Lilo & Stitch review: A lavish Disney remake with oodles of oddball charm
A classy cast add credibility and comic chops to the much-loved material in this live-action update of the 2002 film.
★★★★☆ Lilo & Stitch is in cinemas from Friday 23 May. Add it to your watchlist Described as the "flawed product of a dangerous mind", blue-hued extraterrestrial experiment Stitch isn't your typical cute Disney critter. Conceived by Chris Sanders as early as 1985, before finally hitting cinema screens in the 2002 Oscar-nominated animation Lilo & Stitch, Stitch is an agent of chaos and destruction who rocks up in Hawaii and forms an unlikely attachment to an Elvis-loving orphan. Directed by indie helmer Dean Fleischer Camp (an Oscar-nominee himself for the wonderful Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), 2025’s Lilo & Stitch is the latest in Disney’s spate of recent, largely lucrative remakes. In this near-seamless mash-up of live-action and CGI, Stitch is brought to life in tangibly textured, state-of-the-art animation (and once again voiced by creator Sanders), with a classy cast adding credibility and comic chops to the much-loved material. View oEmbed on the source website Adorable newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo, a wilful and friendless six-year-old Hawaiian girl being raised on the island by her twenty-something sister Nani (Sydney Agudong), following the death of their parents. Amy Hill is a scene-stealer in the role of Tūtū, an elderly neighbour of Lilo and Nani, who looks out for the siblings, while Tia Carrere (who voiced Nani in the original) appears as social worker Mrs Kekoa, who is monitoring their situation closely as Nani struggles to cope. Lilo and Nani’s lives are upended further when Lilo brings home Stitch from a rescue centre, believing him to be some kind of colourful canine. Originally known as Experiment 626, Stitch has fled an emergency meeting of the Galactic Council, presided over by Hannah Waddingham’s Grand Councilwoman, stealing a police cruiser and ending up on Earth. In pursuit of this anarchic escapee are his creator Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis), a mad scientist, and the Galactic Federation’s Earth expert, Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen). The pair disguise themselves as humans once they land on the planet, yet prove utterly hopeless at blending in. Courtney B Vance appears as Agent Cobra Bubbles (a role originally voiced by Ving Rhames), a CIA operative unconvincingly posing as Mrs Kekoa’s social worker superior. Since the release of the first film, the Lilo & Stitch brand has proved persistently popular, with merchandise of every conceivable variety flying off the shelves, so it certainly makes sense for Disney to capitalise on its continuing appeal. It’s also one of the studio’s more enjoyably idiosyncratic offerings, and the new script from Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes strikes a nice balance by honouring the highlights and story beats of the 2002 movie, whilst adding plenty of askew, Taika Waititi-like humour of its own. After the debacle that was the live-action Snow White, it’s a pleasure to report that Lilo & Stitch is far more successful. It helps that the filmmakers are working with a less problematic property and the film has been made with great care, attention to detail and love for Hawaiian culture, with the story fleshed out nicely (the runtime is 108-minutes compared to the 85-minute original). Read more film reviews: The Phoenician Scheme review: Wes Anderson's latest is a quaint tale of industrial espionage Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review: A clunky but undeniably exhilarating closing chapter for Tom Cruise's action franchise Die, My Love review: Jennifer Lawrence is superb in this absorbing and quietly devastating drama Eddington review: Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal lead a thematically rich but overlong pandemic-era parable Thunderbolts* review: Florence Pugh shines bright in Marvel's thoughtful return to form Although the animated characters are appropriately out of this world, the film is grounded by its appealing and sensitively drawn relationships and enhanced by its eccentricity. Kealoha is a perfect match for her cartoon counterpart – she’s an endearingly awkward, baby-faced moppet who stops short of being cloyingly cutesy – with Agudong excellent as her stressed-out sister, while Magnussen excels in the comedy stakes, bringing just the right amount of silly to his Earth enthusiast. Lilo & Stitch hammers home the ‘family matters’ message during the climax, which feels like it could have been trimmed, but overall this is expertly executed, cross-generational fun that combines the look of a lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm.
Lilo & Stitch review: A lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm
A classy cast add credibility and comic chops to the much-loved material in this latest live-action remake.
Described as the ‘flawed product of a dangerous mind’, blue-hued extraterrestrial experiment Stitch ain’t your typical cute Disney critter. Conceived by Chris Sanders as early as 1985, before finally hitting cinema screens in the 2002 Oscar-nominated animation Lilo & Stitch, Stitch is an agent of chaos and destruction who rocks up in Hawaii and forms an unlikely attachment to an Elvis-loving orphan. Directed by indie helmer Dean Fleischer Camp (an Oscar-nominee himself for the wonderful Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), 2025’s Lilo & Stitch is the latest in Disney’s spate of recent, largely lucrative remakes. In this near-seamless mash-up of live-action and CGI, Stitch is brought to life in tangibly textured, state-of-the-art animation (and once again voiced by creator Sanders), with a classy cast adding credibility and comic chops to the much-loved material. Adorable newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo, a wilful and friendless six-year-old Hawaiian girl being raised on the island by her twenty-something sister Nani (Sydney Agudong), following the death of their parents. Amy Hill is a scene-stealer in the role of Tūtū, an elderly neighbour of Lilo and Nani, who looks out for the siblings, while Tia Carrere (who voiced Nani in the original) appears as social worker Mrs Kekoa, who is monitoring their situation closely as Nani struggles to cope. Lilo and Nani’s lives are upended further when Lilo brings home Stitch from a rescue centre, believing him to be some kind of colourful canine. Originally known as Experiment 626, Stitch has fled an emergency meeting of the Galactic Council, presided over by Hannah Waddingham’s Grand Councilwoman, stealing a police cruiser and ending up on Earth. In pursuit of this anarchic escapee are his creator Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis), a mad scientist, and the Galactic Federation’s Earth expert, Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen). The pair disguise themselves as humans once they land on the planet, yet prove utterly hopeless at blending in. Courtney B Vance appears as Agent Cobra Bubbles (a role originally voiced by Ving Rhames), a CIA operative unconvincingly posing as Mrs Kekoa’s social worker superior. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Since the release of the first film, the Lilo & Stitch brand has proved persistently popular, with merchandise of every conceivable variety flying off the shelves, so it certainly makes sense for Disney to capitalise on its continuing appeal. It’s also one of the studio’s more enjoyably idiosyncratic offerings, and the new script from Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes strikes a nice balance by honouring the highlights and story beats of the 2002 movie, whilst adding plenty of askew, Taika Waititi-like humour of its own. After the debacle that was the live-action Snow White, it’s a pleasure to report that Lilo & Stitch is far more successful. It helps that the filmmakers are working with a less problematic property and the film has been made with great care, attention to detail and love for Hawaiian culture, with the story fleshed out nicely (the runtime is 108-minutes compared to the 85-minute original). View oEmbed on the source website Although the animated characters are appropriately out of this world, the film is grounded by its appealing and sensitively drawn relationships and enhanced by its eccentricity. Kealoha is a perfect match for her cartoon counterpart – she’s an endearingly awkward, baby-faced moppet who stops short of being cloyingly cutesy – with Agudong excellent as her stressed-out sister, while Magnussen excels in the comedy stakes, bringing just the right amount of silly to his Earth enthusiast. Lilo & Stitch hammers home the ‘family matters’ message during the climax, which feels like it could have been trimmed, but overall this is expertly executed, cross-generational fun that combines the look of a lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm. Lilo & Stitch will be released on Wednesday 21st May 2025. If you're looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Brutalist review: An Oscar-worthy epic in length, weight and ambition
Brady Corbet's epic drama is rich with history and speaks volumes about America and its uneasy relationship with immigrants.
★★★★★ The Brutalist is in cinemas on Friday 24 January. Add it to your watchlist. As an upside-down Statue of Liberty drifts into view at the outset, it’s clear that The Brutalist has no intention of offering a straight, flag-waving take on the American Dream. Actor turned writer/director Brady Corbet impressed with his first two films The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, but his third feature – once again co-written with his partner, the Norwegian-born helmer of The World to Come, Mona Fastvold – takes his filmmaking to another level. This Golden Globe-winning effort tells the fictional story of celebrated architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jew who has been imprisoned in a concentration camp and arrives in America following World War II, leaving his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and their niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) behind. View oEmbed on the source website He is initially taken in by his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who owns a furniture store, but is let go following an accusation by Attila’s gentile wife, Audrey (Emma Laird). László is commissioned to redesign the library of Guy Pearce’s industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr by his son, Harry (Joe Alwyn), who hopes it will be a wonderful surprise. Instead, Harrison reacts furiously to what he perceives as an unforgivable intrusion, but eventually becomes enamoured with László’s work, fuelled by newfound knowledge of his reputation. With the Van Buren library becoming the talk of high society, Harrison commissions László to work on an ambitious cultural centre in memory of his late mother. The building’s construction is fraught with problems, taking its toll on both men, while later László is reunited with Erzsébet and Zsófia. Shot in the defunct widescreen format VistaVision, giving it an appropriately aged aesthetic, and incorporating a 15-minute intermission, The Brutalist is a film rich with history, which speaks volumes about America and its uneasy relationship with immigrants – with those that have built and shaped it, but who will not ever be considered truly American. Through the character of László, it highlights the indignities and precariousness of the immigrant experience – the reliance on the charity of others and the suspicion that their presence arouses. The Brutalist explores the fundamental problems of philanthropy and the difficult relationship between artist and patron, the jealousies, the dependence, the compromises. It peels back the veneer of flattery and generosity to reveal bitterness and disgust. László is despised for not being humble or grateful enough; there is a sense he must be put back in his place. Read more film reviews: A Complete Unknown review: This Bob Dylan biopic is one of the most convincing interpretations of a musician ever Wicked review: Ariana Grande steals the show in bewitching blockbuster Nosferatu review: This creepy and compelling new take on vampire myth is a thing of beauty Gladiator II review: A sturdy sequel that revels in its more ludicrous qualities Emilia Pérez review: A musical that redefines what's possible in the genre We Live in Time review: Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield thrive in thoughtful but overcooked weepie Brody movingly captures the complex psychology of a man who, despite knowing his own worth, cannot help but absorb the hatred of others, and the anguish of someone who, for all his pride, talent and work ethic, cannot stand successfully on his own two feet. Pearce is phenomenal, face tight with tension, as a man similarly consumed by this toxic relationship, who has shown us who he really is with his angry outburst early on. Van Buren offers up the poison chalice of his patronage to burnish his own standing, yet is unable to handle his close proximity to genius, especially in a man he feels to be unworthy of such talent. As much as anything, it is also a film about art, and architecture specifically, about the gift and burden of true creativity, and how such constructions reflect who we are as individuals and societies at any given time. The building in question is a tribute to a beloved relative, incorporates the diverse needs of a community, and the whims of its financier, but inevitably becomes something that says more about the architect himself. Seven years in the making, The Brutalist is epic in its length, weight and ambition, like a modern-day Orson Welles picture, while it also bears comparison to contemporary masterworks like There Will Be Blood. In a period of great turmoil for US politics, which has exposed the cracks in the fragile relationship between left and right, it’s a timely examination of how modern America came into existence, and the resentments that lurk beneath its surface.
The Brutalist review: An epic in length, weight and ambition
Brady Corbet's Oscar-tipped epic is a film rich with history, which speaks volumes about America and its uneasy relationship with immigrants.
As an upside-down Statue of Liberty drifts into view at the outset, it’s clear that The Brutalist has no intention of offering a straight, flag-waving take on the American Dream. Actor turned writer-director Brady Corbet impressed with his first two films The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, but his third feature – once again co-written with his partner, the Norwegian-born helmer of The World to Come, Mona Fastvold – takes his filmmaking to another level. This Golden Globe-winning effort tells the fictional story of celebrated architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jew who has been imprisoned in a concentration camp and arrives in America following World War II, leaving his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and their niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) behind. He is initially taken in by his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who owns a furniture store, but is let go following an accusation by Attila’s gentile wife, Audrey (Emma Laird). László is commissioned to redesign the library of Guy Pearce’s industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr by his son, Harry (Joe Alwyn), who hopes it will be a wonderful surprise. Instead, Harrison reacts furiously to what he perceives as an unforgivable intrusion, but eventually becomes enamoured with László’s work, fuelled by newfound knowledge of his reputation. With the Van Buren library becoming the talk of high society, Harrison commissions László to work on an ambitious cultural centre in memory of his late mother. The building’s construction is fraught with problems, taking its toll on both men, while later László is reunited with Erzsébet and Zsófia. Shot in the defunct widescreen format VistaVision, giving it an appropriately aged aesthetic, and incorporating a 15-minute intermission, The Brutalist is a film rich with history, which speaks volumes about America and its uneasy relationship with immigrants – with those that have built and shaped it, but who will not ever be considered truly American. Through the character of László, it highlights the indignities and precariousness of the immigrant experience – the reliance on the charity of others and the suspicion that their presence arouses. The Brutalist explores the fundamental problems of philanthropy and the difficult relationship between artist and patron, the jealousies, the dependence, the compromises. It peels back the veneer of flattery and generosity to reveal bitterness and disgust. László is despised for not being humble or grateful enough; there is a sense he must be put back in his place. Read more: Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger review – Rory Kinnear returns in likeable underdog tale Better Man review: Forget Wicked, this is the best movie musical of the year Brody movingly captures the complex psychology of a man who, despite knowing his own worth, cannot help but absorb the hatred of others, and the anguish of someone who, for all his pride, talent and work ethic, cannot stand successfully on his own two feet. Pearce is phenomenal, face tight with tension, as a man similarly consumed by this toxic relationship, who has shown us who he really is with his angry outburst early on. Van Buren offers up the poison chalice of his patronage to burnish his own standing, yet is unable to handle his close proximity to genius, especially in a man he feels to be unworthy of such talent. As much as anything, it is also a film about art, and architecture specifically, about the gift and burden of true creativity, and how such constructions reflect who we are as individuals and societies at any given time. The building in question is a tribute to a beloved relative, incorporates the diverse needs of a community, and the whims of its financier, but inevitably becomes something that says more about the architect himself. Seven years in the making, The Brutalist is epic in its length, weight and ambition, like a modern-day Orson Welles picture, while it also bears comparison to contemporary masterworks like There Will Be Blood. In a period of great turmoil for US politics, which has exposed the cracks in the fragile relationship between left and right, it’s a timely examination of how modern America came into existence, and the resentments that lurk beneath its surface. The Brutalist will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th January 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Mean Girls review: Musical remake remains a smart look at teen turmoil
It can be a strange experience watching something so close to its beloved predecessor – but Tina Fey is still a class act.
Two decades after it first hit cinemas, Mean Girls gets a musical reboot, based on the Tony-nominated stage show. The enduring popularity of the 2004 film, which captured the savagery of schooldays with pep and panache, has kept it part of our cultural fabric. But folding some poppy showtunes into the mix is an appealing notion, while a lot has changed in 20 years… Screenwriter Tina Fey updates her original script (itself based on Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 book Queen Bees and Wannabes) and steps back into the sensible shoes of beleaguered maths teacher Ms Norbury (also returning is her admirer, Principal Duvall, played by Tim Meadows). Angourie Rice takes over from Lindsay Lohan as new kid Cady, who goes from being homeschooled in rural Africa by her anthropologist mother (Jenna Fischer) to being thrown into the jungle of US high school. Fortunately, Cady is taken under the wing of two savvy outsiders, Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), who also act as the film’s narrators, and is simultaneously drawn to a group of ostensibly popular girls: the notorious “Plastics”. Led by Reneé Rapp’s total biatch Regina (the “apex predator” as one song dubs her), with Avantika’s dim-witted Karen and Bebe Wood’s eager-to-please Gretchen making up numbers, the clique are the talk of the corridors. But acceptance into the fold comes at a price and the trio are not to be trusted. And when Cady falls for Regina’s ex, Aaron (Christopher Briney), things get ugly fast. It can be a bit of a strange experience watching something that is so close to its beloved predecessor, particularly as the film has opted to retain much of the original script. Without a significant rewrite, some of the attempts to bring things up to date – mainly in the form of social media hot takes – can feel a little tacked on. However, most of Fey’s new gags blend in seamlessly and, with the line delivery occasionally coming across like an odd imitation of what’s gone before, it’s the new jokes rather than the old that stand out. Debut narrative feature directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr do a decent, at times dynamic job, incorporating the musical numbers impressively with slick, snappy transitions. The kids bursting fairly randomly into song can be fun, and yet – and this is the real sticking point – the tunes themselves (which presumably are the justification for the entire project) don’t exactly pop. Fey’s husband, Jeff Richmond, is behind the music, with Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde: The Musical) on lyrics, yet what they’ve come up with lacks the same comic snap as Fey’s script, or hooks so catchy that it would hardly matter. And, although the musical numbers bring extra attitude to the party, they can sometimes feel like a belaboured explanation of what we already know. Read more: Poor Things review: Emma Stone excels in freaky fable with a feminist twist Kevin Hart recalls near-death experience shooting Lift's Venice scene The original film had a remarkable eye for talent, launching the careers of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried and Lizzy Caplan (Lohan was a successful child star prior to its release) and this offers up its own clutch of up-and-comers. Reprising her role from the stage show, newcomer Rapp has the fierceness and swagger of a professional singer (she released her first album Snow Angel last year) and brings that fire to her musical performances. She distinguishes herself well from McAdams’s portrayal of Regina, but the comedic chops and underlying charm of McAdams are missed. Rice is a good match for the earnest but easily led Cady, while Cravalho (who voiced Disney’s Moana) and Spivey well and truly steal the show. From the older generation, Jon Hamm is a highlight as inappropriate sex educator Coach Carr. It might not be perfect but there’s no reason why Generation Z shouldn’t have their own take on this eternally relevant story, and Fey remains a class act. Now with added sass as well as songs, Mean Girls remains a smart, relatable look at teen turmoil. View Green Video on the source website Mean Girls is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 17th January 2024, and is available to watch in the US now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Extraction 2 review: A satisfying sequel for Chris Hemsworth's mercenary
Tyler Rake returns for more quality action – even if the script is stuffed with predictable beats and trite pronouncements.
As his horticultural surname suggests, action man Tyler Rake is made of sturdy, robustly practical stuff. 2020’s Extraction culminated with our hero clutching his neck after sustaining an apparently fatal gunshot wound, before plunging ominously into a river. However, you can’t keep a good extractor down and this kind-hearted mercenary has been resurrected for a sequel, with Chris Hemsworth returning to fill Tyler’s boots and audacious rescues once again on the agenda. Former stuntman Sam Hargrave did a decent job directing last time and he’s back calling the shots, working from a script by Marvel favourite Joe Russo, who also penned the first film (and who produces alongside his brother Anthony). As you’d expect with a second instalment, the ante is very much upped. A wilderness training montage bridges the gap between Tyler being “clinically dead” and hurling himself into the requisite heroics, with the assignment this time a prison break. Tyler and his team are tasked with freeing the family of incarcerated Georgian gangster Davit Radiani (Tornike Bziava) from the cell in which they are languishing. He’s been hired for the mission by a mystery man played by Idris Elba (who, before you get excited, has very little screentime here). To carry it out, Tyler reunites with brother and sister operatives Nik and Yaz Khan (Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa). They’re liberating Davit’s wife Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) and his children, Sandro and Nina (Andro Japaridze and Mariami Kovziashvili), with the team’s intention to whisk the kids as far away from their controlling father’s clutches as possible. Tyler’s efforts pit him against Davit’s menacing brother, Zurab (Tornike Gogrichiani), a powerful crime syndicate boss who throws his considerable resources, and innumerable minions, at the problem. Shorn of his Thor locks and laidback charisma, Hemsworth is more of a blunt instrument here, but remains a commanding presence in fights that require him to take on hordes of foes, demonstrating his preposterous physicality in the process. Employing not much more than a furrowed brow, the actor is less effective in emotional scenes that find the film attempting to illuminate Tyler’s tragic backstory by introducing his ex-wife Mia (Olga Kurylenko), though a script stuffed with predictable beats and trite pronouncements doesn’t help. A handful of quips and enjoyably silly moments aside (including Tyler watching Dancing with the Stars with his dog and chickens), Extraction 2 largely eschews humour, but it plays up the absurdity of its action in a way that’s very entertaining, with Tyler kicking arse using whatever comes to hand (A box of nails! A dumbbell!). And the fluidity of the film’s camerawork can be breath-taking, as one set-piece rolls excitingly into the next. Particularly eye-catching is a 21-minute sequence that gives the illusion of being captured in a single shot, hurtling from prison break to car chase to escape by henchman-infested train. Read more: Greatest Days review: Take That musical shines but won't rule the world The Flash review: One of the best DC movies ever made With the film once again taking inspiration from the Raid and John Wick franchises in its punchy approach to action, things get highly fantastical here, yet Gogrichiani is an effective villain (nasty but not too OTT), and Extraction 2’s commitment to performing its stunts practically pays off, resulting in some memorable dust-ups. Victories feel grubby, bloody and hard won, and there’s acknowledgement, at least, of the toll the fighting takes, with the visibly exhausted participants adding a welcome touch of realism amidst the abundant insanity. Fans of the first film should be satisfied then, and the quality of the action is easily enough to justify Tyler’s return. However, if a third instalment is on the cards (as the open ending indicates), then it might be worth spending a bit more time on the story. View Green Video on the source website Extraction 2 will be released on Netflix on 16th June 2023. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Take part in the Screen Test, a project from Radio Times and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, to explore the role of television and audio in our lives. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves review – a thoroughly ripping yarn
This adaptation of the popular tabletop role-playing game boasts Guardians of the Galaxy-style energy and irreverence.
Taking a whole bunch of leaves out of the Marvel playbook, this knockabout fantasy from the directors of Game Night, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, boasts Guardians of the Galaxy-style energy and irreverence as a motley crew get a crack at redemption. In Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, canny casting, imaginative visuals and a script unafraid to poke fun at genre traditions combine for a thoroughly ripping yarn. Rebooting the D&D franchise might seem an unenticing prospect given that the last time the tabletop role-playing game was brought to the big screen was a less-than-impressive effort in 2000. Starring Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch and Bruce Payne, it was both a critical and commercial flop, though spawned a made-for-TV sequel and direct-to-DVD third instalment. With influences including The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the Indiana Jones saga this time round, Daley and Goldstein (along with fellow screenwriter Michael Gilio) broaden their film’s appeal considerably beyond the game and the original trilogy’s fanbase. Chris Pine brings the charisma and Michelle Rodriguez the might as our intrepid antiheroes Edgin, a bard and former Harper, and Holga, a barbarian who has been exiled from her tribe. After escaping from prison, the affable pair team up with so-so sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and shape-shifting druid Doric (Sophia Lillis). Together, they plot to liberate Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) from the care/clutches of the gang’s former associate Forge (Hugh Grant). Forge is a con artist who has risen to become Lord of Neverwinter with the help of red wizard Sofina (a fierce and brooding Daisy Head), a right-hand woman with her own shadowy agenda. Goldstein has stated that, though the film doesn’t take itself seriously, it is not intended as a spoof of the much-obsessed-over source material and other fantasy fare. There are, however, moments where it does play that way, with Honour Among Thieves at the very least acting as a refreshing counterpoint to the recent Lord of the Rings series The Rings of Power. Through the humourless, morally superior paladin Xenk (amusing work from Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page, who nicely complements Pine), the script affectionately ridicules the pomposity of such characters, along with their tendency toward flowery language and convoluted explanations. There’s also a cameo from an A-lister as a Hobbit-like creature, which is similarly played for laughs. View oEmbed on the source website And yet there’s enough earnestness in the group’s quest and attention to detail in the world-building for Honour Among Thieves to have appeal beyond its comedic tendencies. At well over two hours, it’s not as tight as it could have been, yet the action is exciting, the spectacle enchanting and there’s plenty of variety in the heavily CG visuals. An attempt to sneak a portal disguised as a painting into a vault makes for an ingeniously executed heist, while billowing red smoke atmospherically accompanies the evildoing, and a conversation with corpses delivers some Sam Raimi vibes. But the real triumph is the film’s ensemble. Rodriguez and Pine are an instantly appealing double-act, with her awesome physicality and withering delivery a winning contrast to his slightly smug quippery, fight-dodging and lute-strumming. There’s nice work from Smith and Lillis too, yet Grant steals the show as the unapologetically roguish Forge; the actor continues his screen reinvention from bumbling and benign to taking on roles with a nastier edge (see The Undoing and A Very English Scandal). He keeps things light here by channelling his Paddington 2 baddie Phoenix Buchanan, as Forge lays out his self-serving, friendship-betraying plans with weaselly wit and charm. If the adventure is easy to get swept up in and the setting nicely realised, it’s these characters that you’ll be itching to see again. View Green Video on the source website Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is in UK cinemas from Friday 31st March 2023. If you’re looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Movies hub for all the latest news. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the The Radio Times Podcast.
Cocaine Bear review: B-movie concept with A-grade talent
A mostly entertaining – and only mildly offensive – film that strikes a careful balance between bad-taste comedy and commercial viability.
'Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’ goes the old saying, and it’s advice that the makers of Cocaine Bear seem to have taken to their hearts. You can see why the events that inspired it would be irresistible to the creators of a certain kind of cinema; in the mid-'80s a black bear was found to have devoured vast quantities of the drug in question after it was dumped into woodland from the plane of a smuggler. The potential was clearly huge. Using this bizarre incident as his jumping-off point, the film’s screenwriter Jimmy Warden runs wild with it as a group of disparate characters converge on the territory of the coke-addled beast. Actress-turned-director Elizabeth Banks is at the helm of this mostly entertaining, only mildly offensive adaptation, bringing enough deranged energy to her efforts and striking a careful balance between bad-taste comedy and commercial viability. It’s Banks’s third film calling the shots, following Pitch Perfect 2 and 2019’s Charlie’s Angels, and she’s assembled a great cast, who add value to the material at every turn. Matthew Rhys appears fleetingly as the aforementioned smuggler, Andrew C Thornton II, who died during the incident when his parachute failed to open, something which, like much of the movie, is played for laughs. The filmmakers depart from reality almost instantly; the real bear was not known to have harmed anyone before its untimely death, and yet here it is reimagined as an insatiable foe. Amongst the ensemble are Keri Russell as Sari, a nurse who traces her school-skipping, 12-year-old daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) down to Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, where the pumped-up predator awaits. Also en route to the woods are drug dealer Daveed, played by O’Shea Jackson Jr, who is trying to track down the missing cocaine on behalf of his menacing boss Syd (Ray Liotta), with the gangster’s grieving son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) reluctantly in tow. Isiah Whitlock Jr is the cop on the case, Bob, while legendary character actress Margo Martindale has some spectacular indignities in store as Liz, the forest ranger distracted by her attraction to her colleague Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). Read more: Wild true story behind Elizabeth Banks's Cocaine Bear Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks reveals how the bear came to life The cast really do give it their all (in the midst of the mania, Jackson Jr’s more subtle comedic schtick is especially enjoyable), yet it’s hard not to feel for poor Ray Liotta in one of his final film roles. Playing the movie’s chief human antagonist, the late actor delivers his usual grizzled gravitas, before enduring his own inevitable, head-slapping humiliation. And the bear herself (we find out her sex in a sublimely ridiculous scene) is a decent, computer-generated creation: popping up when the characters least expect it, and bringing exaggerated ferocity, wild-eyed confusion and a cartoonish presence to the table. Cheerfully marrying its broad-brush eccentricity with monster movie and slasher traditions, Cocaine Bear’s woodland antics recall Friday the 13th and Lake Placid, while there’s a touch of Quentin Tarantino in the colourful, chatty criminals. If it begins promisingly and benefits from an undoubtedly novel scenario (indeed, the title on its own should sell it to many), it ultimately feels like a one-joke idea, with the gags getting repetitive and the script running out of steam after a while. It might have benefited from further embracing its horror leanings; some moderately jumpy moments aside, it doesn’t really set out to scare you. However, at just over 90 minutes, Cocaine Bear hardly outstays its welcome and the oddball touches, period soundtrack and love for splatter should help sustain the interest of those looking for some left-field laughs. And, as Liotta and co grapple gamely with their furry adversary, it shows the fun you can have when you combine a B-movie concept with A-grade talent. View Green Video on the source website Cocaine Bear is released in cinemas on Friday 24th February 2023. Wondering what to watch on TV? Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for more news and features. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast.
Tim Minchin reveals why Matilda cast Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull
As Matilda the Musical arrives in UK cinemas, Radio Times magazine spoke to Tim Minchin about the leap from stage to screen.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. Although he made his name on the comedy scene with furious, taboo-busting songs, the Northampton-born, Australia-bred Tim Minchin is no longer an angry young man. In recent years, the 47-year-old has demonstrated his acting chops on stage in Jesus Christ Superstar and in his Sky sitcom Upright, while he’s won acclaim for his musical theatre adaptations of Groundhog Day and Matilda. With the much-anticipated film version of the Roald Dahl classic (starring Dame Emma Thompson, Stephen Graham and Lashana Lynch) arriving in UK cinemas, we caught up with Minchin to find out if he really has calmed down. Matilda reunites the musical’s original creative team of director Matthew Warchus and writer Dennis Kelly, while you’re back on songwriting duties. How was it to get the gang back together? It was great but I really just sat in Australia and waited for it to happen! I mean, Dennis had to write a whole new script, but Holding My Hand is the only new song. There was another set of decisions for me about what you cut, so I cut two or three songs completely and was quite brutal on cutting bits of songs. I feel it, but I don’t think the audience will. What other changes are there? What the film adds is huge emotional intensity, which therefore requires an explosion of magic realism to allow you, like Matilda, to escape. What did you make of Emma Thompson joining the Matilda cast as the battleaxe Miss Trunchbull? When Matthew said, “What do you think of Emma?” I replied, “Can we get Emma?” And he said, “Yeah, she really wants to do it.” And I was like, “What the f**k are we still talking about this for?!” She’s fearless and outrageous in that role. We’ve always cast men as Miss Trunchbull on stage because she has to be six feet tall and pick up a child and swing it around. The men who play Trunchbull often end up in physio. But in a film you can use CGI, so then it’s a case of, who’s the best actor? What has it been like to be part of such a phenomenon? It’s bonkers. Right now there are a dozen productions of Matilda at schools in Sydney alone, not to mention all the ones in Finland and Korea! It would blow my mind, except that my whole career is a huge surprise. I mean, I come from Perth, I’m self-taught, I can’t read music. I simultaneously don’t know s**t and am absolutely sure that I know everything. View oEmbed on the source website Groundhog Day: The Musical is returning to London next year. Will that end up as a film, too? Groundhog Day as a [new] film is tough because the original film is the source text, so to tread on the Bill Murray version doesn’t feel right. Whereas Roald Dahl’s book is the source text for Matilda, and the fact that there was already a film [Danny DeVito’s 1996 version] didn’t mean anything to us. We understand that it’s loved but it has nothing to do with our adaptation. Dennis has still never seen that film! In the past you’ve been quite provocative, with songs like Thank You God and The Pope Song. Is that all behind you? It depends on what the fight is. Things change when you have a lot of power; you’re no longer a Matilda, a kid punching up at a despot. Your job is then to try and spread good ideas, it’s not to wield swords any more. You’ve got to be careful where you’re wielding your sword when you’ve got all that power. What gets you fired up nowadays? I’m more irritated now by lefties spouting morally certain bulls**t because I feel like that’s my side being dumb. The loss of value for freedom of speech on the left and that they have just washed their hands of any difficult topics – that’s what I’m angry about now. Because you established yourself in comedy, has it been difficult to get people to take you seriously? I think I recognised that as a problem very early, which is why I basically did five years of comedy and then retired, and I’ve been working ever since to make sure I’m not pigeonholed. What are your own favourite musicals? I’m not a big musical theatre head. If I ever have to sit through Mamma Mia! again I’ll literally cut my head off! But I am well on the record as a Jesus Christ Superstar tragic. When I played Judas in front of 10,000 people at Wembley Arena it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I just loved it. What do your kids make of your work? They like Matilda well enough, but Violet’s favourite musical is Beetlejuice, which was written by one of my best friends [Eddie Perfect]. And, it’s like, of course you like my friend’s musical more than you like mine! I’m not sure my kids will go back to my comedy and admire it, but I don’t mind. Art is of its time, comedy especially dates. Whereas Matilda will live for ever. Because it’s a classic. Read more: Matilda star reveals big musical number was cut from movie Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is out now in UK cinemas, and will be released on Netflix on Christmas Day in the US. Check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide, or visit our Film hub for more news and features. The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast.
Lady Chatterley's Lover review: An invigorating spin on the pioneering novel
Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's adaptation of the classic DH Lawrence book is fluidly shot and overflowing with passion.
Female desire is unleashed with scandalous consequences in this invigorating spin on DH Lawrence’s pioneering novel from French actress-turned-director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, the filmmaker behind 2019’s much-admired The Mustang. Fluidly shot and overflowing with passion, Lady Chatterley’s Lover hopes to win over a new generation of admirers and satisfy fans of one particular earlier adaptation by employing some very canny casting. Fresh from their breakthrough, award-winning performance as Princess Diana in Netflix’s The Crown, Emma Corrin casts off their inhibitions as well as their clothes in the role of Lady Constance Chatterley. Soon after marrying the seemingly sweet Sir Clifford (Matthew Duckett), the young and vivacious Constance finds herself playing nursemaid to her war-wounded and wheelchair-using husband and pining for her life in London. With Clifford succumbing to bitterness, and sex – or even affection – off the agenda, Constance’s existence quickly becomes a miserable one. Keen to conjure an heir to secure the future of his beloved Midlands estate Wragby, but unable to produce one himself, Clifford permits Constance to entertain herself elsewhere, providing that she “govern her emotions accordingly”. Despite him not being at all the sort that the snobbish Clifford had in mind as an unwitting sperm donor, Constance falls into the arms of the estate’s gruffly attractive gamekeeper Oliver Mellors (Jack O’Connell of ’71 and Skins fame, who is currently starring in SAS Rogue Heroes). This man of few words is a smart and capable former army lieutenant who has been kicked right back to his previous place in society following the end of the First World War. And the most famous Lady Chatterley to date returns, with the star of Ken Russell’s four-part 1993 BBC adaptation, Joely Richardson, appearing in the role of Mrs Bolton, the widowed nurse who takes over Constance’s caring responsibilities when she falls ill, which ultimately frees her up to start an affair. It’s a small but nicely knowing turn from Richardson, who brings sensitivity and a slightly raised eyebrow, and whose character has the potential to be a spy for Clifford or an ally for Constance. Richardson’s co-star in the earlier version, Sean Bean, alas, is nowhere to be seen. Lawrence’s original 1928 text had to wait until 1960 before it could be widely published, resulting in an obscenity trial, which it won. If the material has lost its ability to shock over the years, Clermont-Tonnerre really goes for it with the sex scenes, which range from the hasty and believably awkward, to hot and heavy assignations where the pair ostensibly commune with nature, though nature gets largely ignored. The attraction between the leads and portrayal of this odd couple’s recognition of each other as kindred spirits is where the film hits the spot, with cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (The Theory of Everything) capturing their connection beautifully. The apparently insurmountable class gulf is credibly relayed and still has relevance, with the charismatic, Midlands-born O’Connell bringing an authentic earthiness and admirable subtlety to his portrayal of Mellors. At the centre of the film’s storm, the elegant but emotionally accessible Corrin undergoes a mesmerising journey from a wide-eyed and excitable newlywed, to jaded dogsbody, before emerging reawakened and defiant. When faced with this pair, all else fades somewhat unfortunately into the background. Striking miners add a bit of political colour but appear too fleetingly to have any impact, while supporting characters are mostly of little consequence. View oEmbed on the source website Faye Marsay makes an impression as Constance’s free-spirited, strong-minded sister Hilda, yet Duckett is saddled with a depressingly two-dimensional role, with Clifford shown to be no more than a heartless inconvenience, despite his own tragic backstory. The script from Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Magee (Life of Pi, Finding Neverland) is better on the lovers’ burning passion than it is fleshing out the world around them. The film stays close to Constance throughout and, with the character seen through the eyes of a female director, it feels like an apt way to re-approach this ground-breaking portrayal of a woman’s wants and needs. Moreover, Clermont-Tonnerre’s Gallic frankness towards sex and her ability to deliver a fresh perspective means she’s a good fit for this most subversive of British period pieces. Female pleasure is thankfully no longer a radical concept, but it turns out that if told well and with chemistry this sizzling then Lady Chatterley’s Lover still has its place. Lady Chatterley's Lover will be released in select cinemas on 25th November 2022 and on Netflix on 2nd December 2022. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our guide to the best TV series on Netflix and best movies on Netflix. You can also plan your viewing with our TV Guide. The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast.
Blonde review: A brutal but beautiful look at Marilyn Monroe
The new film from writer-director Andrew Dominik is admirably compassionate and eye-opening, even if the outlandish style sometimes smothers the emotional impact.
The savagery of mega-stardom is laid bare in this brutal but beautiful look at the desperately sad life of Norma Jeane Mortenson, better known as Marilyn Monroe, from writer-director Andrew Dominik. It’s based on the 2000 bestseller of the same name from Joyce Carol Oates, a fictionalised, though not entirely inaccurate, take on Monroe’s story. The New Zealand-born Dominik is known for his tough, unflinching portraits of masculinity through the ages: 2000’s Chopper launched actor Eric Bana onto the scene playing notorious Aussie crook Mark ‘Chopper’ Read; his epic 2007 western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford explored dishonour amongst thieves in the late 19th century and starred Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck in the title roles; while Pitt returned in 2012’s Killing Them Softly, an ultra-violent neo-noir following a pair of hitmen. Although foregrounding a woman marks a significant departure for the director, the film’s somewhat gruelling nature does not. With the Cuban star of No Time to Die and Knives Out, Ana de Armas, slipping into Monroe’s iconic attire (Lily Fisher plays the actress as a child), this near three-hour feature is like the MeToo version of Monroe’s story. It highlights the various ways in which she was abused and exploited: from life with her mentally ill mother Gladys (grittily played by Julianne Nicholson); her horrific introduction to Hollywood; and beatings at the hands of her paranoid second husband, the New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale). We see Monroe find sexual and emotional satisfaction from a ménage à trois with her friends Cass and Eddy (Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams), the disaffected sons of two Hollywood icons (Charlie Chaplin and Edward G Robinson) – a potentially salacious detail that Dominik does something interesting with. The shock value of such content is countered by the sensitive and soul-searching work of lead De Armas; her grasp on Monroe’s accent may not be entirely assured – it comes and goes a little – yet she’s enough of a bombshell to physically convince, performs as if possessed by the star, and retains our sympathy throughout. There’s almost no part of this movie that isn’t sad, with glimmers of hope that Monroe might find happiness especially heart-breaking, knowing what we know. The actress’s third and final marriage, to celebrated playwright Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody), offers her the potential for escape, before a miscarriage sends her spiralling, while her increased dependency on drugs during this time places her on the path that will ultimately lead to her death. View oEmbed on the source website Blonde’s melancholic air is enhanced by sporadic lapses into monochrome (Chayse Irvin’s cinematography here is nothing short of sublime) and by a delicately mournful, Twin Peaks-evoking score from Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds’ bandmate Warren Ellis. However, if there are bravura sequences which ingeniously immerse us in Monroe’s sometimes nightmarish world – including a humiliating encounter with Caspar Phillipson’s President Kennedy – Dominik’s flair for outlandish style sometimes smothers the emotional impact of the piece. The film vividly brings back to life someone whose perfect image adorns so many walls, showing us what might have been going on behind the smiles, and emphasising Monroe’s intelligence. It rages righteously at the industry and widespread misogyny that may have broken her; however, defining the actress by her trauma and disempowerment goes too far the other way, with Blonde often reducing this woman of substance and charisma to a photogenic victim, and her film roles getting relatively short shrift. Still, it’s an admirably compassionate and eye-opening effort which doesn’t half do a number on the Hollywood machine. Blonde is released in select cinemas on Friday 23rd September and is available to stream on Netflix from Wednesday 28th September. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Bullet Train review: Frantically-paced actioner is a mixed bag
Brad Pitt leads the cast for this summer blockbuster from John Wick co-director David Leitch.
Screeching into cinemas, sparks flying, this eagerly-anticipated, sometimes frantically-paced actioner comes courtesy of stuntman-turned-director David Leitch. Leitch began his directorial career as the uncredited co-helmer of game changer John Wick, following it up in intermittently impressive style with Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw. Earlier in his career, Leitch was a frequent stunt double for this film’s star, Brad Pitt, and he directs him superbly here, providing a platform for one of the actor’s funniest performances. Pitt plays a misfortune-magnet hitman, codenamed Ladybug by his silky-voiced handler Maria (Sandra Bullock, mostly unseen). Currently residing in Japan, he’s been taking some time off and has undergone a spiritual awakening of sorts, with his attempts at relaying Eastern wisdom generating plenty of laughs. Now ready to return to work, Ladybug picks up the titular train in Tokyo. His mission: securing a briefcase which is currently in the possession of a pair of British assassins, Lemon and Tangerine, played in the Bullet Train cast by Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who have been tasked with protecting the son of ruthless Russian gangster the White Death (the son is played by Logan Lerman, as for the White Death himself, well, you’ll see). Despite the pair’s best efforts, which include killing 17 people to free the young man from his kidnappers, they quickly fall foul of their employer. Also onboard is an English-accented assassin, Prince (Joey King). In a bid to take down the White Death, Prince is posing as a schoolgirl and blackmailing Yuichi (Andrew Koji), who works for the elusive crime lord and whose young son she pushed off a rooftop. Hiroyuki Sanada plays Yuichi’s formidable father, known only as ‘The Elder’, who we meet at his grandson’s hospital bedside at the outset, and who will prove very useful. View oEmbed on the source website If things sound convoluted, they most certainly are, with montages of explanation and ultra-violence tasked with rushing us through the bloody backstory. It’s a system that mostly conveys what’s needed in little intense bursts, but there are points where keeping up with such a contrived and chaotic plot feels headache-inducing and the film works better in its simpler, more slapstick-esque moments of action or comedy. Although the sheer volume of quirky features thrown at us is initially off-putting (there’s a Thomas the Tank Engine gag that runs out of steam very quickly), Bullet Train settles affably into its stride, helped immeasurably by a charming trio of turns from Pitt, Henry and Taylor-Johnson, with the latter’s cockney swagger a thing of absurd beauty. The script from Zak Olkewicz isn’t always the sharpest – Lemon and Tangerine’s blokey banter veers dangerously close to Guy Ritchie territory at points – yet the stars make it sing as much as possible. The film has been accused of whitewashing the Japanese source material it is based on, Kōtarō Isaka’s 2010 novel MariaBeetle, with the main characters now improbably Americans and Brits, despite the retention of the original setting. Its critics have a point. Bullet Train clearly hopes to emulate Quentin Tarantino’s more successful fusion of Eastern and Western cinema in the Kill Bill films, but feels far less knowledgeable and reverential. If Leitch and Olkewicz lack Tarantino’s nous, there’s some outlandish style and surges of energy and, even given the predominantly humorous tone, Leitch’s handling of the action sequences is never lacking in punch. Despite the constraints of the space, train-based action can prove hugely fruitful – 2013’s wildly imaginative, difficult-to-top feature Snowpiercer (which spun off into a series) and the marvellously surging 2016 zombie flick Train to Busan being amongst the best recent examples. This isn’t those; Bullet Train is too cartoony for much to be at stake, with the Japanese family drama that opens proceedings and that should form its beating heart largely pushed to the sidelines, and with it the more emotionally committed performances of Koji and Sanada. As the narrative threads are brought together in not particularly persuasive fashion, Leitch tries to distract us by piling on the effects-heavy carnage in the final throes. But, honestly, he’d have been better off sticking with the smaller stuff. It’s the detail in Pitt’s delivery that keeps it on track. Bullet Train is showing in UK cinemas. If you’re looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide or visit our Movies hub for all the latest news. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
The Gray Man review: Ryan Gosling v Chris Evans is blockbuster thrill ride
Netflix's star-studded action movie from Avengers: Endgame's Russo brothers is a spectacle worthy of the biggest screen.
Don’t be fooled by the drab title, there’s no question that this Netflix-backed thriller is looking to dazzle you. Whilst it might only have a limited cinematic run before hitting the small screen, The Gray Man boasts the kind of spectacular action and globe-hopping pursuits more commonly associated with the theatrical experience. With a production budget of $200 million, it’s Netflix’s most expensive movie to date. Based on the first in Mark Greaney’s book series, it sees Marvel’s finest, Anthony and Joe Russo (who directed four MCU instalments including Avengers: Endgame), return to form after their less well-received 2021 war drama Cherry. The Gray Man also represents a comeback of sorts for its star Ryan Gosling; it’s his first film since the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man. The titular enigma is Gosling’s Court Gentry, aka “Six”, a convicted-killer-turned-ace-CIA-assassin, recruited as part of the top-secret Sierra programme by handler Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), who has come to view him with avuncular affection. When Six is called upon to take down one of his own, he’s handed an encrypted drive containing damning evidence relating to CIA Group Chief Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), who has been hastily covering his tracks. After Six scarpers, Carmichael sends his right-hand psycho, the unscrupulous contractor Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), after him. But with Six trained to be a ghost, he proves a very slippery customer indeed. Julia Butters plays Fitzroy’s precocious young niece Claire, who is kidnapped by Hansen, while Ana de Armas is CIA agent Dani Miranda, who has her own suspicions regarding Carmichael, and Jessica Henwick is Carmichael’s tainted-by-association deputy Suzanne Brewer. The one-upmanship between Gosling’s cool customer and Evans’s unabashed and more easily incensed cretin keeps the tension simmering and banter flowing. Casting off Captain America’s righteousness with glee, Evans is clearly enjoying himself as he builds on the deranged levels of entitlement he displayed in Knives Out, and does so whilst sporting a real talking point of a moustache. Stephen F Windon’s cinematography could hardly be slicker (he’s a veteran of the Fast franchise, so is well-used to capturing turbo-paced action). And with Joe Russo teaming up with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (who wrote Endgame and Captain America: Civil War amongst others) on the screenplay, the dialogue is snappy and knowing, even if the trio succumb to a few too many narrative cliches along the way. The film delights in the chaos and destruction as a bounty is put on Six’s head and assassins rain down upon him John Wick-style (it really does a number on Prague in particular). It also owes a significant debt to the Bond series, which is explicitly acknowledged when Six jokes about the number 007 already being taken. The presence of recent Bond girl De Armas is another unavoidable association, though she’s in less of an eye candy role here, with her character’s style more sharp than sexy. Dani is not a particularly pivotal character (the women here aren’t exactly sidelined but they don’t feel as interestingly written as the men), yet she’s a capable accomplice who gets Six out of some tight spots. Six’s shift from lone wolf to prospective father figure when he’s called upon to protect Claire also mimics Bond’s arc in No Time to Die, whilst reminding us of how well Gosling works with kids (see The Nice Guys for another fine example). But, thanks to the Canadian actor’s irresistible shtick, his protagonist feels very little like Bond; despite Six’s hard body, tough-guy takedowns and taciturn nature, Gosling brings inherent warmth and affability to the role, once again showing a lovely line in faint amusement. If the Russos’ well-honed flair for audacious spectacle is something to be savoured, the impact will undoubtedly be diminished by small screen viewing, so do see this in the cinema if you can. A touch more heft in the, admittedly imaginative, fight scenes and a few more surprises in the script would have been welcome but it undoubtedly sets things up promisingly. With a fundamentally appealing, well-cast hero at its core and a commitment to eye-catching and expensively executed thrills, The Gray Man does more than enough to pave the way for future instalments. The Gray Man will be released in select UK cinemas on 15th July 2022, and will available to stream globally on Netflix from 22nd July 2022. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. If you’re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Movies hub for all the latest news. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
Eternals director Chloe Zhao reveals moment she's proudest of in MCU film
Chloe Zhao reflects on Eternals as it comes to Disney Plus.
Director Chloé Zhao is known for making beautifully humane films that blur the line between reality and fiction, including 2017’s The Rider and last year’s multiple Oscar-winning Nomadland. So she probably wouldn’t be the first person to spring to mind if you were asked to appoint the director of another addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Yet, while she’s still coming to terms with her 2021 Academy Award (she’s only the second woman in history to win the best director prize, after Kathryn Bigelow), Zhao admits she does indeed love a superhero, and was thrilled to take the reins on the hugely ambitious Eternals. “Oh my goodness, it’s such an honour,” says Zhao, who names two Captain America films, 2014’s The Winter Soldier and 2016’s Civil War, as her favourites from the MCU to date. “But it’s also a lot of pressure, because I did come in as a fan, so you want to make sure you do right by the fans but also move the MCU forward. We’re in a transitional time after the Infinity Saga and you don’t want to play it safe, you want to look at these films and ask, how can we deconstruct and redefine everything we think about them.” Eternals certainly does that, with some mind-blowing revelations. It’s the tale of the titular superhero team, a race of immortal beings who have been quietly watching over Earth for thousands of years after ridding it of their enemies, the Deviants. Led by Salma Hayek’s healer Ajak, the group also includes Angelina Jolie’s mentally fragile warrior Thena, Richard Madden’s Superman-like Ikaris and Gemma Chan’s empathetic manipulator of matter Sersi, who comes to the fore as the story progresses. So how does this film link to the others in the MCU? “The story is triggered when half the Earth’s population is brought back in Avengers: Endgame,” says Zhao. “The return of half of the planet is a big ecological event and there are consequences.” What makes Eternals stand out from other superhero films is its diverse ensemble, with Zhao affectionately branding them a band of “misfits” and as “immigrants from another planet who can’t go home”. Eternals also features both a gay superhero (Brian Tyree Henry’s inventor Phastos) and a deaf superhero (Lauren Ridloff’s lightning-fast Makkari), while it’s the female characters who assume leadership roles. “These individuals are allowed to exist as themselves; they just happen to look a certain way, love a certain way, communicate a certain way. Hopefully you’ll not only see yourself on screen but those who are very different from you, and you’ll relate to that person’s pain, even though you look more like the person standing next to them. It’s a quiet power, but I love that.” What was it like working with the biggest star of the group, Angelina Jolie? “I was nervous at first, anyone would be. I’d admired her from afar pretty much my whole life,” the 39-year-old Zhao confesses. “But because she makes films herself and they often take place in harsh places in the world, she really understood what I was trying to do. Angie is playing the physically strongest character, but Thena is broken inside and in order to have that vulnerability she shared a lot of who she is and what she’s gone through in life.” Due to COVID-related delays, Eternals hit cinemas just months after Zhao’s previous film Nomadland, a project that was brought to her by its lead actor Frances McDormand, someone she feels is now a friend for life. McDormand is a legend but seems formidable: how was she to direct? “Like what I was talking about in terms of working with Angie, Fran is so brave,” she says proudly. “These actresses defy some of the Hollywood constraint that’s been put on them. They just let the camera in, they’re not hiding anything, and that’s the strongest thing they can do.” When asked what it was like to experience such success at the 2021 Academy Awards, where Nomadland picked up three gongs including best picture, there’s a certain amount of surprise in Zhao’s voice, as if she’s looking back on something she can’t quite believe happened. “Because of the pandemic it was the first time we were allowed to be in a space with people for a long time and, because we weren’t allowed to bring anybody, it was just mainly the film-makers, so it was almost like going to a small film festival,” she recalls fondly. “It was incredible. Incredible.” Loved this Big RT Interview? Check out these... Richard Armitage talks Stay Close, Netflix and his ‘untapped fantasy’ Mackenzie Crook on the future of Worzel Gummidge and why playing the scarecrow is like “therapy” Leonie Benesch on Around the World in 80 Days, British eccentricity, and shouting at David Tennant Although Eternals was her first time working on a major studio project, Zhao is full of praise for the support she received to deliver her vision and doesn’t necessarily feel her artistic freedom was compromised. “With smaller movies you may have freedom because in some ways you can do whatever you want, but when you wrap at three in the morning and then have to drive your cast home because they don’t have a form of transportation, there are limitations there, too,” she says. “For a film this big, every movement you want to make, hundreds of people have to move with you. So decisions happen a bit slower. However, you also have unlimited resources to make your imagination come true, you can go to places, you have time, there are many other ways to have freedom.” So what’s been the highlight of this project? “What I’m most proud of are the moments when the Eternals come together. There are a lot of sparks. They’re people who in regular walks of life don’t necessarily belong together, but they manage to find their place within this very dysfunctional family. That, I love most of all.” If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our handy TV Guide. Marvel’s Eternals comes to Disney+ on 12th January, where you can watch most of the MCU movies now – sign up now for £7.99 per month or £79.90 for a full year. This edition of The Big RT Interview originally appeared in the Radio Times magazine. For the biggest interviews and the best TV listings subscribe to Radio Times now and never miss a copy.
Joker review: a discomforting study in how real monsters are made
Joaquin Phoenix gives a chilling turn in this socially conscious skew on the comic-book origin tale
“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?” the soon-to-be supervillain asks his counsellor in this magnificently gritty, socially conscious skew on the comic-book origin tale. It turns Batman’s arch-nemesis into an incel-like loner, languishing on the sidelines of life. Infused with the grimy splendour of a Martin Scorsese picture, it’s a film that substantially simmers, with outbursts of shocking, impactful violence. With the laser-focus of a character piece and boasting an original story, Joker is a pretty radical departure for both the genre and for director Todd Phillips, best known for men-gone-wild comedies like The Hangover and Due Date. Intended to launch a series of standalone comic-book films, it’s set in Gotham City, 1981, and stars Joaquin Phoenix as protagonist Arthur Fleck. First seen grotesquely pulling faces as he lacquers himself in clown war paint for an inauspicious street gig, this hard-up, mentally ill loner is prone to spasms of hollow, high-pitched laughter that he tells people are the result of a neurological condition. View oEmbed on the source website With his life an endless succession of public humiliations and nights in with elderly mother Penny (Frances Conroy), Arthur fantasises about stand-up success and romance with neighbour Sophie (Zazie Beetz), and develops a fixation on cheesy talk-show host Murray Franklin (an enjoyably over-made-up Robert De Niro). Meanwhile, his mother writes begging letters to her wealthy former employer Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) hoping he will take pity on them. Who is in the cast of Joker? The product of a cruel, cruel world, Arthur is part Travis Bickle, part Rupert Pupkin but strange, unpredictable and multi-faceted enough to also evoke both Charlie Chaplin (seen here in Modern Times) and Fred Astaire in his occasionally graceful physicality. There have been several iconic takes on the Joker (who first appeared in comic book form in 1940 in Batman #1) – from Cesar Romero’s camp goofball to a smirking, quipping Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning agitator – yet it feels like only Phoenix could have brought this particular manifestation so vividly to life. Drawing on the psychotic intensity he displayed in Lynne Ramsay’s masterful You Were Never Really Here, Arthur’s anxieties seem to course through the actor, infesting every inch of his body as he contorts his emaciated frame like a man possessed. It’s a chilling, wholly compelling turn, worthy of structuring an entire film around, which Phillips does skilfully, though supporting talent like Shea Whigham, Bill Camp and Brian Tyree Henry are little more than a classy wallpaper. Although the character is as nihilistic as ever, the film has enough political fervour in its swipes at healthcare cuts and widespread poverty to feel like it stands for something. Arthur’s psychological problems pile up like the bin bags on the street, while his sense of entitlement – to women, success, his place in the spotlight – fuels his rage. Following a credible trajectory, there’s an overarching sympathy for Arthur’s predicament but, as his capacity for violence is unleashed and his confidence grows, he begins to loom terrifyingly large and the familiar pieces begin to shift into place. Why is Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker proving so controversial? Rather than leaven the tension with smatterings of his traditional bad-taste humour, Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver make us stew in the discomfort; it’s two hours in the close company of a truly disconcerting individual, placed smack-bang in the middle of a combustible context, as resentment toward the rich threatens to erupt into riots. For all their real-world references, superhero movies tend to function as escapism, a way to examine our failings from a comfortable remove. Joker, on the other hand, feels like a damning indictment of societal ills, a study in how real monsters are made; it’s a film that’s desperately, maybe even depressingly relevant. Joker is released on 4th October 2019
Green Book review: "Mortensen and Ali are an irresistible duo in a biopic boasting awards-friendly polish"
This old-fashioned, odd-couple dramedy about a white chauffeur and his haughty black employer recalls Driving Miss Daisy even if it lacks the requisite grit
★★★ Peter Farrelly, along with brother Bobby, is best known for bawdy, slapstick shenanigans like There’s Something about Mary and Dumb and Dumber. With Green Book, Peter tries his hand at an Oscar-bait biopic in which the touring troubles of African-American musician Dr Don Shirley are channelled into an odd-couple dramedy that both benefits from Farrelly’s feather-light touch and, given the sensitivity and factual basis of the narrative, is somewhat scuppered by it. View oEmbed on the source website Viggo Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, an Italian-American nightclub bouncer hired in 1962 to act as chauffeur to virtuoso pianist Shirley (Mahershala Ali) as his trio embark on an eight-week tour of the Deep South in the run up to Christmas. Dubbed Tony “Lip” in reference to his gift of the gab, Vallelonga is also handy with his fists, something Don is counting on given the region’s reputation as a hotbed of racial tension. To ease their passage, the pair consult the The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guidebook listing services and accommodation accessible to African-American travellers. The two men could hardly be more mismatched. Salt-of-the-earth joker Tony is semi-literate, while the haughty, humourless Don boasts a triple doctorate. During their first encounter in Don’s flat above Carnegie Hall, he sports regal African robes and interrogates Tony from an ornate, throne-like chair. Tony is a man who has embraced his own cultural stereotype just as surely as Don has rejected his; he’s astonished to learn that his employer has never listened to Motown or eaten fried chicken. Co-written by Tony’s son, Nick Vallelonga (who collaborates with Farrelly and Brian Hayes Currie on the script), it is perhaps unsurprising that a man initially shown to have racist tendencies rapidly evolves into a ruffian with a heart of gold. Nevertheless, Mortensen turns in a charming, nuanced and comedically gifted performance that feels like his most accomplished yet. Ali is even finer, playing an isolated, angry and often inebriated character unable to fully identity with, nor find acceptance within, either white or black communities. A man of few words and well-concealed emotions, the discreet way that he conveys Don’s heartache is, at points, terrifically moving. The unlikely friendship that flourishes between the “commoner” at the wheel and his well-to-do boss in the backseat most obviously recalls Driving Miss Daisy, and this jovial and never more than gently melancholy film firmly establishes itself in that same virtuous but simplified and commercially friendly tradition. Indeed, there’s something rather old-fashioned about Don educating Tony and helping him to craft love letters to his beloved wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini), evoking cinematic staples of heart-tugging tutelage seen previously in movies like My Fair Lady and Cyrano de Bergerac. The occasional pleasant surprise punctuates the predictable strife that greets the duo on their journey. The screenplay doesn’t lay its lessons on thick exactly, but the beats it hits are entirely expected – a rousing, entertaining-the-locals bar scene, for example. Moreover, the film lacks anger; Don’s quiet dignity in the face of relentless racial discrimination gives Farrelly an excuse not to confront the true ugliness of a stubbornly ingrained problem that shames America to this day. Yet Mortensen and Ali make an irresistible duo in a well-meaning and touching, albeit slightly misjudged film, boasting plenty of awards-friendly polish if sorely lacking the requisite grit; right down to its driving-home-for-Christmas crowd-pleasing conclusion, it gives 1960s race relations an unnecessarily accessible overhaul. Green Book is released at cinemas from Friday 1st February
The Favourite review: "combines sex and skulduggery with disarming doses of human frailty"
The court of Queen Anne becomes a battleground for the formidable trio of Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone in this wonderfully irreverent romp from the director of The Lobster
★★★★★ The capriciousness of the English court in the early 18th century and the perils of falling from favour are explored in this superb tragicomic take on the reign of Queen Anne from director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster). Casting off the stiffness of its period drama predecessors and with the director’s penchant for the surreal marvellously applied, it combines sex, skulduggery and animal companions with disarming doses of human frailty. View oEmbed on the source website In a film that’s set almost entirely within palace walls and based on the bones of historical reality, the players flanking the ailing and erratic queen (Olivia Colman) are a dastardly bunch; the men an embarrassment of bewigged, powder-puffed grotesques, typified by First Lord of the Treasury Sidney Godolphin (James Smith) and the leader of the Tory opposition, Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult). The women are no less scheming, nor powerful – though they are better dressed. Anne’s right-hand woman Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) is the de facto boss, an astute political puppeteer as well as playmate, carer and more. Although the war with France has theoretically been won, Sarah’s commander-in-chief husband, the Duke of Marlborough (Mark Gatiss), has the appetite to hammer the point home. Further military action is proposed, to be waged at considerable cost to the taxpayer. The landowners are staunchly defended by Harley, putting him at odds with Sarah who delights in tormenting him. The situation is rendered even more combustible by the arrival of Sarah’s cousin Abigail (Emma Stone), a former aristocrat who has fallen on hard times; despite her ingenue appearance and humble situation she rapidly becomes a rival for the queen’s affection. If the cruelty is breathtaking and the antagonistic interplay upon which the film is built divine, what’s perhaps most striking is how moving the story becomes – imbued with authentic emotion by a formidable triumvirate of female leads who propel their characters beyond comedy and caricature. As expletives fly, bodices are ripped and plans are hatched, while deceptions cut deep. A wily, alert Stone takes Abigail from guileless to devious; all the more dangerous because of her desperation, she’s a scrapper whose thirst for success is wholly about survival. Sarah, too, hides a motivation that's a far cry from her fearsome posturing, with Weisz so well-suited to the material, she may never have been better. Yet it’s Colman who stands out in a role which showcases the many shades of this wonderful actress. Her sovereign might bark madly at servants and courtiers alike but she’s been “stalked by tragedy” and brought low by chronic illness. The film lays bare the ease at which a monarch may be manipulated, especially one as isolated and vulnerable as Anne. The era is droolingly, often quirkily, rendered by production designer Fiona Crombie and triple Oscar-winning costumer Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, Mary Poppins Returns), while it’s sumptuously shot by Robbie Ryan (American Honey, Slow West). Viewed at a thrilling tilt and featuring dozens of exchanges to savour, not since Peter Greenaway’s heyday has the heritage film been presented with such strange, exhilarating irreverence. A pioneer of the “Weird Wave” of Greek cinema, Lanthimos brings his outsider’s eye to period English costume drama in a film that loosens its corsets considerably. The Favourite is released in cinemas on Tuesday 1st January 2019
Chloë Grace Moretz: looking back, it's hard to see why Kick-Ass was so controversial
The actress discusses her new film The Miseducation of Cameron Post, growing up as a child actor – and why her role as a foul-mouthed child-assassin in Kick-Ass was so controversial
With her hair loose, minimal make-up and a floral blouse neatly tucked into fitted trousers, former Hollywood child star Chloë Grace Moretz is the picture of breezy professionalism. Her seemingly effortless poise is a likely consequence of being in the business since she was five, while her shrewdness makes it easy to forget that she’s still only 21. Ensconced in a smart Soho hotel suite, Moretz is in London to promote The Miseducation of Cameron Post (in cinemas from Friday 7th September), a gorgeously subtle, sometimes wickedly funny coming-of-age story set in 1993, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. “It’s a John Hughes movie,” she says, alluding to the late director’s 80s hits The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “but with gay characters.” The Miseducation of Cameron Post review: an important and authentic coming-of-age drama Gender fluid actor Ruby Rose cast as lesbian superhero Batwoman in new DC TV series ITV to embark on epic Harry Potter movie season View oEmbed on the source website Based on Emily M Danforth’s novel, it takes place in a gay conversion therapy centre in Montana and features “a band of misfits”. She plays Cameron, an orphan sent by an aunt to the fictional God’s Promise camp after being caught in a backseat tryst with her female friend. Her fellow “misfits” are played by Sasha Lane, who was discovered as a student by British film-maker Andrea Arnold and given the lead in Cannes hit American Honey, and native American actor Forrest Goodluck. The project is incredibly personal for Moretz. “I grew up in a Christian Baptist town – Cartersville, Georgia,” she tells me, although she retains little of the southern accent; her family moved to New York when she was five. “When you grow up with a community that’s very conservative regarding who you are and what sin is, it’s hard not to have those voices in your head come back when you’re faced with the question of your sexuality. I have two gay brothers and they told me recently that, prior to coming out, they tried to pray it away. This movie hits home with them very, very, very hard.” Moretz first grabbed our attention in 2010 as an 11-year-old in the 18-rated comic-book caper Kick-Ass, playing a crime-fighter whose violent moves and strong language caused many to raise their eyebrows. She followed it up with the similarly adult Let Me In, playing a child vampire. Growing up in the public eye can’t have been easy. But, with one of her four older brothers, Trevor, as her producing partner, and another, Brandon, as her business manager, by keeping her family close, she’s weathered the challenges. “It gave me an insulation, to ask questions and figure out who I am in a safe space.” After a string of high-profile projects – Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, the remake of Carrie, The Equalizer with Denzel Washington, Bad Neighbours 2 – Moretz took a hiatus in 2016, to “re-evaluate” her career. The break ended when Trevor brought her the Cameron Post script. “It felt different,” she says. “Important but not oppressive in its opinion. It was funny and sad. There were no stereotypes as to what gay is or what gay looks like.” View oEmbed on the source website She was impressed by the approach of Iranian-American director Desiree Akhavan and her acclaimed debut Appropriate Behaviour (in which Akhavan also starred). “She allows the people she hires to do the jobs that she hired them to do,” Moretz says. “As much direction as she gave me, she also didn’t. She knew when to just let us be the characters.” Having a woman at the helm was particularly welcome when it came to the sex scenes Moretz shared with her co-star Quinn Shephard. “The representation of femininity and female pleasure is usually very clinical and objective when shot through a male gaze,” says Moretz. “Desiree hid herself and the crew away and just let it be Quinn and me and our female director of photography. That takes strength as a director.” Working on such a female and LGBT-friendly set was clearly a revelation to an actress who has been vocal in support of the #MeToo movement. Does she feel Hollywood is changing for the better? “We still have so much work to do,” she says. “It’s in the audience’s hands. Buying a movie ticket is casting a ballot as to the representation you want on screen. Stories from different perspectives need to be told. Those that are in power – the same eight people,” she jokes, “only work in terms of cash. If they don’t see the cash come in they’re not going to hire the people that deserve to be telling those different stories.” Although she has the wise head of an old hand, it’s not that long ago that, as a child actor, Moretz was at the centre of a controversy, specifically the moral panic that surrounded Kick-Ass, where she was required to gleefully enunciate the C-word before beating up and killing a roomful of bad guys. Looking back on that time now, her feelings are mixed: “I remember what a massive deal it was and it’s funny because there’s such a lack of controversy now. There are countless young bad-ass characters and people don’t bat an eye.” The overreaction from some quarters of the press did have its upside, she says: “It made my transition to being an adult actor a lot easier because I wasn’t seen as everyone’s little baby girl; it allowed me to learn what my voice is and how to get around questions in an eloquent manner and to stand up for myself and who I am. As polarising as it was, I wouldn’t change one moment of my career so far.” The Miseducation of Cameron Post is in cinemas from Friday 7th September
BlacKkKlansman review: “Spike Lee struts his film-making stuff with ambition and gusto”
As playful as it is provocative, Lee’s latest reveals the unbelievable true story behind a black cop's fight against the Ku Klux Klan
★★★★ You wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t true. For his latest “joint”, Spike Lee is in raging and righteous form as he relays the extraordinary story of Ron Stallworth, the black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1972. Told with gritty swagger and displaying a penchant for both mischief and provocation, this ’70s-set film’s collage-like assembly ensures it’s so much more than a biopic. Swipes at racially problematic cultural landmarks (Gone with the Wind, The Birth of a Nation) are fused with bald vitriol – epitomised by Alec Baldwin’s pro-segregation figure Dr Kennebrew Beauregard, whose gaffe-heavy lecture ends unironically with “May God bless us all”. View oEmbed on the source website “I always wanted to be a cop and I’m still for the liberation of my people,” Ron (John David Washington, son of Denzel) tells his student activist girlfriend Patrice (Laura Harrier) as they debate whether it’s possible to change such a stubborn system from within. The film itself isn’t sure about that, yet Ron makes a valiant protagonist: determined and dignified but resolutely no-nonsense. The first African-American officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, his story begins as he’s vetted for any sensitivity to jibes (by Isiah Whitlock Jr., no less, making reference to his character from The Wire), the implication being that the force doesn’t want anyone interfering with its racist business as usual. Ron’s ambition takes him from the records room to undercover work, and when he spontaneously responds to an advert seeking new members of his local branch of the KKK, he’s called right back, quickly ingratiating himself to the man on the other end of the line, chapter head Walter (Ryan Eggold). Since he can’t meet Walter in person, for obvious reasons, Ron sends along his colleague Flip (Adam Driver). He’s similarly unsuitable, being Jewish, although has been passing as a WASP – something he’s forced to confront as the film wears on. Flip is immediately singled out for suspicion by wild-eyed affiliate Felix (Jasper Pääkkönen), who’s involved in a violent plot, while Ron continues his telephone-based charm offensive by befriending the Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace). There’s showmanship in the direction but understatement in the central performances. Former American footballer Washington rises to the challenge of his first major film role (he’s best known for the HBO comedy series Ballers); by his side, the ever-reliable Driver subtly suggests Flip’s own conflict. Things get sufficiently serious – for all Ron’s relatively small-scale heroics, the bigger, bleaker picture is never in doubt – but BlacKkKlansman wields a wonderful sense of the absurd that’s entirely fitting given the surrealness of the story, and Lee has fun ridiculing the low intellect and dumb logic of KKK members, simultaneously emphasising the real danger of such stupidity. Together with his co-screenwriters Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott, Lee joins the dots between then and now in a way that’s ultimately chilling, arguing that the rebranding of the KKK as a non-violent organisation ends with their ideas infecting the mainstream and eventually the White House. Duke talks of “America First” and paraphrases Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. And Felix’s outwardly wholesome, inwardly hateful wife Connie (Ashlie Atkinson) could easily be one of the “very fine people” Trump suggested were among the white supremacists at 2017’s explosive Charlottesville rally. The vibe is authentic, the period detail tasty, yet BlacKkKlansman burns with contemporary anger and concludes on an impossibly affecting, painfully relevant note. It’s as playful as it is political, and if the scattershot approach doesn’t always cohere, Lee struts his film-making stuff with ambition and gusto, while the connections he makes are hard to deny. BlacKkKlansman opens in cinemas on Friday 24 August.
From Ocean's 8 to Ghostbusters: a history of Hollywood's gender swap movie trend
Do all-female reboots really help right the movie industry's gender imbalance?
Steven Spielberg recently suggested that iconic adventurer Indiana Jones could be re-cast as a woman. “We’d have to change the name from Jones to Joan,” he commented. “And there would be nothing wrong with that.” This comes as Ocean’s 8 steals its way into cinemas, providing a new spin for the dapper-criminal franchise... this time it’s an octet and all female. Stay up to date with the RadioTimes.com newsletter Ocean’s 8 film review: “entertainingly empowered” Sandra Bullock assembles the perfect team in the first full trailer for Ocean’s 8 The gender-rebalanced spin-off features a to-die-for ensemble, led by Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock, backed up by Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling (creator and star of US TV comedy The Mindy Project), Sarah Paulson, pop star Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter and rapper/comedian Awkwafina. Bullock stars as Debbie Ocean, sister of Danny (played by George Clooney in the Ocean’s trilogy), who’s plotting her own ambitious heist. Exuding the same air of aching cool that made the 2001 film (and its 1960 predecessor) so successful and has since inspired two sequels, it adds a distinctive feminist flavour, reinvigorating a franchise that has, thus far, been dominated by men. This is just the latest example of a gender-swap trend, whereby male characters are replaced by women. Take the female-only Ghostbusters reboot, for example; Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange; or Julia Roberts in Secret in Their Eyes. Political true story Our Brand Is Crisis and war drama Eye in the Sky were conceived with male leads – roles that ultimately went to Bullock (again) and Helen Mirren. View oEmbed on the source website It’s hardly a new phenomenon. Back in 1939, by switching the gender of ace reporter Hildy Johnson from male in Broadway’s The Front Page to female in His Girl Friday, a story about a fractious friendship turned into a classic of screwball romance. Even Alien’s Ripley was expected to be a man (John Travolta was in the running), although screenwriter Dan O’Bannon felt that all the parts could be interchangeable. And the fashion isn’t just seen in the film world. On stage we’ve seen an all-female Julius Caesar (Sunday BBC4, see p56), while 2016’s The Nice Guys is set to become TV show The Nice Girls. Most famously, Doctor Who has finally regenerated into a heroine, with Jodie Whittaker making her debut in the 2017 Christmas special. Given that women are still in the minority on the big screen (campaigning website Women and Hollywood reports that in the top-grossing 100 films of 2017, women comprised 24% of sole protagonists and 37% of major characters), steps clearly need to be taken to rectify the marked imbalance. One way to do that is for more women to feature unpopular, traditionally testosterone-driven genres, such as action, sci-fi or superhero films. Ocean’s 8 itself was born of frustration that the caper movie has perpetually been the province of men. “I just thought it was interesting to invade the terrain that always had an off-limits sign,” director Gary Ross told Entertainment Weekly. When asked what it was like working with an all-female cast by People magazine, Bullock said, “It felt like it was a long time coming. Too long.” Co-star Blanchett joked on The Late Show that the film is called Ocean’s 8 because, “There are only eight women working in Hollywood.” But incursions into perceived masculine territory can be controversial. The aggressive response that met the Ghostbusters remake turned into outright sabotage as detractors posted ultra-low IMDb ratings in droves. The toxic nature of the debate appeared to hurt the movie’s box office... despite mostly positive reviews, it underperformed. Sandra Bullock has responded to questions about a possible backlash to Ocean’s 8, telling Entertainment Weekly, “We’ve got some feisty women who will fight back. There should be a rule: you’re not allowed to say anything nasty until after it’s out. We’re not a reboot. We’re just a ‘this is what’s happening in 2018’.” It’s not just remakes that prove problematic. Charlize Theron stole Mad Max: Fury Road out from under its title hero (played this time by Tom Hardy), to acclaim but some disgruntlement. And, if a generation of girls have welcomed Daisy Ridley with open arms, her prominence as Rey in the Star Wars sequels has come under attack, no doubt fuelled by the character inheriting the mantle of hero Luke Skywalker. One men’s-rights activist went so far as to release a version of The Last Jedi that largely eliminated the female characters. The trend for gender-flipping says as much about a tendency for film producers to play it safe, creatively and financially, as any inability to write original roles for women. A number of projects have stalled – a female take on The Expendables and a version of Splash with Channing Tatum as a merman – betraying a lack of enthusiasm for the approach. While there are many advocates of “gender-blind” casting – such as Emma Thompson’s quest to portray Sherlock Holmes – surely it’s preferable that roles speak specifically to the female condition, particularly given that our experiences aren’t always alike. At the Cannes film festival Jessica Chasten, announced spy thriller 355, featuring a quintet of women, including Lupita Nyong’o and Marion Cotillard. Although the Ocean’s 8 stars are more than capable of following in the footsteps of their male forebears, it’s infinitely more encouraging that Chastain and co wish to beat their own path. Ocean's 8 is in cinemas from Monday 18th June Sign up for the free RadioTimes.com newsletter
Ocean's 8 film review: "entertainingly empowered"
Sandra Bullock and her co-conspirators steal the show as the heist-movie series gets an all-female makeover
★★★ “Somewhere out there is an eight-year-old girl dreaming of being a criminal. Let’s do this for her,” Debbie Ocean tells her team, as they gear up for the big heist. Ocean’s 8 sees a gang of wily women go after a heavily guarded diamond necklace, just as the actresses playing them steal their way into one of the strongholds of male cinematic dominance: the criminal caper movie. Elaborate heists are ten-a-penny on screen, nevertheless this all-female spin-off feels like it’s taking on the right target; Steven Soderbergh’s trio of Ocean’s films sidelined women to an often infuriating extent. As the men had a seemingly endless amount of fun – in a way that was more than a little bit smug – its female characters were spectators and pawns, aside from when Julia Roberts’s Tess became a reluctant participant in one of the most cringing in-jokes in movie history. Soderbergh acts as producer here, while Gary Ross directs and pens the script with Olivia Milch. Given his close friendship with Soderbergh, Ross might not seem impartial enough to breathe fresh life into the project, but he has form helping women break free of conventional constraints; as the director of The Hunger Games he gave us an action heroine for the ages. Sandra Bullock plays Debbie, sister of the Ocean’s trilogy’s Danny (played by George Clooney), and the film begins, just as the first instalment did, with its incarcerated protagonist getting out on parole. Debbie quickly reunites with her right-hand woman, Lou (Cate Blanchett), and the two go about assembling a crew for a spectacular diamond heist. View oEmbed on the source website Joining them are Helena Bonham Carter’s scatty Irish fashion designer, Awkwafina’s pickpocket, Mindy Kaling’s jeweller, Sarah Paulson’s fence/suburban mom and Rihanna’s hacker. The plan is to persuade diva-like actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) to wear a $150 million, 6lb Cartier necklace to the Met Gala, where it will be spirited away without anyone suspecting a thing... Ocean’s 8 emerges sufficiently from the previous films’ shadows by virtue of the inspired casting. Series cameos are fleeting and not necessarily from who you’d expect; the message is very much that these women are the stars of the show. Overall the air is substantially less self-satisfied than its predecessors’, the personalities are diverse and likeable, their charm is natural and unforced rather than spread on thick. Bullock makes a steelier, edgier centre than Clooney and a more convincing crook. Blanchett inhabits the super-cool sidekick sans the ego of a double Oscar winner, and Bonham Carter turns her ditzy dial down, resulting in something rather sweet. Since the focus is on genuine camaraderie, the less experienced members of the cast don’t seem out of their depth. The women’s antics are as ingenious as they are preposterous and the screenplay strikes many of the right feminism-fuelled notes. Explaining why they don’t need a male collaborator, Debbie remarks pointedly, “A ‘he’ gets noticed, a ‘her’ gets ignored. And, for once, we want to be ignored.” The backdrop of the Met Gala seems like a shameless excuse for star-gazing, and it is, yet setting the action against an annual event celebrating eye-catching women’s fashion is a good fit for a female-led story. Perhaps the film coasts too heavily on the sheer novelty of watching women band together to steal stuff, failing to establish its own unique flavour, but it looks and feels the part without ever overegging it. And if the script could have done with a touch more sass and the direction a little more distinction, the cast is divine and the overall effect is entertainingly empowered. Ocean’s 8 is released in cinemas on Monday 18 June
Deadpool 2 review: "remains true to the original’s middle finger-brandishing spirit"
It's time to feel the X-Force, as the potty-mouthed superhero returns – and brings some new pals with him…
★★★★ "Deadpool 2 is a family film," Ryan Reynolds's fourth-wall-breaking protagonist assures us. And, as preposterous as that might seem, in one sense anyway, he ain’t kidding. The follow-up to the highest-grossing R-rated film in history finds the eponymous antihero contemplating fatherhood, bringing together a rogues’ gallery of a crew who bicker and bond like kin, and become a surrogate papa to a troubled teen. Reynolds reprises his Golden Globe-nominated role as the wisecracking mutant for hire, paid to batter even worse guys than himself and now accepting commissions internationally. David Leitch takes the directorial reins from Tim Miller, and Reynolds joins original scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick in the writing team. View oEmbed on the source website Its predecessor buried its audience in an avalanche of knowing humour that sometimes came across as smug and sexist, but Reynolds sold the snark overload as only an actor with his charisma can. The film's adult approach to sex and violence also made a welcome change to the bloodless, 12A-rated antics of most comic-book fare. Its shock value and subversion lent it a certain frisson, but could such a formula work a second time round? The temptation might have been to go brasher yet, rather boldly, Deadpool 2 goes deeper and expands its core cast appealingly, making for a sequel that’s not only funnier but more ambitious and satisfying. Rather than simply rehashing the first film, we get a good look at the man behind the mask, so to speak, as Deadpool emerges from emotional upheaval and goes from being a lone wolf to a leader. The film takes time to find its groove but there's plenty going on, with various twists and turns that shouldn't be discussed here without spoiler warnings; suffice to say, it sees Deadpool taken on as an X-Men trainee, befriend 14-year-old mutant Russell (played by Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Julian Dennison) and assemble his own superhero team, the X-Force, when things go awry. Among the initial recruits to X-Force (a "forward-thinking, gender-neutral" group) are Zazie Beetz’s Domino, Terry Crews’s Bedlam and Bill Skarsgård’s Zeitgeist – there’s also a character called The Vanisher, who may or may not have shown up. Meanwhile, Morena Baccarin returns as Vanessa, and Deadpool’s love-hate relationship with the sanctimonious but kind-hearted Colossus is, once again, the gag that keeps giving. As far as antagonists go, despite some pointed jibes about his height, Josh Brolin’s Terminator-like time traveller Cable is a significant improvement on Ed Skrein’s Ajax. Fresh from troubling the Avengers but freed from the full-body CGI of Infinity War’s Thanos, Brolin is the perfect fit for a comic-book character made flesh, combining square-jawed muscularity, grizzled weariness and high-tech parts, with a taciturn communication style that makes a welcome contrast to Deadpool’s verbal diarrhoea. The sequel ups the ante action-wise, too, and former stuntman Leitch (who helmed Atomic Blonde and was the uncredited co-director of John Wick) is very much the man for the job, giving such scenes punch and flavour to add to their comedic edge, distinguishing them from standard effects-driven destruction. A truck heist through screeching traffic is wonderfully surging (allowing Domino to showcase her lucky streak in spectacular style), the team parachuting into action is unforgettable, and the fist fights are palpable in their impact. The cameos also amuse without providing too much of distraction, with digs at Wolverine, DC and the Avengers (poor Hawkeye) present and correct, and, as our petulant man-child hero learns to play nicely with others, it all evolves winningly into an ensemble film. The story may spend time in some unexpectedly touching territory, but fans can rest assured that Deadpool 2 remains true to the original’s middle finger-brandishing spirit. Deadpool 2 is in cinemas now
Will A Wrinkle in Time usher in a new era for female filmmakers?
And why has it taken so long for women like Ava DuVernay to be entrusted with large-scale projects?
Introducing this year’s director category at the politically charged Golden Globes, Natalie Portman echoed the frustrations of many with the withering comment “And here are the all-male nominees.” Two weeks later, Lady Bird’s Greta Gerwig – only the fifth woman in 90 years to be Oscar-nominated as director – left empty-handed, leaving Kathryn Bigelow (for The Hurt Locker) as the award’s sole female recipient. It should be no surprise to learn, then, that female voters make up a measly 28% of the Academy. After picking up her Oscar, Bigelow said, “I’d love to just think of myself as a film-maker, and I wait for the day when the modifier can be a moot point.” View oEmbed on the source website We asked 9 inspiring women in TV and film to share their wit and wisdom on International Women’s Day Marvel’s Jessica Jones hires all women directors for series two It’s a view echoed by Nora Ephron (late director of Sleepless in Seattle and Julie & Julia, Wednesday Sony Movie Channel); in her book I Remember Nothing, she listed among the things she wouldn’t miss “Panels on Women in Film”. If film broadens our horizons and encourages a variety of perspectives, then it matters who’s telling the stories, otherwise we only ever see part of the picture. Riding the recent wave of truth-telling, African-American film-maker Ava DuVernay is one of the formidable talents leading the charge for change. Although she’s held the reins on two Oscar-nominated features (Selma and documentary The 13th), she has yet to bag her own nomination. Despite this, her new film A Wrinkle in Time represents a landmark. A family fantasy (in cinemas from Friday 23 March), it stars Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon as mysterious super-beings empowering a young girl in a dangerous quest… and it’s the first time a black female director has commanded a budget for a live-action feature of more than $100 million. “I don’t take it as a mantle of proud distinction that I’m the first woman of colour to make a film at this price point,” she explained on a Variety podcast, “because it really means we haven’t done this in decades and decades and decades before that.” So how poorly represented are women behind the camera? The gender diversity website Women and Hollywood reports that, of the top-grossing 250 films of 2017, women represented 11% of directors, up from 7% in 2016. Although that’s a move in the right direction, we’ve seen backsliding before and the picture is bleaker for women of colour. Only four black, one Latin and three Asian females worked as directors on the top 1,100 films from 2007 to 2017. In that same period, women directed 27.5% of the features at indie festival Sundance, so even if women are making films, transitioning to the big leagues is another matter. There are yawning chasms in the breaks available, best illustrated by the career path of former micro-budget male directors. Colin Trevorrow went from a $750,000 budget on his first film Safety Not Guaranteed to handling the $150 million Jurassic World three years later; Gareth Edwards, whose 2010 Monsters cost an estimated $500,000, followed up his debut in 2014 with the $160 million Godzilla. View oEmbed on the source website The keys-to-the-kingdom trust levels given to these fledgeling male film-makers have never been offered to women. This endemic faith in male directors has its antecedents in the “New Hollywood” movement, which changed the cinematic landscape. From the late 60s onwards, it ushered in a swathe of exciting young visionaries – including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas – as major studios gifted them untold artistic freedom in an attempt to tap into a younger, more tuned-in audience. Yet these opportunities were still only available to men and during this creatively fertile era, only the Italian film-maker Lina Wertmuller, who worked in Europe, was recognised by the Academy: the first nominated woman director, in 1977 for Seven Beauties. In contrast to the fortunes of today’s rising male film-makers, Patty Jenkins, whose debut Monster was both Oscar-winning and profitable, had to wait 14 years to direct her next film, last year’s Wonder Woman. It was a milestone: the only superhero movie to be directed by a woman to date became the highest grossing live action film directed by a woman and the highest grossing superhero origin movie ever. If ground is finally being made up, with a modest increase in representation and women occasionally entrusted with large-scale projects, why has it taken so long? Anna Biller’s experience on the set of her lauded 2016 indie The Love Witch acts as disturbing testimony here. Via her Twitter feed, she described how her predominantly male crew were reluctant to take orders from a woman and so aggressively opposed to her vision that she believed some were sabotaging her work. The Time’s Up and #MeToo movements offer further, equivalently alarming explanation. The outpouring of historic sexual harassment and assault accusations relating to the movie business – with the majority of victims female and alleged abusers male – and the wall of silence that protected serial predators, sometimes for decades, suggests that even for female stars their power has been merely illusionary. Disrespect for women in the entertainment industry seems entrenched and it’s hard not to relate the stubborn disregard for their suffering to how they are perceived as film-makers. Women’s experiences seem of limited interest to Hollywood. But the fact that women’s voices are finally being heard should at last bode well for their creative prospects. After all, women are already dominant in costume design and well represented in editing, songwriting and producing. If the appetite is there, let’s hope this new momentum leads women into more male-dominated areas of work. Who knows, maybe A Wrinkle in Time’s fantasy tale of powerful women lighting the way isn’t quite so far-fetched after all. A Wrinkle in Time is in cinemas now
I, Tonya review: "an irreverent, entertaining patchwork"
Margot Robbie dances up a storm as the controversial figure skater, but it's Bafta-winning Allison Janney's icy performance that dominates
★★★ Disgraced US figure-skating champion Tonya Harding gets a somewhat sympathetic makeover in a perky, provocative biopic from Australian director Craig Gillespie (The Finest Hours, Lars and the Real Girl), starring Margot Robbie. I, Tonya celebrates Harding’s talent and admires her rebellious spirit but hides behind its humour as her hard-knock life becomes an irreverent, entertaining patchwork. For a film that draws on what it describes as the "irony-free" recollections of its subjects, it is steeped in arch comedy and gimmicks from the outset: from the talking-head interviews that give it a faux-documentary feel, to the fourth-wall breaking asides (including one mid-coitus). Gillespie oversees a lively and amusing blend that’s easy to enjoy if not always well-judged, for instance a montage of Harding’s childhood abuse at the hands of her mother is crassly played for laughs. View oEmbed on the source website Acerbically scripted by Steven Rogers (better known for the more mawkish end of the cinematic spectrum with films like PS I Love You and Stepmom), I, Tonya is most notable for a film-stealing, Bafta-winning turn from Allison Janney as the aforementioned monstrous matriarch – the memorable of name, merciless of nature LaVona Golden, who Janney plays with pursed lips, busy fists and a potty mouth. A resident of Portland, Oregon, LaVona is the dirt-poor driving force behind a daughter who wins her first competition aged four ("Those bitches didn’t know what hit 'em," an older Harding fondly recalls). Yet, despite her technical prowess – her eventual mastery of the challenging triple axel makes her US number one – Harding is far from the ladylike ideal that US Figure Skating would prefer as champion of their sport, and the film suggests her scores suffered as a result. Her contrastingly elegant coach Diane Rawlinson (Julianne Nicholson) wafts in and out of the picture, while first love Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) is an altogether less benign presence, picking up where her mother leaves off beatings-wise, and eventually plotting the infamous attack on Harding's rival Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver). Antiheroines are still unusual on screen and the film presents a complex picture of a flawed, cheeringly nonconformist woman, stained by her association with Kerrigan’s assailants (she pled guilty to conspiring to hinder their prosecution), while Harding’s lack of self-esteem finds its counterpoint in her ability to unhesitatingly extend a middle finger to her critics. Robbie captures Harding’s increasing disaffection as the years roll by, including the wariness of someone who spends her life being judged for reasons other than her skating, foregrounding her rough edges without ever making her unlikeable. Yet, at 27, the actress is less successful at conveying Harding’s vulnerability (she predominantly plays her between the ages of 15 and 23). Meanwhile, the CGI-assisted attempts to convince us that Robbie is replicating the skater’s derring-dos are of mixed success. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Harding’s story was an easier sell as a black comedy. The film might be on her side – in a touch that will perhaps please the real Harding, Kerrigan barely features at all – but it doesn’t deem her deserving of serious examination, and withholds its sincerity for the final throes where Robbie gets an emotional, and convenient, "For Your Consideration" moment. Although ostensibly confrontational, I, Tonya seems afraid of letting the audience feel the full force of Harding’s suffering at the hands of her abusers; however frequently this is depicted, such scenes are neutralised by the overarching air of freewheeling fun. I, Tonya is released in cinemas on Friday 23 February View oEmbed on the source website
Lady Bird: "a sparkling and funny coming-of-age comedy"
Greta Gerwig paints a colourful portrait of an endearing eccentric in her directorial debut
★★★★★ “I have to get out of Sacramento,” groans capricious teen Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), who goes by the flamboyant moniker ‘Lady Bird’, much to the chagrin of her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf). Infusing her film with the rosy glow of nostalgia, writer/director Greta Gerwig muses on her birthplace and teenage temperament in a semi-autobiographical, sparklingly funny coming-of-age comedy, which has been nominated for a quintet of Oscars. Set in 2002 and conceived to feel like a memory, Gerwig’s first film as solo director (she co-directed the 2008 feature Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg) scampers through its protagonist’s final, tumultuous year in high school, taking us right up to the blurry beginnings of her college days. View oEmbed on the source website Fond of describing herself as a girl from the “wrong side of the tracks” – something an amused suitor (played by Lucas Hedges) observes to be quite literally true – Lady Bird attends an all-girls Catholic school that’s free from the humourless, disciplinarian stereotypes audiences are accustomed to seeing. Sensitive school musical director Father Leviatch (Stephen McKinley Henderson) struggles to keep his depression in check and isn’t afraid to express himself artistically, while our protagonist enjoys an understanding with the affable Sister Sarah Joan (played by Lois Smith with a twinkle in her eye). Lady Bird is a girl with big dreams and so-so talents, but no shortage of ideas or enthusiasm. Her OTT audition for the school musical renders those watching dumbstruck; she gets in anyway, but then so does everyone else. Romances play out with more than a hint of farce (including with Timothée Chalamet’s morose rocker, with whom Ronan enjoys many a hilariously cringe-worthy scene). Luckily, her bond with adorable best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), which also has its ups and downs, is made of more robust stuff. 8 reasons why you should visit Greta Gerwig's hometown At this nimbly directed film’s core is a fractious but loving mother-daughter relationship that has a whiplash-inducing ability to ricochet from tenderness to vitriol. It’s summed up by an opening sequence that sees the pair “jolly up” a road-trip around colleges by listening to the audiobook of The Grapes of Wrath. As the sombre tome draws to a close, they are overcome in a fleeting moment of emotional synchronicity that instantly explodes into the fireworks of a feud, before an exasperated Lady Bird hurls herself out of the moving car. While the 17-year-old has all the provocation of a hormonal youth, the perennially disapproving, stressed-out Marion (whose acts of kindness towards others are plentiful, and whose affection for Lady Bird is glaringly apparent) simply can’t hold her nagging tongue, ruining many a happy moment for her daughter. Ronan and Metcalf inhabit these flawed characters so beautifully that you’ll weep for every one of their botched attempts at bonding and reconciliation, but leave the cinema hopeful that their love will ultimately withstand the blows. Scripted by Gerwig with a deft balance of laudable wit and authentic angst, the film brilliantly depicts the adolescent tendency to rail against everything and anything, and it’s remarkable how heartfelt each and every moment feels, without the film once descending into sentimentality. Both that and Gerwig’s refusal to tie things up in a neat movie bow are a satisfying nod to its true-life origins. This is a loveable, colourful and largely convention-defying portrait of an endearing eccentric who, despite her protestations, holds her hometown dearer than she realises. View Riddle on the source website
Black Panther review: "a franchise film with a distinct individual identity"
Thoughtful, relevant and action-packed – Marvel's Afrofuturist epic is so much more than just a black blockbuster
★★★★ Just as DC’s Wonder Woman gave women a belated sense of the empowerment that comes from watching a relatable superbeing smash things on the big screen, so Marvel’s Black Panther hopes to finally do the same for black audiences. Helping chip away at the notion of superhero movies as white male terrain is acclaimed writer/director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station), while the film boasts such an array of exciting acting talent it was evidently a struggle to get them all on the poster. Set one week after the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, the 18th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe operates almost entirely as a standalone feature; it’s the first solo outing for the character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who debuted in comic-book form in 1966. Taking place in the fictional land of Wakanda, a secretive African nation hiding its power from the outside world, Black Panther provides a rare mainstream platform for Afrofuturist themes, turning our idea of a Third World country on its head. Wakanda is a force to be feared and envied rather than a nation brought low by colonisation, combining the vivacious aesthetic of tribal customs and costumes with the silver sheen of its world-beating technology (a blend beautifully realised by Hannah Beachler’s extraordinary production design). View oEmbed on the source website It sees Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa return home after the death of his father King T’Chaka (John Kani), to be crowned his successor and achieve the full potency of his alter ego Black Panther. Noble of character, even of temperament and with eyes that glisten with integrity, T’Challa nevertheless suffers crises of conscience and challenges to his leadership. In his struggles, he is flanked by his tech-wizard sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), right-hand warrior woman Okoye (Danai Gurira), proud mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and supportive ex-girlfriend Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o). T’Challa’s chief adversary is Erik Stevens, known as Killmonger (an electrifying Michael B Jordan). Incensed at the injustices suffered by his people and spoiling for a fight, Killmonger could be the Malcolm X to T’Challa’s Martin Luther King. But Killmonger’s grievance is primarily personal rather than principled. His is not the kind of mindlessly destructive villainy Marvel so often peddles, rather this is a portrait of an angry, fatherless man, embodied with punky swagger and visible self-loathing by Jordan. Boseman makes a singularly majestic hero and there’s fine work elsewhere in the cast: Nyong’o’s wilfulness and Wright’s youthful mischief are welcome notes, while Andy Serkis attacks the role of maniacal brute Ulysses Klaue with lip-smacking aplomb. Yet it’s The Walking Dead’s Gurira who steals the show as the ferocious Okoye, gloriously swinging her spear in a billowing red gown. On the other hand, Martin Freeman’s returning CIA operative feels like a stock fish-out-of-water character, and Daniel Kaluuya may be riding high after Get Out but he’s a little underused here. The question of whether this isolationist nation should prioritise protecting its people above all else, or reach out to those less fortunate, is dealt with thoughtfully by Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole, who position the conundrums within the context of real history. And while talk of borders and what to do with refugees will resonate the world over, this is undoubtedly commentary on current US policy. By the time the armoured rhinos are unleashed in the climactic battle, things have descended into overstuffed spectacle, yet Black Panther mostly delivers on the action front, routinely placing its female characters on the front line. Passionately performed and lavish in its love for African culture, Black Panther is a franchise film with a distinct individual identity, and one that wants to mean something to those who watch it. When a group of black kids gaze up at the alien-like Wakandan aircraft shimmering in the sky above their California home, their eyes fill with wonder. In moments like these, we’re reminded just why representation matters. Black Panther is released in cinemas on Tuesday 13 February
Phantom Thread review: "divine, poetically scripted and unpredictable"
Daniel Day-Lewis takes his final bow in Paul Thomas Anderson's stylish tale of a fastidious fashion designer rattled by romance
★★★★★ A story made to measure for an incomparable thespian, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s divine, poetically scripted and unpredictable melodrama examines the impact of emotional upheaval on the fragile mind of a finely tuned creative. It stars triple-Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis as an esteemed dressmaker who underestimates his young muse, in what is mooted to be his final performance. Anderson follows the idiosyncratic anarchy of his Thomas Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice with a very different picture: an original story, and his first set and shot outside the States. He brings his outsider’s eye to the mannered, meticulous but also bitterly cruel world of high fashion in his second collaboration with Day-Lewis (after 2007’s There Will Be Blood, for which the actor won his second Academy Award). View oEmbed on the source website Unfolding for the most part in 1950s London, Day-Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, the creator of bespoke, flamboyantly romantic gowns that are a favourite of royalty. A painful perfectionist whose quirks and sensitivities have been allowed to thoroughly bed in, we see him coldly dismiss his current squeeze Johanna (Camilla Rutherford), who has outgrown her usefulness; "I simply do not have time for confrontations," he tells her when she attempts to discuss their relationship. The decision to conclude things with Johanna is taken in collaboration with his sister and business partner Cyril (a terrifying Lesley Manville), a near-permanent presence in his life. A trip to the country shows us a more benign and charming side to Reynolds and results in a surprising "meet cute". Ordering breakfast alone in a cafe, he becomes smitten with clumsy waitress Alma (Luxembourgian actress Vicky Krieps), who combines a girlish giggle with an unmistakable boldness; as she admires her dashing, mysterious and ravenously hungry customer, the feeling is evidently mutual. The apparent purity of the moment is fatally undermined by the callous dismissal of her predecessor, and the ensuing romance takes us down an interesting, ultimately twisted path. We witness Alma’s attempts to render herself indispensable to this confirmed bachelor, who’s wedded to the memory of his dead mother. Sporting shades of Pygmalion and the work of Daphne du Maurier, the film's depiction of the complex dynamic between creator and muse is certainly more successful than Darren Aronofsky's recent mother!, its observations more original, with more subtlety woven into the story. Phantom Thread draws out the vulnerability of the artist and, in this instance, how obsessive mother-love and the relentless indulging of whims has nurtured a difficult personality. Reynolds is a spoilt man-child, and one whose fastidious approach to his craft has left him intolerant of the fundamental messiness of human beings. A normal life now seems unachievable and so, for Alma, a solution must be found. Krieps is intriguingly ambiguous in a story with a rarefied air that's by turns seductive, compassionate and sinister, and which increasingly takes Alma’s perspective of events, as if gradually teasing out her capability. And yet this was always going to be Day-Lewis’s picture. How interesting that the chameleon-like, London-born star – who has so seldom played Englishmen – has tackled something closer to home in what may be the final film of his career, playing a formidable talent who, just like him, has shied from the spotlight. As we watch his alter ego unravel it all feels rather intimate. Is the actor allowing us to peer behind the curtain right at the last? If this is to be his swan song, what a fine and fitting departure. Phantom Thread is released in cinemas on Friday 2 February
The Snowman review: "more listless than laughable"
Michael Fassbender is as colourless as the wintry Nordic landscapes in this bland reading of Jo Nesbo's serial-killer thriller
★★ It’s unusual for a whodunnit to have such a powerful sedative effect as The Snowman. How Tomas Alfredson – who demonstrated his mastery of mood with the superb Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Let the Right One In – has come to this is the only mystery worth solving. Serial-killer thrillers are so ubiquitous they’ve long since lost any relationship to reality, their protagonists' outlandish crimes typically committed in response to fairly commonplace childhood traumas. They're hard enough to swallow in book form, but by the time they reach the cinema screen, it can become nigh-on indigestible. The latest example to reach us is based on the 2007 bestseller by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. Set in Oslo and Bergen, the story sees mothers going missing after the year’s first snowfall, with snowmen found at the scene and grisly discoveries to follow. When we first meet lead investigator Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), he’s doing a lot of drinking and staring into space. Fassbender is adept at drawing us in and illuminating the mindset of troubled, taciturn men but Hole is such a blank canvas it’s alienating. Rebecca Ferguson plays his spunky new colleague Katrine Bratt, who seems to be pursuing her own agenda. Among the suspects are JK Simmons’s creepy business magnate Arve Stop and David Dencik’s creepy doctor Idar Vetlesen. Although it clocks in a fraction shy of two hours, The Snowman has been pared down to just the bare bones of a chiller, just the murders themselves and the most rudimentary plot machinations. The novel is often clunky and preposterous but, at well over 500 pages, it’s nowhere near this thin on detail. Here characterisation goes entirely out the window. Harry looks permanently haunted, yet there’s little information as to why, while Bratt’s character arc is curtailed. We’re told Hole’s cases are so legendary they are studied at the police academy, yet there’s scant evidence of a brilliant mind: his deductions seem to mainly consist of him "testing" Bratt by asking her what she thinks. The snowman motif is hokey (and intriguingly impractical), the killer’s motivation is laid crudely out in the prologue, and the eventual unmasking could hardly be less surprising. Hollywood stars, art-house icons and Nordic noir stalwarts mingle promisingly, albeit confusingly, with no agreement reached on what accent to use. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chloë Sevigny and The Bridge’s Sofia Helin are among the big names with small parts. What a cast to waste! If Fassbender’s Hole is an amateur in the maverick stakes, given that he can barely be bothered to put one foot after another, Val Kilmer shows him how you really go rogue with a performance of breathtaking strangeness. He plays Gert Rafto, the dishevelled detective previously in pursuit of "the Snowman", who appears in flashbacks. He manages to be aggressively American despite barely moving his face, and scene where he climbs out of a window to spite a colleague is sure to raise a smile. Sadly, the scares are lacklustre and, despite the spectacular scenery, the look of the film is blandly wintry. There’s a smattering of unintentional amusement – Hole offering Bratt some leftover sausage, Stop hiding very visibly behind a cupboard, every single second Kilmer is on screen – but The Snowman is more listless than laughable. In the absence of actual suspense, further chuckles may well have been welcome; to that end, it might have been the smarter move to follow Kilmer round for the duration instead. The Snowman is released in cinemas on Friday 13 October
Freeview film of the day: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
The first half of the definitive young adult dystopian franchise sees Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss reluctantly facing down the might of Donald Sutherland's President Snow.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 ★★★★ 9.00-11.20pm Film4 In the penultimate instalment of the Hunger Games series there is no Games. Instead we get a society quivering on the cusp of all-out civil war. The hidden dissidents of Panem's District 13 are preparing to take on the might of the Capitol, with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) the reluctant face of their revolution, while Josh Hutcherson's Peeta is still a pawn of Donald Sutherland's dastardly ruler. This adaptation of the first part of the final novel takes us down a hole, to the underground headquarters of the rebellion led by Julianne Moore. Its predecessors worked better as individual films, with the games providing satisfying narratives within narratives; given this, and the absence of true closure, Part 1 feels like a bridging film. Nevertheless, Jennifer Lawrence delivers complexity and conviction, and director Francis Lawrence is a solid hand at the helm, with matters left excitingly poised for the Part 2 climax. This transitional effort's teething problems aside, it's crammed with well-drawn characters and intelligent ideas, meaning the franchise remains as robust and rule-breaking as its idiosyncratic protagonist. For more of today’s free-to-air films, see our TV listings Order your copy of the Radio Times Guide to Films 2017
Wonder Woman review: "A film that even those suffering from superhero fatigue can enjoy"
Wonder Woman is finally the star of her own movie, and Gal Gadot is tailor-made for the role
★★★★ More than 75 years after her first comic-book appearance, Wonder Woman is finally the star of her own movie and it doesn’t disappoint. Following a trio of critical if not commercial disappointments, DC can breathe a sigh of relief: this fourth entry in its Extended Universe is as witty and heartfelt as it is thrilling – a film that fangirls, fanboys and even those suffering from superhero fatigue can enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INLzqh7rZ-U?ecver=2 After an underwhelming introduction in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gal Gadot reprises the role and, happily, it’s a film tailor-made for her skill-set. If Gadot is a good physical fit for the statuesque action heroine then the foregrounding of character and championing of compassion suits this earnest, unshowy actress who’s been somewhat swallowed up by more bombastic fare. Patty Jenkins (Monster) is at the helm of an origin story that shows how Gadot’s Amazonian warrior princess Diana – raised on the hidden island of Themyscira – is drawn into the First World War after rescuing American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), who crashes off Themyscira’s shore. With London their first port of call, Diana, Steve and their ragtag band of brothers set out to thwart Danny Huston’s General Ludendorff, a man seeking to unleash chemical weapons on his enemies, jeopardising the imminent armistice. Diana, meanwhile, pursues her own agenda, attempting to root out Ares, the god of war. As Diana enters the world of men and gets to grips with her powers the narrative beats are hardly original. Yet Jenkins and screenwriter Allan Heinberg (who worked on the Wonder Woman comic a decade ago) never let the action overwhelm the story, nor lose sight of the female-centric focus that sets their film apart; Diana’s heightened sensitivity to human suffering is a badge of honour not weakness, and scenes where she’s bamboozled by the restrictions placed on British women are charmingly handled. The island opener is a less than surefooted start that's more than made up for in the casting of the formidable Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright as Diana’s commanding mother and kick-ass aunt. Pine, too, makes an affable and consequential second fiddle and there’s a surprisingly tender romance between his sensible, sometimes tongue-tied mortal and Gadot’s rash, guileless goddess. Lucy Davis’s appearance as Steve’s adorable secretary is welcome if all too brief, while Huston is a suitably hissable, albeit not too overblown bad-guy, and Elena Anaya brings a note of pathos to supporting foe Doctor Poison. The film’s wartime setting grounds its story in a grimy, recognisable milieu, giving the shimmering superbeing the opportunity to both figuratively and literally shine. As Diana leads the charge on a battlefield, resplendent in her powerful femininity, she cuts through the male brutality in magnificent, surging style; her rousing, rocky theme (composed by Hans Zimmer with Junkie XL for Batman v Superman) giving the fight scenes extra punch and personality. Moreover, she is shown as a woman of ferocious principle – an interpretation that feels true to creator William Moulton Marston’s noble, feminist vision. With the electrifying action complemented by a stirring story, the emphasis on the value of every human life is refreshing in a genre known for its mass, faceless, casualties. Although Jenkins doesn’t avoid the traditional effects-swamped finale, she manages to work emotional impact into the climax. Most importantly, she delivers a heroine who lives up to the majesty of her moniker and stands apart from her superhero brethren, not just in her gender but in her well-communicated ideals. Wonder Woman reminds us that, at their finest and most enduring, such films inspire us to be all that we can be. Wonder Woman is released in cinemas on Thursday 1 June