and Ukraine doc Superpower), the two-time Oscar winner (Best Actor for Mystic River and Milk) is still very much in demand in front of it. Next up, the grim-but-stirring Black Flies as a New York paramedic, alongside Tye Sheridan… Black Flies is a tough watch. Was it miserable to make? I had that kind of misery on this. But I also had great partners in Tye and Jean-Stéphane [Sauvaire, director]. Every hour that we worked together, we never had anything but the most respect and collaboration. I felt very protective of Jean-Stéphane. I just felt the…

Jake Gyllenhaal ‘I worked with Patrick Swayze on Donnie Darko, and loved him. He's such an amazing guy. I had a wonderful time with him, and stayed in touch with him throughout the years. I am not one for lists [of favourite films]. I have made mention of Point Break as one of my favourites. I've watched that tons of times, I'd say. Dirty Dancing – I just love him in everything that he did.’ Lukas Gage ‘I'd have to go with Donnie Darko, which brings it back to Jake Gyllenhaal and Patrick Swayze. I truly can quote that whole entire movie. I mean, Dirty Dancing, also, is just so good. [Road House] is a banger. Patrick Swayze is amazing. The movie is so fun.’ Jessica Williams ‘Ghost, for sure. I…

Where's Callie at the start of the movie? Callie and Gary are co-habiting in this dilapidated firehouse. They are play-acting as parents to teenage children. Can Gary and Callie make it? What kind of parents will they be? That's what they're figuring out. How would you describe the firehouse set? I lived in Tribeca for a couple of years and I used to walk by that corner all the time, so to walk into the studio and see it built with enough space for a car to drive past… well, this business never ceases to amaze me. It was bizarre. Would it be a fun place to live? We all loved to go down the fire pole. To be honest, that's one of those actions you could charge people $10…

‘The first meeting was so exciting,’ says costume designer Amy Westcott. ‘I was like, “This is great! This is great!” And then I started thinking, “Oh my God, this is petrifying!” The Power Armour was a collaboration with props, the art department, and then they made them out in LA. These phenomenal makers – Legacy – made all the pieces. We made sure that the performer wasn't going to die underneath them [in the heat]. It was a lot of collaboration in getting them on, also just so that the actors and the stunt players would actually be able to work in them. And there were under-layers that you had to see, and that had to make sense for the characters. The Brotherhood was so massive and epic that it…

‘I THINK I STILL DO FEEL LIKE AN OUTSIDER, TO BE HONEST’ When Total Film catches up with Jack O'Connell in February, he's on an uncharacteristically chilled break. ‘I'm just in Italy, in the mountains,’ he explains. ‘Just frolicking around in the snow.’ Not exactly what you expect if you're familiar with his on-screen work, which frequently has a ferocious edge. After doing classic Brit TV staples (The Bill, Holby City), O'Connell showed early promise in the likes of This Is England and Eden Lake. Born in Derbyshire in 1990 to an Irish father and English mother, O'Connell almost pursued a career in football before he found drama, his working-class roots making him something of a rarity in the British acting scene. His big break came with Skins, E4's talent…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMAS 1 MARCH NETFLIX Johan Renck's (Chernobyl) film casts Adam Sandler as ‘the loneliest man who has ever lived’. That's no wild claim: Sandler plays astronaut Jakub who, nine months into a mission to investigate a mysterious cloud by Jupiter, is the furthest from human contact that anyone has ever been. Jakub's eager to patch things up with his pregnant wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) back on Earth; but this gorgeous existential sci-fi has more than space travel and despair on its mind. Before long, our hero forges a connection with a giant extraterrestrial spider with an abundance of emotional intelligence and a tiny human mouth, from which springs the voice of Paul Dano. Yes, it sounds like the premise for a broad comedy – and Spaceman does…

OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS Stephen Fry plays Leonardo da Vinci in this modestly engaging whistlestop(-motion) tour of the Renaissance man's life and work. Also featuring the voices of Daisy Ridley (sidekick Marguerite de Navarre), Marion Cotillard (patron Louise de Savoy) and Matt Berry (the Pope), its somewhat meagre story documents da Vinci's quest to uncover the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Written/directed by Ratatouille scripter Jim Capobianco (and co-helmed by Pierre-Luc Granjon), it's nothing groundbreaking, but its visuals (using puppetry and traditional 2D animation) and gentle humour frequently charm.…

OUT 15 MARCH CINEMAS Heavy on symbolic imagery, light on plot, writer/director Warwick Thornton's (Sweet Country) drama follows a nameless Aboriginal boy (newcomer Aswan Reid) as he's brought to an outback mission run by Cate Blanchett's troubled nun. Wilful and near-silent, he's treated with curiosity, before suspicion and fear creep in as he's revealed to possess strange – possibly divine – powers. More a loose collection of scenes than a cohesive narrative, it's still an enveloping audiovisual experience, with Thornton's gorgeous lensing almost matched by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ expressive score.…

OUT 25 MARCH DIGITAL Barbarian star Georgina Campbell finds herself in another nightmare scenario in writer/director Teresa Sutherland's debut, a tricksy horror largely set in the desolate wilds of a national park. Campbell plays Lennon, a ranger whose time monitoring the park gets increasingly fractious and dreamlike. The actor is a solid presence, shouldering the bulk of the narrative peril, but she's hampered by a workmanlike script. And while the atmosphere is amped up with an unnerving score and some eerie wide shots, actual scares are few and far between.…

OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS Inspired by the director's own experiences, Noora Niasari's film is a powerful look at both Iranian culture and domestic violence. Zar Amir Ebrahimi (who won Cannes’ Best Actress for Holy Spider in 2022) delivers a nuanced turn in the title role, an Iranian mother-ofone who, after leaving abusive husband Hossein (Osamah Sami), finds refuge in a shelter for women in the Australian suburbs. Aided by the kindly Joyce (Leah Purcell), Shayda tries to get her life back on track alongside her young daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia). Knife-edge tension takes hold when Hossein reappears, raising the possibility that he may yet snatch Mona and smuggle her back to Iran. Like Asghar Farhadi's A Separation (2011) before it, Niasari's script touches on Iran's byzantine divorce laws, pressing home…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMAS Sony Pictures’ quest to extend their live-action Spider-verse beyond the MCU continues with this spin-off starring Dakota Johnson as clairvoyant ambulance driver Cassandra Webb, who becomes entangled with three teens (Isabela Merced, Celeste O'Connor and Sydney Sweeney) and their would-be killer (Tahar Rahim). Rather than kicking off a new universe of heroes, Madame Web feels more like a failed TV pilot, complete with sluggish action and cheap-looking costumes. Further bogged down by egregious product placement, it's a big disappointment – but we all saw it coming……

OUT 22 MARCH CINEMAS Unfolding in Buenos Aires and the bucolic Cordoban countryside, this leisurely existential fable from Argentinian writer/director Rodrigo Moreno begins in heist-movie territory. Middleaged bank clerk Moran (Daniel Elias) plans to steal $600,000 from his employers, relying on his colleague Roman (Esteban Bigliardi) to stash the money, all while he serves a three-year jail sentence. Awash with playful doublings and contrasts, Moreno's movie refuses to be boxed in by genre conventions, heading off instead on all manner of unexpected and entertaining digressions.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Three apparently disparate narratives are connected by themes of colonial oppression in this singular drama by Argentinian auteur Lisandro Alonso. A gunslinger (Viggo Mortensen, star of Alonso's 2014 film Jauja) searches for his kidnapped daughter in a brutalist black-and-white western; a Native American police officer (real-life law enforcer Alaina Clifford) navigates a rough night on the job; and an indigenous community encounters a strange bird in 1970s Brazil. True edification is AWOL in a voyage through time, space and multiple genres, but the journey's an exhilarating one.…

OUT 22 MARCH CINEMAS Maryam Kershavarz's buoyant comedy follows the trials of Leila (Layla Mohammadi), a New Yorkbased Iranian-American would-be screenwriter enduring strained relations with her immigrant family, especially mum Shireen (Niousha Noor). Kershavarz is good on cultural differences – not least the impact Leila's sexuality makes – and has a fine sense of comic timing, with Tom Byrne's British drag queen a real hoot. Mohammadi is also a compelling lead. But a long-winded third act, as family secrets come to light, hampers the film's otherwise breezy nature.…

SCREEN OUT NOW DIGITAL A hit on the festival circuit, Matt Vesely's absorbing debut will likely appeal to anyone who enjoyed such low-budget, high-concept sci-fi thrillers as Cube, The Man from Earth and Coherence. Shot almost entirely inside a remote modernist house, it's dominated by close-ups of an unnamed protagonist, the film's only on-screen character, played by Evil Dead Rise's Lily Sullivan. A disgraced journalist who failed to corroborate a big story, she's now reduced to hosting a clickbait podcast called Beyond Believable – which aptly describes the tale she's now chasing, about a handful of people receiving black bricks that induce unnerving visions. Then a package arrives on her own doorstep… A film about the power of storytelling, this hi-tech equivalent of a creepy campfire tale spreads its dread…

OUT NOW SKY CINEMA, NOW Renny Harlin's (Die Hard 2, The Long Kiss Goodnight) latest casts Aaron Eckhart as the titular action man, an ex-black ops agent turned merry builder who's forced out of retirement by friend-turned-foe Clifton Collins Jr. Along for the ride is newbie agent Nina Dobrev, who has little to do but serve as a woman in peril. The action sequences are choppy and confusing, the script is laboured and the acting verges on caricature. Still, Eckhart is a top-class gravelly hero, bruised and battered but fighting to the end, while Tim Blake Nelson adds class as his CIA boss.…

1954 OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Commentary, Featurette, Stills, Art cards Shot in three weeks in order to use up some pre-paid studio time, this Brit sci-fi quickie has acquired a degree of enduring cult appeal, thanks mostly to MVP Patricia Laffan's imperious turn. The Quo Vadis actor plays Nyah, a Martian bound for London who crash lands next to a Highland inn instead. As our devil girl goes in search of male breeding stock, cheap thrills come via Nyah's powers and the half-dozen soapy subplots that bubble up among the pub-goers.…

1993 OUT 25 MARCH 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Booklet As pop-culture writer Chuck Klosterman notes in one of the essays accompanying this 4K UHD reissue of Richard Linklater's evergreen third feature, ‘Dazed and Confused is not a film about how things were; Dazed and Confused is a film about how things are remembered.’ It's a movie that somehow manages to avoid the comfy trappings of self-conscious nostalgia-bait, while simultaneously making audiences nostalgic for a time and place that 99.9% of us never actually experienced. A snapshot of the last day of school in Austin, Texas, during the summer of 1976, Dazed and Confused is less a story than a series of interwoven vignettes. If the lack of both narrative drama and the obvious jokes you'd expect from…

1984-94 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes Ahead of this summer's long-gestating, Netflix-backed fourquel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, here's a chance to refresh your memory (in 4K, no less) of the past adventures of Eddie Murphy's renegade law enforcer. Directed by Martin Brest (Midnight Run), it's the 1984 original (★★★★) that's most worth your time. Murphy's potty-mouthed Detroit ‘tec arrives in LA on the hunt for a killer, locking horns with the by-the-book Beverly Hills PD and crooked art dealer Victor Maitland (a sublime Steven Berkoff). A cool, buoyant mix of bullets and zingers, all set to Harold Faltermeyer's era-defining synth score, it's peak Murphy. A film every bit as infectious as its star's braying laugh, BHC remains a mid-8os Hollywood high point – which probably explains…

SCREEN 1978 OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Documentary, Featurettes, Art cards, Poster, Booklet The late 70s/early 80s treated cinemagoers to a run of provocative do-overs of 50s sci-fi flicks. The first, Philip Kaufman's rich and resonant Body Snatchers remake, relocates the ‘pod people’ to San Francisco, switching out the original's Cold War allegory for the isolation and paranoia of big-city living. The new 4K upgrade turns out to be a bit of a body snatcher itself, exactly replicating the 2013 Blu-ray in every way, but with improved image fidelity.…

1959 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurette, Introduction, Gallery, Art cards Shocking in its day, schlocky today, the first entry in AngloAmalgamated's ‘Sadian’ trilogy is an odd hybrid of Anglo-American conceits. Michael Gough's crime journo gets overexcited helping the police hunt ‘a brilliant maniac’ murdering women. Shocker: it's actually him, and he's got a brainwashed teen doing his killing. The result resembles a US youth-in-crisis movie made lurid in London, featuring proto-Saw death devices in the basement and an amusingly OTT Gough.…

ADEWALE AKINNUOYEAGBAJE AS SIMON ADEBISI Emerald's City most fearsome resident, Nigerian drug lord Simon Adebisi, is also its most recognisable. Known for his love of knitted beanie hats and heroin, Adebisi takes leadership of the ‘Homeboys’ gang, taking no prisoners in his rise to power. Future Lost star AkinnuoyeAgbaje brought charisma and a cheeky sense of glee to the big man's sociopathic antics. The show's decline is often traced to S4 and Adebisi's exit, in which he was killed off to accommodate the actor's role in The Mummy Returns. Oz was never the same again……

THE HOLDOVERS Undervalued Seattle song-man Damien Jurado provides a pitch-perfect opener for Alexander Payne's latest with the soft-spun melancholy of Silver Joy. Elsewhere, era-specific pop/rock/folk cuts sit beautifully with Mark Orton's wistful, wintery score, where rootsy stylings mix with warm woodwinds, bluesy piano and sleepy strings. Sweetly resolute closer Into the Unknown is a keeper, while the Christmas songs add succour to sorrows: Orton's It's Christmas! has just the right bittersweet seasonal spirit. AMERICAN FICTION Like Jeffrey Wright's Monk, Laura Karpman (The Marvels) lost her father before scoring Cord Jefferson's literary satire. Begun on her dad's piano, the jazzy results – nodding to Thelonious Monk – ripple with understanding and intuition, woven into character with dexterity and feeling. Pensive and deliberately fractured themes slowly give way to warmer, catchier cues…

SUPER-DUPER James Gunn took to Threads to confirm the rumours that House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock (right) will be Supergirl (‘Welcome to the DCU, Milly Alcock!’). It's thought she'll debut in 2025's Superman: Legacy. PREY DAY Dan Trachtenberg is making a new Predator movie. His prequel, Prey, broke viewing records on streaming service Hulu (Disney+ in the UK). The new film, Badlands, is thought to be set in the future and will once more feature a female lead. FANTASTIC NEWS Marvel Studios dropped a surprise Valentine's card to introduce their cast for The Fantastic 4: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn make up the quartet, with a release confirmed for July 2025. Flame on! TOP MAN Channing Tatum is teaming up with director Derek Cianfrance…

What's the first thing you do when you get to set? If it's a morning shoot, the first thing I do is eat. A lot of people eat while they're having their hair and make-up done. I can't imagine anything worse. Do you have any on-set superstitions? No, but because I come from theatre, I was always used to being provided underwear. They don't do that on films, but I request it. I just prefer to wear different underwear to the ones I go home in [laughs]. Do you sleep on set? I can sleep anywhere. In theatre, on a matinee day, I would just go into the stalls and sleep on the floor because it was the only peace and quiet I could find. What are the main differences…

What was the main appeal of Road House? The fact that it was Doug directing and the chance to work with Jake. I had a chemistry read with Jake. I've always been a fan of his work, and I've never felt nervous with anyone in the industry at all. When I jumped on that Zoom, I remember feeling my face [trembling]. It wasn't anything romantic at all, but it was a different kind of admiration. Were you a fan of UFC beforehand? The first time that I watched a fight for real, I was shooting The Suicide Squad in Atlanta, and I remember going with my friends, and ended up finding Margot [Robbie] there with her friends. We were all at this kind of restaurant bar, watching a fight. I…

How does it feel to be back? It's incredible. Everywhere I go in the world, somebody will say, ‘Who you gonna call?’ I feel very, very blessed to be part of something as special as Ghostbusters. We've now brought a younger generation into the fold and it's cool to see the new possibilities. Where's Winston at the start of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire? Winston is fascinated by this phenomenon. What's causing it? How do we tap into it? How can we use it to our benefit? He's putting his money into lots of research. How scary is the new movie? It's scary enough. The original movie's library scene was scary. It was a little bit freaky, a little bit weird and a little bit funny. This new movie is a little…

OUT 1 MARCH CINEMAS John Hughes’ Brat Pack movies meet Mary Shelley's Gothic classic in this comedy scripted by Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer's Body). Set in 1989, it centres on Lisa (Kathryn Newton), a highschooler who lives with her father (Joe Chrest), stepmother (Carla Gugino) and stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano), yet prefers to hang out at the local cemetery, among the tombstones. Though she has a crush on the editor of the school lit magazine (Henry Eikenberry), Lisa soon finds her real love – at the graveyard – when a corpse (Riverdale's Cole Sprouse) comes back to life. He doesn't speak and cries tears that smell like vomit. Nevertheless, hiding him at home in her closet, Lisa is smitten – and becomes more so as things get increasingly macabre. Directed…

OUT 1 MARCH CINEMAS Iceland's Hilmar Oddsson puts the dead into deadpan with this marvellously mordant B&W comedy. When Jon's (Pröstur Leó Gunnarsson) mum passes away, she isn't any less truculent in death than life. Duly, he honours her demand to drive her body – glassy-eyed in the backseat – to her childhood village for burial. And slowly, surely, Jon learns to reconnect with the world. Against beautifully framed landscapes, an elegantly droll coming-of-middleage road movie emerges, shot through with flashes of dawning life: the Yes Sir, I Can Boogie karaoke scene is a particular treat.…

OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS First-time director Elliott Hasler offers a warm-hearted but sentimental take on penniless Mercedes Gleitze's (Kirsten Callaghan) 1927 battles to be the first British woman to swim the Channel. It's a plucky attempt, but pretty period locations and jaunty fake newsreels can't compensate for the film's clunky scripting, halting pace and stilted performances (only John Locke's drunken, crabby swim coach registers). There's a fascinating Chariots of Fire-style story to be made about Gleitze's tenacity against the cruel sea, posh-rival cheats and sexist court cases. But sadly, this isn't it.…

SCREEN OUT 22 MARCH CINEMAS On Halloween 1977, as an anxious America looks on, TV host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) puts on a special edition of his chat show, Night Owls. After losing his wife to cancer and slipping down the ratings, it's his chance to claw back some viewers. But his choice of guests – from an on-the-make medium (Fayssal Bazzi) to a cynical conjurer (Ian Bliss), a parapsychologist (Laura Gordon) and her possessed young patient (Ingrid Torelli) – proves unwise when things start happening on camera… Written, directed and edited by Australian brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes (2012's 100 Bloody Acres), shot in Melbourne and featuring an excellent, largely homegrown acting cast, it's an impeccable recreation of 1970s TV. As we cut from the live feed to black-and-white…

OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS Ava DuVernay's (Selma) biographical drama delves into the creation of Isabel Wilkerson's 2020 non-fiction bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. During her voyage of discovery, Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) experiences a series of devastating personal losses that give her mission greater meaning. The result is a film that works as both a broad educational tool and a tender portrait of grief. It may ultimately feel too simplistic for those who've read the book – and too scholastic in places for those who haven't – but it remains a powerful conversation-starter.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Britain's Kingsley Ben-Adir was highly praised for playing Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, and made a decent Barack Obama in Showtime's The Comey Rule. Mimicry alone, alas, does not ignite the ganja in a reverential homage to the Jamaican reggae icon that is lacking his blazing charisma. Reinaldo Marcus Green's film begins in 1976 with Bob and wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) almost being slain by gunmen at their Kingston home: a nerve-jangling brush with death that marks the film's most dramatic and emotional episode. Green and his three co-writers frame this as a misfortune Bob shrugged off triumphantly by recording his landmark album Exodus. The film, in contrast, never quite manages to move on, remaining in a muted funk for much of its running time.…

OUT 15 MARCH CINEMAS Sharing its name with Charlize Theron's 2003 Oscar-winner arguably doesn't do Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest many favours, prompting as it does misleading expectations that he has ventured into serial killer or even rampaging beast territory. The reality, mercifully, is rather more benign, even if it does stay teasingly elusive for much of what constitutes the Japanese director's first film on native soil since 2018's Shoplifters (after forays to France and South Korea to make 2019's The Truth and 2022's Broker, respectively). A fretful single mother (Sakura Ando) is concerned by her young son's strange behaviour, and decides to consult his school's seasoned principal (Yûko Tanaka). Satisfactory answers are less than forthcoming, though, leading her to suspect that young Minato (Soya Kurokawa) is being abused by one of…

OUT 8 MARCH CINEMAS Long before football's first Women's World Cup made headlines in 1991, there was an unofficial version held in Mexico in 1971, which time – or perhaps FIFA – has forgotten. Co-directed by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine, and produced by Serena (who also narrates) and Venus Williams, this entertaining documentary aims to right that wrong, introducing players from the tournament and the hardships they endured to be recognised in a male-dominated industry. In the UK, the FA officially banned women's football from 1921 to 1971. It was a similarly depressing story elsewhere. Mexican star Silvia Zaragoza describes being beaten and screamed at by her father for trying to join in games; Italian ace Elena Schiavo recalls, ‘The boys wouldn't let me play.’ But in the aftermath…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Wobbling unevenly between self-awareness and selfsatisfaction, Matthew Vaughn's espionage satire is never as fast or funny as it thinks it is. It centres on Elly (the likeable Bryce Dallas Howard), writer of a novel series about super-spy Argylle. The action cuts between the fictional Argylle (Henry Cavill) and Elly's creative pains, then blurs the line until she's swept away on a real mission by spy Aidan (Sam Rockwell). Some predictable mid-film twists add self-conscious fun, but this overwrought romp fires off half-baked ideas without the focus needed to make them stick.…

OUT 22 MARCH CINEMAS Husband-and-wife filmmakers Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (aka Desperate Optimists) bring their customary blend of austerity and eeriness to this portrait of Rose Dugdale, a real-life English heiress and IRA member who took part in a failed bombing attempt using a helicopter and a historic art heist, both in 1974. Flicking between her colourful past and the theft itself, the directorial duo presents a compelling if fractured look at a toff turned radical who was in it for the kicks as well as politics. Imogen Poots, rarely off-screen, compels as the self-deluding, Patty Hearstlike protagonist.…

1955 OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Featurettes, Short, Gallery A small boy adopts a singlehorned goat believing it's a unicorn in this whimsical fable, set in east London's bustling Petticoat Lane market. Carol Reed's (The Third Man) first colour film doesn't have much of a story and is guilty of the same broad ethnic stereotyping we'd see in Oliver! But there are incidental pleasures to be had, a glam Diana Dors and a pre-Carry On Sid James among them. Alongside the 4K restoration is an earlier short from screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz.…

SCREEN 1973 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Alternative cut, Commentary, Featurette, Video essay, Galleries, Booklet Adapted from a novel by Nicholas Mosley, this atypically arty drama from John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) stars Alan Bates as an English writer who, while living with his family in France, embarks on an affair with a younger married woman (Dominique Sanda). Little seen in the UK or US – and then usually in a re-edited international cut (also included here) – Impossible Object is no lost masterpiece, but delivers an intriguingly surreal take on the intersection of creativity and obsession.…

2002 OUT NOW CINEMAS With its chapter headings (‘The Story of the Tender Trio’, ‘Benny's Farewell’), decades-spanning narrative and colourfully named characters (Knockout Ned, Steak and Fries), there's something almost Dickensian about Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund's saga of lives lived, lost and squandered in Rio's crime-ridden favelas. It even has a David Copperfield in observant hero Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), a budding photographer whose personal history gets entwined with that of hoodlum Li'l Ze (Leandro Firmino da Flora). Two decades on, this Brazilian GoodFellas still packs an adrenalised punch.…

2011 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Featurettes An apocalyptic scenario is treated with intelligence and restraint in Steven Soderbergh's disaster movie, whose depiction of a lethal virus unleashing a global pandemic proved eerily prescient. Celebrity status is no guarantee of survival here, as an all-star cast (Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow) races to contain the deadly pathogen. As gripping as it is, however, scenes of the afflicted coughing up blood before being disposed of in mass graves may feel a bit too raw for some to revisit. No new extras on this 4K UHD release.…

1957 OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Booklet From the title down, Stanley Kubrick's anti-war masterpiece has a bitter sting to it. ‘The paths of glory lead but to the grave’ is the quote from the Thomas Gray poem behind Humphrey Cobb's fact-based novel, eviscerating any triumphalist hints. A controlled howl at war's futility, Kubrick's adaptation rings down the years like sniper shots across no man's land. Kirk Douglas gives a seething turn as the WW11 colonel tasked with sending soldiers on an impossible mission: to take the impregnable ‘Ant Hill’. And he remains beleaguered when, afterwards, he tries to defend three troops court-martialled on bogus charges of cowardice. The soldiers are scapegoats for their superiors’ failures. Class rage broils in the tangible contrasts between the officers’ chateau and…