Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Total Film

This month we celebrate the rebels, the mavericks, the renegades – those who rage against the machine and look cool doing it. Bikers on film have always been dudes, from The Wild One to Easy Rider, and Jeff Nichols’ ode to the open road and the thrill of a Harley rev, The Bikeriders, taps into all those feels. Find out which of the actors actually bought a vintage hog after falling in love with biker culture on page 30. I loved talking to Nichols, especially when I told him about my obsession with accents and he whipped out his phone to play me Danny Lyon's original interviews with Kathy and the bikeriders! We're also celebrating celluloid's disruptors and the crew fighting back in Zack Snyder's long-gestating space opera, Rebel Moon.…

Before Callum Turner embraced acting, he wanted to be a footballer. In a sense, he still does. On screen, the 33-year-old British actor's team spirit, humble charisma and physicality have proved vital assets, as they surely will again in two major incoming projects. Turner will soon be seen slicing through the water in The Boys in the Boat, George Clooney's Depression-era film about a university rowing crew. Shortly after, he'll be found joining forces with exec producer Steven Spielberg for Apple TV+'s Masters of the Air, the high-flying sibling show to Band of Brothers and The Pacific. He certainly put in the training to get here. Raised on a Chelsea council estate by his mum, a nightclub promoter, Turner has steadily amassed a body of work that showcases his sporting…

You talkin’ to me? I am. It's part of the job really if you choose this kind of work. You have to open yourself up to people coming up to you on the street and try not to let it get on top of you and be cool. It always seems to happen when you're in the middle of a massive argument, though. Somebody will come up and say ‘Can we get a picture?’ and you're like, ‘Erm, not right now.’ Obviously, people don't know what's going on in your life so it's not their fault. You just have to deal with it as kindly as possible! What will you be drinking, sir? Right now, a coffee. I wouldn't mind a negroni after work as I'm in Rome. A cheeky…

1922-PRESENT ROBIN HOOD Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner REBELLING AGAINST? The legendary outlaw in Lincoln green who stole from the rich to give to the poor has been a staple of English folklore since the 14th century. The film Robin, though, takes his cue from Douglas Fairbanks’ portrayal in 1922, his debonair earl turned arrow-slinging brigand establishing a cast-iron template that would be subsequently recycled by Errol Flynn in 1938, Kevin Costner in 1991, and countless other imitators. ICONIC MOMENT Kev firing that slow-motion flaming arrow in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 1933 WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD Eddie (Frankie Darro), Tommy (Edwin Phillips), Sally (Dorothy Coonan) REBELLING AGAINST? Inducted into the US National Film Registry in 2013 alongside Pulp Fiction and Mary Poppins, William Wellman's tale of teenage…

‘That's not motion capture. It's Jena [Malone] in 80-85% of the scenes. It's one of the sequences that kept me up the most, but one of the creatures that I'm really proud of. So we had Jena. She was in full make-up effects, and we basically seamed her with a digital creature at the hips. Sometimes up to the naval, depending on what action was happening. ‘What was really cool with that sequence was we had, depending on the shot, anywhere from three to six stunt performers that would have pool noodles acting as her legs, that [Bae] Doona could react to, and dodge. ‘We had this rig that would go up and down. It was called the swivel rig, but we could also move it. So that was where…

Where did you start when you got the call from Sofia? Initially, it was just about looking at photos and all that sort of stuff that is historically documented. But then the script is primarily about their private life. Who are they behind closed doors? How does that manifest itself within both the storytelling and in the costumes? For me, that was about looking at old Vogues and old GQs. I felt that they were the type of people who had access to what was the most current. They had a lot of their clothes custom-made, both of them. And, according to Priscilla, Elvis never came downstairs not fully dressed. So they were people who took pride in their appearance. But, at the same time, we wanted to try to…

‘TODAY WHEN YOU MAKE A HUMAN MOVIE WHERE SOMEBODY DOESN'T FLY, YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SHRINK-WRAPPED BUDGET.’ Alexander Payne is back, not a moment too soon. When Total Film meets the writerdirector of About Schmidt, Election and Nebraska, ensconced in a first-floor suite in the Soho Hotel, he's on the London leg of his festival tour for The Holdovers, the eighth film of his career. Now 62, he's only here briefly before jetting off to Lyon and Paris to spread the word on this hugely satisfying comedy-drama. It marks a long overdue reunion with Paul Giamatti, his star from 2004's Sideways, the film that truly put Payne on the map, winning him and co-writer Jim Taylor an Oscar each for Best Adapted Screenplay. At that point, Payne had already…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 8 DECEMBER SKY CINEMA/NOW Loosely inspired by a true story (search Mary Kay Letourneau if you want to know more), Todd Haynes’ latest catches up with a married couple – Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) – whose age-gap relationship sparked a tabloid storm two decades earlier. Their seemingly happy relationship starts to buckle when Hollywood actor Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) arrives to do research for a film she's making about their lives. On the one hand, May December's sensitive subject matter makes for an uncomfortable watch at times; on the other, it's vastly entertaining. Haynes’ attention to detail is typically superb: check out his canny use of mirrors, highlighting just how much Elizabeth is trying to imitate Gracie. Both Moore and Portman are sensational, fully…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS The fine line between faith and folly is vividly explored in this documentary account of 20something US missionary John Allen Chau. In 2018, Chau illegally travelled to the Indian island of North Sentinel, with the aim of converting its indigenous people to Christianity. Co-directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State) reconstruct Chau's story via interviews with friends and colleagues, animations, clips from feature films and footage from an earlier anthropological visit to the same location. The end result is a rigorous interrogation of the ethical basis of missionary projects.…

OUT NOW DIGITAL The New Romantic veterans’ links to LA provide a flimsy premise for this hybrid of docu-concert movie and album puff piece. While the four band members are engaged interviewees – on/off guitarist Andy Taylor is only mentioned – the positing of ‘fame… star culture’ as the motifs that tie Duran to Hollywood offer a tenuous cue for a rooftop gig, plugging 2021 album Future Past alongside a few hits. Simon Le Bon is in decent voice on Come Undone and Ordinary World, but the smallscale event whiffs of exclusivity and corporate ties, with the nearby Capitol Records tower in full view.…

OUT 24 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Adura Onashile's Glasgow-set immigrant drama explores the fine line between mothering and smothering. Struggling to suppress past trauma, highly strung Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) finds her close bond with daughter Ama (an auspicious debut for newcomer Le'Shantey Bonsu) strained when adolescence blooms. For Ama, the boundaries Grace has imposed to keep them safe are becoming ever more constrictive. Onashile's spare script arguably leaves a little too much unspoken, but her disarmingly tender tale is elevated by vibrant lensing from DoP Tasha Back and Ré Olunuga's ear-catching score.…

OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL Framed as a ‘Saturday night television special’, director Amanda Kramer's garish take on celebrity and derangement is a slender but exuberant curio. Bette Midler's daughter Sophie von Haselberg brings gusto to her role as Sissy St. Claire, a variety-esque performer staging a camppsychedelic one-woman show. But among her pep talks and paeans to Jesus – now he could self-promote! – shadows lurk. Kramer's saying nothing deep about the desire for fame, but it's how she says it that counts: if John Waters reimagined Joker under a mirrorball, the result might look like this trippy fancy.…

OUT 9 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Power chords, puerile humour and hints of poignancy propel this amiable portrait of Lowestoft pomp-rockers The Darkness. Director Simon Emmett plots the band's small-venues reunion tour intimately, before flashing back to trace their short, sharp initial rise/ fall. While he doesn't quite define the Marmite band's appeal, Emmett does explore singer Justin Hawkins’ personality and polyps crises. Most crucially, a tale of two brothers emerges: gradually, Justin's touching bond with sibling Dan (guitars) comes to dominate a story told with wit, warmth and willy gags to spare.…

OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS Next to Last Night in Soho, Thomasin McKenzie's previous foray into psychosexual thriller territory, Eileen might at first be dubbed Drab Days in Massachusetts. Until, that is, exotic Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) flutters into the title character's life: a startling femme fatale in fire-engine red who offers McKenzie's timid prison staffer both a Carol-esque whiff of temptation and the chance to escape the grim juvenile-detention facility she works at when not pandering to her drunken ex-cop of a father (Shea Whigham). Seven years on from Lady Macbeth, British director William Oldroyd – here working from Ottessa Moshfegh's 60s-set 2015 novel – brings us another female-led story about a young woman kicking against her restricted circumstances, this time in a literal prison. But halfway through, a neat reversal…

SCREEN OUT 20 NOVEMBER DIGITAL An ex-convict and a struggling single mother struggle to keep their heads above water in this blood-and-whiskey-soaked Southern noir, set in small-town Mississippi. Stars Garrett Hedlund and Willa Fitzgerald (the Scream TV series) simmer with intensity as director Nadine Crocker turns up the heat, building a tightening sense of dread. The atmosphere can feel oppressively bleak, but a grizzled Mel Gibson (as Hedlund's estranged dad) brings unexpected warmth amid all the trauma and bloodshed. What really keeps you invested, though, is the palpable chemistry between the two leads.…

OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS Agniia Galdanova's harrowing but impactful documentary follows 21-year-old non-binary Russian performance artist Gena Marvin, who dresses in otherworldly costumes to protest against the regressive regime. Shot in an intimate, unflashy style, it shows first-hand the harassment they face, from abuse in the street, to being escorted from shops and enduring shocking bursts of violence. It's a tough watch, particularly when Russia invades Ukraine and increases its oppression of LGBTQ+ people, but as Marvin puts it, ‘I take all that pain and I use it in my art.’…

OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS A man lies dead in the Alpine snow below the chalet he shared with writer wife Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and their 11-year-old son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). Did he fall? Did he jump? Or was Samuel (Samuel Theis) the victim of some fatal foul play? Suspecting the latter, the authorities try Sandra for his murder. So far, so courtroom drama. But in Justine Triet's riveting Palme d'Or winner, the trial is only the beginning of a forensic exploration of a complicated defendant, a couple at odds and a mother's relationship with her son. Before an implacable judge (Anne Rotger) and a relentless prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz), Sandra is forced to account for every action, fiction and extramarital liaison that might be used to refute her protestations of…

OUT 24 NOVEMBER CINEMAS A tale of grief that's slight but armed with two Tilda Swintons, The Eternal Daughter is Joanna Hogg's take on 40s psychological mystery. Think Rebecca, but with more hot-water bottles. The plot sees the elderly Rosalind (an aged-up Swinton) whisked away to a fusty manor-house hotel by her ‘fusspot’ filmmaker daughter Julie (Swinton again). As fog curls around the grounds and windows shimmer with possible spectres, Julie attempts to write a screenplay about her mother, trying to tease information out of someone clearly hiding fissures of emotional pain. That explorative screenplay is the one we're watching play out in front of us, which may feel self-indulgently meta from the off for some viewers. Still, there's the pleasure of Hogg's knack for capturing recognisable human interaction. On…

1983 OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS The World Is Yours’ blinks the message on a Goodyear blimp, inspiring Cuban immigrant Tony Montana (Al Pacino) to rise to the top in a hail of bullets and a cloud of cocaine. Brian De Palma's flash, brash crime movie enjoyed the same trajectory. Beloved by cinephiles and gangsta rappers alike, it flooded popular culture like Montana's white powder floods the streets of Miami. Back in cinemas for its 40th anniversary, the film that became so many people's little friend on VHS, DVD and streaming can now be viewed big, its gaudy sets, bravura camerawork and extreme violence (for the time, normalised since) sensationally supersized. Largest of all is Pacino, mumbling vowels, munching furniture. Montana is impulsive and reckless and succeeds by sheer force of…

1951 OUT NOW BD, DVD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Featurettes, Premiere footage, Stills gallery A Black priest (Canada Lee) and a white landowner (Charles Carson) are thrown together by an act of violence in Zoltan Korda's adaptation of Alan Paton's book, shot with some guile in apartheidera South Africa. Best remembered for Sidney Poitier's charismatic turn as an indignant reverend, the film (here with a 4K restoration) tells an affecting story with too much decorum. Yet decent extras make it worth discovering, not least by those who've seen the 1995 James Earl Jones/Richard Harris version…

2003 OUT 27 NOVEMBER BD, 4K UHD, DUAL FORMAT EXTRAS Commentary, Making of, Featurettes, Booklet, Art cards Shocking violence is twinned with uncompromising storytelling in Alexandre Aja's breakthrough horror (aka Switchblade Romance), back to turn heads anew with an extras-packed reissue. As student Marie (Cécile de France) pursues a relentless sadist who kidnapped her best friend (Maïwenn), the director-co-writer meshes slasher/exploitation tropes with avant-garde bravura. Its ruthless efficiency is overshadowed by the jarring final act, but this remains a pivotal work of extreme cinema. Dual-format edition comes with a 70-page booklet.…

1968 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Stills gallery, Booklet No one's afraid of a painted monster,’ sighs retiring horror icon Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff, essentially playing himself) as he views rushes of his latest Victorian horror film. Little does he realise that he'll soon be confronting the modern terror of a young sniper whose random killing spree takes in the drive-in theatre where Orlok is making a personal appearance. This excellent BFI Blu-ray features a gorgeous restoration overseen by director Peter Bogdanovich (who died in January 2022), docs, interviews, a Bogdanovich commentary and a brand-new chat track by film historian Peter Tonguette. The making-of story is repeated numerous times, but it's a cracker: Karloff owed Roger Corman two days of filming, so the spendthrift producer asked Bogdanovich to…

AMAZON FIRE TV STICK 4K MAX RRP £69.99 AMAZON.CO.UK Amazon's latest streaming stick is its most powerful yet, allowing you to zip around the menu screen like Santa on Christmas Eve. With support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos 360 sound, it also offers a more cinematic picture than ever before. 01 ASTELL&KERN AK UW100MKII EARBUDS RRP £269 ASTELLNKERN.CO.UK Cramming in some mobile movie-viewing while on the train? These swish wireless earbuds give you 9.5 hours of continuous playback, enough to squeeze in a triple bill. 02 Q ACOUSTICS 5010 SPEAKERS RRP £499 QACOUSTICS.CO.UK The perfect pairing if you're short on space, these compact bookshelf speakers will improve your TV's audio output. Choose from black, white, rosewood or oak finishes. MUST HAVE 03 SHARP ROKU TV RRP FROM £150…

THIS MONTH BLUE BEETLE Q Does Blue Beetle's animated TV show really exist? In Blue Beetle, George Lopez's Uncle Rudy helps Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) break into the villainous Kord facility by obscuring the security guards’ computer screens with a cartoon titled CH. The cartoon, which also serves as the final post-credits scene, does exist in reality, but not quite as we see it in the DC universe. Blue Beetle's CH is a claymation version of the live-action series El Chapulín Colorado, a popular superhero spoof that's rife with uniquely Mexican and Latino humour. The title translates to either ‘The Red Grasshopper’ or ‘The Cherry Cricket’, and, in the original, the eponymous hero was played by Ramón Valdés, a comedian best known for the sitcom El Chavo del Ocho. There…

1987 Patrick Stewart: ‘When I told [Ian McKellan] I was going to sign the contract [for Star Trek: The Next Generation], he almost bodily prevented me from doing so. ‘‘No!” he said. “No, you must not do that. You must not. You have too much important theatre work to do. You can't throw that away to do TV. You can't. No!”’ Years later ‘In the years since, we have become dear pals and X-Men colleagues, and Ian has acknowledged that he was wrong and I was right. More than once, in fact – primarily because I like making him say those words.’…

KIEREN McSWEENEY The recent Spider-Verse and Turtles movies look sloppy. It's good to see today's generation has found a style, but it doesn't measure up to the classics (Disney or not). JUSSI KANGA Modern animation offers much more personality and diversity than what was available when I was a kid. I'm kinda jealous of my children. THOMAS J. PARSONS If it ain't done by Don Bluth [The Secret of NIMH] or Ralph Bakshi [1978's The Lord of the Rings], I don't give a shit. A lot of today's animated films look and feel the same.…

FRED NORTH STUNT HELICOPTER PILOT, FRED-NORTH.COM Fred North has flown choppers in more than 200 movies over three decades including action franchises Fast & Furious, Mission: Impossible, James Bond, Transformers and Extraction. ‘I live my flying passion,’ he says. ‘I love being part of a team making a movie together and then sharing it with family and friends.’ How would you describe your job in simple terms? I am either flying in front of the camera performing stunts required for a specific scene in the movie, or the pilot flying with a camera attached to the nose of the helicopter – there's a director of photography on board operating the system and we are capturing action on the ground and/or in the air. But a stunt pilot has multiple hats:…

ROUGH DIAMOND ‘I like being rough round the edges,’ the late Michael Gambon said. ‘A big, interesting old bugger.’ Born in Dublin, 1940, he was a trained toolmaker and set builder but untrained actor, who brought light-footed instinct and craft to his roles. His career started when he blagged a role in Othello (1962) in Dublin and then joined Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company, auditioning – cheekily - with a Richard III soliloquy. THE GREAT GAMBON(D) His film debut was Othello (1965), courtesy of Olivier, before a role in swashbuckling TV show The Borderers (1968-70) banked him an invitation to audition for James Bond. Gambon refused, but screen service continued in Nothing but the Night (1973) and The Beast Must Die (1974). Meanwhile, he chalked up stage turns of great…

NEWS EDITOR JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY During my chat with Zack Snyder, he casually pulled an unassuming notebook off the shelf, which turned out to be his original sketches and storyboards for 300. I resisted the urge to bellow, ‘This is art-a!’ CONTRIBUTING EDITOR NEIL SMITH @TOTALFILM I flew to Rome this month to spend a day on a film set with what felt like every fly in Italy. Can't tell you more at this stage, but will reveal all soon… CONTRIBUTING EDITOR LEILA LATIF @LEILA_LATIF At Martin Scorsese's incredible LFF screen talk, I was sitting behind his daughter Francesca. A reference to their TikToks together got as big a cheer as Goodfellas. Rightly so! REVIEWS EDITOR MATTHEW LEYLAND @TOTALFILM_MATTL I was Loki enough to explore the TVA Experience pop-up in…

Did you stick to the hair the real characters had in the book? Most of the characters, we really tried to stick with their look in the book. Some, we went away from, like [Tom Hardy's] Johnny. We wanted him to have more of a sort of 50s feel to his hair, because he was an older guy. For [Jodie Comer's] Kathy, I didn't feel like that really dark hair was going to look good on Jodie. I went darker than she is normally, but not as dark as what Kathy was. She had two wigs. One wig for the 60s, and one wig for the 70s. Austin looks remarkably like [his character] Benny so I cut his hair in kind of a square, pompadour style and then cut his…

PRISCILLA Was it daunting to take on the King so soon after Baz Luhrmann's film? No, I was just really, really lucky to be working with Sofia, who put my fears at ease immediately. There's no real space to be daunted or afraid. It's one of those things you hear from actors all the time – that you want a challenge. And this certainly was it. What was the process? The whole prospect of facing it was just this kind of huge mountain and it really was just put the blinders on and just go all out because there was really no space to go to not do that. And I think having Sof and Cailee, it was honestly a treat. It wasn't too stressful. What do you make of…

OUT NOW CINEMAS 17 NOVEMBER NETFLIX This somewhat safe biopic is supercharged by a fantastic performance from Colman Domingo. A valuable supporting player in recent years (If Beale Street Could Talk, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Candyman, Zola), he gets the lead turn he deserves as Bayard Rustin, a real-life civil-rights organiser who rallied largescale non-violent protests, most famously 1963's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Rustin has his work cut out, facing prejudice and logistical challenges as he attempts to stage that protest at the Lincoln Memorial safely. Scandal around his sexuality adds to the complications, as rumours spread about his relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen). The film doesn't reinvent the biopic wheel, but it's impossible not to be moved by Rustin's cause and his unwavering…

OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS What happens when an unremarkable man starts popping up in the dreams of thousands? That's the delicious premise of this English-language debut from Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself). Nicolas Cage, in one of his more restrained, vanity-free performances (à la Adaptation or Joe), plays college prof Paul Matthews. Married to Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and a father of two daughters (Lily Bird and Jessica Clement), he's a real Mr. Average – until he becomes a shining star at night… Although he can't witness others’ dreams, Paul initially revels in his new-found notoriety. Borgli craftily replicates some of these fantasias (classroom earthquakes, jungle raids), and wisely makes no attempt to explain this phenomenon. Instead, the writer/director has Paul courted by a slick ad agency led by Michael Cera's…

OUT 9 NOVEMBER CINEMAS If nothing else, this uneven documentary proves how hard it is to get a grip on a talent as slippery as Libertines star Pete(r) Doherty, the controversial rock poet whose widely reported addiction issues have at times overshadowed the music. Directed by Doherty's wife Katia deVidas, this intimate portrait doesn't shy away from the drug use, but does leave out vital parts (Kate Moss, the death of Mark Blanco). Instead, it pursues a kind of myth-making that ultimately hinders any deeper insight into what makes Doherty tick.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS From the moment Samuel Beckett (Gabriel Byrne) escapes the Nobel Prize ceremony to converse with another version of himself (also Byrne), this take on the Waiting for Godot dramatist abandons biopic conventions. It offers up snapshots of the Irishman's life, from working for James Joyce (Aidan Gillen) to his fractious relationships with wife Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) and mistress Barbara (Maxine Peake). It's ragged at times, but Byrne and Gillan capture the essence of their literary-titan characters, while James Marsh's (Man on Wire) direction smartly tips its hat to Beckett's revolutionary modernism.…

SCREEN OUT 24 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL Beginning with a still from a sex video, reflected in an eye, then moving closer until all is black, Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn's documentary explores a troubling new phenomenon. An American student is horrified to discover her face has been used to make deepfake porn – but who is responsible, and how can she stop them? Cleverly, Compton and Hamlyn use the same digital trickery as the perpetrator to expose the terrible things men do to women, simply because they can. Executed with the discretion and sensitivity its subject matter calls for, this is unsettling but urgent viewing.…

OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS The promise of the Northern Lights gives way to goofy frights in this culture-clash comic horror from TV's Magnus Martens (Fear the Walking Dead). An American family moves to Norway for Christmas, expecting twinkly fairy-tale magic. Yet the resident barn elves have rules, Gremlinsstyle, and they get pissy when they're broken. Martens fumbles the tonal balance initially, the laughs/scares muffling each other. But as the siege-like mood develops, the blood taps are opened: between impaled elves and explosive baubles, there's seasonal slaughter with glee.…

OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Winner of the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance, this intimate story focuses on a couple coping with Alzheimer's disease. Paulina Urrutia, an actor and former Chilean culture minister, and Augusto Góngora, a retired journalist, have been together for 25 years, but now he often doesn't recognise her and needs reminding of their love. Director Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent) teases out parallels with the importance of remembering Pinochet's dictatorship – Góngora reported on the crimes in the 70s and 80s – without forcing or overreaching.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS, APPLE TV+ Sweet and distinctly surreal, this quirkily dystopian satire from Greek Weird Wave writer/director Christos Nikou (Apples) takes aim at society's obsession with using tech to find your soulmate. Set in the near future, this tender but torpid romcom centres on Anna (a deliciously intense Jessie Buckley), who can't quite believe the revolutionary medical-test result that proves she and her couch-potato boyfriend, Ryan (a rather under-utilised Jeremy Allen White), are 100% compatible. Why, then, is she so drawn to her kindly new colleague Amir (Riz Ahmed) as they instruct hopeful couples seeking to pass the same test at the Love Institute? Nikou's deadpan comedy can't resist overstretching its nifty premise with drawn-out whimsy, as Anna and Amir plunge intimacy-seekers into electroshock therapy, skin-sniffing and underwater eye…

SCREEN OUT 10 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Writer-director Colin Krawchuk takes a stab at adding a new monster to the Halloween cheapie market with his promising but slow feature debut. A suited mime weirdo with lethal powers, the Jester haunts a small town on Halloween, stalking estranged half-sisters (Lelia Symington, Delaney White) tenuously united for their dad's funeral. Krawchuk mixes fun-house splatter (mind the eyes!) with themes of sorrow and regret, but neither is developed fully: the Terrifier-ish Jester is more mask than menace, while the siblings’ traumas are too rote to register emotionally.…

OUT 15 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 20 NOVEMBER NETFLIX Adapted from Dr Ibram X. Kendi's bestselling book, Oscar-winning documentarian Roger Ross Williams’ film explores the history of anti-Black racism in America, to eye-opening effect. Employing talking-head interviews (with academics including Dr Angela Davis and Kendi himself), archive materials and inventive animation, Williams unpicks the centuries-old trajectory of racist views, exposing how shockingly prevalent and damaging they have become across US culture. An accessible introduction to a tough subject that also poses a vital challenge to racial prejudice.…

2003 OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS No Christmas movie of the past 20 years has had the annual rewatchability of Jon Favreau's seasonal staple, marking its anniversary with a big-screen re-release. Will Ferrell is at his endearing best as Buddy, the human raised by elves who journeys to New York to meet his birth father. The loss of two stars in recent years adds poignancy: James Caan is wonderful as the unsuspecting pa, his frostiness slowly thawing, and a cantankerous Ed Asner is one of the great screen Santas. Sweet, wholesome and as moreish as candy-and-syrup spaghetti.…

1929 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurette, Video essays, Booklet A perfect pairing of actor and material, director G.W. Pabst's scandalous psychosexual melodrama captures Louise Brooks – sporting that renowned bob – at her most alluring and effervescent. Ahead of its time (not least in its depictions of homosexuality and promiscuity), this silent classic was hacked about by censors around the world. Happily, it's presented here on Blu-ray in a beautiful restoration that makes it easier than ever to fall under the spell of the carefree Lulu and the Jazz Age icon who brought her to life. Includes critic's commentary and 60-page booklet.…

1964 OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Featurettes, Stills gallery Released in a new 4K restoration, this powerful anti-war film saw the third collaboration between US director Joseph Losey and British star Dirk Bogarde. Amid the mud and misery of the World War One trenches, Bogarde's Captain Hargreaves is brought in to defend Private Hamp (a terrific, BAFTAnominated Tom Courtenay), who's been accused of desertion and faces the death penalty. But the real crime is that men like Hamp could be murdered, en masse, for a cause they repeat – ‘King and country!’ – but can't really comprehend.…

CHRISTMAS JUMPERS RRP FROM £40.99 MERCHOID.COM Partying like it's 2099? Then check out the fang-tastic Miguel O'Hara design. Across the Spider-verse, there's a Miles Moralesthemed jumper that's redder than Santa's cheeks. If you're not so much of an eight-legged geek you can choose from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Dungeons & Dragons, One Piece… and a retro Turtles number that conjures the ghost of Christmas wishlists past. MUST HAVE 01 HOME ALONE SWEATSHIRT RRP £25 LASTEXITTONOWHERE.COM It's the 16 booby traps of Christmas, from paint cans a-swinging to door knobs a-scalding. 02 MARVEL STUDIOS’ LOKI WATCH RRP £299 CITIZENWATCH.CO.UK With its horned-helmet graphic and gold-toned/deep-green hues, this mischievous item will ensure you make it to the drinks do with glorious pu… nctualness. 03 BARBIE BAGS RRP £70-75 FUNKOEUROPE.COM Loungefly/Mattel's mini-backpack and…

MUST HAVE VANITY FAIR OSCAR NIGHT SESSIONS RRP £60 VARIOUS RETAILERS American photographer Mark Seliger presents a decade's worth of after-party portraits. In other words, big pics of beautiful people in their best togs. Golden statuette not included, alas. 01 THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: AN OFFICIAL TIMELINE RRP £35 VARIOUS RETAILERS Or timelines, if you will, in a hardback covering every major Marvel event. Though there is a Blip in the middle. 02 STEVEN SPIELBERG: ALL THE FILMS RRP £50 VARIOUS RETAILERS For those who Always enjoy Amblin through movie history. Some Amazing Stories here… 03 THE SCREEN TRAVELLER'S GUIDE RRP £25 VARIOUS RETAILERS The real-life locations behind your fave films and telly shows, from Game of Thrones’ King's Landing (Croatia, obvs) to Paddington (haven't the foggiest). 04 AN ALIENS…

HAVE YOUR SAY TOTAL FILM.COM VIDEOS • REVIEWS • TRAILERS • NEWS totalfilm.com twitter.com/totalfilm facebook.com totalfilm totalfilm@futurenet.com STAR LETTER After the recent releases of the latest Fast & Furious and Saw movies, I realised that the ‘X’ in their titles should be said as a ‘10’. I then started worrying that I've been making the same movie-title blooper for decades. I got to thinking that the horror film Jason X is actually Jason 10. But it goes deeper: should I have been calling our favourite Marvel mutants the 10-Men? Is the Vin Diesel action series actually Triple 10? Is last year's Mia Goth horror really 10? My whole life has been a lie! GRAHAM SMITH, STEVENAGE Might the opposite be correct, too? Should it be X Things I Hate About…

@JORDANFARLEY The disaster movie is a tried-and-true cinematic genre, from the sublime (Titanic, Gravity) to the, well, disastrous (Geostorm, Meteor). But what they all have in common is that the cause of the cataclysm is never in doubt – usually it's in the title. This is definitively not the case in Leave the World Behind, Sam Esmail's adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 bestseller in which society as we know it crumbles with an unsettling question mark. ‘That fear of the unknown was something that really excited me,’ Esmail (Mr Robot) tells Teasers. ‘In this story, we never tell you, really, what the disaster is. It's a mystery. It's ambiguous. It's something that the characters have to debate over and analyse. Even towards the end, you're still not quite sure what's…

It's always hard to make a movie,’ says director Mary Harron. ‘It's just having to be enormously persistent.’ In her case, it has paid off – with an eclectic CV boasting indie classics I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page. Now back with Dalíland, starring Ben Kingsley as the surrealist painter, Harron is ready to unpack her career in broad strokes… What led you to casting Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dalí? I remember when his agent suggested that, I said, ‘But he's so powerful!’ I was thinking of Sexy Beast and Gandhi. And Dalí was a tremendous coward! Like a child in a lot of ways and a hypochondriac. Also, we were watching Iron Man 3, where he's the scary character [the Mandarin] and then he's…

Where did you start looking for pieces for this cast? For a very long time, I was just really trying to understand how exactly these jeans fit for these guys, and this group, at this time. I know what it takes to make leather look real and broken in; and to make denim look real and broken in. So I had to pick my battles a little bit – and I decided I wanted to try to find actual vintage leather jackets for as many of my leads as I could. There was a biker jacket from this time with a deep pocket. And then I looked for multiples for that. How did you break in the denim and boots to make them look lived in? Hollywood secrets! There is…

Initially expected to release soon after Army of the Dead, Lost Vegas was to be an anime-inspired series chronicling the early days of the undead outbreak. Much work on the show has already been completed, including animatics and full voiceover recordings, and for the first time Snyder reveals a surprise Rebel Moon crossover: ‘Army of the Dead has a pretty vast mythology that never made it into the movie. We did do the work. There's actually a character from Rebel Moon in the Army of the Dead animated series that we never did, but we did all the scripts and the animatics, and all the voices are recorded. So you could watch it, even in its crazy animatic form – you can watch the whole run. ‘At one point in…

OUT 24 NOVEMBER CINEMAS 20 DECEMBER NETFLIX SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED WEST SIDE STORY 1961 A snippet of Bernstein's earworm score for this seminal musical – perhaps his best-known work – appears in Maestro. A STAR IS BORN 2018 Tackling partnerships and music, Cooper's directorial debut was an awardsseason smash. Maestro will surely repeat the gong-bothering. TÁR 2022 Problematic, unfaithful, brilliant conductor brought to life with a full-throttle turn. Same, same. For more reviews visit gamesradar.com/totalfilm The latter half of 2022 saw Cate Blanchett roar into awards contention with her towering performance as a misanthropic conductor in Tár. A year on, it's time for her to pass the baton – in more than one sense – to Bradley Cooper, who disappears inside his performance as Leonard Bernstein. As well…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMAS It's nearly Booksmart, but not quite. Nevertheless, this queer take on high-school cliques is a heightened-reality hoot with a banging Charli XCX soundtrack. Set in a timeless universe (Discmans, non-era specific costumes, no contextual info), it follows ‘gay, ugly, untalented’ P.J. (Rachel Sennott, who co-wrote) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) as they set up a girls-only fight club to seduce hot cheerleaders. Potty-mouthed and daft, Emma Seligman's (Shiva Baby) film is nominally feminist but diverting fun with tonal glitches and a gag reel that suggests a saltier cut might have been in the offing.…

OUT NOW NETFLIX How do you sustain a story about long-distance swimming? By building it around a fabulous character: restless but resolute real-life athlete Diana Nyad (played by Annette Bening) who, at the age of 60, attempts her life-long dream of completing a 110-mile, open-ocean swim. Steeped in grit, guts and glory, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's (Free Solo) sporting drama is also about friendship; the key driving force is the bond between Diana and coach Bonnie (Jodie Foster). Rhys Ifans delivers a soulful turn as Team Nyad's navigator, but it's the leading ladies who are most likely to make an awards splash.…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMAS ‘This is going to be so much fun!’ cackles a baddie in this big-screen adap of the popular video game. Alas, Emma Tammi's ploddingly predictable puppet show rarely delivers on that promise. Josh Hutcherson is the security guard who discovers that the eponymous restaurant's quartet of bestial mascots has the power to come alive. With robot heads containing flesh-mangling chainsaws, faces resembling battle-scarred Terminators and the lumbering gait of Romero zombies, Freddy Fazbear and pals would seem precision-tooled for terror. Sadly, they're about as scary as Barney the dinosaur.…

OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS Tragicomic auteur Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre) returns with another sly and distinctive look at Finnish life, this time centred on two lost Helsinki souls. Supermarket employee Asna (Alma Pöysti) and construction worker Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) aren't exactly love's young dream, but that doesn't stop romance blossoming, despite Holappa's alcoholic proclivities. The gloomy backdrop, including radio news of the nearby Russian invasion of Ukraine, isn't enough to dampen the spirits of this deftly deadpan piece. Sneaking in a nod to Jim Jarmusch, this is Kaurismäki at his most playful.…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS An intimate and compelling portrait of Tyneside-born photographer Tish Murtha, who died penniless in her mid-50s, leaving behind an unsung body of work. Her adult daughter Ella acts as a guide here, interviewing her late mother's siblings, friends and tutors, while Maxine Peake voices diary entries and letters that affirm Tish's socialist convictions. Director Paul Sng's (Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche) film reveals how Murtha's shots captured the defiance of those living in north-eastern working-class communities that had been devastated by deindustrialisation. Moving and illuminating.…

OUT NOW SKY CINEMA/NOW A dilemma for you, high-powered bank exec Liam Neeson: there's a bomb under your seat as you're driving your kids to school. If you get out, it blows. If you don't obey the mystery person calling the shots, it blows. What do you do?! Well, you could consult the Spanish (2015), German (2018) and South Korean (2021) movies that have already been coined from this Speed-indebted scenario. Or you could just sit back and enjoy the ride, safe in the knowledge that your Takenhoned smarts will overcome any problem Nimród Antal's (Vacancy, Predators) generic thriller throws in your way.…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL Norfolk-raised filmmaker Ella Glendining goes on a journey of self-discovery in this moving documentary. Born with an extremely rare disability – she has no hip joints and extremely short femurs – she resolves to find out if there are others out there with her condition. Though her quest is hampered by the pandemic, Glendining offers insights into living with a disability, highlighting the everyday prejudices she has faced from prospective employers. Weaving together interviews, home movies and video diaries, this is a body-positive, lifeaffirming film.…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER CINEMAS Careworn cabbie Charles (Dany Boon; Welcome to the Sticks, Micmacs) gets an unexpected trip down memory lane when hired to chauffeur a 92-year-old lady (Line Renaud) from the Paris suburbs to an old people's home. The journey that follows takes in sites from her youth that prompt a series of conveniently chronological flashbacks, all revealing Madeleine (played in the past by Alice Isaaz) to be rather more steely than she initially seems. Effectively Driving Miss Daisy meets Night on Earth, Christian Carion's (My Son, Joyeux Noel) heartwarmer gets its fuel from its winning central double act.…

OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS Crumbling identities are at the core of Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping's impressive debut, which channels Scorsese, Shame and the Safdie brothers to craft a queer revenge thriller that feels genuinely fresh. Based on the writer-director duo's BAFTA-nominated short, it introduces Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Misfits), a drag artist who suffers a homophobic attack. Three months later, he spots the perpetrator, an in-denial thug called Preston (George MacKay), in a gay sauna, and they begin a relationship that moves from rough sex towards cautious tenderness. But can a dressed-down Jules really pass in Preston's hyper-masculine world? And is he out for revenge? Falling in love? Or a toxic cocktail of the two? All this plays out in a neon-flecked night-time London, expertly rendered by James…

OUT NOW SHUDDER Having caused a stir with 2017's aptly titled Terrified, Argentinian writer-director Demián Rugna brings bursts of the same feverish imagination to this more expansive follow-up. When brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimi (Demián Salomón) discover a – repulsively oozy – possessed person (or ‘rotten') in their rural backwater, they decide the best course of action is to dump them elsewhere, causing the problem to spread… Bound by an over-complicated mythos, the film's best moments are its simplest: eruptions of shocking violence that may floor even the most seasoned gorehound's jaw.…

OUT 17 NOVEMBER PRIME VIDEO Middle-aged doormat Kristen (Toni Collette) gets a surprising new lease of life following the death of her estranged grandfather, whose Mafia empire she inherits. Journeying to Italy, she's tutored in the niceties of Mob management by stern consigliere Bianca (Monica Bellucci). The effervescent Collette gives the role her all, even if a good deal of the material is beneath her. Meanwhile, director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Miss Bala) offsets this comedy drama's more predictable beats with an unexpected level of gore. An unlikely cross between Breaking Bad and Eat Pray Love that proves oddly satisfying.…

1992 OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurette, Essay Director Carl Franklin now helms high-end TV (The Leftovers, Mindhunter). This feature debut, whose critical success enabled it to dodge a straight-to-video release, established his talent. Starring and co-written by Billy Bob Thornton, it tracks three LA criminals who hightail it to Arkansas to hide out… but Bill Paxton's sheriff lies in wait. This crackerjack neo-noir is full of surprises - plot twists, sudden violence and thrillingly unpredictable behaviour. Criterion extras include an archival Franklin commentary and a new director/ Thornton chat.…

SCREEN 1925-32 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentaries, Intros, Documentary, Featurettes, Short story, Video gallery, Essay If a new restoration of Browning's macabre masterpiece Freaks is the star attraction of this Criterion release, the two silent ‘shockers’ that accompany it prove no less enthralling. Never before available on home video, The Mystic features a phoney psychic, while The Unknown casts Lon Chaney (opposite a young Joan Crawford) as an amputee knife-thrower who isn't quite as, ahem, ‘armless as he first appears. Scholar David J. Skal provides insights across various extras…

1999 OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K UHD, DIGITAL EXTRAS Featurette, Deleted scenes ‘I hope [it's] the kind of film that you see and two days later some little things revisit your brain,’ says writer-director Jim Jarmusch of his cult hit, here making its UHD debut. Never mind two days; his tale of a Don Quixote-like hitman (Forest Whitaker) going to war with a dysfunctional Mob family has stuck in our brains for more than two decades, thanks to its effortlessly cool mix of richly drawn characters, hip-hop beats and deadpan humour. Some new extras would have been nice, though.…

COUNTDOWN CHARACTERS RRP FROM £59.99 VARIOUS RETAILERS Behold the advent of a new type of Christmas calendar: a big box containing 24 smaller boxes, each one containing a piece of a character. Come Christmas Eve, you've built your own icon, from Shrek to Sonic. No glue required; the bits are all push-fit, leaving them free from sticky stuff (until your nieces and nephews get their paws on them). MUST HAVE 01 ADVENT CALENDARS RRP £29.99-£55 VARIOUS RETAILERS For Lego lovers there's Marvel's Avengers (Chrimbo-jumper Spidey!) and Star Wars (eggnog Emperor!), while Funko fans can go for DC Super Heroes (and villains – we don't buy Joker's ‘Santa’ act) and 24 days of Five Nights at Freddy's. 02 FUNKO POCKET POP! RRP £16-£18 FUNKOEUROPE.COM Little figures (3.8-4.8cm) that could make a…

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT RRP £TBC VARIOUS RETAILERS It's a good season for James Newton Howard, who's also revisiting the Hunger Games saga. Let it Snow, indeed, but leave stocking space for this lovely, wintry thing: an album of piano-centred rerecordings from Howard's M. Night Shyamalan scores, with soloists including Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Besides the classics (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable), fine cues for misfires (Lady in the Water) affirm Howard's delicate alchemy. MUST HAVE WONKA RRP £TBC VARIOUS RETAILERS ‘Let's go see a movie show,’ sang The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon in a tribute to Euro-cinema back in 1994. Elsewhere, Hannon's screen love has sired songs for Gangster No. 1, Doctor Who, Hitchhiker's Guide…, Lola and more. A land of pure imagination now beckons as he reunites with his old composer pal…

Best beaks 1 MAESTRO While Bradley Cooper didn't strictly need a larger schnozz to play larger-than-life musical impresario Leonard Bernstein, extra conk added by nose expert and facialprosthetics master Kazu Hiro lent a more Lenny vibe. The family approved but social media didn't. 2 THE HOURS Nicole Kidman played acclaimed author Virginia Woolf as she struggled with depression while writing Mrs Dalloway. The transformative face augmentation contributed to an Oscar (Kidman won by a, er, nose) and even stayed put after a steaming mug of tea. 3 THE WIZARD OF OZ Former teacher Margaret Hamilton had been told the bump on her nose would preclude her from a great movie career. Not so. Her iconic turn as the Wicked Witch of the West built on her noticeable natural nose by adding green paint…

TOTAL FILM CLASSIC I don't think any of us were aware of how crazy it would be – in fact, we definitely weren't,’ says filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke, reflecting on the whirlwind aftermath of her 2008 megahit Twilight and the impact it had on her and her young leads. ‘Before we shot, I went to a book reading with author Stephenie Meyer and there was a big crowd. When she said the name “Edward” people started screaming at the top of their lungs like they'd seen the Beatles,’ she laughs. ‘I thought, “Oh, my God. She just said the character's name. Wait until these fans actually see a person playing this guy. It's going to be out of control.”’ She's not far off the mark. Released 15 years ago, Hardwicke's fourth…

THIS MONTH Spontaneous In the age of streaming, so many movies are dumped straight online with little or no fanfare. Most are average or rubbish, but some are good or even great. When the latter is the case, one of two things happen: 1) absolutely nothing, the film sinking in a sea of content; or 2) a buzz begins on social media, with excitable word of mouth swivelling eyeballs in the movie's direction. It happened with romcom Set It Up on Netflix, and sciencefiction mystery The Vast of Night on Prime Video. And as I write this, it's happening with writer/director Brian Duffield's sophomore feature No One Will Save You on Disney+. I'm delighted to see it, for this low-budget sci-fi horror movie overcomes its limited resources and recycled ideas…

@_ANN_LEE Whenever anyone asks who my favourite actor is, I don't need any time to deliberate. It's Daniel Day-Lewis each and every time. My answer has never wavered since I watched In the Name of the Father as a teenager. The actor's thundering performance as Gerry Conlon, an Irishman who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted as an IRA bomber, floored me. It was so raw and affecting; he turned himself inside out with rage and grief as someone railing against injustice. Ever since then, I've been hooked on watching him unravel like some magnificent tornado blowing through my screen, leaving a beautiful wreckage in his wake. And while he's won three Oscars for his performances in My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, the…

THE SINGING DETECTIVE 1986 From under melting make-up, Gambon projects intuitive depths as the hospitalised writer drifting into noir-ish fantasies and memories of youth. THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER 1989 As psycho-gangster Albert Spica, Gambon delivers a terrifying display of vindictive menace. GOSFORD PARK 2001 ‘Business is business…’ As a jowly, craggy, dog-stroking tycoon, Gambon flourishes amid the bustling ensemble of Robert Altman's murder mystery. HARRY POTTER III-VIII 2004-11 Warm and wily, twinkly and imposing: replacing Richard Harris, Gambon makes Hogwarts’ head wizard, Dumbledore, come alive in every enigmatic detail.…