What films are out in UK cinemas this week? Reviews from Lollipop to Tornado

Leading the cast are newcomers Posy Sterling and Idil Ahmed as college best friends Molly and Amina, who come into each other's lives just at the right time.

Elsewhere, Kōki, Slow Horses star Jack Lowden and Tim Roth take centre stage in Tornado, a samurai Western which unfolds in the 1790s Scottish countryside.

You can read our verdicts on both films below, but they join an already jam-packed cinema roster that boasts the likes of Sean Byrne's shark-heavy survival tale Dangerous Animals, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Sinners.

Read on for your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas.

What films are released in UK cinemas this week? 14th - 20th June

Lollipop

Heartbreaking in the extreme and extraordinarily well acted, Lollipop sees debut feature director Daisy-May Hudson drawing from her personal experience of homelessness and hostel-living.

The film follows Molly (Posy Sterling) as she's released from prison following a short stretch only to find herself sleeping rough. As she succumbs to the frustrations associated with her predicament, the prospect of getting her young children (Tegan-Mia Stanley-Rhoads and Luke Howitt) back from foster care grows slimmer by the second.

Sterling gives a raw, raging turn as a flawed yet desperately devoted mother. TerriAnn Cousins plays Molly's heavy drinking mum, and Idil Ahmed is an old college friend who offers Molly a shoulder to cry on, while struggling with her own housing situation. The film boasts a Loachian sense of injustice as it illustrates Molly's plight and the bureaucratic nightmare she becomes caught up in. It's an essential example of British cinema banging a drum for those whose voices go unheard. – Emma Simmonds

Tornado

Scottish film-maker John Maclean's debut feature, 2015's Slow West, was an explosively violent revisionist western, and his sophomore outing - a coming-of-age parable set over a single eventful day - boasts a similar tempo and tone.

Set in the British Isles in the 1790s, the film follows impetuous 16-year-old Tornado (Kōki) and her samurai father Fujin (Takehiro Hira), who are nomads scraping a living performing a puppet show from a wagon that is their home and stage.

When Tornado capitalises on an opportunity to secure their future, she sets in motion a devastating chain of events that sees her hunted by a gang of bandits led by the merciless Sugarman (Tim Roth). A Western that draws inspiration from Japanese samurai cinema, Tornado depicts a world of outsiders living on the fringes of civilisation. It's light on dialogue, and the circuitous plot takes too many unsatisfying turns that can make for a frustrating watch.

However, it's a pleasure to have Maclean behind the camera again, and this unusual and grisly tale represents a brand of cinema we could do with seeing more of. – Sean McGeady

Best of the rest still showing in UK cinemas

Ballerina

From the world of John Wick comes a fittingly turbo-charged action spin-off, led by Ana de Armas as elite assassin Eve Macarro. It's a simple plot: Eve is out for revenge against the cult leader (Gabriel Byrne) whose followers murdered her father. But this is all director Len Wiseman needs to put his charismatic star through her paces with one expert set piece after another.

From an astonishing car crash and an explosive grenade face-off, to martial arts showdowns in both an Alpine café and an ice disco, Wiseman maintains an exhilarating propulsion throughout. The stunt choreography is just as masterful as in previous Wick films, as is the moody, neon-drenched visual style.

De Armas, who previously impressed as a CIA agent in James Bond flick No Time to Die, shines here with a cool integrity, imbuing her character with sensitivity and credibility, without ever stinting on the high intensity. A rogue’s gallery of eccentric bit players – Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston and Lance Reddick, in his final role – gives this imaginative spectacle a camp finesse, and a couple of deadpan cameos from Wick himself, Keanu Reeves, is just the icing on the cake. – Alan Jones

Dangerous Animals

Splicing Jaws with Saw, director Sean Byrne’s warped thriller is a derivative but forcefully executed mash-up of creature feature and serial-killer movie. Jai Courtney plays Tucker, a bluff Australian sailor who takes young tourists on his boat to see sharks, then serves them to the beasts and films the encounter for kicks.

However, when he kidnaps nomadic surfer Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), he’s got a fight on his hands. Byrne (The Loved Ones) commits fully to this twisted set-up, cranking up the sound mix, suspense and jump shocks – a darkly comic Boo! included – with brusque efficiency.

A romantic subplot for Zephyr adds emotional interest, though some of the torture porn-ish sadism meted out elsewhere on screen can feel queasy and shopworn. The action gets repetitive, too, but Byrne paces the twists briskly and elicits strong work from his leads. Even as peril fatigue threatens to kick in, strong turns from Harrison and a bullish Courtney keep us hooked right up to the final, gleefully gory feeding frenzy. – Kevin Harley

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Longtime writing partners Tim Key and Tom Basden lead this twee odd-couple comedy, which over the course of its runtime deepens into an affecting story of pain and acceptance.

Eccentric millionaire Charles (Key) hopes to reunite his favourite musicians, folk duo and former lovers Herb McGwyer (Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), at a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Bringing them back together, though, awakens feelings that cause Herb to question his direction in life, while there’s more to Charles’s scheme than his passion for the McGwyer Mortimer back catalogue suggests.

The film is based on a Key and Basden short from 2007, whose director James Griffiths returns to the helm here. How funny you find it will depend on whether you click with Key’s fussy delivery and the script’s rat-a-tat-tat wordplay, but its slow-burning warmth pays off in a lovely, bittersweet resolution. – Sean McGeady

The Salt Path

Buoyed by heartfelt performances from Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson, this is a Ken Loach-lite look at emotional reconnection in times of abject despair. Based on Raynor Winn's bestselling 2018 memoir, it finds Ray (Anderson) and her husband, Moth (Isaacs), becoming homeless when their bed-and-breakfast business goes bust due to bad investment.

With Moth also facing a terminal-illness diagnosis, Ray impulsively decides the couple should walk the 630-mile coastal path from Somerset to Lands End. With only a tent to their name, they deal with starvation, the kindness of strangers and mistaken identity in their effort to stay healthy and grounded on the journey to growing strength and determination.

Predictable to a fault and rather draggy as extraneous characters come and go with little effect, the creeping dullness is offset by the glorious landscapes and the hard-won, uplifting finale that highlights courage, resilience and discovering the true meaning of life. – Alan Jones

• Read our interview with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

The closing chapter of the long-running saga follows on directly from Dead Reckoning, with Christopher McQuarrie back in the director's chair for a fourth straight outing. This time around, the AI weapon known as the Entity has gained even greater prominence by accessing the nuclear arsenals of every major power in the world, and is threatening instant Armageddon.

This raising of the stakes gives the film an impressive doomsday tone that sets it apart from the more playful mood of its immediate predecessors; this mission really does feel like the most vital – and, of course, impossible – for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and co. However, the movie is also plagued with major structural and pacing issues. The convoluted opening section devotes too much time to longwinded exposition scenes, while attempts to tie up various loose ends are clumsy. The film has also lumbered itself with too many characters, leaving some underused or superfluous.

Yet there is no denying the bonkers brilliance of the film when it comes to action. A nail-biting underwater sequence is the first masterstroke, but the franchise has saved arguably its best set piece for last in the form of an exhilarating sequence that sees Cruise desperately dangling off the wing of a plane. – Patrick Cremona

• Read our full Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review
• Read our interview with Hayley Atwell
• Read our interview with Simon Pegg

Lilo & Stitch

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), this remake of the much-loved 2002 Disney animation is a near-seamless mash-up of live-action and state-of-the-art computer animation. Adorable newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo, a wilful and friendless Hawaiian orphan being raised on the island by her older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong).

The siblings’ already precarious situation is jeopardised when Lilo brings home extraterrestrial escapee Stitch from a rescue centre. Originally known as Experiment 626, Stitch is on the run from the Galactic Council, presided over by Hannah Waddingham’s Grand Councilwoman. In pursuit are his creator Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis) and the Galactic Federation’s Earth expert, Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen).

The film has been made with great care and love for Hawaiian culture, with the story fleshed out nicely. Kealoha is a perfect match for her cartoon counterpart, with Agudong excellent as her struggling sibling, while Magnussen excels in the slapstick comedy stakes. Lilo & Stitch hammers home the ‘family matters’ message, but overall this is expertly executed, cross-generational fun that combines the look of a lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm. – Emma Simmonds

• Read our full Lilo & Stitch review
• Read our interview with director Dean Fleischer Camp

The Phoenician Scheme

A father reconnects with his daughter in this typically quirky offering from writer/director Wes Anderson (Asteroid City). On the surface, it’s a mid-20th-century tale of industrial espionage, as Benicio Del Toro’s tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda is set upon by government officials looking to undermine him. But after he decides to leave his estate to his only daughter, noviciate nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton), Zsa-zsa is forced to confront family members and others as he tries to get a long-standing business scheme under way.

Bursting with talent (Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson and many more feature), The Phoenician Scheme is a classic Anderson confection. It once again features immaculate production design from Adam Stockhausen and a droll script, co-written with Roman Coppola.

Del Toro is a muscular presence, too, while Threapleton is a force of nature. Anderson devotees should get a kick out of it, even if those not convinced by his delicate aesthetics and storybook style will likely be left cold. – James Mottram

• Read our full The Phoenician Scheme review

Final Destination Bloodlines

Releasing fourteen years after the previous Final Destination film, this tension-filled reboot sees Death spreading his wings further than just a few frantic survivors of a crash or bridge collapse. After a dazzling opening premonition set in 1968, the film cuts to the present, following student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlin Santa Juana) as she is plagued with visions of that incident.

Soon, her whole family is drawn into a new game of (avoiding) death, which is brought home gruesomely at a family barbecue. Also eye-catching is the swansong of the late Tony Todd whose creepy, enigmatic William Bludworth appeared in four of the previous Final Destinations, and pops up to impart some much-needed advice on how to dodge Death’s clutches.

Co-directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky proved their genre mettle with 2018 sci-fi thriller Freaks, and here produce plenty of gallows humour to accompany the torturous torment and blood-letting thanks to classic tunes like Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, Without You and Spirit in the Sky. The result is a slick, ghoulishly entertaining reboot. – Jeremy Aspinall

• Read our full Final Destinations Bloodlines review
• Read our interview with directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky
• Read our celebration of Final Destination as the franchise turns 25

Thunderbolts*

After the lukewarm response to February’s Captain America: Brave New World, this is a welcome return to the amusingly fractious action antics that made the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy movies so entertaining.

It sees spy Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), disgraced Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell), intangible assassin Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena’s surrogate father the Red Guardian (David Harbour) and the brooding, bionic-armed Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) form an unlikely alliance that also includes a mysterious character named Bob (Lewis Pullman) – who turns out to have a darker side and becomes an unexpected adversary.

There are some cracking action scenes but also a mournful, almost meditative air to proceedings as the group grapple with their grief and regret, with director Jake Schreier opting for a muted look to reflect the ambivalence and trauma of his characters. Pugh’s cool star quality is undeniable but the top-notch cast has a chance to shine, too, delivering genuine chemistry and emotion as a sepulchral darkness falls over New York. – Jeremy Aspinall

• Read our full Thunderbolts* review
• Read our interview with director Jake Schreier
• Read our interview with star Lewis Pullman

Sinners

Director Ryan Coogler’s fifth feature is a messy, muscular mash-up of historical drama and trigger-happy horror. It follows bootlegging brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B Jordan), who return home to Mississippi after years working for Al Capone.

With plans to set up the Delta’s greatest juke joint, they recruit their young cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a promising bluesman whose preacher father warns against playing the devil’s music. But Sammie can’t resist, and it’s his artistry that becomes the catalyst for the horrors that follow. Soon, silver-tongued vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell) wants an invitation to the party, too.

Coming after Coogler's stint directing two Black Panther films for Marvel, Sinners asks prickly questions about creativity and the price of assimilation. What parts of your culture might you be willing to give up in the name of fellowship and love? And what good is harmony if you can’t play your own music? The film’s grandstanding centrepiece truncates a centuries-long timeline of cultural expression into one literally barn-burning anachronistic musical number. It’s the most ambitious moment in a movie loaded with them. – Sean McGeady

• Read our full Sinners review
• Read our interview with stars Hailee Steinfeld and Wunmi Mosaku

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