Tabla de contenidos para April 2021 en Empire

LET ME START, somewhat unusually, by talking about the last issue of Empire. Our celebration of the very best audience moments in the cinema, featuring contributions from 40 filmmakers and actors, all pulled together by Edgar Wright. It was, without a doubt, one of our most responded-to issues in Empire history: we saw a collective outpouring of love for the place that we all miss the most (the pictures). When cinemas reopened briefly last summer, they didn’t just play the odd new film; they dug into the archive. For films that have a long legacy, a long line of love. Films that have always brought people together in tough times. In amongst them was the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which even returned to the UK box-office chart. Both LOTR…

Eric Ray Davidson/Trunk Archive. WHAT THE HELL happened to Daisy Ridley’s next film? The Doug Liman-directed sci-fi Chaos Walking — based on the YA trilogy of the same name by Patrick Ness, about a distant planet where men have all their thoughts on display via a swirling cloud known as the ‘Noise’ — was originally due for a March 2019 release. There were reports of behind-the-scenes troubles and poor test screenings. Then, two years later, reshoots. It finally arrives this year, and Ridley is happy with the results, having given notes on the final cut herself. A year after The Rise Of Skywalker, it’s the start of Ridley’s post-galaxy-far-faraway career proper — though, as she admits, that book is never completely closed. What came first with Chaos Walking for you…

John Nugent (News Editor): Are people looking forward to this? Ben, you famously gave the last Godzilla film a one-star review. Ben Travis (Online Staff Writer): I am actually one of the few people who liked Kong: Skull Island. But yeah, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters was rough. It was no fun and there were too many humans. I’m excited for this one: it looks big and silly and fun in the way these films should be. This shot here is, according to some on the internet, a hint of Mechagodzilla. James Dyer (Digital Editor-In-Chief): That cannot be true. At some point, unbeknownst to everyone, someone has built a 150-foot-tall robot dinosaur? Ben: How is that less plausible than any of the other stuff happening here? Mike Cathro (Deputy Art…

MINNIE DRIVER How much is a pint of milk? It’s about 50p. No, I didn’t look it up! Everyone drinks milk in my house and I buy it. I don’t drink cow’s milk. I drink almond milk. But this question started me thinking about the production of milk and how they take calves away from milk cows at 36 hours, and then I was thinking about how much water it takes to water an almond tree in California. Now suddenly this light-hearted question has made me feel very morally problematic. I thought this was going to be fun and you’ve made me feel morally bankrupt, so thanks. What was your role in your first school play? I played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard Of Oz. For some reason,…

★★ OUT NOW (DIGITAL) / CERT TBC / 107 MINS DIRECTOR Sia CAST Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr, Maddie Ziegler Stepping out from under her giant wig, Australian musician Sia delivers a chaotic but hokey directorial debut. The musical drama stars Kate Hudson as an aimless former addict summoned home to care for her autistic half-sister Music (Sia’s teenage muse Maddie Ziegler, who, to the film’s disadvantage, is not on the autism spectrum). The film splits its time between misjudged drama and a series of pop music vignettes. With their retina-stinging palettes and pantomime choreography, Music’s daydreams are spectacular but offer nothing new to those who know Sia’s music videos. Back in the real world, the story about a mismatched family piecing their lives together is too saccharine and slight…

★★★ OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / CERT 15 / 103 MINS DIRECTOR Mike Cahill CAST Owen Wilson, Salma Hayek The ‘brain-in-a-vat’ thought experiment, which has fascinated filmmakers from the Wachowskis (The Matrix) to Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall), gets a literal take in this new sci-fi from Another Earth director Mike Cahill. Owen Wilson — in a rare dramatic role, full of bemused, saucereyed wonder — is a kind of neo-Neo, forced to wake up from the grey drudgery of his desk-job reality and see the world for what it really is, while Salma Hayek — on fiery form — is this film’s Morpheus, albeit one who lives under a bridge. There are interesting ideas being thrown around here, including some intriguing musings on what happens to the world when it…

★★ OUT 26 FEBRUARY (DIGITAL) / CERT 18 / TBC MINS DIRECTOR Mike P. Nelson CAST Matthew Modine, Emma Dumont, Charlotte Vega The seventh entry in creator Alan B. McElroy’s cannibals-in-the-woods series, this update of the original sees a group of millennials (obviously one of them is an app designer) stray from the path on the Appalachian trail and get set upon by flesh-eaters. The story invests the horror with faintly interesting Trumpian overtones and some of the thrills come off smartly (a rolling tree set-piece), but this is mostly a rote horror flick peopled with thin characters, tin-eared dialogue (“Keep to the marked trail. The land can be unforgiving”) and tired genre staples. Matthew Modine is a concerned parent looking for the gang but he can’t elevate it from…

★★ OUT TBC CERT TBC / 129 MINS DIRECTOR Kevin Macdonald CAST Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch PLOT Arrested two months after 9/11, Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim) is detained at Guantánamo Bay for being an Al Qaeda recruiter. His case is picked up by pro bono lawyer Nancy Hollander (Foster), who looks to prove that Slahi is being imprisoned without a shred of justifiable evidence. IT’S EASY TO see why Kevin Macdonald was drawn to the subject matter of The Mauritanian. The true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who spent 14 years banged up in the US naval base detention centre at Guantánamo Bay without ever being charged with a crime, it fits perfectly into the wheelhouse of a filmmaker who’s flitted between brilliant documentary (One Day…

★★★★ OUT 22 FEBRUARY (DIGITAL) / CERT 12A / 97 MINS DIRECTOR Melina León CAST Pamela Mendoza, Tommy Párraga Song Without A Name, Peru’s entry for this year’s Oscars, is a belter. In 1980s Peru, new mum Geo (Pamela Mendoza) sees her baby stolen from a maternity clinic set up as a front for a child-trafficking racket. Getting little help from official channels, Geo turns to young journalist Pedro (Tommy Párraga) to track down her newborn. Writer/director Melina León’s debut delivers on the promise of the set-up — a gripping investigation — but layers on different textures, from documentary realism to nightmarish visions set against a backdrop of traditional Peruvian village culture. It’s shot in mesmeric monochrome Academy ratio, which lends the film a stunning dreamlike quality, a stark contrast…

DIRECTOR FRANCIS LEE NEVER WANTED TO MAKE A PERIOD FILM AND CERTAINLY NEVER WANTED TO MAKE A BIOPIC. So it’s a surprise, possibly even to him, that his second film Ammonite — after his remarkable debut God’s Own Country —is the story of 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning. But when you look closer, it’s clear that this is still very much a Francis Lee film. It’s (loosely) her life, told through his lens and preoccupation with class and sexuality. Lee’s Mary Anning is “on the bones of her arse” — flinty, working-class and resilient. The film is both a love story (Saoirse Ronan plays her younger lover Charlotte) and Lee’s attempt to give a woman, marginalised in the patriarchal society she lived within, a voice. There was only ever one actor…

CHAD SCHMIDT This tale of an actor — to be played by Pitt — who looks “like Brad Pitt dragged behind a bus” was set to have a scene where Chad and Brad meet at the Thelma & Louise auditions. TO THE WHITE SEA Pitt shines in the Coens’ Burn After Reading as fitness dummy Chad. A shame, then, that their spin on the James Dickey novel, about a pilot gunned down over Tokyo, fell through. Pitt would have taken a near-speechless role. THE FOUNTAIN In 2002, Pitt left Darren Aronofsky’s sci-fi, which Aronofsky compared to a break-up: “It is hard to say if it was one thing [that caused it]. It wasn’t like he left the toothpaste cap off the toothpaste.” GO LIKE HELL At one point, the movie…

Illustration: Neil Edwards. Getty Images IN TREMORS: SHRIEKER Island, the seventh film in the franchise, Jon Heder replaces Jamie Kennedy as the panicky leading man, and villainy is provided by the reliably demented Richard Brake as a techbro who breeds ‘graboid’ mutations to stock his island hunting preserve. Over 30 years, the series has admirably maintained its quirky, inventive tone. Globetrotting director Don Michael Paul follows his African and Arctic Tremors instalments by shooting in Thai locations – so the CGI monsters rampage through lush jungle. Michael Gross, comedy-relief support when Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon were top-billed, has risen to be the iconic star of the show. His lunatic survivalist hero gets the equivalent of a victory-lap highlights reel that’s surprisingly moving. People you don’t expect to see in…

THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE Just finished reading the latest issue and got a bit emotional. It brought me back to watching Lincoln in the cinema with my dear nan. She fell asleep with boredom, whilst I adored it – even though she’s always been my biggest inspiration when it comes to anything art-related. It made me think about how we don’t have to always be united or even get on to be inspired by each other. Maybe a prudent thought in these trying times. JAMIE DYOS, VIA EMAIL Thanks, Jamie. When everything opens again, you and your nan can enjoy this Picturehouse membership on us. (And hopefully, she can stay awake this time.) Picture house Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend! Valid…

© David Reiss, Jake Polonksy, Getty Images INTRODUCING... ON BEING IN A NETFLIX SMASH “We were blown away. To play the part of Will [Mondrich] — based on a real figure, a boxer named Bill Richmond known as Britain’s first Black sports star — made me feel so privileged.” ON HIS FIRST TELEVISION ACTING ROLE “My background is in theatre. I told everyone from the start it was my first TV show and the cast, producers and all the team had my back.” ON GETTING INTO SHAPE FOR THE ROLE OF A BOXER “I had my own personal trainer. I had a mini six-pack when I started out but he taught me how to bulk up. I also had a boxing coach. Sadly, he passed away suddenly. That was the…

COMING TO AMERICA IS THE ULTIMATE BLACK FAMILY MOVIE GROWING UP IN a household with three older brothers and a younger sister meant that deciding on something everyone could watch on the family TV was, at times, a challenge. But one of the few films we could always agree on, regardless of mood or occasion, was Eddie Murphy’s 1988 classic Coming To America. To this day, my mother will imitate King Jaffe Joffer’s iconic line: “Silence! I’m talking to my son!” to knowing chuckles. That it’s still so relevant in pop culture is a testament to how this movie continues to be passed down from generation to generation, helping the film to endure for over 30 years. Even before we understood just how Murphy was able to play multiple characters…

THE LEGACY OF CAPTAIN AMERICA In a series which grapples with a world without Steve Rogers, the very first Cap comic, Captain America #1, can be seen in the Smithsonian. FALCON: ORIGINS Sam’s family run a seafood business — a sign can be seen for ‘Wilson Family Seafood’. BACK TO SOKOVIA Zemo (Daniel Brühl) stands at a memorial statue with a Sokovian flag, suggesting the first visit to the fictional country since Age Of Ultron. AGENT IN ACTION US Agent (Wyatt Russell), the government’s replacement of Captain America, is not just a pretty face — he’s briefly seen during a fight on a moving truck. STEVE ROGERS, REMIXED The legacy of Cap can even be heard in music. The trailer theme is a tweaked version of the Captain America theme…

Alamy, Marvel, Steve Schofield HE’LL BECOME SPIDEY’S BFF! SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL #12 (2016) Writer Joe Kelly’s return to Deadpool saw the hero basically harassing Spider-Man into a friendship, the pair ultimately buying each other matching Bad Boys II Christmas jumpers. HE’LL GET INSULTED BY HAWKEYE! HAWKEYE VS DEADPOOL #1 (2014) For once Deadpool is taking the flak as Kate Bishop — the other Hawkeye, to be introduced in the upcoming Disney+ series — ‘compliments’ Wade on his great “Freddy Kruger” (sic) Halloween make-up. HE’LL LIFT THOR’S HAMMER! DEADPOOL #37 (2000) Recruited to save Thor, Deadpool somehow picks up the Avenger’s famous hammer. Turns out it’s all a trick by Loki. HE’LL TEAM UP WITH CAPTAIN AMERICA! DEADPOOL VOL 3 #15-19 (2013) That rare beast — a sombre Deadpool story — sees Captain…

Getty Images Hi, Sam. Are you in New Zealand right now? Yes! As I speak to you I’m finishing my quarantine. I’m on day 13. I’m all clear to get out of here. Are you back on your farm, then? I’ll be back on the vineyard next week. I’ll be slightly delayed because I’m going to the Governor General —they’re making me a New Zealand ‘Arts Icon’. Which is unusual. I think it’s only 20 living ones at any one time. I believe when you die, you have to give the medal back, which is a bit unfair, having died, y’know, that you have the additional burden of having to find someone to give the medal to. I plan not to die for a very long time — just to…

A TREE IS KNOWN BY ITS FRUIT (TBC) This new TV comedy-drama, based on an article in Texas Monthly, tells the story of a West Texas family who own a pecan empire. Driver is set to star and executive produce in the show, which is in development at FX. MAEVE IN AMERICA (TBC) Driver’s production company, Huge Fan Productions, has also bought the rights to this memoir by Maeve Higgins, a comedian and actor who wrote about leaving Ireland for NYC. It is currently being developed as a TV series.…

★★★ OUT 19 FEBRUARY (SKY CINEMA) / CERT PG / 99 MINS DIRECTOR John Hay CAST Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, Geoffrey Palmer The lives of British children’s authors seems to be catnip to filmmakers at the moment. Here, Hugh Bonneville plays Roald Dahl in a story that touches on his literary efforts but focuses on his marriage to actress Patricia Neal (Keeley Hawes) as they endure an unspeakable family tragedy. As they try to cope, both partners experience career breakthroughs. But the film doesn’t quite face what must have felt like bitter compensation from the universe, framing this instead as a triumph against the odds. The beats are overly familiar, but this at least offers charming child performances, Hawes is a good fit as Neal and the moments that do…

★★★ OUT 26 FEBRUARY (CURZON HOME CINEMA) / CERT TBC / 136 MINS DIRECTOR Fernando Trueba CAST Javier Cámara, Daniela Abad, Aida Morales As told through the eyes of his adoring son, this biopic of Colombian doctor and social activist Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara) takes on a saccharine, nostalgic glow which diffuses the country’s oppressive politics. It’s adapted from Héctor Abad Faciolince’s novel, about a life lived alongside his liberal father, who was assassinated in 1987. The focus is squarely on the warm affections of ’70s family life contrasted with 1980s bookends — shot in cold black and white — suggesting that childhood innocence has been replaced by an adult understanding of the risks of taking a stand. But even though Gómez’s murder is depicted in sharp, shocking relief,…

★★★★ OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / CERT 15 / 119 MINS DIRECTOR Ric Roman Waugh CAST Gerard Butler, Morena Bacarin, David Denman The prospect of a Gerry Butler movie in which a comet destroys the world might have you salivating for a ludicrous affair in which our gruff hero headbutts a giant space rock, but Greenland is a very different proposition — and, perhaps surprisingly, a much better one. It centres on Butler’s structural engineer, as he finds himself (and his estranged wife and diabetic son — hello, foreshadowing!) selected for survival in a government bunker. But getting there isn’t going to be a cinch. What could have been a bombastic load of boulders is, instead, a refreshingly serious and compelling affair, with director Ric Roman Waugh (who directed Butler…

★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 15 / 115 MINS DIRECTOR Mikael Håfström CAST Anthony Mackie, Damson Idris, Emily Beecham Mikael Håfström’s futuristic thriller Outside The Wire is a middling effort in the Netflix action canon. As Harp — a drone pilot who disobeys a direct order and is reassigned to a deadly warzone — Damson Idris lends a credibility to his predictable arc, and Anthony Mackie brings charisma to Leo, a US government prototype android who partners with him. The actors play off each other well throughout, but the intriguing ideas of collateral damage and artificial intelligence only go surface-level deep. Its bright spots (a one-man army set-piece) fail to mask its messy and derivative narrative — for a movie with elements of Training Day, the Terminator franchise, and…

★★★★ OUT MARCH TBC (BBC ONE) EPISODES VIEWED 2 OF 4 SHOWRUNNERS Chris Brandon, Pete Travis CAST James Nesbitt, Lisa Dwan, Lorcan Cranitch, Ian McElhinney This no-nonsense crime thriller is the first fruit of Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio’s production company. James Nesbitt plays Northern Irish detective Tom Brannick, investigating a suspicious disappearance. Chris Brandon’s lean script isn’t set in Belfast and its surrounds for the hell of it; the story and characters are steeped in Irish politics and identity, fearlessly showing the fallout from the Troubles, while also working as an absorbing mystery. Best of all, Nesbitt’s cop is refreshingly free from contrived eccentricities: he’s just a decent man weighed down by the past. We root for him every step of the way.…

Contour by Getty Images EIGHT FILMS IN ten years. A sprawling cast incorporating newcomers and some of the greatest British actors of all time. Gigantic sets, teeming with magic. Its own ultra-sugary beverage. Across the ‘00s and early ‘10s, the Harry Potter movies were a formidable filmmaking force, taking the enchanting tales of the boy wizard and spinning them into epic British blockbusters that brought the Wizarding World to vivid life. While the Potter films came from four distinct filmmakers — Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates — who each brought their own flavour to J.K. Rowling’s creation, the glue holding it all together was producer David Heyman. After reading an advance copy of The Philosopher’s Stone in 1997, he knew he had to bring it to…

This month: The swaggering, enigmatic, franchise-allergic king of cool, BRAD PITT HOW LONG DOES it take to make a movie star? Fourteen minutes, it turns out. Eight hundred and 40 seconds. Just a nudge over 20,000 frames of film. That’s how long Brad Pitt spends on screen in Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991). Less time than it takes to get popcorn if there’s a queue. He arrives towards the start of act two, drifting into focus in a rear-view mirror. He sheds his shirt, sweats tastefully (Ridley Scott took it upon himself to personally spritz the newcomer’s abs with Evian), re-enacts a bank heist with a hairdryer, sleeps with Thelma, steals some cash, and bolts. And, at the end of it all, he has seamlessly transitioned from being a…

8/6/84 The day it was released in the US $30 MILLION: ITS BUDGET #2 THE HIGHEST UK CHART POSITION OF THE RAY PARKER JR THEME SONG $1.033 BILLION THE AMOUNT IT HAS MADE, THANKS TO RE-RELEASES. IT’S CURRENTLY 40TH ON THE ALL-TIME CHART 8 THE NUMBER OF THE HOOK & LADDER FIREHOUSE WHICH DOUBLED AS THE GHOSTBUSTERS’ HQ. TODAY, IT’S STILL A WORKING FIREHOUSE 140 THE NUMBER OF EPISODES OF SPIN-OFF ANIMATED SHOW, THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS 112.5 THE HEIGHT, IN FEET, OF THE STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN MONSTER 4,800 THE AMOUNT RAY PAYS FOR THE ECTO-1, IN US DOLLARS 2 NUMBER OF OSCARS WON (BEST ORIGINAL SONG/ BEST VISUAL EFFECTS) 555-2368 THE GHOSTBUSTERS’ PHONE NUMBER IN THE MOVIE 55CENTRAL PARK WEST, THE REAL-LIFE LOCATION OF DANA BARRETT’S APARTMENT BUILDING, AKA…

Illustration: Neil Edwards. Getty Images LON CHANEY JR It was with great reluctance (“they had to starve me”) that Creighton Chaney changed his name to Lon Chaney Jr – but in the 1940s, Universal Pictures sold him as a successor to his father, silent cinema’s Man Of A Thousand Faces, by casting him as the Wolf Man, the Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, and Dracula’s son. In the six pictures (spooky whodunnits rather than full-on horror) in the Inner Sanctum Mysteries collection, Chaney presents just one face, albeit with a natty moustache, as a series of professionals mixed up with hypnotism, voodoo, organ transplants, and a sinister wax museum. The titles are evocative – Calling Dr Death, Dead Man’s Eyes, Weird Woman (pick of the litter), The Frozen Ghost, Strange Confession and…

1 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) Dan: “It’s Spielberg’s Bond, Star Wars and Lawrence Of Arabia, all rolled into one fun, lean, joyful action-adventure. Have the time of your life keeping up with the Jones.” 2 JAWS (1975) Chris: “For me, this should have been number one, but it’s close.” 3 JURASSIC PARK (1993) Ian: “Part one of Spielberg’s miracle year. Wonder, fun, smarts and scares. And an unforgettable glass of water.” 4 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Helen: “Trademark Spielberg: a fascination with the unknown, a sense of optimism, and moments of magic.” 5 SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993) Helen: “A story of hope and humanity in the midst of the Holocaust, without ever downplaying its horror.” 6 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) Amon: “Come for the all-time great opening battle, stay…

1 The sequence drew the ire of animal-rights activists, who thought the creatures inside the wicker man would really go up in flames. (They didn’t.) 2 Originally production designer Seamus Flannery intended for the structure to have eyes made of daisies. This idea was discarded as it made it look “too friendly”. 3 Shaffer wrote an unmade sequel in which Howie escaped at the last minute. Meanwhile, Robin Hardy made his own sequel, titled The Wicker Tree, in 2011. 4 The wicker man’s concrete base can still be found on the site where it was built on the Isle of Whithorn.…

Coming to digital platforms courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment every week this March is a heap of new digital releases, from art thrillers The Last Vermeer, starring Guy Pearce, and The Burnt Orange Heresy (look out for rocker Mike Jagger), to comic dramas The Last Shift, with Richard Jenkins and Shane Paul McGhie (above), and The Climb. If teen romance is more your bag, try Words On Bathroom Walls with Charlie Plummer, or delve into mystery story The Kid Detective. To celebrate, we’ve got a Sony TV to give away to one lucky winner — with a massive 49” screen and Smart technology, it’s worth £699, so if you fancy getting your hands on some serious hardware, crack the crossword, solve the anagram and text your answer to the…

IT’S UNCHARTED TERRITORY! Set 200 years before The Phantom Menace, the High Republic was a golden age for the galaxy, with Jedi ten a penny. What will that mean in practice? Lightsabers all round, and a different feel for the Star Wars universe — with special excitement reserved for new Disney+ live-action series The Acolyte, set at the tail end of the High Republic and rise of the Sith. JEDIS WILL FIGHT VIKINGS! According to Lucasfilm, the entire concept of the High Republic sprung from a question asked by author Cavan Scott: “What scares the Jedi?” The answer, it seems, is the Nihil. Pitched as space Vikings, the Nihil are from the Outer Rim and like to raid and pillage across the galaxy —all while wearing outfits filched from Immortan…

RIZ AHMED SOUND OF METAL To get into character as an ex-addict metal drummer, Ahmed adopted an armour of fake tattoos, vintage band merch and a drugstore peroxide do. Billy Idol wishes that he looked this rock ’n’ roll. PETE DAVIDSON THE SUICIDE SQUAD The Saturday Night Live tearaway flaunts a shock of white-blond hair as the supervillain Blackguard in James Gunn’s upcoming DC blockbuster. Rumour has it that he and Harley Quinn use the same shampoo. Alamy, Shutterstock RAÚL CASTILLO ARMY OF THE DEAD Call up Ben Affleck circa Pearl Harbor, because frosted tips are back. For Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead, Castillo pairs his new do with a snakeskin tee and kneepads. It shouldn’t work. It does.…

EXCELLENT GOOD OKAY POOR AWFUL OUT NOW (NETFLIX) CERT 15 / 106 MINS DIRECTOR Sam Levinson CAST Zendaya, John David Washington PLOT After the successful premiere of his new movie, up-and-coming filmmaker Malcolm (Washington) and his girlfriend Marie (Zendaya) return home to celebrate. But when long-simmering tensions in their relationship rise to the surface, they instead have a no-holds-barred argument that tests the strength of their bond. THE WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC has given rise to some innovative filmmaking. Host gave our new Zoom-call reality a terrifying twist. Locked Down set a jewellery heist during Covid-19 restrictions. And while Malcolm & Marie doesn’t take place in a pandemic world, that it was shot during lockdown with just a 22-person crew means it was a big factor in its conception. It also speaks…

OUT 19 FEBRUARY (PRIME VIDEO) CERT TBC / 118 MINS DIRECTOR J Blakeson CAST Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Dianne Wiest, Chris Messina PLOT Marla Grayson (Pike) has developed a very successful scam: she has her corrupt doctor pal sign over a family-less OAP into her care and get her hands on all of their assets in the process. But her grift — and life — is threatened when she swindles the wrong woman (Wiest). I CARE A Lot could easily have been called ‘This Is Where Late-Stage Capitalism Gets You, Suckers’, or quite simply: ‘Christ: People Are Dreadful’. Because really, they are. If this film has a message, this is it. The most dreadful (probably, maybe) of all is Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), a guardian/ conservator, who turns…

★★★ OUT NOW (DIGITAL) / CERT 15 / 89 MINS DIRECTOR Kevin Lewis CAST Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant Like ’90s neo-noir Red Rock West, this starts with a drifter played by Nicolas Cage arriving in a small town full of secrets. Unlike Red Rock West, those secrets involve Satanism and a psychotic giant weasel. As Cage is coerced into working in a haunted family entertainment centre, a cycle begins, with an animatronic animal coming to life and Cage battling it. Although director Kevin Lewis injects some Raimi-esque energy, the action gets a little samey, and the production’s limited budget is evident. What’s refreshing is just how bizarre the central character is, responding to the carnage with a totally nonplussed demeanour. Chugging endless cans of fictional soft drink Punch…

★★★ OUT 1 MARCH (ARROW) / CERT TBC / 105 MINS DIRECTOR Jill Gevargizian CAST Najarra Townsend, Brea Grant Adapted from her own 2016 short, Jill Gevargizian’s The Stylist has all the trappings of cheapjack horror but is better than the average bargain-basement bloodletter. Instead, it’s a character study of Claire (Najarra Townsend), a Kansas City hairdresser who kills her victims, removes their hair and tries on new guises in front of the mirror. Within a so-so story Gevargizian and Townsend create a portrait of a fractured woman who pines for a different life — looks, friends, relationships — and goes the extra mile to realise the ideal. Gevargizian mixes up lyrical slow-motion montage, Giallo lighting and, in a sequence of Claire exploring a house, a striking sense of quiet…

SHOWROOM WORKSTATION www.showroomworkstation.org.ukChief Executive Ian Wild celebrates Sheffield’s lively artistic hub What’s your history? The cinema opened in the early ’90s in a former 1930s Art Deco car showroom. A £1.5 million National Lottery grant enabled the owners to convert it into a 650-capacity, four-screen cinema. We also have the Workstation, essentially an artistic cultural hub. What’s special about your cinema? We have a proud history of supporting new, home-grown filmmakers. A special event we run yearly is the Sheffield Doc/Fest — a big international documentary festival. Share a memorable moment... We showed Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki in 2019 and she came over to introduce it for us. We had the most amazing Q&A with her where she spoke about her groundbreaking film in the context of LGBTQ+ rights in her…

★★★ OUT 23 FEBRUARY (STAR ON DISNEY+) EPISODES VIEWED: 2 OF 10 CREATORS Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger CAST Michael Cimino, Anthony Turpel, George Sear Love, Simon was the first major Hollywood studio film to centre on a gay teen. Its small-screen spin-off immediately points out that, while Simon had a supportive family, friends, and a happy ending, that’s not always the case. Enter new Creekwood High kid Victor (Michael Cimino) – not 100 per cent sure where his sexual identity lands, sliding into Simon’s DMs for advice (Nick Robinson returns in voiceover). Like the film it’s light and likeable, but opens up potential for more nuanced explorations as Victor faces Creekwood’s heteronormative status quo, homophobic locker-room talk, and his classmates’ loftier socioeconomic status.…

Meet Floyd True Romance (1993) Ridley Scott might have served up Pitt as beefcake movie-star material with his shirtless turn in Thelma & Louise, but it was his brother Tony who gave Pitt the chance to sparkle in his first precision supporting role. Lovebirds on the lam Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) fetch up at the house of his pal Dick (Michael Rapaport), where the couch is apparently permanently occupied by stoner layabout Floyd (Pitt). The fun arrives with an increasingly bewildered Floyd confronted by first a quietly menacing James Gandolfini and then a posse of shotgun-wielding Mafiosi demanding directions he is, for pharmacological reasons, unable to clearly deliver. Scripted by Quentin Tarantino, the scene was the first to establish Pitt’s comedic potential, and provided a clarion call…

ROGER CORMAN HAS some good news. “I got a vaccination yesterday,” he tells Empire. “I’ve been in lockdown since March. The only time I left the house was to go to the doctor. But now I wait three weeks, and then I get the second shot, and then I’m free to move around.” The legendary producer and director of hundreds of B movies is still going strong at the age of 94, and long may that continue. Ironically, in the middle of a pandemic, his greatest achievement as director, The Masque Of The Red Death, is getting a second lease of life, with a new UK re-release giving audiences a chance to revel in a movie in which Vincent Price plays a rich nobleman doing his best to ignore a…