Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i Total Film

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE You don’t get too many British debuts like Nathaniel Martello-White’s The Strays. Brit flicks comes in all shapes and guises, but kitchen-sink dramas and period films are the national staple, and low-budget features are often televisual. Social thriller The Strays, however, exhibits a cinematic sheen and controlled formalism. “The image should be active,” says Martello-White, hitherto best known as an actor (Silent Night, I Hate Suzie). Cla’am, a short he wrote and directed in 2017, was accepted by South by Southwest, and now his impressive debut feature is dropping on Netflix. “No image should be for free - it should be loaded with feeling and meaning.” Cla’am was a “comedy-horror about gentrification in and around the Brixton area.” The Strays, though genre-leaning, focuses more on character drama as we…

Alice Diop’s journey with Saint Omer started in 2015 when she opened a newspaper. Flicking through the pages of Le Monde, “the police were looking for this woman. She was an immigrant from Senegal. They released a still of her wheeling her mixed-race baby in a pushchair at the train station.” The woman, Fabienne Kabou, had been accused of an unspeakable act, researching the timing of the tide and then leaving her 15-month-old daughter on the beach to drown. Baby Adélaïde’s body was recovered by fishermen two days later. Diop became obsessed with the case, but the articles she read on Kabou had racist undertones, with comments on how surprisingly articulate Kabou was. For Diop, there was a “fundamental contradiction in how I saw her and how the press was…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE It’s a sort of shameful secret that people don’t really like talking about,” says Georgia Oakley, referring to Section 28, the British-made legislation that forms the backdrop of her feature debut Blue Jean. Enacted a year after then-PM Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 re-election campaign, when she stated that “children are being taught they have an inalienable right to be gay”, this anti-LGBTQ+ ruling sought to prohibit the “promotion of homosexuality”, particularly when it came to schools. Not repealed in England and Wales until 2003 (2000 in Scotland), at the time, there were furious debates in the media. “I saw this moment, just before the law came in, as a moment of mass hysteria around the subject,” says Oakley, “and also heightened paranoia for anybody who might be affected by it.”…

A decade on from his last solo outing, Shrek’s furry buddy is back to his old tricks - until he discovers he’s been squandering his nine lives and his next death will be his last. A mythical Wishing Star could be the answer to his prayers… but he’s not the only fairytale character who wants to get his mittens on it. “This isn’t a repeat but an expansion,” says director Joel Crawford who, with co-director Januel Mercado, sought to bring a taste of the spaghetti western to DreamWorks’ latest animation. Here the pair take Teasers on a tour through the sequel’s larger-than-life characters and genre-splicing universe… 1. PICTURE PURR-FECT “We have really pushed the look of this movie,” says Crawford, who previously directed 2020’s The Croods: A New Age for…

1 IT'S ABOUT A FORGOTTEN STAR Russell T. Davies is time-travelling again. Having plunged into a dystopian future for Years And Years and back to the 1980s for his searing AIDS drama It’s A Sin, a return to the Tardis looms. But before that there’s Nolly, the story of a grande dame shockingly fired from her show in 1981. Sounds minor? You’d be surprised. “Noele Gordon was a fascinating, complex, brilliant and gutsy woman, none of which I knew before I read Russell’s script,” says Helena Bonham Carter of the star of ITV’s motel-set soap Crossroads, a pioneer of daytime TV who was the first woman to interview a UK Prime Minister and the first woman ever to appear on colour television. 2 AN ICON PLAYS AN ICON Bonham Carter’s…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE Oscar-winning Pakistani-Canadian director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy once said, “Every time a filmmaker makes a film in Pakistan, they should get a medal of bravery.” Well, you really won’t get much braver than this beautiful debut by first-time filmmaker Saim Sadiq. Joyland tells the story of Haider (Ali junejo), a married man living in a joint family who falls for charismatic transgender dancer Biba (Alina Khan). What follows is a moving family drama that explores gender roles and sexuality through a story of forbidden love. “It was about processing my feelings around growing up as an adult male in a patriarchal society in which the definitions of gender roles are very set, but nobody seems to be fitting into them,” Sadiq tells Teasers. “To centre the film around the trope of…

IN CONVERSATION WOMEN TALKING Sarah Polley has never been a filmmaker to adhere to formula. In the former-actor’s film directing career to date – Away From Her, Take This Waltz, the documentary Stories We Tell – there’s no set style guide or subject matter that she sticks to. But there are common themes, feminist underpinnings, and, frankly, important things to say. So while Women Talking is another change of pace – it’s likely very different to any film you’ve seen before – it still feels very much like a Sarah Polley film. Adapted from Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name (which itself was loosely inspired by real events in Bolivia in 2010), Women Talking concerns a group of women from a Mennonite community who have gathered in a hayloft…

SILICON VALLEY 2014-2019 “A sitcom is about stasis,” says Nanjiani of his six-season run as programmer Dinesh in Mike Judge’s HBO hit set at a tech start-up. “It’s about the same people stuck in the same thing. That’s what makes it funny.” THE BIG SICK 2017 scar-nominated as screenwriters, Nanjiani and wife Emily V. Gordon mined their own history for this romantic dramedy about a fledgling relationship challenged by illness. Nanjiani also proved his chops as a lead. LITTLE AMERICA 2020- Nanjiani and Gordon exec produce the Apple TV+ show, the second season of which dropped in December 2022. “You hear a lot of pitches, but rarely do you hear one that’s such a no-brainer,” he says. ETERNALS 2021 A key member of Chloé Zhao’s era-spanning ensemble, Nanjiani plays immortal…

OUT NOW MUBI Bruno Dumont’s latest is strangely out of keeping for the French auteur (L’Humanité, Twentynine Palms). A rather messy look at TV journalism, it stars Léa Seydoux as France de Meurs, a celebrity-news anchor whose life starts to unravel after a minor traffic accident. Part satire, part screwball comedy, the film succeeds as neither, despite the elegant Seydoux convincingly channelling the glamour and gumption of a top reporter. As for Dumont, he seems lost in a story that falls well short of the iconic likes of James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News (1987).…

OUT 27 JANUARY CINEMAS, DIGITAL Here’s an eerie slice of Eastern European allegorical absurdism, courtesy of director Andrey M. Paounov and co-writer Alex Barrett. The setting is a semiderelict, snowbound complex in the mountains of north-west Bulgaria, where two unnamed men, who are awaiting the return of the owner from a hunting expedition, receive some sinister visitors… Combining stylised black-and-white imagery and sound design with more than a few nods to Kubrick’s The Shining, January sustains its disquieting atmosphere throughout a macabre tale of apparitions, curses and fatal disappearances.…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMA'S, NETFLIX The Pale Blue Eye mixes a little fact with a lot of fiction. The sliver of truth - that author Edgar Allan Poe attended West Point when he was 21 - is melded into a gothic mystery that could so easily come from the pages of the iconic author’s work. Set in 1830, in the Hudson Valley, it sees veteran detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) summoned to the aforementioned New York military academy to solve a gruesome crime. A cadet has been found hanged, with his body mutilated - his heart carved out of his corpse. Hired by Timothy Spall’s officious academy officer - who orders that Augustus completes his detective work without drinking - the world-weary snoop begins his thankless task. Soon enough, he…

OUT NOW DIGITAL 13 FEBRUARY DVD Addicts Shelby John (Jack Huston) and Ruby Red (Willa Fitzgerald) vow to get clean, but local dealers have other plans in this asinine revenge drama, which takes half its running time to reach the inciting incident. An unconvincing Huston mostly looks bewildered, and little wonder: at one point he herds cows to sneak into a drug baron’s compound before shooting up the place to an appalling cover of ‘Amazing Grace’. Relegated to a fruitless subplot, Robert De Niro’s sheriff spends the film looking like he’s smelled something terrible - the script would be our best guess.…

SCREEN OUT 13 JANUARY SKY CINEMA/NOW Comedy is relative in this flat-footed farce about two sisters (Anna Faris and Toni Collette) who decide to court their cantankerous aunt in the hope she’ll put them in her will. Turns out their greedy cousins have had the same idea, instigating a laugh-free roundelay of malicious one-upmanship that bafflingly incorporates a convicted sex offender. Vulgarity was director Dean Craig’s friend when he scripted 2010’s Death At A Funeral. Here, alas, the funeral can’t come too quickly, for all the entertaining eccentricity of Kathleen Turner’s illtempered oldster.…

OUT 22 JANUARY SKY CINEMA/NOW A Georgia slave (Nope’s Keke Palmer) flees her plantation to discover it’s 1973 for everyone else in writer/director Krystin Ver Linden’s debut feature, a nutty mash-up of Shyamalan, Blaxploitation and Lewis Carroll that is best swallowed in one magnanimous gulp. That the freshly emancipated Alice takes scarcely a day to acclimatise to her surroundings, absorb a century of history and transform herself into a gun-toting Coffy clone is just the beginning of its improbabilities. As a galvanic exercise in avenging wish-fulfilment, though, it works a treat.…

OUT NOW BD, ARROW Giving off strong Inside No. 9 vibes, this witty black comedy from US writer/director Eric Pennycoff (2018’s Sadistic Intentions) sees put-upon priest David (Graham Skipper) taking in homeless Terry (Jeremy Gardner) and his girlfriend Lexi (Taylor Zaudtke) over Christmas, with unholy results. When Terry isn’t smoking, drinking, taking drugs or masturbating, he’s trying to lead David astray, culminating in a game of Never Have I Ever that - of course - spins wildly out of control. Although things never get quite as crazy as they threaten to, this nonetheless remains a sadistic little stocking filler.…

OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL Emmerdale vet-turned-horror director Dominic Brunt (Before Dawn, Attack Of The Adult Babies) takes on the werewolf mythos in his latest budget feature. Disaster strikes when a crew of filmmakers attempts to make their vampire movie in a remote country house. First they’re beset by incompetence, then bloodthirsty lycanthropes. Stars James Fleet and Thaila Zucchi are good value as sozzled old ham and overworked set assistant respectively, while the messy splatter largely works in the film’s favour. However, Brunt’s ambition is undermined by budget when it comes to the murky visuals and phoney-looking werewolf suit.…

1950 OUT NOW CINEMAS Many films have unreliable narrators, but Akira Kurosawa’s classic (back in cinemas as part of a BFI retrospective) goes further, suggesting that the truth itself is unknowable. It shows the murder of a samurai (Masayuki Mori) from the POV of a bandit (Toshiro Mifune), his wife (Machiko Kyo), the samurai’s ghost and a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura), playing out differently each time. Beyond its intriguing and influential conceit, the nuanced acting, ominous music and use of dappled light have all stood the test of time. Winner of Venice’s Golden Lion, Rashomon put Japanese film, and Kurosawa, on the world-cinema map.…

SCREEN CLASSIC TV 2009-15 AVAILABLE ON DVD, BD, DIGITAL, NETFLIX The thing I learned at community college is that I had my head up my ass,” says Community creator Dan Harmon. “And I think that was related to the fact I considered myself this unappreciated TV writer.” It seems clear that Harmon fed a good deal of his personal experience into his work: for what is Community if not a show about strong-willed misfits, many with their heads up their own asses, unappreciated and slumming it at Greendale Community College? Claiming the college study room, disgraced lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and his Spanish 101 study group (initially played by Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Chevy Chase, Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs and Danny Pudi) would reinvent the modern sitcom, butting heads…

SCREEN BOOKS LEE UNKRICH, J.W. RINZLER TASCHEN Director Lee Unkrich has long been a Shining superfan, sneaking references into his Pixar movies (Toy Story 3, Coco). This mighty two-volume (plus ‘ephemera’) tome is a testament to his near-lifelong fascination. Forget Room 237-style theories; this is a meticulous Making Of, covering pre-production from when Stephen King’s manuscript was still called The Shine, to the film’s box-office reception, to the protracted shoot in between. The granular detail is transportive: the way the book throws you into the specifics of the production makes it feel as if the over-schedule shoot might never be completed. Notes, annotated galleys and blueprints add to the immersion. Even devout Shining nerds will find new trivia to glory in (Paul McCartney almost had to sublet a soundstage to the…

Ace axes… BACK TO THE FUTURE Marty McFly shows the kids at the 1955 Enchantment Under The Sea dance what rock ‘n’ roll is really all about with a revved-up rendition of Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’. He twangs a Gibson ES-345 that was only released in 1958. Time-travel guitar, too… DELIVERANCE Yeah, the hick kid plays a banjo but Ronny Cox’s weekender, on an illfated canoe trip with the lads, meets him note for note on an acoustic guitar. The resulting ‘duelling banjos’ tune plays in anyone’s head when they find themselves somewhere unwelcoming. ELVIS Anxious Elvis Presley pauses on-stage when making his debut on the Louisiana Hayride. A jeer in the silence spurs him on to unleash rock ‘n’ roll hipswivelling on the audience - his moves playing…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE It all started with Like Father, Like Son. Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu was researching his 2013 prize-winning paternity drama when he discovered the idea of baby boxes. Put bluntly, it’s for parents to anonymously leave children they feel unable to raise. While Kore-eda discovered that only one such ‘donation station’ existed in Japan, nearby Korea was a different matter. “Ten times as many babies are put into baby boxes there as they are in Japan. And then I thought, ‘Well, this may be an idea.’” Coming off his Paris-set film The Truth, Kore-eda was pleased to hit upon a story that could work in Korea. For years, he’d been talking to Korean actors Gang Dong-won and Parasite’s Song Kang-ho about collaborating. Suddenly, he had the perfect story, one that…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE It was incredibly uncomfortable,” says Jesse Eisenberg of filming the many sex scenes in new Disney+ series Fleishman Is In Trouble. “It’s very technical. Like when you do an action scene. It takes forever. You’ll shoot a 20-second scene over the course of three days, because there’s tiny little pieces that they have to get. So the action scene that is fun to watch is not fun to film. Similarly with sex scenes. It’s this incredibly technical, process-oriented experience.” Based on the 2019 novel by American writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is In Trouble finds 40-something doctor Toby Fleishman coming out of a 15-year marriage to Rachel (Claire Danes), his life a chaotic jumble of parenting two children, reconnecting with friends and chasing a job promotion. Oh, and sex, lots…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE What is it about Naples? From Gomorrah and Piranhas to Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God, the southern Italian city seems to hold a special place in filmmakers’ hearts. “There are so many beautiful parts, but also very terrible parts,” concedes Mario Martone, director of new movie Nostalgia, which sets itself in the impoverished Rione Sanità district. Adapted from Ermanno Rea’s novel, successful businessman Felice (Pierfrancesco Favino) returns to Naples after a 40-year absence, visiting his ailing mother but, more dangerously, confronting Oreste (Tommaso Ragno), a feared criminal and former pal. “In a way it’s a love story. Love between two friends,” says Martone. “When you are 15 years old, it’s very difficult to separate love and friendship because the passions are very strong. It’s very easy to get…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE Director Jamie Adams works with a “scriptment”: a combination of script and treatment that means actors are given a story but no text. His latest, the entirely improvised She Is Love, sees Haley Bennett and Sam Riley feeding off each other to create Patricia and Idris, an estranged divorced couple reunited for a weekend. How was it for you as actors to embark on Jamie’s scriptment method to shape these characters? HB: I had a meeting with Jamie to discuss how I could contribute to Patricia and then just followed the yellow-brick road. We tried to have the stamina to create and mould a narrative. It was about a moment in the relationship between the characters, trying to unravel and unwind what their history was. SR: There was a…

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY #3 SPOTLIGHT MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE A third Magic Mike movie was kind of unexpected. We were a couple of years into working on a stage version of the show - a more traditional Broadway version and that was all going on while Chan and Reid [Carolin, screenwriter] and the choreographic team were also developing the live show. I’d seen some very early schematic workshops of the live show, and thought it was intriguing. But I really wasn’t prepared, 18 months later, for what I saw in London, which was the finished version. And I was so captivated by it that I got on the phone, and said, “I think we should abandon the Broadway idea, and I would like to make a movie that is a fictionalised version of…

SCREEN OUT 13 JANUARY CINEMAS An exploration of artistry with a capital ‘A’, Todd Field’s first film since 2006’s Little Children follows the private and professional tribulations of conductor Lydia Tár (a towering Cate Blanchett) as she preps for a performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in Berlin. Field and Blanchett aren’t interested in spoon-feeding the classical-music world to the uninitiated, or in making Lydia necessarily likeable. She’s predatory, provocative, selfish, self-destructive, abrasive and contrary. The only sensitivity she feels is via her hyperacusis condition, which means fridge beeps, car rattles and distant screams stress her. A trailblazing force of nature on the podium, Lydia may be in a relationship with violinist Sharon (Nina Hoss) and co-parent a daughter, but rumours of impropriety (sexual, political and professional) dog her as she…

SCREEN OUT 13 JAN CINEMAS Stoked about the fact that Nicolas Cage has finally saddled up for some bona-fide western action? Well, hold your horses: Montana backdrop aside, there’s little to yee-haw about in this lacklustre sins-of-the-father saga. Opening flashbacks - or ’tache-backs, if you will - see Cage’s gunslinger Colton Briggs kill the dad of future outlaw Noah Le Gros, who years later comes seeking revenge. More talky than tense, less stripped-back than sketchy, it lacks true grit and - even worse - any redeeming fits of Cage rage. Here’s hoping the star’s other upcoming oater, Butcher’s Crossing, is more on-target.…

OUT 20 JANUARY CINEMAS, DIGITAL New York’s iconic Chelsea Hotel has had a chaotic journey towards renovation as a luxury establishment, thanks in part to protests from permanent residents as the building around them slowly changes. Maya Duverdier and Amélie van Elmbt’s doc offers glimpses of these people’s stories, as well as the hotel’s wider legacy as a symbol of ’60s counterculture: former regulars of this artists’ hangout include Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsberg. Given the bohemian vibes, the pacing is languid, with the film perhaps working best as an argument for preservation.…

OUT 20 JANUARY SKY CINEMA/NOW Adapted from Jo Nesbø’s novel Midnight Sun, this workaday Nordic noir from Italian photographer-turned-director Francesco Carrozzini simmers before boiling over. Alessandro Borghi plays John, a hitman hiding out on a remote island, where he befriends a mother (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her son (Raphael Vicas). Peter Mullan (as John’s gangster father) and Sam Spruell (as troubled twins) bring some menace, but despite the intriguing setting - where daylight rarely relents - the drama never really takes off. Accents from all over the map don’t exactly help matters.…

SCREEN 1920 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentaries, Alternate scores, Documentary, Video essays, Featurette, Book Celebrating its 103rd birthday this year, Robert Wiene’s groundbreaking gothic chiller must surely be the oldest film yet to grace 4K UHD. And what a treat it is, too. The uptick in clarity brings even more refinement to the German expressionist visuals integral to this tale of a twisted hypnotist (Werner Krauss) and his somnambulist pawn (Conrad Veidt). Updated extras include a new commentary, an expanded book and a discussion of cinema’s depictions of psychiatric hospitals.…

1962 OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K UHD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted scene “The best film I have ever made,” said Orson Welles of his adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel. Shot on locations in Paris, Zagreb and Rome, it centres on office worker Josef K. (Anthony Perkins), who is visited at home by the secret police and told he must stand trial for an offence that is never named. Thanks to the monumental sets and monochrome lensing, The Trial remains a visual triumph yet its baroque swagger rather overshadows the performances of its ensemble cast (including Jeanne Moreau and Welles himself).…

RESIDENT EVIL 4 OUT 24 MARCH PC, PS4/5, XBOX SERIES Shinji Mikami’s action-horror masterpiece has been ported to every format under the sun since its 2005 release, but this lavish remake promises a more expansive overhaul. Capcom’s modernisation offers a clear visual upgrade of the original game, bringing it in line with the recent remakes of 2 and 3, while refining the storyline and controls. There are some fresh additions to combat, too: protagonist Leon can now parry attacks, leading to the amusing/terrifying sight of a hand knife blocking a chainsaw’s roaring blade. FIRE EMBLEM: ENGAGE OUT 20 JAN SWITCH Just over 10 years ago, Nintendo’s tactical RPG series seemed to be at death’s door. But Fire Emblem has enjoyed a new lease of life since 2012’s triumphant Awakening, and…

THIS MONTH BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II Q Towards the end of Back To The Future Part II a Western Union delivery man appears out of the rain in 1955 carrying a letter WU had been holding in their possession since 1885, addressed to Marty McFly. Does Western Union really have such a delivery service? A Spokesperson for Western Union Western Union was certainly around in 1885 when the film is set - we just celebrated 170 years of history last year. In 1856 the company became known as Western Union after changing its name from The New York And Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, so Doc would have recognised the service in 1885. Back then, Western Union did run a telegram business. We don’t any more, as this…

IS IT JUST ME? Handsome, charismatic and by all accounts nice, Patrick Wayne Swayze (19522009) - Buddy to his friends was a rare talent. But just quite how rare has only become apparent in retrospect. As well as being an excellent actor - not always a requirement - he was a true renaissance man. He could sing and write songs (‘She’s Like The Wind’ reached No.3 in the US), dance (both ballet and dirty), surf, ice-skate, do martial arts, ride horses and fly planes. This versatility translated to the screen, where he convinced as a romantic lead (Ghost), an action star (Point Break), even a throat-ripping, philosophy-studying bouncer (Road House) - all while maintaining a layer of vulnerability. Unusually for the era, there was something malleable in Swayze’s maleness. He…

Karen Krizanovich is a film journalist who has worn a number of different hats. She has been a runner and short-film producer as well as working in production clearance and as a co-ordinator (set decoration/art department) on film sets. Now she does one of “the rarest and best” of jobs as a researcher. “People don’t realise they need a researcher until the last minute. Most of the time, they’ll do it themselves, or ask an assistant or partner to do it. A lot of smaller films or films that have been in development for a long time won’t use one at all.” How would you describe your role in simple terms? I supply ideas, physical references and imagery for the film’s production design. You have to think like a designer.…

EASY 1 Which animated hit was originally titled The Bear And The Bow? 2 Which big birthday is Aunt Lucy celebrating in Paddington 2? 3 Name the bear enthusiast at the centre of 2005’s Grizzly Man. 4 In which comic-book movie do the heroes confront a Demon Bear? 5 Stuntman Glenn Ennis - who mo-capped The Revenant’s bear - is a former what? a) astronaut; b) zookeeper; c) rugby player. MEDIUM 1 Which 2010 movie bore the infamous tagline ‘Great things come in bears’? 2 In which two movies did Bart the Bear co-star with Anthony Hopkins? 3 Disney’s first feature-length Winnie The Pooh movie was released in which year? 4 Name the movie in which Brendan Fraser is harassed in a portaloo by a grizzly bear. 5 Which Predator actor made his debut in 1979 mutant-bear shocker…

TEASERS The idea of The Fabelmans - a semi-autobiographical cine-memoir inspired by a young Steven Spielberg’s life - has existed at least as long as his first collaboration with screenwriter Tony Kushner (Lincoln, West Side Story). On their first night of filming 2005’s Munich, Kushner casually asked Spielberg what had made him want to become a director. The resulting answer - a story about his formative years - felt to Kushner like the basis of a movie. Though he suggested the idea then, they’d collaborate on three more screenplays (filming two) before working on The Fabelmans as cowriters, a first for their partnership. It wasn’t until September 2020 that their collaboration began in earnest. “We got the first draft done in two months,” Kushner tells Teasers. “It was three days…

TEASERS EXCLUSIVE Dungeons & Dragons, the board game, sees a dungeon master create a quest for ambitious role-playing adventurers to embark upon. Swap out the dungeon master for a director, those role-players for actors, and, boom, you have yourself a movie! If only it were that simple… There have been multiple attempts to adapt D&D over the years, the most infamous being the risible 2000 film starring Jeremy Irons and Tom Baker. It sent Hollywood running from D&D, a property always seen as slightly uncool anyway. That was the case until suddenly everyone was playing D&D (thanks, in part, to Stranger Things). And now comes Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, directed by Game Night duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, and starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Regé-Jean Page…

"THE LACK OF DIVERSITY MAKES ME FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AND A BIT STUPID.” RICHARD CURTIS REGRETS MAKING LOVE ACTUALLY SO WHITE. $1.7 MILLION SALE PRICE OF THE GOONIES HOUSE IN OREGON, WHICH THE NEW OWNER HAS VOWED TO PRESERVE "HE GOES, ‘COME ON, STOP BEING SUCH A PUSSY, OK?’" EMILY BLUNT WAS GIVEN A UNIQUE PEP TALK BY TOM CRUISE ON EDGE OF TOMORROW. “Thanos? Come on. Give me a break. You saw [Avatar: The Way Of Water]. It’s not even close.” JAMES CAMERON WASN'T IMPRESSED BY MARVEL'S CG SUPERVILLAIN. 1 THE PLACEMENT OF CHANTAL AKERMAN'S JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES ON SIGHT & SOUND’S DECENNIAL GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME LIST. ELECTION DAY Tracy Flick Can't Win - a sequel to Alexander Payne’s ’99 dark comedy Election…

TEASERS When Quentin Tarantino lamented that “the Marvel-isation of Hollywood” meant its actors “are not movie stars”, Shang-Chi’s Simu Liu took it personally. Frustrated by Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese’s 2019 labelling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as “not cinema,” Liu tweeted: “If the only gatekeepers to movie stardom came from Tarantino and Scorsese, I would never have had the opportunity to lead a $400 million-plus movie.” Liu was correct that nostalgia for the “golden age” of Hollywood often ignores that it was “white as hell.” But calling Scorsese a gatekeeper, a man whose World Cinema Foundation and African Film Heritage Project supports and preserves global cinema, is absurd. Tarantino’s filmography has problematic moments but has more diverse leads than the MCU. (Half of them are people of colour or women.)…

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY #1 MAKING OF KNOCK AT THE CABIN Which of my other movies is Knock At The Cabin in the ballpark of? The closest, I think, is Signs, because both movies are confined, to some extent, and they’re both populated by such loveable families at the centre of apocalyptic events. I do think that you fall in love with both of those families. You laugh with them, are scared for them. You feel connected. You know, the author of the book, Paul Tremblay, wrote it right around the time Trump was elected. He was feeling certain things about the world. It’s really interesting that maybe he wrote it then, and I’m making a different version of the story here. It’s a wonderful discussion that we’re all going to have when you…

SCREEN OUT 20 JANUARY CINEMAS You know the joke about the man in a bar who when asked why he’s glum, reveals he spends his days sweeping elephant poop up at the circus. “Quit!” he is told. “And leave show business?” he replies. One wonders if writer/director Damien Chazelle had that old gag in mind while filming a scene near the start of his latest where a poor lackey pushing a truck up a hill gets showered in pachyderm faeces. It’s a sequence that serves as a pungent visual metaphor for the film’s scabrous depiction of a ’20s Hollywood where the lowly quite literally get shat on. (The lofty get vomited and peed upon, but that’s another story.) Here and elsewhere, Babylon reveals the depths those seduced by Tinseltown will…

SCREEN OUT NOW DIGITAL “Jungle girls, masked villains, rocket men…” You name it, Dave Stevens drew it. The Rocketeer creator receives a loving tribute in this amiable but slight doc, plotting the self-styled perfectionist’s slow-burn path to comics fame. Friends and ex-wives detail how Stevens befriended pin-up Bettie Page and became Spielberg’s storyboarder. Some themes are handled sketchily (Stevens’ interest in the female form - and strip clubs) and others are superficial (his sideburns), but an affectionate picture emerges of a talent whose toughest critic was himself, gone before his time.…

OUT 23 JANUARY DIGITAL Using the pandemic as a narrative springboard, American horror filmmaker Andy Mitton (2018’s The Witch In The Window) crafts a typically smart, sensitive chiller that explores loss in all its forms. While shielding with her family in upstate New York, Monique (Gabby Beans) is called to Brooklyn to help her old roommate Mavis (Emily Davis), who’s experiencing a series of Elm Street-style nightmares featuring a mysterious, plaguemasked figure. Beans is an appealing lead, and the film perfectly captures the desperation of trying to connect in a world gone to pieces.…

OUT 23 JANUARY DIGITAL When writer/director/star James Morosini’s dad pretended to be a pretty girl on Facebook in an attempt to restore contact with his estranged filmmaker son, he could hardly have imagined the result: a based-on-true-events cringe comedy of virtual transgression that sees well-meaning Chuck (Patton Oswalt) inadvertently catfish the vulnerable Franklin (Morosini) by using oblivious waitress Becca (Claudia Sulewski) as his online avatar. The confusions that follow are played for maximum awkwardness. Overall, though, James’s farce feels rather too forgiving towards the daddy of all deceptions.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Britain’s Naomi Ackie is spellbinding as tragic diva Whitney Houston in Kasi Lemmons’ respectful bio, which follows the star’s journey from gospel-loving teen to “the greatest voice of a generation”, as Stanley Tucci’s record exec dubs her. What goes up sadly comes down, from a rocky marriage to singer Bobby Brown (Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders) to devastating drug dependency. These later struggles are explored, but the film swerves an all-too-easy seedy last act, ending on the right kind of high. And Ackie? She hits high notes all the way.…

SCREEN OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL This sequel to Chinese mega-hit The Battle At Lake Changjin (2021) continues the 1950-set Korean War story, as the 7th Infantry Company of the People’s Volunteer Army battles US troops for control of a strategic crossing in freezing conditions. Co-directors Tsui Hark, Chen Kaige and Dante Lam ramp up the high-octane spectacle, gory deaths, Chinese-army heroism and terrible English dialogue. Other returnees include Wu Jing and Jackson Yee as sibling fighters, but 150 minutes of shellfire and non-existent characterisation may leave you drained.…

OUT 20 JANUARY CINEMAS A rudderless literature teacher, Lucio (Juan Minujín), attempts to inspire students in a tough inner-city high school, grappling with teenage apathy and the influence of a local gangster. Sounds familiar, but Diego Lerman’s gritty Argentinian drama couldn’t be any less Dangerous Minds. This sombre character study is more invested in Lucio’s sense of isolation and listlessness, thoughtfully played by Minujín. Well-observed writing and lively young talent (including firebrand Lucas Arrua) cut through the classroom cliché, leaving plenty to ruminate on after the credits have rolled.…

1998 OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Booklet, Poster Mike Hodges’ tale of Jack Manfred, a wannabe author who slips back into his old ways by taking a job at a casino, sees star Clive Owen at his finest: charismatic, suave, dangerous. He’s well supported by Alex Kingston, Kate Hardie and Gina McKee as the women circling Manfred’s life, in a story by Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell To Earth) with delicious film-noir trimmings. It may not be as volcanic as Hodges’ classic Get Carter, but it’s still worth betting your chips on. New extras include a feature-length career chat with the director.…

SCREEN CLASSIC SOUNDTRACK ‘IF YOU LEAVE’, ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK PRETTY IN PINK (1986) OMD purists may sniff, but to hell with haughty. Recorded last-minute to replace ‘Goddess Of Love’, Pretty’s prom theme crystallises the film’s heartmelting late-teens feels. Don’t let go at any price. ‘BRILLIANT MIND’, FURNITURE SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL (1987) Baritone melodrama in The National’s stately style, this London band’s brooding beauty was used by Hughes to soundtrack a teary meltdown. The great forgotten ’80s hit? Indeed, but Hughes - an Anglo-pop connoisseur - remembered. ‘DON’T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME)’, SIMPLE MINDS THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) The opening drum kick, the terrace-sized “Hey-heyhey-HEY…” Written by Keith Forsey/Steve Schiff, the arty Scottish new-wavers’ mega-hit banked their stadium ascension and gave Hughes’ detention movie its heroic air-punch send-off. ‘WEIRD…

WHAT? Tilda Swinton’s rock star recuperates in a beautiful house on the island of Pantelleria, until her peace is broken by Ralph Fiennes’ ex in Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash. WHERE Dammuso Grande, Tenuta Borgia, Pantelleria, Italy www.tenutaborgia.it/en/dammuso/tenuta GO? Live it up in the largest house on the estate surrounded by olive groves, as used by Swinton’s character. Sleeps eight unless someone has a boozy accident in the swimming pool… Want us to investigate if a movie scenario is bollocks or snapped yourself at a film location? Contact us at totalfilm@futurenet.com…

DICK TRACY Why it was a good idea (on paper) Star/director Warren Beatty’s revival of Chester Gould’s ’30s private dick arrived filled to the fedora with promise. Between Beatty’s lead, Top Gun’s writers (Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr.), Madonna, the songs, the rogues’ gallery of co-stars and the many merch tie-ins, Batman-scale returns surely beckoned. What went wrong? While Tracy’s box office seems solid, the gap between expectation and reality is the measure of its misfire. Disney wanted Batsized business, going by the synergetic merch overload. But a budget that near-doubled from $25m to $46m under Beatty’s fastidious watch, then doubled again after marketing, left little change after receipts were counted. Meanwhile, the film generated gossip when Sean Young was sacked. She alleged that she spurned Beatty’s advances, which he…

THE BIG SHOT Let’s just light it up and go for it,” said Paul Thomas Anderson when planning the extraordinary scene in which an oil derrick goes up in flames in his 2007 picture. In deciding to save money by constructing the derrick from wood, not steel, it meant that Anderson and DOP Robert Elswit would have one shot at capturing the action. But they agreed that guerrilla shooting was the way to go. The scene marks a pivotal moment in There Will Be Blood. First, a jet of gas and water knocks HW (Dillon Freasier), the young son of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), from the roof of the derrick, robbing him of his hearing for life. Then black gold erupts from the ground to signal that Plainview’s ambitions are…