Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Total Film

This month we’re revving up for more vehicular mayhem, references to family and the arrival of two supes into the Fast universe with a film that promises to be a sorta sequel to Fast Five and the penultimate entry in the franchise. Now we’re back in the cinema, this is the sort of bombastic entertainment we want boggling our eyes. The film stars one of my personal heroes in Michelle Rodriguez, who once demonstrated off-screen heroics when we sat down for a chat on a hotel patio as a storm whipped up. Unbeknown to me, a palm tree behind me was buffeted by winds and heading straight for me as it toppled over. Rodriguez simply leapt from her chair, caught and braced the tree over my head, and continued to…

TEASERS hen 30-year-old Irish actor Barry Keoghan won Best Supporting Actor at this year’s BAFTAs for his troubled, big-hearted Dominic in The Banshees of Inisherin, it capped a tremendous career rise over the last six years, and an inspiring personal journey. ‘I just want this for my son, Brando, [and] for my mother, and also the kids that are dreaming to be something from the area that I came from,’ he said in a stirring acceptance speech. Growing up in Summerhill in Dublin, Keoghan and his brother, Eric, were placed in 13 foster homes in seven years after their mother died of a heroin overdose when Keoghan was 12. Their father was absent. ‘You get attached and then boom, let’s move over there,’ the actor has said, adding that acting…

THIS MONTH… MAKING INTRODUCTIONS It was a blustery morning seven years ago and I was outside a cafe at the top of a hill, awaiting Tom Hiddleston. I’d been there 10 minutes when a small figure came into sight at the bottom of the hill and grew rapidly larger as it ran towards me at an impressive pace. As Hiddleston pulled up, his face breaking into a big grin but not a sweat, he said, without so much as a hitch of breath, ‘Good job I’ve been training with the SAS.’ When you’re about to interview an actor about heading up the cast of Kong: Skull Island, this is just the kind of introductory colour you want. But apart from gifting the humble film journalist with a vivid opening to…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS Filmmakers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night) have taken on a truly forbidding Hollywood quest - to transform the world’s most beloved tabletop role-playing game into a big-screen epic, thus freeing it from years in development hell. Once a cult hobby, Dungeons & Dragons has enjoyed a massive Stranger Things-fuelled resurgence recently. Happily, this high-stakes roll of the 20-sided dice has magicked up a lavish, light-hearted, roaming, romping action comedy - one that banishes memories of the dire 2000 adaptation. Co-writing with Michael Gilio, Goldstein and Daley propel Chris Pine’s wisecracking bard, Edgin, and his band of medieval misfits into a daring, monster-mashing heist. The smart decision to combine D&D’s handsome Forgotten Realms setting and lore with a rattling new story ensures the film…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS Marking the feature debut of co-directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, this brooding drama is set in a remote corner of Ireland where secrets are as commonplace as fishing boats. Paul Mescal plays Brian, who returns to his windswept village after seven years to revive his grandfather’s defunct oyster farm. The beloved son of Aileen (Emily Watson), Brian’s a charmer who sees every woman in town as a potential conquest. But when one of his mum’s co-workers (Aisling Franciosi) accuses Brian of assault, Aileen feels duty-bound to cover up for him - a fateful decision that obliges everyone in the close-knit community to pick a side. Watson deftly conveys pent-up anguish and escalating dismay, while Mescal essays subtle, insinuating menace. And Franciosi is simply riveting,…

OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason follows classy thriller A White, White Day (2019) with this austere drama about a Danish Lutheran priest (Elliott Crosset Hove) and his team of labourers trekking to Iceland to establish a parish. Set in the late 19th century and shot in the boxy Academy ratio (with rounded corners resembling old photographs), Godland ponders colonialism, blind faith and male pride as heart-stopping scenery inches by. At its best it evokes Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 classic; There Will Be God could be an alternative title.…

OUT 21 APRIL CINEMAS A follow-up of sorts to 2018’s laptop-centric Searching, Will Merrick and Nicholas D. Johnson’s Missing is another ultrahigh-concept thriller told entirely through modern-day comms. With the action consistently confined to feeds via computer screens, iPhones or security-cam footage, it’s a chilling look at the way our lives are often at the mercy of high-tech gadgets. Merrick and Johnson, who edited Searching, know the game, and play it well here. Storm Reid (Euphoria) is June, a snarky LA teen who has grown apart from her single mother Grace (Nia Long), a dozen years on from the death of her father. When Grace and her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung) head to Colombia for a weekend trip. they don’t come back. Where are they? June jumps into action, tracing…

OUT 31 MARCH APPLE TV+ The coloured blocks. The infectious music. The hugely addictive gameplay… It can only be Tetris, which was famously invented by software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in Soviet-era Russia. What isn’t known widely is how it broke out from the Eastern bloc to become one of the world’s most successful puzzle games. Directed by Jon S. Baird (Filth, Stan & Ollie) and scripted by Noah Pink (TV’s Genius), Tetris (the movie) digs into exactly how entrepreneur Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) gambled everything to grab the game’s rights. It means Henk visiting Moscow (without the right paperwork) to confront myriad bureaucrats and red tape, while also battling the bluster of rival Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam), the controversial newspaper baron, and his son Kevin (Anthony Boyle). Baird does a…

SCREEN OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Commentary, Featurette, TV episodes It’s science and reason versus Lovecraftian plant monsters in this animated jaunt, whose 1920s setting is vibrantly stuffed with sidekicks, Gotham history lessons, plagues of reptiles and fire demons who talk in rhyme. Despite every scene throwing up another reimagined character, Bats himself avoids being upstaged thanks to a well-tended arc that sets him grappling with a new guise: world’s greatest existential detective. Top bonus: two episodes of the 90s toon show.…

OUT 21 APRIL CINEMAS Josie Lawrence and Tanya Myers star as eccentric sisters reminiscing about their recently passed mother in this emotionally charged and semi-improvised drama. As the pair prepare to sell the family home on the Isle of Wight, deep-rooted resentment over Mum’s many flings surfaces, alongside fond nostalgia. Throughout, director Jon Sanders ensures that the ever-present void left by the departed is everywhere felt in the house, thanks to subtle camerawork and scenes centred on a pianola. The result is a moving film that sensitively explores the complicated nature of grief.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS 28 APRIL SKY CINEMA, NOW Writer/director Zach Braff’s movie comes hard on the heels of Laura Poitras’ awards-magnet doc All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which took a hard look at OxyContin. The controversial painkiller is in the spotlight again with this tear-jerking melodrama, which sees another full-tilt Florence Pugh performance. Pugh plays Allison, whose life falls apart after she’s the driver in a fatal car accident. She splits from husband-to-be Nathan (Chinaza Uche) and within months is hooked on Oxy. Her only way out of this grief spiral is Narcotics Anonymous, but even that gets complex when she runs into Nathan’s father, Daniel (Morgan Freeman), who now looks after Ryan (Celeste O’Connor), who has been left without a mother following the accident. This compelling set-up blossoms…

OUT 21 APRIL CINEMAS Set in Tahiti, this sometimes cryptic, occasionally surreal and always woozily hypnotic thriller by Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra (Story of My Death, Liberty, The Death of Louis XIV) will test the patience of some. But for those attuned to its languid pacing, sun-soaked beauty and steady throb of menace, it’s a sangriaspiced fever dream that can’t be shaken off. We follow French High Commissioner De Roller (an excellent Benoît Magimel) as he drifts through a series of meetings, encounters and parties, forever playing it relaxed and friendly but exuding smarmy colonialist entitlement as he interacts with the indigenous population. But De Roller senses the sands of this tropical paradise are shifting, and that his own power and privilege are also under threat: increasing numbers of military…

OUT 7 APRIL PRIME VIDEO Guy Ritchie re-teams with favourite leading man Jason Statham (and regular co-writers Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies) for this oddly named spy caper. With the government desperate to retrieve a mysterious McGuffin, Cary Elwes’ smarmy handler recruits a mercenary squad led by agent Orson Fortune (Statham). Fortune partners up with hitman J.J. (rapper Bugzy Malone) and ace hacker Sarah (Aubrey Plaza); the trio then rope in vainglorious movie star Danny (Josh Hartnett) to gain an audience with Hugh Grant’s arms dealer. Can they recover the package before a team of rival operatives? And is this the film with which Ritchie finally recaptures his glory days? In short: no. As cumbersome as its title, this action-comedy lacks the wit and zip of the director’s early work.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Woody Harrelson’s slyly grumpy performance as a disgraced minor-league basketball coach classes up this cute if predictably heartwarming comedy. Sentenced to manage a no-hoper team of players with intellectual disabilities, arrogant Marcus (Harrelson) is sideswiped by their anarchic approach. Director Bobby Farrelly’s nimble re-do of 2018 Spanish hit Campeones gets its laughs from skewering prejudice and celebrating difference, though the feel-good Bad News Bears-style plot holds few surprises. The film’s real slam dunk is the cheerful charm of the non-pro actors who make up the Friends team.…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS, DIGITAL Constructed entirely from archival footage, Sierra Pettengill’s excellent essay film revisits the late 60s, exploring how the US authorities responded to the urban riots sweeping the nation. Wistfully narrated by actor Charlene Modeste, the film strikes a particularly sobering note when revealing the government’s fateful response to its own Kerner Commission: instead of addressing economic and racial injustices, it simply boosted policing budgets. Incidentally, the title refers to the fake towns created on army bases, where police officers were trained to quell protesting crowds.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Though this ‘sequel to the requel’ doesn’t want for slash’n’splatter, it makes for a mid-ranking series entry. Here, Ghostface takes New York, where half-sisters Sam (an excellent Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega, also terrific) are struggling to recover from Scream (2022). Then the phones ring… Ghostface wants revenge on the Carpenters, but why? And how far might Sam go to protect her little sis? Pretty far, is the answer. Like loose entrails, themes of masked family inheritances spill out of James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick’s sketchy script, which also strains to integrate franchise legacies. While Scream 4’s Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) gets a welcome reinvention, Gale Weathers’ (Courteney Cox) return is ‘explained’ with a throwaway: ‘It’s what I do.’ At least Gale gets a good runaround…

1980 OUT 14 APRIL CINEMAS 1995 OUT NOW DIGITAL If it’s stories with style you’re after, Raging Bull and Casino - along with 1990’s Goodfellas - are Martin Scorsese at his most scorching. The former dances back into cinemas with its punches landing crisper and heavier than ever in a 4K restoration. A warts-and-all biopic of middleweight boxing champ Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro, giving perhaps his greatest performance), Bull is a beautifully ugly picture, shot in vivid monochrome and punch-drunk on pain as jealous, narcissistic LaMotta punishes himself and his loved ones (Cathy Moriarty’s wife Vickie and Joe Pesci’s brother/manager Joey). ‘I put everything I knew and felt into that film,’ said Scorsese, who was at the time struggling with depression, insecurity and cocaine addiction. Casino, meanwhile, chronicles the…

1978 OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS When Lois Lane asks Superman that famous mid-flight question - ‘Who’s got you?!’ - she speaks for anyone watching Richard Donner’s superhero trailblazer, back on the big screen for its 45th birthday. Even decades on, Superman remains a marvel of uplift, carrying the weight of expectation and influence on the wings of faith in the material. Not that Donner's work was effortless. He struggled with the producers and co-star Marlon Brando. Margot Kidder anticipated a flop; meanwhile, Christopher Reeve’s ability to fill the tights was doubted, until he buffed up and proved a godsend. Reeve brings a disarming weightlessness to Supes’ origin story, selling Clark Kent and Krypton’s last son alike. Would his cat-rescuing Supes fly in our jaded times? Well, the Man of Tomorrow…

GAME BACK TO THE FUTURE: BACK IN TIME OUT NOW Named for the second-best Huey Lewis movie song, Back in Time offers the chance to play as Marty, Doc, Jennifer or - yes! - Einstein as you attempt to hit all the main story objectives: defeat Biff, reach 88mph, get your parents to fancy each other (Marty’s parents, not Einstein’s). Family-game specialist Prospero Hall has included touches your kids are gonna love, from a retrostyled ‘shocking science-fiction rulebook’ to a 3D clock tower that acts as a dice-rolling randomiser. See some serious kit at funkoeurope.com. COLLECTIBLE SHAZAM! POP! COMIC COVER OUT NOW Those gods and their fury will have to wait: Shazam’s going cape-to-cape with Superman in this decorative DC display case. A Pop! vinyl figure of the hero formerly…

OUT NOW PC This choice-driven narrative adventure casts you as the reluctant leader of a polar expedition, tasked with keeping your crew alive throughout the icy winter. As rations and fuel dwindle, you’re forced to make ever-tougher choices - and with previous weeks locked off, you’re encouraged to commit to them. That is, at least, until an audacious finale which seems to draw influence from Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder and Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain: an exhilarating reward for a purposely bleak journey.…

NEWS EDITOR JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY Spoke to Jason Momoa from New Zealand for our Fast X feature, and we bonded over mutual excitement for Dune: Part Two. ‘I’m really pumped to see it,’ he said over his breakfast (it was 6am). DEPUTY EDITOR MATT MAYTUM @MATTMAYTUM Was a pleasure chatting to the delightfully candid Dexter Fletcher, who encouraged me to slip in a bit of Ghosted trivia that no one has picked up yet. See if you can spot it… CONTRIBUTING EDITOR LEILA LATIF @LEILA _LATIF I asked Zach Braff about Florence Pugh’s harrowing role in A Good Person and he said,‘If you’re with the most incredible violinist, you’re not going to write something simple.’ REVIEWS EDITOR MATTHEW LEYLAND @TOTALFILM Was so delighted by Ke Huy Quan’s Oscar win that…

Q&A What made you right for this role? When I had first read the script Ria just imprinted on me. It felt like [writer/ director] Nida saw that a bit of her already resided in me when I auditioned. I’m sorry if that sounds proud or boastful! What are your favourite action movies? I grew up watching all the Bonds, Mission: Impossibles and Die Hards with my dad. He came to set to watch me do a ‘Mission: Impossible stunt’; it was so exciting for us both. With so much physical comedy, did the humour still come across in the script? I was laughing out loud as I read it, but it came to life because of this cast’s incredible comedic chops. Ella [Bruccoleri] and Seraphina [Beh], who played my…

OSCARS EVERYWHERE Everything Everywhere All at Once dominated the 2023 Academy Awards with seven wins, including Best Picture and acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s the most-awarded Best Picture winner since Slumdog Millionaire in 2009. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Jon Bernthal is back as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, for MCU relaunch Daredevil: Born Again, alongside Charlie Cox as Daredevil. It’s currently unclear if Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page and Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson will return tor the 18-episode run. EXCHANGING DEETZ Currently riding the Wednesday wave, Jenna Ortega is reportedly in talks to star in Tim Burton’s long-gestating Beetlejuice sequel, alongside Michael Keaton’s obnoxious ‘bioexorcist’. She would play the daughter of Winona Ryder’s iconic goth girl Lydia Deetz. SITH HAPPENS Patty Jenkins’ Rogue…

Q&A Did you and Ana hit it off immediately on Knives Out? It was such a fun Job to work on. Even going to the press junket for that - when you have a movie that’s doing well, it’s Just enjoyable. We always had a good time together. And she was so amazing in not just The Gray Man, but also Bond [in No Time to Die], In her short screen time in Bond, she just proved to be not only wildly capable with regards to action, but incredibly charming. It just seemed like a perfect fit. In Ghosted, there’s a romantic connection between your characters. How did that compare to the outright animosity in your previous films? We’ve obviously played foes in the past. This film starts with them…

Q&A Who is Tess? I would say Tess is a little bit of a mystery. She is part of the Agency, but she also goes rogue and edges more towards the family side, but that means she has a lot to prove. When Dom gives her an impossible task that’s going to require a lot of thought and effort and also is putting herself at risk, she doesn’t question it. I think that shows who she is, that she’s willing to go to those lengths. She agrees to do it because she wants to show up for this family the way that her father did. She’s also really intelligent. Tess plays the game well. She’s not afraid of going on her own mission to do what she feels is right…

‘Spies traffic in things that are very complicated - lies, betrayals. They don’t have a real sense of who they are because they’re constantly shifting their personality in order to succeed in a mission,’ says Joe Russo. Citadel’s Mason Kane and Nadia Sinh literally come with multiple identities built in. According to Richard Madden, actors would make good spies - they’re adept at adopting new personas, plus the nature of the job makes it easy: ‘We have great excuses to be in many different countries, in many different embassies, talking to lots of different people.’ Madden learned from an active undercover officer how a spy would handle himself and conceal weapons, and how someone versed in spycraft would notice certain things on walking into a room. ‘I think Richard would…

‘I WAS READING A WHOLE BUNCH OF SCRIPTS THAT WANTED ME TO FLY SOMEWHERE OR SAVE A PLANET…’ In Atlanta prepping for Gavin Hood’s suspense thriller The Test, in which he’ll play a behavioural psychologist confronted by far-right terrorists in a near-future fascist state, John Boyega is a busy, focused man. But he’s happily cleared a window in his schedule to talk to Total Film about his career, saying, ‘Love the magazine, I’m looking forward to this…’ It goes both ways and there’s much to talk about, starting with Boyega’s new film, Breaking, the true story of how Brian Brown-Easley, an ex-Marine working two jobs and living out of a hotel room, walked into a Wells Fargo banks in Marietta, Georgia clutching a note that read: ‘I have a bomb’.…

OUT 10 APRIL DIGITAL Actor Charlotte Le Bon (The Walk, Fresh) makes a confident first step behind the camera for her genre-straddling directorial debut. At once a love story and a ghost story, this coming-ofager is a sweet, playful summer romance often shot like a horror film. When ‘almost 14’-year-old Bastien (Joseph Engel) joins his family for an extended stay at his mother’s friend’s lakeside home, he soon becomes smitten with temporary roommate Chloé (Sara Montpetit), a 16-year-old with a penchant for staging macabre photo shoots. The two misfits quickly bond, both pretending to enjoy the company of older boys more than they really do; her apparent worldliness and his attempts at casual detachment both mask their true feelings. But the presence of Chloé’s ex casts a pall over the…

OUT 21 APRIL CINEMAS Telling fibs, faking allergies there’s little that Oslo barista Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) won’t do to draw attention away from her narcissistic artist boyfriend (Eirik Sæther). Even making herself dangerously ill with dodgy Russian meds is on the table, though the stomachturning disfigurements that ensue will end up testing her resolve just as much as our tolerance for icky body horror. A broad satire on society’s appetite for photogenic sob stories, writer/ director Kristoffer Borgli’s farce is a great vehicle for both Thorp (2021’s Ninjababy) and Izzi Galindo’s gross-out prosthetics.…

SCREEN OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS After receiving a nasty bump on the head from a falling TV, retired screenwriter Leonor Reyes (a terrific Sheila Francisco) falls into a filmic reverie - inhabiting an unfinished screenplay for one of the trashy 80s action movies she used to script. First-time feature director Martika Ramirez Escobar’s fascinating, if uneven, comedy-drama infuses a paean to cinema’s power with Charlie Kaufman-esque meta-flourishes. While that sometimes means it loses focus, as if drifting in and out of consciousness along with its protagonist, this fantastical fable has heart and humour to spare.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Acclaimed documentarian Marc Silver (Who is Dayani Cristal?) follows guests at an Amazonian retreat looking to heal psychological trauma with the potent psychedelic drug ayahuasca. Silver is comprehensive in his exploration of both the scientific and spiritual effects of the medicine: the guests intimately discuss their personal hallucinatory experiences, while Indigenous healers explain their ancestral connection to rituals centred on ayahuasca. It’s a fascinating study that subtly raises questions about issues of legality, and how much right westerners have to co-opt a plant considered sacred by its locals.…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA Following a Palme d’Or nomination last year for the excellent Leila’s Brothers, Iranian writer/director Saeed Roustayi’s 2019 drama gets a welcome UK release. Focusing on his homeland’s failing war on drugs, Roustayi presents a blistering condemnation of the deficiencies of Iran’s police and justice system. From thrilling opening to bleak finale, the plot - following a narcotics task force as they track down a local supplier - makes your heart race and sink by turns. The film’s grip tightens further whenever Navid Mohammadzadeh’s charismatic drug lord is on screen.…

OUT 14 APRIL CINEMAS With an eight-year-old daughter, an ailing father and a lover who won’t leave the wife he’s cheating on, it is perhaps no surprise that Léa Seydoux spends much of Mia HansenLøve’s latest choking back tears. This story of a widowed French translator is no three-hankie weepie, however, but rather a humane and heartfelt slice-of-life drama about making the best of it, struggling through and taking full advantage of any happy moments that happen to come along. Seydoux’s Sandra lost her husband five years ago - we don’t find out how - and has spent her days since caring for both precocious Linn (Camille Leban Martins) and elderly Georg (Pascal Greggory). But having had his sight diminished by a degenerative illness, the latter can no longer reside…

SCREEN OUT 14 APRIL CINEMAS Visibly besotted with Patricia Highsmith as a globe-trotting, girl-chasing crime-fiction icon, Eva Vitija’s wide-roaming documentary embarks on a thoughtful if over-fond quest to find out what made the elusive writer tick. Studded with personal photos and confessional writing (read with cool charm by actor Gwendoline Christie), it uses meaty film clips (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley) to illuminate Highsmith’s ingenious plotting. But the predatory, alcoholic racist described by recent biographers is only seen in the unvarnished memories of the late writer Marijane Meaker, the film’s star turn…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS ‘Something’s amiss between men and women,’ sighs Bastien Bouillon’s weary detective in this based-on-real-events drama, which follows a fruitless murder investigation after a young woman is burned alive. As a succession of suspects are interviewed and dismissed, DominikMoll’s (Harry, He’s Here to Help) thoughtful procedural explores a culture of misogynistic violence, and asks why such incidents are almost always investigated by men. Yet in exploring the emotional toll on the investigators, Moll’s film ends up sidelining the real victims; its ending, too, is a regrettable misstep…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS Filmed during the 2019-20 amateur-football season, which was curtailed by the pandemic, this engaging fly-on-the-wall documentary gives voice to non-professional referees. Actor-turned-director Greg Cruttwell explores the motivations and experiences of these individuals, who suffer verbal and sometimes physical abuse from players and spectators alike. Among the diverse interviewees are septuagenarian churchgoer Ron, transgender taxi driver Lucy and Jamaican teacher Anne Marie. Despite their on-pitch struggles, there’s a real sense of the pride and passion they invest in refereeing. BOOKS…

OUT 31 MARCH CINEMAS This imaginative animated adaptation whittles Haruki Murakami’s short-story collection down to a handful of characters, focusing on their contrasting responses to the Tohoku earthquake of 2011. From a young woman fixated on news reports of the disaster to a middle-aged accountant shaken out of the tedium of his routine by a talking frog, these vignettes combine moments of deep introspection with dreamlike imagery. The result is predictably uneven, but director Pierre Foldes’ unique fusion of animation techniques ensures it’s at least visually captivating throughout.…

OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS The myriad struggles of parenthood are well documented: the psychological, physical and financial toil it can take. But perhaps less talked about are the soul-crushing experiences of film-fan parents who find themselves enduring boring tooners that serve no purpose beyond numbing the brains of adult and child alike. This redubbed Russian/Hungarian animation about a grumpy bear delivering a baby bear to the American bear president - is a sorry example of just how artistically bankrupt family-friendly fare can be. It’s got all the wit and charm of a colonoscopy.…

SCREEN 1974 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Featurettes, Booklet The streets of Tokyo (plus the occasional henhouse) run red with blood in this fast-paced Yakuza thriller from Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) helmer Hideo Gosha. While the basic plot - gang-bossturned-nightclub-owner Egawa (Noboru Andô) is reluctantly pulled back into his old life is pretty run of the mill, Violent Streets is loaded with enough twists and quirks to make it feel genuinely fresh and exciting. Japanese-cinema experts Tony Rayns and Jasper Sharp provide valuable background on the film and its director in two accompanying featurettes.…

1970 OUT 17 APRIL BD EXTRAS Documentary. Short. Audio speech, TV segment, Essay Recently voted the 48th greatest film of all time in Sight and Sound’s once-a-decade poll, this vérité drama is the anti -Bonnie and Clyde, as the title character leaves her husband and kids and falls in with Michael Higgins’ callous bank robber. Shot on grainy 16mm and set amid industrial Pennsylvania, it’s written and directed by Barbara Loden, who also excels as Wanda, a woman disrespected and discarded by men. A great film, it was sadly Loden’s only directorial feature before dying of cancer in 1980, aged 48. Criterion extras include an hour-long archival doc…

1954/55 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentaries, Documentaries, Featurettes, Liner notes Despite directing numerous films across multiple genres in Germany and then Hollywood, Douglas Sirk will forever be synonymous with his run of 1950s melodramas. Dismissively labelled as mere ‘women’s films’ by critics of the era, Sirk’s femalecentric Technicolor tales of romance and tragedy have since been re-evaluated and lauded for their cine-artistry and social critiques. Magnificent Obsession is the tale of a wealthy playboy (Rock Hudson), the accidental death of a doctor, and the blinding of the doctor’s widow (Jane Wyman) - with whom the playboy falls in love. While not one of Sirk’s best, it remains compelling - albeit primarily for how unintentionally weird it seems today. (As an added bonus, Criterion’s Blu-ray includes an earlier - but no…

OUT NOW SWITCH PlatinumGames’ expansive spin-off delves into the past of the Umbran witch before she adopted her titular moniker, as she explores a fairy-tale forest alongside her cuddly stuffed cat, who can transform into a powerful demon. Using both analogue sticks, you control Cereza and Cheshire at once. The painterly setting is a delight, as is the interplay between the irascible demon and his faint-hearted summoner; sluggish pacing is the only let-down.…

KING OF THE CASTLE OUT NOW PC This unusual online multi-player game casts one player as monarch and the rest (who can play for free) as scheming nobles, who are set separate goals to unseat the big cheese before they can produce an heir. Shifting power dynamics make for a fascinating - if occasionally frustratingly capricious game that only gets better as more join in. LIKE A DRAGON: ISHIN! OUT NOW PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES S/X The series formerly known as Yakuza goes back to the 19th century in this handsomely revamped spin-off, originally exclusive to Japan, It recasts familiar characters as historical figures - revolutionary Sakamoto Ryoma is essentially Kazuma Kiryu’s samurai ancestor, pitted against a rogues gallery of returning villains in a tense revenge plot punctuated with comic…

RAMIN ZAHED CAMERON BOOKS The recent Shrek spin-off sequel embraced a gorgeous visual style, making this companion an easy sell. As the filmmakers break down the painterly look and the animeinspired action, it’s straightforward to a fault - every character and location gets a shout-out - but the art’s delightful to peruse, offering a chance to appreciate the film’s abundant invention at your own pace. (Ethical Bug gets a welldeserved spread.)…

CHRISTOPHER FRAYLING TASCHEN Celebrated production designer Sir Ken Adam enjoyed an extensive career in the industry, bringing mighty franchises to life (Bond) and working under great filmmakers (Kubrick). This glossy biography-slash-art book (originally published in German, now available in English) shares sketches, concept art and photos from the artist’s own collection. Commentary and interviews provide context and insight, but the man’s body of work really speaks for itself…

I can’t see it, but I will take it,’ laughs Jonah Hauer-King when Teasers suggests that it must do wonders for your self-esteem to be cast as a Disney prince. ‘Wholeheartedly, I will take it.’ Having found a following with TV projects like Little Women and World on Fire, the 27-year-old joins the big leagues with Disney’s liveaction The Little Mermaid. What was the audition process like for Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid? It starts as an email. It starts as a self-tape request. Most of the time you gladly do them, and send them off into the abyss. But another email came in, saying they want another tape.. And then another… Eventually, it culminated in meeting Rob [Marshall, director]. And at that point, it starts to feel a…

When Lola Quivoron was young, growing up in the outskirts of Paris, she became a cinematic petrolhead. ‘My father showed me a lot of motorcycle and racing-car movies, because he was really passionate about that,’ she explains to Teasers. She watched them all, from Steve McQueen classics to The Fast and the Furious, although it was a 1972 documentary, Continental Circus, about competitive motorcycle racing, that really stunned her. ‘It was really a shock when I was a teenager. It was about violence, death and obsession.’ After directing her 2016 short Dreaming of Baltimore, which focused on kids riding motocross bikes in the Parisian suburbs, Quivoron has now channeled her love for cross bitumen, as it’s called, into her visceral debut feature, Rodeo. The film follows Julia (Julie Ledru), a…

What’s the first thing you do on set? I have a little station just for me with a zero-gravity chair; they’re like camp chairs that are easy to transport. It’s awesome - they’re the best chairs in the world. I have a little camp table and I set up all my shit - my books, computer, script - and I have an iced tea. That’s how I get my caffeine. I focus and dig into my script, which I hopefully know pretty well by then. Do you approach comedy sets differently from drama sets? With drama, it tends to be a bit more rigorous to sticking to the script because there’s plotlines, subtexts and subplots that need to be followed through on. Often there are little clues in the words…

I’m always wanting to do better,’ says Justin Hurwitz, the Oscar-winning, Harvardeducated composer across Damien Chazelle’s films. The pursuit of brilliance rings out of Hurwitz’s scores. From Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench to Whiplash, LaLaLand, First Man and Babylon, his work leaps forward at every step, bursting with ambitious reserves of ideas, feeling and melody. To paraphrase Mia from La La Land, was a bit of madness key to scoring Babylon? Damien’s script was one of the most entertaining scripts I’ve read. It was full of wild parties where everybody’s doing drugs, people are having sex in the open… I was like, ‘OK, the music will have to be pretty wild.’ We started building the tracks and layering more and more percussion. Voodoo Mama has at least too…

STEVEN YEUN Steven Yeun might be caught up in the mother of all feuds in his new series, Beef, but don’t expect his own past to be littered with thwarted enemies. ‘I’m allergic to beefing - it’d break my heart,’ he reveals with a mellow smile, dark-rimmed glasses framing his face. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would ever have a problem with the Korean-American actor, who radiates an air of laid-back warmth as Total Film catches up with him over Zoom. He’s poles apart from his character, Danny, in the Netflix and A24 comedy, a down-onhis-luck construction worker who becomes hell-bent on getting revenge after he’s involved in a heated road-rage incident with Amy (Ali Wong). ‘He’s a broken guy,’ says Yeun from Los Angeles. ‘He’s someone that doesn’t…

OUT NOW CINEMAS When Shazam! arrived in 2019, its tale of a foster kid bestowed with superpowers brought a breath of mintyfresh air to the DCEU. If only that were the case with this tiresome follow-up. Yes, it was always going to be tough to maintain the novelty of Zachary Levi playing Shazam, the alter ego of teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel). But the bigger issue is returning director David F. Sandberg’s struggle to move the story on. It starts promisingly, as the Daughters of Atlas - Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Hespera (Helen Mirren) - steal a magical staff, drawing them into conflict with our hero and his fellow supers, which now include Billy’s foster brother Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who becomes Captain Everypower (Adam Brody). Freddy gets a further…

OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS Never mind the budgetary constraints: ideas are the currency of this wickedly inventive mind-meld of found-footage thriller and period sci-fi from director Andrew Legge. Even if the character work needed finessing, Legge and co-writer Angeli Macfarlane tease echoes of films from Timecrimes to Back to the Future into fresh, playful shapes, braided by provocative insights into British identity. In the early 40s, boho siblings Martha ‘Mars’ (Stefanie Martini) and Thom(asina) Hanbury (Emma Appleton) intercept signals from LOLA, a self-made machine that catches future TV/radio broadcasts. It’s all fun and games at their country house as Bowie and the Kinks ring out. Then the pair intervene in the war - and time bites back. Steadily, the lively comic spectacle of Mars singing You Really Got Me to…

SCREEN OUT 14 APRIL CINEMAS The winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes 2022, this engaging mix of political and religious intrigue comes from writer/director Tarik Saleh, who previously explored Egyptian police corruption in 2017’s The Nile Hilton Incident. Here, Tawfeek Barhom is Adam, a student at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University who gets strong-armed by an agent (Fares Fares) of the Egyptian State Security to go undercover as the institution elects a new Grand Imam. A sharp-eyed meditation on power and those who exploit it, Saleh’s noir-ish tale provides a unique insight into a clandestine world.…

OUT NOW SKY DOCUMENTARIES, NOW Torquil Jones’ absorbing Formula One doc explores the background to, and fallout from, a fateful incident during 1982’s San Marino Grand Prix. Betraying team orders, rising star Didier Pironi overtook Ferrari teammate Gilles Villeneuve to win, turning a close friendship into a bitter rivalry - one that would soon be curtailed by tragedy on the track. Attempts at Shakespearean heft fall flat, but the archive race footage is thrilling. Meanwhile, a finalact gear shift examining the contrasting legacies of the two men movingly reminds us of the cost of their pursuit of glory.…

OUT 31 MARCH DIGITAL Released to mark the global Trans Day of Visibility, this warmhearted documentary centres on transgender American comedian Julia Scotti, who transitioned to being a woman after spending nearly five decades of her life as a man. Shot over a period of five years by director/producer Sarah Sandler, it weaves together archive material, animated sequences and interviews with the self-deprecating, septuagenarian Scotti and her adult children from an earlier marriage. Plenty of laughs, but also a genuine sense of the emotional pain Scotti’s endured in her search for personal happiness.…

OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS A celebration of prog rockers King Crimson at 50-plus years old, this warts-and-all documentary finds the group in fine fettle, bickering among themselves and accusing director Toby Amies (The Man Whose Mind Exploded) of ‘talking bollocks’. Led by snippy guitarist Robert Fripp, the band’s current line-up gamely (and occasionally irritably) bares all, revealing themselves to be every bit as difficult, inspired and downright peculiar as their musical output would suggest. Interviews with grizzled roadies, effusive fans and a nun(!) add to an immersive, lively experience.…

OUT 7 APRIL CINEMAS ‘Is that what you put as her occupation - homemaker?’ asks artist Lisa Selby, contemplating the post-mortem report for her mum, dead after years of substance abuse. ‘You should have seen her home,’ she laughs darkly, highlighting this documentary’s frank, unflinching honesty. Selby must also reckon with her partner’s heroin addiction, her own pregnancy and a fear of history repeating. From a lifetime of footage, she and co-director Rebecca Lloyd Evans construct a harrowing yet sensitive portrait of grief, addiction and the journey to the other side.…

SCREEN OUT NOW DISNEY+ Though many movies have referenced the 60s Massachusetts murderer, the women who helped expose the case have gone under-recognised. Writer/director Matt Ruskin changes that with this solid but conventional true-crime drama about Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, investigative journalists whose four-part story spawned the ‘Boston Strangler’ nickname. Working at the Record American, Keira Knightley’s Loretta is tired of writing lifestyle fluff. When she offers to profile a murdered woman, her editor (Chris Cooper) says no. But helped by seasoned journo Jean (Carrie Coon), Loretta begins developing the story of a local serial killer anyway. As Loretta’s reporting spotlights press and police shortcomings, a damning, pointed portrait emerges of institutional failures to protect women. She finds herself endangered too, subjected to death threats. A knotty murder mystery…

OUT 21 APRIL CINEMAS, DIGITAL Diagnosed with a terminal illness, Sid (Sex Education’s George Somner) is determined to make his last summer a memorable one, culminating in a starlit bonfire. Preparing a treasure hunt for his childhood friends, he is sidetracked by Lily (Mia McKennaBruce), but their budding romance only has so much time… Based on his short film and inspired by true events, writer/director Connor O’Hara’s feature debut is a poignant if mildly predictable romantic drama. Naturalistic performances stop it from getting too mawkish, but it’s the evocative cinematography that is the biggest draw.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS Punjabi customs and the traditions of arranged marriage are the focus of this sweet-natured but somewhat amateurish romantic comedy from first-time writer/ director Pravesh Kumar. Imported Indian bride Simmy (Rameet Rauli) arrives in Slough to start her new life; but after her betrothed runs away, she’s forced to stay in his family home alongside his troublesome brother Harry (Viraj Juneja), who’s been newly placed under house arrest. The exploration of Indian/English cultural differences offers humour and heart, but these qualities are undermined by an inconsistent plot and clumsy performances.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL 3 APRIL DVD Ten years after being captured by a particularly sadistic squad of Nazis, American pilot Will Spalding (Jacob Keohane) seeks revenge on the bastards who tortured his war chums to death. There’s merit to the film’s tense opening and wacky finale, but between these bookends lies a dreary slog through Boys’ Own adventure territory, further marred by stiff action and ugly visuals. Veteran hams Arnold Vosloo and Michael Ironside do what they can, but director Phil Blattenberger’s pulp ambitions go unrealised - it’s a trashy film, sure, but not quite trashy enough.…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMAS, SKY CINEMA, NOW Director Neil Jordan reunites with his Michael Collins leading man, Liam Neeson, for this middling hard-boiled LA tale. Be warned: although Neeson plays Raymond Chandler’s legendary gumshoe Philip Marlowe, this 1939-set neo-noir is based not on a Chandler story but on The Black-Eyed Blonde, an authorised yarn penned by John Banville. Diane Kruger pops up as an heiress who hires Marlowe to find her missing ex-lover, while Jessica Lange makes a welcome appearance as her mother. It looks classy, but Jordan can’t lift things above the humdrum.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS A.A. Milne’s beloved children’s characters are turned into slasher villains in Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s cut-price horror. Disgusted at humanity, Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and Piglet (Chris Cordell) kidnap Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) and chain him up in their treehouse, then stalk Maria (Maria Taylor) and her pals through the Hundred Acre Wood. Though the shaky performances and sadistic streak are a turn-off, an energetic last-act showdown with some spectacularly accented locals tips things towards so-bad-it’s-good territory. All the same, you’re better off watching 2019’s The Banana Splits Movie.…

1999 OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K UHD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Making of, Featurettes, Short On the extras, Sofia Coppola talks about feeling comfortable on film sets. Nepo-baby good fortune? Maybe, but that assurance shows in her debut’s controlled evocation of deep-seated uncertainty. Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel is the Picnic at Hanging Rock-ish template for the told-in-retrospect tale of sisters (including Kirsten Dunst) who take their own lives. Even if the narrative seems vaporous, Coppola’s wit and imagery tease at inchoate teenage emotions. Also includes an interview with Air, whose melting music matches Coppola’s elusive methods…

1969 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Alternative cut/ footage, Commentary, Featurettes, Gallery, Booklet Best known in Spain for his TV work, Narciso ‘Chicho’ Ibáñez Serrador found fame among overseas horror fans with the two cinematic features he helmed. If not quite as shocking as his 1976 masterpiece Who Can Kill a Child?, this landmark gothic chiller (also known as La residencia) is an atmospheric tale of repression and murder at a girls’ boarding school that packs some nasty twists of its own. This Blu-ray boasts new restorations of the film’s theatrical (94 mins) and extended (105 mins) cuts…

CREED III True to form, Creed III gets two releases, score and songs. Following Ludwig Goransson, Joseph Shirley steps tentatively into the composing ring for the score’s synths, beats and orchestrations. The problem is too much mood-setting, not enough melody, until Training Montage/Round 12 revive old cues. Assembling Dreamville Records talents, the hip-hop/R&B songs prove equally patchy, but a few keepers save the day: Ma Boy, Ogogoro, Lay Up and J. Cole standout Adonis Interlude go the distance. HANS ZIMMER LIVE Hans Zimmer brings crowd-pleasing gusto, playfulness and questing adventure to this heady live show, recorded in 2022, Ranging from hair-raising Dune experiments to Absurdities for lighter films, the impeccable set honours sure-fire showstoppers (The Dark Knight, The Lion King) and underrated treasures (The Last Samurai) alike. No Time to…

OUT NOW PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/ SERIES S/X This demanding thirdperson shooter casts you as astronaut Kate Ward, locating her missing crewmates on an unknown planet. Initially coming across as a slowerpaced (if similarly hard-edged) alternative to Housemarque’s Returnal, Scars Above makes hay from its protagonist’s scientific background: by investigating alien phenomena, she can extrapolate ideas for new gear. A pity, then, that it resorts to padding out its entertainingly pulpy story with a needlessly circuitous endgame.…

MELANIE WILLIAMS BFI/ BLOOMSBURY Tony Richardson took directing, producing and co-writing credits on this key title of the British New Wave. Yet Williams rightly identifies writer Shelagh Delaney and unconventional lead Rita Tushingham as its real MVPs, pinpointing how close the 1961 film cleaves to the former’s stage play. Murray Melvin’s landmark gay character, Walter Lassally’s innovative cinematography and singer Morrissey’s troublesome advocacy also feature.…

THOR AND LOKI: MIDGARD FAMILY MAYHEM Writer/illustrator Jeffrey Brown turns his warmly parodic eye from Darth Vader and Son to the Odinsons (junior versions) as they tear across the Ten Realms in a series of mostly one-page skits. Being Marvel, it’s naturally cameo-heavy (summer-camp Avengers assemble!), but chief scene-stealer is Mjolnir, a comic prop with endless uses: boat anchor, reflex tester… Not as LOL-some as Brown’s best, but with enough cheeky, geeky charm to be a worthy storytime choice. MATTHEW LEYLAND STAR WARS: 100 OBJECTS Author Kristin Baver shifts from the macro (Star Wars: Year by Year, Sky walker: A Family at War) to the micro with this museum-cataloguelike survey of bits, bobs, blasters and restraining bolts. Organised chronologically, it inevitably includes multiple lightsabers (plus a dark one) but also…