Table of contents for April 2020 in Empire

WITH 2006’S CASINO ROYALE, BOND started again. As Eon finally brought Ian Fleming’s introductory story to the screen, the series went back to basics with a bang, Daniel Craig’s no-nonsense, non-quipping 007 taking no prisoners. As such, the title sequence and accompanying theme song had a job to do. Ruthlessness was in order. “A great title sequence should prepare you for the experience of what the film is,” says composer David Arnold, who wrote the song, ‘You Know My Name’, with ex-Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. “[Former Bond song lyricist] Don Black said that the early Bond songs had a ‘whiff of a boudoir’ about them. This one didn’t.” The sequence, says designer Daniel Kleinman, was “an introduction to Bond. I had a chat with [Casino Royale director] Martin Campbell, and…

LIKE A SHARP-suited Avengers, Bradley Cooper’s portrait of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein has attracted a superhero line-up of producing talent. Alongside Cooper, who will also star, the project will be shepherded by his production-company partner Todd Phillips, director of Joker, as well as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, all under the Netflix banner. It’s a rare filmmaking roster that has a producing team more famous than most above-the-title stars but also throws up some some spicy, gossip-y dynamics. It puts Netflix in league with Spielberg, who has been vocal about the damaging influence of streaming on traditional movie-going models, and sees Scorsese in collaboration with Phillips after the director recently admitted he has not seen Joker after at one time considering producing it (“I’ve seen clips”). Who wouldn’t want to be…

MANIPULATIVE FLOWERS LITTLE JOE This chilly horror features a genetically modified flower that causes a complete personality change in anyone who sniffs it. Probably not something to order for Mother’s Day from Interflora. Eva Green: Arnaud Pyvka/Figarophoto/Camerapress ALIEN-INFECTED TREES COLOR OUT OF SPACE In this extremely bonkers Lovecraftian sci-fi, a glowing purple alien asteroid lands on Nicolas Cage’s farm and infects all the life that surrounds it. A bit like extreme Japanese knotweed. TALL GRASS IN THE TALL GRASS This supernatural horror, based on a novella co-written by Stephen King, focuses on a group of people lost in a field of tall grass. A decent cordless strimmer with adjustable angle head would have made light work of that!…

★★★ OUT 6 MARCH / CERT 12A / 113 MINS DIRECTOR Peter Cattaneo CAST Sharon Horgan, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jason Flemyng The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo returns to the genre of his greatest hit, offering another British human-interest tale full of heart and warmth. With Sharon Horgan and Kristin Scott Thomas leading a solid ensemble cast, it follows the semi-true (“inspired by”) tale of the country’s first choir made up of “military wives”, whiling away the hours of worry on base by having a good old sing. There are no narrative surprises as the women evolve from ragtag racket to playing the Albert Hall, and while suffused with gentle humour the laugh rate is less than that of The Full Monty. But it would be a cynical heart that…

★★★ OUT NOW CERT 15 / 109 MINS DIRECTOR Cathy Yan CAST Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Ella Jay Basco, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor PLOT Harley Quinn (Robbie) is pulled into the hunt for street hustler Cassandra (Basco) by gangster Roman Sionis (McGregor), along with singer Dinah (Smollett-Bell), vigilante Huntress (Winstead) and detective Renee Montoya (Perez). AT THE BEHEST of star and producer Margot Robbie, the working title for (deep breath) Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) was ‘Fox Force Five’. For the uninitiated, ‘Fox Force Five’ is Mia Wallace’s (Uma Thurman) never-aired TV pilot in Pulp Fiction concerning five female secret agents each with a distinct identity and skill — a knife thrower, a kung fu master, a demolition expert and a…

★★ OUT NOW / CERT U / 125 MINS DIRECTOR Autumn de Wilde CAST Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Josh O’Connor Pop promo director Autumn de Wilde’s take on Jane Austen’s mischievous matchmaker never really finds its feet. Tonally all over the place (often during the same scene), Anya Taylor-Joy never truly captures the character’s capricious nature as she guides the love life of friend Harriet Smith (Goth) while sparring with neighbour George Knightley (Flynn, intense). The first half wants to be light but the static staging — it shoots for a Wes Anderson-y stylized aesthetic — and performances lack the verve and spirit to pull it off. The film fares better when it moves into more emotional territory, but never totally takes flight. Amy Heckerling’s Clueless…

★★★ OUT 21 FEBRUARY CERT 15 / 104 MINS DIRECTOR Michael Winterbottom CAST Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher, David Mitchell PLOT Retail-fashion tycoon Sir Richard ‘Greedy’ McCreadie (Coogan) is preparing for his U0th birthday party, a gaudy debauch on a Greek island that’s designed to show off his wealth and power. But potential problems keep arising, from a recalcitrant lion to a band of immigrants ruining the view. And there might even be some more serious trouble before the night is through. STEVE COOGAN AND Michael Winterbottom are no strangers to scenic views and fancy canapés — on their long-running show The Trip the comedian and director, along with Rob Brydon, have mooched from one sun-drenched luxury location to the next, including, in this year’s fourth series, Greece. But while the…

★★★ OUT 28 FEBRUARY CERT 15 / 86 MINS DIRECTORS Nat Faxon, Jim Rash CAST Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Miranda Otto, Kristofer Hivju, Zach Woods PLOT A family of four heads to the Alps for a skiing holiday. When dad Pete (Ferrell) abandons the family during a small avalanche, it’s up to mum Billie (Louis-Dreyfus) to bring the fractured family back together. NOBODY ASKED FOR an English-language remake of Force Majeure, the painfully well-observed 2014 comic drama from Swedish director Ruben Östlund. But if you have to remake it, you might as well lump for the kind of talent that Downhill boasts. There’s Peep Show/ Succession creator Jesse Armstrong as co-writer; indie darlings Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way, Way Back) on directing duties; and comedy royalty in Will…

★★ OUT 6 MARCH / CERT TBC / 121 MINS DIRECTOR Julian Jarrold CAST Mark Stanley, Emily Beecham, Dougray Scott, Anna Friel Based on the true-life story of David Tait, Sulphur And White is a sincere, well-intentioned if flawed attempt to describe how early experiences shape and define our later lives. After an opening section set in Johannesburg that details young David’s (Stanley) traumatic upbringing, the action cuts to years later when a grown-up David is a high flyer in the city, unable to connect with people, especially colleague Vanessa (Beecham). It’s an important subject and Jarrold’s filmmaking is assured, but is undermined by writing that lacks detail and nuance and a lead performance that does little to illuminate David’s pain. The redemptive arc may be real — Tait climbed…

★★★★ OUT 13 MARCH / CERT 15 / 113 MINS DIRECTOR Levan Akin CAST Levan Gelbakhiani, Bachi Valishvili, Ana Javakishvili Young Georgian dancer Merab (Gelbakhiani) dances with childhood partner and kinda girlfriend Mary (Javakishvili) at a dance school. Yet when new student Irakli (Valishvili) walks in, Merab starts to develop new feelings and longings. Played out against a backdrop of well-etched toxic Georgian heterosexuality, Levan Akin mounts an engrossing coming-out story minted in a terrific party scene in which passions are made clear. It occasionally flirts with melodrama and cliché, but for the most part it’s well played by a young cast (Gelbakhiani is engaging as the tentative lead), the sex scenes are sensitively done and the numerous sequences of Georgian dance are both crucial to the drama and thrilling.…

★★ OUT NOW CERT PG / 101 MINS DIRECTOR Stephen Gaghan CAST Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen, Harry Collett, Jessie Buckley, Emma Thompson (voice), Kumail Nanjiani (voice), Rami Malek (voice) PLOT A hermit since his wife’s death, physician John Dolittle (Downey Jr), who can converse with animals, comes out of seclusion to undertake a mission to track down an antidote to save Queen Victoria (Buckley). If Dolittle fails, he loses his animal sanctuary, home to his only friends. THERE’S A SCENE from Richard Fleischer’s 1967 Dr. Dolittle that sees Rex Harrison’s fluent-in-animal physician kiss a seal, who is sporting a reject Little Women costume, then unceremoniously chuck the animal off a cliff. If not quite as brazen, there are equally bonkers moments and choices in the latest adaptation of Hugh…

1 THE PREMISE Ian Freer: 1917 follows British Lance Corporals Will Schofield (George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) across No Man’s Land to deliver a letter calling off a charge at the Hindenburg Line, saving 1,600 lives. Unusually for a war film, it features very little combat, a thread of pacifism baked into its central conceit. Krysty Wilson-Cairns: One of the things I’m really proud of is that Sam [Mendes] and I wrote a war movie where two men are charging through the world to stop a battle. As much as I love reading about it, I think war is complete human failure. I believe it is the worst thing we can do to each other. I don’t ever want to glorify war. The First World War can’t be…

MARK RUFFALO “My daughter’s been drawing him for kids on their shoes at school for money. These kids are all asking her to draw it. It’s a phenomenon, all the memes are hilarious. It’s Baby Yoda, what can you say?” JAMIE FOXX “First of all, man, that show is off the chain! You know what, it’s crazy with all of these Baby Yoda memes. I’ve seen Baby Yoda in a shoe; I’ve seen him in a drop-top Rolls. It’s crazy.” BONG JOON-HO “He’s very cute. Or is it a she? I’m a big fan of Star Wars and my favourite one is Empire Strikes Back. I haven’t seen a single episode of The Mandalorian but I want to. He’s so cute!” MAISIE WILLIAMS “I am obsessed with Baby Yoda. There’s…

THE LOST BOYS was an unholy production: an organic, ever-evolving beast held together by hard graft, extreme partying, some of the most beautiful young actors New Hollywood had to offer and an obscene amount of talent. This was not your dad’s Dracula — this was sexed-up vampires, maggot hallucinations and death by stereo, lensed by the cinematographer of Taxi Driver, brought to life by the director of hot young graduates drama St Elmo’s Fire. “Warner Bros. took a big chance with this movie, and with me, because they really didn’t know what the heck I was doing,” chuckles a now 80-year-old Joel Schumacher, by his fireplace at home in New York, The Lost Boys on the TV for reference. Well, it has been 33 years. In that time, though, adoration…

Alamy, Shutterstock The Ipcress File IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO overestimate how huge spies were in the mid-1960s. If Empire had been published back then, spies would have been on the cover two out of every three issues (The Beatles would have nabbed the third). Of course, the craze started with James Bond, who made his big-screen debut in Dr. No (1962), and inspired other high-living secret agents, like James Coburn’s Derek Flint, Dean Martin’s Matt Helm, and Monica Vitti’s Modesty Blaise. On television, there was Danger Man, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible and The Avengers. Everyone wanted in on the spy game — even Fred Flintstone, in A Man Called Flintstone. Ian Fleming was the market leader, but there was a growing audience for John le Carré’s thoughtful, cynical novels.…

I LOVE FILM. I love what the best of cinema can do for society. We are creating pieces of art that will outlive our physical existence. Typing those words almost feels pretentious. Almost, because, as we see below, it is true. Similarly, writing about another artist’s work is not something that I live to do per se. Even though learning and growing as a filmmaker requires hours of study, observation and learning, publicly providing your feelings about it is somewhat frightening. And in considering the film to watch for this piece, I considered different eras and genres. I decided to focus on the last year of the ’60’s (1969) and the Western genre since my last film is a Western. I also believe that the American Western is the seminal…

The Last Tree DIRECTOR SHOLA AMOO on the standout moments from his poetic tale of a young black man growing up in London in the ’90s. HOWL LIKE A WOLF CUB Shola Amoo’s The Last Tree tells the story of a young black man called Femi as he struggles to adapt to life in London. But the movie begins with Femi as a child (played by Tai Golding), living with his foster mum in rural Lincolnshire, bonding and playing with his friends, for whom his race isn’t a factor. “It just was important to see kids at that age before they have an acknowledgement of racial identity and just being free and able to play,” says Amoo. “Even with the metaphor of the mud, being the same complexion. All that…

MONOS OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 103 MINS Monos is tactile and surreal, a beautiful jungle nightmare — cinematic ayahuasca. Alejandro Landes’ Colombian film follows a gang of child soldiers who live in isolation on a misty mountaintop above the clouds. They are unwashed and unpredictable, kicking about with a kidnapped hostage, butting heads, falling in love, shooting their rifles into the air for shits and giggles. They can be mean and merciless, but also naive and confused — they’re kids. Egos explode as the group fractures, the anarchy turning into terror, and with most of the cast being non-actors, the frisson of reality makes it all the more affecting. It’s a deeply sensuous film, lit painterly by cinematographer Jasper Wolf, and spookily scored by the great Mica Levi.…

WHERE? Vancouver, Canada WHEN? 14 November 2018 WHY? Because when Guillermo del Toro produces a new horror film, and that new horror film is directed by Black Mass and Hostiles director Scott Cooper — pretty much the last person you’d expect to make a genre flick — you have to be there. WHO’S IN IT? Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, a Wendigo. A WENDI-WHAT? A legendary creature, borne of Native American mythology. Part-deer, part-ravenous psycho hose beast, all bad motherfucker. Here, it comes into the lives of a brother and sister (Plemons and Russell), via a young boy (newcomer Jeremy T. Thomas), like a reverse E.T.. But Cooper isn’t just planning your basic stalk-and-slash. He’s got something to say about man’s rapacious destruction of the environment. The Wendigo is, like brush…

NETFLIX & BRILL! THE HEAVY-HITTING AWARDS CONTENDERS MANK After bagging Martin Scorsese last year, Netflix’s big prestige director coup this year comes in the form of David Fincher. Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz was co-author of Citizen Kane, and his clashes with Orson Welles during production are brought to life from a script co-written by Fincher’s father, with Gary Oldman playing the Mank himself. DA 5 BLOODS Spike Lee enlists Chadwick Boseman to head up this epic-sounding Vietnam War drama. Da 5 Bloods follows four African-American veterans who return to ’Nam in search of their fallen squad leader’s remains as well as, erm, buried treasure. I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS It’s five years since Charlie Kaufman’s last big-screen offering — the brilliant Anomalisa — so this is a welcome return…

CHRIS HEMSWORTH DIDN’T want to do another action film, after an intense few years playing Thor in near back-to-back blockbusters. When he first read the script for Extraction (written by Joe Russo, one half of the Avengers- directing Russo brothers), he initially said no. But on a re-read, he realised that this one felt different. “There’s a beautiful heart to the movie, a tragedy I guess,” he says. “This bond that’s formed, two people who find something they’re both missing. An odd couple. A lot of the quieter moments in this have gone to places I hadn’t really explored before.” Russo’s script follows an Australian ex-special forces soldier turned jaded mercenary with the none-more-action-hero name Tyler Rake (Hemsworth, naturally), hired by a wealthy man to rescue his kidnapped son (Rudhraksh…

Alamy, Photofest, Shutterstock ALEX GARLAND HAS quickly established himself as science fiction master. He made Oscar Isaac dance with a robot in Ex Machina. He made Natalie Portman fight an alien mutant bear in Annihilation. And now he’s tackling some big, beefy philosophical in Devs, his first TV drama. Set “ten minutes into the future”, it hinges around Forest (Nick Offerman), the enigmatic leader of the world’s most powerful tech company, Amaya, as he tries to unlock a powerful secret: how to predict the future. As you’d expect from Garland, it should raise some big questions. DO WE HAVE FREE WILL? Central to the show is whether technology could get so advanced that it could know everything. “The more I looked into it, the more sceptical I became about the…

★★★★★ OUT 28 FEBRUARY CERT 15 / 122 MINS DIRECTOR Céline Sciamma CAST Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Valeria Golino PLOT Circa P770 on a French island: A female painter (Merlant) is commissioned by a countess (Golino) to secretly create a wedding portrait of her daughter (Haenel), while pretending to be her companion. As the daughter and painter spend time together, desire blooms. “HE CHOOSES THE memory of her. That’s why he turns. He doesn’t make the lover’s choice, but the poet’s.” Marianne (Merlant) is interpreting the Greek myth ‘Orpheus And Eurydice’, which Héloïse (Haenel) is reading aloud to Marianne and Sophie (Luàna Bajrami). The three young women are sitting in the candlelit kitchen of the castle home owned by Héloïse’s mother La Comtesse (Golino), and the vibes are very ‘18th-century…

★★★★ OUT 28 FEBRUARY CERT 18 / 125 MINS DIRECTOR Justin Kurzel CAST George MacKay, Orlando Schwerdt, Nicholas Hoult, Essie Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Russell Crowe, Sean Keenan PLOT Raised in the harsh environs of the outback, Ned Kelly (Schwerdt) is induced into a life of crime by bushranger Harry Power (Crowe), before growing into his own man (MacKay) and continuing a life of crime to care for his unruly family, becoming Australia’s most feared — and beloved — outlaw. JESUS AND THE devil count among cinema’s most filmed characters, but Ned Kelly was its first proper, big screen (anti)hero. Fittingly, he sits somewhere between both figures, living in Australia’s memory as either a folk messiah or brutal murderer. The Story Of The Kelly Gang is considered the first ever feature-length…

★★★★ OUT NOW CERT 15 / 124 MINS DIRECTORS Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah CAST Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Kate del Castillo PLOT With his partner Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) on the verge of retiring, Mike Lowrey (Smith) is being targeted for death by a vicious Mexican druglord (del Castillo) and her son. Will the bad boys of the Miami PD be able to team up one last time? DANNY BUTTERMAN, NICK Frost’s character in Hot Fuzz, convinced Simon Pegg’s Nicholas Angel that Bad Boys II is the pinnacle of modern action cinema. Sorry, Danny, but you were miles off. Michael Bay’s ballad of bombast is about as obnoxious, excessive, incoherent, and excessively obnoxiously incoherent as action movies get. Less this shit just…

★★★ OUT 13 MARCH / CERT TBC / 77 MINS DIRECTOR Scott Graham CAST Mark Stanley, Amy Manson, Marli Siu You don’t have a British film riffing on Bruce Springsteen’s mythos for ages, then two come along at once. Scott Graham’s ( Shell , Iona ) slight drama captures the desire to break free from stunted lives, as frustrated fish factory worker Finnie (Stanley) takes off on one last power drive with his son’s pregnant girlfriend Kelly (an excellent Siu) round a dead-end Scottish town, all orange lights and fights outside chippies. It’s well acted and the sense of dissatisfaction is palpable but the themes are familiar and the sense of a road movie hemmed in by the constraints of Scotland. And for all its ‘Born To Run’ stylings —…

★★ OUT 6 MARCH / CERT 15 / 101 MINS DIRECTOR Francis Annan CAST Daniel Radcliffe, Daniel Webber, Ian Hart The method of prison-break at the heart of Escape From Pretoria feels made for the movies: Tim Jenkin (Radcliffe), a political prisoner in Apartheid-era South Africa, hand-crafted a set of wooden keys to facilitate his bid for freedom. It’s a shame, then, that this adaptation of the true story (coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the breakout) ends up feeling so thin. Radcliffe lends some clout to an undertold story, but his Jenkin lacks dimensions – a solid performance lumbered by a clunky script (“You are the white Mandela!” a guard blurts early on), unconvincing wig, and a wavering Joburg accent. Still, director Annan keeps the set-pieces tense even when…

★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 94 MINS DIRECTOR Floria Sigismondi CAST Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, Karen Egan, Barbara Marten A passion project of Steven Spielberg, who as producer saw one version collapse before hiring music video veteran Floria Sigismondi to wrangle a new attempt to screens, The Turning arrives with a legacy weighing it down. Namely, it has to compete with Jack Clayton’s acclaimed 1961 horror The Innocents, which also adapted Henry James’ novella The Turn Of The Screw. It’s effective, if not totally up to the job, while Mackenzie Davis, as a woman hired to tutor troubled youngster Brooklyn Prince in her scary, creaky house, makes for an appealing lead. Sigismondi and her team conjure plenty of spooky atmosphere, even if the attempts to keep…

★★★★ OUT 13 MARCH / CERT 18 / 131 MINS DIRECTORS Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles CAST Barbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira After the death of Bacurau’s 94-year-old matriarch, unusual occurrences plague the village: pills, guns, unintelligent American tourists. The ingredients of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s weird Western (the official term for a whole genre) are sharp and erratic — the hyper-saturated visuals intoxicating; the juddering editing disarming; funereal music evoking celebration and bravery as much as sadness and danger. Working with longtime collaborator Juliano Dornelles, Filho reunites with Aquarius actors Barbara Colen and Sônia Braga. Filho has established himself as a fierce, visionary voice of contemporary Brazilian cinema, and Bacurau, with its wicked surprises and delirious political violence, confirms it.…

★★★★ OUT 6 MARCH / CERT 12A / 120 MINS DIRECTOR Timothy Greenfield-Sanders FEATURES Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Russell Banks The work and influence of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American author Toni Morrison is discussed with reverence and humour in photographer/ filmmaker Greenfield-Sander’s documentary, filmed before her death in August 2019. This is more biographical collage than chronological march, with archive footage and talking heads painting a portrait of a formidable woman fighting systemic racial prejudice with the power of her words. The highlight is, of course, the extended interview with the 88-year-old Morrison which runs through the film, in which she recounts her experiences with warmth and humility; as compelling and profound a storyteller in person as she is on the page.…

★★★★ OUT NOW / PRIME VIDEO EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 11 SHOWRUNNER Michael Chabon CAST Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones, Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, Michelle Hurd PLOT Twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis , former Starship Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard (Stewart) is living out his twilight years on his vineyard in France. But his viticultural retirement is interrupted by the arrival of a strange young woman named Dahj (Briones), desperate for his help. SINCE WE LAST saw Jean-Luc Picard at the helm of the Starship Enterprise — in 2002 our time, around 2379 his — Star Trek has largely concerned itself with new crews, operating in unexplored pockets of his universe’s past (even creating its own universe for the last three movies). Picard himself, Patrick Stewart, saw no…

1 MEET THE FAMILY Nick de Semlyen: The film opens with a shot that prominently features socks dangling, left to dry. It’s a wholly unglamorous introduction to the Kim family, whose home also features an infestation of stink bugs, stacks of empty pizza boxes (the source of the Kims’ collective income) and an elevated toilet (the only spot where you can get Wi-Fi — and hijacked Wi-Fi at that). It’s a truly grubby abode — not only an effective contrast to the rich Park family’s opulent mansion, but a strange mirror of it, with deliberate design echoes throughout both locations. Most obviously, the large central window featured in each — at the Parks’, it looks out over an immaculate lawn, at the Kims’, a piss-soaked alley. Ben Travis: It’s impossible…

IF YOU SPEND enough time on Star Wars Twitter — the third angriest, most divisive Twitter behind Football Twitter and Cupcake Twitter — amidst the million voices crying out in terror, you’ll find the occasional whisper of hope suggesting a radical thought: there has never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan. And, from a certain point of view, this is correct. Small-screen Star Wars has never been more alive. The Mandalorian is bringing a new kind of spice to the franchise, at once familiar and fresh — a second season is already filming. The seventh and final season of The Clone Wars looks set to give the fan-favourite animated series the send-off it deserves. New TV outings for Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor and Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan…

EMPEROR PUYI THE LAST EMPEROR (1987) Stolen from his parents, Puyi becomes the last Emperor of China at the grand old age of two. Ruling his dominion like an all-powerful Richie Rich, he rises to the challenge and becomes something of a Jack the lad, although the film downplays that, and that’s how we’re judging this, so: good boy. EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS GLADIATOR (2000) He may have conquered lands and spilt blood, but the beloved ruler of the Roman Empire believes in wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance. None of which are much cop against his murderous son, who strangles him after learning he won’t get the throne. EMPEROR ZURG TOY STORY 2 (1999) Or, to give him his full title, Evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz Lightyear’s arch-enemy has enormously long teeth…

It’s not called ‘Prey’, but might as well be — Primal, not to be confused with the 2009 Australian film, is the one with Nicolas Cage on a ship with escaped jungle animals, Famke Janssen in a navy uniform, and mass murderer Kevin Durand (trying valiantly to go bigger than Cage in full-on attack mode). In recent years, Cage has seemingly taken every job offered — I’d swear he accepts scripts Danny Trejo passes on — and done astonishing work in slightly higher-profile films (Mandy, Mom And Dad, Army Of One) while wandering the face of the Earth appearing in so many thug thrillers we’re losing track. Cage connoisseurs will spend decades seeking out his brain-freezing quickie gigs (a significant title might be Pay The Ghost): 211, Looking Glass, Vengeance:…

Glengarry Glen Ross Alamy GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS’ most famous scene isn’t in Glengarry Glen Ross. Which must have baffled anyone who, having seen James Foley’s adaptation of David Mamet’s Pulitzer-winning piece, ever picked up the original play, about a group of embattled real estate salesmen, and turned to the opening scene. The one where a ball-busting executive called Blake shows up to deliver an ultimatum that sets the plot, involving the theft of prime leads, in motion: step up or ship out. They’d be baffled because they wouldn’t find that scene. It was written specifically for the movie by Mamet because, as Baldwin recalls, “There wasn’t enough of an incentive for these guys to commit a crime.” It’s a good thing Mamet did, because it’s one of the most iconic…

Alfred Hitchcock Films Illustration: Jacey Ian: When did you first discover Alfred Hitchcock? Nick: Probably just before university. I wrote a really pretentious thesis on Hitchcock. The title was “Analysing the role of genre in Hitchcock texts of my choice”. It’s a grabber. Ian: Before you saw any of the films, you knew of his reputation? Nick: He works in one genre so he’s quite easy to get a handle on. He’s the thriller guy. That’s what they called him: The Master Of Thriller. They didn’t call him that. Beth: My dad, who’s a film journalist, tried to push them on me from an early age. Being the rebel that I am, I pushed right back. Now I love him. Mostly. Well, I love his films. Ian: What was the…

The Birdcage Chosen by LORENE SCAFARIA LORENE SCAFARIA: “The Birdcage is a perfect film because all the tension is coming from the fact that everybody’s trying to do right by each other. And there’s a moment where Gene Hackman’s character starts talking about foliage. It’s one of the most boring stories of all time. And without fail when I watch it, tears shoot out of my eyes. It’s a perfect scene.” INT. ARMAND AND ALBERT’S HOME — NIGHT Armand (Robin Williams) and his son Val (Dan Futterman) are entertaining Senator Keeley (Gene Hackman) and his wife Louise (Dianne Wiest), the parents of Val’s fiancée, Barbara (Calista Flockhart). And, to hide Armand’s sexuality, they’re pretending he’s straight and married to a woman. Whilst waiting for Val’s mother Katharine (Christine Baranski) to…

WHEN THE WORLD is in turmoil, when times are dark, when all seems lost, true heroes are required. Specifically, two sunny-souled, slang-spewing slackers from San Dimas in California named Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan. In their previous antic outings, 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the duo faced down Genghis Khan, the Easter Bunny, evil robot versions of themselves, Satan, Death and their pissed-off dads, all without losing their cool. And so perhaps their long-awaited return to the screen in 2020 is exactly what Earth needs. “These two characters are sort of ludicrous optimists, who keep regrouping and attacking anything in their way,” reflects Dean Parisot, the director of this year’s Bill & Ted Face The Music. “Now they’re in…

Alamy, Getty Images ON GETTING INTO ACTING “I was always into acting and roleplaying. I liked dressing up as characters. Sometimes I would pretend I was making my own movies. And then Mum told me that there was some audition in London for a film. The first time, I was kind of nervous, because there were lots of people sitting there waiting to be auditioned. But a few days later, Mum and Dad told me I got into the film.” ON WATCHING ROCKS FOR THE FIRST TIME “I watched the film for the first time last year and I was excited. I went with Mum and everyone was there. It was nice to meet everyone again because I hadn’t seen them in a long time. And then I watched the…

Alamy, Getty Images, Shutterstock ON MUSICAL THEATRE “I have enjoyed musical theatre all my life. Some musical theatre, somehow it goes right to my very heart and soul and blood, and I cry like a baby. I’ve had emotional emergency crises and epiphanies watching musical theatre. Oh boy, when I saw Bernadette Peters in Gypsy. When I saw Wicked, at the end I was like [sobbing], ‘I didn’t know they were gonna be best friends!’” ON YOGA “Yoga was a part of my early acting training… This inner world of uncharted romance that is acting was a little bit overlapping and related to the world of the miraculous cosmos and our inner mysterious consciousness… I stayed interested in things Eastern and wondrous along with acting and still do. I like…

THERE IS A chance that a few years ago you caught an unnerving meme of Daniel Radcliffe circulating the internet, the wand and wizard’s hat replaced with two guns and bear claw slippers. Oh, and he’s not wearing any trousers. “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Bullets” read one hot take. The somewhat alarming snap was taken on the set of Guns Akimbo, an “over-the-top, Mad Max punk” action film from New Zealand filmmaker Jason Lei Howden. “People thought that it was a marketing team doing it, but it was totally organic,” he says of the viral hit. “Now a lot of the reactions to the trailer are, ‘Oh look, it’s the movie based on that meme.’” For the director and self-confessed meme fiend (“The one of the two women…

PLENTY OF FILMS generate buzz at Sundance, the indie film festival to rule them all. But few films garnered as much word-of-mouth this year as Palm Springs, the Andy Sambergstarring debut feature from director Max Barbakow. With inklings of Groundhog Day and Van Wilder, the film made history when it was sold to distributors for the biggest Sundance sale ever. The film has a straightforward if high-concept premise: Palm Springs follows party bro Nyles (Samberg), stuck reliving the same sex, beer and pizza-driven day, over and over again, with Sarah (Cristin Milioti) accidentally entangling herself in Nyles’ inescapable time loop. Also, J.K. Simmons plays a deranged man who inexplicably hunts Samberg with assault rifles and grenades. Trading heavily on the irreverent wit that made Samberg a fan favourite in Brooklyn…

A TV SHOW COULD NEVER BEAT THE FILM’S MYSTERY ELLA KEMP A film as unanimously loved as Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite comes along very rarely. Its legacy, then, is precious, and also vulnerable to spoilage. If we learned anything last decade, it’s that if someone made something good, someone else would start thinking up a remake as soon as possible. Bong Joon-ho has said the film’s two-hour runtime is a necessity more than a choice, holding back hours of already existing backstory and detail to enhance the onscreen world he’s built. While this could be true, and he’s certainly the person to trust on the matter, the challenge with any kind of serialisation is to feed fans enough satisfying content to keep awe and acclaim up, fatigue and frustration at an…

I HAVE WORKED with all the Pythons, alongside my professional partner Dave Howman, for the last 50 years — since I was a young, fledgling sound engineer. We’ve worked with them as a team and individually, and we thank our good fortune that they have kept us laughing for all this time. Every Python has a unique individual personality that made them into the successful comedy team they have been. So it is with such sadness that our dear friend Terry Jones decided that it was time to take his humour and lighten the heavens above. Terry was passionate with everything he did. I remember, back in the early 1980s, Dave Howman and I were working in the studio when Terry burst in. He urgently started asking if Dave and…

★★★ OUT 13 MARCH / CERT 15 / 101 MINS DIRECTOR Nick Rowland CAST Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Niamh Algar Violence begets violence in Nick Rowland’s familiar but still effective West Ireland drama. It follows ex-boxer Arm (Lady Macbeth’s Jarvis) working as a bully boy for the drug-dealing Devers family — represented by Dympna (a livewire Keoghan) — and unable to connect with ex-girlfriend Ursula (an excellent Algar) and his son. This push and pull between domestic happiness and a life of crime is well-worn and, as Arm faces the upshot of not carrying out a killing for the Devers, the film devolves into convention. Still, Calm With Horses wins out on strong performances (Jarvis gets a key moment played entirely on his face) and stretches of palpable mood and…

★★★ OUT 28 FEBRUARY CERT 15 / 108 MINS DIRECTOR Richard Stanley CAST Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Tommy Chong, Madeleine Arthur, Q’orianka Kilcher PLOT In the rural town of Arkham, Massachusetts, a city man-turned-farmer (Cage), his financial-advisor wife (Richardson) and their two children are starting a new life. Then a mysterious meteor hits their land, unearthly lights begin to wreak havoc on them and their animals, and they get a very different kind of bright future to the one they had in mind. ADAPTING THE ELDRITCH works of H.P. Lovecraft, the early 20th century writer who specialised in upsetting tales of cosmic horror, is no easy task. For one thing, you’ve got the job of bringing to the screen sights and sounds which Lovecraft himself claimed were impossible to imagine.…

★★★ OUT NOW CERT 15 / 109 MINS DIRECTOR Reed Morano CAST Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, Max Casella, Richard Brake, Geoff Bell PLOT After her entire family is wiped out in a terrorist attack, student Stephanie Patrick (Lively) falls apart. Three years later, having hit rock bottom and now working as a prostitute, she’s approached by a journalist (Raza Jaffrey) who offers new information on the attack, and possibly a chance at revenge. FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1999, Mark Burnell’s The Rhythm Section is a thriller from a different era. A revenge tale sparked by an unthinkable act of global terrorism — the downing of a passenger jet — the novel’s shock and awe seems almost quaint in a post-9/11 world. It makes sense, then, that Burnell has…

★★ OUT NOW / CERT PG / 99 MINS DIRECTOR Jeff Fowler CAST Ben Schwartz (voice), Jim Carrey, James Marsden Hollywood’s track record with video-game adaptations is risible and Sonic The Hedgehog fails to move the dial in the right direction. This time the blue-furred speedster (Schwartz) teams up with local cop Tom (Marsden) to foil the plans of Dr Robotnik (Carrey) to harness Sonic’s powers for evil. Carrey chews the scenery at every opportunity and is almost worth the price of admission by himself. But frustratingly the central bromance between Sonic and Tom is undercooked, and while they’re not without their charms, the super-speed sequences feel derivative of Quicksilver’s big scene in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. The final moments make it clear that this is being eyed as…

★★★ OUT 13 MARCH / CERT U / 92 MINS DIRECTOR Alia Kovgan CAST Carolyn Brown, John Cage, Ashley Chen “I don’t describe it, I do it,” says choreographer Merce Cunningham of his innovative, seminal career changing the face of modern dance in the late 20th century. But in Alla Kovgan’s ambitious 3D documentary, audacious cinematic description abounds. As well as re-staging performances of Cunningham’s most famous dances, the film pushes aesthetic boundaries to give an immersive vision of the artist’s lifework. It creates a vivid, involving viewing experience, but perhaps one that favours the celebration of groundbreaking cinema over the detail of Cunningham’s precise genius, rarely lingering on the ways he could make the human body move. Cunningham is certainly more inventive than your average documentary, but crucial archival…

★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 94 MINS DIRECTOR Nicholas Pesce CAST Betty Gilpin, Andrea Riseborough, Lin Shaye The latest iteration of The Grudge — which Japanese filmmaker Takashi Shimizu originated back in 2002 — has little that horror fans haven’t seen before in this or other similar franchises. But while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, indie-horror director Nicolas Pesce deserves credit for the occasionally effective utilisation of familiar elements. Although many of the jump scares are predictable, the pervasively bleak atmosphere is unsettling and it’s augmented by a creepy, at times Halloween-esque score by horror music specialists The Newton Brothers. It’s all anchored by another impressive performance from the chameleonic Riseborough, who makes a number of thoughtfully subtle choices other actors might not have. Here’s hoping that next…

★★★ OUT 21 FEBRUARY / CERT 12A / 105 MINS DIRECTOR Jessica Hausner CAST Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, Kit Connor Filmmaker Jessica Hausner taps into the commodification of mental health with this densely stylised yet subtle sci-fi horror. Emily Beecham (Daphne) plays Alice, a gifted plant designer whose latest creation holds antidepressant-type qualities. Under Hausner’s purposefully glacial direction, we witness the mass-produced neon red flowers cause slight yet notable changes in the people they pollinate, including Alice’s son Joe (Connor). By eschewing fast-paced suspense Hausner takes the sting out of her story, which may deter those after a good scare. As a showcase of her bold aesthetic capabilities, however, Little Joe feels like an exciting indication of what’s to come, helped by a striking collaboration with Beecham.…

UNTIL RECENTLY, IF someone asked you to name a famous Mandalorian (don’t scoff — it happens to Empire on a near-daily basis), you would have had precisely two answers. There’s Jango Fett, the helmet-wearing, armour-sporting, tough-as-nails mercenary who got decapitated by a Windu. And his son/ clone (it’s complicated), Boba Fett. Yes, the helmet-wearing, armour-sporting, tough-as-nails bounty hunter who got eaten alive by some kind of giant sandpit. That’s it. Those were your only two choices Well, not anymore. Now, Jon Favreau has helped out by creating The Mandalorian, the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV show. Now, there’s a third choice. Now, there’s Mando. THE MANDALORIAN IS, essentially, about a helmet-wearing, armour-sporting, tough-as-nails bounty hunter (who has neither been decapitated by a Windu, nor eaten alive by some kind of…

CONCEPTION FEBRUARY 2014 – 2016 Having graduated with an MA from NFTS [National Film and Television School], I’m starting to dream up an idea for a film, centred on a young woman who talks to God. I’ve written and directed shorts, but this is the first genesis of a feature that’s really stuck. Over the next two years I’ll continue to work on the idea (alongside waitressing, receptionist and cinema-ushering jobs) while I try and worm my way into the UK film industry (getting an agent, taking meetings, pitching ideas etc). A year in, I join forces with producer Oliver Kassman. Saint Maud is his feature debut as well, so we’re galvanised by a mutual ambition and desperation for it to work! I’ve wanted to make films since my pre-teens.…

ROCKS IS A coming-of-age film that makes us rethink what that term means — and its production was just as refreshing. An authentic British story of, mostly, black and brown girls, its cast is populated by teenagers who hadn’t acted before, with a 75 per cent female crew. It is also a markedly different project for the director, Sarah Gavron. Her last film, 2015’s Suffragette, featured a star-studded cast and reasonably-sized budget. Rocks was less conventional from the start, and wholly collaborative from the ground up. “Everybody has a voice, and people were able to contribute because they were connected to the world and to the story,” Gavron tells Empire. She wanted to tell a story about the girls she used to see around London as she grew up —…

Previous page: Light blue coat: Miu Miu. Skirt: Miu Miu. Earrings: Roxanne Assoulin.This page: Off the shoulder fuschia dress: Rasario. Earrings: Alessandra Rich. Opposite page: Dress: David Koma. Earrings: Isabel Marant When Empire meets Emerald Fennell, it’s just ten short days until the premiere of the director-actor-showrunnerauthor-Christ-woman-we’rerunning-out-of-hyphens’ debut feature film at Sundance. Today, she’s in London, but as this is being written she’s in Park City, having just set it buzzing with the Carey Mulligan-starring, Margot Robbie-produced Promising Young Woman — her revenge thriller/horror/romcom with Mulligan in an entirely un-Mulligan role as Cassie, a young woman hell-bent on settling scores. Until maybe she isn’t. “Ballsy” and “brave” were the most commonly tossed-out adjectives to describe what had just screened. Both pretty apt adjectives, once you’ve spent a jot of time…

ALFONSO CUARÓN HAS a good memory. And after a decade spent in the Hollywood system, dabbling in space epics (Gravity) and wizard franchises (Harry Potter), the Mexican filmmaker wondered if that memory might be a good setting for his eighth film. The result was Roma, a staggeringly rich stew of life, in all its chaotic glory. Shot on his home turf, it meticulously recreated middle-class family life in early 1970s Mexico City, as he remembered it — from violent political upheavals to undisposed of dog turds. After winning a clutch of Oscars last year, including Best Director for Cuarón, the film now gets the full Criterion Collection treatment, the ultimate honour for any cinephile completist, marking the first time the film has arrived on Blu-ray or DVD. With the Criterion…

LULU WANG’S THE Farewell starts with one of the more unusual title cards in recent memory: “Based on an actual lie”. Ironically, that’s true. The movie is inspired by Wang’s own experiences when her ‘Nai Nai’ (paternal grandmother), who lives in the Chinese city of Changchun, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. With Chinese custom preventing them from telling the blissfully oblivious Nai Nai of her condition, Wang and her parents flew out to hold a celebration of her life in the guise of an impromptu family wedding. It’s the sort of story that virtually demands to be turned into a movie and, after years of trying, Wang finally got the momentum and finance she required after first turning it into an episode of the podcast, ‘This American Life’. But it’s…