Innholdsfortegnelse for Christmas 2021 i Total Film

This month we’re looking into our cinematic crystal ball – OK, the film release schedule – to get giddy about the gifts awaiting us the other side of Christmas. And while there’s an embarrassment of riches to choose from there’s one film that stands head and shoulders above the rest in TF team-excitement levels. A movie that feels genuinely fresh in presenting a brand-spanking-new character who’s going to change everything in the DCEU. Black Adam was already an exhilarating proposition, but when you sit down with star and producer Dwayne Johnson to talk about it, the hairs really stand up on the back of your neck. Dwayne, or ‘DJ’ to his friends, is always passionate about his projects, but he’s positively evangelical about this movie and, as a self-confessed Black…

Back when pop star Harry Styles was about to make his big-screen acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s World War 2 drama Dunkirk, Mark Rylance promised that his co-star had the X-factor to be a movie star. “He seems remarkable,” said Rylance. “[He’s] one of those people… Sean Penn has it too… [who has] a kind of panache.” It turned out there really wasn’t enough to Styles’ small but pivotal role in Dunkirk to judge him by (“He performed a limited role rather well,” wrote The Guardian). But now the former One Directioner, who’s released two charttopping solo albums since the band split in 2015, is stepping into the acting spotlight. First up, Styles is the male lead in Olivia Wilde’s thriller Don’t Worry Darling, featuring a cast that includes Florence…

Do you agree with the film’s more sympathetic assessment of Chamberlain? It’s a more realistic assessment. There’s no doubt that, had we gone to war at this time, we wouldn’t have had the country behind us. Also, we needed another year to prepare our Air Force and our Navy. We would not have won. So I think Chamberlain did absolutely the right thing, and Robert Harris, when writing the book, looked at the records, and, to a certain extent, put it straight. What was your way into Chamberlain as a person? He was an intellectual man. But also, one tries as an actor, to understand what sort of man he was, and how he felt, and what his relationships were with his wife and his children, and what was important…

What’s the first thing you do when you arrive on set? You’re taken to your trailer. If I know I’m going to be on the movie for a while, then I make that space into a home because it’s the place where you’re going to recoup energy, re-centre yourself. It’s where you’re learning your lines and getting into different emotional states. So it’s super-important. I bring cushions and throws, make it really friendly. What do you take on set with you? Oh my God, absolutely everything! I have two massive bags that I take every day. It’s really embarrassing. I’m literally the bag lady! I think you just never know. You’re in all kinds of situations on film sets. I bring water, I bring my flask, my herbal teas. All…

RICHARD JENKINS ON BEING HUMAN, SMALL PARTS AND STEP BROTHERS… A character-actor favourite for nearly 40 years, Richard Jenkins rarely leads but always shines. The two-time Oscar nominee (for The Visitor and The Shape Of Water) is now the family patriarch in The Humans, adapted by Stephen Karam from his own Tony-winning play, about a truly nerve-shredding Thanksgiving gathering. What did you think you could bring to the father character in The Humans? He’s not really self-aware, which I understand! It’s hard for me, sometimes, to realise if I was misunderstood. I’ll go back to the title: there’s something so human about that. I don’t see it very often in films. It’s something a lot of us deal with, when you think one thing and the reality is a bit…

DIRECTOR DANIEL ESPINOSA STARRING JARED LETO, MATT SMITH, JARED HARRIS, TYRESE GIBSON A lot of films have hopscotched around in the pandemic, but Morbius more than most, shifting its release date no fewer than five times. It’s now two years since its first trailer dropped. Can we still get excited? Well, the second trailer hit the spot, indicating this will be at the darker-to-darkest end of the superhero spectrum as the film follows Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Michael Morbius in his attempts to cure his rare blood disease using DNA from bats. Naturally he turns into a pseudo-bat with superpowers. As created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in 1971, Morbius was initially a villain who transformed into an antihero. Here, the biochemist’s bestie, Loxias Crown (Matt Smith), is on baddie…

DIRECTOR PAUL VERHOEVEN STARRING VIRGINIE EFIRA, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, DAPHNE PATAKIA, LAMBERT WILSON When Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta played in 2021’s Cannes, critics were up in arms, as this true tale of a 17th-century nun became the controversy of the Croisette. “I was surprised that so many people were outraged,”’ laughs Virginie Efira, who stars. “They know his work!” Indeed, the Dutch filmmaker behind Basic Instinct and Showgirls has a track record in shock cinema. Inspired by Judith Brown’s book Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy, Benedetta doesn’t disappoint in that regard, with Efira’s eponymous nun engaging in an affair with fellow novice Bartolomea (Patakia). The Belgium–born Efira, who previously featured in Verhoeven’s 2016 female revenge tale Elle, was not shy when it came to sex scenes…

BABY FACE HAPPY DEATH DAY (2017) Happy Death Day’s bobble head is a horrifying reminder of just how scary toddlers can be when holding a knife. Used again and again throughout the film, it never got any easier to look at. PIG FACE SAW (2004–2021) Animal heads are used a lot in horror (see also: You’re Next) but there’s not much worse than seeing someone wear the actual head of an animal. Jigsaw went one step further with his by giving it hair. GHOSTFACE SCREAM (1996–2021) Already an established design before Craven bought the rights, Fun World’s Munch skull was subject to a legal battle during the first film, going on to become the best-selling Halloween costume in history. SHATNER FACE HALLOWEEN (1978–2021) Michael Myers’ mask customised a rubber Captain…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS 15 DECEMBER NETFLIX After the excesses of his Silvio Berlusconi portrait in Loro (2018), Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino returns to form with his most personal work to date. Set in mid-’80s Naples, where the world’s greatest footballer, Diego Maradona, has sensationally signed to play for the city’s topflight team, it’s a bittersweet coming of-age tale, telling the story of sensitive teenager and Sorrentino surrogate Fabietto (the up-and-coming Filippo Scotti). He’s close to both his parents (Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo) and his older brother Marchino (Marlon Joubert), until an unexpected tragedy turns the adolescent’s world upside down. The title refers to the controversial goal scored by Maradona against England in the ’86 World Cup, celebrated here with communal rapture by Neapolitan residents watching on TV. But…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS The year’s most horrifying film requires no fictional bogeyman. Instead, Chloe Fairweather’s doc charts the real-life plague of domestic violence sweeping Turkey – and a misogynist legal system that is woefully lenient on murderers and abusers of women. With driven, inspiring activist lawyer Ipek Bozkurt as our guide, Fairweather charts two survivors of horrendous attacks in their courageous fight for justice. It’s a difficult yet necessary watch, especially when the scope gradually widens to highlight the depths of a disquieting societal malaise in President Erdogan’s increasingly repressive regime.…

★★★★★ OUT 10 DECEMBER CINEMAS Early in Rex Miller and Sam Pollard’s exceptional doc, we hear late tennis legend Arthur Ashe explain the difference between winners and champions. Winners, he says, are the best at what they do on a given day; champions “want to leave their sport better than they found it”. Intertwining archive footage with audio recordings and engaging interviews, Citizen Ashe paints an absorbing picture of a man who sought to challenge the status quo: he took up tennis to “fight the myth” that Black athletes “were all brawn and no brains”. We learn that brother Johnnie took a second tour in Vietnam so Arthur could focus on his sporting career, and that Ashe was dubbed an ‘Uncle Tom’ by his Black peers for his apparent reluctance…

★★★★☆ OUT 10 DECEMBER CINEMAS 25 FEBRUARY MUBI All’s wool that ends wool in this quietly bonkers fable about a pair of Icelandic sheep farmers who find a stranger in the manger that upends their monastically frugal existence. Opting to raise this unexpected newborn as their own, María (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) discover there is a price to be paid for going against the dictates of nature and the bounds of common sense. It’s a price worth paying, though, for a riveting horror-fantasy that holds us rapt even as it invites our derision and ridicule. It’s quite a tightrope that debutant director Valdimar Jóhannsson (a special-effects technician known for his work on Rogue One) and his writing partner Sjón (a prize-winning author and long-time collaborator of Björk’s)…

★★★☆☆ OUT 17 DECEMBER CINEMAS Edson Oda’s striking feature debut has taken almost two years to reach British shores following its Sundance 2020 premiere. Recipient of rave reviews at the time, its extended delay may have drastically over-inflated expectations for a formally ambitious, but dramatically inert slice of metaphysical fiction. Stuck in some Elysian limbo, Will (Winston Duke) watches ordinary people going about their lives on a wall of CRT TVs. When one of Will’s subjects dies, he must fill the ‘vacancy’ with one of five new souls (among their ranks Bill Skarsgård, Zazie Beetz and Tony Hale) who emerge from the ethereal plain by testing them with a series of philosophical questions over nine consecutive days. Daring to tackle the Big Questions, Oda’s thoughtful script skilfully avoids wanton pretense.…

★★★★☆ OUT 31 DECEMBER CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA The Humans is a haunted-house story without any ghosts. The Blake family gather at daughter Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and boyfriend Richard’s (Steven Yeun) home for Thanksgiving. There’s parents Erik (Richard Jenkins) and Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell), sister Aimee (Amy Schumer) and grandmother Momo (June Squibb), all spending the day in the eerie, spartan apartment, groaning with the weight of crushing disappointment and family secrets. Adapted from his own one-act play, it’s the writing/directing debut of Stephen Karam, who captures the dismaying end of Obama-era optimism (the play was written in 2016). The film retains the stifling claustrophobia of the stage’s single set, trapping the actors within a labyrinth of tiny dark rooms. It’s an uncomfortable watch made fascinating by some extraordinary performances, particularly…

★★★★☆ OUT 17 DECEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL Transgender girl Lola and her estranged father Philippe travel together to scatter Lola’s mother’s ashes in this hope-dappled melodrama. Writer/director Laurent Micheli’s (2016’s Even Lovers Get The Blues) sophomore feature capably steers past issue-film pitfalls and the script’s occasional shortcomings. Mya Bollaers is raw and unrefined in the lead role, perfectly inhabiting her character from the start, while Benoît Magimel imbues the reticent, embittered Philippe with nuance as he and Lola navigate prejudices, childhood trauma and acceptance while battling intense grief.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was banned from filmmaking and imprisoned for one year in 2017 following the Cannes premiere of his movie A Man Of Integrity (a trenchant meditation on corruption and authoritarianism). Thankfully, that didn’t prevent him covertly making this Berlin Golden Bear winner, a rigorous multi-perspective look at the death penalty in Iran. Presented as four loosely connected vignettes – the last features a key role for Baran Rasoulof, the director’s daughter – it’s a chilling study of the impact and horror of capital punishment.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL The real-life theft of Charlie Chaplin’s corpse in 1978 is the springboard for this uneven comedy about two British con men (played by siblings Simon and Doug Philips) in Las Vegas who, in a bid to keep the loan sharks at bay, hold the silent icon’s remains to ransom. Nobody seems the slightest bit fazed that Chaplin is actually buried in Switzerland, but this factual oversight is far from the film’s only problem. Fans of Guy Ritchie’s caper-coms might find some amusement here, but others will struggle with the meandering plot, stiff performances and crass tone.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 10 DECEMBER PRIME VIDEO Jason Statham nestles comfortably into his customary steely-eyed silent-assassin role in this wildly violent man-on-amission caper, which reunites him with former partner-in-crime-movies Guy Ritchie for the first time since 2005’s Revolver. Statham is H, a cash-truck driver with a murky past who thwarts a robbery on his first day on the job, earning accolades from his boss and suspicion from his peers. After a second blood-soaked incident, where H seemingly dispatches half the city’s bad guys with bullets to the face, it becomes increasingly obvious that he is not who he says he is… who’d have guessed? Wrath’s script, written by Ritchie (presumably while gnawing on a steak and doing one-armed push-ups), is comically, howlingly macho. Why is one character called ‘Boy Sweat’? Why…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, NETFLIX Following streaming hit Bird Box, Sandra Bullock returns to Netflix for System Crasher director Nora Fingscheidt’s English-language debut. Bullock plays Ruth, a cop killer freed from prison after 20 years and determined to track down her kid sister (Aisling Franciosi). However, Ruth’s victim’s sons aren’t happy about her early release… Adapted from ITV’s 2009 Bafta-nominated mini-series, this was once linked to Christopher McQuarrie. The finished result, although adroitly relocated from Yorkshire to Seattle, bears the scars of that obvious uncertainty and delay in reaching the screen. Is this a character study of a troubled soul seeking redemption, or a tense drama about the volatility of second chances? With a surfeit of flashbacks and contrived twists, it’s underpowered as a thriller. Fingscheidt is on firmer ground…

★★★☆☆ OUT 9 DEC SHUDDER When lonely Eva (Eugénie Derouand), a wheelchair user, receives a spooky advent calendar for her birthday, the instructions couldn’t be starker: “Follow the rules, if you don’t you die!” What emerges is a take on The Monkey’s Paw, with wishes/curses for each December day. Should Eva choose to walk again, or bin the calendar? Though undeniably well crafted, and featuring a strong lead turn from Derouand, French writer-director Patrick Ridremont’s horror has a coarse streak that doesn’t quite gel with the goofy Christmas concept, it makes for awkward viewing.…

It was a pleasure to hook up with Paul Thomas Anderson again. Lovely man, great talker, and master filmmaker – as new movie Licorice Pizza again proves. Also gives good fist bump. Was cool to see in Colin Trevorrow’s workspace (virtually, at least) as we talked Jurassic World: Dominion. “This is our office at Pinewood, we’ve never welcomed anyone in here before!” Last year I attended a virtual set visit for the film Munich: The Edge Of War, which involved Zoom calls with Jeremy Irons, George McKay and… Adolf Hitler. Yep, it was surreal. (See p14.) Very cool to watch Ghostbusters: Afterlife with Ivan and Jason Reitman at the IMAX press screening. Had to wipe away a little tear at their pre-film intro, too. Dream team. I got to visit…

What attracted you to Flag Day and how was it taking this ride with your father? I read the book when I was pretty young, when I was 15. It always resonated with me and I felt like I had something to bring to the part of Jennifer, and especially after meeting her… I felt a real necessity to tell her story. In terms of the ride, it was wild, and I just think we did her story justice, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Did you always want to act? I always thought I’d be in the film industry but that I would be behind the camera, whether it was writing or directing. Acting, honestly, always just seemed so silly – adults playing dress-up.…

AGATHE ROUSSELLE IS RARING TO GO… I’m not gonna lie… I love attention,” smiles Agathe Rousselle, the 33-year-old French newcomer. Well, she’s had her share of it this year, as the lead in Julia Ducournau’s Titane, which took the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. Playing Alexia, a psychotic with a sexual fixation on cars, Rousselle is about to hit top gear… How did you feel when you first read the script for Titane? It was really exciting. I made myself two hours late for dinner that day, because I couldn’t stop reading. And then at the end, I burst into tears. And I thought it was such a beautiful story. You have a lot of tattoos. Did you get one to mark the Palme d’Or win? Hell no. No, I’m…

HUNTING SEASON Long whispered of and only recently confirmed, Prey is a new Predator movie from 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg that will pit the ugliest motherf***er in movies against an 18th-century Comanche warrior. RIGGS GAME Mel Gibson will direct Lethal Weapon 5 - a job inherited from Richard Donner following the latter’s death earlier this year. Gibson’s latest attempt at a comeback tour also includes a role in John Wick spin-off series The Continental. RIPPING YARN Jake Gyllenhaal’s next leftfield project is a remake of Road House for director Doug Liman. No word yet on whether the film will be a period remake, a modern reimagining, or if he will play famed throat-ripper Dalton. FAIREST OF THEM ALL Gal Gadot has signed on to play The Evil Queen…

DIRECTORS AARON NEE, ADAM NEE STARRING SANDRA BULLOCK, CHANNING TATUM, BRAD PITT, DANIEL RADCLIFFE Ryan Reynolds was originally circling this action-adventure yarn, but a deal couldn’t be struck and in stepped Channing Tatum instead. He plays the cover model of a book written by Sandra Bullock’s reclusive romance novelist, and he joins her on a promotional tour only for Daniel Radcliffe, of all people, to launch a kidnapping attempt. Directed by Aaron and Adam Nee, who made the 2015 dark comedy Band Of Robbers and were attached to Masters Of The Universe until The Lost City got up and running first, this makes for an interesting proposition given it’s a return to the kind of romcom adventures they made in the ‘80s and ‘90s but not any more. Could it…

DIRECTOR CHAD STAHELSKI STARRING KEANU REEVES Delayed by both the pandemic and Reeves’ commitment to The Matrix Resurrections, shooting on the fourth John Wick movie finally began in June 2021. Previously, fans of the franchise (aren’t we all?) who’d signed up to receive text messages were the first to learn of JW4’s intended release date: ‘You have served,’ read the alert. ‘You will be of service. John Wick: Chapter 4 is coming – May 21, 2021.’ Well, better late than never. Like the first three movies, this new instalment is directed by martial arts expert–turned–stuntman–turned–kamikaze–filmmaker Chad Stahelski, and it will continue where the third chapter left off, with ace assassin Wick (Keanu Reeves) pursued by all and sundry due to the $14m bounty on his bonce. But don’t expect him…

“A really pathological habit that I have is, I spend a lot of time on a website called newspapers.com which archives the Los Angeles Times, among many others. I remember a film that I saw, and I go to the date that it opened, generally, or I roughly try to remember the time that I saw the film – let’s say Prince Of The City. “I saw Prince Of The City pretty close to when it came out. I think it came out in November or December [of 1981]. I saw it in Sherman Oaks. I saw it with my brother. ‘Alright, let’s get busy…’ So the journey of going to find the listing takes you through the newspaper. You see the front page of the movie section – a…

‘I LOOK AT THE ROLES I TAKE LIKE POLITICAL FILMMAKING. I TRY TO PUT OUT THINGS THAT CREATE A POSITIVE IMPACT’ Look! I’m touching you!” laughs Jessica Chastain as she nudges her foot companionably against Total Film’s when we meet in a suite in The Soho Hotel in late September. For many months, both Chastain and Total Film have conducted interviews digitally and this is one of the first ‘in-person’ chats either of us have had. Although strict testing/ masking protocols are in place, Chastain – warm and enthusiastic – can’t resist reaching across the stretch of socially distanced carpet to physically engage. It’s a move that’s in keeping with the famously tactile person she plays in her latest film, real-life TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. A Christian star in…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 10 DEC CINEMAS Norman Bridwell’s colossal crimson canine Clifford has charmed children for decades, but Van Wilder director Walt Becker makes a dog’s dinner out of this live-action adaptation. Adopted by loving young girl Emily (Darby Camp), orphaned puppy Clifford grows 10ft overnight, much to the horror of uncle Casey (Jack Whitehall) but the delight of tech-bro bad guy Tony Hale, who sees dollar signs in Clifford’s miraculous growth spurt. The dog’s boisterous antics delight, but the visual effects rarely convince and an American-accented Whitehall fails to raise a single titter.…

★★★★☆ OUT 10 DECEMBER CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA Mark Cousins’ esoteric film documentaries can be an acquired taste. But he is on safe ground with this homage to a fellow maverick cineaste, which uses Jeremy Thomas’ annual road trip from London to Cannes as a vehicle to explore The Last Emperor Oscar winner’s philosophy, passions and glittering CV. Tilda Swinton and Debra Winger pop in to sing his praises, though the real appeal is found in the insights into a producer’s life: one where expensive motors and five-star hotels go hand in hand with the gruelling festival slog.…

★★★★☆ OUT 29 DECEMBER CINEMAS Philip Barantini’s (2020’s Villain) one-shot drama charts a big night for a high-brow, high-strung London restaurant: imagine Masterchef having a quadruple-espresso panic attack and you’ll be close. The agitated mood is set early as Stephen Graham’s head chef fields pre-work phone calls (“I’ve just got so much going on”). More lands on his plate at work: supply problems, hygiene inspectors... Though some twists lean towards contrived, Graham falls apart with raw conviction: from starter to disaster, Boiling Point reminds us that he’s one of the finest actors working today.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS As industrious as Santa himself, Aml Ameen writes, directs and stars in a fun-stuffed festive romcom about love and other catastrophes. Ameen plays soap star-turned-writer Melvin, back in London to promote his new book with American fiancée Lisa (Aja Naomi King) in tow. He hasn’t seen his family in two years, since splitting from Georgia (Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock), a rising star in the music world, who is beloved by Melvin’s rambunctious, extended clan. With Melvin and Georgia still clearly harbouring feelings for each other, the Yuletide celebrations soon get complex – not least when at a house party they share an intimate moment that Lisa inevitably witnesses. The whole fallout feels a tad forced, but Ameen paints Melvin’s big, British-Caribbean-African family with warmth, credibility and…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story gets a next-gen overhaul, with the ‘40s swapped for the ‘80s and the Red Ryder air rifle for a Nintendo Entertainment System, in a sweet festive comedy that mashes every nostalgia button it can. Jake Doyle (Neil Patrick Harris) narrates the story of Christmas ‘88 to daughter Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert), where his younger self (Winslow Fegley, Timmy Failure) tries every scheme going to buy, win or blag a games console. Michael Dowse’s (Stuber, Coffee & Kareem) film is unlikely to become a holiday classic, but audiences of a certain age will find plenty to fall (back) in love with.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, NETFLIX Halle Berry makes her directorial debut with this drama in which she plays Jackie Justice, an ageing MMA fighter stuck in an unhealthy relationship with her boyfriend/manager Desi (Adan Canto). Making matters more complicated, just as she commits to training for a final shot at glory, Manny (Danny Boyd Jr.), the son she gave up for adoption, re-enters her life. For a good stretch, Bruised is a darker, richer film than the marketing would suggest. Jackie and Manny’s layered relationship is awkward and dysfunctional, but with tiny cracks of warmth that keeps you rooting for a lasting reconciliation. And as a sports movie it feels a step above run of the mill, buoyed in particular by Berry’s raw and vulnerable performance. In Jackie, she has…

★★★★☆ OUT 17 DEC CINEMAS Ten years on from his 15-hour epic The Story Of Film: An Odyssey, Mark Cousins provides a sequel of sorts with this ambitious exploration of the last decade. Drawing on clips from nearly 100 films (which are accompanied by the writer-director’s lilting narration), the documentary confidently travels across continents, genres and styles in its search for cinematic innovation. Particular attention is paid to how new technologies have expanded the language of film, offering welcome proof that creativity continues to flourish on the silver screen.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL Following the extremely sprightly, then-87-year-old Latina star, this sanctioned doc may lack critical focus, but offers celebration in spades. Moreno is an engaging and frank subject who discusses the sexism and racism she has been through over a seven-decade career that’s seen her fight against being pigeonholed as ‘exotic’. Her romance with Marlon Brando and award-winning stage/screen triumphs (West Side Story, natch) are also covered, while famous talking heads wax lyrical about her trailblazing verve. A film as peppy and brisk as Moreno herself.…

IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH… MICHAEL SHEEN You talkin’ to me? I am, indeed. I think. Virtually. Who knows who we’re talking to these days? I mean, I speak to an image on the screen; it could be anyone. I could be in some sort of Philip K. Dick simulated world, where I am in fact the only person who exists in the world, and images are fed to me on the screen. I wouldn’t know. Do you have an off switch? I’ve looked for it, many times. There are so many sci-fi films – or there was when I was growing up – where the main character suddenly realises there’s something buried in the back of his head [reaches around to feel]. Who waits until they’re in their forties…

How personal does Memoria feel? Very. There are a number of things that happened in our lives that we wanted to fold into the whole environment. I was suffering with bereavement. And we talked about that… certainly, my way of responding to bereavement is one foot in life and one foot out of it, that feeling of detachment. This was a very long time coming – you and Joe have known each other for 17 years. How does that feel? I’ve worked for long enough to know that these long gestations are real blessings. This is not the longest. With Luca Guadagnino, I talked about Suspiria for over 20 years. And the first film I made – Caravaggio with Derek Jarman – he’d been developing it for 11 years. So…

You have a lot of dialogue in Red Rocket. How much time did you have to prepare? I had to be in Texas three days from when Sean gave me the offer, and I had to drive there, because if I’d flown, they would have had to quarantine me for a week. So I deleted all my social media and I memorised as much as I could on the drive. I didn’t have time to think too much. Which I prefer, quite honestly. I like to just go off of instinct and not overanalyse things, especially with comedy. Did you consult any real-life porn stars? Sean had been researching this subject for a year, and he showed some of the interviews. After a few minutes, I was like, “I totally…

I’ve always wanted to make something about farm animals, connecting to them,” says British auteur Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey), whose documentary Cow was on her mind for many years before she finally got around to shooting it, over four years, on an industrial dairy farm. “Then I one day thought, ‘I wonder if I did what I do with my dramas, just focusing on one animal, whether you’d get to know them and understand how their lives are…’” That animal is Luma, whose life is a spin-cycle of impregnation, milking and birthing as she’s funnelled through clanking gates with clanging bolts from one pen to the next. The voices of farmers coax and cajole. Machinery drones. Occasionally, Luma bangs into a boom mic or stares directly into the…

DIRECTOR JEFF FOWLER STARRING BEN SCHWARTZ (VOICE), IDRIS ELBA (VOICE), COLLEEN O’ SHAUGHNESSEY (VOICE), JIM CARREY The credit stings at the end of 2020’s Sonic The Hedgehog left our blue spiky hero (voiced by Ben Schwartz) chilling in Green Hills, while the evil Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) had been banished to a planet overrun with mushrooms. Oh, and everyone’s favourite two-tailed fox, Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, suddenly entered the action (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Tails’ larynx since 2014). Well, the cunningly titled Sonic The Hedgehog 2 promises all of these game icons and more, with Dr. Robotnik not only finding a way to come back, but doing so with a new partner – none other than red echidna Knuckles, who is voiced, in a genius move, by Idris Elba. All will…

DIRECTOR FRANCES O’CONNOR STARRING EMMA MACKEY, ALEXANDRA DOWLING, FIONN WHITEHEAD, AMELIA GETHING It’s not a biopic,” declares Frances O’Connor of her directorial debut, Emily. “It’s definitely not a biopic.” On the surface, a film about Emily Brontë, the English novelist and poet, would seem like period bio territory. But actress-turned-director O’Connor had other ideas, melding biographical detail with moments from the seminal Wuthering Heights, the only novel she wrote before she died in 1848 aged 30. “Really, it’s posing the question: how do you be true to yourself?” says O’Connor, who first began tinkering with the script 10 years ago in between acting jobs. Playing Emily is Sex Education star Emma Mackey. “I really feel like her performance is extraordinary,” adds O’Connor. “She just stepped up and delivered and she…

DIRECTOR JUSTIN KURZEL STARRING CALEB LANDRY JONES, JUDY DAVIS, ESSIE DAVIS, ANTHONY LAPAGLIA The latest film from Australian director Justin Kurzel (Macbeth, Assassin’s Creed) was always going to be one of his most controversial. Nitram tells of the 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, when lone gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people at a tourist spot. “It’s one of the most traumatic events in recent Australian history,” says Kurzel. “It’s still a very, very, very deep wound.” The film stars Caleb Landry Jones as Bryant – known only here by his cruel nickname ‘Nitram’. Jones, who won Best Actor at Cannes for his performance, is mesmerising in the role, and remained in character, even keeping the tricky-to-nail-down Aussie accent, throughout the shoot. “He’s one of the most extraordinary actors I’ve…

DIRECTOR KAT COIRO STARRING JENNIFER LOPEZ, OWEN WILSON, SARAH SILVERMAN, JOHN BRADLEY This year’s most glittery romantic comedy, Marry Me posits the question: can a mega-star date a civilian? Adapted from Bobby Crosby’s graphic novel, it starts when diva Kat Valdez discovers her pop-star beau Bastian is cheating on her. Going on stage – in a wedding dress – she plucks divorced maths teacher Charlie out of the audience, marrying him there and then. “He is this very regimented guy who doesn’t use plastic products and brings his own lunch to work,” explains director Kat Coiro (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia). “It’s such a different lifestyle from this huge pop star.” Valdez is cut from the same cloth as some of music’s modern-day icons. “Beyoncé, Rihanna, Madonna, people like that,…

The sight of them disturbed him in some way. No one wanted black balloons… He stared, briefly transfixed, thinking of poisoned grapes…” The moment 12-year-old Finney Shaw is abducted in Joe Hill’s short story ‘The Black Phone’ hits frighteningly hard – a child stopping to help a stranger, violently pulled into a van and driven off to a concrete basement within a few short sentences. Owing plenty to Hill’s dad, Stephen King, the story is full of childhood fears for clowns, masks and balloons – maybe more about Hill’s real past than his imagined nightmares. When Scott Derrickson first read the story (stood in an LA bookstore back in 2004), he instantly felt a connection. “The primary feeling I had growing up was fear,” he tells Total Film, talking candidly…

★★★ ☆☆ OUT 1 JANUARY CINEMAS Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is on familiar ground as a socially awkward genius in this stylised, off-kilter biopic of artist Louis Wain, which spans 1881 to 1925. Wain is credited with popularising cats as domestic pets with his surreal, cartoony feline illustrations, but his lack of business nous meant he never earned the financial reward to match his work’s popularity. Wain – also presented as a wannabe boxer, opera writer and inventor – isn’t your average struggling-artist protagonist, and director Will Sharpe (TV’s Flowers) imbues the storytelling with quirks to match. There’s droll narration by Olivia Colman to undercut the period gloom, gauzily colourful visuals and oddball supporting cameos. Providing the film’s heart is Claire Foy as governess Emily, who moves into the Wain…

★★★☆☆ OUT 24 DEC CINEMAS, DIGITAL Henrika Kull’s romantic drama shows love blossoming in the unlikeliest of places, as Berlinese sex worker Sascha (Katharina Behrens) falls for Italian newcomer Maria (Adam Hoya) in one of the city’s legal brothels. The matter-of-fact depiction of their work is convincing, but despite all the flesh on show, the story itself lacks dramatic meat. However, the two leads share electric chemistry, while Kull smartly amplifies the contrast between the intense sensuality of their intimate moments and the detached functionality of sex with the brothel’s male clientele.…

★★★★☆ OUT 10 DEC CINEMAS “Life isn’t perfect,” sighs Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård), who’s now desperately trying to cling on to the little bit of it he has left with his on-off fiancée, Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig), after she’s diagnosed with cancer on Christmas Eve. Putting two very imperfect lives through the wringer, writer/director Maria Sødahl tells a wonderfully grown-up love story that’s full of honesty and messiness. Affecting without ever feeling mawkish, and boasting two terrific lead performances, Sødahl’s beautifully wrought Norwegian heartbreaker is undeniably tough but ultimately rewarding viewing.…

★★★★☆ OUT 27 DECEMBER DVD, BD, DIGITAL This bloody valentine to OTT ’80s horror sees James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring) channel Argento, De Palma, Cronenberg and more as his hero, Madison (Annabelle Wallis), has visions of grisly murders that, gasp, are really happening. For 80 minutes, it’s a serviceable riff on the John Carpenter-scripted, Irvin Kershner-directed Eyes Of Laura Mars (1978), its biggest thrill being composer Joseph Bishara’s dissonant strings and swelling synths. Then a gonzo twist and bonkers last act elevate it to must-see status. More WTF studio horror movies like this, please!…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS It’s 1555, and travellers are threatened with death if they remain in England. A small group of poor salt farmers provides boat passage for escaping families… but what happens when mute farmgirl Patience (Hannah Douglas) falls for Rumi (Sebastian De Souza) from a traveller community and her brutal brother-in-law (Peaky Blinders’ Emmett J. Scanlon) finds out? Laura Turner’s pertinent script explores misogyny and xenophobia via Philip Stevens’ painterly direction, which recalls the naturalism of Robert Eggers and Andrea Arnold. An atmospheric if sometimes stagey debut…

★★★☆☆ OUT 17 DECEMBER CINEMAS 7 JANUARY PRIME VIDEO After his striking performances in The Way Back and The Last Duel, Ben Affleck’s career Benaissance continues with this likeable, George Clooney-directed adap of J.R. Moehringer’s 2005 memoir about growing up in Long Island in the ’70s and ’80s. J.R., played wonderfully as a child by newbie Daniel Ranieri and later, less effectively, by Tye Sheridan, is a boy lacking both a name and a father, his deadbeat DJ dad (Max Martini) having long since flown the coop. But after his mother (Lily Rabe) reluctantly moves back in with his grumpy grandpa (Christopher Lloyd), J.R. finds the perfect replacement in her brother Charlie (Affleck), a straight-talking, straight-shooting mentor as willing to offer words of wisdom as he is to pour drinks.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS This powerful documentary follows three women in their early twenties as they strive to effect social change. Ugandan environmentalist Hilda educates others about the dangers of global warming; working-class activist Rayen battles rampant wealth inequality in Chile; and in Hong Kong, 22-year-old ‘Pepper’ finds herself on the frontline of protests against the Chinese government. Highlighting the sacrifices each has made for their activism, director Franz Böhm delivers an inspiring portrait of youthful defiance that doubles as a howl of anger at contemporary injustices.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Late filmmaker Luke Holland’s lifelong campaign reaches its final mission in a posthumous doc that challenges both the viewer and its controversial subjects. Over the course of a decade the director, whose mother’s family perished in the Holocaust, interviewed/ interrogated more than 300 former concentration-camp guards, Hitler Youth members, witnesses and other members of Hitler’s regime over their actions before, during and after WW2. The result is a frank, reflective and necessarily uncomfortable study of accountability, guilt and remorse (and sometimes a shocking lack of it), with contemporary relevance.…

★ ★★★☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL “I’m just a prisoner of rock’n'roll,” hollers a giddy Bruce Springsteen, hamming it up gloriously in this spine-tingling film of two 1979 MUSE Benefit Concerts from Madison Square Garden. With The E Street Band on lean, mean form, Springsteen pours out his heartland testimonials with customary ragged power: ‘The River’ is heart-rending, ‘Sherry Darling’ jubilant. And when he and late sax-man Clarence Clemons lock into a shared groove, a bond enshrined in rock myth bursts into renewed life for 90 magical minutes. This one’s born to run (and run).…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW NETFLIX Hamilton whiz Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his directorial debut with this energetic adaptation of a lesser-known work by Rent creator Jonathan Larson. The largely autobiographical story follows wannabe theatre composer Jon (Andrew Garfield) as his post-college dream collides with reality: working in a New York diner in 1990, he’s burdened with a desperate urge to stage his musical ambition before he turns 30. An effusive Garfield is superb in his first singing role, while Miranda directs with verve, avoiding the usual stage-to-screen pitfalls while nailing the varied musical numbers.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS 10 DEC AMAZON PRIME VIDEO Discharged from military duty, Malik (Riz Ahmed) is convinced that an alien invasion of tiny bugs that get into your bloodstream has been hushed up. Freaked, he decides to kidnap his sons (Lucian-River Chauhan, Aditya Geddada) from their mother (Janina Gavankar) and hit the road… Ahmed, as ever, is on solid form, and there’s a tense run-in with a traffic cop in the dead of night. But Michael Pearce’s follow-up to 2017’s mesmerising Beast is a messily plotted disappointment that quickly falls apart once the mystery evaporates.…

2002/04 ★★★★☆/ ★★★★★ OUT NOW (SEPARATELY) BD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★☆☆☆ Featurettes Mike Leigh’s place among Britain’s greatest directors was already assured when he made his first films of the 21st century. Together, they confirm his command of social realism. Set in contemporary London, All Or Nothing follows Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville’s working-class family as they freefall through poverty. Vera Drake takes us to the 1950s, where Imelda Staunton’s titular heroine secretly practises illegal abortions. The films are fascinating mirror images. While the first is agonisingly bleak until it finds a sliver of hope, the second is tender and optimistic before Leigh turns the screws. Hitching rigorous period detail to Leigh’s most focused narrative arc, Vera Drake is a heart-breaking triumph. By contrast, the plot of All Or Nothing is…