Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Total Film

Come on in! The water's fine! Yep, we're splashing our way back to Pandora this issue with a deep dive (ahem) into Avatar: The Way Of Water, a film that promises immersive cinema on a whole new level. Again. Being sucked into another world via the velvet darkness of a cinema is something that never gets old, and some of the films we get to talk about this issue are prime examples of that. Visit a Greek island in Glass Onion, roam another world in Willow, get hot and heavy with Lady Chatterley's Lover, literally step inside the frame (wait till you see it, with its bold bookend device) in The Wonder or take a tour inside the head of Iñárritu in Bardo… Other times, experiences, realms and places all…

TEASERS I don't talk about my family,” says Lily-Rose Depp. Even if that might be easier said than done for Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp's daughter, Depp the younger is displaying a determination to be assessed on her own strengths. Her lineage has opened doors, for sure, but she's taking care to use the right keys to the good ones. On her movie slate, Depp has banked a role in Nosferatu, the long-nurtured vampire film from electric director Robert Eggers (The Northman). She's also joining killer talents Hoyeon (Squid Games) and Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person In The World) for A24's The Governesses, the second feature from Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man In San Francisco). The mix of indie-global crossover voices in these two films reflects Depp's sensibilities, which…

A hundred years before Princess Diana, Empress Elisabeth of Austria was rotating heads with her sophistication, beauty and trend-setting fashion. Her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I made her an instant icon for millions, while her dramatic assassination at the age of 60 sent shock waves across Europe. A trilogy of 1950s films starring Romy Schneider saw her celebrated anew, cementing her status, alongside Mozart, as one of her country's foremost tourism magnets. When Phantom Thread actress Vicky Krieps suggested to her director friend Marie Kreutzer they make another film about her, though, the idea seemed as appealing as a month-old slice of Sachertorte. “I was not interested at all,” Kreutzer tells Teasers. “For me she was just an image printed on souvenirs and I had never planned to make…

FRANK CALL Liam Neeson will utilise a very particular set of skills (but not those ones) in a reboot of The Naked Gun. Neeson is set to play the son of Leslie Nielsen's Detective Frank Drebin for director Akiva Schaffer, of The Lonely Island. BURN NOTICE A(nother) remake of The Wicker Man is in the works, this time for TV. Howard Overman penned the script update, with Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish's outfit The Imaginarium shopping it around broadcasters. GANG MAN Two decades after Gangs Of New York, Martin Scorsese has signed on to exec produce and potentially direct a new TV adap from writer Brett Leonard. It would be a fresh take on the material, with a different set of characters. HERCULE-AN EFFORT Kenneth Branagh will reprise his Hercule…

1 ITS ORIGIN STORY FEATURES A NAPKIN Prequel miniseries Blood Origin began life in The Witcher Season 2 writer's room. The creative team were struggling to get their heads around a piece of lore that author Andrzej Sapkowski never explained in his novels, leaving Blood Origin creator Declan de Barra to sketch out ideas about the so-called Conjunction of the Spheres on a whiteboard. He subsequently returned to the idea months later when a spinoff show became a possibility. “I was sitting in a cafe and it literally all just came to me,” de Barra tells Teasers. “I started scribbling it down on a napkin, and although it's been through multiple drafts since, the story is essentially the same as it was then.” 2 IT'S PACKED WITH BACKSTORY Blood Origin…

“What happened was, we were noodling around. I was working with a team of writers. We had a lot of ideas. We kept trying to corral it into a box, and it never quite fit. So at a certain point, I said, ‘I'll just finish it, and see if it's a movie.’ I did. It came out, I think, at 130 pages. It was like, ‘Man, this is a great story. This is a hell of a read.’ But it was missing one of those critical elements about sequels, which is that it didn't go enough into the unexpected. It also didn't play enough by Avatar rules, which is to connect us to the dream world, that which has a spiritual component that we can't even quite quantify in words.…

SPOTLIGHT DAVID HARBOUR You wouldn't think that David Harbour is a fan of Christmas movies. With his denim jacket and white tee, his mane of hair and rocker's 'tache, he looks like a cross between Bruce Springsteen and James Hetfield, his gruff, rugged, man'sman image completed by a huge cigar clamped in his right fist. “I am a fan of Christmas movies,” he grins with a magnanimous wave of his cigar. “My favourite is Miracle On 34th Street, the original one, in black-and-white - or the crappy colourised version - about Macy's and everything. I love that movie. As a kid, it just blew my mind. I remember watching that and thinking, ‘Santa Claus is real! He's real!’” So when Harbour was offered the chance to actually appear in a Christmas…

When you were researching the phenomenon of fasting girls could you see the correlation to 21st-century issues? Oh, yeah. I don't write historical fiction as some kind of escape from the pressures of today. You always bring with you the questions of your era. You always see, in the past, stuff that's relevant to your moment. There's a reason I ended up telling stories about women smashing the patriarchy. A little girl in 1862 Ireland, she's not influenced by the magazine covers of today. But she's trying to be pure. She's trying to be good. She's trying to be all that stuff that women have been told to be for millennia. So it was a way of telling a hugely political story, but subtly and indirectly. You adapted the book…

OUT 18 NOVEMBER CINEMAS There's a neat, Shyamalan-esque concept at the centre of The Menu. Twelve diners - each forking out $1,250 - sail off to a remote coastal restaurant, where celebrated chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) has precision-tooled a menu that will come to say as much about the diners as it does about himself. Our entry point to this exclusive soiree is Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), who's the guest of insufferable foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). Other attendees include a snooty critic, a washed-up actor and a trio of tech bros. Once all are seated in Slowik's hermetically sealed environment, the multi-course service – adorned throughout with foams, emulsions and drizzles – begins. Director Mark Mylod (Succession) has a sure grasp on the comedy, as well as the sinister horror…

OUT NOW DIGITAL Neil LaBute's #MeToo horror film is something of a dark modern-day fairy tale and takes place in a castle in the woods, the home of the mysterious Mina (Kate Bosworth), who was picked up in a bar by Hap (Justin Long). Or did she pick him up? Their flirty, halting dialogue becomes increasingly loaded, so sharptongued it seems inevitable there will be blood. A stagey, minimalist drama packing a medium-sized punch, this is LaBute's In The Company Of Men crossed with the baroque world of arthouse Eurosleaze merchant Jean Rollin. Intriguing.…

OUT 25 NOV CINEMAS 16 DEC PRIME VIDEO Employed to raise a Manhattan couple's child while dreaming of bringing her own over from her native Senegal, undocumented immigrant Aisha (Anna Diop) lives an invisible, precarious existence. So she could do without being drawn into her hosts’ marital problems, let alone the visits she receives from ghostly West African spirits. Part horror movie, part capitalist critique, Nikyatu Jusu's debut feature offers a few mild scares en route to an overly telegraphed ending. But it's never less than absorbing, with some striking water-based imagery.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL A shape-shifting witch shares her powers with a reluctant new recruit in this deeply odd fantasy from director Goran Stolevski, which twins visceral lashings of gore with poetic meditations on the human condition. Noomi Rapace is among the forms its mute protagonist assumes as she makes her way across 19th-century Macedonia. The harsh lessons she's taught en route give the film the flavour of a supernatural bildungsroman. As her 200-year-old mentor, Anamaria Marinca makes a memorable impression from beneath a mountain of prosthetics.…

OUT 25 NOVEMBER CINEMAS From vocal seedlings to surprise transformations, Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze invests the commonplace with magic in his cerebral yet playful second feature. It involves a cursed meet-cute, where our would-be lovers awake with new faces. From here, Koberidze spins out a free-wheeling fantasy that steers between everyday frustrations and revelations with intuitive style. Even if the results can bewilder, it's an alluringly strange romantic reverie, where familiar setups are seen from fresh new angles.…

OUT NOW APPLE TV+ Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke play estranged half-brothers in writer/director Rodrigo García's amusing, if not just a touch slight, dark comedy. Reunited for the funeral of their shared father, Hawke's laid-back Ray and McGregor's more straightlaced Raymond must deal with some rather unusual final requests from their old man. Co-starring Sophie Okonedo and Vondie Curtis-Hall, it's a film that stays the course thanks to the fractious chemistry built up by its two leads. But García's look at the ties that bind doesn't quite go for the jugular, just merely brushes against it.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS There's a definite Paddington vibe to this warm comedy about a family whose new home in the Big Apple comes complete with a singing reptilian house guest - maybe because source author Bernard Waber's Lyle and Michael Bond's beloved bear are of a roughly similar vintage. Expect to be charmed, then, by this tale of a CG croc with the voice of Shawn Mendes, an opportunistic manager (Javier Bardem) and a severe case of performance anxiety. Snappy songs from the Oscar-winning composers of La La Land scale up its wholesome, feel-good appeal.…

OUT 18 NOVEMBER CINEMAS A 40-year-old woman with learning difficulties embarks on a journey of self-discovery in this magical-realist drama, which hinges on two impressive debuts. Costa Rican/Swedish helmer Nathalie Álvarez Mesén grounds her film's fabulist flourishes in a warmly authentic portrayal of her homeland while taking aim at repressive religious and patriarchal norms. Her controlled, sensitive lensing of Clara's sexual and spiritual awakening is matched by first-timer Wendy Chinchilla Araya, a dancer who delivers a central performance of remarkable physicality and poise.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL Shot on a phone, this lockdown project from writer/director Jacob Estes (Mean Creek, Don't Let Go) stars his two children Iris and Lucas as, er, siblings Iris and Lucas, who find themselves home alone as their parents are hospitalised and a pandemic rages. But who's leaving creepy cryptic messages around the house and filming them while they sleep? This cheap-as-chips foundfootage horror is aesthetically ugly and given to tedious lulls. But it possesses a couple of half-decent ideas and throws enough scares at the screen that some of them stick.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL An amiable zom-com from writer/director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) that faithfully remakes Shin'ichirÔ Ueda's cult crowd-pleaser One Cut Of The Dead (2017), with inevitable diminishing returns. It centres on a group of filmmakers who, while shooting a zombie short, are attacked by real zombies. There are some inspired surprises, albeit cribbed from the original; the key addition is a layer of meta humour that turns this into a Scream-style ‘requel’. It stumbles, though, in being simply too slick to recapture the scrappy charm of Ueda's lowbudget breakout.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Flawed but fascinating, the final entry in David Gordon Green's legacy trilogy opens with a tragedy involving babysitter Corey (Rohan Campbell). Three years on, ostracised Corey hooks up with Allyson (Andi Matichak), granddaughter of Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), whose nemesis Michael Games Jude Courtney) lurks in the shadows… Themes of blame, guilt and forgiveness are tackled in the franchise's biggest departure from straight stalk ‘n’ slash since 1982's Halloween III. Fans, naturally, might simply want what they came for, but should be sated by the grisly third-act kills and classicCarpenter nods.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS, NETFLIX At turns both engrossing and shocking, Edward Berger's take on life in the trenches of WW1 marks the first German adaptation of the classic 1928 anti-war novel. Felix Kammerer gives everything as Paul Bäumer, the rookie soldier who is told that he won't survive a night, but watches as his friends are downed one by one. Daniel Brühl features as a negotiator, but the film is at its best when the focus is on Kammerer. The battle scenes are harrowing, while the finale evokes the emotional impact of the original Das Boot.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS With Rise Of The Footsoldier star Terry Stone in both lead and producing roles, this tale of South London gangsters could easily have been another by-the-numbers Brit-crime thriller. What (initially) sets it apart is a surprisingly original plot, which sees four thieves (with an unsettling fondness for Trump masks) reconvene six months after their last heist to divvy up the proceeds and figure out what went wrong. Alas, relying on extended scenes of dialogue, this novel twist on the genre is badly let down by exaggerated Cockney performances and a frankly criminal script.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS A brash, no-nonsense bid to rebirth the DCEU, Dwayne Johnson's comic-book passion project delivers mixed results: sometimes satisfyingly maximalist, sometimes just messy. After a brisk prologue details Teth-Adam's (Johnson) backstory of slavery, wizardry and revenge in Kahndaq, we cut to today. When crime syndicate Intergang and resistance leader Adrianna (Sarah Shahi) inadvertently reawaken Adam, he swiftly makes his rage-born presence felt. Duly, Task Force X's Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) mobilises superhero team the Justice Society to curtail this loose cannon. A mix of chase movie and burly brawl ensues. Along the way, there are hapless attempts to cool Adam's boots by Justice-servers Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). Teth is no average opponent and certainly no hero, as…

1992 OUT 2 DECEMBER CINEMAS By turns funny, sad and absolutely delightful, Brian Henson's adaptation of the Dickens classic is also - Muppets aside - pretty faithful to its honoured source material. The songs are absolute bangers and the jokes work across the generations. And while it may not have won him any awards, Michael Caine's committed portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge is genuinely astonishing. Re-released in cinemas for its 30th anniversary, it's simply a perfect Christmas movie; little wonder it topped TF’s 2020 poll of the best festive flicks.…

1982 OUT 11 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 21 NOVEMBER BD Re-released to mark both its 40th anniversary and its director's 80th birthday, this portrait of sexual and murderous intrigue in 17th-century Wiltshire is Peter Greenaway at his most visually ravishing and narratively knotty. Best to ignore the tangled plot, then, and succumb to the sumptuous extravagance surrounding this story of an egoistic draughtsman whose commission to sketch drawings of a country estate comes with more than one string attached. Michael Nyman's Purcell-esque score ensures the result is aurally spectacular, too.…

MOVIE CHRISTMAS CARDS RRP £8 LASTEXITTONOWHERE.COM Infinitely cooler than robins on gateposts or gurning reindeer, these A5 cards flaunt illustrator Nick Scurfield's cute, witty spins on a quartet of '8os classics: Blade Runner, Die Hard, The Thing and Aliens. (‘Little Ripley’ squaring up to a broom-legged alien queen! ‘Little MacReady’ with his flamethrower! Bless.) Available in packs of four and printed on 350gsm silk board, they're an item you'll be sorely tempted to gift to your own mantelpiece. MUST HAVE 01 ADVENT CALENDARS RRP £29.99-£55 VARIOUS RETAILERS If you're feeling Funko-y, there's Marvel, Star Wars, The Office… Or you can build up to the big day with Lego's Harry Potter, SW or The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special (Christmas-tree Groot!). 02 PERSONALISED MOVIE POSTERS RRP £19.99 FIREBOX.COM As a…

MUST HAVE A VERY SPIPEY CHRISTMAS RRP £22.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS Miffed by Spider-Verse 2's delay? Then bag this five-track EP, based on a sight gag in Spider-Verse 1. Following 2018's digital release, the vinyl version includes Shameik Moore's arachno-enhanced 'Joy To The World’, Jake Johnson's lounge-lizard-y ‘Deck The Halls’, Jorma Taccone's ‘The Night Before Christmas’ and two tipsy baubles from Chris Pine. Spin the disc for a Spidey pic on the B-side. SPIRITED RRP TBC VARIOUS RETAILERS The Greatest Snowman, anyone? Yule-flick vets Ryan Reynolds (Just Friends), Will Ferrell (Elf) and Octavia Spencer (Bad Santa) lead Apple TV+'s Christmas Carol-riffing musical. Songwriters helping them spread good cheer by singing loud for all to hear include Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, of The Greatest Showman. ‘Bringin’ Back Christmas’ and That Christmas…

Brilliant baths MARY POPPINS RETURNS Nanny Mary (Emily Blunt) likes things spick and span, so you'd better wash behind your ears when she draws a bath. Especially as taking a dip whisks you through the suds to a delightful ocean wonderland full of singing fish. Can you imagine that indeed? PRETTY WOMAN Loaded Edward (Richard Gere) falls for sex worker Vivian (Julia Roberts), not least because of her abilities in the bath - whether that's adorable crooning while listening to her Walkman or wrapping her gams round him for a couple's soak. Pass the Matey… FATAL ATTRACTION She will not be ignored, Dan! Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) isn't going away after being ghosted following an affair, turning up in Michael Douglas’ bathroom for a final stand. Gonna need the bleach…

NEWS EDITOR JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY A thrill to go deep on Avatar: The Way Of Water with James Cameron. I told him that Aliens is my favourite film. His Vasquez-level-cool response? “It's a good one.” DEPUTY EDITOR MATT MAYTUM @MATTMAYTUM Loved chatting to Guy Pearce, who gave me a glimpse at the research folders he keeps in his office: “It goes from Neighbours through to Memento, through to L.A. Confidential, through to whatever.” REVIEWS EDITOR MATTHEW LEYLAND @TOTALFILM_MATTL The Q&A screening of Causeway was sweary, tearful, drunken (by Jennifer Lawrence's own admission) and thus almost as riveting as the film itself. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JAMES MOTTRAM @JAMESMOTTRAM Had a great time chatting with the White Noise team. Jodie Turner-Smith passed on a tip: Peterborough, where she's from, is a great place…

He may only be 14, but Jalyn Hall's “big break” playing Emmett Till is his 20th screen credit. Hall's energy and natural charm led to early guest roles on sitcoms Black-ish and Atlanta before becoming a series regular on All American. The radiant young actor has now parlayed his talent into playing America's most famous lynching victim in Chinonye Chukwu's Till. How did acting begin for you? I played football and baseball, but when I was seven years old, I announced to my mom I was ‘retiring’ from sports to act. She was super-supportive and took me to a showcase for a performing arts camp and I fell in love with it. With Till, she was my personal therapist while we were filming. The abduction scene was the most difficult…

How has Neytiri changed in the years since we last saw her? She's evolved. She went from being someone that was completely guarded towards these invaders in her world, to falling in love with one. And now they have a family. So Jake and Neytiri are compromised in that way. And obviously the decisions that they make are always with that in mind. How does Neytiri react to the return of the RDA? It's an ongoing struggle for her. How much love and respect must you have for a species that has no love and no respect for you? And also, how do you fall in love with one of them? How do you have children with that person? When does your love shut off, and your rage turn on?…

“Poirot has been my guy, going back [a long time] – I find him hilarious. But it's funny, over the past few years, I've actually been rereading a lot of John Dickson Carr, and his detective Gideon Fell is one of my new favourites. He's such a hilarious character and such a dick [laughs]. It's so funny. And, also, I'm reading Sherlock Holmes for the first time. I've never actually read the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and I've been working my way through them. Holmes is no slouch either.” RIAN JOHNSON “Angela Lansbury. Loved [Murder, She Wrote]. I used to watch that with my family. I love her. She's missed.” JANELLE MONÁE “I loved Chinatown. To me, that's one of the great film-noir films of all time. I love that.…

MAKING OF LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER Oscar Wilde once said that “Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power.” In the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover, Netflix's adap of D.H. Lawrence's controversial classic, that statement takes on a new meaning. As Emma Corrin, Lady Chatterley herself, tells Total Film, the sex on screen is not about power dynamics but, “power for oneself and being empowered by it.” Telling the tale of a lonely aristocrat falling in love with the groundsman on her husband's estate and their voyage of sexual discovery, Lawrence's 1928 tale of carnal desire was banned in the UK after its publisher, Penguin, was brought to trial under the Obscene Publications Act. After a dramatic and much-publicised case, the book was made available to the…

OUT 18 NOVEMBER CINEMAS It's hard to overstate the transportive effect of aftersun. That aloe vera scent instantly conjures crystal-clear memories of cold cream slathered onto hot, tender skin. A Proustian rush in a squeezy bottle. Holiday memories distilled. Charlotte Wells’ beguiling debut feature, Aftersun, does a similarly effective job of teleporting you to a resort and a time period so vividly evoked, you'll swear you've been on that all-inclusive to Turkey yourself. The holidaymakers in question here are (just-turned) 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio), and her father, Calum (Paul Mescal), spending time together on a budget vacation in the late '90s. The film opens with camcorder footage of Sophie interviewing her pa, and setting the tone for what's to follow - what's unsaid hangs heavily in the air of the…

OUT 25 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Published in 1988, filmed in 1996, musicalised in 2010, Roald Dahl's tale of a schoolgirl with telekinetic powers has been casting its spell for more than 30 years. And while Matthew Warchus’ adap of the stage show he created with writer Dennis Kelly and composer Tim Minchin seems the least essential iteration to date, it still manages to charm. Emma Thompson is the star draw as headmistress Agatha Trunchbull, who becomes Matilda's nemesis when the latter arrives at her Dickensian institution. Criticism has been levelled at Thompson's padding and prosthetics, but you also have to ask why so much effort went into those when the makers could've followed their own lead and cast a bloke (a la Bertie Carvel in the original production). MTM is a…

OUT 23 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Can you repeat Twilight with cannibals? That's the question asked by Luca Guadagnino's left-turn rom-chomp, a YA adap that leans into a grunge aesthetic and the influence of cinema's Midwest-based, road-tripping bad romances (Badlands, Two-Lane Blacktop, Near Dark, et al). The ingredients are all there, as shy Reagan-era teen Maren (Waves’ Taylor Russell) struggles to make connections at her Virginia school. After a sleepover goes bloodily south, she ends up on the road, searching for her absent biological mum while running into other ‘eaters’. Sully (Mark Rylance) wants to teach her how to slip between the shadows. Lee (Timothée Chalamet), meanwhile, is struggling with his moral compass, but offers unconditional acceptance. Maren and Lee feed their addiction with violent acts that they attempt to keep ethical…

OUT NOW APPLE TV+ With this credible, slice-of-life character study, Jennifer Lawrence returns to the sort of indie fare that kickstarted her career (see her Oscar-nominated turn in Winter's Bone). Lawrence (who also produced) plays Lynsey, a US soldier struggling to adjust after she returns to New Orleans from a posting in Afghanistan. Injured in an IED explosion and afflicted by PTSD, she barely talks for the film's first act. Moving back in with boozy mum Gloria (Linda Emond) hardly makes for an ideal homecoming. Lynsey repeatedly petitions her doctor to sign the requisite paperwork to send her back to the frontlines, but the reality is she's not ready. Gaining work as a pool cleaner, she finds a friend in James (Brian Tyree Henry), a garage owner living with trauma…

OUT 2 DECEMBER CINEMAS After incisive docs about Alien, Psycho and more, director Alexandre O. Philippe gets a little lost behind the curtain dissecting David Lynch's films for Wizard Of Oz echoes. Seven filmmakers/ writers (including Karyn Kusama and John Waters) offer insights that can be provocative (cosmic winds, psychedelic fugues), or problematic. While the overt Oz references are merely obvious, the broader collages can squander focus for a scope that becomes baggy. If David Lowery brings Dorothy home best, it's because he tightens up that slack, and undercuts the looser perspectives pitched here.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS 23 NOV PRIME VIDEO Without stinting on the science, Ryan White's archive-and-infopacked documentary is an uplifting watch, tracking NASA's programme launching Spirit and Opportunity, twin-sister Rovers who unexpectedly investigated Mars for 10 and 15 years respectively. Unlike 2019's austere Apollo 11 doco, it dramatises the Rovers’ journey with gorgeous, ochre-hued FX landscapes, showing NASA fastidiously solving the sand bogs, road blocks and dust storms that threatened them. White is fascinated by the emotional bond between the robots and their makers, hooking us in too.…

OUT 25 NOVEMBER CINEMAS A young woman flees barefoot down a Dublin street, sobbing with a terror that will silence her for 20 years… From its piercing opening scene, this tense investigative drama about the New York Times’ explosive 2017 investigation into Harvey Weinstein focuses on the reign of fear that journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor must unpick to expose him. Sensitively, director Maria Schrader (I'm Your Man) swerves lurid, Bombshell-ish recreations of Weinstein's abuse, offering instead a painstaking, All The President's Men-style account of the door-slamming, calls-refused wall of silence the reporters met. But through the survivors’ startling, flashback-laced stories, Carey Mulligan's wearily tough Twohey and Zoe Kazan's geekily persistent Kantor uncover a web of assaults, threats, industry blacklistings and pay-offs. Schrader's scenes lean heavily on Twohey and…

OUT 9 DECEMBER CINEMAS The remarkable true-life story of June and Jennifer Gibbons deserves a gifted filmmaker to tell it - and that's exactly the case here. Directed by Polish-born Agnieszka Smoczynska (2018 mermaid tale The Lure), The Silent Twins is a beautifully crafted look at the siblings’ extraordinary bond. Growing up as the only West Indian kids in their 1970s Welsh town Haverfordwest, the sisters are already isolated. But then the pair suddenly refuse to communicate with anyone - including other family except each other. Instead, they disappear into a fantasy world of their own creation (realised with some top-notch stop-motion animation sequences, created by Barbara Rupik). But after incidents of vandalism, June (Letitia Wright) and Jennifer (Boxing Day’s Tamara Lawrance) are taken to notorious psychiatric hospital Broadmoor. There,…

OUT 11 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Despite being currently imprisoned and still officially banned from making films, Iranian writer/director Jafar Panahi (Taxi Tehran) continues to find loopholes to deliver awardwinning movies that provide a meta-commentary on his own situation. This latest offering sees Panahi playing himself, directing a film from afar about lovers trying to illegally leave the country while also finding himself inadvertently causing trouble in a local village. With powerful social and political themes sitting alongside rug-pulls and elements of absurdism, the result is a terrifically clever endeavour.…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, SKY Having fled her native Nigeria following the murder of her father and brother, traumatised twentysomething Aisha (Letitia Wright) endures a limbolike existence in a Dublin accommodation centre as she awaits her asylum application hearing. Can she trust Conor (Josh O'Connor), a seemingly helpful security guard who has his own troubled past? Writer/director Frank Berry (2017’ s Michael Inside) steers clear of melodrama in favour of understated naturalism. But MVP is Wright, whose restrained performance powerfully conveys Aisha's quiet dignity and resolve.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL After his misjudged heist caper Plastic (2014), writer/director Julian Gilbey seeks to recapture the high-altitude thrills of 2011's more warmly received A Lonely Place To Die with this tale of a young climber (Freddie Thorp) attempting to conquer a trio of treacherous peaks in the French Alps. However, Gilbey seeks in vain. The scenery may be stunning, but the story is anything but: there's a bewildering lack of tension until the final act, where a sudden storm belatedly ups the stakes. A romantic subplot with Mathilde Warmer's winsome skier, meanwhile, is torpedoed by its listless lead.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL Grief, guilt, teenage tantrums, terrorist attacks… Multiple traumas stack the deck in this overdetermined coming-of-ager, adapted from Philip Beard's novel and starring Sadie Sink. The Stranger Things star plays Tess, a teenager whose kid sister dies on 9/11. Blaming herself and warring with mum, Tess decamps to her drug-dealing dad's pad, where the stoner next door (Kweku Collins) brings romance. While the plot lurches awkwardly from family dramas to pop montages, flashes of warm empathy help smooth out its choppy take on teen-turmoil basics, with Sink leading the way likeably.…

OUT NOW PRIME VIDEO Santiago Mitre's impressively methodical true-life courtroom drama recounts the watershed moment in Argentinean history when the 1976-83 military junta was brought to justice for their so-called ‘dirty war’. The “most important trial since Nuremberg” sees nine men in the dock (including three ex-presidents), for orchestrating mass killings of supposed subversives. Leading the prosecution is dogged family man Julio Cesár Strassera, deftly played by The Secrets In Their Eyes’ Ricardo Darín. Mitre's use of real footage adds weight, but the film's true power lies in its unwillingness to amp up the court scenes.…

1986 OUT NOW 4K UHD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Booklet, Poster, Comic, Art Cards, Badges Without that soundtrack it is an interesting, culty, weird '80s movie. With that soundtrack it is Highlander,” says Clancy Brown of director Russell Mulcahy's tale of sword-swinging immortals clashing in New York City. He's also, of course, nodding to the music by Queen that complements Michael Kamen's score on the film's unforgettable soundtrack. Hardly surprising, then, that Freddie and co's contribution looms large in a couple of the new extras featured on this 4K upgrade. Despite countless earlier releases, there are plenty of new bonus features to satisfy long-time fans, including a terrific hour-long retrospective that chats to Mulcahy, writer Gregory Widen and actors Christopher Lambert, Clancy Brown, Roxanne Hart and Beatie Edney…

1952 OUT 25 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, 4K UHD EXTRAS Featurettes Jacques Becker's sublime doomed romance hits the big and small screens in a digitally restored version for its 70th anniversary. Set amid the Parisian underworld in the Belle Epoque era, it stars Simone Signoret at her most sensual as Marie. She is the mistress of ruthless gangster Leca (Claude Dauphin), but her heart belongs to taciturn carpenter Manda (Serge Reggiani). Gracefully shifting between urban and rural locations, Becker eschews familiar costume-drama spectacle. It's a Renoiresque film of looks and gestures, poignant and understated.…

1975 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurette “There are several critics who have said… that it may well be the best science-fiction picture ever made,” remarks director L.Q. Jones of his adaptation of Harlan Ellison's award-winning novella. “That's BS,” he adds. True, but there's still plenty to enjoy in this scathing post-apocalyptic satire about an amoral scavenger (Don Johnson) and his telepathic dog, Blood. It's not an easy watch by any means, but some almost Fellini-esque touches in the later stretches help bring a touch of lightness to the otherwise dark, bitter humour.…

GOD OF WAR: RAGNARÖK RRP £69.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS At the end of a lean year for blockbuster videogames, Sony's big Christmas bet is pulling out all the stops. As with its award-winning predecessor, Ragnarök delivers spectacular deity-smashing action interspersed with father-son bonding. This time, Kratos and Atreus must cross the nine realms to prevent the end of the world - though they'll first need to get past a vengeful Thor… MUST HAVE 01 MARVEL'S MIDNIGHT SUNS RRP FROM £49.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS Firaxis’ long-awaited tactical role-playing game is essentially XCOM with superheroes - though with teammates such as Wolverine, Captain Marvel and Blade, you're unlikely to find yourself on the back foot too often. Leading a small sguad of Marvel's finest into battle as customisable hero The Hunter, you'll draw from…

THIS MONTH SPEAK NO EVIL Q In Speak No Evil, a holiday friendship goes badly wrong when an individual has their tongue cut out of their mouth with kitchen meat scissors. Could you survive this? Or is it cod swallop? A Mr Brian Fish, consultant ENT surgeon Worst case scenario: if you cut out your tongue you could bleed to death. The tongue is a vascular organ which means that it requires a continuous circulation of blood, although it is quite difficult to cut it out with a pair of shears as you probably only get more of the tip. Best case scenario: yes, it would heal without medical intervention if the person didn't bleed to death. Although it would bleed immensely it would probably have a low risk of…

FILM BUFF SHIA LABEOUF HONEY B0Y (2019) November 2019 “I've gotten lighter, but he's [his dad] gotten lighter, it's lightened the load for both of us. And the idea that he knows that I view him this way. There were things I couldn't actually articulate to him, that it had to come through this weird muddy route. ” August 2022 “I wrote this narrative, which was just fucking nonsense… and I'd done a world press tour about how fucked he was as a man. The story that gets painted in Honey Boy is this dude is abusing his kid all the time.” “PLAIN TALKING THIS MONTH SHOW The term used to describe a feature film. Not to be confused with TV shows. E.g.: “I'm working on a show at the…

What's the first thing you do when you arrive on set? If we're talking about literally arriving at work, prior to being on set, per se, it's getting the costume. One of the things I make very clear to all the PAs, etc, that are running around, telling us all what to do, is: I don't need anyone to tell me what to do. There's always somebody who says, “Make-up are ready for you now.” And I say, “I know, because I've done this for 35 years.” How do you prepare for a shoot? I have to draw up a sort of a whiteboard for myself, because I need to know when I need to learn what lines. [Shows Teasers an example from his array of folders.] I have to…

THIS MONTH… SUPERSTITIONS BEFORE INTERVIEWS Back in the late '90s, I knew a journalist who always wore his lucky pants for interviews. I never, you'll be relieved to hear, saw the charmed item of clothing, but he explained to me that they were a pair of red-and-black striped boxer shorts that he'd owned since the mid '80s, with Dennis the Menace on the hip and Gnasher sinking a bite into his left buttock. He'd sat all of his school exams in them, he beamed. But knowing their long and distinguished history only made me grimace, as I couldn't help but ponder. Did the tattered cloth (he admitted to holes) even hold everything in place as he spoke to Mr. Scorsese? And what did he do when he had interviews several…

DRACULA Drowned in an icy moat at the end of Dracula: Prince Of Darkness (1966), Christopher Lee's Count is revived in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968). How? A priest trying to exorcise Drac's castle stumbles and hits his head in a thunderstorm, with a trickle of blood finding its way to Dracula's lips. To the undead, a drop of the red stuff is the elixir of life. JASON VOORHEES We hear of Jason's death, as a boy, in Friday The 13th (1980), only for his rotten corpse to rear up from Crystal Lake. Adult Jason then becomes the franchise's antagonist, but is killed with a machete in fourth instalment The Final Chapter (1984). He's resurrected in Jason Lives (1986) when his corpse is dug up and impaled with…

‘IN EVERY FILM THAT I HAVE DONE, THE MISTAKES ARE MINE. I ALWAYS TOOK THE LAST DECISIONS.’ On the first floor of the Corinthia Hotel, it's the third day of the London Film Festival and there are already harassed-looking PRs and journalists marching down the corridor. Then one man saunters around the corner, dressed casually in a navy donkey jacket and ragged grey trousers, with patches of red material across the knees. Alejandro González Iñárritu is 25 minutes late for our encounter. Not because he's tardy but simply because he likes to talk… and talk, and talk. The Mexican director is back with his new film, and he's got a lot to say. Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, to trot out its full title, is epic in…

OUT 25 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 9 DECEMBER NETFLIX Guillermo del Toro's stopmotion masterwork offers a typically unique take on the oft-adapted story of the wooden boy who wants to be real. Co-directed by animation veteran Mark Gustafson, Pinocchio cherry-picks some recognisable elements from Carlo Collodi's original 1883 children's book. But those expecting something as moppet-friendly as the 1940 Disney 'toon may be in for a shock. Set in Italy at a time when Mussolini and fascism are on the rise, it's closer to del Toro's Spanish Civil War-era fable Pan's Labyrinth than anything else. The story begins with kindly woodcarver Geppetto (David Bradley), who suffers unimaginable grief when his son Carlo is killed by an aerial bomb. “The world moved on, but Geppetto did not,” we're told, as he's left heartbroken,…

OUT NOW CINEMAS, PRIME VIDEO Harry Styles is at the centre of a bisexual trio in this restrained adaptation of Bethan Roberts’ novel, itself based on the double life of E.M. Forster. That'll be enough to entice the singer's fans, though even they may be underwhelmed by a mawkish potboiler in which his Brighton copper's '50s affair with a gay curator (David Dawson) is conducted under the nose of his prim young wife (Emma Corrin). Flash-forwards to the '90s add more heavyweight British acting names (Rupert Everett, Gina McKee, Linus Roache) to this elegant but listless melodrama.…

OUT 11 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Matthew Heineman's (Cartel Land) well-intentioned, if uneven, doc details the impact of American troops pulling out of Afghanistan in August 2021, leaving the Taliban to take over. The title refers to the ruthless procedure the military undertake to extricate themselves – burning documents, dismantling compounds, even exploding live ammo. After the US troops depart, Heineman sticks with those left behind, including Afghan Army General Sadat. If the film loses some momentum here, the footage at Kabul airport as residents beg for safe passage will haunt you.…

OUT 25 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 2 DECEMBER NETFLIX The Crown's Emma Corrin boldly asserts themself as a lead performer to be reckoned with in the latest adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's scandalous bonkbuster, brought back to the screen by French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (The Mustang). Controversy has stalked Lawrence's original, which was banned for many years following its 1928 publication and became the subject of a famous 1960 obscenity trial. For all its energetic rumpy-pumpy, though, this is a commendably clear-headed retelling that refreshingly places Corrin's Lady Chatterley, aka Connie, at the centre of her narrative. It's through her eyes, for instance, that we witness the unravelling of her marriage to stuffed-shirt Clifford (Matthew Duckett), a breakdown aided by his suggestion she let another man get her pregnant and provide him…

OUT 22 NOVEMBER CINEMAS This revealing doc charts the evolution of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong through the eyes of four separate activists, covering a period starting in 1997, when Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China, right through to the introduction of an extradition bill in 2019. Along the way we learn of the struggles that make clear the political injustices at play. Filmmakers Choi Ka-yan and Lee Hiu-ling present their subjects as flawed individuals, highlighting the problems of having a protest movement with no clear guidance or leadership.…

OUT NOW ROKU From polka parties to baloney-based bops, Weird gives the mock-pop movie a wickedly surreal remix. Treating goofy '80s pop parodist ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic's accordion-based skits as an excuse to mess with fact, director/co-writer Eric Appel delivers a mischievous mash of melody and mirth, with a deadpan Daniel Radcliffe holding the focus when the plot veers off-key. Co-written by Yankovic, Al's untrue story begins at home, where Mum (Julianne Nicholson) is supportive and Dad (Toby Huss) sees the accordion as evil. Realising his creative ambition to set his words to other people's music, Al becomes super-famous anyway: cue a rise-and-fall fable that seems pretty unlikely even before Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) and Pablo Escobar (Arturo Castro) arrive. The result resembles Nic Cage meta-romp The Unbearable Weight Of Massive…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Afrofuturist cine-poem or protest piece? Intersex fable or betweenstates sci-fi musical? Either way, Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman's collaboration is a vibrant, vigorously imagined future fable for today. Miner Mata (Kaya Free) mourns his brother's brutal death. Gradually, his quest for liberation sparks a multidimensional journey with gynandrous hacker Neptune (Cheryl Isheja and Elvis Ngabo). Even as the plot frays, the innovative electro-organic fusions of the costume/production designs help shape the film's vision of a boundary-free world, mounted with rhythmic urgency and psychedelic style.…

SCREEN 2 DECEMBER CINEMAS Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's latest follows Tori (Pablo Schils) and Lokita (Joely Mbundu), two young illegal immigrants from Benin seeking a better life in Belgium. Owing money to traffickers, however, they're easy prey; both are soon dealing drugs while Lokita is sent to tend a weed farm, living in terrifying isolation. With its lapses into melodrama and contrivance (especially in the final act), this isn't classic Dardennes. But the leads bring real heft to their performances in a drama that highlights how so many immigrants are treated like human flotsam.…

OUT 11 NOVEMBER CINEMAS The amateurs in question are the few remaining members of the Bradford Movie Makers, the UK's longest-running non-professional filmmaking club. Operating out of dilapidated premises and struggling to pay the society's bills, these mostly retired men seem, on the surface, to have somewhat limited prospects. But this fly-on-the-wall doc reveals the profound emotional value they draw from belonging to a cinephile community. Shot by director Kim Hopkins over a three-year period (including the first wave of the Covid pandemic), it's a perceptive and affecting study.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae makes his directorial debut with this propulsive period thriller, starring alongside Jung Woo-sung as a pair of competing South Korean intelligence agents, each with their own reasons for hunting the mole who has been leaking information to North Korea. The story is a convoluted stew of reversals, betrayals and complex '80s geopolitics, and there's a fair amount of torture to contend with. But if you're up for some robust, relentless mayhem, this explosively entertaining combo of Infernal Affairs and Tinker Tailor… is worth tracking down.…

OUT 18 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Inspired by his own childhood, writer/director James Gray's Reagan-era period piece is richly textured and well acted, but ultimately feels too safe to resonate. Banks Repeta stars as Gray's avatar Paul Graff, a student in 1980s Queens who clowns around with pal Johnny (Jaylin Webb) - whom Paul comes to realise is treated differently by their teacher because of his skin colour. Discrimination is not an alien concept in Paul's home either, given he is the descendant of Jewish immigrants. Paul is largely oblivious to the history of persecution in his family - something his adoring grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) attempts to rectify. But Paul is of an age where acting out comes naturally, eventually landing him in a highly disciplined private school where he comes face…

OUT 18 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Streaming, mega-blockbusters, disappearing physical media… the filmic landscape is in a state of flux. While the current era offers plenty of perks, one of the greatest losses is the midbudget big-screen comedy. Confess, Fletch is a rare - and excellent example of what we're missing right now. Proving once again that he's one of the most versatile leading men out there, Jon Hamm is charming and hilarious in the role Chevy Chase played in Fletch (1985) and Fletch Lives (1989), both centred on the investigative reporter created by novelist Gregory McDonald. Greg Mottola's film is based on the same-titled 1976 entry in McDonald's series, but updated for the modern day. Here, Irwin M. ‘Fletch’ Fletcher probes the case of a stolen Picasso, only to find himself…

OUT 28 NOVEMBER DIGITAL Subtitled The Other One, Park Hoon-jung's sequel begins with a similar setup to his 2018 actionhorror, as another teenage girl with supernatural abilities (Shin Si-ah) escapes a bloody massacre at a secret facility. This time, Park spends more time with the various factions hunting her down several of whom have special powers of their own. This makes for an unevenly paced ride, with the unnamed girl's story taking a backseat for long stretches. Yet the riotously entertaining set-pieces compensate, combining telekinetic trickery with bonecrunching violence.…

OUT NOW BD Another bizarro tale from the lopsided imagination of Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Deerskin), in which a middle-aged couple (Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker) move into their dream house with nightmarish results. “Don't go in the basement!” can be yelled at many genre flicks. But here, what lies beneath is far more weird and, in its own way, disturbing than the usual monster/human remains. It's absurd, thrilling, amusing, bewildering and ultimately very sad, allowing Dupieux to confront the horrors of ageing and the terror of death from peculiar angles.…

1992 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Booklet, Script, Art cards A landmark event in TV horror, this extraordinary fake documentary from the BBC's Screen One strand traumatised an entire generation when it was first broadcast ‘live’ on 31 October, 1992. No wonder it was never shown again. Released on extras-packed limited-edition Blu-ray for its 30th anniversary, Ghostwatch remains disturbing viewing. Plagued with paranormal activity in their ordinary suburban home, the Early family have invited roving reporters Sarah Greene and Craig Charles (playing themselves) to film them over Halloween evening. Meanwhile, presenters Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith examine the footage with expert Dr. Lin Pascoe (actor Gillian Bevan) back in the studio. The spooky manifestations are familiar from dozens of hauntedhouse movies. But writer Stephen Volk, director Lesley…

1983 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Alternate cut, Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Galleries, Booklet, Poster, Art cards You'll forgive me if I don't stay around to watch. I just can't stand the freaky stuff,” states Leslie Carlson's Barry Convex in David Cronenberg's monster-piece. Thankfully, we are made of sterner stuff around here. And with the septuagenarian filmmaker having recently made a long-awaited return to the world of body horror with Crimes Of The Future, what better time to revisit his examination of the cross-fertilisation of technology and humanity? James Woods stars as Max Renn, an amoral TV exec who stumbles across a mysterious satellite broadcast, the content of which (“It's just torture and murder - no plot, no characters”) begins to have an extreme psychological and physical effect on…

CHRISTMAS JUMPERS RRP £37.99 MERCHOID.COM Whether you're celebrating Harley Quinn's 30th anniversary (with the ‘Hey Christmas Puddin'!’ sweater) or Marvel's recent hits (Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange ‘In The Multiverse Of Merriment’) there's a nerdy knit out there for every fan. Though we'd suggest not wearing the Stranger Things ‘Hellfire Club’ jumper to any church services… MUST HAVE 01 THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER VEST RRP £14.99 MERCHOID.COM Flaunt your god bod in a sleeveless number that'll have partygoers screaming like enchanted goats. 02 CITIZEN KANE T-SHIRT RRP £22 LASTEXITT0N0WHERE.COM Snow globe and symbolic sled sold separately. 03 DIE HARD 2 T-SHIRT RRP £22 LASTEXITTONOWHERE.COM Enough, please, of those ‘Die Hard is a Christmas movie’ debates. Let's argue whether the seguel is instead. 04 THE SHINING T-SHIRT RRP £22 LASTEXITTONOWHERE.COM…

BEING BOND RRP £39.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS “The name's table. Coffee table. I've been eagerly expecting this lavish, access-all-areas retrospective of your five-film tenure, Mr. Craig…” MUST HAVE 01 HOLLYWOOD: THE ORAL HISTORY RRP £25 VARIOUS RETAILERS Decades’ worth of interviews with an A-Z of Tinseltown talent, from Julie Andrews to Robert Zemeckis. 02 THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF AN ORDINARY MAN RRP £25 VARIOUS RETAILERS Paul Newman in his own words, as well as those of Joanne Woodward, Tom Cruise and more. 03 THE ULTIMATE MARVEL STUDIOS QUIZ BOOK RRP £10.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS Do you possess Eternals knowledge? Or is the MCU a Dark World to you? Test your family and ignite Civil War! 04 BATMAN: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF THE DARK KNIGHT RRP £55 VARIOUS RETAILERS Eighty years of crusading,…