Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i Total Film

We’ve been trying to do Top Gun: Maverick for 24 months now and every time we thought we were getting there, Covid made a mess of things. So it feels like we’re coming out of the other side when we finally get to put Pete Mitchell on the cover. We talked to the ever-passionate Tom Cruise and his new gang about bringing back a classic. And we also got the opportunity to thank Tom, not only for his service to cinema, but for his personal efforts in keeping our spirits up during a couple of bleak festive periods. Every year, this legend sends Total Film one of his famous cakes – and we’re assured that if Tom can choose a baked good with such taste and precision, Top Gun’s long-awaited…

When you make a film about euthanasia, the first question you’re always asked is: Do you worry about getting older? “Of course!” remarks French director François Ozon, 54. “I don’t want to suffer. But I love so much life that I would be interested to suffer until the last moment.” He pauses. “But I’m not sure I will have the strength to commit this kind of suicide.” Such quandaries are right at the heart of his new film Everything Went Fine, based on the book by Emmanuèle Bernheim, who had worked with Ozon on several scripts including Under The Sand and Swimming Pool. The inspiration came from reluctantly aiding her own headstrong father to perform assisted suicide in Switzerland. A man who loved life so much that he was willing…

In writer/director Carey Williams’ Emergency three college students discover a dangerously inebriated girl on the floor of their living room, and embark on a chaotic quest to drop her at the ER in time for an all-night party crawl. So far, so campus caper 101. What sets Emergency apart is the fact that all three of the well-intentioned trio are men of colour – two Black, one Latino – and they’re keenly aware what the likely consequences will be if they’re discovered with an unconscious white girl in their back seat. “That’s just a part of what it means to be Black in America. And not just Black in America, but a minority in America,” says Donald Elise Watkins, who plays Kunle, the straight-A student destined for Princeton with the…

Last week I fancied some mindless switch-off telly after a stressful deadline, so I stuck on Hugh Grant/Sarah Jessica Parker romcom Did You Hear About The Morgans? Now why the hell did you do that, you might ask. Well, the day before I’d rewatched Music And Lyrics, a romcom I will go to my grave defending, and was again bowled over by Grant’s charm-and-chuckles schtick. So, mad as it might seem, I clicked on DYHATM? and sat in a brace position, praying, ‘Please be better than I remember.’ And you know what? It was, and I found myself consistently grinning as urbane, lily-livered Hugh was confronted with guns, a grizzly bear and country and western music. When I last saw the film, at a press screening in 2009, I remember…

When Franco-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch was growing up in Paris suburb Sarcelles, hip-hop was in its infancy and his friends began to ape pioneering acts like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. “Not me,” he laughs, “because I was not very good!” But he watched as rap music spread to the MENA region, eventually becoming crucial even in political movements like the Arab Spring. “It’s a major way of expression.” So it’s apt that his new film Casablanca Beats dives into this musical form with the story of a former rapper, Anas (Anas Basbousi), who comes to work at a cultural centre on the outskirts of the titular Moroccan city. Think Dead Poets Society, albeit with a much higher BPM and ripped from real life. Back in 2014, Ayouch co-founded a…

THE OFFER THE SHOWS THAT ARE GOING BIG ON THE SMALL SCREEN THIS YEAR… When The Godfather producer Albert S. Ruddy jumped on stage to accept the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973, it was the end of a night of cinematic controversy. Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic crime movie started the evening with 10 nominations and went on to win three gold statuettes, including an Oscar for Marlon Brando’s performance as mob boss Vito Corleone. Brando, however, boycotted the ceremony and declined the trophy as an act of protest against “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry”, sending actress and activist Sacheen Little-feather (aka Marie Louise Cruz) to speak on his behalf. Ruddy made no mention of the hullabaloo in his Best Picture acceptance speech, which…

ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL Rupert Friend is hooting with laughter at the idea of being cast as ‘Britain’s Most Fanciable MP’. “I don’t want to see British MPs being sexy. I don’t want to see them dressed as firemen and women. I don’t want to see them in their underwear. And I don’t think anyone else does. So I suppose it’s a little bit of a backhanded compliment…” Tory junior minister James Whitehouse seems to have it all. Good looks, sure, and easy charisma. A blossoming political career. A close friendship with the sitting PM (Geoffrey Streatfeild) going back to their days in their university’s debauched Libertine Club. An enviable family situation, with two apple-cheeked kids and a doting wife, Sarah (Sienna Miller). So when news breaks of an affair…

HEARTSTOPPER It’s honestly one of the most pleasurable experiences I’ve had on set,” young actor Kit Connor (Rocketman, His Dark Materials) tells Total Film of making Netflix teen show Heartstopper. The series adapts British author Alice Oseman’s popular LGBTQ+ young adult webcomic turned graphic novel. It’s the story of two English teens at an all-boys grammar school: Charlie (Joe Locke), out as gay and anxious about most things in life, and Nick (Connor, below left), an affable, popular and presumed straight rugby player. Made to sit together in class, a friendship quickly forms, though Charlie’s burgeoning romantic feelings for Nick prove more likely to be reciprocated than he could possibly have imagined. Oseman is also the main writer for the sweet and charming series, with Euros Lyn (a TV veteran…

The first moment Audrey Diwan sensed the impact of her new movie Happening, she was lying in bed. The film, a 1960s-set French drama about a young student seeking an abortion, had just screened at the Venice Film Festival in September 2021. Then she got an email from a female journalist who’d just seen it. “I had a message that said, ‘I just wanted to tell you that I fainted!’ That was a very interesting first reaction! Honestly, I don’t want people to faint, but I was quite happy because I thought, ‘OK, she really got what I’m trying to do here.’” She wasn’t the only one. Just a few days later, Happening was awarded Venice’s Golden Lion by a jury led by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho (which, along with…

★★★★☆ OUT 8 APRIL CINEMAS Named after a species of eel that tears off its own flesh to break free, writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Camera d’Or winner recalls trouble-in-paradise flicks such as Sexy Beast. Lonely teenager Julija (Gracija Filipovic) lives with her mother (Danica Curcic) and abusive father (Leon Lucev) by the Croatian coast, until the arrival of an old friend (Cliff Curtis) brings the simmering tensions to a boil. Executive-produced by Martin Scorsese, the result is a moody character piece, offering an effective blend of sunny indolence with an undercurrent of danger.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW NETFLIX Noomi Rapace literally gets her skates on in this unique Swedish thriller from debut director Adam Berg. In a frozen post-apocalyptic landscape, soldier Caroline (Rapace) is strong-armed into leading a covert mission – ‘Operation Black Crab’ – that involves her and five others transporting a secret cargo across the ice. It’s worth a gawp for the (astounding) skate scenes alone, but there’s a lot more to this surprisingly effective, and affecting, actioner. Rapace offers another tough-as-nails turn – Lisbeth Salander on ice! – while Berg looks bound for even bigger, blockbuster-y things.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 22 APRIL CINEMAS This artful mountaineering documentary follows a Nepalese Sherpa family in crisis, as they struggle to decide whether to take a job leading a group of western mountaineers up their sacred Kumbhakarna Mountain – which is never supposed to be ascended, ever. To add to their stress, they need the money for their son’s education – yet the mountain climb is regarded as even more dangerous than Everest… It’s a striking and frequently scary look at mountaineering, though the scariest of all is seeing some of the attitudes of those being guided towards the Sherpas.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 22 APRIL CINEMAS When Soviet private Sergey (Tom Prior) falls for dashing fighter pilot Roman (Oleg Zagorodnii) in 1970s Estonia, their secret affair must survive the full glare of the oppressive surveillance state. Based on Sergey Fetisov’s real-life memoir The Story Of Roman, this is a labour of love for Prior, co-writing with director Peeter Rebane. Firebird is sensitively told and handsomely made, although having its multinational cast all speak in English arguably robs it of some of its nuance. There’s also a curious flatness to a narrative that makes its points with eloquence and emotion… and then makes them again.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 15 APRIL CINEMAS 1 JULY MUBI DIRECTOR Paul Verhoeven STARRING Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphne Patakia, Lambert Wilson SCREENPLAY David Birke, Paul Verhoeven DISTRIBUTOR Mubi RUNNING TIME 131 mins You can only imagine how Paul Verhoeven’s eyes might’ve lit up when he came upon Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy, a 1986 tome by historian Judith C. Brown that provides the factual basis for his latest provocation. Sex, religion and violence have been recurring themes in the Dutch director’s oeuvre, so the chance to cram them all into one lurid concoction must have seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Yet for all its bloody flagellations, orgasmic coitus and erotic dreams of Christ, it would be a disservice to Benedetta to dismiss it…

★★★☆☆ OUT 15 APRIL CINEMAS Documentary or fiction? Social critique or surreal experiment? Director Kiro Russo suggests the rugged contrasts of life in La Paz in his bracing and befuddling city symphony. Bustles of sound and motion seem to herald a study in immersive abstraction, before multi-stranded tales of miners looking for work and witch doctors emerge. As the plot ranges freely from clamouring marketplaces to metaphorical ailments, Russo’s sense of rhythm shows a deceptively sure hand: even when the splintering narrative’s grip slips, the giddy dance sequences provide crucial bursts of re-energising life.…

★★★★☆ OUT 15 APRIL CINEMAS Based on a true story, Arthur Harari’s epic war film documents the life and times of Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda (initially Yûya Endô, then Kanji Tsuda) and his squadron, who inadvertently sit out World War 2 and the ensuing decades on a remote island in the Philippines. With 30 years to get through in this story, Harari adopts an episodic structure, flitting from one key incident to the next. The 173-minute runtime is sizeable, but Onoda emerges from the jungle as a powerful depiction of misguided duty and stubborn perseverance.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW DISNEY+ DIRECTOR Domee Shi STARRING Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park SCREENPLAY Julia Cho, Domee Shi DISTRIBUTOR Disney RUNNING TIME 100 mins If Pixar movies are, y’know, for kids (they’re not, of course, or at least not exclusively), then you have to admire just how adult their themes are. Mortality, obsolescence, our planet’s demise, emotional dissonance and abstract thought… and now, in Turning Red, menstruation, a topic that ridiculously enough remains taboo in much of cinema, let alone in an animated family adventure. Here, our hero is Meilin (newcomer Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian living in early 2000s Toronto. A dutiful daughter to her overprotective mother (Sandra Oh) and gentle father (Orion Lee), she works hard and keeps a low profile at school,…

★★★★☆ OUT 4 APRIL DIGITAL Winner of the Tribeca Film Festival’s Audience Award, this unflinching revenge tale stars real-life professional boxer Kali ‘K.O.’ Reis (who also co-wrote the script) as a former boxer and recovering addict who infiltrates a human-trafficking ring to find her missing sister. Reis gives an impressive debut performance, which also makes good use of her skills within the ring, but this isn’t another Taken. Instead, Catch The Fair One is an uncompromising drama that’s driven by realistic stakes and throws emotional haymakers, even if it bobs and weaves around the actual consequences of the violence involved.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS DIRECTOR Matt Reeves STARRING Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro SCREENPLAY Matt Reeves, Peter Craig DISTRIBUTOR Warner Bros RUNNING TIME 176 mins Gotham loves a comeback story,” Paul Dano’s Riddler is told in The Batman. After the disappointments of BVS and Justice League, the Caped Crusader himself is in need of a resurgence. Enter Robert Pattinson and director Matt Reeves. Extricating their take on the character from DCEU continuity for a near-three-hour standalone, this is the darkest knight yet – a film that has as much in common with Se7en as it does with the average comic-book-movie tentpole. That isn’t a glib comparison. The Batman opens with the Riddler bludgeoning a man to death, squealing with bestial zeal. It gets…

1999 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Making of, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Poster, Booklet, Art cards Bringing fantasy elements to the fore, Frank Darabont’s other Stephen King prison adap is shinier, schmaltzier and more bloated than The Shawshank Redemption. Michael Clarke Duncan is gentle giant and healer John Coffey, accused of murder and sentenced to death; Tom Hanks is his death row caretaker. While aspects of the well-intentioned script may not have aged well, the film has lost little of its emotional power, especially in its darker moments. A 32-page booklet extends the already bum-numbing experience.…

1966 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Bonus film, Commentary, Gallery, Booklet A timely Blu release for this monochrome Czech New Wave drama, which suffered a prerelease ban by the authorities, going unseen for two decades. Set in the mists of a forest during the final days of WW2, Karel Kachyna’s richly atmospheric film concerns a vengeance-seeking young widow (Iva Janzurová), who has been forced to transport two Wehrmacht deserters to the Austrian border. Anchored by Janzurová’s nearwordless performance, it builds to a shattering conclusion. Extras include Kachyna’s co-directed graduation film It’s Not Always Cloudy.…

GAME E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL – LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME OUT SPRING TBC He’s back – and he needs your help catching the last mothership home. Funko’s cooperative adventure game sees you take on the mantle of Elliott, Gertie, Michael and Greg, biking round a neighbourhood map-board via ramps and shortcuts. Can you build a communication device? Avoid the Feds? Not get involved in a festive internet-provider ad? (Kidding about the last part.) Comes with heartlight dial, ‘candy’ tokens… and a bucket for your tears (also kidding). Home in on funkoeurope.com. COLLECTIBLES SCI-FI CALLING CARDS OUT NOW Show your purse/wallet some love with these clever, cool calling cards, which imagine a galaxy where characters from Ellen Ripley to Seth Brundle have gone a bit Patrick Bateman (not like that). Don’t fret…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW PS4/5 How do you follow up a game that seemed to come out of nowhere? Having built its reputation upon the Killzone series – a succession of grey, largely interchangeable first-person shooters – Guerrilla Games dramatically changed tack for a lavish, colourful sci-fi fantasy that struck a chord with 20 million players. Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) took young huntress Aloy on a journey of self-discovery, full of revelations about herself and Earth’s past. Five years ago, she may have been a newcomer, but her appearance in the Marvel-aping PlayStation Studios ident that greets you as you boot up Forbidden West tells us she’s firmly part of the company’s present and future. That in itself sets an expectation that the long-awaited sequel is only too happy to meet:…

01 Still in hiding at the Lars homestead on Tatooine, little Luke Skywalker has shot up since we last saw him. Seems the goggles didn’t fall far from the podracer, either. 02 “The fight is done. We lost,” Obi-Wan mourns. To survive, Obi-Wan must conceal his true identity. It’ll take something significant for the Jedi master to ignite his lightsaber once again. 03 Something like the arrival of Imperial Inquisitors on the scene, including relentless newcomer Reva (Moses Ingram). Note: the Empire have shifted over to original-trilogy Stormtrooper armour. 04 Joel Edgerton reprises his Owen Lars. In the comics, Owen is hostile to the idea of Obi-Wan training Luke, but they will have to work together to keep the last Jedi safe. 05 Feeling all Tatooined out after The Book Of Boba Fett? Obi-Wan Kenobi…

He was once the enfant terrible of French cinema, with movies like I Stand Alone, Irréversible and Climax. Yet there can be no doubt that Vortex sees Gaspar Noé in a new period of his career. A harrowing tale of dementia, it comes from a “totally” personal place. “My mother lost her mind. The actor [Philippe Nahon] of I Stand Alone also lost his mind. I’ve seen it from close [up] many times in my life… I know those kinds of situations.” In Vortex, the story follows an aged couple: a film critic (played by master horror director Dario Argento) and his wife (Françoise Lebrun), a former shrink devastatingly afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Early reactions, after the film played in Cannes, were overwhelming. “One person out of three who is over…

“THAT’S SOME BULLSHIT! JONAH HILL AND LEO? REALLY? SOMEBODY HAS MISCOUNTED.” SAMUEL L. JACKSON CAN’T BELIEVE HE DOESN’T HOLD THE SWEAR-WORD WORLD RECORD. “I really hope Anthony Mackie doesn’t have any say in it because if he has any say in it, I’m not in Captain America 4.” SEBASTIAN STAN JOKES THAT BUCKY’S FATE IS IN THE NEW CAP’S HANDS. 0 HOLLYWOOD ACTORS WHO AREN’T PART OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S RIDICULOUSLY STARRY OPPENHEIMER, AS IT HEADS INTO PRODUCTION. £1.1BN THIS YEAR’S PREDICTED UK BOX-OFFICE TOTAL – JUST 10 PER CENT DOWN ON 2019’S RECORDBREAKING £1.25BN HAUL. “HER BOYFRIEND MURDERS SOMEONE AND SHE’S STILL LIKE… YEAH!”PATRICIA ARQUETTE STRUGGLED WITH ALABAMA’S UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT OF CLARENCE IN TRUE ROMANCE. “CHANNING TATUM, CALL ME, BRO! I HAVEN’T HEARD FROM YA!” MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY WANTS BACK IN ON…

Thriller The Innocents follows four children living in Oslo tower blocks, making friends during the summer holidays while most residents are away. These aren’t ordinary kids, however, as away from adult supervision they discover latent abilities, with which they begin to experiment. It’s a mix of telepathy and telekinesis, while one 12-year-old with nonverbal autism finds they are able to speak with the aid of one new companion’s talents. Playtime soon turns deadly as some lash out, and outside parties become guinea pigs for mind-control exercises. Eskil Vogt understands that based on this synopsis, people may associate his scary latest with superpowered youth movies (Carrie, Chronicle, X-Men) or films about spooky, malevolent children (The Omen). But the writer-director, who cites Akira creator Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s manga Domu as a major influence,…

It’s hard to do a comedy with thick-skulled cops, set in the middle of nowhere, without thinking of Fargo,” says Danish writer/director Thomas Daneskov of the inevitable comparisons Wild Men has drawn to the work of the Coen brothers. But far from wishing to ape the celebrated movies of Joel and Ethan, Daneskov’s spry crim-com, which sees lovable buffoon Martin (Rasmus Bjerg) turn his back on modern life to live in a Norwegian forest, only to get caught up with an on-the-lam drug dealer and the bumbling cops in pursuit, found its flavours during location tours. “We tried going down to the local police station to see how they operated, but found the station sharing its office space with a taxi service, an ATM and a dentist,” grins Daneskov. “A…

When former actress Ana Rocha de Sousa read a news story about forced adoption in the UK, she was left horrified. Living in London – and a new mother herself – she learnt of a fellow Portuguese woman who had suffered from this very ugly practice of Britain’s Child Protection Services, forcibly removing potentially at-risk children from their parents, and putting them up for adoption. “It turned out to be a very shocking journey for me as a person, but even more as a mother,” she says. Rocha de Sousa was left further incensed as she realised this was hardly a one-off. “It was that case that led me to find so many other families going through [something similar], and many forced into silence.” Gradually, she pulled together a script…

THE LAZARUS PROJECT How far would you go to save a loved one? What happens to ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances? What would you do if you could relive your life? Classic dilemmas, but for everyman George (I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu), they come with a distressing sting in the tale: correcting past mistakes could bring about the end of the world. The Lazarus Project, an eight-part thriller from Joe Barton (creator of the brilliant Giri/ Haji), begins with George on a roll. It is 1 July, and he wakes up next to partner Sarah (Charly Clive, Pure), before heading off to secure financial backing for his start-up app; pregnancy, marriage and prosperity follow, before a pandemic hits and panic spreads. Then George wakes up again, next to Sarah…

THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS The work of one of British science fiction’s all-time greats, John Wyndham, returns to our screens soon, with a new eight-part series of The Midwich Cuckoos. Memorably dramatised in 1960 as Village Of The Damned, Wyndham’s 1957 novel sees every woman of childbearing age in its titular English village falling pregnant after a mysterious day-long blackout, then giving birth to children with unearthly mental powers. Producer Robert Cheek promises that this new adaptation for Sky Max will “take the spirit” of the book, but be “a contemporary version”. For starters, the novel’s protagonist, Gordon Zellaby, has been gender-switched to Dr. Susannah Zellaby, a psychotherapist played by Keeley Hawes. And the series will, we’re told, “be seen from the female gaze”. “John Wyndham wrote some really fascinating character…

DERRY GIRLS SERIES 3 The secret to any good comedy lies in specificity and universality and Derry Girls manifested both with apparent ease. Lisa McGee’s brilliant sitcom documented a typical 1990s adolescence against the very particular backdrop of a Catholic girls’ school during the Troubles, even if bomb scares and paramilitaries represent an inconvenient obstacle to more pressing quests for romance and academic success, all to a classic soundtrack of ‘90s indie pop. When TF catches up with the girls – Saoirse-Monica Jackson’s vain, ambitious Erin, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell’s feisty, unsinkable Michelle, Nicola Coughlan’s smart goodie-goodie Clare, Louisa Harland’s detached, Tiggerish Orla and honorary Derry Girl, sensible “wee English fella” James (played by Dylan Llewellyn) – we find them better at keeping secrets than the characters they play. That said, they…

THE FOLLOWING FEATURE HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR ALL AUDIENCES PG TRAILERS ARE THE FILM INDUSTRY IN A MICROCOSM. THEY’RE EAGERLY ANTICIPATED, WATCHED MORE THAN MOST FILMS, AND CAN BE MASTERCLASSES IN EDITING, SUSPENSE AND HUMOUR. BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S INVOLVED IN SELLING A FILM IN JUST A FEW MINUTES? TOTAL FILM SPEAKS TO SOME OF THE INDUSTRY’S KEY EDITORS TO FIND OUT. More people will watch the trailer for a film than will ever see the film itself. While many trailers wash over you, fading away along with the title of the film, the very best burrow into your mind. If they’ve done their job well enough, they convince you to part with your hard-earned money. For this reason, trailers aren’t just a crucial cog in the Hollywood machine,…

FREAKS AND GEEKS 1999-2000 “It felt like the whole project was special,” says Judd Apatow, and he’s not wrong. Hilarious, sweet, sad, this NBC show set in an ’80s high school introduced Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel and more. THE 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN 2005 Apatow’s directorial debut made a star of Steve Carell. People remember the chest-waxing scene but it’s the heart beneath that makes it so much more. “We decided to make it funny but also emotionally very credible,” says Apatow. KNOCKED UP 2007 Ben (Seth Rogen) gets a shock when onenight stand Alison (Katherine Heigl) turns up pregnant. The idea came from Apatow’s neuroses: “I always assumed my wife doesn’t like me, that she must feel trapped,” he laughs. FUNNY PEOPLE 2009 Apatow says he…

★★★★☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS Indian director Payal Kapadia’s hypnotic feature debut feels like a film pulled from the ashes of another era. Set against a backdrop of grassroots activism and protests, the narrative centres on L, whose relationship to a fellow student at the Film And Television Institute Of India is torpedoed by his parents because she’s from the ‘wrong’ caste. It unfolds as a series of letters, voiced by actor Bhumisuta Das, whose words are cut to mesmerising, moody doc-style images. As a film experience, it’s uncompromising, sometimes frustrating, but always unique.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Putting an influencer spin on found-footage flicks, this low-budget British horror follows fame-obsessed student Jonty (Harry Jarvis) as he investigates strange goings-on in his university digs. But is the footage he captures alongside his roommates part of an elaborate hoax, or is something more nefarious afoot? True, Followers struggles to compete with the polish and panache of successful recent shoestring horrors such as Host. But what it lacks in originality it makes up for in its admirable ambition, delivering a handful of spooky moments alongside a hearty dash of schlock.…

★★★★☆ OUT 8 APRIL CINEMAS, DIGITAL Irish folklore meets kitchen-sink drama in this bleakly arresting Dublin-set feature debut from writer-director Kate Dolan. When her troubled mammy (Carolyn Bracken) suddenly disappears, and then reappears, having undergone a drastic change in personality, schoolgirl Char (Hazel Doupe) uncovers a dark secret, leading to the most unsettling family affair since Hereditary… or an episode of EastEnders. The title gives too much away, but this brooding coming-of-ager cleverly subverts expectations, refashioning traditional folklore for its own disturbing purposes.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS Striving to become a top violinist never looks like the most joyful of tasks, but Ina Weisse’s drama attempts to hammer home just how brittle and intense musical academia can be. Nina Hoss is fantastic as teacher Anna, who takes on promising student Alexander (Ilja Monti), yet the film ultimately feels like a blander version of Michael Haneke’s psychosexual masterpiece The Piano Teacher (2001). The Audition scores a ‘highly competent’ in every department – the direction, the soundtrack, the elegant compositions – but in a crowded field of films about musical ambition, it doesn’t attain excellence.…

★★★★☆ OUT 8 APRIL CINEMAS Ambitious and accomplished, this first feature from director and co-writer Laura Samani is set in a remote region of north-eastern Italy, circa 1900. It centres on Agata (Celeste Cescutti), a grief-stricken young mother who’s determined to save the soul of her stillborn baby by embarking on a hazardous journey to a mountain sanctuary in search of a miracle worker. Convincingly acted by its mainly non-professional cast, this female-focused drama has the feel of a mythical quest, marked by unexpected encounters in a world of natural beauty, competing belief systems and physical danger.…

A watchful, compassionate account of self-imposed isolation grows into something deeper in Lizzie MacKenzie’s doc. Her subject is Highlands hermit Ken Smith, who has lived off-grid for nearly 40 years. While Ken’s lifestyle suggests a story of defiant endurance, MacKenzie’s patient pitch teases out hidden depths. Contemplations of trauma, recovery, loss, memory and mortality steadily unfold, infused with clear-sighted poetry, melancholy and wisdom. And even if you worry for Smith, he seems at one with his staggering natural surroundings: as he says of the views, “Cor.”…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS “Mysteries lay in the details,” we’re told in this beguiling, abstract debut from Catarina Vasconcelos. Blending fiction, documentary and biographical essay, the Portuguese director unfolds a family history in half-remembered letters, rhyming images and still-life compositions. While the hushed mood leans to the precious, warm ripples of feeling draw you into the film’s secrets. Gradually, a tale of motherhood, mortality, time and transmutation takes delicate form: as a flower blooms on screen, Vasconcelos teases out something quietly magical from the longing to find permanence in the transient.…

★☆☆☆☆ OUT NOW SKY CINEMA, NOW Everything about this tepid conspiracy thriller is so depressingly well-worn and clichéd that it’s a struggle to find anything to recommend about it. As he’s been doing for a good 15 years now, Liam Neeson plays a special agent with a particular set of skills who teams up with an unlikely ally or two on a journey of violence to uncover a rogue agent, and if you’re not asleep by the end of this sentence, you will be by the end of the movie. Pointless, humourless and as slapdash as a contemporary Bruce Willis film. Just watch Taken again instead.…

1996 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS ★★☆☆☆ Stickers, Art cards, Poster Taking advantage of a larger budget, John Carpenter’s dystopian sequel is bigger and more bombastic than Escape From New York. Kurt Russell returns as Snake Plissken – still making camo yoga pants look good – tasked with recovering a doomsday device from an earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles. Shamelessly rehashing the first movie, it’s too enamoured with its (then) cutting-edge special effects (the surf sequence is one of the worst things Carpenter’s ever done), but packed with fun action and entertaining oddballs. Nice memorabilia, shame about the discs.…

1997 ★★★☆☆ OUT 25 APRIL BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentaries, Featurettes, Booklet It may look conventional now, but it’s hard to overstate how revolutionary Theodore Witcher’s film felt in 1997. At a time when much African-American cinema would’ve been reductively classified as ‘urban crime film’, here was an earnest romantic drama centred exclusively on educated Black characters. While it lacks that same impact today, it’s still easy to fall under the film’s spell thanks to its richly drawn characters and the undeniable chemistry between leads Larenz Tate and Nia Long. Plenty of new add-ons featuring Witcher, including an incisive commentary.…

1967 ★★★★★ OUT 4 APRIL BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Featurettes, Archive footage, Booklet “An appalling and apparently senseless crime. Two apparently heartless young criminals. What is the reality behind the appearance?” asks the trailer for this 1967 adap of Truman Capote’s iconic “non-fiction novel”. Shot in a near-documentary style on location (including inside the actual home of the murdered Clutter family), Richard Brooks’ B&W neo-noir masterpiece reveals its harrowing answers with an uncanny sense of verisimilitude. True-crime cinema at its most haunting. New Criterion interviews cover the lensing, editing and Quincy Jones’ score.…

MAURICE JARRE TADLOW MUSIC After he scored 1962’s T.E. Lawrence epic, Maurice Jarre lamented that he became known as ‘Mr. Desert Music’. You can hear why: the epitome of desert music, his score is so evocative it ought to come with free shades. But sift the sands and the French composer’s genius for themes, sounds, contrast and beyond also emerges, showcased with luxurious colour and melodic clout. Not that Jarre’s appointment was a sure thing. Director David Lean’s first choices – William Walton, Malcolm Arnold – were unavailable. Producers wanted three composers: Russia’s Aram Khachaturian and Britain’s Benjamin Britten, plus Jarre. When the gig fell to Jarre alone, he had just six sleep-deprived weeks to complete the score. Despite his sufferings, the white heat of pressure produced wonders, heralded as…

After co-directing Finding Dory, Angus MacLane was considering a number of projects. “But I always in the back of my mind felt like there had never been a fully explored sci-fi adventure starring Buzz Lightyear, the character,” he tells Teasers. “And I was like, ‘Why can’t we just make that movie?’” The resulting film, Lightyear, is to Toy Story’s beloved space-ranger action figure what Star Wars is to the Kenner toys. MacLane describes this take on Buzz as pushing forward the mythology of the character: “Think of it like a James Bond character – it’s not always the same, but it’s the same flavour.” In an indicator of that shift, here it’s Chris Evans on voice duties, not Tim Allen. Stationed on a mystery planet prepping for an interstellar mission,…

@JORDANFARLEY If you’ve read our review of The Batman over on p106, you’ll know that we’re big fans of Matt Reeves’ vision of a gritty, grounded Gotham, with one significant caveat – the film’s contentious final act. Still not seen The Batman? This is your last warning before we swing into spoiler territory… Still here? Then you’ll know a good two-and-a-bit hours into The Batman, the Riddler gives himself up to the GCPD. His masterplan entering its endgame, ol’ Riddles intends to watch the ensuing chaos from the relative safety of a dingy cell in Arkham. The final piece in the puzzle is the destruction of the seawall flood defences surrounding the city. Knowing that everyone downtown will flee to Gotham Square Garden, the Riddler has arranged for gunmen in…

Puss in Boots, the debonair and cunning feline assassin, was the undisputed breakout star of the Shrek franchise. Now, over a decade after the release of his own spin-off film in 2011, he’s back. “He’s lived!” laughs director Joel Crawford over Zoom. “He’s actually burned through eight of his nine lives.” In the upcoming sequel, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, our favourite furry swashbuckling fighter goes off in search of a wishing star that has crash landed and could give him the chance to restore his nine lives. “When he sets out on that journey, it’s an opportunity to see a much deeper side of Puss,” says Crawford. “He never experiences fear because he’s always so cool in every situation. But now, he’s down to his last life, and…

What were your initial thoughts after reading the script? The content is so harrowing, I assumed that there was no way that this could possibly be true, and that it was a piece of fiction. When I discovered that this is based on the tragic reality that forced adoptions happen, it was hugely eye-opening. Lúcia Moniz and Ruben Garcia’s performances feel so authentic. How was it to act with them? It was extraordinary watching those two act. When we shot the scene in my office, when they’re begging me for help… I didn’t believe I was watching acting when I saw the tears come out of their eyes. It was so moving. Because a lot of the time you can tell when actors are faking it… they get make-up artists…

For a sequel to a film built around the need for speed, Top Gun: Maverick has been a long time coming. Recent additional delays caused by the pandemic mean that this sequel is finally touching down 35 years (almost to the date) after the original. That’s a long wait for fans who’ve been clamouring for more since Tony Scott’s fighter-pilot drama took their breath away in 1986. But, Maverick, true to his call sign, has never played by the rules. “Originally, I wasn’t interested in doing a sequel,” star and producer Tom Cruise tells Total Film, speaking from South Africa where he’s readying his next Mission: Impossible (a franchise for which he’s managed five sequels and counting since 1996). Top Gun was the highest-grossing film of 1986, and confirmed Cruise’s…

SHINING GIRLS Potent themes of trauma, pain and confusion bubble to the surface in the mind-bending mystery of new series Shining Girls. The sharp crime drama is billed as a ‘metaphysical thriller’, so expect brain-scrambling twists and turns with a top-tier cast that includes Elisabeth Moss, Jamie Bell, Phillipa Soo and Wagner Moura. Adapted from the 2013 novel by Lauren Beukes, Shining Girls casts Moss as Kirby Mazrachi, the survivor of a brutal attack who is forced to relive the ordeal when a recent murder is linked to her case. Kirby joins forces with a seasoned journalist (played by Moura) on the hunt for a suspected serial killer – but her constantly shifting reality seems to get in the way. “Imagine if the person who attacked you was still walking…

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH It’s been almost 50 years since director Nicolas Roeg adapted Walter Tevis’ novel, The Man Who Fell To Earth, into a haunting film about an alien (played mesmerisingly by David Bowie) who comes to Earth seeking a way to save his home planet that’s mired in ecological distress, only to find addiction and betrayal on Earth. As timely a tale as ever, the story returns as a streaming series (on Showtime in the US, UK tbd) from Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris. How much did the original novel and the 1976 film influence this adaptation? Alex Kurtzman (Executive Producer/ Director): We took tremendous inspiration from both Nicolas Roeg’s film and also Walter Tevis’ novel. But we also felt that…

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale 2009 As a lifelong dog-lover, and the owner of a Saluki/ greyhound cross, I’m an easy mark when it comes to Sad Dog movies. But nothing has so relentlessly punished my emotional weak point as Lasse Hallström’s Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. Based on the true story of a loyal Japanese Akita called Hachiko, Hachi stars Richard Gere as Parker Wilson, a music professor who forms a fast bond with a stray Akita puppy he finds on a train station platform. Akitas can be stubborn creatures, but Parker earns Hachi’s affection, which Hachi returns with unwavering dedication, even making his own way to the station every day to meet Parker as he arrives home on the 5pm commuter train. Tragically, Parker suffers a fatal stroke one day…

1. OPENING SHOT The thinking behind that is wanting to grab the attention of the audience as fast as possible. You can’t look away; the camera’s forcing your eye to the man walking in. And it helps to further the narrative of the grief that the family’s dealing with. 2. MUSIC The main cue gets going right when Toni Collette starts speaking. It’s really just a pulse. The turn is the cutting-off of the bird’s head: boom, the needle moves more dark. We break into a little sound design and quiet section. You want to change gears; we need to get to complete dread. 3. CUTTING It starts slower and then gets faster, basically. I match cut Toni Collette’s face quite a bit: her face will be on the centre…

★★★★☆ OUT 15 APRIL CINEMAS The plan is highly implausible. So… when can it be ready?” Simon Russell Beale’s grumpy Winston Churchill pulls the trigger on a famous military deception in this handsome, well-played and solidly old-school WW2 true-life spy drama. Feeding the seemingly unslakeable British appetite for plucky wartime stories, John Madden’s confidently crafted adapation of Ben Macintyre’s hit book recounts the British military’s desperation to fool the Nazis into anticipating a Greek invasion, in order to protect a huge Allied assault via Sicily in July 1943. A wild plot to float a corpse onto a Spanish beach with fake plans meant for Hitler is cooked up by none other than James Bond creator Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn). Subsequently, Michelle Ashford’s respectful screenplay shoves brainy ex-QC Ewen Montagu (a…

★★★☆☆ OUT 15 APRIL CINEMAS Is this Taken?!?” asks a kidnapped Sandra Bullock. It’s not, thankfully. More like Romancing The Stone Redux, as a successful-but-adrift novelist (Bullock’s Loretta Sage) gets swept up in a jungle-based quest for a precious MacGuffin. But a key branching-off from Robert Zemeckis’ 1984 breakout (look out for the sly nod here) is that our protag pairs up not with a bird-hunting, wilderness-savvy Michael Douglas, but with an altogether less rugged Channing Tatum. For it is Tatum’s Fabio-esque (the wig gets some nice comic mileage), out-of-his-depth book-cover-model Alan who stumbles into action when Loretta is “Tooken” by wicked billionaire Fairfax (an avidly petulant Daniel Radcliffe) to a remote island, in hopes that her knowledge of dead languages will help him nab the keys to the titular,…

★★★★☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS, DIGITAL First-time writer-director Lauren Hadaway’s credits include sound editing on Whiplash, where students were pushed to the brink by J.K. Simmons’ sadistic teacher. Here, university rower Alex (Isabelle Fuhrman) pushes herself, fuelled by her own feverish ambition. Fuhrman is spectacular, playing both victim and tormentor, battling freezing rain and bloody hands, always believing she’s on the cusp of greatness. Stylishly composed in cold greys and blues and edited for maximum stress-viewing, this is both engrossing psychological thriller and disturbing character portrait.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS Released just in time for peak calendar interest, this retooled German animation (from the director of The Elfkins: Baking A Difference) follows Max, an immature and irresponsible city rabbit, training to become a magical Easter bunny while trying to save the whole tradition of Easter from rival rabbit Leo and a devious group of foxes plotting to destroy all the eggs. The story serves up wholesome fun, with some imaginative flourishes of seasonal magic and a heartwarming moral at its centre. But only the very youngest viewers will be truly entertained by this innocuous yarn.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS 4 APRIL DIGITAL The kids certainly aren’t alright in this low-budget Brit chiller, as Richard (Tom Goodman-Hill) brings new love Holly (Aisling Loftus) to his family home, only to find his children acting strangely and his ex-wife suspiciously absent. Sebastian Godwin’s film has one or two creepily effective moments, but it ramps up the weirdness far too soon – despite the best efforts of a convincingly panicked Loftus, Holly’s tolerance of such unhinged behaviour defies belief. With an overbearing score proving more annoying than unsettling, Homebound dawdles towards a predictable final-act reveal.…

★★★★☆ OUT 8 APRIL CINEMAS Seemingly for fans only, this documentary about Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon, compiled from his own video diaries, proves to be a universally compelling insight into the many pitfalls of fame. Tracking a period spanning five years from before the band was formed to just a few hours before his untimely death from a drug overdose, the film capably captures Blind Melon’s rise and fall during the tumultuous early ’90s. Their music, however, takes a backseat to the tragic depiction of a troubled talent who was an intelligent and eloquent artist before his time.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 4 APRIL DIGITAL, DVD Mickey Reece’s idiosyncratic drama is effectively two films in one. The first, centring on an attempted exorcism of the titular nun (Hayley McFarland), is a broad, uneven mix of comedy and horror with too few laughs and too mild scares to work as either. But Reece abruptly shifts gear and focus, turning his attention to Agnes’ traumatised friend Mary (Molly Quinn) and her own loss of faith. It becomes a stranger, sadder, more satisfying film as a result, with Quinn’s quietly affecting turn the glue that just about holds it all together.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Based on a prequel to the Jujutsu Kaisen manga (itself the inspiration for a hit anime series), this epic yarn follows Yuta Okkotsu, a nervous teenager haunted by a childhood curse that physically manifests as a horrific, bloodthirsty creature. Yuta enrols in a special school dedicated to fighting such curses, providing the springboard for extreme bloodshed and some terrific monster designs. The story’s darker elements are offset by a touching tale of friendship and dabs of offbeat humour (one character talks only in rice-ball ingredients). Frenetic fun for fans and newcomers alike.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 4 APRIL DIGITAL 11 APRIL DVD The Killing Season/Murder Mountain documaker Joshua Zeman sets out to sea and joins a group of scientists in the hunt for a unique whale who calls out at 52Hz, unrecognised by other whales. Elusive whales throughout history are evoked as this needle-in-a-haystack quest proves challenging. Some sections will only appeal to devout nature-doc fans, but the film avoids going adrift by anchoring itself to the human isolation of recent years, and by raising awareness of the grander struggles these endangered giants face in today’s ship-packed seas.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW NETFLIX DIRECTOR Shawn Levy STARRING Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldana, Catherine Keener SCREENPLAY Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin DISTRIBUTOR Netflix RUNNING TIME 106 mins Back To The Future made time travel simple. Marty McFly’s fading family photograph was an easy, understandable visual cue that demonstrated exactly how the film’s logic worked. Over the years, though, time travel has become a lot more complicated: take Avengers: Endgame, which just about makes sense as it zips back and forth across Marvel’s timeline. Now comes Shawn Levy’s The Adam Project, which apes the feel of one of Steven Spielberg’s classic Amblin productions, yet falls short of those masterpieces. And, unfortunately, a lot of that comes down to time travel. The opening scene…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL A slow, muddled opening act threatens to waste the intriguing premise of this high-concept Korean thriller: every 12 hours, an amnesiac man (Yoon Kyesang) finds his consciousness shifting from one body to another. Though the eventual explanation for this phenomenon is frankly (and predictably) ridiculous, Yoon Jae-geun’s film gains a giddy momentum in its action-packed second half, as our amnesiac hero’s investigation becomes a race against time – never more so than during a nerve-shredding escape from a submerged car, the pick of a series of briskly staged set-pieces.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 4 APRIL DIGITAL Going away on her first-ever field trip, young Conni (Mia Ciscon) is devastated to leave beloved moggy Mau behind. Worry not: the cat has some plans of its own, stowing away to become embroiled in a spooky-old-castle mystery. Now dubbed into English, this German animated feature’s whodunnit flourishes keep the sweetness from turning overly saccharine. Adults and moppets alike should be charmed by the lush visuals and slapstick humour, although parents may want to brace themselves for the film’s message: sometimes, grownups’ obliviousness can be cruel.…

2008 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Featurette, Prank clips Mumblecore meets horror-comedy in the Duplass brothers’ second feature, a tale of four struggling actors (including Greta Gerwig as Michelle) who head off to a cabin in the woods to write a film, only to be menaced by a mysterious figure. While the meta humour still plays well, Baghead struggles when it comes to constructing effective scare scenes within the film’s vérité style. Some may also question the value of a Blu upgrade, when the film’s grungy visuals were captured digitally at a quality above DVD but still below Full HD.…

1986 ★★★★☆ OUT 18 APRIL 4K UHD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Documentaries, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Gallery, Booklet, Poster, Postcards John McNaughton’s controversial tale of Henry (Michael Rooker, stunning), a psychotic American drifter who kills without remorse, has lost none of its queasy kick. The no-budget, grimy aesthetic, quasi-doc format and Rooker’s dead-eyed performance all add up to something utterly unnerving. Henry smashing a TV set over a victim’s head will likely lurk in your memory forever. It’s brilliant but not for the faint of heart. Ample extras include new and old McNaughton commentaries and a 60-page booklet.…

1972 ★★★★☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS Returning to cinemas for its 50th anniversary, Ingmar Bergman’s sombre tale of three sisters showcases the Swedish auteur at his most intense. Set in a red-tinged mansion at the end of the 19th century, it stars Harriet Andersson as Agnes, who has terminal cancer. Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin are siblings Maria and Karin, who arrive at the family home with more emotional issues than a psychiatrist’s waiting room. With Bergman’s camera unnervingly close to their pained faces, it’s an unsettling examination of faith, guilt and self-recrimination.…

2003-09 AVAILABLE ON DVD, BD, DIGITAL, SKY, NOW Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science-fiction television series.” So read the first line of series creator Ronald D. Moore’s three-page introduction to the first script for his reboot of the 1970s sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica. Essentially a sales pitch for network bosses, Moore’s outlining of his ambitious aims for the reboot, particularly plans to reflect real-world socio-political issues, were never meant to be seen by anybody outside the studio. However, when it was accidentally included in copies of scripts being pitched to actors, it became a three-page manifesto for the show, its bold promises drawing an array of talent on both sides of the camera who readily admit that without it they wouldn’t have got past the…

★★★★☆ BARRY KEITH GRANT BFI/BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING Do America and horror enjoy a special relationship? Barry Keith Grant makes the case well, teasing at themes of the Other, Manifest Destiny, the monstrous repressed and us/ them divides. He judiciously unpicks the origins and evolution of American horror, tracing thematic veins across an A-to-Z of wide-ranging movies. Certain absentees jar: the shortfall of female directors is notably problematic. But Grant ably honours and expands the canon elsewhere, cherishing the obscure or lowbrow alongside copper-bottomed classics. His founding hypotheses are particularly well-sustained on hybrid works such as The Wind and Ravenous, which use horror to unpick western myths. A similar spirit of subversion is noted in The Crazies, which blurs us/them divisions, while real-world fears are anatomised from The Exorcist to Get Out.…