Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Total Film

This month we couldn’t ignore the behemoth TV epics hovering into view on the small screen, with Tolkien’s famous appendix being unpicked to deliver 50 hours of sweeping fantasy spectacle in The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. It’s been like a journey to the fires of Mount Doom getting this issue together, so massive are the shows we’re previewing, but that doesn’t mean we’re over film. Cinema is still our first love – the community nature of it, the joy of gasping with a crowd of strangers all suspended in dark-enveloped disbelief. I’ve watched a certain film four times this month at different cinemas and each time I’ve enjoyed the gang I’m with as much as the movie. Hearing people squeal together at certain bits and discuss…

How did you get involved? They approached me with the short film. I was like, “Wait. This is a period drama, in which I, as a Black man, will get to play a romantic lead with nuance and have a full arc? Yeah, I’ll do it.” It’s not the genre which I get the most offers. Historically speaking, the global majority of people have not been represented in films like this. So to get the opportunity to tell that story, I definitely wanted to be part of it. How did you all bond off screen? We shot the feature during the pandemic. We were encouraged not to see each other outside of working hours to prevent the spread of Covid. We shot in Ireland while it was quite strictly locked…

This is highbrow for Monday morning,” director Lee Haven Jones tells Teasers. “But I think it was Brecht who said that to be universal, you have to be local first. This is very much a film in that vein.” The film in question is The Feast, the TV veteran’s Welsh-language debut feature, which he describes as “an eco-folk horror”. The Feast has many surprises worth hiding, but the basic setup is a privileged family gathering at their rural Wales home for a dinner party. Also present is hired help Cadi (Annes Elwy), a quiet young woman who appears on the grounds almost out of thin air. As the day progresses, those assembled each experience various terrors. “Welsh culture is rich in horrific stories,” says Haven Jones. “If you look at…

It was an adaptation that really surprised me,” Aamir Khan tells Teasers. The celebrated filmmaker has variously been dubbed the “James Cameron of India” – for the fact that five of his films have topped the country’s all-time box-office chart, including current champ Dangal – and his industry’s Tom Hanks, for his range as an actor. The latter comparison is particularly apt as Khan’s latest film, Laal Singh Chaddha, is a remake of ’94 awards darling Forrest Gump. It’s been over 12 years in the making. Khan started chasing the rights when prolific Indian actor Atul Kulkarni handed him the script for a Gump remake set in India, written completely on spec. “He’s not a writer, and he’s written an adaptation of Forrest Gump in like 10 days? It felt…

XENOMORPHS In what should’ve been a crossover to rival Spider-Man joining the MCU, the two AvP films were massive disappointments, with sequel Requiem (2007) somehow worse than the 2004 original. Inspired in part by the comics that preceded them, the films have been largely forgotten as a blemish on both sci-fi franchises. JACK THE RIPPER In ’97/’98 comic-book series, Predator: Nemesis, the ugly MF descended on Victorian London for a killing spree that gets attributed to ‘Spring-heeled Jack’. Military captain Edward Soames is familiar with the creature from his time in the British Raj, and crossover potential is teased with the inclusion of Mycroft Holmes. THE MOB In 2005 videogame, Predator: Concrete Jungle, the master hunter (later named ‘Scarface’) briefly lands in mob-ruled 1930s New York City, before being exiled…

★★★★☆ OUT 5 AUGUST CINEMAS A lively, loving documentary tribute to the New York punk scene, notably the now-forgotten Max’s Kansas City, a venue that played host to cult bands (the New York Dolls) and A-list punters (Bowie, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda…). Charting punk’s progress as it gobs its way into the mainstream, the film ticks off such key events as the opening of rival club CBGBs and the dawn of the Sex Pistols. Lots of ‘we were there’ interviewees (from Alice Cooper to Billy Idol) and no shortage of grim anecdotes (“bacterial” toilets – ugh!).…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS A disaster movie with a difference, Jean-Jacques Annaud’s account of 2019’s cathedral fire is less a survival story than a suspenseful inside view of firefighters at work. A security guard begins a new job; when his alarm buzzes, the unthinkable happens. While Annaud’s characters and script admittedly lean into the corny and piecemeal, he impressively re-creates the terrors of dodging falling masonry and liquid lead or – a stand-out sequence – navigating tight-fit stairwells. Newsreel footage amps up the realism, and a sly Donald Trump burn boosts the appeal.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 29 JULY CINEMAS Olivia Colman plays Joy, a solicitor with a serious drinking problem, a baby to put up for adoption and an upcoming holiday booked in Lanzarote. When she teams up with precocious kid-on-the-run Mully (Charlie Reid), the unlikely pair hit the road to take the baby to its new home before Joy’s flight. Colman is as superb as ever, but director Emer Reynolds struggles to settle on a consistent tone, bouncing between characters in agonising trauma and happy-go-lucky road-trippin’ sequences. There’s certainly joy to be had here; it’s just a shame the roads are so well travelled.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL Fleeing an abusive past, Laura (Christina Ricci) and her young son Cody (Santino Barnard) attempt to start a new life in 1950s California, settling in an isolated house. But is the threat really over? And what dark, spooky secrets could the local lake possibly be holding? Director Chris Sivertson (All Cheerleaders Die, I Know Who Killed Me) serves up an aggressively set-designed world that’s steeped in vintage monster movies (think Creature From The Black Lagoon). If the horror element feels oddly tame, just hang on in there – in due course it becomes clear how the project attracted an actor of Ricci’s calibre.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL The news of Bruce Willis’ early retirement due to his aphasia diagnosis casts an unavoidable shadow over his remaining DTV releases. Adapted from a graphic novel, Corrective Measures at least gives the action icon a fun gimmick. He plays Julius ‘The Lobe’ Loeb, a legendary inmate doing time alongside depowered superhumans in a prison run by Michael Rooker’s corrupt warden. Think The Suicide Squad meets Cool Hand Luke (directly quoted), minus wit or flair. Overstuffed with subplots, it’s like a whole season of a more fantastical Prison Break crammed into 106 minutes.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL This Brazilian dystopian satire boasts a fantastic idea that unfortunately doesn’t translate into a great movie. Alfred Enoch plays lawyer Antonio, who sues the Brazilian government for reparation for all descendants of African slaves in the country. The response? An executive order, enforced violently, that sees legal Black citizens deported to Africa. Sadly, the on-the-ground chaos that follows is reflected in a messy, all-guns-blazing approach, diminishing its impact. A shame, as helmer Lázaro Ramos’ feature debut offers some resonant ideas about resistance and far-right politics.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW PRIME VIDEO In 1800, aged 19, bare-knuckle boxer Jem Belcher became the Champion Of All England; his fame brought riches and women and then his downfall: Belcher lost an eye in 1803 and his title in 1805, though never his fortitude. Prizefighter is a fascinating story told mechanically by Daniel Graham’s biopic, which offers leaden-footed jabs of drama as the booze and training montages begin to flow. At least Matt Hookings’ blandified Belcher has Ray Winstone’s spirited trainer Bill Warr and Russell Crowe’s boozy, blokey granddad Jack Slack in his corner.…

★★★★☆ OUT 29 JULY CINEMAS Iranian writer/director Panah Panahi makes an eye-catching feature debut with this vibrant road movie, following an unnamed family driving from Tehran towards the mountains that border Turkey. Inside the SUV are Mum (Pantea Panahiha) and Dad (Hasan Majuni), their two sons – one taciturn (Amin Simiar), the other hyperactive (Rayan Sarlak) – and an ailing dog. Ominously, no one mentions their destination; but as Panahi shifts between cramped interiors and imposing landscapes, he deftly blends humour and heartbreak. The cast impress too, not least when miming to ’70s Iranian pop hits.…

1920 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Featurette, Alt ending, Booklet An early collaboration between director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney, this crime melodrama casts the latter in dual roles (including that of the main heavy), with Priscilla Dean taking centre stage as framed jewel thief ‘Silky Moll’. It moves at such a clip that not even the overly sentimental second act (complete with adorable moppet and grating “Oo don’t love me like him do, does oo?” baby talk) or significant print damage towards the end will mar your enjoyment of this brutal and philosophical silent caper.…

1972 ★★★★★ OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K UHD, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Featurettes A 50th-anniversary restoration of Spanish surrealist Luis Buñuel’s sublime comedy of frustration. Six bourgeois Paris friends attempt to meet up for a meal… yet each time are thwarted by increasingly bizarre interruptions, whether it’s the army, police or armed drug dealers. At the peak of his powers, Buñuel shifts smoothly between ‘reality’ and a series of death-driven dream sequences, revealing the unruly fears and desires of his entitled male characters. Pick of the plentiful extras is an engaging chat with late co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière.…

1976 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Video essay, Gallery An affecting mix of bittersweet nostalgia and painful personal experience lies at the heart of Paul Mazursky’s ’50s-era coming-of-ager about a Jewish actor (Lenny Baker) who moves out of his parents’ Brooklyn home to seek fame in bohemia. Both funny and tragic, this Fellini-esque comedy drama’s biggest strength is ultimately its killer cast, from the late, great Baker to brilliant supporting turns from Ellen Greene, Christopher Walken and Shelley Winters as the last word in overprotective mothers. Solid extras.…

2017 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Featurettes, Web videos “We at the Mirando Corporation believe everybody deserves less,” claims one of the faux web ads for the controversial multinational behind Okja’s loveable ‘super pigs’. Thankfully, The Criterion Collection doesn’t feel the same way, serving up a smorgasbord of bonus goodies to support the disc debut of Bong Joon-ho’s (Parasite) heartwarming environmental fable. Highlights include a conversation between Bong and producer Dooho Choi and detailed accounts of the virtual and practical techniques used to make Okja herself such a believable (and adorable) screen presence.…

1985 ★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Documentary, Featurettes, Gallery A new 4K resto for this kitsch ’80s fantasy, inspired by Robert E. Howard’s writings. Brigitte Nielsen’s warrior seeks revenge across a fictional land that includes male-zapping talismans, mechanical beasts and one very annoying boy prince. Arnie co-stars as Lord Kalidor, a Conan-esque fighter who keeps watch over her. Director Richard Fleischer gives the film an eerie and, at times, spectacular look; but for all its feminist credentials, leaden dialogue, wooden support and ropey effects hamper enjoyment. Top extra is a doc on poster king Renato Casaro.…

1992-95 AVAILABLE ON DVD, BD AND DIGITAL Swooping onto TV screens in 1992, only a few months after Tim Burton’s Batman Returns had broken box-office records, Batman: The Animated Series wasn’t the Caped Crusader’s first foray into the world of cartoon shows. But it was by far the best. It was also the most groundbreaking, showing that TV ’toons could be more than glorified toy ads. Prior to this, kids’ animated adventure series had been made on meagre budgets and under restrictive Broadcasting Standards and Practices rules (which even prohibited characters from hitting each other). BTAS changed all that – and we have Steven Spielberg to thank for it. In 1989, the filmmaker signed a deal with Warner Bros to produce an animated revival of its iconic Looney Tunes characters,…

Halina Reijn is not the most obvious filmmaker to take on a Gen Z horror-comedy, having made a name for herself in “Dutch hardcore theatre”, but she teamed up with A24 to bring Sarah DeLappe’s screenplay to life. Assembling a cast of screaming-hot young actors, including Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova and Pete Davidson, the film is about a group of privileged twentysomethings reuniting at a remote mansion that looks like if “Sofia Coppola voted Trump”. The plan – to have fun and make passive aggressive digs at one another – takes a turn for the murderous when they play a drinking game called ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’. Reijn, who had grown up playing the game, tells Teasers that murder aside, such games always have “really bad consequences”. With simmering tensions inside…

He can be in the biggest film ever and then the camera catches his eyes and you feel there’s a whole world in there,” says Kogonada of Colin Farrell, who shows a new side of himself as Jake – thoughtful and tender – in the writer-director’s sophomore feature, After Yang. “So much of what’s happening is happening inside Jake. The movement is significant yet subtle.” Landing five years after Kogonada’s sublime walk-and-talk relationship drama Columbus, After Yang is a science-fiction story set in the near future and exploring inner space. It focuses on a family consisting of dad Jake, mum Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) and ‘techno-sapien’ Yang (Justin H. Min). When Yang malfunctions, Jake sets about getting him fixed, a journey that takes him towards…

“IF CHRIS NOLAN EVER SAID TO HIMSELF, ‘YOU KNOW WHAT, I’VE GOT ANOTHER STORY TO TELL,’ AND IF HE WISHED TO TELL THAT STORY WITH ME, I’D BE IN.”CHRISTIAN BALE WOULD RETURN AS BATMAN, BUT ONLY WITH NOLAN AT THE HELM. “Look, it was great for our careers. But it was weird. So, so weird.”DAKOTA JOHNSON HAS NO REGRETS OVER STARRING IN THE 50 SHADES FILMS. $1BN THE BOX-OFFICE MILESTONE REACHED BY TOP GUN: MAVERICK LAST MONTH – THE FIRST CRUISE FILM TO CRACK A BILL. $5,000 THE COST OF THE EYE-WATERINGLY EXPENSIVE KAIBURR CRYSTAL COCKTAIL AT THE DISNEY WISH CRUISE SHIP’S HYPERSPACE LOUNGE. FOR THAT, IT BETTER COME WITH A WORKING LIGHTSABER… “I WAS LIKE, ‘CAN I PLEASE HAVE THAT UNDERWEAR?’” EVA MENDES (AKA, RYAN GOSLING’S WIFE) RESPONDED IN…

BACK BUSTIN’ Heavily hinted at by the first film’s post-credits scene, but now confirmed – a Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel will arrive in December 2023. Codenamed Firehouse, the follow-up is set to return to the iconic fire station, no doubt with spooks in tow. BEAR WITNESS Rejoice! A Paddington threequel has finally been announced, with Dougal Wilson making his feature debut after helming several John Lewis Christmas ads. The title – Paddington In Peru – implies Padds may be popping home to see his beloved Aunt Lucy. SPICE INVADERS Much news on the Dune: Part Two front, with production under way in Budapest as we speak. First the film has gone back by a month to November 2023, and second Léa Seydoux has joined the stacked cast as the Bene Gesserit…

@TOTALFILM_JANE When the new Matilda trailer was released with great fanfare, there was a backlash from women who were, once again, seeing a grotesque female meanie being portrayed by a slim actress in a fat suit. Why, the internet argued, couldn’t the ghastly head teacher Miss Trunchbull (described in Roald Dahl’s books as a former Olympian who is ‘a gigantic holy terror’) be portrayed by an athletic actor or the opportunity given to an actual plus-size thesp? Why must women whose bodies do not conform to a Hollywood ideal be vilified via a trope of heavier women being the butt of jokes, a visual signifier of an unpleasant character? The business sense of casting Thompson is undeniable – she is an accomplished actor and a marquee name. But having just…

When the first Orphan film premiered in 2009 it delighted audiences with a fantastically creepy performance from 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman and a totally unhinged twist. In the final act it is revealed (spoiler alert) that Esther, the adopted child, is actually a 33-year-old woman with dwarfism and murderous tendencies. Despite its healthy box office, the scope to build a franchise was limited by Esther meeting her demise at the end. Now, over a decade later, Orphan is back for prequel First Kill, where we see Esther wreaking more havoc, with original star Furhman plus seasoned horror director William Brent Bell. The cat was out of the bag when it came to Esther’s identity, but Bell tells Teasers that another huge twist was essential. “Reading the script I thought it’s gonna…

Me? Love triangle. It’s an expression I detest,” spits Claire Denis (High Life), when Teasers addresses the theme of her new movie, Both Sides Of The Blade. “It’s a funny way to speak about what is so painful in life. Me, I would never use something like that. That’s the kind of thing you can read in magazines, but it’s not in life.” Consider Teasers well and scolded. Still, Both Sides Of The Blade, which won Denis the Best Director prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, does feature the story of a married couple, Jean (Vincent Lindon) and Sara (Juliette Binoche). Then there’s Jean’s friend François (Grégoire Colin), Sara’s ex-lover – who is suddenly back in the couple’s lives after years apart. Uh-oh. The film pairs Denis with French…

From the sitcom-smashing WandaVision to the metaverse-bending antics of Loki and the downright WTF weirdness of Moon Knight, the MCU’s small-screen output has taught us one thing: expect the unexpected. So back in December 2020, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that new Disney+ show She-Hulk: Attorney At Law was going to be a “half-hour legal comedy”, fans took it in their stride. First appearing in Marvel Comics in 1980, She-Hulk is the green-hued alter-ego of Jennifer Walters, cousin to scientist Bruce Banner. Taking an emergency blood transfusion from him, she inherits some of his unique abilities – turning green, muscling up. But unlike Banner’s rage-fuelled Hulk, she retains her intelligence and personality when she transforms. “She’s angry in a different way!” laughs She-Hulk head writer Jessica Gao, when…

The advice for new writers is always to start off with something small and easy to film, but I heard Charlie Brooker speaking once and he said that was a terrible idea,” laughs David Macpherson, who worked for an environmental charity before writing The Rig as his debut script. “When you’re a new writer, it’s the only time you don’t have to worry about budgets or other people, and you should just do the thing that you most want to see. This is the story I knew I had to get out of my head.” Growing up in the shadow of an oil rig (literally, as the shipyard that built them towered over his school in Scotland’s Cromarty Firth), Macpherson’s dad worked offshore and came home full of stories about…

Some actors want to be movie stars – name in neon lights, red-carpet premieres on every continent, a seven-picture superhero deal. Not George MacKay. Over a near-20-year career, the London-born star of 1917, True History Of The Kelly Gang and the upcoming Netflix crime thriller I Came By has made a virtue of his relative anonymity given his leading-man status. “At the end of the day, if you want to be a chameleon there is a level of not knowing required,” MacKay tells TF. “Fame… it’s not been a thing, so it hasn’t become a thing.” Whether by design or by chance (“Maybe a bit of both,” he chuckles) MacKay isn’t the kind of actor to rack up column inches, or make a commodity of a larger-than-life persona. He doesn’t…

“Long live the new flesh.” Words that, as any David Cronenberg fan will know, were spoken at the very end of Videodrome, his 1983 cult hit about the mind-and-body altering power of television. Words, also, that could apply to his latest film, Crimes Of The Future, which sees the Canadian back behind the camera after an all-too-long eight-year hiatus. The “new flesh” – the metamorphosis of our bodies into something more advanced, more poisonous perhaps – is embedded in his entire work. Or as the 79-year-old director now puts it: “The human condition is the human body.” After his last film, the satire Maps To The Stars, Cronenberg sidestepped into novel-writing with 2014’s Consumed, a story that saw him tackle strange sexual fetishes and technology run amok. Crimes… continues this…

TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! 1989 The fifth of Banderas’ eight team-ups with Pedro Almodóvar, this pitch-black, Buñuelian comedy sees his Ricky released from psychiatric care to kidnap a porn star. Controlling men and relationship power games are the themes. DESPERADO 1995 Banderas and Robert Rodriguez effectively remake El Mariachi on a bigger budget. Banderas’ guitar-case toting gunslinger riffs on archetypes – Banderas grew up watching westerns and enjoyed “being on the other side of the mirror”. THE MASK OF ZORRO 1998 His Hollywood star soared when he played the masked avenger, all swishing sword and sizzling chemistry opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones. “We knew when we were shooting… that we were doing something interesting,” says Banderas. PUSS IN BOOTS 2011 After pepping up three Shrek sequels as the furry helper,…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 5 AUGUST CINEMAS “He’s a drag queen, I’m a drag artiste.” The unquestionable highlight of Lee Cooper’s affectionate but uneven documentary comes early, as David Raven, aka doyenne of the famous Brighton cabaret scene Maisie Trollette, bristles at a message from his US counterpart, Darcelle XV. A culture-clash meeting between the two veterans delivers a few awkward laughs, while a poignant climactic performance may draw a tear or two. Yet if Cooper’s portrait of Raven’s home life is authentically unglamorous, these meandering, uneventful scenes in between are, alas, a bit of a drag.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS The case of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and all-round controversial figure, gets a new, personal treatment in this campaign-focused documentary. Following not Assange himself, but his father John Shipton, the film chronicles the ongoing fight to stop Assange’s extradition and get him released from prison. Director Ben Lawrence offers probing insight into not just John’s life but that of Assange’s fiancée, lawyer Stella Moris. The film’s alliances are clear from the off; though it dances perhaps a little too lightly around certain allegations, a sense of injustice is keenly felt by the end.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 29 JULY CINEMAS French geologists Maurice and Katia Krafft shared a burning obsession for volcanoes, documenting all of their lava-prodding until their deaths in 1991. Their explosive pairing was previously explored in Werner Herzog’s Into The Inferno (2016), but this poem to passion uses the Kraffts’ spectacular footage of eruptions to draw a throughline between Earth’s roiling unpredictability and the couple’s maverick/foolhardy research methods. Though the magma impresses, Miranda July’s whimsical narration and a slippery narrative makes this Sundance favourite a curiously opaque watch.…

DIRECTOR Ron Howard STARRING Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson, Sahajak Boonthanakit SCREENPLAY William Nicholson DISTRIBUTOR United Artists/Amazon Studios RUNNING TIME 146 mins tbc ★★★★☆ 29 JULY CINEMAS 5 AUGUST PRIME VIDEO Near the start of Ron Howard’s true-life survival tale, Narongsak Osatanakorn (Sahajak Boonthanakit), the governor of the Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, remarks “This could be a long night.” That may be the understatement of a lifetime. The film recreates how, over nearly three weeks, thousands of volunteers gathered to help 12 boys and their coach from the Wild Boars football team, who had ventured into the local Tham Luang Nang Non cave shortly before colossal rainfall left them trapped deep inside. Taking place across June and July 2018, the situation was so…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW SHUDDER After losing her son to a car accident, traumatised mum Cecilia (Mariana Anghileri) is drawn into a confrontation with a violent religious lunatic. As those involved with the tragedy start to die under mysterious and unnerving circumstances, this Argentinian supernatural thriller from director Daniel de la Vega makes its giallo influences known (don’t look now, but the kid in the red coat is a shade on the nose…). Striking visuals, melodramatic performances and an impressively overbearing score help disguise the slow-burn story, which gleefully descends into an unpredictable – and messy – finale.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Those who insist that a documentary’s overriding priority should be to stick to the facts will likely struggle with Jessica Beshir’s psychedelic debut feature. But viewers open to the abstract might find themselves beguiled by this portrait of Ethiopia’s Oromo and Harari communities. At the centre of Beshir’s socio-political/mythical odyssey is khat, a commodified, euphoria-inducing plant that essentially defines the culture’s structure and rhythms. Shot in dreamy monochrome, it’s a mosaic of interconnected stories that manages the rare feat of conveying spirituality with just a camera.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL The end of days is a torpid affair in this half-developed Austrian sci-fi. When the Earth is engulfed in a mysterious deadly fog, the threadbare crew of an orbiting space station face a head-scratcher. Should they endanger themselves to help, or survive among the stars? As the lead trio chase this debate around in endless circles, director/co-writer Magdalena Lauritsch rarely summons the requisite sense of urgency, much less suspense: as the characters make one variably daft and dangerous decision after another, any hope of persuasive dramatic tension dissipates in the fog.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS British-Ghanaian artist Larry Achiampong makes his feature-length debut with this meandering account of The Wanderer (Perside Rodrigues), a young girl travelling across England during the pandemic. Starting at Hadrian’s Wall, she works her way south, through serene nature, empty village roads and silent museums. This meditation on being a British person – particularly one of colour – feels more of an exhibition piece than a cinema attraction. Still, amid the picturesque lensing, it wrestles with issues of class, race and social division, not always smoothly (or subtly), but often effectively.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW SHUDDER Juggling archive footage, talking heads and animation, this wartsand-all documentary tracks fancy-dress rockers GWAR on their journey from novelty act to controversial metal institution. As the costumes and colourful characters take off, (fake) gore-and-semen-spattered shows of legend are born. So, too, are power struggles with frontman Dave Brockie, band in-fighting and subsequent tragedy. For all the exploding phalluses and bodily fluids, this is a heartfelt, bittersweet and surprisingly frank effort. Famous fans Weird Al and Alex Winter add their voices to the adoring chorus.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS From the story of sporting legend Muhammad Ali to the catchy beats of Outlandish’s hit single ‘Aicha’, this documentary aims to chronicle Islam’s growing presence in the entertainment industry over the last few decades. Intertwining archive footage with talking-head testimonials, director Abrar Hussain offers a considered study of art as a vital vehicle for cultural and religious self-expression. Shame, then, that The Balance is hindered by a frustrating reluctance to move beyond cold, detached facts and into the infinitely more interesting – and engaging – territory of the personal.…

1979 ★★★☆☆ OUT NOW, BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentaries, Doc, Featurettes, Outtakes, Booklet “It’s like a Warner Bros cartoon come to life with a little bit of Beach Blanket Bingo and The Girl Can’t Help It in there,” says co-writer Richard Whitley of this goofy slice of teen anarchy featuring US punk icons the Ramones. Existing somewhere on a cinematic throughline running from Grease to Heathers, what this Roger Corman production lacks in plot it makes up for with its absurdist rapid-fire gags, cast of cult favourites (P.J. Soles! Mary Woronov! Paul Bartel!) and brilliant ’70s-rock soundtrack.…

1955 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Featurettes, Essay The on-camera canal dunk Katharine Hepburn endured for David Lean’s Venice-set romance left the star with a lifelong eye infection. Film lovers, though, were rewarded with one of the star’s most charming and poignant performances. Her vulnerable turn as a lonely singleton who finds short-lived love with a married shopkeeper (South Pacific’s Rossano Brazzi) rightly garnered the actor the sixth of her 12 Oscar nominations. Criterion’s 4K restoration comes with a 1963 interview with Lean about the film he considered his own personal favourite.…

When Mel Brooks voiced concerns that David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) was “too much”, the veteran producer wasn’t fretting about Seth Brundle’s grisly mutations. Brooks was questioning a specific piece of music – wasn’t it a bit excessive for a shot of a guy walking down the street? Not at all, said Cronenberg. Jeff Goldblum’s Brundle was walking to “meet his destiny”, argued Cronenberg: “We knew it was operatic, but it was meant to be. And we weren’t holding back.” Long before The Lord Of The Rings, former Saturday Night Live music director Howard Shore brought a tremendous dramatic intensity and intelligence to Cronenberg’s films. Between The Brood’s Psychoesque strings, Scanners’ synth-orchestral maelstroms and Videodrome’s seamy abstractions, the duo seemed organically attuned to each other’s wavelengths, like separate strands of…

Between Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, Jesse James and Nick Cave, director Andrew Dominik’s films have gravitated towards mythologised men laden with charisma. For his latest project, he’s ringing the changes. Focused on one of Hollywood’s most mythologised women, Blonde is the story of Marilyn Monroe, the ‘50s superstar who died in 1962, aged 36. Adapted from a 2000 novel by US writer Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde is a passion project for Dominik. Development stretches back to 2010; Naomi Watts and Jessica Chastain were attached, long before Ana de Armas signed up. But the crux of Dominik’s attachment to Blonde stayed firm. “The thing about my films is that the feelings they give you always survive,” he tells Teasers. Immortalised on film, T-shirts, posters and otherwise, Monroe often inspires image-obsessed film portraits.…

I call it a period romcom – I don’t know if that’s an official genre,” says director Emma Holly Jones of her debut feature Mr. Malcolm’s List. It may be a Regency era romance – full to the brim with corsets and restrained passion – but it wasn’t Jane Austen she looked back to. “I rewatched Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and When Harry Met Sally.” Gangs Of London star Ṣọpé Dìrísù plays the Mr. Darcy-esque figure of Jeremy Malcolm, a man so meticulous in his quest for love that he has come up with a strict checklist of attributes he wants his perfect bride to have. When he very publicly dumps Julia (Zawe Ashton), a young woman he is courting, she becomes hell-bent on revenge, roping in…

Nana Mensah, the writer, director and star of Queen Of Glory, is aware of how a brief plot summary of her film – a young woman with a complicated love life inherits a Christian bookshop – might sound like schmaltzy fare, rather than the witty and moving dark comedy it is. On hearing Teasers compare the premise to a Hallmark movie, Mensah laughs, “It could have been! If left to my base instincts.” Instead the acclaimed indie is more complex, with an expert balancing of tone. “Really dramatic things happen and comedic things happen just on the other side; I wanted to stay in that space.” The literal space that her character Sarah inherits is a distinctly drab store with fluorescent lighting and a single staff member played by the…

What is The Suspect about? Peter Berry (writer): Joe O’Loughlin is a successful clinical psychologist, he loves his wife and daughter, has a social media profile and publishing deal… Life couldn’t get any better, and then it does: he rescues someone on a very narrow ledge, 10 floors up, and becomes a national hero. When he gets involved in helping the police with profiling murder suspects, they realise Joe probably knows more than he’s letting on regarding a particular case. Why did you want Aidan Turner for the role? PB: I wanted the audience to be on Joe’s side. Aidan is handsome and charismatic, with a voice that you could listen to all day long, but he can turn so sharply that you think, ‘There’s something really dark about this…

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit – and a few thousand years before that, there lived a harfoot. While these peoples of diminutive stature may have the same hairy feet and knack for going on unexpected journeys as their more famous ancestors, the Harfoots occupy a very different Middle-earth. Morgoth, the great enemy, has just been defeated and his chief lieutenant, Sauron, gone into hiding. Gil-galad rules the prosperous Elven realm of Lindon, and the Dúnedain, long-living men, keep to themselves on the isle of Númenor. The Dwarves eat well in the lavish, doomed halls of Khazad-dûm, and somewhere in the distance, a nameless shadow is stirring. This is the Second Age of Middle-earth, and the setting of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of…

Rogue One was a glorious Star Wars experiment – the first anthology film in a galactic franchise ripe for further exploration. Gareth Edwards’ epic told the story of a small group of Rebels who defied an Empire and stole the plans for the enemy’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star. Now comes the spin-off to the spin-off, a Disney+ series that delves into the origins of Diego Luna’s breakout character, Cassian Andor. “Rogue One is very much about the event, and now the journey of Andor is about the character,” Luna tells Total Film at Star Wars Celebration, where the first trailer played to thunderous applause. “It’s a huge show, and it’s epic, and it has this thriller aspect and spyish tone. Yet, it’s also a very intimate story of the…

No one forgets the first time they come face to face with a Predator. For Amber Midthunder, the 25-year-old star of Prey, the moment came a few days into production on the film’s Calgary location shoot, when she stumbled on a lighting and costume test in the woods so secretive even she wasn’t aware what was happening. “There was a humming, and I saw a big group of people,” Midthunder says, regaling TF over Zoom from her home in California. “I walked further, and then I saw [the Predator]. I was lasered in. The first thing I said was: ‘I can take it.’ And then I got in my regular brain, and I was like, ‘That’s terrifying!’ But the first thing that came out of my mouth was: ‘I can…

They were careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” So wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925’s The Great Gatsby of his monied characters, and in John Michael McDonagh’s adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 bestselling novel, it seems little has changed in the intervening decades for the two-percenters at the heart of his lean – and mean – thriller. Following an affluent married couple, David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) as they drive – sozzled – from Casablanca to Azner to attend an opulent weekend party, The Forgiven charts the emotional and moral fallout when the pair…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, NETFLIX DIRECTORS Anthony Russo, Joe Russo STARRING Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura SCREENPLAY Joe Russo, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely DISTRIBUTOR Netflix RUNNING TIME 120 mins Back in 2014, when brothers Anthony and Joe Russo directed their first MCU movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier, much was made of how it channelled the conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s. Not only had Steve Rogers awoken from ice to a more cynical, nefarious age, he now found himself standing next to Robert Redford, whose long shadow stretches back to classic paranoia pictures Three Days Of The Condor and All The President’s Men. Nine years and four movies later (MCU triumphs Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and misfiring PTSD crime…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL Robert B. Weide is best known as the Emmy-winning director of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but for 40 years his white whale was this long-gestating documentary on Kurt Vonnegut, the acclaimed Slaughterhouse Five author who died in 2007. The finished product is as much about Weide and Vonnegut’s keenly felt friendship as it is about Vonnegut’s extraordinary journey from prisoner of war in Dresden to influential sci-fi scribe, but Weide’s proximity to his subject means the more unsavoury elements of Vonnegut’s past go unexamined.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Adding context to popular anime Fruits Basket, this prequel explores the history of main character Tohru’s (Laura Bailey) parents. But with all the original fantasy elements stripped out, it offers a simpler melodrama steeped in romantic reflection. Following a recap of the three-season show, there is an ick factor to overcome as the film unapologetically depicts dispassionate 19-year-old student-teacher Katsuya (J. Michael Tatum) courting vulnerable 14-year-old Kyoko (Lydia Mackay). However, an acute focus on relatable detail and ruminations on the nature of love and grief make for powerful viewing.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL Leonard Cohen’s songbook inspired this hit-and-miss romantic drama from writer/director Matthew Bissonette, both in story and soundtrack. Diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, ageing lothario Samuel O’Shea (a twinkly, intense Gabriel Byrne) begins to spiral. Hallucinating musical numbers (all Cohen) and convos with his dead dad and various literary characters, Samuel flees to rural Ireland, connecting with spirited Charlotte (Jessica Paré), who’s almost 20 years younger. Samuel’s plight is sombre, but the mood isn’t, from the elegant surrealism to the thoughtful homages to Cohen.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT TBC CINEMAS Handsome monochrome drone shots of the striking London skyline aside, the best thing you can say about Kirsty Bell’s directorial debut is that it captures, all too well, the tedium of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Its protagonists, all of them connected to a terminated film shoot, include an actor battling cancer (Derek Jacobi), a screenwriter (Jeff Fahey) and an editor with a dying mum (Morgana Robinson). Unfortunately, none of these characters ever manage to justify the time that Bell (onscreen herself as, yes, the film’s director) insists we expend on their solitary, solipsistic navel-gazing.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 5 AUGUST CINEMAS Born into a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Fadia has never known her ancestral land and yet continually yearns for it. A chance encounter with documentary-maker Sarah Beddington ignites a homecoming journey by proxy, with the director heading to Palestine on her behalf to search for a mulberry tree laden with meaning. Weaving in the rhythms of nature, Beddington’s feature debut builds poetic parallels between the migration of birds and human impermanence. The result is a moving, albeit somewhat overstretched, study of the ripples of modern diaspora.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD 26 JULY DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★☆☆☆ Featurette It takes all of 10 minutes for DC’s latest ani-movie to give our hero a Power Ring, hook him up with a few Justice Leaguers and launch us into a cosmic conflict. This origin story is in such a rush to go epic, you never feel the full weight of ex-Marine John Stewart’s (Aldis Hodge) ascension to Lanternhood. Now and then it settles into an appealing buddy-movie groove with Jimmi Simpson’s Green Arrow – when it isn’t squeezing in familiar comic-book faces or expository flashbacks. Colourful sound FX amplify the action, but it all rings hollow.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 12 AUGUST CINEMAS The titular French tower’s late-19th-century construction provides the backdrop for this fictionalised, old-fashioned romance from director Martin Bourboulon (Divorce French Style). Romain Duris plays engineer Gustave Eiffel who, following a chance encounter with exlover Adrienne (Death On The Nile’s Emma Mackey), makes the decision to design and build a 300-metre iron tower. Eiffel rushes over the considerable public resistance to the pioneering project at its core. Yet it papers a few cracks with dynamic widescreen lensing and the leads’ powerful, class-crossed chemistry.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K, DIGITAL EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Deleted scenes, Gag reel Much like Sam Raimi’s film, the extras package doesn’t push as far as you might like, but remains a fun time. Raimi’s candid chat track teases moments that didn’t make the final cut, which include bonus Bruce Campbell – who elsewhere gives good quote on the director’s other signature star, the Oldsmobile. Hurtling like a Raimi crash zoom, featurettes hit standard beats (overuse of ‘collaboration’, actors fighting losing battles with wind machines) and, not for the first time in the MCU, invoke Patrick Swayze in Point Break.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS DIRECTOR Taika Waititi STARRING Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe SCREENPLAY Taika Waititi, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson DISTRIBUTOR Disney RUNNING TIME 125 mins No character in the MCU has undergone a more effective glow up than Thor Odinson. From the drab nadir of The Dark World to Ragnarok’s cosmic romp, the God of Thunder found his groove when irreverent kiwi Taika Waititi unlocked Chris Hemsworth’s criminally untapped comic chops. Their latest pairing is more extension than reinvention, but by most metrics it’s a superior reunion – wilder, funnier and significantly more heartfelt. If Marvel has been coasting on a comfortably unexceptional level of quality for much of Phase 4, the joyous Love And Thunder is a return to the glory days of the…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL Adrien Brody doesn’t just star in this bleak thriller about a garbage collector turned vigilante, he also co-wrote it, produced it and composed the score. Shame it’s somewhat, ahem, trashy then, for all its loner antihero’s Travis Bickle-ish musings and the ferocity of its climactic bloodletting. Like John Wick before him, Brody’s Clean is a reformed killer keen to go straight. But when the local drug dealers dare to menace his surrogate daughter, he starts taking waste disposal literally in Paul Solet’s (2017’s Bullet Head) derivative crime yarn. It’s a case of bin there, seen that.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS All-seeing and all-recording – but only when they point it in the right direction – the Axon police body camera is the subject of this documentary by filmmaker and cinematographer Theo Anthony. As he explores the controversial gadget’s scope and application within modern US policing and state surveillance, the film recalls Minority Report – except the reality here is scarier than any science fiction. But though essential questions are asked, they’re not pursued rigorously enough; any overarching point is obscured by a lack of focus and distracting – if impressive – visuals.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Gérard Depardieu is Georges, an ageing, egotistical movie star about to shoot a new costume drama. Déborah Lukumuena (Divines) is Aïssa, his newly assigned personal security guard (and amateur wrestler). Cue an odd-couple comedy-drama with a tender edge, Georges letting down his defences as Aïssa tends to the lonely man’s whims. Constance Meyer’s feature debut isn’t perfect: Depardieu isn’t exactly stretching himself here and the director/co-writer tends to overcook the symbolism (like Georges’ weird, sharp-toothed pet fish). But a sparkling Lukumuena brims with scene-stealing confidence.…

1963 ★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS A welcome reissue by the BFI as part of their retrospective belatedly (thanks to Covid) marking the centenary of the great Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The director’s first film set in his native Calcutta, this monochrome classic captures a mid-’50s society in social, cultural and economic flux. The wonderful Madhabi Mukherjee plays middle-class housewife Arati, who takes on a saleswoman’s job in order to support her extended family. Unfolding with unhurried ease, this is an astutely observed tale, in which Ray treats all his characters, however flawed, with considerable sympathy.…