Innehållsförteckning för March 2022 från Total Film

THE SMARTER MOVIE MAGAZINE It’s all about fathers and sons this issue for me – both in the vengeful Viking offspring kicking ass and taking names in Robert Eggers’ The Northman and in Ryan Reynolds’ latest actioner, The Adam Project. I’ve talked to Reynolds numerous times over the years (from wandering around LA while talking about Buried in 2010 to last year’s Free Guy) and he’s always been the entertainer in chats. This time we ended up talking about our dads and what our pre-teen selves might think of us now. “If my 12-year-old self could see where I’m at right now he would have taken his damn glove to my insolent face, and said, ‘How dare you have this amazing life that you’ll one day get to share with…

When actress Ruth Wilson (The Affair) teamed up with Jude Law to option Deborah Kay Davies’ cult 2010 novel True Things About Me, the plan was to find a filmmaker to bring it to the screen. Harry Wootliff, who made her feature debut with 2018’s IVF drama Only You, readily agreed to adapt Davies’ tale about an unnamed single woman who works in a benefits office and – on a whim – has sex with one of her claimants in a car park. Wootliff was immediately intrigued by the book’s narrator, a woman who hasn’t followed the expected path by finding a husband and having children. “I like the fact that she’s an outsider and that she doesn’t fit in,” she tells Teasers. “I think a character that is always…

I’ve always liked relationship pieces,” says Adrian Lyne. “That’s what I’ve been attracted to – the small story, rather than the large. A movie about you and me, rather than The Matrix, for example.” Lyne is chatting to Teasers ahead of the debut of Deep Water, his first movie in 20 years. The British director found fame in the ’80s and ’90s with iconic films like Flashdance and Jacob’s Ladder, and he became synonymous with erotic thrillers and dramas like Fatal Attraction, 9½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal and 2002’s Unfaithful. He’s returning to that world with Deep Water, which stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas as Vic and Melinda, an unhappily married couple. Infidelity leads to murder, in a loose adaptation of a novel by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr.…

01 Four years into the neo-Jurassic Age, dinosaurs and humans are co-existing not-so-peacefully across the planet. “We’re racing towards the extinction of our species,” says Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire. 02 A herd of parasaurolophus galloping along the open plains, a mosasaurus feasting on a fishing trawler’s haul… Dominion promises awe-inspiring new sights, and a mournful apatosaurus (brilliant, we’re crying again). 03 Blue’s back, and… aww what a cute little baby raptor! Seems Owen’s prehistoric BFF has been busy since we last saw her. Later, adorable Baby Blue is caught in a trap, and you can bet Mum won’t be happy. 04 Another first for the Jurassic films: feathered dinos! Given the way this menacing pyroraptor is charging towards Owen and Jurassic newcomer DeWanda Wise it’s safe to assume she isn’t too friendly. 05 The dilophosaurus…

The joint winner (with Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero) of the Grand Prix in competition at Cannes last year, Compartment No. 6 is the newest film from Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, who previously made the charming real-life boxing story The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki, itself another Cannes prize-winner and festival darling. As Finland’s official submission for the International Feature award at this year’s Oscars, Compartment No. 6 only strengthens Kuosmanen’s status as one of the most exciting rising talents from his country. But his latest is actually set in Russia. “I like Russian scenery,” he tells Teasers. “It’s really cinematic.” Set in the 1990s, it follows a Finnish archaeology student, Laura (Seidi Haarla), taking a long train trip from Moscow to snowy Murmansk. Ostensibly travelling to observe…

Nicôle Lecky is following in the footsteps of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michaela Coel in bringing her one-woman show from the London stage to television. The six-part Mood (formerly known as Superhoe) is every bit as distinctive as Fleabag or Chewing Gum in its portrait of Sasha, an east Londoner whose loneliness and vulnerability are hidden behind by superficial swagger and razor-sharp tongue. “Sasha’s a wannabe singer-songwriter,” explains Lecky. “She’s quite troubled, struggling with her expectations not meeting the reality of her life. She falls out with family, ends up sofa surfing with a drug dealer and meets Carly [Lara Peake], an influencer who is involved in online sex work. Sasha goes on this crazy journey, trying to find herself and her voice and figure out what she is running away…

Set in a French primary school and sticking close to seven-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) as she witnesses the bullying of her older brother (Günter Duret), Laura Wandel’s blistering debut has been compared to concentration-camp drama Son Of Saul. Yes, it really is that traumatic, and utilises a similar visual style: everything is shot from Nora’s eye level, with shallow-focus photography amplifying her sense of disorientation and terror. “It is to confront the viewer, and to be there as a child,” says Wandel, pointing out that what is happening outside the frame is often as distressing as anything that Nora actually witnesses. The sound design is ferocious. “What is this world when you’re at that level? I wanted to bring the viewer back, because we’ve all been through it. I wanted…

Though the shareholders of the Walt Disney Company undoubtedly had dollar signs in their eyes, The Force Awakens was worth much, much more to legions of fans – the highly anticipated December 2015 release date would tell them whether the new custodians of that galaxy far, far away knew how to make a Star Wars movie. Lucasfilm’s initial strategy was clear, as they leant heavily into the beloved original trilogy, bringing back the stars and riffing off the story beats of A New Hope. More pointedly, The Force Awakens was a departure from the much-derided prequel trilogy, a big-budget manifesto announcing that trade disputes, wall-to-wall greenscreen, and coarse and rough and irritating love stories were a thing of the past. While the Force was undeniably strong with Rey, we could…

★★★☆☆ OUT 18 MARCH CINEMAS Inspired by a real-life story – and shot in a village where civilians were massacred during the 1999 Kosovan war – this naturalistic debut feature from writer/director Blerta Basholli centres on Fahrije (Yilka Gashi), a widowed mother of two whose murdered husband’s body was never found. Basholli exposes a rigidly patriarchal society, where Fahrije’s attempts to organise other female villagers into creating a business selling local produce are met with fierce resistance. Stylistically Hive takes few risks, yet the dignity and perseverance essayed by Gashi prove quietly affecting, and the film won three awards at Sundance.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 11 MARCH CINEMAS Mika Kaurismäki (brother of the famous Aki) injects an ambling sweetness into this gentle comedy, as Pak Hon Chu’s widowed Chinese chef tries to track down and reconnect with an old friend in a remote Finnish village. His slow-burn romance with Anna-Maija Tukko’s blunt diner owner is very slow indeed, the camera frequently lingering on (admittedly ravishing) Lapland landscapes, healing noodle soup and plentiful sauna gags with quirky old locals. This simple vision of food-fuelled, cross-cultural learning is no Babette’s Feast, or Tampopo, but its heart is in the right place.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS J. Lo’s version of Notting Hill knowingly rides well-worn romcom grooves (there’s a Pretty Woman nod five mins in), but there’s nostalgic comfort in the familiar. Leaning more than a little into Lopez’s real-life persona, it follows an ultra-famous, thrice-married pop queen who’s about to wed a hot new Latin star (Maluma) live on social media. Instead, she ends up spliced to normo guy Charlie (Owen Wilson). Can they find love? No surprises in store, but Lopez and Wilson’s considerable charisma (plus the extensive fashion porn) dance over the more egregious logic cracks.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 11 MARCH CINEMAS A documentary about Kevin McArevey, the charismatic, Elvis-loving principal of a North Belfast boys’ primary school who seeks to change attitudes in his young pupils by teaching philosophical principles. He encourages them to “ask deep and meaningful questions” and “listen to different thinking”, as they grow up in a city still reckoning with the violence of its past. Repeat incidents of playground bullying suggest Mr. McArevey has his work cut out, but the boys’ response to their misbehaviour clearly shows his lessons are sinking in. It’s slight, but quietly life-affirming.…

★★★★★ OUT 18 MARCH CINEMAS This powerful documentary follows political activist Ady Barkan who, after being diagnosed with degenerative disease ALS, campaigned across the US for healthcare reform while his own health rapidly declined. His subsequent ‘Be A Hero’ project is explored at a national level in reaction to Donald Trump’s presidency, but it’s Barkan’s own story that hits home. The film shows how, despite the heartbreaking reality of his condition and his role as husband and father, Barkan focused on generously creating a platform for others to tell their own stories.…

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS A young family moves in next door to grieving mum Laura (Andrea Riseborough), husband Brendan (Jonjo O’Neill) and son Tadhg (Lewis McAskie). The neighbours’ daughter, Megan (Niamh Dornan), seems spookily familiar… but truth can be as slippery as grief, and two unsettling possibilities emerge: either Megan is a reincarnation of Laura’s lost child, or Laura’s losing her mind. In her feature debut, Northern Irish writer/director Stacey Gregg keeps things suitably understated, relying on the most powerful tool of all: the sorrow etched on Riseborough’s face.…

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL Trans man Caz (an effortlessly moving Elz Carrad) returns to his rural home town after a decade away in Auckland, where he transitioned, to reconnect with his estranged father. As in many hometown-return dramas, old wounds are reopened, skeletons are dug up and lost bonds are reforged. Supporting Carrad is a refreshingly gender-diverse and very talented cast who make a story that’s a little lean (and sometimes struggles with its higher emotions) feel more than worthwhile. A low-key but hope-dappled drama to add to New Zealand’s impressive film legacy.…

★★★★★ OUT 18 MARCH CINEMAS Here’s a documentary that’ll flow over you like a comforting balm. Narrated by Willem Dafoe, who seems to be doing a light Morgan Freeman impression, it’s a film that both in sound and image offers an utterly gorgeous take on the significance rivers have had on the planet and how they’ve shaped civilisation and human history. While that might not sound particularly interesting to some, Jennifer Peedom’s accomplished direction finds hidden depths in the subject matter, asking the audience to fundamentally rethink its relationship to the natural world around them.…

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS Earnest, macho, cutesy: Channing Tatum’s comeback movie is practically trained to disarm his fanbase. In his co-directorial (with Reid Carolin) debut, Tatum’s traumatised Army Ranger Briggs drives a bitey dog cross-country to its handler’s funeral. But who’s helping who here? Guess. Faintly bland and entirely predictable, Dog is tonally shaggy in its awkward comedy swerves yet diligently on-mission otherwise. A cosy crossbreed of canine caper, odd-couple road movie and veteran-themed issues drama emerges, wrapped in a solidly played Tatum vehicle – with shirt-off scenes delivered to order, obviously.…

★★★★★ OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★★★ Documentary, Featurette With its anime styling and jazz-infused score, there’s a distinct whiff of the classic Lupin III cartoons to the heist and car chase that kicks off this feature outing for DC’s feline femme fatale. If the film subsequently devolves into a series of increasingly overblown scraps, the quip-heavy script and sparky interplay between Elizabeth Gillies’ Catwoman and Stephanie Beatriz’s Batwoman keep it fresh and fun. Not purr-fect then, but way more entertaining than Catwoman’s previous (live-action) solo feature. Includes Cat-history documentary.…

1936 ★★★★☆ OUT 14 MARCH BD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Documentary, Video essays, Deleted scenes, Shorts, Booklet Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp sees him navigate factory machinery, poverty and unrest during the Depression. Flustered but never floored, he falls for a homeless woman (Paulette Goddard) and finds sublime physical comedy in his battles: getting caught up in the cogs of industry, roller-skating blindfolded and accidentally ingesting cocaine. Made nine years after the advent of talkies, Modern Times is largely silent but features strategic employment of sound, including the Tramp bursting into song.…

2005 ★★★★☆ OUT 28 MARCH BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentaries, Book, Making of, Featurettes, Gallery, Poster The heat is on for Guy Pearce in John Hillcoat’s bleak and bloody Aussie western, which sees his captured outlaw having to track down one of his criminal siblings (Danny Huston) if he’s to save the other from lawman Ray Winstone’s gallows. Fordian in scale and Peckinpah-esque in bullet-blasted body count, it’s an Outback throwback that writer Nick Cave suffuses with a poetic and mordantly humorous sensibility. Two commentaries, a posse of featurettes and an 80-page booklet make this two-discer an enticing proposition in itself.…

Even with slasher movies, it can sometimes pay not to know the rules. Consider Marco Beltrami, a Jerry Goldsmith mentee and novice movie composer when he scored Wes Craven’s Scream. Favourite scary movie? Beltrami didn’t watch scary movies, let alone like them. He arrived at Scream unencumbered by slasher lore, free to reinvigorate the rules for new veins of “movie murder hoopla”. Though his score reconfigured its era’s horror music, you wouldn’t know it from the score’s initial release. The 1996 soundtrack album featured 3.28 measly minutes of Beltrami’s work, alongside song selections of variable quality – though Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ insidious ‘Red Right Hand’ rocks. In 1998, a Scream/Scream 2 album filleted Beltrami’s combined movie scores to 30-ish minutes. Varèse Sarabande later released expanded versions, now…

I mean, it’s all pretty surreal,” laughs Tom Gormican. “There’s a scene in this film where we show the making of the film you’re watching, and Nicolas Cage is watching it in the theatre. And now I’m about to watch Nic watch himself watching the movie in a theatre... Everything is sort of looping in on itself and I’m just hoping it just doesn’t all collapse!” Describing the plot of The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent takes some doing – with Nicolas Cage playing an actor called Nicolas Cage who takes a paid gig to do a celebrity appearance at a billionaire’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party, only to find himself in an action heist trying to rescue his wife and daughter. “Pedro is a huge Nicolas Cage fan, playing a…

SPEAK NO EVIL A Danish and Dutch family click on a Tuscan holiday, but when the Danes accept an invitation to spend the weekend at their new acquaintances’ rural home six months later, they discover a terrifying gulf between them. As one of their friends asks, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Um, where to start… Soaked in dread from start to finish, this sharp psychological horror explores stranger-danger, social anxiety, passive aggression, middle-class inertia and cruelty to torturous effect. Horribly great. EMILY THE CRIMINAL Aubrey Plaza completes her transformation into tough-as-nails leading lady as a debt-riddled college dropout who enters the world of quickcash credit card fraud in first time filmmaker John Patton Ford’s gritty LA noir. Supremely tense and explosively pertinent, this is a heist thriller rooted in…

JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY DENIS VILLENEUVE Best Director There wasn’t a better-directed film than Dune in 2021, which makes the Academy’s decision to omit Sandworm-wrangler-in-chief Denis Villeneuve – in the immortal words of Josh Brolin – “fucking totally dumb”. Consider the vision required to translate Frank Herbert’s unwieldy prose into visual poetry, the skill necessary to mount a production of unparalleled scale and never lose focus of the most intimate character interactions. Villeneuve brought out the best in those around him – a fact the Academy recognised with 10 nominations for Dune, but they missed the most important one. LEILA LATIF @LEILA_LATIF BRADLEY COOPER Best Actor While an actor like Bradley Cooper could skate by on classic good looks and innate movie-star charisma, the Academy failed to recognise that he pushed…

Six years ago, when Terence Davies was presented with the idea of making a film about Siegfried Sassoon, he jumped at it – rather blindly. “I had no idea what kind of life he had,” he says. Yet the more he read, the more he connected. “I can obviously respond to the fact that the First World War made him a great poet. “Then he was gay, I can respond to that. He then got married, which I can’t respond to because I’m not married. And then he became a Catholic, which appalled me because I was brought up a Catholic… I can’t understand why he would go into such a faith that deals in guilt all the time.” After honing the film’s script, Davies (The House Of Mirth) cast…

Arecord-smashing 82m households tuned into the first season of Netflix’s Bridgerton, the conversation-starting period drama set in Regency-era London. As fans get (cor)set for S2, Teasers talks to returning favourite Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury) and new face Charithra Chandran, who plays debutante Edwina Sharma… Why does Lady Danbury take the Sharma family under her wing? Adjoa Andoh: She has history with Lady Sharma [played by Shelley Conn] who, due to the choices she made about who she loved, was shunned by society and ended up in India. At the time, Lady Danbury was simply trying to survive and wasn’t able to help. Cut to S2: she doesn’t need to hide behind the parapet for anybody any more, and so makes reparations for her past cowardly behaviour, providing the Sharmas with…

When Total Film usually chats to Ryan Reynolds, he’s a fizzing, fast-talking quipster, rolling out caustic one-liners as deftly as Deadpool. But today when we catch up with him in a dark, wood-panelled hotel room, he’s introspective, heart-on-sleeve and disarmingly open; talking in an uncharacteristically quiet cadence about the difficult relationship he had with his dad (who died in 2020) and a vulnerable, withdrawn pre-teen version of himself. It’s not that Reynolds can’t be serious and circumspect – we’ve seen him essay both in roles such as Buried and Mississippi Grind – but in his most high-profile outings and his business persona as gregarious football club/gin/mobile phone network owner, Reynolds’ default is ‘funny’. The reason for his contemplation is perhaps his most personal film to date; a re-team with director/…

Aretro musical, a murder-mystery, a magical threequel. What do West Side Story, Death On The Nile and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore have in common? For all those who haven’t been locked away and out of internet range in Azkaban or elsewhere for the last few years, the answer will be clear: they are all, to variable extents, litmus-test films for the knock-on effects of cancel culture. The divergence of opinions on cancel culture shows no signs of abating right now. For many, the phenomenon is simply the previously silenced using their voices to call out perceived wrongdoing. Ennobled by the #MeToo movement, empowered by social media, these are the voices of people who wish to expose cases of injustice or inappropriate behaviour from those who might previously have…

THREE COLOURS: BLUE 1993 Kicking off Krzysztof Kieślowski’s tricolore trilogy, Binoche stars as Julie, whose composer husband and child are killed in a car crash that she walks away from. How she deals with that powers an emotionally resonant performance. THE ENGLISH PATIENT 1996 Binoche nabbed one of the Michael Ondaatje adap’s nine Oscar wins as Hana, the nurse tending to Ralph Fiennes’ titular patient. Haunted by loved ones who have died during WW2, the ‘cursed’ Hana stoically exudes deep reserves of sadness. CACHÉ 2005 This stomach-churningly tense thriller from Michael Haneke goes from sinister surveillance footage into collective Parisian trauma. Binoche and Daniel Auteil excel in roles written specifically for them. CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA 2014 In the same year as delivering the standout scene in Godzilla, Binoche simmered…

★★★☆☆ OUT 18 MARCH CINEMAS Veteran Italian auteur Nanni Moretti (The Son’s Room) adapts Eshkol Nevo’s Tel Aviv-set novel, transposing this tale of three families living in the same apartment building to Rome. Amid the ensemble, Moretti and Margherita Buy play despairing parents of a troubled son, while other strands offer equally soapy storylines (family feuds, underage sex). The conflicts are clumsily handled at times, and the film is nowhere near Moretti’s best, but the quality of the cast (Italian stars such as Alba Rohrwacher and Riccardo Scamarcio also pop up) keeps this melodrama afloat.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS That master of disaster Roland Emmerich is back to doing his thing – and as the title not-so-subtly hints, the big grey sphere in the sky is heading our way (a case of “mounting Moon terror” as one news report amusingly puts it). Can former astronauts Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson and conspiracy geek John Bradley carry out an intergalactic rescue mission to save the Earth in time? Bad dialogue and silly ideas aside, this apocalyptic adventure is not without its escapist pleasures. Armageddon-style jingoism is held at bay, while Bradley turns in a fine comic performance. Cornball fun.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 11 MARCH CINEMAS Les Dennis makes for an unlikely lead playing Stuart Pendrick, a disillusioned stage psychic whose home is invaded by two incompetent thieves in this largely crass comedy caper. Though Dennis doesn’t quite convince as the curmudgeonly clairvoyant, adequate support – including Anthony Head as his put-upon manager – picks up some of the slack, while writer/director Adam Oldroyd juggles fun character interplay with satisfying plot reveals along the way. None of that, however, can offset a script over-reliant on coarse punchlines and lowest-common-denominator one-liners.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 11 MARCH CINEMAS DIGITAL Ruth Paxton’s feature debut centres on a mother (Sienna Guillory) and daughter (Jessica Alexander) coping with the trauma of a family suicide while contending with a case of demonic possession. The term ‘elevated horror’ is a hotly contested one, yet this feels like a prototypical example – albeit one that struggles to keep up with the superior likes of The Babadook or Relic. It’s handsomely put together, strikingly performed and offers a nice line in slow-burning discomfort, yet A Banquet is a little too over-familiar to ever attain true terror.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS Bastian Günther’s satiric stab at the American Dream is set in a tiny Texas town, where 20 hopefuls enter an endurance contest. The task is to keep one hand placed on the prize – a brand-new truck – at all times until only one remains. Let go and you lose… Gangs Of London star Joe Cole plays burger chef Kyle, who is desperate to be the last man standing. However, tragedy looms as greed quickly swells among the competitors, though the film never entirely capitalises on its engaging opening premise, with somewhat needless flashbacks hampering the otherwise effective drama.…

★★★★★ OUT 25 MARCH CINEMAS North and South Korea are reunited in this based-on-real-events thriller, as diplomats from both sides join forces to flee the Somali capital in the throes of civil war. There’s no denying writer/director Ryoo Seung-wan’s way with a set-piece, whether it’s a tense standoff with gun-toting rebels or a thrilling climactic bid to reach the Italian embassy. Yet its odd comic flourishes and bombastic soundtrack set entirely the wrong tone, while the depiction of the Somalis – caricatured either as venal authority figures or violent thugs – leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.…

★★★★★ OUT 4 MARCH CINEMAS The roots of this doc lie in a photo taken in the 1930s by scientific explorer and pioneer Brad Washburn. Inspired by the snap, a trio of American climbers, including co-directors Renan Ozturk and Freddie Wilkinson, embark on a daunting challenge: an attempt to cross Alaska’s forbidding Moose’s Tooth traverse, in the shadow of Mount Denali. Years in the making, this ambitious film boasts breathtaking aerial and high-altitude cinematography. Yet in its efforts to pay tribute to Washburn while charting the twists and turns of Ozturk and co.’s expedition, it loses narrative focus.…

★★★★★ OUT 4 MARCH CINEMAS A righteous howl of rage at homophobic laws becomes much more in Sebastian Meise’s slow but rewarding drama. Franz Rogowski (Undine) plays Hans, a gay man repeatedly imprisoned in postwar Germany under the archaic Paragraph 175 ruling. Blurring timeframes subtly, Meise balances a piercing character study with artfully navigated riffs on prison-flick stylings, then digs deeper to mount a philosophical romance. As Great Freedom evolves into a meditation on freedoms historical and personal, Rogowski’s mesmerising study in vulnerability and resilience focuses its shifting layers beautifully.…

★★★★★ OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Featurette, Alt ending, Gallery Director Danishka Esterhazy and writer Suzanne Keilly’s expectation-defying remake of the slyly subversive 1982 slasher classic takes a more overtly feminist approach, using the familiar setup of a group of teenage girls menaced by a drill-wielding psycho to deconstruct genre tropes and flip the gaze to hilarious and surprising effect. Working as both a reinvention and celebration of the slasher genre (the laughs are mixed with plenty of grisly kills), this is one slumber party horror fans won’t want to sleep through.…

1996 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★☆☆☆ Gallery If you’re going to do a riff on The King Of Comedy then who better to star in it than Robert De Niro? That was presumably what the much-missed Tony Scott thought when making this flashy thriller about a troubled baseball fan (De Niro) whose fervent obsession with his favourite player (Wesley Snipes) takes a sinister and murderous turn. While it’s certainly far from the director’s best, The Fan is a more-than-serviceable slice of genre fare enlivened by solid performances from its two central leads as well as Scott’s typically stylish and kinetic direction.…

1964 ★★★★☆ OUT 14 MARCH BD EXTRAS ★★☆☆☆ Selected-scene commentary, Featurette, Essay A key work of the Japanese New Wave, Masahiro Shinoda’s cool, stylish gangster movie sees yakuza hitman Muraki (Ryo Ikebe) plug back into his old life after being released from prison. He haunts the gambling dens and is bewitched by Saeko (Mariko Kaga), a mysterious woman who might offer redemption… or a fast track to hell. Elegantly framed (Shinoda worked as an assistant to Yasujiro Ozu), simultaneously detached and oozing attitude, Pale Flower was surely an influence on Jean-Pierre Melville’s neo-noir classic Le Samouraï.…

1994 ★★★★☆ OUT 28 MARCH BD, 4K UHD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentary, Silent film, Documentary, Featurettes, Booklet Never knowingly understated, Kenneth Branagh brings gothic style, a highly dramatic (and impressively realised) Arctic-set bookending, impassioned turns from a prestige cast and plenty of ham to this impeccably costumed tragedy of love, loss and hubris. Some of the more theatrical touches by Branagh may be showing their age, but Robert De Niro’s masterful monster remains untouched by time in this 4K release, which also includes the first-ever Shelley screen adap, from 1910.…

It’s taken close to a decade for a live-action adap of videogame phenomenon Halo to reach fruition. But now it’s finally upon us, with the war for humanity’s survival in the 26th century being realised on an epic scale by Pablo Schreiber as super-soldier Master Chief. Oh, and one Steven Spielberg as exec producer… What was the goal in adapting such a well-known property? Kiki Wolfkill (executive producer): Adapting a beloved videogame, with 20 years of history and story and character development, is a daunting task. But it’s also really gratifying. We looked at this as, ‘How do we take the essence of the game experience and really express it in our own unique voice?’ With that, we set out to build a huge, epic 26th-century sci-fi world, with brutal…

A few years ago Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning writer of The Imitation Game, knew he wanted to make a film about a Savile Row tailor. There was only one problem: “We couldn’t quite get a story to put him into,” Moore tells Teasers. “And then one day, we were reading a book about the history of men’s clothes-making. We found this single sentence about how the first bug in FBI history was planted inside a tailor shop in Chicago, Illinois, in 1956. And we said, ‘That’s the film – it’s about a tailor who works for the Mob!’” Said tailor is Leonard, played by Mark Rylance. Leonard, more specifically, is a highly skilled ‘cutter’ who has set up shop in Chicago, where he lets local gangsters like Richie (Dylan O’Brien)…

When I first thought, ‘I want to make a Viking movie,’ I knew three things,” explains writer/director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse), with the hint of a smile. “I knew it needs to take place mostly in Iceland, it needs to be a revenge story, and it needs to have a naked sword fight on a volcano.” Well, that’s us sold. And so was star/ producer Alexander Skarsgård, who met with Eggers back when he’d made only The Witch. Their lunch was to discuss other possible projects, but all that was shelved when they discovered their shared passion for Norse mythology. Eggers had only immersed himself recently, after visiting Iceland with his wife, clinical psychologist Alexandra Shaker, who then used her spouse’s admiration for the VistaVision landscapes to bombard…

In the mosaic that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you suspect there has always been a place for Moon Knight. The cowl-wearing crimefighter – and the alter-ego of former CIA spook Marc Spector – may be at the lesser-known end of the Marvel Comics spectrum, but that didn’t stop fans daydreaming about his screen debut. When Kevin Feige was asked about the character back in April 2018, the producer confessed there had been discussions to bring Moon Knight into the MCU. But when? “Does that mean five years from now,” he teased, “10 years from now, 15 years from now?” Shortly afterwards, head writer Jeremy Slater (Netflix’s unorthodox superhero show The Umbrella Academy) was brought in to discuss the character for a planned six-part Disney+ series. “I am a Marvel…

the new film by actor-turned-writer/director Craig Roberts is at once a character study, a comedy-drama, a love story, a biopic and a sports movie unlike any you’ve ever seen. How could it be like anything that came before when it focuses on Maurice Flitcroft, a chain-smoking shipyard operator from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria who posed as a professional golfer to obtain a place in the 1976 British Open? What followed, all of it televised, was golden, and while it won’t be spoiled here, suffice to say that any triumph that this particular underdog experienced was not of the sort that Hollywood would recognise. Flitcroft, here played by Mark Rylance, only took up golf in 1974, and it’s hard to say just how serious he was. Did he genuinely believe he had talent…

All good things come to those who wait. Especially if you’re a Paul Verhoeven fan. The controversial Dutch director of Showgirls and Basic Instinct was all set to bring his new film Benedetta to Cannes in 2019 until a knee operation saw him postpone his place in official competition by a year. Then the pandemic hit, Cannes 2020 was cancelled, and Benedetta was shelved for another 12 months before finally being unveiled at the world’s most famous film festival last July. When the movie finally played, social media exploded. “The first reactions to Paul Verhoeven’s latest film BENEDETTA have just dropped out of #Cannes and all we can say is: ‘OH MY GOD!’” tweeted one attendee. This historical drama based on a true story about a nun who finds solace…

★★★★★ OUT 11 MARCH CINEMAS Let’s just say you’re blessed,” remarks Raylee (Suzanna Son), talking about Mikey (Simon Rex), the compelling antihero at the heart of Red Rocket. A down-on-his-luck adult-movie star, Mikey Saber – to use his full porn name – is certainly blessed in the trouser department. And if he’s to be believed, he has multiple AVN awards (including Best Oral). But where Mikey is really blessed is when it comes to the gift of the gab: he can charm the birds from the trees – or in this case, his way back into his estranged wife’s family home. When Mikey arrives in his old hometown of Texas City, he’s penniless – after a fracas in Los Angeles – but is soon on the couch at his mother-in-law’s…

★★★★☆ OUT 18 MARCH CINEMAS, DIGITAL Newcomer Adam Ali commands every frame of this anxiety-soaked thriller from writer/director Haider Rashid (Tangled Up In Blue). Together they convey the immediate, visceral danger of one refugee’s plight, as Ali’s Kamal crosses the Turkish-Bulgarian border under cover of darkness. With the camera trained resolutely on him, Kamal is beset by ruthless ‘migrant hunters’, bloodhounds and suspicious civilians as he attempts to survive a treacherous journey. Moral lines are blurred and crossed, while resolutions are vague. Despite a slim runtime it’s an engrossing take on a vital subject.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 7 MARCH DVD, DIGITAL HD Writer/director Romain Quirot takes a valiant stab at philosophical mystery in this dystopian sci-fi story expanded from his own short film, albeit with not enough material to ever feel truly expansive. With an ever-present red moon threatening to destroy life on Earth, Paul W.R. (Hugo Becker) – an unusually gifted astronaut who has suddenly gone AWOL – is the planet’s only hope of salvation. Quirot’s approach is undeniably thoughtful, but obvious budget constraints and a severely underused Jean Reno amount to mission failure.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 1 APRIL CINEMAS The classic ballet is updated for a family-friendly audience, mixing live-action performances with pastel sets and somewhat questionable CGI animation. When her townspeople become enamoured with cosmetic surgeon Doctor Coppelius (Vito Mazzeo) and his promise of unnatural beauty, Swan (Michaela DePrince) has to stop her beloved Franz (Daniel Carmargo) from falling under his spell. Free from dialogue or narration, this is ballet made palatable for young kids, complete with rudimentary staging and effects. The choreography and a positive message about vanity make for a playful adaptation.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 7 MARCH DIGITAL 4 APRIL DVD The poster art’s ‘Olympus Has Fallen in Vatican City’ vibe couldn’t be more inappropriate; no surprise given that Abel Ferrara directs. The elusive ‘plot’ involves soldier J.J. (Ethan Hawke) on a mission in Rome, trying to find his missing twin, Justin (also Hawke). Themes of religious fundamentalism, human trafficking and quarantine intermingle, but the film remains as intentionally obscure as Sean Price Williams’ (Good Time) darkly hazy cinematography. It can feel impenetrable, but a gaunt, haunted Hawke is magnetic, and the deeply unsettling tone lingers.…

★★★★☆ OUT 4 MARCH CINEMAS DIRECTOR Clio Barnard STARRING Adeel Akhtar, Claire Rushbrook, Ellora Torchia, Shaun Thomas SCREENPLAY Clio Barnard DISTRIBUTOR Altitude RUNNING TIME 94 mins From Lilo & Stitch and Turner & Hooch to Robot & Frank and Stan & Ollie, the movie world is awash with ampersanded couplings whose oddball relationships have captivated and entertained generations of filmgoers To their number we can add Ali & Ava, a social-realist romance about two lonely Bradfordians who make a connection that transcends their different circumstances, cultures and religions. It’s a distinct change of pace for director Clio Barnard, who here steps away from the working-class grit of her breakthrough documentary The Arbor and the two dramas that followed it (2013’s The Selfish Giant and 2017’s Dark River). Yet as heart-warming…

★★★☆☆ OUT 14 MARCH DIGITAL 21 MARCH DVD Climbing up sheer rock faces is a hair-raising prospect in itself; throw in a bunch of murderous climbing bros and you’ve got the recipe for a true nightmare. Our hero Kelly (Britanny Ashworth) finds herself trapped on a small rocky ledge halfway up a mountain, only 20 feet away from a group of men who have killed her best friend and are planning the same grisly fate for her. Howard J. Ford’s survival thriller is let down by some one-note performances and a few dodgy effects, but at its peak it conjures an impressively visceral sense of terror.…

★★★★★ OUT 24 MARCH SHUDDER Using rotoscope techniques to conjure a retro-fantasy vibe, Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King’s epic animation combines ultraviolence with soaring cosmic existentialism for an original story that transcends its clear ’80s inspirations (of which Heavy Metal is obviously one). Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless and Joe Manganiello lend cast credibility to this medieval swords-and-sorcery saga, about an all-powerful sacred plant that corrupts mankind throughout the many ages of the universe. But it’s the mindbending concepts and imaginative frights that really leave an indelible impression.…

★★★★★ OUT 25 MARCH CINEMAS British-American documentary maker Gillian Mosely (who was raised in a Zionist household) travels around Israel exploring, via archival footage, the deep-rooted causes of the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict and how citizens’ lives have been shaped by historical enmities. Among her diverse interviewees are a Christian Palestinian mother, a rabbi settler and a Jewish heavy-metal singer. The sentiments expressed in this humane documentary are admirable, notably the need for meaningful dialogue between both sides – yet any prospects for lasting peace seem bleaker than ever.…

★★★★★ OUT 4 MARCH CINEMAS DJ, musician and filmmaker Don Letts recounts his fascinating life in William E. Badgley’s spritely documentary. Present at the birth of punk, this Rasta-loving, Brixton-raised Brit was soon hobnobbing with the Sex Pistols and the Clash and built key relationships with John Lydon and Mick Jones, while also shooting influential music videos (including the one for the Clash’s ‘London Calling’). Though the film rambles a fair bit, particularly once punk fades from the fore, Letts is a great raconteur – and a worthy figure on which to hang this study of British ’70s and ’80s music culture.…

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS The first Jackass since 2010’s 3D outing sees the guys (including stalwart director Jeff Tremaine) return significantly older but none the wiser. Newbies such as Jasper Dolphin and Rachel Wolfson acquit themselves well, but unfortunately, the laughs are less raucous and spontaneous than before. Aside from Johnny Knoxville being cannon-fired on feathered wings á la Icarus, there’s a dearth of crazed, surreal setups here. Instead we get extra servings of bodily fluids – plus an array of sketches using pissed-off animals (bears, bees, vultures) that make for morally discomforting viewing.…

1986 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Alt cut, Alt soundtracks, Commentaries, Featurettes, Music video, Outtakes Best remembered as the film that almost killed Jackie Chan (when a simple stunt – for him – went wrong), this uneven Indiana Jones-inspired action-comedy casts him as a former pop star turned treasure hunter blackmailed into hunting for a mythical set of armour. While the film has its problems, the same can’t be said for this comprehensive Blu-ray release, which not only boasts two cuts of the film, but serves up a whopping nine soundtrack options for one of them – and that’s not including the three commentaries!…

1989 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Director’s cut, Commentary, Featurettes An unsung pioneer of the found-footage genre, this no-budget curio (written, directed, produced and shot by Dean Alioto) was denied a legit release in ’89 thanks to a distribution-company warehouse fire. After a title card proclaiming, Blair Witch Projectstyle, that what follows is true, we see the Van Heese family celebrating a birthday party while nerdy Michael (Alioto) records everything on his video camera. Of course, he keeps filming when aliens decide to attack, and what follows is in equal parts irritating and intense.…

1947 ★★★★★ OUT NOW DUAL FORMAT EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentaries, Documentary, Gallery More than two years later than originally scheduled, Edmund Goulding’s sardonic and fatalistic noir masterpiece hit Blu-ray just as the remake arrived in UK cinemas. The wait was definitely worth it, however, with the disc’s immaculate remaster making the most of Lee Garmes’ striking black-and-white cinematography. Meanwhile, film historians Michael Brooke and Johnny Mains explore the differences between the film and the original novel, plus myriad other production details, in an exclusive commentary.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES, NINTENDO SWITCH The run-up to Dying Light 2’s release has been dominated by boasts about its sheer size – from developer Techland’s statement that it would take 500 hours to achieve full completion to comparisons between its 350,000-word script and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. No two ways about it: Stay Human is a huge game – although that daunting runtime is actually a much more manageable 30 hours if you simply want to see the story through to its conclusion. And for all the sprawling scope of its post-apocalyptic world, it’s a game defined by moment-to-moment decision-making. One minute you’re working out the most efficient route to the next safe zone as night falls and you suddenly find a horde of ravenous zombies snarling…