Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Total Film

Always a pleasure to have Keanu Reeves on our cover, and this month is a corker as John Wick gets a fourth outing and Reeves promises that he's more badass than ever. As one of Hollywood's longest-serving action stars (and a thoroughly decent chap), getting to chat with Reeves is always a treat (I talked to him for Bill & Ted and my teen self was freaking out!) and we've gone for a deep dive into the ever-expanding world of Wick. That's not the only franchise we're digging into: get ready for Kang in Ant-Man 3 - a baddie essayed by Jonathan Majors who is also doing sterling work in Creed III. We chat to him about getting into the ring, and we also discuss cancel culture and more with…

TEASERS Recently, Paul Mescal played Marlon Brando on stage. Well, not Brando exactly, but the brutish Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, a role Brando helped make famous. Mescal approached it as a new role, a boxing-clever strategy that may help the indie star as he navigates the colosseum of spectacle cinema, following in the sandalsteps of another huge performance. Mescal seems likely to lead Ridley Scott's Gladiator 2 as Lucius, son to Lucilla and nephew to Commodus from the original film. And while Russell Crowe's command over his audience will take some matching, Mescal will surely win the crowd. To date, his fascination with exploring the - he says “many different versions of masculinity that interest me” has resulted in work of range, power and depth:…

Q&A What drew you to Other People's Children? When I read the script, I immediately felt something very intimate. And I recognised myself, with my own experiences. I've been in the position of [being in a relationship with] a man who then left me and I had to leave his kids as well. But besides that there is a special relationship with a world that a woman has… a tendency to be by yourself and to feel a connection to a family whenever you meet one. How did you find Rebecca as a director? Rebecca didn't make any mystery of what she was about to do. She's someone that can put music on a set just to give you an idea of the pace and the rhythm. And she also…

UNDER THE SKIN Jonathan Glazer's otherworldly masterpiece was shot on the streets of Glasgow, so where better to give it a 10th-anniversary screening? To make the event more special still, Mica Levi's instantly iconic score will be performed live by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. GIRL Also set in Glasgow, this riveting debut by writer-director Adura Onashile examines the relationship between Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and her 11-year-old daughter, Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu), in a hostile community. The film announces Onashile as a bold new voice in British cinema. MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK Can anyone say anything new about the Master of Suspense? Well, if anyone can, it's Mark Cousins (The Story Of Film. The Eyes Of Orson Welles), and this documentary dives deep into Hitch's recurring themes of loneliness, desire…

Q&A What was the attraction of getting on the set of a Walter Hill western? One of the things that was exciting about this film is it plays with so many of these western tropes - but when Walter and I first spoke about the project, he expressed this desire to contribute to the canon in a new way, and be a part of its evolution. It's encouraging to see that at 80 years old, someone like Walter is still curious enough to grow and evolve. It's inspiring. How would you characterise him as a director? Has very direct, which I love. There's no bullshit! He warned me that this project would never have enough time, and never have enough money, and that it would be fast and furious. So…

Expected to release later this year, though officially undated, Ballerina is the first big-screen John Wick spin-off. Directed by Underworld's Len Wiseman, it stars Ana de Armas (pictured above in No Time To Die) as the titular, classically trained assassin, and features an appearance from one J. Wick. “It's a cool story,” says Reeves. “Len Wiseman has a vision, but is also embracing, affectionately, the world of John Wick. Ian McShane is in it as Winston. So I felt that there was a cool handoff of stewardship, and it was fun to put the suit on again, however briefly. There's a reason for [John] to be in Ballerina; it's very organic. And working with Ana was great. She really loves action, and she's really good at it.” Writer Shay Hatten…

Q&A How did you react to being cast as Cassie Lang? I was overly excited. I'm a big fan of Ant-Man and a huge fan of Paul Rudd. And then to get to work with the creative team behind it… Peyton Reed, our director, is a super mega positron! He was always positive and happy, and made me feel like a superhero. Can you describe Cassie for us? I look at Cassie Lang like me. She's just a girl who's trying to figure it out. She's kind of a mess. Like you are when you're young. You think you know everything and you're a little impatient. She's a bit impatient. In a way, we all want to be superheroes. But there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that. And…

Q&A How are you finding talking Sharper while keeping its secrets? It's very difficult knowing how much to reveal. I want to preserve how I felt when I read it of sudden onion layers being peeled back. How did you prepare for all of Max's layers? I read about con people in general, and how strategy and vulnerability are a big part of getting what they want. Gaslighting and abuse is a lot like that. It's terrible. But con artists are also very much like undercover agents, and i have studied undercover agents in the past. They're still human and can lose track of emotions and believe their lies. It's more than the most obvious conclusion that they are just sociopaths. Max doesn't seem like a sociopath… He's not. Ben…

“That actually wasn't written in the script. It was something that Ti thought of on the day before we shot it. He came up to me and said, ‘Listen, I have this idea, rather than freezeframe we'll just keep going and see what happens. And if nothing comes of it, fine, we'll just stick with the freezeframe.’ “I was like, ‘Oh, OK'. I really didn't think it through at all, because I'd say that my body always has better ideas than my head. If I start thinking things through too much, i'm going to get in the way of my intuition, and your instincts are always what's going to lead you in the right direction. “So we started filming. I wasn't thinking too much. I was just very present, and…

OUT 17 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Florian Zeller follows his Oscar-winning directorial debut The Father with another adap of one of his own plays. The helmer again teams with Anthony Hopkins, who only appears in a cameo (albeit a deliciously spiteful one). This time, the heavy lifting is shouldered by Hugh Jackman as New York attorney Peter, Laura Dern as ex-wife Kate, and Zen McGrath as their son, 17-year-old Nicholas. Wounded by his father leaving his mother for a younger woman (Vanessa Kirby, under-served) and starting a new family, Nicholas has sunk into a depression his parents can't seem to get a handle on, let alone understand how to ease. Co-written by The Father's Christopher Hampton, The Son betrays its theatrical origins with minimal locations and dialogue that feels stagey on screen.…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Anomadic mule freed from the circus embarks on an improbable journey across the breadth of Europe in the latest from Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski (2010's Essential Killing, 2015's 11 Minutes), a homage of sorts to Robert Bresson's 1966 drama Au Hasard Balthazar that would make a fine triple bill with Andrea Arnold's Cow and pig doc Gunda. Soccer hooligans, animal-rights campaigners and a randy trucker are among the people its carrot-chomping protagonist encounters in an episodic fable that feels at times like it's being made up on the hoof. Although there is something winningly peculiar about the whole affair, not least when Isabelle Huppert turns up as a plate-smashing countess who appears to have the hots for her priestly stepson (Lorenzo Zurzolo). It's certainly a triumph…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Billed as being “on the cusp between autofiction and documentary”, Husband sees married couple/co-directors Devorah Baum and Josh Appignanesi again turn the camera on their own relationship (after 2016's The New Man). Baum has gone to New York with their two kids to promote her book Feeling Jewish; Appignanesi is filming the trip and commenting on his own emotional state. We're frequently reminded of the artificiality of the filmmaking process and that the pair are adopting on-screen personas, which makes for an experience both amusing and wearying.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS This spin-off movie from the popular anime show offers a dynamic adventure, albeit one that's only really accessible to existing fans. Steeped in previous story arcs, it follows Hiro, last of the ogres, who has to confront his own rage when he encounters the ores responsible for killing his species. For all the rich mythology of Demon Lords and evolutionary powers, the story suffers from a focus on Hiro's internal struggle rather than a clear external threat, leading to a highly emotional but somewhat anticlimactic ending.…

SCREEN OUT 24 FEBRUARY CINEMAS By Oscar-winning documentarian Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna), this elegant film of choreographer Akram Khan's 2021 ballet - about a lovestruck human “creature” in an Arctic lab - is a tender, visceral piece. Kapadia's camerawork makes lead dancer Jeffrey Cirio's animalistic solos feel sharply expressive and deftly captures the Creature's love for downtrodden cleaner Marie. But the dystopian setting, droning electronic score and opaque symbolism (the Apollo 11 take-off makes several baffling soundtrack appearances) suggest that probably only hardcore dance enthusiasts will puzzle out its true meaning.…

OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL Prachya Pinkaew, the director who brought Tony Jaa's incredible stunt skills to global attention in 2003's Ong-Bak, serves as producer for this similar - on the surface, at least - actioner, which serves as a showcase for new martial-arts talent D.Y. Sao. Alas, Sao is clearly more choreographer than actor, struggling to muster much screen presence in his role as a newly appointed night watchman given supernatural powers by a Death God. It all adds up to a nonsensical narrative saddled with cheap effects, which sadly undermines the otherwise impressive fighting feats on display.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS He's saved the world a few times already, so you'd imagine that landing a plane full of passengers during a nerve-shredding electrical storm would be peanuts for Gerard Butler. And you'd be right. But that's just the warmup act for this wham-bam action thriller directed by Jean-Frangois Richet (Mesrine) and co-starring Mike Colter. Bone-crunching and brain-draining, Plane is standard Cannon-era B-movie silliness glitzed up with a blockbuster sheen. It's a raucous and reckless good time where you will learn nothing and be thankful for it. Rarely, these days, are we treated to this kind of pure, dumb fun.…

OUT 10 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Experimental filmmaker Treasa O'Brien's doc explores the effects of immigration on the small town of Gort, which boasts the biggest number of different nationalities in Ireland. If O'Brien's attempts to blur real life and fiction aren't always successful, there's still much to savour. Taking a meta approach, the director auditions participants to be in the film, which emerges as a series of charming interviews and improvised scenarios. The result is a nuanced portrait of what “home” means, where a sense of displacement can co-exist with a sense of belonging.…

SCREEN OUT NOW CINEMAS Shot over a four-year period, Italian filmmaker Victoria Fiore's debut feature is a “creative documentary”, which explores the world of charismatic 12-year-old Entoni, who lives in the Spanish Quarters district of Naples. His father is in prison and his grandmother is a former crime boss; Entoni is thus the type of high-risk child that authorities are seeking to remove from households involved in organised crime. Neither demonising nor glamorising its subjects, Nascondino is a vibrantly shot portrait of both an individual family and an underprivileged community and its collective rituals.…

OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL “The best ivory-box player I've ever heard,” said Count Basie of iconic Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. Yet this solid, archive-packed and frankly adoring portrait of his rise from wartime Montreal prodigy to racism-fighting international star skimps on his legendary performances, in favour of concert tributes by Toronto musicians. Peterson's incredible range and keyboard technique inspired jazz greats like Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock, who join a chorus of fond but increasingly repetitive praise here from famous fans including Billy Joel and Branford Marsalis.…

1940 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Video essays, Radio adaps, Vintage short, Booklet, Poster Four years before they teamed up in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944), Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray shared the screen in this sparkling romcom about a district attorney who falls for the shoplifter he's been prosecuting. Although writer Preston Sturges was unhappy with the changes director Mitchell Leisen made to soften his script, his wit still shines through all the way to the film's unexpectedly bittersweet ending. Extras include a detailed appreciation of Stanwyck's life and career.…

1985 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Documentary, Featurettes, Video essay, Deleted scenes, AFI seminar, Essay It's not as laugh-out-loud as Fast Times At Ridgemont High. It doesn't feel as authentic as Dazed And Confused. The finale completely betrays Ally Sheedy's proto-goth character, Allison. Yet say what you will about The Breakfast Club, few films have communicated so effectively the struggles teenagers have navigating social groups and living up (or even down) to the expectations of their parents. As good as the film's central quintet - Molly Ringwald (the “princess”), Emilio Estevez (the“athlete”), Anthony Michael Hall (the “brain”), Sheedy (the “basket case”) and Judd Nelson (the “criminal”) - may be, the MVP is unquestionably writer/director John Hughes. While there's a handful of lines that sound like a middle-aged writer's idea of…

COLOURS OF FILM: THE STORY F CINEMA IN 50 PALETTES After making the devastating claim that a movie's original palette is forever lost over time through degradation and manipulation, film critic Charles Bramesco explores the importance of colour in cinema. With a keen focus on emotional and thematic value, he deep-dives into 50 films that “attempt to explore the full potential of colour”, ranging from The Wizard Of z's glittery wonderland to the “filthy tones” of Se7en. Each entry's forensic analysis is a tad verbose, but therein lie shrewd conceptual interpretations and expert technical insights. MATT LOOKER AGANGS FL NDON STORY:GHOSTS Free to read online (at gangsflndongraphicnovel. com), this is a short, snappy prologue to the recent second season of Sky's visceral gangland drama. It's centred on ex-undercover cop Elliot,…

TRAINING DAYS Born in 1954, Jackie Chan (birth name: Chan Kong-sang) was enrolled in the China Drama Academy at the age of five. There he spent 10 years undergoing gruelling (some might say abusive) physical training in acrobatics, martial arts, dance and other skills. While performing in the school's Seven Little Fortunes troupe, Chan befriended fellow students/future co-stars Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao (see Wheels On Meals et al); together they became known as the ‘Three Dragons'. SLAPSTICK SHIFT Having worked as a stuntman and extra in his late teens, Chan was promoted as a potential successor to Bruce Lee. However, the traditional kung-fu dramas he was cast in didn't suit Chan's personality and audiences steered clear. His big break finally came in 1978 with the double whammy of Snake…

HAVE YOUR SAY TOTALFILM.COM VIDEOS • REVIEWS • TRAILERS • NEWS totalfilm.com twitter.com/totalfilm facebook.com totalfilm@futurenet.com STAR LETTER As much as I enjoyed your Review Of The Year supplement [TF332], I was shocked to see that, though you rightly mention the hilarious Blackbird as a turkey of the year, you didn't mention its fantastic namesake starring Taron Egerton and the mesmerising Paul Walter Hauser as one of the top TV shows of 2022. Yet your list included the very hit-and-miss Obi-Wan Kenobi and the disappointing Cabinet Of Curiosities. As an aside, can anyone think of other films and/or TV shows that have the same title but are polar opposites in quality? For example, The Avengers (1998) and The Avengers (2012), or Crossroads (1986), Crossroads (2002) and Crossroads (1964-88). MARK HUNTER, BLAYDON ON…

NEWS EDITOR JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY Spoke to Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen and loads more about John Wick: Chapter 4 this issue. Main takeaways: it's going to kick ass, and Keanu Reeves has a disarmingly highpitched giggle. DEPUTY EDITOR MATT MAYTUM @MATTMAYTUM Found Seth Rogen to be an intriguing interviewee - he was smart and funny, but it wasn't until I mentioned ‘cancel culture’ in comedy that he really got fired up… CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JAMES MOTTRAM @JAMESMOTTRAM Didn't just chat the upcoming Ant-Man threequel with Paul Rudd. We bonded over ‘80s bands. Turns out he's a big Depeche Mode fan. Just can't get enough - of Rudd. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR LEILA LATIF @LEILA_LATIF The Sharper team interviews were memorable: Sebastian Stan was thrilled that we were both wearing purple hoodies, Briana Middleton was getting a tattoo,…

TEASERS I feel lucky that I've been able to play quite a lot,” says Vivian Oparah, who brings the fun as messy singleton Yas in Raine Alien-Miller's South London-set romance, Rye Lane. Following a stint at the National Youth Theatre, and small-screen appearances in Doctor Who spin-off Class and Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You, a major breakout awaits. It's a film that shows a different side to South London. Did that appeal? There's so much colour in these places. It gets lost. There are obviously things that ping out about these places as well. People seem to gravitate towards telling those stories. And those voices are also really important to be heard. But there's a beauty in the mundane everydayness of places like Peckham that I think we captured…

Like Primer, Timecrimes or Safety Not Guaranteed, Andrew Legge's LOLA is a low-fi sci-fi that teases audiences with time-travel tropes. In this case, 1940s sisters Martha (Stefanie Martini) and Thomasina (Emma Appleton) invent a machine - which they dub ‘LOLA’ - capable of intercepting radio waves from the future. Legge had already road-tested the idea, in a way, in his 2009 short The Chronoscope, about an Irish scientist who creates a device to look into the past. Nevertheless, Legge felt a story examining what's gone before was “dramatically more limited” by holding few surprises. “It's difficult to drive a full feature.” Reversing the idea on LOLA, he adds: “The thing that really made me want to make the movie was the idea of these characters getting exposed to culture from…

I have a lot of films that mean a lot to me,” purrs Charlotte Gainsbourg. Understandable, when collaborators include Todd Haynes (I'm Not There), Alejandro Iñárritu (21 Grams) and Lars von Trier (Antichrist, Nymphomaniac, Melancholia). Now, the daughter of French singer Serge Gainsbourg and English actress Jane Birkin adds director Scott Cooper, for gothic mystery The Pale Blue Eye, to that esteemed list. We've just seen you alongside Christian Bale in Netflix's The Pale Blue Eye. How was the experience? It was wonderful. Yeah, I got to join them in Pittsburgh, which is not that fun! You co-starred with Bale before, on Bob Dylan film I'm Not There. Were you a big Dylan fan? My father was. It was the first thing he said. If you had to buy one…

THE KILLER 1989 John Woo's hugely influential Hong Kong actioner sees Chow Yun-Fat's assassin and Danny Lee's cop gun down dozens of gangsters in a church before coming up against Shing FuiOn's triad for one final shoot-out, as the latter grabs a damsel for a body shield. Pistols in both hands… Nobody does stand-offs better than Woo. THE DUELLISTS 1977 Ridley Scott's acclaimed debut, set in the early 19th century, boasts more duels than you can shake a bayonet at, though none better than the classic face-off between Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine's rivals in the grounds of a ruined chateau. Tricked into discharging both his pistols, Keitel's Feraud is left alive by Carradine's character, but with his honour permanently tarnished. BARRY LYNDON 1975 Set in a tithe barn, pigeons…

SPOTLIGHT JONATHAN MAJORS When Jonathan Majors was 14 years old in Texas, he was pushing lawnmowers, selling candy at school, working two more jobs, and striving to be class president. The drive, he says, was just a part of him, and he now thanks his career for it - a career that's accelerated at breakneck speed since turning heads in 2019's award-winning indie drama The Last Black Man In San Francisco. Since then, Spike Lee's drama Da 5 Bloods, HBO's mystery horror Lovecraft Country, hip western The Harder They Fall and Marvel's Loki have established his major credentials, and now he's making the leap to bona fide movie star by playing the antagonists in both Creed III and Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. So is he satiated? Hell, no - the…

TF INVESTIGATES TROUBLED SHOOTS 'ALL GOOD HERE’ When rumours started circulating in early January that the production of Francis Ford Coppola's long-in-gestation passion project Megalopolis was spiralling out of control, the veteran director wasted no time shutting them down. “I don't know what anyone's talking about,” he announced from his film's Atlanta set. “I love my cast, I love what I'm getting each day, I am on schedule and on budget.” Star Adam Driver was just as quick to rubbish a report that claimed the Godfather auteur's self-financed future opus had been beset by ballooning costs and crew exits. “All good here!” he stated bullishly. “Not sure what set you're talking about! I've been on sets that were chaotic, and this one is far from it.” Given how long Megalopolis has…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS DIRECTOR Darren Aronofsky STARRING Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton SCREENPLAY Samuel D, Hunter DISTRIBUTOR A24 RUNNING TIME 117 mins As the headlines attest, Brendan Fraser's awardsbothering performance is the main event in The Whale, in which he plays a living-with-obesity recluse who's seeking forgiveness from his estranged daughter - and himself. Darren Aronofsky's button-pushing adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter's hit play sees the star buried in a 6oolb body-adjustment suit, with wispy hair, clammy skin and the sadness of a condemned animal in his eyes. Fraser's Charlie is a man whose addictive emotional eating has brought him to the edge of death in his cramped Idaho apartment. Imprisoned by his own shame and lack of mobility, he spends his days teaching…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Documentary filmmaker Alice Diop (We, La Permanence) won the Silver Lion at last year's Venice Film Festival for her narrative debut, Saint Omer. A courtroom drama based on a true story, it calls “objection” to the tropes of Hollywood's legal thrillers. Precise and poised, it subtly subverts as it coolly scorches. In 2016, Senegalese immigrant Fabienne Kabou was tried for the murder of her 15-month-old baby. She did not deny the charge, but claimed “witchcraft” had driven her to it. Diop attended the trial in the small town of Saint-Omer between Calais and Lille, and here puts Senegalese Frenchwoman Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda, excellent) in the witness box, with dialogue from the actual events woven into the screenplay. Instead of grandstanding speeches and heated stand-offs we…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS, DIGITAL Patricia (Haley Bennett) hasn't seen ex-husband Idris (Sam Riley) for a decade… until she checks into a Cornwall hotel managed by him and new girlfriend Louise (Industry standout Marisa Abela). The former marrieds gradually unpack what went wrong between them in a comic-tinged drama that plays more like a sketch than a fleshed-out feature (one lacking a credible third act). It's heartfelt and occasionally funny, but Brit director Jamie Adams’ (Black Mountain Poets) semiimprovised approach leaves Riley and Bennett floundering. Even at a brisk 75 minutes, it feels padded out.…

OUT 24 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Drawing on her own experiences of living in Pakistan with then-husband Imran Khan, writer/producer Jemima Khan crafts an account of British-Pakistani culture in the form of a Working Title romcom very much in the Richard Curtis mould. Add a plot device lifted from When Harry Met Sally..., and this entertaining yarn proves to be an apt melting pot of familiar influences. Directed by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth), it stars Lily James as unluckyin-love documentarian Zoe, who decides to film her childhood neighbour and best friend Kaz (Shazad Latif) after he agrees to an assisted marriage. So begins a journey that takes in family-arranged introductions, speed dating and a trip to Pakistan for Kaz's eventual nuptials. Capturing it all on camera, Zoe begins to wonder whether this “simmer…

OUT NOW PRIME VIDEO Following Marry Me, Jennifer Lopez's wedding-flick output continues with this daft but harmless romp charting the misadventures of engaged couple Darcy (J.Lo) and Tom (Josh Duhamel, replacing the beleaguered Armie Hammer) when their nuptials on an island in the Philippines are interrupted by gun-toting pirates. He's a groomzilla, she's got cold feet… but maybe a little murder and mayhem can make them simpatico? Like The Lost City, Shotgun Wedding trades on the nuclear charm of its lead, decent chemistry and some Romancing The Stone-esque peril. Serviceable.…

OUT 24 FEBRUARY CINEMAS You will never meet a kinder bunch of illegal baby traffickers than the makeshift family that Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda assembles in his first Korean-language feature. Broker is a road movie-slash-crime yarn about a duo of infant sellers (Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won) who team up with their latest acquisition's birth mother (Lee Ji-eun) to find new parents for her child. Centred on church-run “baby boxes” that allow new parents in South Korea to safely abandon offspring they are unable to care for, Broker finds Kore-eda flirting with genre elements (dogged cops, a murdered gangster) in ways that suggest a darker film. Yet the director of Shoplifters (2018) and Catherine Deneuve drama The Truth (2019) is too much of a humanist to maintain the pretence for long. A…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS One-time Chumbawamba frontman Dunstan Bruce's cheerful and unrepentantly radical film memoir scores highest when nostalgically raking over Bruce's anarcho-pop past with his ‘Tubthumping’ chums. Their journey from a Leeds squat to chart-topping, politician-soaking squabblers is a wild ride, richly stuffed with archive footage. But Bruce's inclusion of narcissistic art-school-style stunts gets tedious pretty quickly. And only hardcore fans will sing and dance at the inclusion of his shouty new pensioner-punk band, Interrobang.…

OUT 24 FEBRUARY CINEMAS A worthy Queer Palm winner at Cannes'22, Saim Sadiq's Pakistani debut made headlines when it was banned at home, then cut for release. But although Sadiq's drama of transgender desire busts boundaries, Joyland is also the gentlest of groundbreakers: a sharply funny and occasionally sorrowful character piece, it anatomises traditional and modern values with scrupulous nuance. Ali junejo plays Haider, a stay-at-home husband caring for his nieces while his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq) works. His father (Salmaan Peerzada) disapproves, then disapproves doubly when Haider finds work at an ‘erotic’ dance theatre. While Mumtaz negotiates homefront duties, Haider starts hoofing - and soon falls for trans performer Biba (Alina Khan). As studies of flawed yet complex individuals at transitional life points emerge, even grumpy dad draws some…

OUT 20 FEBRUARY DIGITAL After learning that death is not the end, the world struggles to come to terms with a radically changed state of existence in this sci-fi road movie. When a doctor (Karen Gillan, plus dodgy accent) begins conducting experiments on the afterlife, strangers Rose (Katie Parker) and Teddy (Rahul Kohli) decide to up sticks and volunteer for medically monitored euthanasia. Directed by Mali Elfman (yes, daughter of Danny), this is a haunting, bittersweet and sharply observed dark comedy, mining laughs from the savage gallows humour of its leading pair, who have chemistry for miles.…

OUT 13 FEBRUARY DIGITAL The life and work of Dolly Parton run through this quirky Australian comedy drama like a streak of peroxide, serving not just as inspiration for dye-hard fan Red (Krew Boylan), but for anyone needing a spot of personal advice. An impromptu performance leads Red to explore whether being a Dolly impersonator is a way to make a living, finding comfort and confidence along the way. Offbeat laughs sit uneasily alongside emotional moments, but the smart script highlights the contradictions found in discovering yourself while pretending to be someone else.…

1997 OUT 10 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Sailing back into cinemas, newly remastered, James Cameron's world-conquering take on the RMS Titanic's tragic maiden voyage still wows 25 years after its original UK release. A fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet bring the romantic spark as class-crossed lovers Jack and Rose, while Billy Zane has moustache-twirling, scenery-devouring fun as Rose's dastardly fiance. But it's that final act, as the “unsinkable” luxury liner hits an iceberg, that truly haunts and thrills, brilliantly capturing the courage, carnage and chaos of the real-life disaster.…

BABYLON The music that drives Damien Chazelle's Tinseltown epic is also a sizzling standalone listen. Chazelle regular Justin Hurwitz modernises ‘20s sounds here, fuelling jazzband squalls with hot-wired rock ‘n’ roll and repetitive beats. Over-repetitive? Perhaps, but ‘Voodoo Mama’ and ‘Coke Room’ are proper bangers. While vintage Hollywood nods mount elsewhere, Hurwitz's imprint holds firm: from ‘Champagne’ to the wistful ‘Manny And Nellie's Theme', the gist is essentially La La Land’wayward sister in druggy motion. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER From water to war, Simon Franglen navigates Pandora with glinting detail and symphonic scope. Even if the late James Horner's original score soared more, Franglen leaps off from the family theme of ‘Leaving Home’ to stake out lush extremes, setting liquid electronics and rapturous chorales alongside deceptively complex, melodic action…

RUN LOLA RUN Does what it says on the tin as redhead Lola (Franka Potente) legs it all over Berlin through three different timelines in pursuit of 100,000 DM to rescue her boyfriend from being killed by a drug dealer. What a difference tripping over a dog makes… CHARIOTS OF FIRE Oh look, posh chaps belting around Cambridge quads before clocks strike 12, yomping along the beaches, appreciating Gilbert and Sullivan, and entering the 1924 Olympics to change opinions toVangelis’ chiming, emotive soundtrack. Bally good show. TRAINSPOTTING Danny Boyle'Zeitgeist pulse-uickener is fast-paced straight out the gate, opening with shoplifting heroin addicts pegging it down Princes Street pursued by security guards. Renton (Ewan McGregor) is only mildly slowed by a car. ‘Lust For Life’ indeed. THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD…

GEORGE TIMMS BBFC COMPLIANCE OFFICER George Timms completed an MA in literature but knew what she really wanted to do was talk about films without going down the route of journalism or academia. While she was working as a manager at a cinema, a friend described the interview of a BBFC compliance officer and, she says, “I could feel lights switching on in my brain.” After “circling the BBFC website like a shark” for a role, Timms joined the BBFC in 2016. How would you describe your role in simple terms? I watch films, TV episodes and other content and assign each one an age rating, usually alongside ratings info containing a summary of the main classification issues. I also write a more detailed description of the issues for our…

DRUNKEN MASTER 1978 Director Yuen Woo-ping and Chan redefined the kung fu genre with this landmark fusion of balletic martial arts and slapstick comedy. POLICE STORY 1985 Not only a stunt-tastic, franchisespawning (eight films and counting) action classic, but one Chan has declared his own best movie. ARMOUR OF GOD 1986 A fun Indiana Jones-style adventure… albeit destined to be forever remembered as the film that almost killed Chan when a stunt went wrong. RUSH HOUR 1998 Teaming with Chris Tucker for some buddy-corn kicks, Chan scored his first bona fide Hollywood blockbuster. Rumours of a four-quel persist……

IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH… RAHUL KOHLI You talkin’ to me? Yes, and I'm on vacation | at the moment. I just did two series back to back and I'm burnt out. One of those series was The Fall Of The House Of Usher. My relationship with Mike Flanagan started off like any other job. I just auditioned for [The Haunting Of] Bly Manor and I got that off a tape. Then I flew out to Vancouver when production started. Not long in, he was eyeing me for Midnight Mass, and through that came a friendship, I guess. We hung out yesterday, actually, and talked about some new stuff. Do you have an off switch? [Laughs] I have a huge off switch. I'm one of the laziest dudes around. If…

THIS MONTH… THE DEATH OF THREE-STAR REVIEWS When Avatar: The Way Of Water sloshed into cinemas in mid-December, the first four reviews I read gave James Cameron's gigantic sequel one star, two stars, four stars and five stars. The rating I didn't see, three stars, was arguably the most feasible of all when you balance the oceans of scale, ambition and technical achievement against the puddle-deep storyline and characterisation, but I wasn't surprised by its absence. Most films that come out theatrically are three-star films. I'm not stating this scientifically, or categorically, but that's my gut feeling. If I were to make a list of every film that's made it onto the big screen in the last 20 years, and rated each and every title, the three-star column would win.…

“I HAVE NEVER THOUGHT, ‘I WISH I COULD MAKE THAT JOKE, BUT CANCEL CULTURE WILL COME AND GET ME.'” When Total Film catches up with Seth Rogen in December 2022, he's peering into Zoom from his standing desk, leaning in and out of the digital frame with a restless energy. If he's acting like he has somewhere else to be, he probably does. Forget the slackers he became famous playing; Rogen is one of the busiest people in Hollywood. He's been an in-demand comedic leading man since Knocked Up in 2007, but he also writes and produces, having established production company Point Grey Pictures with longtime creative partner Evan Goldberg, which creates movies as well as such TV shows as Preacher, The Boys and Pam & Tommy. Rogen and Goldberg…

OUT 17 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Some premises seem almost tailor-made to raise red flags about potentially cloying levels of whimsy. A largely stop-motion-animated mock-doc centred on sentient shells could so easily face the same cutesy-landfill fate as the likes of, say, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. That Marcel The Shell… in fact excels, sidestepping mawkishness, is testament to the skill of director Dean Fleischer Camp (his feature debut) and co-writers Nick Paley and Jenny Slate. Slate additionally voices the title character, as she did in the original online shorts that this feature expands upon. Living discreetly in an LA house with grandma Connie (Isabella Rossellini, giving a beautifully pitched vocal turn), our one-inch-tall hero uses MacGyver-worthy improvisational techniques to obtain resources out of sight of humans. But when documentarian Dean (Fleischer Camp)…

OUT 17 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Boot-camp dramas: you know the drill. New recruits are bullied, sergeants scream abuse, press-ups are enforced. While these conventions are present in Elegance Bratton's semi-autobiographical drama, his fresh viewpoint remoulds cliché into something gentler: a layered take on rejection and identity, anchored in Jeremy Pope's magnetic lead. Pope plays Ellis French, a Black gay man rejected by his mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union). Displaced and desperate for mum's respect, Ellis joins the Marines (circa “don't ask, don't tell”-era 2005), an extreme move that tests him in new ways; some expected, others less so. As sadistic sergeant Laws (Bokeem Woodbine) aspires to make “monsters” of his recruits, Bratton submits to drill-drama demands. Yet as the brutalities mount, Ellis’ refusal to be broken becomes a measure of his determination…

OUT NOW SHUDDER Director Neil Marshall rose to fame with the carnage and camaraderie of Dog Soldiers and The Descent. After TV success (Game Of Thrones, Hannibal) but movie missteps (2019's Hellboy), he goes back to basics with his hit-and-miss latest. It's set in Afghanistan, where bloodthirsty underground creatures set upon a mixed gang of British and American squaddies led by RAF pilot Kate (played by co-writer Charlotte Kirk). The try-hard dialogue often grates and the lead performance is stiff and unexciting, but the good news is that the action and splatter are up there with Marshall's best.…

OUT NOW CINEMAS An atypically doleful performance from Pitch Perfect frontwoman Anna Kendrick brings an air of uneasiness to this disquieting feature debut from director Mary Nighy (daughter of actor Bill). And with good reason, too: the eponymous Alice (Kendrick), a young woman living in Toronto, is trapped in a relationship with artist Simon (Charlie Carrick) so coercive it has her literally tearing her hair out. So malign is his influence that she feels only guilt at the prospect of a week away with her gal pals. Her terror of riling him compels Alice to concoct a work-related excuse. But will a lakeside vacation with Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) give her the reality check she needs? Or is she too conditioned to see what everyone else can:…

OUT 3 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Former journalist Dina Amer explores the human behind the headlines in her fitfully revelatory portrait of the woman dubbed (falsely…) “France's first female suicide bomber”. Dramatising Hasna Aït Boulahcen's role in the 2015 Paris terrorist atrocities, Amer is at her best exploring Hasna's formative years, from joyful sisterhood to familial abuse and dislocation. The film's latter half trades youthful energy for sketchily distracting deepfake experiments, but not before suggesting how displacement can breed desperation: even at its crudest, Amer's character study stirs vital questions.…

OUT 10 FEBRUARY CINEMAS A festival favourite and winner of four British Independent Film Awards (from 13 nominations), this feature debut by writer/director Georgia Oakley is set in Thatcher's Britain, a time when homophobia was part and parcel of the mainstream. The year is 1988, with Section 28 banning local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”. Gym teacher Jean (Rosy McEwen), closeted at work, fears for her job at a Tyneside comprehensive - especially when 15-year-old student Lois (Lucy Halliday) starts frequenting the lesbian bar where Jean goes with her girlfriend, Viv (Kerrie Hayes). Some admittedly well-placed news reports aside, the drama ducks easy cliches, with DOP Victor Seguin opting for soft pastels where most would favour hard-edged and sullen, given the working-class milieu and thorny subject. Jean is no moral crusader…

OUT 17 FEBRUARY CINEMAS Subtitled Inside The Pro-Nuclear Movement, Frankie Fenton's doc mounts an engaging but limited take on a heated issue. Opening with a Japanese nuclear engineer's complex feelings about nuclear power, Fenton then gives the stage to scientists and self-styled “rebels” advocating for thorium as an answer to climate change. Whether they are staging demos or debunking fears, their fervently held positions make for heartfelt but frustrating viewing. Stressing rhetoric and slogans over rigorous study, Fenton's portrait risks looking more like a slickly emotive promo reel than a proper investigation.…

OUT 17 FEBRUARY CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA Returning to Naples for the first time in four decades to care for his ailing mother, Felice (Pierfrancesco Favino) embarks on a journey of rediscovery in Mario Martone's handsomely shot drama. In a leisurely opening hour - one that could double as an advert for the Neapolitan tourist board, were it not for the city's criminal elements impinging upon his wistful wanderings - he steadily reacclimates to the place he once called home. As teenage memories flood in, he seeks to reconcile with former best friend Oreste (Tommaso Ragno), whose name alone makes friendly faces turn flinty. And those soft-focus flashbacks gain a harder edge as we discover why Felice left in the first place. “Sometimes distant memories are like ghosts,” says local…

Uh-oh, h3r3 com3s troubl3… OUT NOW CINEMAS The title of this Blumhouse-backed demon-doll caper is an acronym for “Model 3 Generative Android”. Or to put it another way, M3GAN is a “Barbie on steroids”. It's this vein of knowing humour that sets the movie apart from the Annabelles and Chuckys of this world. Director Gerard Johnstone (2014's Housebound) and writer Akela Cooper (Malignant) always have a snappy line or droll music cue up their sleeves to tickle the audience. “Remember this moment,” toy mogul David (Ronny Chieng) tells underlings when inventor Gemma (Allison Williams) unveils the angelic-looking A.I. companion she's been working on. “It's the moment we kicked Hasbro right in the dick!” That the robot in question uses David Guetta's ‘Titanium’ for lullaby purposes adds more laughs to the…

SCREEN 1987 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted/extended scenes, Audition footage It might not be the very best of John Hughes’ films, but this festive classic is easily the funniest, allowing Steve Martin and the late John Candy to bounce off one another to hilarious and, ultimately, heartfelt effect. But while the film never fails to put a smile on viewers’ faces, this UHD outing is unlikely to do the same, thanks to an ugly, overprocessed 4K transfer. Not even an exclusive bonus disc housing 75 minutes of deleted scenes can save this package from going off the rails.…

1968 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Original theatrical cut, Commentaries, Featurette, Alt opening, Booklet The final entry in director Sergio Sollima's trilogy of ‘Zapata westerns', RMR sees Tomas Milian reprise his role from The Big Gundown (1966) as Mexican peon Cuchillo. Here he scampers into Texas in search of buried treasure, pursued by his fearless girlfriend, a US ex-lawman, a ruthless bandit, French hired killers and a Salvation Army officer. Flaunting its countercultural politics, this picaresque tale is mainly played for laughs, though Sollima's widescreen flourishes conjure an epic vibe. Includes uncut and theatrical versions.…