Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2016 i Total Film

Dwayne Johnson @TheRock One-man publicity machine Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is at it again. The new Mitch Buchannon is single-handedly responsible for every scrap of big-screen Baywatch news released so far. But before you go thinking he’s overworked, bear in mind his duties typically involve posing next to exceptionally beautiful women in bikinis. It’s a hard Rock life... ETA | 19 MAY 2017 Baywatch opens next summer.…

1 PATCHWORK Three women wake up physically inside one body in this revenge movie which retains its comedy while its leading lady (or should that be ladies) creaks and snaps her way out of a laboratory. The perfect balance of black comedy and body horror. 2 BASKIN The journey of five Turkish police officers into a hell dimension of butchers, masochists and murderers is visceral, nasty and disturbing. Yet while it might have limb removal, the searing of flesh and literally buckets of blood, there’s a beating heart under the depravity. 3 THE MIND’S EYE The kind of pre-’00s, Stephen King-influenced gorefest that horror needs more of. There are shocks, scares and one of the most absurd sexual juxtapositions in recent history. 4 SOUTHBOUND Like Trick ‘r Treat, this is…

To put it mildly, the recent announcement that Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough movie Memento is due for the remake treatment sent shockwaves through Hollywood. Monika Bacardi, who co-runs AMBI Pictures, the company that picked up the remake rights after acquiring the library of Exclusive Media Group, announced: “We intend to stay true to Christopher Nolan’s vision and deliver a memorable movie that is every bit as edgy, iconic and award-worthy as the original.” Told in reverse, Nolan’s 2000 thriller about the tattoo-clad, memory-addled Leonard Shelby, struggling to search for his wife’s killer, came out of nowhere to gross almost $40m and claim two Academy Award noms, including Best Original Screenplay. As the film’s original star, Guy Pearce, who played the amnesiac Shelby, wryly tweeted: ‘Why would they remake it? We all…

Speed director Jan de Bont was hotly tipped for shark-attack epic Meg – about an 80ft, 100,000lb aquatic beast, with Guillermo del Toro set to produce... Until it went the way of the Megalodon. Jon Turtletaub is now attached to direct. Tarantino’s Death Proof had found its Stuntman Mike... in Mickey Rourke. The regular Robert Rodriguez collaborator was cast as the psychotic stuntman who murders women with his crash-proof car before dropping out, only for Kurt Russell to nab the role. The UK’s first outdoor film festival launched by Stella Artois. The summer event, in Greenwich Park, featured live music, theatre and film. But with only one movie screened at the end of each day it was slim pickings for film fans. With the Cannes Film Festival approaching we picked…

ON FIRE Disney Animation It may have been shown up by Pixar in the noughties, but on the back of Zootopia’s success Disney Animation Studios is now on a run that puts it on a par with its celebrated sibling. The Mermaid Forget The Force Awakens, China has a new box-office champ – fantastical rom-com The Mermaid. The film, from Kung Fu Hustle’s Stephen Chow, made a staggering $415 million in two weeks. Videogame movies With Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed looking to break the videogame movie curse it’s no surprise that an Assassin’s sequel and an adaptation of classic sneak-em-up Thief are already in the works. Gambit The beleaguered X-Man’s solo movie has dropped off the release schedule, with suggestions it may have been bumped to October 2017. Doug Liman…

It’s official: having remade every movie ever, Hollywood is now moving on to remakes of remakes. Up first: The Thomas Crown Affair, which has enlisted Creed star Michael B. Jordan as the next Steve McQueen/Pierce Brosnan. The 1968 original cast McQueen as a playboy bank robber engaged in the sexiest game of cat and mouse ever with Faye Dunaway’s insurance investigator. There’s currently no director or writer attached, but with Creed an unqualified success Jordan’s casting is the steal of the century. ETA | TBC The Thomas Crown Affair is currently in pre-production.…

“I’m very aware of the physicality of the job. I would not take it lightly.” Tom Hiddleston is getting fighting fit for Bond. “The Old Man Logan story – that’s appealing. That’s something I can do. Old being the operative word.” Could Liev Schreiber return for The Wolverine 3? “I was accused of giving the plot away, but I just think get a fucking life. It’s only tits and dragons.” Ian McShane is not afraid to spoil Game Of Thrones. “I know we’re not perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.” Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) makes the case for Team Cap in Captain America: Civil War. “Men have forgotten what it means to be afraid.” Freya (Emily Blunt) is putting fear into the hearts of men in The…

MAKING A FUNNY FILM ABOUT the war in Afghanistan is tricky. Headlining it with two female stars – and successfully passing the Bechdel Test – is even trickier. So you have to wonder WTF anyone was thinking when they cast white actors in the two key Afghan roles. Based on Kim Barker’s The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days In Afghanistan And Pakistan, Whiskey sees Kim Baker (Fey), a disgruntled copywriter on a mid-tier news network, plonked in Kabul in the hopes of raising ratings with frontline footage. The inexperienced Baker is taken under various wings at the cruddy journalist digs: her stoic Afghan fixer, Fahim (Christopher Abbott) who protects her from ridicule and the Taliban with equal aplomb; rival reporter Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), who shows her the professional and sexual…

THERE’S ENDLESS CHARM BUT LESS chewiness than you might expect in this sweet if episodic manga adap from the director of Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Koreeda). A femme-filled family melodrama, it introduces tween half-sister Suzu (Suzu Hirose) into the seaside home of three sisters after their father’s funeral. Filled with cherryblossom gorgeousness and sentimental homages to small-town Japanese life, it’s a film of quiet, telling moments, even when big revelations surface. Big sister Sachi (Haruka Ayase) stands out, but otherwise the film’s sheer delicacy keeps us at a distance. › Certificate PG Running time 127 mins…

SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED... JOHNNY GUITAR 1954 Joan Crawford stands tall in a delirious western that puts women before men (see p56). FORTY GUNS 1957 Ruler of the titular posse, Barbara Stanwyck blazes in Samuel Fuller’s flinty western. MEEK’S CUTOFF 2010 Kelly Reichardt’s feminist western is spare and unsparingly brutal as three families go west. For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviews IT’S HARD TO REVIEW JANE GOT A GUN for what it is rather than what might have been – during a production resembling a high-noon shootout, director Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin) and stars such as Michael Fassbender and Jude Law all ran for the hills. Kudos, then, to producer/star Natalie Portman and director Gavin O’Connor (Pride And Glory, Warrior) for keeping their…

THE CRADLE-TO-THE-GRAVE biopic has become an increasingly tired Hollywood staple. So it’s somewhat refreshing to see Don Cheadle make his directorial debut with what might be called an anti-bio – one that gives the muchdeserved big-screen treatment to jazz legend Miles Davis. It’s tempting to think this musical innovator would approve of the offbeat, semifictional approach taken in this account of a few days in his ‘lost’ years – the mid-’70s period when he disappeared from public view. Eschewing the usual mentors-andmontages structure, the film finds Cheadle’s Davis in a creative funk, although there are frequent, feverish flashbacks to his earlier days, as he laments his time with first wife Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Into his world comes Ewan McGregor’s Dave Braden – a shaggy-haired reporter who claims to be…

RELEASED OVER THREE consecutive weeks in separate volumes – The Restless One, The Desolate One, The Enchanted One – totalling nearly six-and-a-half hours, this ambitious trilogy by Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes (Tabu) is no straight adaptation of the collected stories that comprise One Thousand And One Nights. Instead it borrows the conceit of Scheherazade (Crista Alfaiate) telling nightly tales to her kingly husband in an effort to stay alive, but bends those stories so that they might pass comment on a modern-day Portugal crippled by austerity measures. If that all sounds a little high-minded and dry, it’s saved from being so by an eclectic soundtrack, a palpable love of storytelling, deep humanism, righteous fury, bawdy humour and Gomes’ startling ability to shuffle tones, genres and eras. Surely the first film…

BACKED BY A STELLAR ENSEMBLE (Robert Downey Jr., Annette Bening, Maggie Smith), Ian McKellen takes the lead in Richard Loncraine’s gory, blackly funny 1995 adap (re-released as part of BFI’s Shakespeare On Film season). The action’s relocated to a fascist ’30s London – a conceit that works brilliantly, from the moment a WW1 tank smashes through the Prince of Wales’ fireplace, with goons spraying machine-gun fire to a rasping Al Jolson soundtrack. With a screenplay (co-written by McKellen) that crackles and spits like a roasting pig, it was clearly as much of a blast to make as it is to watch. › Certificate 15 Running Time 104 mins…

GIVEN THE OBVIOUS BUDGET constraints, writer/director Tom Paton manages to inject his feature debut with some visual sizzle. A pity, then, that the small cast and night-forest setting do little to sell the scale of this supposedly epic post-apocalyptic tale. It centres on three tribespeople locked in a leadership contest that involves heading to a remote neck of the woods to attempt a series of trials. A promising set-up and interesting twists of fate give way to more standard horror fare, as sulky heroine Eiren (Jade-Fenix Hobday) fends off a masked attacker. A case of smart ideas, so-so execution. › Certificate 15 Running time 82 mins…

WHAT FASCINATES CANADIAN director Jean-Marc Vallée, it seems, are individuals in crisis, people driven to desperate measures. In Dallas Buyers Club Matthew McConaughey’s defiant AIDS victim (a role that netted him an Oscar) takes on the system to get himself and his fellow sufferers the drugs they’re denied. Reese Witherspoon in Wild sets out to right her screwed-up life by solo-hiking the 1,000-plus miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. And now, in Demolition, he’s got Jake Gyllenhaal as Davis Mitchell, an NYC investment banker who’s cauterised his emotions to such a degree that, when his lovely wife dies in a brutal car crash, he finds himself incapable of grief. So he takes it out in, precisely, demolition – smashing up his life both socially and physically, starting with the fridge…

“LOOK AT THE PICTURES!” SPLUTTERED Senator Jesse Helms in 1989, trying to get Mapplethorpe’s eye-poppingly explicit photographic art banned. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s authoritative doc about the artist positively commands us to appreciate it, from flower studies to the fetish scenes that shocked ’80s America. Interviewing key figures in his life, they build an anecdote-rich bio (only his 1960s girlfriend Patti Smith is missing). A hilarious sequence of curators cooing over the angles and print quality of his infamous dick pics provides welcome light relief. › Certificate 18 Running time 108 mins…

WHERE PASCAL LAUGIER’S 2008 horror can make a decent claim to the word “masterpiece”, Kevin and Michael Goetz’s Blumhoused update can barely justify its existence. Not what you could call bad – just depressingly pointless – it follows similarly shrieky beats into unpleasant and underwhelming territory. Bailey Noble screams hard as the innocent drafted in to clean up after troubled friend Troian Bellisario commits a terrible crime, but the addition of a softer ending and some CG fire (perhaps because it has none of its own) suggest you can’t remake art, only diminish it. › Certificate 18 Running time 83 mins…

THIS ANIMATED FAMILY ADVENTURE offers a familiar story wherein a plucky young boy (voiced by Milla Jovovich in this English dub of the Russian original) embarks on a quest to save his family, making chums and defeating evil along the way. The set-up is lent some originality by a winningly bonkers cast of animal characters – like the threeheaded, Jabba the Hutt-esque gorilla voiced by Whoopi Goldberg – all animated with a vivid colour palette. Shame that the plot bogs down in some baffling mythology – but when the parts do click the result is perfectly passable. › Certificate PG Running time 87 mins…

NOT TOO MANY WESTERNS culminate in a six-gun showdown between two women – but then Nicholas Ray wasn’t your average filmmaker. His 1954 movie is named for Sterling Hayden’s wandering gunslinger, but Hayden’s merely an onlooker to the central relationship: the lethal rivalry between saloonkeeper Joan Crawford and butch cattle queen Mercedes McCambridge. The film baffled American critics – but François Truffaut adored it, calling it “dream-like, magical, unreal to a degree, delirious”. He wasn’t far wrong, either. › Certificate PG Running time 110 mins…

PRODUCER SONNY MALLHI (THE Strangers, Shutter, Old Boy) turns director with this sensitive take on the possession genre. Disenfranchised teenager Tess (Ryan Simpkins) arrives with her mum in a new town for a fresh start only to get possessed by the spirit of a similarly aged girl who tragically died weeks earlier. With Tess already suffering from an identity disorder and the mums of both girls connected by a shared grief, there’s no shortage of psychological or domestic drama. The end result is a refreshingly characterfocused horror story, garnished with creepily effective visuals. › Certificate 15 Running time 90 mins…

FOURTEEN YEARS SINCE NIA Vardalos’ comedy became a big fat hit comes the belated sequel, again produced by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. With the original cast back, and Vardalos scripting again, it doesn’t stray far from the ‘overbearing family’ formula that dominated the original. Vardalos’ Toula must now deal with her parents getting hitched (don’t ask) and her daughter (Elena Kampouris, one to watch) going to college. Michael Constantine, as Toula’s father, nabs the best of the precious few funny lines. › Certificate 12A Running time 94 mins…

ZOOTROPOLIS With the trend for remaking Disney ’toons in live action, will this one day be retooled with real animals? And will half the cast be recycled by craft services to the feed the other half? THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT In which the characters go beyond the giant wall encircling Chicago to discover the shocking truth about that outside world – that everyone’s a bit over YA and prefers R-rated superheroes. 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE Now the ‘Cloververse’ is a thing, can we have a film about what happened to the Statue Of Liberty’s head? Is it on NY’s newest crazy golf course or visiting family on Easter Island? WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT Just in case you missed it, there’s a cunningly disguised, rather cheeky acronym in the title that denotes an…

How would you describe Black Panther to someone who’d never heard of him? He has the dual activity of being a monarch of a country, and he’s literally a detective. I think he’s a misunderstood character because he makes decisions sometimes without consulting other people [laughs], without working as a team. It’s very hard to predict why he does what he does. Will we get a good sense of the character in Civil War? I don’t feel like you’ll have a deep sense of the character because it’s a brief introduction. It leaves a lot to be explored. You want the character to have an arc, but I think there’s a lot you don’t know about him at the end of the movie. How does he fit into this film?…

Secret Weapon FOLLOWING AN UNDER-THE-RADAR HIT, THE SEQUEL PACKS IN EVEN MORE STAR POWER NOW YOU SEE ME 2 STARRING Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman DIRECTOR Jon M. Chu ETA 8 July The last time we saw The Four Horsemen, we didn’t see them at all. Having flung themselves off a skyscraper in a shower of money, Now You See Me’s all-star magic gang vanished at the end of the first movie after pulling the ultimate switcheroo on Morgan Freeman’s devious benefactor, Mark Ruffalo’s FBI employers and us – the audience who spent most of the film thinking we actually knew what we were watching. Reappearing for Part 2, the Horsemen are back on stage – but this time we’re right…

TOTALFILM ONLINE ON OUR WEBSITE… AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW www.gamesradar.com/avengers-infinity-war-review/ It’s the MCU movie so big they have to split it in half; here’s a mega-info dump on the two-parter that’ll involve 68 characters, and probably more by the time they finish. THE 25 BEST ACTION MOVIES ON NETFLIX www.gamesradar.com/best-action-movies-on-netflix/ There are gazillions of action movies out there – but to save you a trawl, we’ve picked 25 of the best. Get ready for some high-octane streaming. DEADPOOL 2: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW www.gamesradar.com/deadpool-2-review/ It’s only been a couple of months since Deadpool hit cinemas, but there’s already a ton of sequel info out there – have a read, and then vote for your ideal Cable. Gibson? Lang? Knightley? @TOTALFILM FREE CHAIR OF THE…

CROSSOVERFIELD In the first step towards a shared Abrams universe, this film would see a group of amateur filmmakers flee the Cloverfield monster rampaging through the city only to run into the alien creature from Super 8. Eventually both beasts face off against each other in a monster mash-up that is only resolved when both are banished to a deserted island where – TWIST – the Smoke Monster from Lost enters the fight. THE HANGOVERFIELD Following the events depicted in the first film, the Cloverfield creature wakes up with a splitting headache surrounded by rubble with no recollection of the previous night. Retracing its steps, it uncovers a hilarious series of farcical events and misunderstandings, which all lead to the embarrassing discovery that – TWIST – it actually got married…

‘I lived the book and I became the character’ TOM TYKWER “I called Dave Eggers the day the book was published, literally as soon as I turned the last page,” says director Tom Tykwer, bowled over by the writer’s 2012 novel about a washedup American businessman who becomes a new man in Saudi Arabia. “I knew exactly what the film could be – not just as an adaptation but as a film with its own unique voice. But there was only one name in my vision – stamped on every page of the book when I read it – and that name was Tom Hanks.” Approaching Hanks after their previous collaboration on Cloud Atlas, Tykwer didn’t have too much convincing to do. “Tom’s a big reader and he’d already read…

A few weeks ago, US critic Leonard Maltin confessed to being so appalled by Zoolander 2 he walked out with half an hour to go, convinced he’d seen quite enough to give Ben Stiller’s return to the fashion world a good dressing down. Twitter, naturally, fought over this juicy titbit like piranhas in a fish tank, with many applauding Maltin’s stand (“Life’s too short, bro”) and many more pointing out it was his job to watch the movie. Do refuse collectors sack it off halfway through their route because they’ve had enough? (Actually, mine do, but let’s not digress.) And what if that unseen half hour offered up some outstanding gags or a choice cameo? I, for the record, belong to Team Stay-To-The-Bitter-End, and have never forgotten the wise words…

J. said to me ‘Do you really want this?’ And I said, ‘If you believe in me then I’m OK with that!’” Believing in Daisy Ridley may be the best decision J.J. Abrams made on The Force Awakens, the unknown 23-year-old not only holding her own against beloved grump Han Solo, but emerging as the hidden hero at the heart of the new trilogy. As the new Luke, Ridley has an entire galaxy resting on her shoulders, with persistent rumours that Rey may be a Skywalker herself. Expect at least some answers in the Rian Johnsondirected Episode VIII, which recently kicked off filming on Luke’s nifty island retreat. “When we went back to Skellig Michael to do the opening of VIII it was so crazy doing the same scene with…

‘Every time I used my superpowers I got shocked’ “I really am such a normal person. Right now, I’m sitting on my couch with my pillow!” laughs Lana Condor. For once such claims aren’t a ruse – the unknown 19-year-old landed the role of fan favourite mutant Jubilee in X-Men: Apocalypse after just her third audition. “I’m hoping to see if this acting and whatnot pans out. I’m working really hard...” Were you an X-fan before you got the part? To be honest, I was a huge Avengers fan! I saw Days Of Future Past at the midnight premiere, but I hadn’t seen the other films. Obviously as soon as I got it I watched all of them religiously. And the cartoon. And read all the comics. I got pretty…

You’re a long-time fan of the book, right? I read it before it was published – my agency sent me a proof copy – and I loved it. The idea that ‘self’ can be mutable… a traumatic event can cause it to disappear. Did Omer bring a fresh approach to directing? Completely. The first two days we were shooting traditionally. You could see this tension in his body. On day three, all of the furniture in my character’s flat – and I mean everything, from the sofa to the teaspoons – was piled up into a column in the central hallway. He said, “OK, we’re going to shoot the rest of the stuff with it looking like this.” Did you see a parallel between your character’s actions and that of…

1 Bring the family home: to Marvel for a caring return under light-handed direction. Brad Bird? 2 Start with the flame ON. Anyone not origin’d out? Use flashbacks if – only if – necessary. 3 Walk a tonal high-wire. Embrace grounding emotion and the totally ungrounded stuff: trippy spectacle, epic kitsch. 4 Different villains. Try Namor (Rights issues? Fix ’em!) and Reed-gonewrong Mr Fantastic for emotional stakes. 5 Go somewhere wild and wondrous, not Planet Zero-interest. Hence Namor the Sub-Mariner: Atlantis, here we come!…

SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED... THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY 2005-12 Christopher Nolan’s superior Bat-series set the standard for gritty, grounded superheroes. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE 2012 Marvel’s crossover event has inspired a wave of attempts at similar expanded universes. GODZILLA 2014 Gareth Edwards’ straight-faced treatment of a rampaging, city-levelling beast resulted in a monster hit. For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviews EXTRAS TRAILER GALLERY THIS YEAR, TWO heavyweight popculture titans are going head to head. Yep, Marvel and DC are both releasing sequels featuring a clash of their own superpowered good guys. Captain America and Iron Man have at least bickered on screen before, but Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice marks the first time that these title characters (arguably the most famous in comics) have shared space in a…

A WAITING THE NEW TERRENCE Malick film used to be like contemplating the blank sky for the arrival of a dazzling comet. The first 38 years of his career gave us five films, all of them masterpieces or thereabouts, and the stretches of silence – 20 years between Days Of Heaven and The Thin Red Line – only added to the experience. Not anymore. Malick’s new movie, Knight Of Cups, is his third in five years, with two more already in the can. Shot through with beauty and awe, it confirms, after To The Wonder, that this extraordinary filmmaker’s current work is more intimate and reflective than ever. Unfortunately it’s also hollow, simplistic (especially in its portrayal of women) and open to charges of self-plagiarism. The plot, such as it…

AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP FORGED between a small-town thug and a nine-year-old girl forms the basis of this hard-bitten drama with a heart. Nathaniel Wiseman stars (and co-directs) as Jake, a young man embroiled in a gang, who takes Jade (Alexandra Newick) under his wing following a tragic accident. The criminal-with-compassion storyline has enough lightness to lend the film some humour, and the performances are charming, but this is no less effective as a violent, gritty crimer than it is as a sweet tale of friendship and redemption. › Certificate TBC Running time 79 mins…

SEX AND DEATH – TWO PETER Greenaway perennials – get an airing in this return to form for the veteran British director. Focusing on Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, the ‘granddaddy’ of montage who brought us Battleship Potemkin, this is no dry treatise about film theory. Rather, it tells of “10 days that shook” Eisenstein, as he heads to Mexico and loses his anal virginity at 33. Our hero is played with utter commitment by Finnish actor Elmer Bäck, giving a delightfully unfettered performance that matches Greenaway’s gusto for his subject. Beautiful and bold, rebellious and riotous, its sexual frankness puts E.L. James in the shade. › Certificate TBC Running time 106 mins…

ONE OF THE BIGGEST ICONS OF country music, Hank Williams is considered a national treasure anywhere they still whistle folksy classics like ‘Lovesick Blues’, ‘Hey, Good Lookin’’ and ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’. Unsurprisingly, Hank’s fans (and relatives) weren’t too happy to hear that the Westminster-born, Etoneducated Tom Hiddleston would be playing him in Marc Abraham’s long-gestating biopic. Employing a thick gravy‘n’biscuits accent that only occasionally slips into RP, Hidds doesn’t sound too far from Alabama – and, of course, it doesn’t really matter whether or not he can sing like Hank because nobody can sing like Hank, which is sort of the whole point. What matters more is that the film isn’t very good. Less a biopic than a dramatised Wikipedia page, every fact, plot point and character…

ONLY 12 PEOPLE IN HISTORY HAVE ever set foot on the Moon. This excellent doc points its telescope at just one of them – Gene Cernan, the last NASAA astronaut to pull shut the Lunar Module door. Most of the story will be familiar to anyone with an interest in the Apollo programme, but what makes this special is the focus on one extremely charismatic man. Beyond the history, stunning archive footage and talking heads, the film gets deep into Cernan’s mind to reveal the sacrifices the Apollo guys – and their families – made to ensure they had the right stuff. › Certificate PG Running time 96 mins…

LIKE 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE PITCHED AT a whisper, TV director Gareth Bryn’s rustic three-hander is a steady-handed exercise in slow-horror secrecy, distinguished by more than its Welsh-language script. Mark Lewis Jones gets its sparse measure as Stanley, a taciturn local who takes in a couple (Annes Elwy, Dyfan Dwyfor) when their car crashes near his house. As tension between them simmers, spooky touches and ambiguous asides suggest mysteries both spectral and corporeal. The twists are guessable, but Bryn makes seductive work of the route there, every candle-lit corridor and harrowed tree holding our gaze. › Certificate 15 Running time 89 mins…

CHILEAN WRITER-DIRECTOR SEBASTIÁN Silva (Magic Magic) heads to Brooklyn for this sly little tale, in which he stars as Freddy, a gay man who decides to start a family with his best friend Polly (Kristen Wiig). With Freddy’s juice not up to the job, a sperm donor is required – but that’s just the start of their problems in an increasingly off-kilter story. Veering off in a totally unexpected direction, it features a key role played by House Of Cards’ Reg E. Cathey as a local crazy... but to say more would ruin the pleasures this barbed comedy has to offer. › Certificate 15 Running time 101 mins…

OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE DEAD, and shame at what was done to them, Holocaust literature is full of gaps, ellipses and silences – how, after all, do you say the unspeakable? When it comes to cinema, the question gets even thornier: how do you show the unshowable? And how can you not? For his harrowing debut, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (and the Grand Prix at Cannes), Hungarian writer/director László Nemes has a brutal solution. Like an Iñárritu action sequence stripped of all dazzle and stretched out to two hours, Son Of Saul throws us straight into the maelstrom of concentration-camp life as if we, too, were prisoners. Saul Ausländer (poet Géza Röhrig), is a Sonderkomando, a Jewish trustee co-opted by the Nazis. We first…

A MIDDLE-AGED SCOTTISH COUPLE (Paul Higgins, Kate Dickie) are living rough in a makeshift shelter in the woods of the French Pyrenees. Gradually we discover the tragic event that led to their situation. Belgian writer/director Tom Geens’ first English-language feature builds slowly, piling up underlying darkness, hinting that further tragedy can’t be far off. In a tiny cast, Higgins stands out as a man desperately trying to nurture and protect his traumatised wife. Sam Care’s photography and a haunting electronic score abet the atmosphere. Too bad about the easily misconstrued title, though. › Certificate 12A Running time 103 mins…

WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN watching Doris Day reprise her signature role, whip-cracking away in buckskin as the Deadwood stage comes a-rolling in over the hills? Joining in, of course: an option afforded by this sing-along edition of Warner Bros’ unabashed 1953 attempt to cash in on Annie Get Your Gun’s success three years earlier. From the intricate patter of ‘Just Blew In From The Windy City’ to gay anthem ‘Secret Love’, Sammy Fain’s hummable tunes and Paul Francis Webster’s lyrics merit full-throated accompaniment. Don’t shoot us down, though, for finding Howard Keel’s Bill Hickok more mild than Wild. › Certificate U Running time 99 mins…

THERE’S A SCENE IN BASTILLE Day that will stand as a towering monument to the precise moment in time it was made, as one riot inciter urges another to “unleash the hashtag” without any inkling of irony. It’s an exchange that elicits chuckles for all the wrong reasons – a common occurance in this passable Parisian thriller. Further fanning the ‘Elba for Bond’ flames, Big ‘Dris stars as Sean Briar, a loose cannon CIA agent operating out of the French capital – Luther with a license to kill, essentially. When Richard Madden’s expert pickpocket Michael Mason is implicated in a local bombing after inadvertently pilfering a C4-stuffed satchel, Briar embarks on a one-man mission to bring him in. Naturally it’s all part of a larger conspiracy for the unlikely pair…

THIS CURIOUS DRAMA FROM The Departed screenwriter William Monahan sees Garrett Hedlund’s lost-soul artist Thomas going walkabout in the desert. There, he confronts devilish psychopath Oscar Isaac – babbling away like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now in a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him performance. Monahan adeptly captures an air of faded, stinking decadence – but after an unforeseen murder, the third act never really materialises, while the codphilosophical whimsy leaves you dehydrated. Shame. › Certificate 15 Running time 91 mins…

THIS FOLLOW-UP TO THE 2014 faith-based US hit brings us Christian Rock, courtroom drama and Twin Peaks’ Ray Wise mugging to the camera. Melissa Joan Hart is Grace Wesley, a teacher sued by two parents for comparing Jesus’ teachings to Martin Luther King’s in their daughter’s history lesson. Inspired, supposedly, by real-life US cases, its core values are undermined by some amateur-hour acting, poor production values, and director Harold Cronk ensures it’s all as subtle as being whacked over the head with a King James Bible. › Certificate TBC Running time 120 mins (tbc)…

AGAINST THE ODDS, NY BROTHERS Josh and Ben Safdie’s hyper-indie aesthetic brings fresh life to that old story of two lovers joined at the needle. That life has a name: Arielle Holmes, whose own history inspires her electrifying portrait of Harley, a junkie equally hooked on no-good fellow addict Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones) in this tale of desperation and co-dependency. The Safdies pull off this episodic plunge into a scuzz-nik world with brash, bracing immediacy: but it’s Holmes’ innate charisma that keeps you there. › Certificate TBC Running time 94 mins…

MISSION AUDITION “I remember being really, really nervous when I went for the first audition. It was such a daunting task and it was also a really long commitment, so it was… scary, y’know? Luckily all those fears have kind of diluted over the years – the films have been fantastic and it’s ultimately been the best choice of my life.” COSTUME DRAMA “That suit didn’t feel like it belonged to me when I first put it on. I felt like I was sneaking into someone else’s closet, trying on something I shouldn’t be. It felt foreign. It actually felt like Marvel was making a mistake to be honest. I think I was just worried that I was going to let people down.” FIRST TIME NERVES “I just remember being…

After a long (and we’re guessing boring) legal wrangle, Spider-Man is finally going to appear alongside the Avengers on the big screen, with Marvel honcho Kevin Feige and Sony coming to a mutually beneficial decision to share the freshly rebooted webslinger. Played by 19-year-old Tom Holland (The Impossible, In The Heart Of The Sea), this is the youngest cinematic Spidey ever. While his involvement is being kept largely under wraps – “He’s certainly a character that’s more fun for people to discover when they go see the movie,” says Joe Russo, evasively – his brief appearance at the end of the trailer, springing into action and cuffing Cap with a well timed webbing spurt, giddy with excitement. While new tech (Stark’s?) means Spider-Man can squint, the suit is pleasingly retro;…

Nicest smell? Russell: Well, babies. A baby’s head. Not their back-ends. But at my place in Australia, at night-time, we have Evening Jasmine. Right across the front of the house, just as the sun’s going down, it’s a really powerful perfume. So I love that. I love the smell of horses... Ryan: Baby’s heads? God, that’s bizarre. What’s the nicest smell in the world? I think when you realise that it’s just your toast burning, and you’re not having a seizure. Nicest place? Russell: For me, it’s where I have my farm. That’s the most comfortable place in the world. Ryan: Home was what I was going to say. Canada might be technically the nicest place in the world. It’s the most… nice people, very polite. Maybe I’ll say that.…

Big Gun ONE OF THE ’80S FAVOU RITE FRANCHISES GETS A NEW LEASE OF (AFTER) LIFE… STARRING Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon DIRECTOR Paul Feig ETA 15 July GLOOPY GHOSTS In what appears to be the team’s first paranormal encounter, professor Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) approaches a glowy ghoul before taking a torrent of ’busters goo full in the face. “That stuff went everywhere,” she tells her mates. GIRL CRUSH Speaking of, is McKinnon going to steal the show? Her dazzling array of comedy expressions have already sent Twitter into meltdown (“My sexuality = Kate McKinnon winking” tweeted one fan). Her A-list compadres have competition... AMPING UP With the ’busters assembled by spooks expert Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), they quickly discover somebody is “amplifying paranormal activity”. Cue…

‘I had lunch with two spooks. They were brilliant and discreet’ John le Carré is enjoying a revival, with TV’s The Night Manager and now Our Kind Of Traitor. Are you a fan? I’ve read him and enjoyed him. Books like Smiley’s People and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I read those years ago – the Cold War L e Carré. I’ve read The Night Manager too; Larry Kasdan gave me a copy when we were making Dreamcatcher. He said, ‘You must play this!’ I read it and stuck it on my shelf. How would you describe Hector, your character in Our Kind Of Traitor? Hector is a maverick loner who has constantly got himself into trouble by speaking truth to authority and continues to get himself in trouble. And again,…

It’s morphin’ time! Tigerzord! Mastodon! Pterodactyl! Er... stegosaurus? No? Woolly mammoth? It doesn’t matter just yet – there isn’t much morphenomenal action happening in this first look at the de-suited Power Rangers. But, while it may be distinctly more ‘catalogue model’ than ‘Turbo’ or ‘Megaforce’, it does at least give us a glimpse at the soon-to-be colourful team all together. From left to right, we have R.J. Cyler (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl) as Billy aka The Blue Ranger; Naomi Scott (The Martian) as Kimberly aka The Pink Ranger; Ludi Lin (Monster Hunt) as Zack aka The Black Ranger; pop star Becky G. (Empire) as Trini aka The Yellow Ranger; and Dacre Montgomery as team leader Jason aka The Red Ranger. The film, directed by Dean Israelite (Project…

Name: Josh Gad Job: Actor, writer, producer Films: Frozen, Pixels, The Wedding Ringer, The Rocker, 21 Upcoming: The Angry Birds Movie, Beauty And The Beast, Russ & Roger Go Beyond MY COMEDY PRESENT Chuck, my character in THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE, is this speed demon. It’s like his mouth goes faster than his brain. He’s just so unbelievably fun. The idea that this guy just can’t stop himself, both physically and vocally, was something that spoke to me. And of course, the cast that was assembled is just out of this world as well. MY COMEDY PAST THE BOOK OF MORMON is probably the crowning comedic achievement, just by virtue of the challenge itself. Eight shows a week for a year-and-a-half, sometimes twice a day. Audiences can be fickle and change on…

This month: Issue 116, July 2006 COVER STORY Superman Returns with one of the all-time-great TF covers, featuring a fancy lenticular frame morphing original Supes Christopher Reeve into the new kid from Krypton, Brandon Routh. Routh’s Reeve-reincarnated mannerisms weren’t the only thing that made him perfect for Bryan Singer’s four-colour Man of Steel. “When I was six years old I would dress up in my Superman pyjamas,” Routh told us. Sadly, the film was a flop, and our optimistic assertion that, “If all goes well at the box-office, Routh will be wearing the kiss-curl for at least another two Supermovies” must have felt like a Kryptonite shiv in the gut. THE INSIDE SCOOP The other headline news in the TF-themed Daily Planet? The remake of The Omen, with director John…

“I watched a lot of Saoirse Ronan interviews,” laughs Lucy Boynton of her preparation for taking on an Irish accent in feelgood musical Sing Street for director John Carney (Once, Begin Again). “I’ve always loved musicals,” beams the 21-year-old English actress. “Moulin Rouge is one of my favourite films.” How did you end up getting involved in Sing Street? It was one of those scripts you read and you get to the end and it’s just like, “I have to play this role!” I was auditioning when Begin Again came out, and I thought, “Now I really do have to get this role, if [John Carney] makes movies like this.” How would you describe Raphina, your Sing Street character? She’s kind of a muse character, but actually she’s much more…

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR War, civil? What the shit? Tony Stark turns the air blue (“Language!”), forgetting that 12A has done well for Marvel. THE BFG “Whizzpopping” and “zippfizzing” assume R-rated meanings as the giants’ true “horrigust” appetites are revealed. A children’s classic is slaughtered. STAR TREK BEYOND Justin Lin takes the underwear shot that worked so well for Into Darkness to the next level. Spock’s raised eyebrow is set to perma-stunned. STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE “Rebel scum,” pants Vader. “Did your Sith face hit the f****g fan, rubber freak?” says Felicity Jones. J.J.’s good family-friendly work unravels… WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES “Ooh ooh ooh,” says Caesar, before translating to camera (involves eyewateringly suggestive banana gestures). Suddenly, no-one takes talking apes seriously any more.…

DRONE WARFARE HAS NEVER quite felt so real or as nerveshredding as it does in Gavin Hood’s excellent drama. True, it’s a topic that’s been explored recently – but while Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill concentrated on one man’s redemption, Eye In The Sky takes a more complex look at modern warfare. Set across four continents, it plays out in boardrooms as much as battlegrounds. Leading the line is Colonel Katherine Powell (a no-nonsense Helen Mirren), who’s overseeing an operation to bring in a radicalised English woman, Susan Helen Danford (Lex King), who’s joined up with Al-Shabaab terrorists. Scripted by Guy Hibbert with both intelligence and patience, the story avoids any sort of Michael Bay-hem. Rather, it cuts back and forth as various politicians pass the buck when it comes to…

VIDEOGAME ODD COUPLE RATCHET and Clank have headlined over a dozen galactic adventures since 2002. This feature-length CG ’toon resets and remixes the story to date, explaining how the pair first teamed up to take down Chairman Drek and his mechanical army. It’s extremely faithful to the well-received games, with the main voice actors reprising their roles alongside a surprisingly starry supporting cast (Paul Giamatti, Rosario Dawson, Sly Stallone). But the humour hasn’t translated well and the cheapo music seems to have been ripped straight from a PS2 disc. › Certificate TBC Running time 94 mins…

THE IRANIAN BILLY ELLIOT? THE Middle-Eastern Dirty Dancing? Judging by the number of ‘inspirational’ dance montages here, either of those could be the pitch for Richard Raymond’s drama, based on the life of Afshin Ghaffarian. Set primarily in 2009, 30 years since dance was banned after the Iranian Revolution, it sees Afshin (Reece Ritchie) gather a group of students to bust some moves in the desert. With robotic depictions of Iran’s ‘morality police’, the political subtext is strictly one-dimensional. But with ace choreographer Akram Khan on board, the dancing is powerful. › Certificate TBC Running time 103mins…

THE BEAUTIFUL MIND IN THIS BIOPIC of a troubled mathematical genius belongs to one Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel), a clerk from Madras whose facility with figures earns him a place at Cambridge. There he receives tutelage from Jeremy Irons’ pipe-puffing professor and racist contempt from everybody else, putting strain on his constitution as he formulates a theory for divining prime numbers. An intriguing story told in generic fashion, Infinity gets good value from Irons and a dignified swansong from the late Richard Johnson. By the close, alas, we’re no closer to understanding Ramanujan’s brilliance than we are at the beginning. › Certificate 12A Running time 109 mins…

SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED... CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE 1944 Vaguely linked to the classic Cat People, this stunner laid the way for spiritual sequels. DAY OF THE DEAD 1985 Still the people-trappedin-a-bunkerwhile-theworld-goes-tohell movie. TAKE SHELTER 2011 Is the apocalypse coming or is it a nightmare in Michael Shannon’s damaged brain? For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviews EXTRAS TRAILER GALLERY IT MIGHT HAVE THE C-word in the title, J.J. Abrams producing and a monster in its midst, but this is not Cloverfield 2. Anyone expecting/desiring a sequel to Matt Reeves’ 2008 monster mash will feel disappointed at best, cheated at worst, so let’s make that thunderously clear from the off. Rather, 10 Cloverfield Lane is, as Abrams puts it, a “spiritual successor” or “blood relative” set in…

AS WITH 2007’S THE WORLD UNSEEN, Shamim Sarif adapts/directs her own novel, a 2004-penned story of defection, betrayal and long-lost love. Set in 1959 Moscow, it stars Rebecca Ferguson as Katya, a spy who falls for U.S. official Alexander (Sam Reid) who she’s been instructed to shadow. Less compelling, however, are the scenes four decades on with Charles Dance as Alexander and Ferguson playing his niece. The ‘dual roles’ conceit doesn’t quite work, despite Ferguson’s best efforts. But, while it struggles to find rhythm, you can’t fault Sarif’s ambitions. › Certificate 12A Running time 93mins…

“I CAME HERE FOR THE MONEY AND IT just became… something else.” So explains Kimberley Motley, the first foreign lawyer to work in Afghanistan, who fights for justice in human-rights cases despite the dangers. Danish documentarian Nicole Nielsen Horanyi follows Motley between 2013 and 2014 as international troops are leaving the country, using confrontations with abuse and corruption in the Afghan legal system to ask questions about what the occupation achieved. But what draws focus most is Motley’s unique story: an ex-beauty queen, she left her family in the US to pursue an obligation to help potential clients. › Certificate TBC Running time 85 mins…

WHY DOES TOAST ALWAYS FALL JAM side down? Blame God, says Belgian fabulist Jaco Van Dormael (Toto The Hero), whose warm, cheeky, inventive satire proves Monty Python don’t hold the patent on God-coms. With Benoît Poelvoorde’s God imagined as a grouch, his daughter Ea (Pili Groyne) visits Earth to gather fresh apostles for a brighter Testament. As she unites all humanity, a winning mix of madcap wit, invention and open-armed warmth compensates for sketchy plotting. Even the devout, surely, will warm to Dormael’s alt-gospel: one of compassion, oddball fish gags and cheerier skylines. › Certificate 15 Running time 112 mins…

ZEROING IN ON SEVEN PEOPLE FROM varying income brackets, Katharine Round’s richly empathetic docu-study tots up the human cost of erupting inequality. Stats, contexts and talking heads are duly dished: Obama talks sense, Blair talks bobbins… But it’s the grassroots portraits that reap returns. Travelling from gated communities to Glasgow, Round earns the trust of KFC employees, Wall Street wonders and more to show how we have been “submerged” in our financial lives. The wide range strains her focus, but the visceral effects of inequality register with an authoritative punch. › Certificate TBC Running time 78 mins…

THE POST-MARIGOLD HOTEL WHEEZE of OAPs talking dirty is about as far as the comic currency stretches in this heistcom. Splicing farce, drama and politics, director/co-writer John Miller benefits most from his lead, a likeable Bernard Hill as an old-timer with pension problems. A plot to rob banks with his wife produces one good gag about his terminal politeness (“No coins, if you don’t mind”), but much else here groans. Ranging awkwardly from suicides to Simon Callow’s over-keen support (warning: contains moonies), it’s a film too stiff for comedy, too silly for drama and too slow for fun in between. › Certificate 12A Running time 96 mins…

THE DEATH OF ISABELLE HUPPERT’S war photographer matriarch looms large over this listless slice-of-life family drama from Oslo, August 31st director Joachim Trier. Huppert’s family (father Gabriel Byrne, sons Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid) are sleepwalking through life, until an imminent newspaper article exposing Huppert’s death as suicide threatens to ruffle feathers. Punctuated by a handful of well-observed scenes that belong in a better film (including a hypnotic close-up of Huppert’s face that seems to last an eternity), it’s ultimately a flat, ineffectual affair that goes off with a whimper rather than a bang. › Certificate 15 Running time 109 mins…

YOU SUSPECT LONDON’S history of terrorist outrages barely registered in the minds of the brains behind this Olympus Has Fallen sequel as they cast their eyes around the globe for another scenic victim of indiscriminate carnage. Tastelessness, however, is the least of LHF’s failings. Director Babak Najafi’s go-again sees Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) – the widowed president who survived a North Korea-backed attack on the White House in Antoine Fuqua’s 2013 original – and his equally indestructible, soon-to-be-a-father bodyguard Mike Banning (a sweary Gerard Butler) take Air Force One to Blighty for a prime ministerial funeral. Too late do they realise that the PM has been clandestinely offed by a vengeful Pakistani arms dealer with precisely this in mind: to bring the free world’s leaders together in one spot so…

THERE’S A CLEAR DEBT TO EDGAR Wright in this entertaining comedy about a pair of football-mad friends (Warren Brown and Greg McHugh) who kidnap a referee. The madcap plot, sweary dialogue and selfreferential style are nothing new, but first-time director Matt Wilde pulls them together in interesting ways. Robert Farquhar’s authenticsounding script and the two lead performances buzz with the directionless energy of a frustrated fan at times. But overall this is a thoughtful look not only at football fever but all forms of obsession. › Certificate 15 Running time 81 mins…

IF MIKKEL NØRGAARD’S NOIRISH The Keeper Of Lost Causes seemed none-more-Nordic, wait until you see the sequel. An old cop’s suicide renews the interest of basement-dwelling cop duo, Carl (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and Assad (Fares Fares), in a 20-year-old murder. The heavy investigation involves junkie girls, posh men, boarding-school secrets and surprise foetuses. Lie Kaas’ furrowed lead and Norgaard’s taut orchestration of flashback-pumped plotting help flesh out old clichés – at least until the climax takes a glum turn for the overwrought. › Certificate 18 Running time 120 mins…

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS: AFTER Insurgent – aka Divergent 2 – tapped out that grey, sim-city-fighting mood, this shiny threequel abseils over the giant wall surrounding dystopian Chicago and smartly drops us into a vibrantly scarlet, Martian-looking landscape. Director Robert Schwentke even kicks the enjoyably sub-Mad Max extreme-sport action sequences into a higher gear than previous instalments. But he’s banjaxed when the plot dictates that Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her fellow rebels are whisked to CGI-laden genetic-engineering biodome The Bureau. Here, the high-school hokum of the Divergent ‘factions’ becomes high-tech eugenics, as kindly director David (Jeff Daniels) determines that only Tris’ ‘pure’ genes can save blighted mankind. Always fond of pseudo-science and ethical quandaries, the Divergent series reaches a new, mildly pretentious peak here. But its sort-of-topical themes of genetic…

EXTRAS TRAILER X-MEN: APOCALYPSE 19 MAY Finally, the movie every X-fan’s been waiting for: the origin story of Prof X’s baldness. Plus: Oscar Isaac turning purple with rage as Apocalypse, a mutant so powerful he’s nabbed half of the movie’s title. But even he can’t prevent the 99.99 per cent likelihood of a Hugh Jackman cameo. BAD NEIGHBOURS 2 6 MAY With the original banking $271m, a sequel was as inevitable as the flowerbeds being abused during a keg party. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne team with Zac Efron to fight sorority leader Chloë Grace Moretz. There will be, if not blood, then several other bodily fluids. THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE 13 MAY The fact it’s taken them this long to cash in on the mobile-app sensation (which launched in…

CHARLES XAVIER AND ERIK LEHNSHERR Their shaky alliance pitched “between rage and serenity,” Prof X tempers Magneto while Magneto keeps his X-bezzie sharp. They had fun in bars together in First Class, before X’s peacenik persona and Magneto’s hawkish tendencies chafed. Sharing an on/off bond of tender empathy and levitating football stadiums, this pair complete each other. ROCKY BALBOA AND APOLLO CREED Sparring partners turned pals, the boxing buds share bruises and shorts. Apollo calls Rocky names (“Bum!”) and punches him daft before becoming his trainer. After Creed dies, Rocky is moved to thaw the Cold War by fighting Creed’s Soviet nemesis. And, by training Creed’s son, he saves the next generation too. ANAKIN SKYWALKER AND OBI-WAN KENOBI “He was a good friend…” Obi and Ani were top bros: they…

SUMMER PREVIEW For someone who has just arrived in London off the red-eye from New York, Elizabeth Olsen is refreshingly chirpy. Introducing herself as ‘Lizzie’, she stands to greet Total Film when we meet her in a suite at the Soho Hotel in February, before relaxing back into a red sofa, her smiley demeanour revealing no signs of jetlag. She’s in town to talk Captain America: Civil War, her second outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Wanda ‘Scarlet Witch’ Maximoff. After the Sokovian Disaster at the climax of Age Of Ultron (which claimed the life of her fleet-footed brother), she’s now part of the updated Avengers line-up. “She’s just kind of assimilating to a different culture,” explains Olsen. “I think there’s still an inner struggle of what all of…