Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i Total Film

Welcome to a new-look Total Film. Yep, we decided it was time to redecorate this great old ship so we’ve redesigned with a view to making it as smart and sharp as the writing in it. Fittingly for a classic that’s had a re-tool, we’ve got Scream on the cover, and we’re hoping bringing that back to life will be as successful as Ghostbusters: Afterlife (see my review on page 90). This month I was pretty spoilt as an editor; not only did I get to see a ton of creatively intoxicating films early (thanks, LFF), I also chatted with a personal hero, Stellan Skarsgard, who’s as straight-talking and unguarded as they come. And I got to dig deep into the Madonna Complex on film with three brilliant women: Olivia…

Recently, Will Poulter had to depart Prime Video’s The Lord Of The Rings series due to schedule clashes. Whether the two are connected or not, Middle-earth’s loss will be Marvel’s gain as Poulter goes cosmic for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. Director James Gunn confirmed the Hammersmith-born actor’s casting as Adam Warlock, whose arrival was teased by Elizabeth Debicki’s Ayesha in a Vol. 2 mid-credits scene. Engineered in a cocoon as the perfect being, Warlock is a man of many powers and a hero with a dark side. Although he’ll presumably start as something of an antagonist to everybody’s favourite space a-holes, he also wrestles with a dark alter ego, Magus. Hero and villain, action-fit and comedysharp, indie and mainstream: Poulter is a man of many powers himself. In…

IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH... ROB DELANEY Are you talkin’ to me? Yeah, I’m talking to you. This is a scheduled Zoom. We’re in the same time zone, which is glorious. A lot of the time, interviews are in different time zones. So I know there’s a possibility you’ve had a full night of sleep. I have. We’re doing this at a reasonable hour. So I’m talking to you, and I’m enjoying it. Do you have an off switch? Oh, yeah, I have an off switch. A lot of comedians don’t, and I try not to spend time with them, because it’s exhausting. But, oh yeah, I can go to a dinner party, and say close to nothing [ laughs ]. Sometimes my wife might wonder if I have an…

It’s an important film because I think it’s trying to say something important and it’s trying to ask important questions,” says writer-director Camille Griffin of her feature debut, Silent Night. “But I don’t want to traumatise people. I don’t want to upset people. We’ve been talking about marketing recently and I said, ‘I think there should be a trigger warning: death, suicide, posh people!’ I mean, why not watch a bunch of fucking Richard Curtis characters get it?!” That pretty much nails Silent Night, which for the first third looks like your typical Working Title movie as a group of friends arrive for Boxing Day festivities at the house belonging to Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode’s well-to-do Nell and Simon. Then it turns out – and stick with us here…

With great power comes great responsibility; an Uncle Ben adage that’s arguably worn thin over the years. Yet, for Tom Holland, the current onscreen incarnation of Spider-Man, the words weigh heavy on his shoulders. “When they cast the young kid in Spider-Man to replace me, whether it’s next year or in five years, I’ll take it upon myself to teach them about the responsibilities of being Spider-Man,” he tells Total Film in October 2021. “Because it’s huge. It’s absolutely huge. Every time you walk outside that door, you’re representing Spider Man.” The 25-year-old takes a moment. “It’s tough,” he continues. “It’s taxing sometimes. Because sometimes you just want to go to a pub and get absolutely wasted, and not have to worry about the ramifications of the public scrutiny of:…

Oh, wow. Fancy! Crudite?” laughs Kirsten Dunst, offering Total Film a raw vegetable stick. No sooner has our chat with the star begun than she’s brought a show-offy plate (on a stand, complete with glass-domed cover) to sate her peckishness. “This looks so dramatic, right? Oh my God. It’s really funny. I needed a snack.” If this is a highfalutin take on elevenses, Dunst herself couldn’t be more down to earth. TF has rocked up to London’s Corinthia Hotel on the morning of the London Film Festival premiere of Dunst’s latest film, The Power Of The Dog, to discuss a career she has been working [on] for almost her entire life, having started out in commercials aged three, and appearing in her first feature just three years later. While the…

★★★★☆ OUT 5 NOVEMBER APPLE TV+ Post-apocalyptic road movies aren’t supposed to give you the warm and fuzzies, but chuck celluloid uncle Tom Hanks into the mix and what do you expect? Here he plays Finch, one of the last human survivors on Earth after an unspecified solar event. An inventor, Finch survives in his bunker with his dog Goodyear, the beating heart and panting tongue of this lo-fi sci-fi. Finch has been designing a robot he hopes will care for the mutt when he can no longer do so. Played by Caleb Landry Jones – distinguishable beneath the motion-capture and voice filter – the robot is shown the ropes of human interactions and mutt care on a road trip the trio have undertaken in order to find other survivors.…

★ ★★☆☆ OUT 3 DEC CINEMAS A Christmas movie like no other, director Camille Griffin’s feature debut begins with a Yuletide gathering of friends (including Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Lucy Punch and Lily-Rose Depp, among others) with all the classic trimmings. Spoilt middle-class kids whining about sticky toffee pudding, truth games, dancing to Fame and watching E.T. on telly... so far, so Xmassy. Until you find out they’re all going to die as toxic gas sweeps the world. Griffin’s comedy is unsettling, uncompromising and wryly funny, but the variably selfish, unlikeable characters also render it uneven.…

★★★★☆ OUT 12 NOV CINEMAS Adapted from a short story, Sudan’s first Oscars entry frames a reflection on dogmatism within a resonant coming-of-death fable. A sheik prophesises young Muzamil’s (Mustafa Shehata) demise at 20; over his two decades of life, Muzamil wavers between an Islamic education and an older cinephile’s free-thinking influence. Setting Muzamil’s limbo state against the backdrop of daily ritual, director Amjad Abu Alala offsets loose plotting with immaculate compositions: even if the cinema-as-freedom angle is pat, he evokes the legacy of dictatorship with sensitivity and precision.…

★ ★★★☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) turns in a career landmark performance in this simple but brilliantly effective western, which tells a compelling, dynamically charged tale within a concise 98-minute runtime. He plays Henry, a lonely pig farmer who, along with his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis), takes in an injured man with a bag of cash only to face a posse led by supposed lawman Ketchum (Stephen Dorff). Tensions escalate as writerdirector Potsy Ponciroli builds towards a climactic showdown, with engrossing performances and a cleverly executed twist making for a satisfying watch.…

★★★★☆ OUT 3 DEC CINEMAS As if Cap had caught Mjolnir, a cheer erupted when the Surprise Film at this year’s London Film Festival opened with the A24 logo. A selling point in itself, the distributor’s alternative film output has equally enthralled and alienated. Featuring Joaquin Phoenix, a monochromatic palette and a twee intergenerational story, C’mon C’mon is aggressively on-brand for A24. But writer-director Mike Mills (Beginners, 20th Century Women) smartly avoids cliches. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, this adult-child bonding narrative might suffer from Annoying Kid Syndrome and a hackneyed view of dysfunctional family ties. Here, though, Phoenix’s documentarian Johnny and his young nephew Jesse (excellent newcomer Woody Norman) are a healthy pairing, sharing qualities of empathy and curiosity. Johnny’s ongoing film project concerns the perspectives on…

★★★★☆ OUT 26 NOV CINEMAS Shot between March and June 2020, this powerfully intimate film documents the alarming impact of the Covid-19 pandemic at one New York hospital. Director Matthew Heineman (2018’s A Private War) focuses on frontline medical staff – notably physician Dr. Nathalie Dougie – and two critical-care patients and their respective families, who are not able to visit their relatives in person. While capturing the immense strain experienced by healthcare workers battling a deadly new disease, Heineman’s film also serves as a moving tribute to the power of human resilience, compassion and love.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 26 NOVEMBER CINEMAS French hit La Haine is effectively replayed as a nostalgiapacked comedy in Reggie Yates’ writing/directing feature debut, a spirited tale of three pals determined to see the new millennium in at the hottest party in London. With a soundtrack stuffed with ’90s garage and a wardrobe just as packed with garish Moschino clobber, the result is a colourful and eventful ride that – like many a New Year’s Eve party – leaves only a few hazy memories behind. A trio of talented newcomers – Elliot Edusah, Jordan Peters and Reda Elazouar – bring invigorating zest to wannabe artists Cappo, Two Tonne and Kidda, all 18-year-olds who are each in their own way facing up to the realities of adulthood. In Cappo’s case, it means giving…

★★★★☆ OUT 26 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, BFI PLAYER The brash, anarchic energy that gave rise to the radical-dyke subculture of the 1980s flows through Harri Shanahan and first-timer Sian A. Williams’ bracing documentary. It’s a vivid and vital social document that utilises talking heads, animation and grainy archive video to revisit a seminal period in lesbian art and activism. As the co-directors take the viewer from Greenham Common and BDSM nightclubs to that memorable invasion of a BBC news studio in 1988, Rebel Dykes emerges as not just a eyeopening history lesson, but a rousing call to action too.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 3 DECEMBER CINEMAS Written, directed and headlined by Justin Chon (Gook), this Louisiana family drama spotlights topics personal, political and pertinent. Chon plays adoptee Antonio, a tattoo artist who lives with his pregnant wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and her daughter Jesse from a previous relationship. But after an altercation in a supermarket with two cops, one of whom is Jesse’s father, Antonio suddenly faces deportation to his birthplace of Korea. For years, US immigration authorities have exploited a legal loophole, deporting those who weren’t naturalised legally by their adoptive parents. Here, Antonio – despite 30 years in the States – may be forced to return to a country he barely knows. Connecting with a lawyer (Vondie Curtis-Hall), he begins his fight to stay, made more complex by prior…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, DVD, DIGITAL By this point, there isn’t much that hasn’t been covered about Frida Kahlo’s life, but that doesn’t stop this essay documentary from taking a solid punt. Ushering us on a guided tour of its subject’s life, home, possessions and writing, it offers the theory that there are “two opposing Fridas” (not the biggest of academic stretches, given one of her most famous works is The Two Fridas). Appeal beyond Frida fans and art enthusiasts may be limited, while Asia Argento’s style-clashing narration interludes will immerse or alienate depending on taste.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 19 NOV CINEMAS Les Dennis makes for a rather unlikely lead playing a disillusioned stage psychic whose home is invaded by two incompetent thieves in this largely crass comedy caper. While Dennis doesn’t quite convince as the curmudgeonly clairvoyant, adequate support – including Anthony Head as his put-upon manager – ably picks up the slack, while writer/director Adam Oldroyd juggles fun character interplay with satisfying plot reveals along the way. None of that, however, can offset a script that’s sadly over-reliant on coarse punchlines and lowestcommondenominator one-liners.…

★★★★☆ OUT 12 NOV CINEMAS Running to just over 70 minutes, Posy Dixon’s doc makes deep yet delicate work of a radical creative force’s far-reaching life story. The subject is Beverly Glenn-Copeland, a Black transgender musician in his seventies whose homemade mid-’80s album, Keyboard Fantasies, pioneered a beatific kind of new-age folktronica. Rediscovered late in life, he reflects on social and career injustice and self-realisation while touring with a new, young band. As Glenn-Copeland surveys this good fortune gracefully, his mellow music and mindful mien merge to spirit-lifting effect.…

1957 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Widescreen/full-screen versions, Featurette, Gallery, Booklet Best known on these shores for traumatising an entire generation of kids when screened by the BBC in 1964 (it came 20th in a 2004 Radio Times poll of the spookiest TV shows), this German fantasy about a prince attempting to woo a princess has less impact today, but remains a surreal Technicolour treat for those who like their fairytales more Grimm than Disney.The disc includes the archival English-language narration among various audio options.…

1993 ★★★★★ OUT 12 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Mike Leigh’s dark, loquacious classic has (mostly) aged in fine style, still brimming with fierce rage. David Thewlis’ viciously playful drifter Johnny grabs you by the throat, swapping crime in Manchester for a penniless nighttime odyssey encountering lost souls in London. Every scene crackles with Leigh’s angry compassion for the rootless poor of ’90s Britain, as restless Johnny wheedles, shags and hoodwinks lonely flatmates, waitresses and runaways, haunting mean streets from Dalston to Southwark. Grimly handsome visuals alternate with scruffy realism, with the film’s splashes of Soho neon and noirish back alleys giving its skirmishes a melancholy beauty. Along the way, Johnny’s bitterly funny ranting becomes his deadliest weapon, battering everyone with apocalyptic cod-philosophy. His paranoid Biblical prophecies even feel weirdly topical, the forerunner…

2001 ★★★☆☆ OUT 29 NOV BD EXTRAS ★★☆☆☆ Interview, Poster A noble cop battles his interdimensional doppelganger in this slick sci-fi beat’em-up from Final Destination director James Wong. Whenever assassin Yulaw (Jet Li) kills one of his 124 multiversal counterparts, he grows incrementally stronger. The same starts to happen to sheriff’s deputy Gabe (also Jet Li), who soon finds himself the last one standing, and the final name on Yulaw’s hit list. The seamless action sequences remain impressive today, but the story is still every bit as silly as Jason Statham’s hair and so-called ‘American’ accent.…

ADVENT CALENDARS RRP VARIOUS VARIOUS RETAILERS Deck the halls with 19th-century Hill Valley, thanks to Playmobil’s Back To The Future Part III advent calendar, which ’Mobil-ises everything from Marty’s poncho to Doc Brown’s headstone. Meanwhile, Funko offers you 24 days of Five Nights At Freddy’s, The Office (US) and Harry Potter. Or there’s building and board-gaming with Lego’s own kid-wizard take, alongside a Mando-heavy Star Wars ad-cal and one with (Saint) Nick Fury and his Avenging angels. GREMLINS ORNAMENTS RRP £16.99 MERCHOID Maybe keep the more monstrous ones away from the fireplace, lest Santa have a ho-ho-heart attack. THE HORROR COLLECTION RRP £19.99 SHOP.EAGLEMOSS.COM If you’re thinking of having a few fiends over to stay, there’s Nun better. POP! FUNKOS RRP £11 FUNKOEUROPE.COM Disney icons + Santa hats = peak…

DUNE RRP £9.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS Hans Zimmer’s off-world forays are so expansive, they’re released across three titles. The Dune Sketchbook offers thrilling deep dives, all hair-raising chorales, crunching dissonance, ceremonial pomp and – what?! – bagpipes. The original score sand-surfs more controlled pleasures: see ‘Ripples In The Sand’ for beauty, ‘Armada’ for ballistics. Tie-in book The Art And Soul Of Dune (see p110) also gets its own soundtrack. Phew. THE FRENCH DISPATCH RRP £9.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS A Francophile and musical connoisseur, Wes Anderson taps both unerring instincts for two Dispatches. Alexandre Desplat’s boisterously multi-faceted score dominates one double-LP set. Meanwhile, Fantastic Mr. Fox co-star Jarvis Cocker renames himself Tip Top for Chansons d’Ennui, an accompanying album of Franco-pop covers ranging from party bangers (‘Les Gens Sont Fous, Les Temps Sont…

IF YOU LIKED NETFLIX’S SQUID GAME THEN TRY BATTLE ROYALE 2000 Like Squid Game’s competitors, Battle Royale’s Japanese schoolkids are forced to fight to the death by totalitarian overlords, in notoriously bloody, grisly fashion. The teen gladiators are given rations but sadly, no Dalgona candy. So cool and cult that Tarantino’s a big fan. THE HUNGER GAMES 2012 Panem (America) is divided into districts and sends teen tributes to fight each other in a televised arena each year. Less gory than Battle Royale, but an entertaining YA take on socioeconomic disparity, dictatorship, media manipulation, environmentalism, feminism and rebellion. PARASITE 2019 South Korea gave us Bong Joon-Ho’s award-winning look at class struggles as a poor family inveigle their way into the home of a wealthy one. Which is the parasite model…

REVIEWS EDITOR MATTHEW LEYLAND @TOTALFILM_MATTL Just as everyone was zipping up their coats at The French Dispatch gala at LFF, the legend that is Bill Murray rocked up on stage. True to character, he said little, but scored big laughs. CONTRIBUTOR ANN LEE @_ANN_LEE You know you’re having a good day at work when you’re on-set of The Electric Life Of Louis Wain and Benedict Cumberbatch offers to share his vegetable crisps with you. What a gent. CONTRIBUTOR KEVIN HARLEY @KEVINSHARLEY Praise be to Mike Flanagan, whose fable of fear and fundamentalism, Midnight Mass, slips out of Salem’s Lot’s shadow to become the horror classic he’s been threatening to make since Absentia a decade ago. DEPUTY EDITOR MATT MAYTUM @MATTMAYTUM Ahead of my Scream interviews I was sent an early…

It feels really cool,” gulps Rachel Zegler, “and also very frightening.” No wonder. The 20-year-old New Jersey newcomer makes her screen debut in Steven Spielberg’s musical remake West Side Story as Maria. She’s also just wrapped sequel Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and has been cast as Snow White for Disney’s live-actioner. Now that’s how you make an entrance… How daunting is taking on West Side Story as your debut? I mean, it was absolutely a terrifying experience for me in the moment. But I’ve seen the finished product now. And I’m not scared any more, which is great. That’s a huge compliment to Steven. We just did the best we could and the best we could is pretty darn awesome. What was it like watching Spielberg direct his first…

SHIFTING SANDS Disney has announced that Indiana Jones 5 will now be released on 30 June 2023 – a full year after it was initially set to hit cinemas. Every 2022 Marvel movie has also moved back anywhere from two to four months. KILL-A-WATT Jon Watts has already lined up his first post-Spider-Man gig. He’ll write and direct a currently untitled thriller about two “lone-wolf fixers” assigned to the same job. George Clooney and Brad Pitt will produce and star. SUPER STARS The cast of Illumination’s animated Super Mario movie has been revealed, with the left-field choices including Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Someone’s been at the Super Mushrooms… ROGER MICHELL RIP Roger Michell, the director of…

1 GOING BIG… With the opioid drug crisis in America becoming almost too big to comprehend, new eight-part series Dopesick aims to dramatise and personalise its impact. Writer/showrunner Danny Strong (Game Change, Empire) says he fell down a rabbit hole researching the origins of the show (which is inspired by Beth Macy’s non-fiction book of the same name) and was blown away. “I couldn’t believe what this company [OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma] did, and how they were able to keep doing it over and over for years no matter what was happening, no matter how they were exposed,” he says. “The lying, the manipulation, the influence peddling… it’s such a shocking story that I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I felt like we had to expose it…

“Halloween and Jaws are my two favourite movies. Dawson’s Creek was my love letter to Steven Spielberg, and Scream was my love letter to Halloween and John Carpenter.” KEVIN WILLIAMSON “I really do love horror films. I love psychological thrillers. You can’t go wrong with the original Halloween. I love all of those. I love Carrie. I love Dressed To Kill. I love Rosemary’s Baby. I love Friday The 13th. I love Nightmare On Elm Street. I love the first It. I guess it’s hard to say, because I love to be scared.” COURTENEY COX “There’s a movie called The Changeling with George C. Scott that came out in the early ’80s. Not a lot of people know about it but true horror buffs do, and it’s absolutely terrifying. It’s…

When Titane arrived at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it skidded to a halt on the Croisette like a muscle car tearing up the tarmac. The brains behind it? French director Julia Ducournau, who had already shocked the film world with her 2016 cannibalistic debut Raw. Even Titane’s trailer was an intense mini-masterpiece, making it look like a neon-strobed blend of David Cronenberg’s Crash, the Fast And The Furious franchise and American Psycho. And when critics saw the full feature, opinions were divided over this transgressive body-horror tale laden with controversy and cult appeal. Declared ‘Cronenbergian gynaeco-Gothic’, ‘toweringly pointless’, ‘stroboscopic aggressive’ and ‘an oil-slicked, neon-drenched, gender-and-fender-bending vroom-gasm of a movie’; by the end of the fest, Titane had triumphed against the odds, winning the Palme d’Or. Awarded by the Spike…

BLADE RUNNER SIGNIFICANT CHANGES A decade after the theatrical cut, the not-quite-Director’s Cut removed Harrison Ford’s divisive voiceover, complicating Deckard’s audience connection. The reinserted unicorn dream and removed happy ending fuelled is he/isn’t he debates. Later, 2007’s Scott-approved Final Cut enhanced Tyrell’s murder, Batty’s self-induced stigmata, Zhora’s death and the dream: now with digi-fixed unicorn horn! TIME DIFFERENCE Both cuts -1 min MUCH IMPROVED? The Director’s Cut justified tinkering: the Final Cut perfects it. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN SIGNIFICANT CHANGES A frustratingly sketchy Crusades epic develops a sense of purpose with extra time. Balian’s reasons are deepened; the Gravedigger gets more air; the battle scenes gain visceral clout. Best of all, Eva Green’s regal performance as Sibylla is duly honoured, lending great power to the tragedy of her losses. TIME DIFFERENCE…

★★★☆☆OUT 19 NOVEMBER CINEMAS I’m in the champion-raising business!” insists charming but obsessive hustler Richard Williams (Will Smith), ruthlessly snubbed by a succession of fancy tennis coaches for trying to get his tennis-prodigy daughters out of 1980s Compton and onto the global tennis circuit. Reinaldo Marcus Green’s (2018’s Monsters And Men) uplifting but slyly funny sports biopic recreates the many near-impossible battles that Williams had to wage against both LA gangs and the snobby tennis establishment before Venus and Serena could conquer the courts. Smith gives it his all here, letting Williams’ quick wit and stubborn tenacity drive the movie through gang beatings and shootings, shouty coaching ructions and relentless tennis-tournament racism. It’s very much a Smith showcase, his performance incorporating the easy swagger of Ali and the fatherly devotion…

★★★☆☆OUT 26 NOVEMBER CINEMAS From unclassifiable Romanian director Radu Jude (Scarred Hearts, Uppercase Print) comes his most unclassifiable film yet, a satire that shifts tones and styles as it attacks social hypocrisy from a variety of angles. Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn opens, confrontationally, with the explicit footage of a homemade sex tape. We then cut to teacher Emi (Katia Pascariu) going about her day in Bucharest, shopping and making anxious phone calls. The tape, it transpires, belongs to her and her husband, but has found its way online and is now being viewed by colleagues and pupils. Soon a kangaroo court is in session – in a courtyard, to allow for social distancing – and Emi is forced to defend her private life, mounting (ahem) the argument that…

★ ★★★☆ OUT 12 NOV CINEMAS Comprising archive footage, talking heads and audio-journal entries, this National Geographic doc dives into the incredible life of celebrated marine explorer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Chronicling his progression from young adventurer obsessed with the ocean depths to elderly crusader campaigning against climate change, helmer Liz Garbus crafts a compelling study of a man who also exhibited – and later recognised – substantial flaws as a husband and father. Above all else, though, Cousteau’s clear passion for the sea is truly infectious.…

★ ★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL British actor Rebecca Hall resurrects the racially troubled ’20s in her delicate, austere debut as writer and director, circling an uneasily reawakened New York friendship between two mixed-race women. Hall’s elegant, pearly monochrome adap of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel sticks like a second skin to Tessa Thompson’s shy home-maker Irene, astonished that childhood pal Clare (a fizzily charming Ruth Negga) is now recklessly ‘passing’ as a white woman. Subtle as a whisper with its themes (where Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was loud and proud), Passing makes the women’s closeness crackle with mistrust and sexual ambiguity. Negga gives Clare a perky, ruthless allure that enables her to wangle her way into Irene’s happy home, entrancing her family and making us wonder which woman is most…

★ ★☆☆☆ OUT 12 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Why would Clint Eastwood, at 91, bother with a project he spurned in the late ’80s? N. Richard Nash’s story finally reaches us with Eastwood as former rodeo star Mike, who takes a commission from old boss Howard (Dwight Yoakam) to collect his teenage son Rafo (Eduardo Minett) from Mexico City. The leisurely road trip sees the duo find common ground as they elude the heavies Rafo’s mother puts on their tail. Any excuse to savour Eastwood’s rugged persona should be welcomed, but this is more torpid postscript than jubilant sign-off.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Mix Wall•E, BB-8 and Baymax and you’d probably end up with the lovable droid in the UKbased Locksmith Animation’s smart debut feature. Ron’s a B*Bot: a robo-companion that has taken the world by storm. But by the time he reaches new master Barney (It’s Jack Dylan Grazer), he’s developed defects. The unconventional friendship between misfit Barney and his machine won’t startle anybody who’s seen Short Circuit, but the level of contextual sophistication impresses: co-directors Jean-Philippe Vine and Sarah Smith address data harvesting and online bullying between the ace comedy and action beats.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL A prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead, Thieves centres on the doomed Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer), a nervous German safe-cracker who’s tasked with opening three impenetrable safes by a professional thief, Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel). While the romance between the two leads forms the film’s emotional core, additional twisting plotlines and clichéd characters muddy the otherwise straightforward heist plot – a zombie movie, this is not. Schweighöfer, who also directs from Shay Hatten’s script, anchors this often fun yet inessential addition to Netflix’s new franchise.…

★★★★★ OUT 19 NOVEMBER CINEMAS A tangible aura of magic and mystery envelops Celine Sciamma’s latest, an exquisite jewel whose fairytale simplicity masks an ocean of emotion. It’s another triumph for the writer/director of Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, albeit one that operates on a much quieter register than that 2019 success. When her beloved grandmother passes away, eight-year-old Nelly is taken to her secluded house in the woods to help her parents with the clear-up. While playing outside she meets Marion, a little girl her own age with whom she has a close affiliation... To reveal more would be a disservice to a narrative that subtly weaves elements of time travel and fantasy into what is at its heart a gentle, touching depiction of a burgeoning friendship. It’s…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Eighties action cinema gets a ribbing in this ultra-violent stopmotion ’toon, which straddles a thin line between outrageous fun and bad taste. Writer/director Mike Mort stars as over-the-top action hero cop Chuck Steel (who made his debut in 2013 short Raging Balls Of Steel Justice), who discovers that Los Angeles is being taken over by mutant ‘trampires’. Homages to the likes of Die Hard and Lethal Weapon jostle with gory horror and bawdy sex comedy; it’s juvenile stuff, elevated by starry casting (Paul Whitehouse, Jennifer Saunders) and impressive, cinema-worthy animation.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW IPLAYER A palpable anger fuels playwright debbie tucker green’s second feature, a stinging series of vignettes reflecting on racial injustice. Even if the choppy direction overcompensates for a stage-to-screen shift, lead performances from Lashana Lynch, Tosin Cole and others keenly assert a commonality of Black experience across geographic and gender divides. Notably, an exchange between a white academic and his Black student bristles with intensity: as he relentlessly patronises her, tucker green lands her bracingly polemical points with punch, poetry and purpose.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Following five series and two movies of hit anime My Hero Academia, this standalone offers a new adventure for hero-intraining Izuku Midoriya as he navigates an X-Men-like world of superpowered people dubbed ‘Quirks’. As she is framed for a crime, Midoriya goes on the run with friendly con artist Rody; meanwhile, terrorist outfit Humarise is out to kill all Quirks worldwide. Other than the overlong final showdown, there is plenty to enjoy: peppy animation, well-drawn characters and a few heart-toasting moments.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS There’s a new alien symbiote on the loose in this Andy Serkisdirected sequel, which is curiously lacking, for the most part, in major set-pieces. When the, er, carnage does finally arrive, it’s long, leaden and visually dismal – all crumbling masonry and clashing CG beasties. This B-movie with an A-budget works better as a relationship drama: as in the (underrated) original, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his parasite make for a fun odd couple. But despite some entertaining bicker-banter, you’ll feel as undernourished as the human-head-craving Venom.…

1998 ★★★★★ OUT 22 NOVEMBER BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentary, Featurettes, WW2 newsreels, Outtakes, Booklet Terrence Malick’s World War 2 opus ended a 20-year, post Days Of Heaven (1978) hiatus – and thank the gods of cinema for his comeback. This adaptation of James Jones’ novel about the Gaudacanal campaign leans into the same horrifying truths about war as Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (also 1998), yet puts more focus on the inner workings of the American soldiers fighting for their country. There are heroes, villains and those in between. They deal with PTSD, lovers left behind, the pressures of disobeying an officer, and the primal want to live beyond tomorrow. Jim Caviezel’s Private is ostensibly the lead, but Sean Penn, John Cusack, Nick Nolte, and Woody Harrelson all take turns in…

2014 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW DUAL FORMAT EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentaries, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, CD, Book, Art cards A post-Downton Dan Stevens impresses in this stylish thriller from Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett. The star’s a commanding presence as the titular guest, playing sinister games with a grieving family that includes Maika Monroe, whose steadfast performance throughout ensures that Stevens doesn’t steal all the glory. Lush cinematography and a brooding soundtrack are the cherries on top of a cult fave, presented here in a lavish, slipcase-toting limited edition.…

1969-71 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentaries, Video essays, Galleries, Booklet What do you want from a spaghetti western? If the answer is a moody antihero played by Lee Van Cleef, gimmicky guns and acrobatic stunts, then Gianfranco Parolini’s enjoyable 1969 romp Sabata is something for you. The following year’s Adios, Sabata ups the action, but loses its leading man (Yul Brynner stars in a film that wasn’t even made as a Sabata sequel) and much of its predecessor’s charm. Thankfully, Van Cleef was back in the saddle for 1971’s playful, self-knowing and parodic Return Of Sabata.…

1993 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Making Of, Featurettes, Deleted scenes Restraint isn’t the first thing you’d associate with either Brian De Palma or Al Pacino. After all, their first collaboration was Scarface. Yet, reuniting a decade later, they delivered this (relatively) quieter affair. Sure, there’s action: the final act is a sustained piece of directorial bravura. Mostly, though, Carlito’s Way is a downbeat character piece about a reformed criminal who nobody believes is now on the straight and narrow. A dialled-down, poignant Pacino leaves the performative fireworks to lawyer pal Sean Penn, who’s as OTT as his perm.…

EDITED BY JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY There are certain people that believe there are alien lizards among us. What do you do, as a storyteller, in the face of that?” asks Adam McKay. It’s a fair question, as ever since the tangerine-in-chief took office, filmmakers like McKay have found themselves on the losing side of an arms race with the 10pm news. McKay’s answer is Don’t Look Up - a black comedy about a frighteningly recognisable world in which even a planet-killing comet hurtling towards the Earth can’t convince people to put their baseball caps and tiki torches down. Trump World and America’s partisan political system aren’t the only targets in McKay’s crosshairs, however. Climate crisis denial, the controversy-hungry 24-hour news cycle, amoral tech giants, meme culture and the corrupting influence…

“I haven’t retired and not a lot of people know that.”MICHAEL CAINE IS OFFICIALLY UNRETIRED. “THE SNAP IS ALL [CAPTAIN AMERICA’S] FAULT… HE CHOSE ONE ROBOT’S LIFE OVER LITERALLY THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.”THE MARVELS DIRECTOR NIA DACOSTA THINKS CAP IS THE TRUE VILLAIN OF INFINITY WAR. 90 THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF DAYS CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S OPPENHEIMER MOVIE WILL PLAY IN CINEMAS – DOUBLE THE NEW 45-DAY STANDARD. 772 THE NUMBER OF CINEMAS ACROSS THE UK THAT NO TIME TO DIE THE RISE OF SKYWALKER’S RECORD BY 25. “HAVING DONE EGHT-OR NINE-HUNDRED ACTION MOVIES, I HURT MYSELF PUTTING ON A PAIR OF LEGGINGS IN MY HOTEL ROOM.”A STUNT DOUBLE COULDN’T SAVE KATE BECKINSALE THIS TIME. “THERE’S A LOT OF FEET IN A LOT OF GOOD DIRECTORS’ MOVIES. THAT’S JUST GOOD DIRECTION.”TARANTINO (SORT OF)…

What is the first thing you do when you arrive on set? The first thing I really do, when I get in my car and go onto set, I always listen to music. Music is my big thing. I call it the tune of the day, or the tune of the role [laughs]. It’s setting up the vibe for the scene I’m going to do that day. What do you take on set with you? I always bring my teddy bear with me. Not on set, but to my trailer. He’s called Harry, and I’ve had him since I was three. It’s really funny, because now I have a little dog called Mowgli – I bring him to set as well. And he’s such a dream. Production will be looking…

I didn’t go to drama school,” recalls an actor whose work at the Royal Dramatic Theatre has led to a five-decade, acclaimed international career working in blockbusters as well as arthouse, English-language and Scandinavian films. His latest film, Hope, sees him as a shocked husband coping with his wife’s life-threatening cancer, and next he’ll be seen in Rogue One prequel series, Andor. Maria Sødahl is a personal friend and wrote Hope based on her own cancer diagnosis – was that difficult to re-live? I was a little worried, because it’s very hard to keep a distance from the material. And then she sent me two pages of what the story was about. It was funny – it was not a regular cancer movie. We don’t need more of those. It…

After Scream 4 10 years ago, did you ever think you’d be back for a fifth? I 100 per cent thought that I was done with Scream. [laughs] I was so surprised that there was a relaunch. I did not think it was going to happen. Did you have any hesitation about returning? If it had been in the same vein, or if it had been a fifth – yes, I would think that would be insane. But because this is a relaunch and a completely different film? I read it, and went, “Wow, this is fantastic.” Where do we find Gale now? Gale now works on a morning show. She has the respect of a job where she gets to call the shots, and has an audience that is…

BLADE RUNNER WINDOWS ON THE SOUL Whether or not Scott had more time for his sets than his cast, he gave Rutger Hauer time to shine very brightly for uber-replicant Roy Batty’s dying words. Script-edited by Hauer himself, the speech channels the film’s eyes/seeing metaphor into neon-blurred, rain-soaked, future-noir poetry, underscored with ineffable grace by Vangelis’ synths. ALIEN CHESTBURSTER IN SHOW Aiming to create something outrageous” from Kane’s labour, Scott played midwife to a franchise and film history. Between a meaty stew of in-the-moment acting, practical effects and killer design work, the beast’s ’bursting debut splattered sci-fi’s crisp interiors with horror innards. Genres were transformed: cast and audiences hardly knew what hit them. GLADIATOR MAXIMUS AND THE MONSTER Between the Colosseum, combatants and cats, Maximus’ dust-up with metal-masked man-monster Tigris…

★★★★☆OUT 19 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 1 DECEMBER NETFLIX Jane Campion’s first feature since 2009’s Bright Star is a subtle spin on sibling rivalry, repressed emotions and rural living. Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, its story dials back to 1920s Montana and into the world of the ranch-owning Burbank brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons). The more bookish of the two, George manages the business while the rough-hewn Phil can more typically be found castrating cattle. When George meets and marries Rose (Kirsten Dunst), widowed mother to sensitive teen Pete (Kodi Smit-McPhee), it sends Phil into an apoplectic rage. Soon, he’s brutally haranguing Rose, who starts to self-medicate with booze, and ominously befriending Pete. But there’s more to this story than jealousy and rage, as Campion drops hints about…

★★★★☆ OUT 26 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, SKY CINEMA A Yuletide tale to get you in the mood for the festivities, A Boy Called Christmas is a cheery Santa origin story for all ages. The “boy” in question is Nikolas (Henry Lawfull), a brave, resourceful lad who goes on a wintry adventure in search of his father (Michiel Huisman) and finds a magical world of elves, reindeer and even a talking mouse named Miika (voiced by Stephen Merchant, at his most Merchant-like). With his old man missing after he sets out to find the fabled village of Elfhelm, Nikolas has much to contend with, from his wicked aunt (Kristen Wiig, perfectly cast) to a very angry elf (Sally Hawkins, channelling serious bile), as well as the dawning realisation that the parent he…

★★★☆☆ OUT 26 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL Three decades after his unpicking of inconsistencies in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination investigation, Oliver Stone revisits the subject in a fascinating doc loaded with recently declassified material. Offering a hagiography of JFK as much as a deep dive into conspiracy theories, Stone promises to “go back and find out what happened”. Whether he succeeds is debatable, but he does provide an evocative, visceral sense of the event and enough intriguing anomalies to convince that Kennedy’s death was anything but straightforward.…

★ ★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Singer Annie Clark (you might know her as St. Vincent) gets friend Carrie Brownstein to make a film about her – but things quickly veer into the realm of fiction in this intriguing if uneven mock-doc. Real concert footage combines with scripted scenarios that offer varying levels of outlandishness (disappearing limo drivers, a bereaved fan having to comfort an upset Annie, Dakota Johnson as a version of herself). But it’s Annie/Carrie’s increasingly fraught relationship that engages most in a film that takes some well-aimed jabs at self-congratulatory bio-docs then gets tangled in its own twists.…

★ ★★★☆ OUT 12 NOV CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA A rigorously pared-down, impressively lensed debut from writer-director Dénes Nagy, this World War 2 tale unfolds over the course of several days in the Axisoccupied USSR, where Hungarian troops are searching for partisans in a heavily forested region. Dialogue is kept to a minimum – which allows us to soak up Santa Ratniece’s eerie score – and much of the violence is kept off-screen. Instead, Nagy homes in on nature itself and the faces of his adept non-professional cast, particularly that of the gaunt, arresting Ferenc Szabó as Corporal Semetka.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL A rapidly spreading plague and an attempted coup soon become the least of King Jungjong’s (Park Hee-soon) problems in Huh Jong-ho’s (2011’s Countdown) scruffily endearing period creature feature. It’s a film of sharp tonal contrasts, pinballing between scenes of political manoeuvring, exciting (if choppily edited) action scenes and some gleefully gory monster attacks. By turns silly and predictable, it nevertheless has energy and humour to spare, while a game cast (including former K-pop singer Lee Hye-ri and Parasite’s Choi Woo-shik) play it admirably straight-faced all the way.…

★★★★☆ OUT 3 DECEMBER CINEMAS Just as a kitchen is only as good as its chefs, so a one-shot drama needs its cast to cook on demand. Director Philip Barantini (2020’s Villain) addresses both needs in his flawed but bracingly sharp and fractious second feature. With a top-form Stephen Graham leading the way, Boiling Point charts a big night for a high-brow London restaurant: imagine Masterchef having a quadruple-espresso panic attack and you’ll be close. The agitated mood is set early as Graham’s head chef Andy Jones fields pre-work phone calls. “I’ve just got so much going on,” he pleads. More lands on his plate at work: supply problems, hygiene inspectors. Profanities are spat out. Even before the customers arrive with their nut allergies, off-menu requests and racist proclivities, Jones…

★☆☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★★★ Featurette “We wanted to show how powerful [George Romero’s] movie is by remaking it in colour and animated,” is the baffling justification director Jason Axinn offers for this do-over of Night Of The Living Dead. The latest in a series of ignominious revisions of the 1968 horror groundbreaker, its cheap and choppy look is reminiscent of the BBC’s reconstructions of missing Doctor Who episodes – only Romero’s original still exists, and does so as a stunning 4K restoration. Terrifyingly pointless.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL Following a terrifying home invasion, cult survivor Laura (Halloween Kills’ Andi Matichak) discovers eight-year-old David (Luke David Blumm, effectively creepy) has contracted an illness that can only be cured by, well, some drastic dietary changes. Having delivered a clutch of jolting jump scares, writer/director Ivan Kavanagh takes us on a road trip to somewhere darker, sadder and altogether nastier. A late twist doesn’t bear close scrutiny, but Matichak’s steady descent into mania as a mother desperately trying to save her son at all costs is hauntingly affecting.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 19 NOV CINEMAS Adapted from a Haruki Murakami short story by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and co-writer Takamasa Oe, this winner of Cannes’ Best Screenplay earlier this year is an absorbing, complex ride. The film follows an actor/ director (Hidetoshi Nishijima) who finds companionship with the appointed driver (Toko Miura) of his Saab 900 when he arrives in Hiroshima to stage a production of Uncle Vanya. Hamaguchi takes his sweet time getting there – the pre-credits sequence lasts 45 minutes – and some may find it too leisurely. But in its detail and precision, it’s still a journey well worth taking.…

★★★★☆ OUT 12 NOVEMBER CINEMAS French director Eva Husson gives the British heritage movie a hot and haunting makeover in this adap of Graham Swift’s novella of class-crossed love in the snooty 1920s. Her lingering camerawork finds the indelible sadness hidden in a cheery 1924 Mother’s Day outdoor lunch for three upper-class families marrying off Josh O’Connor’s Paul (the only son of theirs to survive WW1) to the reluctant Emma (Emma D’Arcy). Husson also brings a languorous, sensual sheen to the scandal-risking tryst that orphaned housemaid Jane (an engaging Odessa Young) is simultaneously enjoying with Paul in his parents’ empty mansion. It’s Jane’s sharp eyes that dominate the movie, drinking in the handsome house and how her lover chafes under his family’s expectations. Like a spikier, simpler take on Atonement,…

★★★★☆ OUT 12 NOV CINEMAS Moral corruption, socio-political commentary and inventively staged scraps offer up the keynotes of this fast-moving Hong Kong thriller. Martial-arts legend Donnie Yen plays good-cop Inspector Cheung Chung-bong, who faces off against a gang of masked criminals led by his former protégé Ngo (Nicholas Tse). The final film by writer/director Benny Chan (who sadly passed away in 2020), it suffers the occasional lapse into melodrama. Happily, however, the Police Storystyle action sequences (including a truly epic, Heat-inspired shootout) offer riveting compensation.…

2009 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentary, Animatics, Featurettes, Gallery, Booklet Wes Anderson’s first venture into animation finds inspired symmetry between the auteur’s usual fastidious stylings and the painstaking process of stopmotion filmmaking. It’s also a surprisingly successful marriage with Roald Dahl, whose mischief and irony find a kindred spirit in Anderson. Somehow, the story bolts hipster whimsy and deadpan domestic comedy onto Dahl’s ecofable, for a fast, frenetic and – on occasion – heartfelt adventure. George Clooney, a welcome addition to Anderson’s repertory, nails the laconic one-liners.…

1940 ★★★★☆ OUT 3 DECEMBER CINEMAS James Stewart’s other Christmas gem isn’t as wonderfully lifeaffirming, but still out-charms its AOL-era update You’ve Got Mail. Budapest-based co-workers Alfred (Stewart) and Klara (Margaret Sullavan) clash at every turn… but when will it dawn that they’re actually anonymous, amorous pen pals? Such a contrived set-up could seem like it’s taking the epistle. Yet comic master Ernst Lubitsch spins things out with pace, poise and poignancy; amid stiff competition, Frank Morgan (The Wizard Of Oz) is a supporting standout as the troubled shop owner.…

1964 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Alternative cut, Documentary The tale of a woman with excess body hair (Annie Giardot) exploited as a freak, this finds Italian filmmaker Marco Ferreri (La Grande Bouffe) at his cynical and provocative best. Tragic or heartwarming depending on which cut of the film you choose to watch (Ferreri preferred a darker climax, his producer something happier), this unexpectedly touching satire is accompanied by a fascinating feature-length doc about the filmmaker, while subtitles include a marker letting you know where Italian censors intervened.…

1 BIG FISH The aptly named Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor) woos his intended (Alison Lohman) while at uni with a whole field of her favourite flowers – daffodils. After he takes a beating from her fiancé, the duo gaze lovingly at each other among the bashed stems. Total crush. 2 THE WIZARD OF OZ When Dorothy (Judy Garland) becomes pesky to the Wicked Witch Of The West, she’s halted by a field of poppies outside Emerald City. The red blooms cause her to fall into a deep sleep… wait, is the film trying to infer something about the narcotic qualities of poppies? 3 WHITE OLEANDER The titular plant is used by Michelle Pfeiffer’s artist Mom to poison her cheating lover, landing her in the slammer and her daughter with a…