Tabla de contenidos para August 2021 en Empire

AS I WRITE this, cinemas have been reopened five weeks and our world has started to steady on its axis. With the delay of restrictions lifting, we’re still in the land of social distancing, not-at-capacity audiences and no pick ’n’ mix (I mean, for the love of God!). We know that some of you have gone back to your favourite seat, bookings stretching into the weeks ahead. And we know others have been more cautious. But with the end of restrictions in sight and all of us promised the offer of a vaccine by September, you can feel… well, it. The anticipation, the moment when the plane starts to taxi down the runway and the engine bursts into life. In a matter of weeks (fingers crossed), our picturehouses will be…

Nick de Semlyen (Deputy Editor): I’m totally up for a deep dive into the shady world of truffle hunting. I don’t really know what a truffle is. John Nugent (News Editor): It’s a type of rare fungus. Joanna Moran (Photography Director): It tastes like bad feet, I think. They hit me in the back of the throat. John: Truffles are often found by dogs and pigs, with their superior sense of smell. There’s a great documentary called The Truffle Hunters that got nominated for an Oscar this year all about this. But this is more like Nicolas Cage meets John Wick, with a pig. Nick: It’s Pig Wick! James Dyer (Editor-In-Chiet: Digital): “I’m looking for a truffle pig.” Oh my God. John: On paper this looks like another bit of…

TEENAGE ITALIANS LUCA Sea monsters are usually terrifying, man-eating ghouls, the stuff of sailors’ nightmares. But in Pixar’s summery fable, they’re simply teenage boys ROMANTIC GERMANS UNDINE The ancient myth of the water nymph is reimagined as an arthouse romance in Christian Petzold’s curious drama. Here, the ‘undine’ monster is a German historian who occasionally threatens her exes with death. ‘TRISH’ BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s bonkers comedy sees their characters conjure a water spirit from their own heads (“Trish really has her act together”) before the actual Trish (country singer Reba McEntire) emerges from the sea.…

JOEL EDGERTON What was your role in your first school play? I became the king in a pre-school Easter pageant. I was originally cast as a pear-tree bearer and somehow took over the role of king when the king started crying. A sign of my early ambition. When in your life were you most starstruck? I’ll give you two. The first celebrity I ever saw was Kirk Cameron, from Growing Pains, at the London Hard Rock Cafe. It was the first time I’d seen anyone off my telly in real life. The next time I was really starstruck was when I met Sergey Bubka, world pole vaulting champion for many years. He has the massivest hands. I get very starstruck meeting sports people. I fancied myself as a pole vaulter…

★★★★ OUT 16 JULY (CINEMAS/DIGITAL) / CERT 12 / 95 MINS DIRECTOR Filippo Meneghetti CAST Barbara Sukowa, Martine Chevallier, Lea Drucker This arresting, grandiose and refreshing debut from Filippo Meneghetti tells the story of Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier), covert lovers for decades who live across the hall of the same Parisian block. As the couple brace themselves to confess their love to Mado’s family, doubts and misfortune derail the revelation. Despite obstacles leaving Mado unable to communicate, the retired couple prove affection has many languages and that time generates strength. The cast elegantly play out a tale of a smouldering romance seeping through supressed passion that is familiar, but with a thriller edge and a side of dark wit all of its own.…

OUT 16 JULY CERT 15 / 77 MINS DIRECTOR Quentin Dupieux CAST Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Coralie Russier, Albert Delpy PLOT In the French countryside, a mysterious loner named Georges (Dujardin) buys an expensive deerskin jacket. The jacket then instructs him to destroy all other jackets in the world. Aided by gullible barmaid Denise (Haenel), Georges documents his increasingly violent quest on camera. QUENTIN DUPIEUX IS fascinated by inanimate objects. In the ’90s, as music producer Mr. Oizo, it was his expressionless yellow puppet Flat Eric, nodding along to electro-house; a decade ago, as filmmaker, it was a tyre named Robert in the kooky horror Rubber. And now it’s a fringed cowboy jacket that grabs his eccentric attention. Like Peter Strickland’s In Fabric or Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, Deerskin…

★★★★ OUT 9 JULY / CERT TBC / 93 MINS DIRECTOR Zoé Wittock CAST Noémie Merlant, Emmanuelle Bercot, Bastien Bouillon Jumbo tells the same old story. Girl (Noémie Merlant) meets amusement park ride. Girl falls for amusement park ride (pet name: Jumbo). Girl’s mother (a terrific Emmanuelle Bercot) unsurprisingly disapproves. Inspired by the true story of a woman who married the Eiffel Tower, Zoé Wittock’s film deftly explores the little-tackled topic of ‘objectophilia’, the sexual desire for and obsession with inanimate objects. It could easily be silly or tasteless, but Wittock finds a tone that not only makes it believable but also affecting. She is helped enormously by Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’s Merlant, whose commitment sells tender scenes with a waltzer. The final act goes a bit haywire…

★★★ OUT 9 JULY / CERT 12A / 103 MINS DIRECTOR Zaida Bergroth CAST Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney Long-listed for Best International Film at this year’s Oscars, Zaida Bergroth’s evocative biopic of Moomins creator Tove Jansson (Alma Pöysti) zeroes in on three key years: 1944, 1947 and 1952. With the Moomins’ creation forming an illustrative backdrop (cue on-the-nose parallels drawn between Tove’s circle and her iconic characters), Bergroth focuses on her relationships, principally her strained one with sculptor father Viktor (Robert Enckell), distracting love for theatre director Vivica Bandler (Krista Kosonen) and on/off affair with MP Atos Wirtanen (Shanti Roney). It’s a not entirely nuanced examination of Jansson’s motivations (father issues/a broken heart/societal conservatism), and emerges more intriguing sketch than detailed portrait. But the cast are excellent, not…

TOTNES CINEMA Co-founder Jane Hughes on Devon’s very own secret cinema TOTNESCINEMA.CO.UK What’s your history? Post-World War II, two brothers, Kelvin and Grenville White, used to go around all the little villages in Devon showing films in their mobile cinema. In 1951, they decided to make our current building their permanent home, and remained there until 1964. When my partner Will and I restored the cinema in 2014, we met Kelvin and Grenville: they approved of what we’d done to the place! What’s special about your cinema? We’re situated on a tiny medieval plot that you get to by going down a sort of secret little passageway. We’re a hidden gem! Share a memorable moment… We run free jazz-music drop-ins on a Sunday afternoon and these are followed by a…

★★★★ OUT 23 JULY / CERT TBC / 94 MINS DIRECTOR Nir Bergman CAST Shai Avivi, Noam Imber Israeli filmmaker Nir Bergman’s beautifully played two-hander is a father-son story with a twist. Dad Aharon (Shai Avivi) has given up a lucrative career as a graphic designer to look after his autistic young-adult son Uri (Noam Imber). But when the time comes for Uri to move into a residential home, Aharon takes him on a road trip across Israel, convinced he is best placed to raise his child. Drawing inspiration from her own family, screenwriter Dana Idisis crafts an understated, beautifully observed shifting relationship, but it’s in the performances that the film grabs you; Imber plays Uri as a rounded person, not just a disability, and Avivi is superb as a…

TRUMAN CAPOTE INFAMOUS (2006) Now widely regarded as one of our finest character actors, Toby Jones was initially largely confined to supporting roles on the small and big screens (yes, he is the voice of Dobby the House-elf from Harry Potter). Then he got the chance to audition for a role that changed his career: that of Truman Capote, the famous writer, in Douglas McGrath’s version of the events that led to his non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. “It was the first lead part I’d played on film or television,” says Jones. “It was the first time I’d filmed in America, the first time I’d played a real character. I remember a strong feeling of melancholy about halfway through the script as I read. I thought, ‘There’s no way they’re…

Illustration: Jacey 1 ‘THE ONE WITH THE PROM VIDEO’ (S2, E14) Terri: “The only possible winner. Rachel’s nose! Monica’s bathing suit! Roy saw Star Wars 317 times! He’s her lobster! Frankly, I can’t believe I’m even having to justify this.” 2 ‘THE ONE WITH THE EMBRYOS’ (S4, E12) Chris: “An endlessly quotable quiz. Transponster. Miss Chanandler Bong. Monica’s cry of despair.” 3 ‘THE ONE WHERE NO ONE’S READY’ (S3, E2) Olly: “Constructed like a one-act play, as Ross tries to get his pals to an event, it’s impeccably scripted.” 4 ‘THE ONE WHERE EVERYBODY FINDS OUT’ (S5, E14) Helen: “Chandler and Monica’s secret slips out; cue minds lost in different but perfectly pitched ways. It’s inspired farce.” 5 ‘THE ONE WITH ALL THE RESOLUTIONS’ (S5, E11) Chris: “From Ross’ leather pants to Rachel finding out…

Illustration: Neil Edwards. James Swanton © Jack Sain Horror fans recognise the credits if not the faces of Doug Jones (The Shape Of Water) and Javier Botet (Mama) — performers who give vivid performances under layers of effects make-up. A British equivalent is James Swanton, at his scariest as the spook in Host. He plays monsters, mangled victims and spectres in Double Date, A Werewolf In England, Vampire Virus, The Banishing and Broadcast Signal Intrusion. Sam Ashurst’s Frankenstein’s Creature, based on Swanton’s one-man stage show, delves deep into Mary Shelley’s text, and the actor is disguised less than usual, incarnating the piteous wretch via bodily, facial and vocal contortions. He plays a flamboyantly horrible filmmaker in Ashurst’s A Little More Flesh, a #MeToo ghost story in the form of a…

PICK OF THE MONTH BLOW OUT OUT 2 AUGUST / CERT 18 / 113 MINS BR At last, Brian De Palma’s cracking thriller gets the Criterion treatment. Heavily inspired by Antonioni’s Blow-Up, this tale of a sound recordist (John Travolta) who accidentally bears witness to a murder and then gets caught up in a conspiracy as he tries to save Nancy Allen’s escort is one of De Palma’s best, and most focused, films. Because De Palma can never stop being De Palma, there’s style aplenty here — check out that famous split diopter shot of an owl sharing the frame with Travolta — but it never gets in the way of the narrative, allowing De Palma to smoosh together some of his favourite preoccupations (voyeurism! Obsession! Doomed women! John Lithgow…

We all love checking out a new release at the cinema, or holing up on the sofa with a brilliant blockbuster or box set. And now you can take your entertainment out and about and still enjoy excellent audio and comfort — as this month we have two pieces of kit to enhance the al fresco experience for one winner. First is a pair of Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 + earbuds (RRP: £119.95). With app control, customisable EQ settings and memory foam ear tips, they offer high-quality audio and a super snug fit. We also have the Cambridge Audio Yoyo S portable Bluetooth speaker (RRP £129) — a great addition to any outdoor event. To be in with a chance of winning both, crack the crossword, solve the anagram and…

From a talking shark to a dude with detachable arms, The Suicide Squad has way too much lunacy for just one cover. So we’ve showcased the film’s line-up across five. Each one comes with a world-exclusive art print by legendary comic-book artist Jim Lee. The Empire VIP Club is the ultimate Empire experience, giving you exclusive access to the world’s biggest film brand. Find out how to sign up for a bargain price on page 46.…

© Emily Assiran ON THE FAMILIARITY OF IN THE HEIGHTS “I did not get to see it on Broadway. It was on Broadway in 2008. I was born in 2005. So I was still in Pampers! But I was a huge fan. It sounds so much like what I heard every day out in the street, being born and raised in New York.” ON AUDITIONING FOR THE ROLE OF SONNY “My very first audition, I was 13. My final callback, it was all the producers in the room; Jon M. Chu, the director; Lin-Manuel Miranda; our co-writer Quiara Alegria Hudes; and Anthony Ramos. I was definitely nervous for that one. I was fangirling the entire time on the inside.” ON HIS EARLY INSPIRATION “It was when my dad took me…

Hello, Gemma! Where in the world are you? I’m in London! Are you shooting things, or have you been enjoying a little bit of time off? A little bit of time off. It’s been pretty busy actually, there’s been so much going on with AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] History Month. But it’s nice to be in London as things have started to open up. Although quite scary as well. It’s all that trepidation, isn’t it? As well as crossing our fingers, hoping everything’s going to be okay! This has been the longest lockdown. We’ve put in the hard work this time. Fingers crossed. Do you mind still wearing a mask? I’m so happy with the masks, I’m not ready to give them up. I just can’t believe that…

1 HE’S AN ORIGINAL MARVEL ANTI-HERO One of the earliest characters in the Marvel Comics canon, Namor, The SubMariner, debuted in 1939 in Marvel Comics #1. Half human and half homo mermanus (the fictional underwater species found in Atlantis), he is sometimes known as Marvel’s first mutant, with super strength, super swimming speed, and flight. 2 HE’S BEEN TEASED IN THE MCU BEFORE In Iron Man 2, S.H.I.E.L.D. can be seen monitoring Atlantis. And in Avengers: Endgame, Okoye mentioned “an earthquake under the ocean” off the coast of Africa. When asked about this, the film’s writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, simply responded on Twitter: “Sometimes, you plant seeds. Sometimes, they grow.” 3 HE COULD GO TO WAR WITH WAKANDA As Prince of Atlantis, Namor’s dislike of the surface world…

TAIKA WAITITI IS no stranger to multi-tasking. Equally adept at acting, directing and writing (the latter to Oscar-winning effect with Jojo Rabbit), today he’s adding another string to his bow: conducting a Zoom interview with Empire while his two children play nearby. “Hey guys, I’m doing a really important interview,” he deadpans, in response to an off-camera crash. It’s the day after he’s wrapped on the Thor: Love And Thunder shoot — but rather than take time off, he’s graciously agreed to talk to us about reuniting with Ryan Reynolds (for the first time since Green Lantern) on Free Guy – and being the busiest man in movies. By the time Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love And Thunder come out, you’ll have directed five films in six years. Are…

WHEN IT WAS first announced that Lily James was going to play Pamela Anderson in Craig Gillespie’s upcoming limited series, Pam & Tommy, it’s fair to say there were a few eyebrows raised. How could James — an actor best known for playing enough demure English roses to fill a garden — possibly get under the skin of one of the 20th century’s most iconic sex symbols? Then the first images from the show were released, and the answer was clear: either James was wearing next-level prosthetics, or Gillespie had resorted to time travel and kidnap. Because James looks exactly like Anderson. “I don’t want to pull back the curtain,” says Gillespie, who is still shooting the series. “But there was one prosthetic for the face that made all the…

Shutterstock Middle-earth is going anime. The recently announced The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim will tell the story of Helm Hammerhand and the fortress of Helm’s Deep, set 250 years prior to the main trilogy. Animation is not a new medium for the franchise – the legendary Ralph Bakshi was the first to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s much venerated story in 1978. But while there’s plenty of overlap, there are also pronounced differences between the narrative and aesthetic priorities of Western animation and anime. The most exciting news is that the film will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama, best known for his work on anime series Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Based on the same source material as the film, the show is equally worthy…

EXCELLENT GOOD OKAY POOR AWFUL OUT NOW (DISNEY+) EPISODES WATCHED 3 OF 6 DIRECTOR Kate Herron CAST Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino PLOT After disappearing with the Tesseract after the battle of New York, Loki (Hiddleston) is picked up by timeline monitors of the Time Variance Authority as an unauthorised “variant” who threatens the sacred timeline of reality. Sympathetic agent Mobius (Wilson) saves him from execution to investigate a bigger threat. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? When, say, a resourceful god of mischief meets a civilisationswallowing bureaucracy? That’s the surprisingly fun premise of Marvel’s latest TV crossover, which takes their best villain, forces him to do paperwork and somehow makes that enormously entertaining. Think The X-Files meets Brazil, and…

★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 100 MINS DIRECTOR Patrick Hughes CAST Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas The funniest joke in Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard occurs at the last gasp of the end credits. It’s just a shame, then, that you have to sit through 100 minutes of a knackered action-comedy to get there. Patrick Hughes’ follow-up to his lacklustre 2017 mismatched-buddy flick sees the bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds), the hitman (Samuel L. Jackson) and his wife (Salma Hayek) embroiled in a plot to stop a Greek tycoon improbably named Aristotle Papadopolous (Antonio Banderas) wiping out a power grid to bring Europe to its knees. The blood-splattered action is average — laced with Reynolds and Jackson’s unfunny bickering — and familiar, the film’s only surprise revolving around…

★★★ OUT 9 JULY / CERT TBC / 93 MINS DIRECTOR Jeremy Hersh CAST Jasmine Batchelor, Chris Perfetti, Sullivan Jones New York. Jess (The Good Fight’s Jasmine Batchelor) is a web designer for a nonprofit and excited to be the surrogate and egg-donor for her besties (Chris Perfetti, Sullivan Jones). Twelve weeks in, a pregnancy test delivers an unexpected result that drives a wedge between the three friends. For half of its running time, Jeremy Hersh’s debut is naturalistic and well played but lacks momentum and dramatic oomph. Yet, once the film drops its dramatic payload, the film amps up to become a compelling series of arguments, cohering into a multi-faceted look at issues surrounding parenthood. The ace in the pack here is Batchelor’s central performance as Jess, whose likeability…

★★ OUT 30 JULY / CERT TBC / 88 MINS DIRECTOR Elaine Bogan CAST (VOICES) Isabela Merced, Jake Gyllenhaal, Julianne Moore Nearly 20 years after DreamWorks’ original animation Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, this reboot, inspired by a Netflix spin-off series, ditches everything but that titular horse — instead centring on Lucky (Isabela Merced), a plucky girl who’s sent to live with her estranged dad (Jake Gyllenhaal) for a summer in the frontier town of Miradero. There, she’s quickly enchanted by a certain bucking bronco — but a bunch of bandits have their sights set on rustling up Spirit and his herd to make some cash. Despite its title, Spirit Untamed couldn’t feel tamer. Lacking laughs or any kind of flair to the cheap, plastic-y animation, a vague sense of…

BAMBI BAMBI, 1942 “Bambi was a movie I saw as a very young boy. Very, very young. It could have been the first one I ever saw in the movie theatre. Man, what a great character. Bambi’s tenderness was something that influenced me a lot.” UNDERDOG UNDERDOG, 1964–1973 “My first love affair with any character in my life was Underdog. It’s funny: I’ve made my career creating these outside-of-the-margins superheroes, and that’s exactly what Underdog is. All my creations are connected to Underdog in that way.” BRUCE JAWS, 1975 “He’s a monster, but I love him. He’s there, but he wasn’t there. I mean, we don’t see much of him in the movie and when we do, he borders on problematic. He’s created by the silhouette of what’s happening in…

Point Break (1991) It’s hard to imagine it in 2021, but Kathryn Bigelow took a huge risk in casting Reeves for Point Break. The 1980s — the era of the testosterone beefcake — was barely over, and Reeves was more a loveable goofball. Certainly not an action hero. Point Break changed that. The sequence that sealed the deal was the incredible foot chase in which Reeves’ FBI agent Johnny Utah pursues Patrick Swayze’s bank robber Bodhi through houses, gardens, traffic and some flung-in-the-air towels. The pair fight in some fire before vaulting over fences and scaling walls. Utah flings himself through a plate-glass door and has a dog thrown at him. Finally, jumping off a huge aqueduct wall and landing badly, he collapses, deciding at the last second that he…

ELECTRONIC SCORES 1. EIGHTH GRADE Anna Meredith breathes digital life into Bo Burnham’s Gen-Z gem. 2. UNDERPLAYED A recent Scala fave; Kate Simko-scored doc about women in EDM. 3. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS Giorgio Moroder’s electro score struck Oscar gold. 4. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE Wendy Carlos reimagines the classics; “real horrorshow”. 5. SORCERER langerine Dream’s best album! 6. CLAVADISTA Short film OST offering a superb intro to the music of Aska Matsumiya. 7. HALLOWEEN John Carpenter scored his chiller classic — with two fingers! 8. BLADE RUNNER Vangelis hears things you people wouldn’t believe… 9. SUSPIRIA Squishy Moog-assistedgiallo-prog-rock from Goblin. 10. EX MACHINA Nothing artificial about Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s sounds-of-AI score. MARK KERMODE’S FILM MUSIC SHOW, IN ASSOCIATION WITH EMPIRE, IS ON SCALA RADIO ON SATURDAYS FROM 1–3PM (SCALARADIO.CO.UK)…

BODY HORROR You utter, utter bastards! I was reading The Ranking in the July 2021 issue when I saw the pic of Donald Sutherland from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978). I first watched it on TV in the ’80s, and it scared the living shite out of me so badly that my mum had to take me to our cellar to prove there wasn’t a pod-person lurking there. So thanks for newly haunting my dreams with that unearthly screech from the finger-pointing alien pod-freak... PHIL SLOAN, NOW TERRIFIED, BEXLEY VILLAGE We can’t offer therapy, but we can offer a free Picturehouse membership. Just try to go on a day when Donald Sutherland isn’t there, lest he point at you. Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for…

IN THE HEIGHTS COLOURISM LIMITS ITS CULTURAL IMPACT A DECADE AGO, In The Heights was a different proposition. Even back then, Lin-Manuel Miranda — who launched his career with the stage production in 2008 — had been wanting to turn his debut into a movie. Instead he was met with the usual Hollywood excuses as to why a Latinx-focused movie wouldn’t travel, and advised to hire already-famous singers — “Latino stars who test international,” as he later told Variety. Fast forward to 2021, and the Jon M. Chu-directed blockbuster is filled to the brim with fresh Latinx talent, all of whom are celebrating a culture that has so often been vilified on screen. But while this is one of the film’s major positives, the question of why none of the…

★★★★ OUT 23 JULY / CERT 15 / 95 MINS DIRECTOR Mona Fastvold CAST Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott, Casey Affleck On the American frontier in the 19th century, Abigail (Katherine Waterston) endures a practical marriage to Dyer (Casey Affleck). Her world cracks open on meeting Tally (Vanessa Kirby), wife of newly arrived farmer Finney (Christopher Abbott). The setting may be icy, but there’s warmth in Tally’s body language and Abigail’s relief at finally being given permission to love. If Portrait Of A Lady On Fire works by eschewing men altogether, Fastvold’s film finds dramatic mileage by including husbands, Abbott and Affleck ramping up the complexity and claustrophobia. Poetic dialogue, empathetic direction and a swooning score create a beguiling portrait of two women seeking snatches of joy – wherever…

★★★ OUT 30 JULY / CERT TBC / 94 MINS DIRECTORS Kristina Lindström, Kristian Petri PARTICIPANTS Björn Andrésen When Italian director Luchino Visconti cast 14-year-old Björn Andrésen as Tadzio, the epitome of youthful beauty, in Death In Venice, he didn’t take care of the child. Fifty years on, documentarians Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri check in with an unstable Andresen in Stockholm, Sweden. Tragedy visited him both before and after the film, yet its intrusion deepened his vulnerability to the storms of life. Archive footage of Visconti asking the teenager to strip at a casting and his subsequent sexualisation on the world stage makes for uncomfortable viewing, not least because the film itself blurs a line between criticism and voyeurism. Andresen is not a well man today and this doc…

★★ OUT 9 JULY / CERT 15 / 129 MINS DIRECTOR Pietro Marcello CAST Luca Marinelli, Carlo Cecchi, Jessica Cressy In Naples on the brink of revolution, the uneducated and uncouth Martin Eden (Luca Marinelli) battles desperately to fulfil his literary and romantic passions in this adaptation of Jack London’s American-set story. Set it in an unspecified time, there is also an ambition to imbue the politics of the narrative with the relevancy of today. It is a shame that the film’s disjointedness makes Martin’s passionate wish to be a firebrand feel limper than a soggy biscuit. Luca Marinelli delivers key moments of enthusiasm, and the film captures him in a beautifully saturated colour palette. Yet Martin’s plight is predictable and irritating. Completed and in prestigious festivals in 2019, its…

OUT 16 JULY (IN CINEMAS) / 30 JULY (STAR ON DISNEY+) CERT TBC / 117 MINS DIRECTOR Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson PARTICIPANTS Stevie Wonder, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr, Charlayne Hunter-Gault PLOT After 50 years hidden away, the historic performances of the Harlem Cultural Festival are unearthed from the vault. Questlove’s directorial debut explores the impact of the six-week event on culture, through live footage and retrospective conversations with festival-goers and artists. UTILISING BEAUTIFULLY RESTORED footage buried in a basement for 50 years, Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) vividly paints a picture of the Harlem Cultural Festival, often referred to as the ‘Black Woodstock’, as the event the establishment just didn’t want to happen. A labour of love for director Questlove, best known as the…

1. ‘RUSTY CAGE’ – JOHNNY CASH “When we were almost done with the movie we heard that Guy Ritchie’s Wrath Of Man, which was coming out a couple of months before us, was using ‘Folsom Prison Blues’. So we almost used this – then I decided I just like ‘FPB’ better for the scene; I’ll let the chips fall where they may.” 2. ‘WHAT A WAY TO DIE’ – THE PLEASURE SEEKERS “I love this old garage-rock tune, which was briefly considered for the opening credits instead of ‘People Who Died’ by The Jim Carroll Band.” 3. ‘DRAW THE LINE’ – AEROSMITH “This played over the Osprey flying over the ocean and dropping the squad members into the water for a long time. It worked great, but, after our co-producer…

PADDINGTON Colin Firth was Paddington originally but, “It slowly just became clear that Paddington does not have the voice of a very handsome older man,” said director Paul King. It was a “sad realisation that he simply doesn’t have my voice,” said Firth. Ben Whishaw, conversely, fitted like a snug duffle coat. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Nigel Davenport was the first to voice murderous computer HAL 9000. However, after a few weeks the ever-exacting Stanley Kubrick found his English accent too distracting and severed Davenport’s proverbial oxygen hose. Canadian actor Douglas Rain was flown to Borehamwood for post-production. DESPICABLE ME 2 Dastardly restaurateur Eduardo Pérez belonged to Al Pacino, but he quit five weeks before release, with co-director Chris Renaud blaming “creative differences”: Pacino and the team didn’t “see eye…

PLATOON As Oliver Stone pursued Charlie Sheen for the role of Chris Taylor, he was asked to consider Reeves instead. But Stone says the actor told his agent he “hated the violence in the script”. BATMAN FOREVER “I always wanted to play The Dark Knight,” Reeves said in 2014. “But I didn’t get that one.” It’s perhaps just as well: the film was the Joel Schumacher one that opens with a close-up of Batman’s Bat-crotch. HEAT Yes, Reeves lost two parts in 1995 to Val Kilmer. Although this one he turned down, unable to play Chris Shiherlis because he was playing Hamlet on stage in Canada. It was... not to be. Alamy, Allstar, Shutterstock WATCHMEN The role of Doctor Manhattan was, for a while, envisioned with Reeves in mind. It…

↓ 4/4/32 born in Zavrazhye, Russia HE WAS JUST 54 WHEN HE DIED FROM LUNG CANCER HIS LAST DIARY ENTRY WAS, “BUT NOW I HAVE NO STRENGTH LEFT — THAT IS THE PROBLEM” HE WAS NEVER NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR HIS LAST FILM, THE SACRIFICE, WON THE BAFTA FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM IN 1988 IVAN’S CHILDHOOD WON HIM THE GOLDEN LION AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL HE MADE HIS FIRST FIVE MOVIES IVAN’S CHILDHOOD (1962), ANDREI RUBLEV (1966), SOLARIS (1972), MIRROR (1975), STALKER (1979) IN THE SOVIET UNION, ALTHOUGH ANDREI RUBLEV WAS BANNED THERE UNTIL 1971. HIS FINAL TWO MOVIES NOSTALGHIA (1983), THE SACRIFICE (1986) WERE MADE IN ITALY AND SWEDEN AFTER HE LEFT THE SOVIET UNION IN 1982. STEVEN SODERBERGH REMADE SOLARIS IN 2002 THIRTY YEARS AFTER THE…

Illustration: Neil Edwards. James Swanton © Jack Sain LOW-BUDGET BRITISH genre cinema is currently thriving. There are even tribute acts to tentpoles of theform — Savvas D. Michael’s Righteous Villains is a riff on Ben Wheatley circa The Kill List and Steven M. Smith’s Dead Again is a mash-up of all three Edgar Wright Cornetto films. In Righteous Villains, wideboy con man Jamie Crew and gun-toting widow Lois Brabin-Platt undertake a heavily symbolic journey to an island where the Devil (Adam Deacon) presides over orgiastic decadence. Dead Again has Frost-and-Pegg knock-off village coppers Tony Fadil and Elliot Cable cope with a zombie apocalypse that’s also an alien attack while bantering about pop culture. Simon Kay’s Shadowland also covers familiar ground, but has nice, widescreen Scots landscapes, and solid work from Amelia…