Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Total Film

I hope that this movie becomes totally irrelevant in 20 years,” says Shana Feste. It’s an unusual statement for a writer and director to make about their own work, but Feste has the bigger picture in mind. “This attack on women cannot keep happening. I could have made this movie when I was 20, 30, and it would have been timely. It’s one of the reasons that I wanted to make it, because I don’t want it to be timely for my daughter.” Starring former Charlie’s Angel Ella Balinska, Run Sweetheart Run is the story of Cherie, a young mother on an impromptu date with a charming client named Ethan (Game Of Thrones’ Pilou Asbæk) when things suddenly turn violent. Forced to flee on foot with nothing but the clothes…

We live in a landscape that’s defined by a hidden violence,” says Thomas M. Wright when asked why he, like so many of his fellow Australian filmmakers, has been compelled to tell stories about crime and lawlessness. “It’s a colonised country and I think there’s something that insists that darkness on us.” Wright’s debut feature, 2018’s Acute Misfortune, was not about crime per se but certainly dealt with lawlessness in its depiction of an artist’s abusive relationship with his biographer. The Stranger, in contrast, investigates a specific violation: the 2003 murder of a Queensland schoolboy that led to an eight-year hunt for his abductor and killer. The details of the case are known well Down Under, due in part to the elaborate “Mr. Big” operation that lured the perpetrator into…

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO It only took 14 years (and one Best Picture Oscar…) for Guillermo del Toro to finally be able to bring Pinocchio to life, but the film’s roots reach right back to the director’s earliest memories of film. With designs based on Gris Grimly’s book illustrations and a classical setting transposed to 1930s fascist Italy, the new stop-motion fairytale might be the second big Pinocchio movie of the year (after Robert Zemeckis’ live-action Disney reboot), but it’s the only one that’s been a whole lifetime in the making. KLOKKENLUIDER What if Edward Snowden had no idea what he was doing? Described by director Neil Maskell as “a character-based chamber piece disguised as a political thriller”, closeted dark comedy Klokkenluider (starring Tom Burke and Jenna Coleman) sees a…

How would directorial team Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper describe the future dystopia of Vesper? “We have a term,” Buozyte explains to Teasers. “It’s a bio-fantasy.” Co-director Samper clarifies: “It’s a paradox: a dead world, but very alive.” Does that make sense? Trying to survive this “future middle age” (another of Buozyte and Samper’s paradoxes) is 13-year-old scientist Vesper (Raffiella Chapman). Struggling to adapt to life under Earth’s collapsed ecosystem, Vesper must also care for her paralysed father, accompanied by a drone programmed with his voice. When Vesper meets a mysterious woman with a world-changing secret, she begins to realise that perhaps she can save the planet from within, using her own ‘bio hacking’ abilities. To Buozyte and Samper, finding their Vesper was essential. Without the right actor, the film…

3. FREDDY KRUEGER Total Kills 49 Freddy offs just four people in the original A Nightmare On Elm Street. His busiest movie is the first sequel Freddy’s Revenge, in which he claws his way to 14 kills. His overall tally is spread across nine movies – including 2003 crossover Freddy Vs Jason and 2010 reboot A Nightmare On Elm Street – but Krueger has another 20-odd deaths to his name if you include his killing of children when he was human, before the movies begin. We meet him after the parents of Elm Street have torched him, as he now haunts teenagers’ dreams. 2. JASON VOORHEES Total Kills 163 Jason murders no one in the original Friday The 13th – his mom, Mrs. Voorhees, is the killer. That trivia was…

In the US, President Biden recently announced that up to $20,000 of student loans would be forgiven, which will make a life-changing impact on many people who have spent their entire adult lives paying huge sums intensified by high interest rates, barely able to keep afloat. But, that impact isn’t life-changing enough for the people whose debts are so large that even a $20,000 reduction will still leave them drowning. This is the case for the antihero at the heart of Emily The Criminal, in which Aubrey Plaza goes into full thriller mode in the story of a woman pushed to the brink while saddled with $70,000 worth of debt. Writer/director John Patton Ford – here making his debut – drew from his own experience. “I got out of school…

HOUSE 2007-2012 Wilde first blipped on many people’s radars as Remy ‘Thirteen’ Hadley, a key member of the maverick doc’s new diagnostics team assembled in Season 4. “We created her as we went along,” said Wilde. TRON: LEGACY 2010 The last known ISO alive, apprentice to Jeff Bridges’ Kevin Flynn, Wilde’s Quorra kicks ass. She’s “a Joan of Arc of the future”, suggests Wilde, who signed up because the original Tron is “weird, unique, forward-thinking”. DRINKING BUDDIES 2013 Co-workers at a micro-brewery, Wilde’s Kate and Jake Johnson’s Luke find their boundaries blurred by beer. Joe Swanberg’s indie was improvised and real alcohol was consumed. “We can handle our beer,” grinned Wilde. HER 2013 Credited as ‘Blind Date’, Wilde’s character leaves a big impression in just four minutes of screen time.…

★★★★☆ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER IMAX 23 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS DIRECTOR Brett Morgen STARRING David Bowie SCREENPLAY Brett Morgen DISTRIBUTOR Universal RUNNING TIME 140 mins Movies about the 20th century’s greatest musicians had something of a moment in Cannes this year. Between Ethan Coen’s Jerry Lee Lewis documentary and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis arrived a David Bowie doc like no other about an artist without equal. Moonage Daydream isn’t your typical rags-to-riches tale of excess and success. Part concert movie, part psychedelic art installation, part elliptical account of the major stages in Bowie’s artistic evolution, the film defies documentary convention to create something thrillingly unique. Reportedly assembled using some five million pieces of material from the Bowie archives, and in the works for half a decade, director Brett Morgen’s (Cobain: Montage Of Heck)…

★★★★☆ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Finnish director Hanna Bergholm reveals a robust appetite for twisted family dynamics and grisly body horror in this creepy fairytale about a tweenage gymnast who chances on an unattended bird’s egg. Secreting it in her bedroom, Tinja is appalled and fascinated by the monstrous corvine it hatches: a masterly eggs-ample of Henson-esque puppetry that proceeds to wreak havoc on her image-obsessed mum’s scrupulously curated lifestyle. Impeckable terns from Siiri Solalinna and Sophia Heikkilä elevate a freaky flight of fancy that’s worth shelling out for.…

★★★★☆ OUT 23 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Written, directed, edited, scored and photographed by the prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, this minimalist tale concerns former actress Sangok (Lee Hye-young), who’s now resident in the USA, paying a rare visit to Seoul to visit her younger sister (Cho Yunhee) and to meet a celebrated filmmaker (Kwon Hae-hyo). Shot with pleasing simplicity and an unhurried flow, In Front Of Your Face offers a subtle portrait of emotional resilience, with its female protagonist seeking to remain mindful in the face of life’s transience.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 14 OCTOBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL When one of their number disappears on location in a London warehouse, photographer Sid Phoenix and his bickering crew are drawn into a surrealist mystery. The visuals may be rough around the edges, but director Marcos Mereles spins the low budget into a boon, constructing a series of tightly wound interactions between the charismatic, likeable cast. As the fourth wall breaks, the film struggles under the weight of its conceit, too wry for its own good. Nevertheless, Mereles brings a lightness of touch to his deftly built farce.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 10 OCTOBER DVD, DIGITAL EXTRAS NA Sophie Skelton and Stuart Brennan star in this low-budget, high-concept two-hander about a young actress and a creepily obsessive camera operator trapped together in a malfunctioning hotel lift. While the story’s various twists and turns fail to entirely surprise, committed performances from the two leads and some stylish visual flourishes from director Steve Johnson (Convergence) keep things ticking over nicely en route to the satisfyingly grisly finale. Stalker may not elevate the genre to new heights, but an enjoyably tense ride awaits herein.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 28 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Two social outcasts – a blind biwa priest and a masked noh dancer – are rejuvenated as a performing duo in 14th-century Japan. As their spectacular shows cause a sensation, however, the shogun plots a violent end to their act. Masaaki Yuasa’s dazzling rock opera is one of the most visually distinctive animes in years. Yet the director seems as enamoured with his outsider artists as their audience is: the middle act lapses into proggy indulgence, leaving the finale too rushed to generate the kind of emotional impact that we were hoping for.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells album (1973) famously gave The Exorcist its insidious theme. Non-demonic feats of physical contortion accompany the music in this misshapen film of a live reinterpretation, shot in London. With Oldfield absent, centre stage is taken by Circa, a dance troupe whose gymnastic dexterity interprets the slick, if somewhat drab, nine-piece band’s rearrangement. It’s an odd pairing, and it’s often hard to see what Circa’s acrobatic spectacle adds to Oldfield’s acid-prog inner voyage.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL An elderly couple enter a dance competition in a last-ditch attempt to clear debts; a teenage girl prepares to lose her virginity; a duplicitous finance minister has a night to forget. Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s blackly comic portmanteau piece veers from talky tedium to shallow provocation, with little new to say about social inequality in present-day France. Still, amid the smugness and cynicism, individual performances leave a mark: in particular, Lilith Grasmug gives a fearless display of resourcefulness as a young woman determined not to become a victim.…

★☆☆☆☆ OUT NOW PRIME VIDEO Sylvester Stallone fails to deliver the Rocky-style comeback hoped for in Overlord director Julius Avery’s dour superhero variation. Sly brings a familiar world-weary pathos to retired former hero the Samaritan, thought to have perished, who emerges from hiding when his tearaway young neighbour (Javon Walton) falls in with Pilou Asbæk’s gang leader. Asbæk’s assemblage of a small army with one rabblerousing speech typifies the sloppy plotting here, and with the action and pacing similarly undercooked, Samaritan’s waste of talent won’t give Marvel or DC sleepless nights.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, NETFLIX Director Babak Anvari (Under The Shadow) flaunts a knack for suspense with his old-school Hitchcockian thriller. George MacKay and Percelle Ascott play graffiti artists who break into the homes of London’s elite to “tag” them, only to discover a horrifying secret in a former judge’s (Hugh Bonneville) house. The twists come thick and fast yet never land as betrayals, and classy direction ensures the brutalities never succumb to empty violence. With a bone-chilling turn from Bonneville, Anvari’s twisted tale will be Friday-night catnip for genre fans.…

1962 ★★★☆☆ OUT 3 OCTOBER BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentary, Featurettes, Documentary, Booklet, Lobby cards “We can do better,” wrote a United Artists executive when faced with the prospect of virtual unknown Sean Connery taking the lead in the first James Bond adventure. Sixty years on, this extras-stuffed re-release is a collectible riposte to that man’s lack of foresight, even if the film itself lacks the polish and vim of its numerous successors. Modern viewers might also balk at its unthinking racism and sadism. In Ursula Andress’ bikini-clad emergence from the ocean, however, it has an indelible image for the ages.…

1974 ★★★★☆ OUT 26 SEPTEMBER BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Outtakes, Essay Impartiality takes a back seat in Peter Davis’ justifiably angry documentary about the Vietnam War. While the 1974 film looks at the arguments for and against the invasion, it makes no effort to hide which side it’s on, contrasting horrifying footage of the war’s cost on the Vietnamese with insulting, often unashamedly racist, proclamations from those supporting the conflict. Subtle it is not, but nor is it wrong. As former Defence Department aide Daniel Ellsberg states, “We weren’t on the wrong side. We are the wrong side.”…

‘TOP GUN ANTHEM’ TOP GUN/ TOP GUN: MAVERICK (1986/2022) Fletch’s loss was Maverick’s gain. German synth trailblazer Harold Faltermeyer – who turns 70 on 5 October – originally composed the opening bars of ‘Anthem’ for Chevy Chase’s comedy thriller. Transferred to Top Gun, ‘Anthem’ embodies ‘80s high-concept heroism in swathes of pomp, melody and hair-metal guitar. ‘AXEL F’ BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) Under deadline pressure, Faltermeyer worked all night to craft a breakdancing “patchwork” of Cop’s score. Influenced by Herbie Hancock’s ‘Rockit’, his frisky Roland synth-strumental made producers nervous. But it topped charts more than once – anyone remember Crazy Frog’s version in 2005? ‘BROADCAST ATTACK’ THE RUNNING MAN (1987) With no director or producer on hand, Faltermeyer was left alone to score Arnie’s (loose) Stephen King adaptation. Delivering dystopian…

Foodies are presently getting a tough time of it in cinema. After Welsh folk horror The Feast and Peter Strickland’s unclassifiable Flux Gourmet gave us waves of nausea, now on the menu is, er, The Menu. Couple Margot and Tyler (Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult) are among the 12 fine diners who travel to an island for the molecular-gastronomical delights of Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). But might it be their last supper? “Some of the brilliance of the writing is that it’s such a ride – ‘And then that and that and that,’” says director Mark Mylod, who rightly refuses to give any more away than we see in the unusually secretive trailer. “What I will say is that it’s incredibly original. Genuinely. There are obviously influences to every story, but…

The film has a basis in Shana Feste’s own experiences. How did you feel about portraying that on screen? I think because of the way it’s written, it’s not something that glorifies that trauma. We wanted to really try to pull from as much truth as possible. I was really up for the challenge of telling that story. Cherie isn’t just a victim – why was that important? She’s always fighting. She keeps going. There were a lot of conversations about the character’s transformation throughout the film, because she does go from zero to hero. So we wanted to really make sure that, whether it’s from her worldview right through to her physicality and the way she approaches any situation, she’s stepping into her power as the film moves on.…

For us it was very important to make a film on friendship – between two young, exiled, underage kids,” says Luc Dardenne. “We didn’t want to portray them as victims.” He’s talking about Tori And Lokita, his latest film made with brother Jean-Pierre that returns to the topic of immigration and exploitation previously tackled in their 1996 film La Promesse. This time, the subject is vulnerable youngsters. Tori (Pablo Schils) and Lokita (Mbundu Joely) are friends from Benin desperate to get their residence papers in Belgium. But owing money to people-traffickers, they are soon sucked into crime. While Tori sells marijuana on the streets, Lokita agrees to oversee a cannabis farm – a terrifying, solo existence. As ever with the Dardennes, the devil is in the detail, all supplied by…

@JOELHARLEY In early August, fans were rocked by the cancellation of DC and Warner Bros’ Batgirl. As shock waves echoed, CEO David Zaslav issued statements in PR babble, the boardroom jargon reflecting the thought process behind their decision. “We can’t find an economic case for it,” Zaslav said, “so we’re making a strategic shift.” And the tax break gained by canning the film can’t have hurt. This treatment of Batgirl speaks to a sad precedent, a landscape of Intellectual Property, Content and Franchising. An environment in which movies that aren’t a Marvel, DC or ready-packaged IP find it increasingly difficult to get into the multiplexes. A world in which Free Guy and Ambulance are the underdogs, the outliers. As studios attempt to compete with streaming, the Product is manufactured for…

Ask someone what the first thing that comes to mind when someone says ‘Chippendales dancers’ is, and usually it’s images of scantily clad men wearing white cuffs and bow ties, stripping for thirsty audiences filled with women. What almost never comes up is that the internationally famous, all-male stripping troupe was the brainchild of Indian-born US entrepreneur Somen “Steve” Banerjee and Paul Snider, a nightclub promoter and the eventual murderer of Playboy model Dorothy Stratten. Despite the Chippendales still performing to this day in their own theatre in Las Vegas and touring cities annually around the globe, their origin story remains a relative mystery to the masses. But the upcoming drama series Welcome To Chippendales aims to tell the unbelievable story of the violent events that birthed the brand and…

It was 4am in Savannah, Georgia when Jamie Lee Curtis said goodbye to Laurie Strode. Owing to the practicalities of production, Curtis’ final scene as Strode wasn’t the conclusion of Halloween Ends. Neither was Curtis filming the long-awaited showdown with babysitter butcher Michael Myers. Instead it was a quiet, contemplative moment featuring Laurie alone in her car by the side of the road. Shortly after, as Curtis watched playback of the shot from basecamp over the shoulder of sequel trilogy director David Gordon Green, the magnitude of what she was looking at hit like a chef’s knife gliding between the ribs. “I realised that would be the last time I ever saw Laurie Strode,” Curtis tells Total Film, on the verge of tears – and not for the last time…

The final scenes of a movie can make or break an entire picture. However good the previous couple of hours, if the last five minutes go spectacularly wrong, you could be looking at the difference between a classic and an also-ran. The best movie endings should feel consistent with what’s come before and emotionally satisfying. You can have the credits roll after a massive cliffhanger, have your heroes going down in a blaze of glory, let the bad guys win, or make the audience question everything they’ve just seen with a killer twist. All of the above – and many more – are represented in our list of the best movie endings of all time. Spread across 80 years of cinema history, the 25 movies are listed chronologically, rather than…

24 JUNE 2022. A date surely burnt into the consciousness of many. The day that the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling established in 1973 that enshrined abortion as a constitutional right. For the cast and creators of Call Jane, it was not entirely a surprise. After all, one of Donald Trump’s outgoing acts as president was to appointment Republican-leaning judges to the highest court in the land. “I knew something awful was going to happen,” sighs director Phyllis Nagy. “I just didn’t think it would be this awful.” Since Call Jane’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, it’s moved right into the centre of the conversation. Beginning in August 1968, it follows one woman’s induction into the Jane Collective, a group who…

@TOTALFILM_MATTL ★★★★★ ONE TO OBSSESS OVER ★★★★☆ WILL OCCUPY YOUR THOUGHTS ★★★☆☆ AREAS OF CONCERN ★★☆☆☆ IRKSOME ★☆☆☆☆ DON’T BOTHER DARLING OUT NOW 16 SEPTEMBER 22 SEPTEMBER 23 SEPTEMBER 26 SEPTEMBER 28 SEPTEMBER 30 SEPTEMBER 7 OCTOBER 10 OCTOBER ALSO RELEASED We couldn’t see them in time for this issue, so head to gamesradar.com/totalfilm for reviews of the following: TITLE RELEASE DATE For more reviews visit gamesradar.com/totalfilm EXTRAS DON’T WORRY DARLING Wilde/Pugh yonder……

★★★★☆ OUT 23 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Affluent, thirtysomething Polish couple Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Zulewska) have rented a holiday villa in Sardinia, but following a tragic accident involving a migrant worker who was repairing the swimming pool, cracks become apparent in the relationship. There are echoes of Antonioni and Haneke in this slow-burning study of bourgeois alienation from debut writer-director Aga Woszczynska. It’s shot with cool detachment – sparing dialogue, an absence of music and close-ups – yet the story speaks to our collective indifference to Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 7 OCTOBER CINEMAS Part dystopian sci-fi, part spaghetti western, all acid-laced fantasy with overtones of sapphic eroticism… French writer/director Bertrand Mandico creates a psychotropic dreamscape that’s impossible to classify, as despondent teenager Roxy (Paula Luna) travels across her female-populated planet with her mother on a quest to hunt down the supernatural killer that she unwittingly unleashed. Seemingly incomprehensible and arguably self-indulgent, it at least delivers a unique visual experience, challenging viewers with its own brand of nightmarish sensuality.…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS, DIGITAL Fleeing their abusive father, a teenager (Phillip Lewitski) and his younger half-brother (Avery Winters-Anthony) embark on a road trip in search of their mother, long thought dead. Travelling across rural Canada, they begin to reconnect with the land and their indigenous heritage, joined by a kindly two-spirit Mi’kmaq pow-wow dancer (Joshua Odjick). Writer/director Bretten Hannam presents a gentle coming-of-age drama, with a tender depiction of burgeoning teen sexuality. The lush country backdrops are as affectionately portrayed as the characters’ relationships.…

DIRECTOR Tom George STARRING Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson SCREENPLAY Mark Chappell DISTRIBUTOR Searchlight Pictures RUNNING TIME 98 mins TBC ★★★★☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS Well, here’s a delight, a comedy murder-mystery set in 1950s Theatreland that boasts a starry supporting ensemble and, at its heart, one of the most likeable screen duos we’ve seen for some time. Said duo are Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan), him methodical and world-weary, her boasting a bucketful of brio and a penchant to jump to wild conclusions. They’re called in to solve a meta-mystery, for just as Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap racks up its 100th performance on stage, Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody), the US movie director poised to adapt, is murdered backstage. “That’s the ski…

★★★☆☆ OUT 26 SEPTEMBER DIGITAL A filmmaker (Jared Rogers) thinks he’s found the perfect subject for his latest doc when he falls in with an aspiring serial killer (co-writer Ed Hartland). However, as the would-be murderer assembles a Manson-esque family, the dysfunctional group proves more prone to socially awkward in-fighting than racking up bodies. Part cringe-com, part found-footage piece, director Conor Boru’s horror-comedy meshes influences ranging from Man Bites Dog to The Office without summoning the right satirical edge.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW CINEMAS In a film based on real events, Nigerian director Obi Emelonye charts the story of a successful action-movie star (O.C. Ukeje) who becomes embroiled in an online blackmail scheme. Rather than roll over to the demands of the Russian mobsters who’ve used malware to film him watching porn, the actor chooses to track down his tormentors, putting a very particular set of skills to good use. The violence comes in shocking bursts, and Ukeje’s lead performance is raw and real. Stilted co-stars and muggy cinematography betray the low budget, but this is a fresh, vibrant version of the cyber thriller.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 26 SEPTEMBER DIGITAL It’s often said that mothers will do anything to protect their children, and director James Mark’s sci-fi thriller tests the premise. Eileen (a committed Sara Mitich) wakes up in a cell. She soon discovers that she is being held captive by a sinister organisation that threatens to kill her daughter unless she completes a series of tests. But the tests slowly unlock latent abilities in Eileen that her captors could never have anticipated. As with many high-concept thrillers, the landing isn’t quite as interesting as the set-up, but there’s fun to be had as Eileen’s untapped skill set manifests itself.…

★★★☆☆ OUT NOW SHUDDER At the heart of every home-invasion movie is a very middle-aged source of dread: house guests who won’t leave. In the wake of their housewarming party, a repressed couple (Ryan Hansen, Melissa Tang) befriend their charming but sinister neighbours (Perry Mattfeld, Timothy Granaderos). As unvoiced frustrations come to the fore, the funny games begin. Despite a strong start, writer-director Duncan Birmingham’s darkly humorous horror film gradually wears out its welcome, as well-observed sniping submits to a predictable descent into duct tape, violence and sneery monologues.…

1958/1969 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentary, Shorts, Featurette, Booklet A pair of restored gems from Czech filmmaker Vojtěch Jasný. The lyrically photographed Desire tells four stories, each unfolding over a different season in the Moravian countryside and illustrating the cycles of human existence. Even more impressive is All My Good Countrymen, banned by the authorities in 1969. An epic account of everyday lives in a farming village over several decades, it charts how Communist dogma impacts upon its characters, while affirming nature’s transcendent power. Plentiful extras.…

1987 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Interview, Alternate ending Now given the 4K treatment, Adrian Lyne’s yuppie infidelity thriller, made in the thick of the Aids crisis, remains one of the high points of ‘80s Hollywood. Michael Douglas is terrific as Dan Gallagher, the smug lawyer who throws his perfect East Coast life away for a steamy weekend fling with Glenn Close’s troubled singleton. Quite apart from giving us the term “bunny boiler”, Lyne’s film motors like a runaway train, building to an operatic crescendo as Gallagher’s chickens violently come home to roost. Sensational.…

2014 ★★★★★ OUT NOW 4K EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Featurettes, Interview, Deleted scenes Sent to war-torn France to repel invading aliens, cowardly Major Cage (Tom Cruise) is killed almost immediately, only to wake up earlier that same day. Essentially Groundhog Day remixed as a sci-fi Saving Private Ryan, Doug Liman’s overlooked actioner kicks ass on all fronts, from Emily Blunt’s super-soldier to a script cowritten by Christopher McQuarrie – and Cruise excels as a man who gradually finds the courage to put others first. This 4K re-release comes with limited extras that focus on the impressive battle scenes.…

1997-PRESENT AVAILABLE ON DVD, BD, DIGITAL, PARAMOUNT+ We made three people cry. They kept saying that it’s inappropriate for children to say those kinds of things,” recalls producer Brian Graden of a disastrous pre-release focus-group screening of South Park’s pilot episode. But when the cartoon – created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone – made its TV debut on 13 August 1997, nobody could have predicted what would happen next… At the time, Comedy Central was a fairly niche cable channel. Graden hoped that, if they were lucky, maybe they’d pick up around 200,000 viewers. Instead, 980,000 viewers tuned in to watch the debut episode. The number kept growing each episode; by the time the season-ending ‘Cartman’s Mom Is A Dirty Slut’ aired on 25 February 1998, viewing figures had…

In 2017 writer-director Martin McDonagh had the biggest hit of his career with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a film which grossed $160m on a $15m budget, made a splash at the Oscars and resonated at the dawn of the #MeToo era. “This film isn’t that,” a frank and cheerful McDonagh tells Teasers. “It’s an interesting slowburner. I didn’t want it to be showy or cool. Mostly, I didn’t want to disappoint In Bruges fans with a follow-up.” The Banshees Of Inisherin isn’t In Bruges 2 either, but it does reunite that film’s odd couple – Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson – as pals Pádraic and Colm respectively. One day Colm abruptly informs Pádraic that he no longer wants to be friends, and that every day Pádraic utters a single…

“I WAS SAYING IT NEEDS TO BE 10 SEASONS AT LEAST AND MAYBE 12, 13. I LOST THAT ONE.”IF IT WERE UP TO GEORGE RR MARTIN WE’D STILL BE WATCHING GAME OF THRONES. “My daughter, she was great, but… the chemistry wasn’t right for film, weirdly enough. [She] didn’t talk to me for about three weeks.”IDRIS ELBA GOT IN HOT WATER FOR REFUSING TO CAST HIS OWN DAUGHTER AS HIS CHARACTER’S DAUGHTER IN BEAST. 30s THE AGE BRACKET THE NEXT JAMES BOND ACTOR WILL BE IN, ACCORDING TO PRODUCERS BARBARA BROCCOLI AND MICHAEL G. WILSON. 400 THE NUMBER OF PUSH-UPS THE MCU’S HERCULES BRETT GOLDSTEIN DID ON THE DAY OF HIS LOVE AND THUNDER CAMEO, AFTER A MERE TWO WEEKS OF PREP TIME. “HE SAID, ‘WHO WOULD BELIEVE THAT UMA…

Acrooning saltwater crocodile called Lyle is the all-singing, all-dancing CGI star of musical movie, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. The project features the vocal talents of Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes in the toothy lead role of this hybrid live-action adaptation of the beloved children’s story by Bernard Waber. Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, the family-friendly film features Constance Wu, Brett Gelman, and Javier Bardem as Lyle’s flamboyant owner Hector P. Valenti, a theatrical role that required four and a half months of training. “It took six Zooms and a lot of talking to get Javier on board,” recalls Speck. “He was a little hesitant to jump in because he wanted to make sure the movie wasn’t goofy. I think we slowly broke him down. He realised that the musical…

Steve Banerjee’s story is fascinating but still relatively unknown. What was most intriguing about him? I think what makes the story interesting is that it really is the story of what it means to be successful in America and the kind of things that you have to do to be successful in America, particularly as someone who’s not American. How does America treat someone who doesn’t look like how a lot of the country thinks Americans should look and what does it take to succeed in that kind of world? Is his story just reflective of its time in the ’80s or is it more universal? It’s really situated in a very specific time and place in America, but I think it’s really applicable today. The idea of American success…

According to Li Ruijun, it’s a minor miracle that his latest film, Return To Dust, ever got made. “It took me one year to write, one year to make, one year [of] postproduction,” the Chinese director explains of a pandemic-interrupted schedule that included the gruelling eight-month shoot split into five parts. Even before that, he had a devil of a job getting it financed. “The genre and the style of this film is not something very popular in terms of commercial potential,” he sighs. “The younger generation… I believe they like genre movies more.” In truth, there isn’t a lot of action or comedy in Return To Dust, but if your tastes skew towards sensitive, sensual filmmaking with a Terrence Malick vibe then you’ll be overjoyed. “Love and life,” Li…

There’s a scene in romantic comedy Bros in which lead character Bobby is looking to hook up with a guy on a dating app but the guy won’t commit until Bobby’s sent through a butt pic (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan never had to worry about this stuff). Panicked, Bobby scurries to the bathroom to shave his ass. But hurried and horny, he nicks it with the razor. “What am I meant to do now?” he wails. “I can’t shit, I can’t fuck.” The above should put to bed any worries that a major studio making a gay romcom will mean it’s heavily sanitised for mainstream audiences. And if that doesn’t alarm Middle America, wait until Bobby states, “Jesus was gay.” “Universal was very trusting in the process,” says director…

★★★☆☆ OUT 23 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS DIRECTOR Olivia Wilde STARRING Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne SCREENPLAY Katie Silberman DISTRIBUTOR Warner Bros RUNNING TIME 121 mins Chaos,” shudders Chris Pine’s Frank, the charming-slash-menacing leader of the community at the heart of Olivia Wilde’s psychological thriller. “A nasty word.” It’s certainly a word that could be used to describe the pre-release headlines, discourse and tea-spilling surrounding Don’t Worry Darling’s casting changes, on-set relationships and competing publicity narratives. A distraction from, or overshadowing of, a film that aims to unpack relevant conversations around gender politics, female allyship and gaslighting? Or a buzz generator that might push more people into cinemas to see it out of rubbernecking curiosity? Either way, the themes of Darling are as pertinent to…

★★★☆☆ OUT 14 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS After the brutal murder of his daughter, a mild-mannered pastor (Michael Lombardi) takes his chance to get medieval on the perpetrator when he meets a rogue detective (Marc Menchaca) with a thirst for vengeance. Directors Bridget Smith and Samuel Gonzalez Jr. serve up some old-school gore and questionable morals, all baked in a seedy atmosphere. Rockers Tommy Lee and Ivan L. Moody cameo, though Brit co-star Joseph Gatt’s villain leaves the strongest impression. Building to a crescendo of bloodshed, this is nasty with a capital ‘N’.…

★★★★☆ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS, SKY CINEMA DIRECTOR Kogonada STARRING Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Sarita Choudhury, Haley Lu Richardson, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja SCREENPLAY Kogonada DISTRIBUTOR Sky Cinema RUNNING TIME 96 mins Do androids dream of electric sheep? Not in this thoughtful sci-fi mood piece they don’t. Yet that does not mean they can’t keep secrets from their owners, or experience the same feelings of yearning, attachment and loss. Set in a future America where cloning and “techno sapiens” are everyday realities, After Yang offers a ruminative exploration of one robot’s surprising inner world. What it also reveals, though, is the gap he leaves behind when he suddenly goes kaput: a hole Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) didn’t realise was hiding in plain sight in the…

★★★★☆ OUT NOW DIGITAL The hoary old adage “never meet your heroes” proves particularly apt in Brea Grant’s Nashville-set horror film. When two country singers (Abby Quinn, Alexxis Lemire) pitch up at the mansion of reclusive star Harper Dutch (a deliciously spiteful Katey Sagal), the duo find themselves on the receiving end of Dutch’s malicious games. Simmering tensions boil over into very real consequences, however, in a cautionary tale of toxic ambition and faltering female solidarity. Authentic country tunes add well-studied local flavour to Grant’s razor-sharp take on Southern gothic horror.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 23 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Co-directed by Raj Patel and Zak Piper, and 10 years in the making, this is a climate-change documentary with a difference: its narrator Anita Chitaya is a community activist and organic farmer from the Global South. Travelling from her drought-ridden Malawian village to the USA, she is determined to persuade American farmers that the climate emergency is ruining lives around the world. Providing its own variation on the titular Aesop’s fable, the film serves as a call to action on individual, collective and international levels.…

★★★★☆ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Despite a background in visual effects, director Matt Carter delivers an understated drama as his impressive feature-length debut – one that he also co-wrote, edited and scored. The result, which explores an affair between two male players in a gay rugby league, is fraught with both tenderness and tension. Exploring how deception and acts of betrayal can ripple through an all-important team dynamic, the film offers a compellingly intimate – rather than salacious – view of romantic complications, even if the final act races too fast to the goal line.…

★★★★☆ OUT 23 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS The debut feature film from actor-turned-director Antonia Campbell-Hughes follows the fallout of a car accident in which intense Hamish (Cosmo Jarvis) encounters creepy teen Evan (Rhys Mannion). Between Hamish’s mangled arm and the sexually charged dynamics, there’s a Cronenbergian air to this bleak Donegal-set thriller. The lead actors simmer at each other with an almost menacing air of sexual tension, while Campbell-Hughes pops up in a brief but memorable supporting role. Proof that effective body horror doesn’t necessarily need lashings of gore.…

★★★★☆ OUT 30 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS Newly married filmmakers Andela and Davor Rostuhar spent their honeymoon on a year-long tour of the world, interviewing couples of every creed and colour to explore whether human experiences of love are universal. As this documentary takes in such diverse topics as love matches, arranged marriages, elopement, polyamory, infidelity, forgiveness, children and death, what could have been saccharine is instead deeply touching. The result is a delicately assembled mosaic of intimacy, hinged on the mystery of what it means to be connected to another person.…

★★☆☆☆ OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL This daft DTV potboiler, directed by James Cullen Bressack, stars Kevin Dillon as an IT worker who is forced to use his prodigious computer skills to siphon millions from a bank when an anonymous criminal rigs his office chair with a bomb. While there’s an initially endearing stupidity to the script’s Speed-meets-Hackers setup, it quickly fizzles out. If nothing else, Hot Seat proves once again that geeky technobabble (“It’ll look like a standard DDoS attack!”) and repetitive shots of fingers bashing at keyboards are anathema to generating tension and keeping viewers engaged.…

★★★☆☆ OUT 23 SEPT CINEMAS With shades of Hal Ashby’s Harold And Maude, New Zealand director Matthew J. Saville’s debut feature explores the relationship between suicidal teenager Sam (George Ferrier), grieving for the recent loss of his mother, and his grandmother Ruth (Charlotte Rampling). Alcoholic and acid-tongued, Ruth is a former war photographer whose broken leg confines her to a wheelchair. Set against a verdant North Island backdrop, the drama offers few narrative surprises, but Rampling is typically impressive at conveying a confrontational character’s mixture of steeliness and emotional vulnerability.…

1952 ★★★★★ OUT NOW BD EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Documentary, Interview, Trailer, Booklet A favourite of its writer-director Vittorio De Sica, this Italian neorealist masterpiece about an elderly man trying to raise the money needed to avoid being evicted makes a second appearance on UK Blu-ray. Seemingly derived from an alternate HD source than the earlier disc (not necessarily better or worse, just different in its strengths and weaknesses), Criterion’s package also sports completely different extras – although still not the tissues needed to make it through the film’s heart-wrenching climax.…

1972 ★★★★★ OUT 26 SEPTEMBER BD EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Featurettes, Essay Reclaiming the western for those it had previously underserved, Sidney Poitier’s directorial debut sees him star as Buck alongside Harry Belafonte (the preacher) and Ruby Dee (Buck’s wife). A pioneering piece of Black cinema offering an ahead-of-its-time portrayal of Native Americans, it’s also rollicking fun: an exciting, frequently hilarious buddy comedy that subverts and exceeds almost every expectation. Extras include behind-the-scenes footage, scholarly analysis and a new interview with Belafonte’s daughter Gina.…

1992 ★★★☆☆ OUT 26 SEPTEMBER BD EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Alternate cut, Featurettes, Interviews, Outtakes, Booklet Jackie Chan is joined by the fantastic Michelle Yeoh in this third Police Story, which sees his titular Hong Kong Supercop out of his element as he goes undercover in mainland China. If fewer fight scenes mean martial-arts fans may come away disappointed, there’s still plenty of hair-raising onscreen action to savour – most notably a stunt-tastic finale that sees Chan dangling hundreds of feet up beneath a helicopter and Yeoh jumping a motorbike onto a moving train.…

TOY/COLLECTIBLE AVATAR LEGO OUT 1 OCTOBER Before we get to The Way Of Water, let’s tackle the building of brick sets. Pandora goes plastic with Toruk Makto & Tree Of Souls, which includes four minifigures including a foil-winged Toruk, a Direhorse and the sacred, Soul-ful centrepiece, with its funky pink foliage. Glows in the dark, too (handy for avoiding those late-night barefoot accidents). Other Avatar sets are also flying in soon; obtain ’em at lego.com. HOMEWARE STRANGER THINGS VHS LOGO LIGHT OUT NOW Had a busy day, runnin’ up that hill, runnin’ up that road and so forth? Then it’s time to relax with this officially licensed lamp, which’ll turn frowns upside down (ahem) with its evocative red glow. The VHS stylings, meanwhile, are so uncanny that older purchasers will…

★★★★★ OUT NOW ANDROID, IOS (VIA NETFLIX), PC, XBOX SERIES S/X With 2015’s BAFTA-winning Her Story and 2019 follow-up Telling Lies, writer/director Sam Barlow redefined the detective game, asking players to filter live-action video clips to solve a mystery. Immortality deepens the cinema connection, presenting footage from the rehearsals and shooting of three films starring fictional actor Marissa Marcel. The big difference is how you explore these snippets: using an editing tool, you can target individual people and objects, with match cuts transporting you to a similar frame from another scene. This unconventional investigating takes some getting used to. But this is no ordinary mystery. Barlow and his collaborators – including the screenwriters behind Don’t Look Now and Mr. Robot – have concocted an enthralling narrative that confronts our relationship…

★★★★★ MICHAEL MANN, MEG GARDINER HARPERCOLLINS The prologue whizzes us through the events of Heat the motion picture: the stakeouts, the coffee meet, the takedown of the Far East National Bank at 444 South Flower Street in Los Angeles, and detective Vincent Hanna’s killing of crew leader Neil McCauley at the foot of an LAX runway. Then we’re in Koreatown one day later, with a wounded Chris Shiherlis desperate to escape before Hanna sniffs him out. It’s a claustrophobic, electric opening, but master filmmaker-turned-author Michael Mann and crime novelist Meg Gardiner have grand ambitions for Heat 2. Like Coppola’s The Godfather Part II, this riveting tale is both prequel and sequel. In 1988, Hanna and McCauley unknowingly circle one another in Mann’s hometown of Chicago. It’s still a world of…