Home//Total Film/March 2023/In This Issue
Total Film|March 2023HOT RIGHT NOWI like stories where you can see the fight in someone,’ said Phoebe Waller-Bridge in a Guardian Q&A. She wasn't being literal, obviously; Fleabag, which she wrote, exec-produced and starred in, was more about internal conflicts than dust-ups. But the London-born multi-hyphenate is proving adept at the action-thriller scrum, as her latest rumoured gig implies.As part of her renewed deal with Prime Video, says The Hollywood Reporter, Waller-Bridge is thought to be writing a Tomb Raider series. And if the idea sounds far removed from Waller-Bridge's previous work, it also reminds us that wrong-footing expectation is something she does exceptionally well.That much was obvious from TV's Fleabag, which sprung from its Edinburgh stage origins as a closeto-the-bone comedy of sex, dysfunction and metacommentary before becoming more searching. Likewise, her writing…2 min
Total Film|March 2023YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH… HAYDEN PANETTIEREAte you talkin’ to me?[Puts on thick De Niro accent] Are you talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Nah, I'm talkin’ to Joe Schmoe behind ya… That's how we do it in New York.You've got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?I feel lucky every fucking day. I feel blessed. Knock on wood, but luck has very much been on my side. It definitely used to be easy to take this job for granted, but after I went four years without it, I'm just so grateful now every day.Do you have an off switch?Some people probably wish I did. People always say, ‘Oh, you're so nice… when you're sleeping!’ When I do need to switch off after…4 min
Total Film|March 2023HEAVEN CENTOn 4 April 1923 brothers Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack Warner founded Warner Bros. A major player from its earliest years when it pioneered the use of synchronised sound and later released the first talkie, WB has put out over 12,500 feature films in a century of operation, has won numerous Academy Awards for its pictures, and remains one of the Big Five studios to this day. Though the centenary is still a month away, here's what's happening across the year to mark the milestone occasion.CLASSIC CINEMA RERELEASESSeveral of Warner Bros’ biggest hits are returning to their natural environment – the cinema – in newly remastered fashion, including Superman: The Movie on 7 April, The Exorcist (which also celebrates its 50th anniversary this year) on 29 September, and Elf, which…2 min
Total Film|March 2023LAST RESORTBrandon Cronenberg started work on the screenplay for Infinity Pool the best part of a decade ago, but the idea has been haunting the fringes of his mind for much longer. The Antiviral and Possessor filmmaker had the embryonic concept that would form the backbone of the film, but he ended up pinning it to a much earlier memory.‘It was a bit of a mash-up of ideas,’ he tells Teasers ahead of the film's Sundance premiere. ‘I started by writing a short story that I have never finished.’ That short story (which nearly became a comic, in one iteration) would eventually form the basis of a crucial scene at the end of the first act of the movie.‘And then as I was trying to expand it into a film, I…4 min
Total Film|March 2023SHORT CUTSWELL ‘VERSEDNew DCU bigwigs James Gunn and Peter Safran have unveiled phase one of their 10-year plan for DC. The 10 projects announced include Superman: Legacy (written by Gunn), Bat-movie The Brave and the Bold, Swamp Thing and more.SUMMER REUNIONThe era of legacy horror sequels continues, with news that post-Scream teen slasher ‘classic’ I Know What You Did Last Summer is getting a sequel, with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. set to return. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is on board to direct.NO SWEATNetflix are staying in the Windsor family business with a movie about disgraced royal Prince Andrew and his infamous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis. Gillian Anderson is to star as Maitlis, while Rufus Sewell will play the prince.GIMME MOREOn that most romantic of occasions – an earnings…1 min
Total Film|March 2023KINGDOM COMEDespite decades of innovation and accolades on consoles, Super Mario has long been held up as the poster child of disastrous video game adaptations. The Goomba-stomping plumber and his pals are finally getting their due in Illumination's animated adaptation from Teen Titans Go! directors Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. ‘We wanted to make this movie a very authentic Nintendo Super Mario experience,’ says Horvath. ‘From story to visual development to the animation, Nintendo has been with us every step of the way.’1. PLUMBING GREATER DEPTHSFor all their mechanical creativity, the Super Mario games keep storytelling and characterisation to a minimum — a luxury Jelenic and Horvath didn't have with the movie. ‘It's a bit of an origin tale,’ Horvath explains. ‘It's the story of Mario becoming Super Mario.’ At the…3 min
Total Film|March 2023SNAP JUDGEMENTWith its blazing sun, bustling souks and colourful caravans of camels, Marrakech feels an odd place to discuss a film set amid the glacial remoteness of Iceland with director Hlynur Palmason. As a former colony of France and Spain, however, Morocco shares common ground with Palmason's Godland, pivoting as it does around the relationship between Denmark and Iceland when the former ruled the latter.Born in Iceland, Pálmason studied at Denmark's National Film School and made his first feature there (2017's Winter Brothers) before returning to his homeland to film 2019's A White, White Day. His third feature, he tells Teasers, arose from a desire to analyse what he calls ‘the in-between area’ cleaving the two European nations. ‘I wanted to show their opposites and how they misunderstand and miscommunicate,’ he…2 min
Total Film|March 2023INSTRUMENTALFIGUREHe just felt like a fucking superhero. And it was pretty incredible to me that not everyone knew or cared to know about him.’ A key producer and writer on Atlanta and What We Do in the Shadows, Stefani Robinson first learned of virtuoso violinist and composer Joseph Bologne when she was 15, reading a small but vividly described blurb in a book passed on by her mother. ‘I was in the orchestra growing up,’ she tells Total Film, ‘and so much of what we were doing while learning to play was learning the history of who these great contributors of classical music were. And he was just never part of the conversation. Everyone I spoke to about him had no idea this person existed.’Considering the rarity of a prominent…11 min
Total Film|March 2023FIVE STAR TURNSKINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE 2014Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin was Egerton's breakout role, leading Matthew Vaughn's Bondsubverting spy saga over two films (so far). ‘Eggsy [is] a type of superhero… The film just tips into the superhuman,’ the actor said.EDDIE THE EAGLE 2015Egerton played a fictionalised version of the buffoonish ski-jumper in a surprise feel-good hit. ‘He's a very gentle, soft-spoken, kind, warm chap, but with this incredible determination,’ Egerton said of his real-life counterpart.ROCKETMAN 2019Nabbing a Golden Globe, Egerton landed the role of a lifetime as Elton John — who'd cameoed alongside him in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. ‘The musical side of it was very appealing — I've always loved to sing.’THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE (2019, TV)Egerton has lent his voice to the Sing movies, Watership Down, the underrated…1 min
Total Film|March 2023PEARL 15OUT 17 MARCH CINEMASTi West's shot-in-secret prequel to last year's X is a whip-smart origin story, one that offers more Goth – and more gore. Co-written by West and star Mia Goth, the film rewinds to 1918, where we meet Pearl (the elderly farm owner played by Goth in X) as a young woman, living with her strict mother (Tandi Wright) and wheelchair-using father (Matthew Sunderland) on an isolated farmstead.With Pearl's young husband Howard away fighting in World War One, she dreams of being a dancer and fleeing the farm. She even meets a handsome cinema projectionist (David Corenswet) in town who encourages her – but family obligations, such as cleaning up after her father, bring her crashing back down to reality. Pearl's fury towards her folks builds until her…2 min
Total Film|March 2023THE BEASTS 15OUT 24 MARCH CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMAMiddle-aged French couple Olga (Marina Foïs) and Antoine (Denis Menochet) relocate to the Galician countryside, where they sell their homegrown organic produce to the locals. But any hopes of a quiet life end when they incur the hostility of neighbouring farmer Xan (Luis Zahera), triggering a deadly feud. Drawing both on real-life events and the themes and iconography of the western genre, Spanish co-writer/director Rodrigo Sorogoyen crafts a tense, impressively acted rural thriller. Characterisation is intriguingly ambiguous across a narrative that makes headway into bold, unexpected territory.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023BREAKING 15OUT 27 MARCH DIGITALGulf War veteran Brian BrownEasley (John Boyega) is getting nowhere with the veterans’ administration, battling red tape in a bid to obtain much-needed funds. His desperation leads him to hold up a bank, taking two hostages in the process. As a negotiator (Michael Kenneth Williams) and the press (Connie Britton) roll in, the script (by Kwame Kwei-Armah and director Abi Damaris Corbin) brings Brian's life and the ways he's been failed into focus. Boyega is hugely sympathetic as a man bent by pressure and institutionalised racism in a film that is as quietly furious and contained as its protagonist.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE WIFE AND HER HOUSE HUSBAND 15OUT 10 MARCH CINEMASJust as a married couple (Laura Bayston and Laurence Spellman) are preparing to call it quits, a mysterious letter from their past appears, carrying a checklist of proposed activities. Deciding to do the first thing on the list as an amicable goodbye, the duo begin to experience feelings of both catharsis and renewed attraction. Writer/director Marcus Markou's microbudget two-hander gets mileage from committed performances (particularly Bayston's) and a palpable sense of earnestness. Less successful is the drab visual palette and tendency towards ‘tell, don't show’ dialogue.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023SHARPER 15OUT NOW APPLE TV+From Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda to Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, it's hard not to root for a great con artist. Even when their goals aren't 100% admirable, it's still incredibly satisfying to watch a great grifter grift.The joy of the con seems fully understood by Sharper director Benjamin Caron. Best known for prestige television series (Sherlock, The Crown, Andor), he here delivers an Apple original film stuffed with brilliant double-crosses, skilful deceit and (enjoyably) ridiculous reversals.The ace ensemble mixes big stars (Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, John Lithgow) with talented up-and-comers (Justice Smith, Briana Middleton). All prove adept at essaying mercurial motives and complex psyches as their characters plot their way to the top of Manhattan's elite. The action swerves…1 min
Total Film|March 2023PROJECT WOLF HUNTING 18OUT NOW ICON FILM CHANNEL 10 MARCH CINEMASSeizing control of a freighter bound for their Korean homeland, a group of prisoners soon discover they're not the deadliest cargo on board. Like a cross between a waterbound Con Air and the video game Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Kim Hong-seon's (The Chase) frenetic action horror has a level of bloodletting that makes Terrifier 2 look restrained: an expository flashback is merely an excuse to boost the body count. Rejecting notions of plot armour, Kim's gleefully ruthless approach ensures his film sustains its thrilling, anything-goes energy to the bitter end.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023BANDIT 15OUT NOW PRIME VIDEOJosh Duhamel (Shotgun Wedding, Transformers) delivers a careerbest performance as naive but super-charming bank robber Gilbert Galvan Jr. in this comedycaper take on a true story. Sporting a prosthetic nose and a winning smile, Galvan – under the stolen identity of Robert Whiteman – becomes a professional criminal with a dangerous partner (Mel Gibson) and a double life as he tries to provide for his girlfriend (Elisha Cuthbert). Evoking the likes of Catch Me If You Can, the stranger-than-fiction angle is compelling, but it's Duhamel who keeps things consistently entertaining.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN 15OUT 17 MARCH CINEMASHarking back to Shoot the Moon, Kramer vs. Kramer and other grown-up relationship dramas from the early 1980s, Rebecca Zlotowski's (2016's Planetarium) fifth feature addresses an underexplored dilemma – that of the divorced father's new girlfriend – with insight, grace and sensitivity.The setting might be Paris but the subject feels universal: a woman's ticking biological clock, which poses a familiar quandary regardless of location. Leading a fulfilling life as a teacher, 40-something Rachel (Benedetto’s Virginie Efira) has thus far given little thought to becoming a parent. However, when a romance blooms with engineer All (Roschdy Zem), it comes with a daughter to whom she soon becomes attached.Rachel's busy beau is only too happy to have her take on the school run and other stepmotherly responsibilities. But with…1 min
Total Film|March 2023MY SAILOR, MY LOVE 12AOUT 10 MARCH CINEMASPlaying Howard, a former sea captain finding love in later life with caretaker Annie (Brid Brennan), James Cosmo takes centre stage in this poignant Irish drama. But the film – directed by Klaus Härö (2015's Golden Globe nominee The Fencer) – is stolen by Catherine Walker as his daughter Grace, who struggles with being displaced by Dad's new romance at a time when her own marriage is facing a crisis. Walker's nuanced performance anchors a film that embraces the complexities of the relationships involved, exploring how considerate actions can sometimes be driven by selfish motives.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023PUNK ROCK VEGAN MOVIE TBCOUT NOW DIGITALAvailable for free on all good streaming channels, this activist nosh-doc from electro musician Moby avidly teases out the links between punk, hardcore and veganism. In Moby's eyes, the connection is a desire to challenge received wisdoms, loudly. While the results lapse into whimsy Moby chats to his cute dog and repetition, the contributors’ passions ring out. The vox pops might have dug deeper into the pro-vegan argument, but rockers including Steve Ignorant, Dave Navarro and Tanya O'Callaghan fuel Moby's unabashedly plantbased polemic with anecdotal detail and fervour.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM 15OUT 10 MARCH CINEMAS27 MARCH DIGITALHalf scrappily watchable, half just sketchy, this designer-distressed riff on Lizzy Goodman's book is a fitful but forced take on New York's early-2000s music scene. Despite conspicuous absentees, The Strokes, Karen O and others are duly honoured. Amid heady whirls of archive live and interview footage, directors Dylan Southern/ Will Lovelace's angle of youthful abandon turning to druggy implosion only partly works: half these bands are still working, after all. More convincing as a nostalgia rush than a narrative, this bathroom trip doesn't entirely wash.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023KNOCK AT THE CABIN 15SCREENOUT NOW CINEMASVacationing in a woodland holiday home, Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) receive an unexpected – and unwelcome – visit. Four strangers arrive at their door brandishing weapons – or ‘tools’, as the quartet's de facto spokesperson, schoolteacher Leonard (Dave Bautista), calls them.He's flanked by menacing gas engineer Redmond (Rupert Grint), mother-of-one Adriane (Abby Quinn) and nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird). Horrifying visions have brought these four together, telling them to present Wen's family with a deadly task, one that will save humanity. But at tremendous personal cost…Co-writer/director/producer M. Night Shyamalan built his reputation on game-changing twists, but the strength of Knock… is its juicy premise, adapted from Paul Tremblay's novel The Cabin at the End of the World. This is the most…1 min
Total Film|March 2023HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL TBCOUT 28 MARCH CINEMASIn cinemas for one night only, this is an intimately shot recording of the hit Off-Broadway/ West End musical, directed by show veteran Andy Fickman. The stage adaptation of the 1989 cult classic updates its story of murderous misfits to include crowd-pleasing dance routines and catchy numbers. Signature song Candy Store is the obvious standout, but the show's sungthrough nature keeps things moving along at a healthy pace. A glossily entertaining reworking, albeit one that lacks the acerbic wit and edge of the film that inspired it.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023FULL TIME TBCOUT 17 MARCH CINEMASThrumming along like a thriller, writer/director Éric Gravel's tight and tender account of a frantic, make-or-break week for harassed single mother Julie hits the ground running, as she's sideswiped by a paralysing week-long Paris transit strike.Determined to get to the white-collar job interviews that promise her kids a better life, Laure Calamy's dogged, quick-thinking Julie is prepared to beg, wheedle or barefaced lie to get out of her chambermaid shifts at a posh hotel and across a gridlocked Paris. Gravel's darting handheld camera and a pulsing, insistent score establish an Uncut Gems-worthy pace and panic, plunging us into jostling crowds, nightmare traffic jams and relentless job demands.But don't expect any Ken Loach-style railing about workers’ rights – even as Paris grinds to a halt, the film doesn't…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE INDEPENDENT TBCOUT NOW SKY CINEMA, NOWIndependent candidate Nate Sterling (John Cena) threatens to upset the classic two-party bun fight in an upcoming US election, especially when cub reporter Elisha (Jodie Turner-Smith) discovers one of his opponents may have committed fraud. Hitting most newsroom tropes with gleeful abandon, this is a lively if superficial drama. The story's political aspect is left mostly on the backburner; what we do get is tame and toothless. A shame, because the fine cast (which includes Ann Dowd, Stephen Lang and Brian Cox) deserve something meatier.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023CUTTER'S WAY 151981OUT NOW BDEXTRASCommentaries, Intros, Featurettes, Isolated music track, BookletCzech New Wave director Ivan Passer's US thriller divided critics on original release, but its cult has grown in the years since. The sunny Santa Barbara setting strikes a stark contrast with its cynical characters, led by local ladies’ man Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) who, along with best friend and Vietman vet Alex Cutter (John Heard), gets involved in a small-town murder/blackmail plot. If it all seems a little Magnum P.I. to begin with, the thorny relationships and Heard's volcanic performance gradually bring things to the boil.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023NEVER SLEEP AGAIN: THE ELM STREET LEGACY 182010OUT NOW BDEXTRASCommentary, Extended interviews, FeaturettesOriginally released to coincide with the much-hated 2010 remake, this excellent documentary re-emerges on Blu-ray, exploring over four hours the history of slasher icon Freddy Krueger. Most of the main players (including the late Wes Craven) share recollections, with 1984 final girl Heather Langenkamp also narrating. Freddy's recent lack of activity means that this retrospective still feels mostly complete, although its proximity to the remake robs viewers of much insight as to what went wrong there.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN 121988OUT NOW BDEXTRASCommentary, Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Short, South Bank Show episode, Storyboards, EssayIf Terry Gilliam's lavish take on the fictional Baron's outlandish tales of derring-do doesn't measure up to Karel Zeman's The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962), there's still much to admire unless you were involved in making it, apparently, in light of Sarah Polley's recent revelations about her traumatic experience. This new 4K restoration from Criterion renders Gilliam's wildly imaginative ride more spectacular than ever.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023CALL SHEET THIS ISSUE'S EXTRASCONTRIBUTING EDITORPAUL BRADSHAW@P_BRADSHAWNicholas Hoult geeked out about his own feature when we chatted: ‘Are we… maybe… getting on the cover?! I've never been on the front of Total Film before!’DEPUTY EDITORMATT MAYTUM@MATTMAYTUMI loved the brightly hued painting behind Mia Goth during our Zoom call.‘It's by a British artist called Alan Fears,’ she said.‘I feel inspired – like, “I could paint something like that.”’NEWS EDITORJORDAN FARLEY@JORDAN FARLEYSpoke to Louis Leterrier, director of FastX, for this issue and he described Jason Momoa as a ‘6ft toddler’. May be the most accurate description of him I've heard to date.CONTRIBUTING EDITORLEILA LATIF@LEILA_LATIFAt the Critics’ Circle awards I loved it when Charlotte Wells had Paul Mescal read out her speech and describe himself as ‘Academy Award nominee Paul Mescal’.REVIEWS EDITORMATTHEW LEYLAND@TOTALFILMLike the movie itself, the…1 min
Total Film|March 2023SUMMER LOVIN’Prepare for lashings of nostalgia in the quiff-heavy prequel series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. Set four years before the events of the much-loved musical movie, the show's story follows four teenage misfits at Rydell High who join forces to form the original 50s girl gang, the Pink Ladies.It's been 45 years since John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John shimmied their way on to the big screen in Grease, but the television prequel is packed with nifty nods to its electrifying movie predecessor. There's high-school angst, summer lovin’ and T-Birds, as well as 30 original songs and cleverly choreographed musical numbers.Despite being a big fan of the 1978 movie (and the 1971 stage musical that came before it), the series’ showrunner, executive producer, writer and director Annabel Oakes was initially…2 min
Total Film|March 2023GONE GUYWith more than two million book sales in the US alone, it feels like a no-brainer to see Laura Dave's bestselling novel The Last Thing He Told Me arrive as a slick television adaptation on Apple TV+ this month. The plot of the seven-part limited series is full of clever twists and turns as Hannah (played by Jennifer Garner) tries to forge a relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter (Angourie Rice) in order to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of her husband (Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).It's a classic TV mystery, with the book serving as a well-used resource for the actors – especially Garner. ‘Every morning, I'd come in and Jen would be reading,’ recalls Josh Singer, one of the show's executive producers and co-creators, who also happens to…2 min
Total Film|March 2023LOVE HURTSWith eight feature films across the last 16 years (including 2021's Bergman Island, which bagged a Palme d'Or nomination), French writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve has developed a reputation as a master of intimate, humanist epics. They depict people yo-yoing between various emotional states and situations, swept along by the currents of time while they try to make sense of themselves and their world.Her films are frequently rooted in autobiography, drawing from her own life or those close to her; Goodbye First Love (2011) was inspired by a formative romance, while sprawling electronic music saga Eden (2014) was based on her brother's experiences and career. Her latest movie, One Fine Morning, is explicitly influenced by a parent's illness a few years ago.‘I like that it refers to time, as all my films…2 min
Total Film|March 2023NEXT BIG THINGSoon to return as Sun Summoner Alina Starkov in the second season of hit Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone, British-Asian actor Jessie Mei Li worked in a school before Edgar Wright cast them in Last Night in Soho, and will soon star alongside Tom Hardy in Gareth Evans’ Havoc. ‘I've got quite a strong inner force. When I want to do something, I'm not afraid to do it.’What changed going into Season 2 of Shadow and Bone?Alina's not necessarily having a very good time this season, which is hilarious because I'm quite jovial! I was definitely more savvy the second time around. I'm a human being with ADHD. I struggle to keep myself together, and I've gotten better at putting boundaries in place.Did Shadow and Bone open a lot…2 min
Total Film|March 2023CAN WE TALK ABOUT?@LEILA_LATIFDeciding what is Oscarworthy is fundamentally subjective. So when it comes to the exclusion of Black women, it's important not to get caught up debating the merits of individual films or performances. Whatever your thoughts on The Woman King, Nope or Saint Omer, when you look at the big picture, it's clear that Till‘s snubbed director Chinonye Chukwu wasn't exaggerating her industry's ‘unabashed misogyny towards Black women’.To sum up their recognition across 95 years of the Oscars, one Black woman has won Best Actress (Halle Berry, 2002), no Black woman has ever been nominated for Best Director, and only one film directed by a Black woman has received a Best Picture nomination (Selma, 2015).‘FOR ANY BLACK WOMAN TO SECURE AN OSCAR REQUIRES OVERCOMING BIAS’Awards season is not exactly a meritocracy;…2 min
Total Film|March 2023BETWEEN TAKESWhat's the first thing you do when you arrive on set?First, I like to set up my trailer. I like to bring a rug, because my feet are always so cold! I like a cosy floor. Sometimes I get those string lights that you can attach Polaroids to, because I love to bring a little Instax Mini with me. I hang up some artwork from my favourite two-year-old artist. It's to kind of make it a home. And I bring all my seasoning, like my hot sauce. I have to have my hot sauce [laughs].Hot or cold lunch?My preference is a hot lunch, but it really depends on what's available. I don't really like to microwave things. But on set, you don't really have much of a choice. I need…3 min
Total Film|March 2023IT SHOULDN'THAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALISTTHIS MONTH… TALKING MOVIES IN THE STREETA couple of days ago I was walking my dog in the park and I got chatting to some bloke. He asked what I do for a living. I told him. And like everyone else I ever mention my job to, he immediately furnished me with his opinions on film. ‘I don't like these big, special-effects movies,’ he said with a grimace. ‘I like small, indie movies. Like Forrest Gump.’Leaving aside that Forrest Gump boasted one of the world's biggest movie stars in Tom Hanks and was directed by Robert Zemeckis of the Back to the Future trilogy, for Paramount Pictures, at the cost of $55m ($110m in today's money), it was an interesting thing to say. For starters, it shows just how invisible…3 min
Total Film|March 2023THE HEROTen years on from bursting on to screens in Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Adéle Exarchopoulos has made it count, working with the likes of Sean Penn (The Last Face) and Ralph Fiennes (The White Crow). Now in Léa Mysius’ supernatural tale The Five Devils, the 29-yearold is up for anything, including a juicy blockbuster. ‘It's not like I don't have a Hollywood dream,’ she smiles.What drew you to The Five Devils?First of all, I love Léa's work. I saw Ava and I love the fact that she's able to make intimate stories in a fantastic way. What I love about Joanne, she's really far from me. I love the fact that I had to play her at 17. And at 30 at the same time. At the beginning, she's…3 min
Total Film|March 2023THE SHADOW OF A VAMPIRERenfield might be Nicolas Cage's Dracula debut, but it's not his first brush with vampirism. Dabbling in blood lust for 1989's Vampire's Kiss, Cage spent years developing his F.W. Murnau biopic, Shadow of the Vampire, intending to play original Nosferatu star Max Schreck before handing the role to Willem Dafoe.‘For me, the one that really stayed in my head, because I saw it at such a young age, wasn't Dracula, it was Nosferatu,’ he says. ‘Count Orlok really terrified me. Everything about silent film, and particularly German expressionistic film, is already inherently abstract and not unlike a nightmare. But then you have this character with long fingers and nails and this creepy bald head and a rodentlike face, moving in very strange ways with this kind of rigid, uncomfortable shoulder…1 min
Total Film|March 2023CRITICAL ROLEQ&AMICHELLE RODRIGUEZ is Holga the BarbarianYour character is the brute force of the pack. Were you picking up an axe and swinging it around straightaway?I gained a good 15 pounds of muscle for it. It was a lot of eating and I'm not an eater. For five months, I was like, three fistfuls of protein a day. I was like, ‘Dude, I don't know if I can handle this for longer!’ I got some discipline in there with my trainer; it was fantastic.What was the vibe on set?There's nobody like Chris Pine. Meeting him was an extraordinary experience. He is such a dedicated actor. This guy really loves acting! You give the guy words and he just goes nuts. He loves words! He loves enunciating words. He loves pronouncing words…1 min
Total Film|March 2023DUEL OF THE GREATSChevalier‘s opening set-piece establishes Joseph's artistic status upfront and ends with one of the funniest cuts to a title card in recent memory. Aside from being an amusing nod to Amadeus (both film and play), the sequence happens to be based on an oft-told tale about legendary musicians living two centuries on from Joseph Bologne's time.STEPHEN WILLIAMSThe opening sequence of the movie involves an imagining of a contest between Mozart and our hero, Joseph Bologne. And the inspiration for it was from what I understand to be a real occurrence between Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, when Eric Clapton was part of Cream. Jimi Hendrix happened to be in the audience one night while Clapton was performing and asked if he could join him on stage. And Clapton, perhaps in…2 min
Total Film|March 2023CRED ||| 12AOUT 3 MARCH CINEMASAre there any films as contagious as boxing movies? If you've skipped out of the last two Creed movies bobbing, weaving and jabbing the air, Creed III will hit like a precision uppercut of sports-movie satisfaction.The original Sylvester Stallonefronted Rocky franchise ran for six movies over 30 years: all scripted by Stallone, with most sequels directed by him too. Rocky's almost entirely absent from Creed III (save for a couple of mentions), and here Michael B. Jordan follows in Sly's footsteps by taking the helm, making his directorial debut.While Jordan might be just beginning this phase of his career, Creed III finds Adonis Creed (Jordan) nearing the end of his time as a professional boxer. Having conquered the sporting world, undisputed heavyweight champ Adonis lives in a…4 min
Total Film|March 20231976 TBCOUT 24 MARCH CINEMASSet in mid-70s Chile, three years into General Pinochet's dictatorship, this absorbing debut feature from actor-turnedfilmmaker Manuela Martelli adopts the POV of Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim), an impeccably dressed middle-aged woman from a privileged background. Asked by a priest (Hugo Medina) to care for a wounded activist (Nicolás Sepúlveda), she becomes increasingly fearful for her own safety. With its ominous synthesiser score and expressive use of colour, this is a stylistically assured slow-burner – one that blends the personal and political to powerful effect.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE TBCOUT 24 MARCH CINEMASMagdalena (Mía Maestro) has returned from the dead: rising from a polluted river, she wields a motorcycle helmet like an otherworldly token. As she reunites with her family on their cattle farm, a deeply atmospheric work of ecological mythmaking takes root – one that entangles human with non-human, and violent pasts with hopeful futures. Its political resonance may at times be clouded by ambitiously oblique storytelling, but Francisca Alegrla's debut feature is steeped in imagination and poetry.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023SKINAMARINK TBCOUT NOW SHUDDERDirector Kyle Edward Ball started out on YouTube, making shorts based on commentators’ night terrors. He takes things to the next level with his menacing feature debut, whose viral impact has drawn Blair Witch comparisons. Employing the visual language of a nightmare, this experimental piece follows two children (Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault) who wake one night to discover their parents gone, along with all the windows and doors. The suburban American home becomes an inescapable labyrinth, throbbing with dread and overlaid with digital fuzz. The idea's overstretched, but the movie's power is undeniable.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023DEAD FOR A DOLLAR TBCOUT NOW DVD, BC, DIGITALWalter Hill, veteran director of The Warriors, The Driver and 48 Hrs., has famously said that all his films are westerns. There's certainly no disputing that statement with his latest, a gunslingin’ horse-opera tale of a bounty hunter hired to retrieve a missing spouse. Less quirky here than he was in Tarantino's Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz plays Max Borlund, who's taken on by a New Mexico landowner to find the supposedly abducted Rachel (Rachel Brosnahan).It doesn't take long for Borlund to realise that her kidnapper, an army deserter named Elijah Jones (Brandon Scott), is her lover. Soon, other interested parties arrive on the scene – not least Borlund's nemesis Joe Cribbens (Willem Dafoe, in his first Hill movie since 1984's Streets of Fire). As characters collide…1 min
Total Film|March 2023I'M FINE (THANKS FOR ASKING) 15OUT 3 MARCH CINEMAS, DIGITALDirectors Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina balance warmth and worry intuitively in this pandemic-era tale of a houseless single mum. Living in a tent with her daughter, a widowed hairdresser (Kali herself) roller-skates around town, rustling up cash for an apartment deposit. She's flawed but she's trying, and the characters she meets are equally multifaceted: down but not out. With the crew doubling as the cast, the directors channel Sean Baker's (Red Rocket) DIY influence into a freewheeling tale of tenacity in troubled times, mounted with empathy and honesty.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023PLAY DEAD 15OUT NOW ICON FILM CHANNEL 17 MARCH CINEMASVeteran horror filmmaker Patrick Lussier (Dracula 2000, My Bloody Valentine 3D) directs a cat-andmouse thriller that's as stiff and lifeless as its title suggests. Bailee Madison (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) stars as criminology student Chloe, who fakes her own death to recover incriminating evidence from a morgue, which happens to be run by a twisted coroner with his own secrets (Jerry Maguire’s Jerry O'Connell, not having nearly as much fun with the role as you'd want him to). Some of the carnage is enjoyably OTT, but attempts to muster tension and plausibility are DOA.A24, APPLE, BULLDOG, CONIC, ICON, METFILM, SHUDDER, SIGNATURE, TRINITY CINEASIA…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE KILLER TBCOUT 27 MARCH DVD, BD, DIGITALNot to be confused with the 1989 John Woo classic of the same name, this Korean actioner from Jae-Hoon Choi (The Swordsman) comes armed with a scarcely credible story. Semi-retired hitman Ui-gang (Jang Hyuk) babysits the 17-year-old stepdaughter (Lee Seo-young) of his wife's friend. When the girl disappears, Ui-gang goes on the rampage, John Wick-style, to find her. The fight scenes are electrifying, particularly a bone-shattering one-on-one scrap staged in a stylish bar. But with such a humdrum plot, it's frankly hard to care who lives and who dies.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023COCAINE BEAR 15OUT NOW CINEMASThe bear, it fucking did cocaine!’ yelps one wide-eyed character in Elizabeth Banks’ does-what-it-says-on-the-tin thriller – based, sort of, on a true story. ‘Apex predator, high on cocaine, out of its mind,’ says another, mustering Oscar-worthy levels of gravitas given this is 2023's answer to Snakes on a Plane. But can any movie deliver on such dialogue – and that title?No, of course not. And despite its 95-minute running time, Banks’ wild adventure feels drawn out. Never sure if it wants to conjure real suspense and scares (it fails) or embrace riotous comedy in a full-on bear hug, Cocaine Bear also suffers from moments of cartoonish CGI. There isn't an alternative, of course – no one wants the filmmakers to use a real bear, especially one that's off…2 min
Total Film|March 2023ALLELUJAH 12AOUT 17 MARCH CINEMASDirector Richard Eyre struggles to find the much-needed laughs within this well-intentioned but rather clunky adap of Alan Bennett's righteously angry comedy-drama, about a Northern NHS geriatric hospital threatened with closure. It's nicely crammed with national treasures like Judi Dench, Derekjacobi and David Bradley, all on fine form (plus Jennifer Saunders as a sharptongued ward sister). But the screenplay by Call the Midwife‘s Heidi Thomas has endless Victoria Wood-style gags about biscuits and bed baths that keep it feeling like a TV movie, even when a late plot twist skews it from cosy to surprisingly creepy.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023RYE LANE TBCOUT 17 MARCH CINEMASJust when the romcom looked out of juice, along comes Raine Alien-Miller's debut feature: a winning meet-cute on the streets of south London that feels like a perkier Notting Hill, only this time with ethnic diversity.Richard Curtis’ oeuvre is clearly in the crosshairs here, with one starry cameo a virtual apology for what he got wrong. Yet Rye Lane is too good-natured to stay sore for long, its lively depiction of one of the city's most vibrant and multicultural quarters making this 82-minute amuse-bouche as satisfying as a banquet.A gallery toilet provides an unlikely starting point for this story of two urbanites on a day of discovery. Nothing links meek accountant Dom (Industry‘s David Jonsson) and free-spirited Yas (Vivian Oparah) beyond the fact they're rebounding from painful…1 min
Total Film|March 2023ADOPTING AUDREY TBCOUT 13 MARCH DIGITALJena Malone brings considerable spark and wit to a film that could otherwise have been a saccharine Hallmark-style drama, even if, according to a caption, ‘a surprising amount [of it] is true’. Malone stars as the aimless Audrey, who puts herself forward for adult adoption, only to contend with grumpy family patriarch Otto (Robert Hunger-Biihler). Will an unlikely bond ensue? The second film from writer/director Mike Cahill (following 2007's Michael Douglas-starrer King of California), this is a quirky yet touching charmer that delves into definitions of ‘family’ and sensitively exposes the fragility of adulthood.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023SUBJECT 15OUT 3 MARCH CINEMASCo-directed by Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall, this thoughtful and crisply assembled documentary examines what happens to the subjects of successful non-fiction films once they've been released. Interviewees here include Arthur Agee (Hoop Dreams), Mukunda Angulo (The Wolfpack), Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans) and Margaret Ratliff (The Staircase), who reveal how their lives have been shaped by featuring in these projects, in both liberating and traumatic ways. Exploring the responsibilities of filmmakers to those they document, Subject launches a vital and engrossing ethical debate.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023MARY CASSATT: PAINTING THE MODERN WOMAN UOUT 8 MARCH CINEMASOne of only three female members of the Impressionist movement, Cassatt is famous for her motherand-child paintings, adorning many a museum tote bag. This scholarly biography of the American-born artist works hard to reclaim her as a spiky feminist, whose sly but handsome portraits of tea-drinking, theatre-going, carriage-driving Parisian women show their inner strengths. Art lovers will enjoy the way the camera lingers on Cassatt's gorgeous Japanese-inspired later works – but may wonder if the curators are occasionally taking the piss(arro).…1 min
Total Film|March 2023DAUGHTER 15OUT NOW DIGITALA suitably grizzled Casper Van Dien headlines this understated horror film as the sinister yet charismatic leader of a twisted family unit. Deliberately vague in setting and time period, the film follows the titular ‘Daughter’ (Vivien Ngô) as she is kidnapped and forcibly inducted into the family as Dad's newest surrogate. Making his feature writing/ directing debut, Corey Deshon eschews grotesque exploitation in favour of a timely parable on indoctrination and patriarchal control. It boils down to a well-matched power struggle, one that's thick with tension and steeped in oppressive gloom.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023CHARCOAL TBCOUT 10 MARCH CINEMAS 20 MARCH DIGITALSet on a small homestead shared with a charcoal factory in rural Brazil, first-timer Carolina Markowicz's naturalistic drama offers an intriguing set-up: in return for their ailing grandpa's painless euthanasia, an impoverished family agree to host a wanted Argentine drug lord (César Bordón). Clearly, the situation is headed for trouble, but Markowicz is in no hurry to get there. The strong cast (including Jean de Almeida Costa as the unimpressed matriarch) play well together in some deftly observed exchanges, while DoP Pepe Mendes lets the tenderly shot countryside do its thing.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023MARRIED TO THE MOB 151988OUT NOW BDEXTRASCommentary, Featurettes, Gallery, BookletTwo years after wowing critics with offbeat romcom Something Wild, Jonathan Demme returned to the genre with this story of a gangster's widow (Michelle Pfeiffer) trying to leave her old life behind, while pursued by an FBI agent (Matthew Modine) and a Mob boss (Dean Stockwell). Demme balances comic hijinks and exploring society's dark underbelly, in the process giving viewers that rarest of things – a Mafia movie told from a woman's perspective. Featurettes showcase new chats with Modine and co-star Mercedes Ruehl.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES PG1985OUT NOW BD EXTRAS TBCBetween producer Steven Spielberg's imprint and Pixar's innovations, this Sherlock prequel was both of its time and ahead of itself. Long before today's many makeovers, the Barry Levinson-directed origin story is warming but thin, cleaving closer to Amblin than the source material's potential.Contributors include writer Chris Columbus, 16 years before his Harry Potters. The result resembles a Potter dry run, focused on a winningly played friendship trio at boarding school. Alan Cox is a Ron Weasley-ish John Watson, Nicholas Rowe a Hermione-esque Holmes. Sophie Ward's Elizabeth could have been a proto-Harry, had Columbus given her a personality. As the trio investigate a spate of hallucinogenic attacks, echoes of Spielberg's Indy and E.T. mount, welding the film to its era. But other retro-modern pleasures prove more distinct.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023MARTIN 181977OUT 27 MARCH BD, 4K UHDEXTRASCommentaries, Short, Documentary, Featurette, Book, CD, Art cardsGeorge A. Romero's best nonzombie movie drives a stake through vampire lore. Martin (John Amplas) is an awkward teen who imagines himself a seductive creature of the night but induces women to swoon via a hypodermic syringe, then bleeds them with a razor blade. Romero's strikingly shot, grubby classic gets the treatment you can always, ahem, count on from Second Sight: 4K restoration, four commentaries (two of them new), feature-length doc, a 108-page, essay-stuffed book and more.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK 181980OUT NOW 4K UHDEXTRASCommentaries, FeaturettesGiven a 4K makeover, this ‘8os video nasty sees Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato deliver his own inimitable take on the home-invasion thriller. David Hess and Giovanni Lombardo Radice star as two thugs who hold a party of smug well-offs hostage. It's typical exploitation fare torture, humiliation – though to its credit this meditation on class, wealth and revenge veers off from the expected path in the final act. The blonde baby-faced Christian Borromeo, as one of those held captive, is particularly effective.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023GIVING IT LARGE@JORDANFARLEYIt's like a mini-Avengers movie,” says returning director David F. Sandberg of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the sequel to his 2019 hit Shazam! ‘That's how I saw it because there are so many characters. You have all these heroes, you have the villains, you have the monsters… It's a lot of movie packed into its runtime. And it's complicated. Just shooting and staging up to 11 characters in a scene… Where do you put everyone? It's really hard!’Playing like Big-meets-Superman, the first Shazam! movie was, by superhero standards, an intimate, light-hearted affair, zapping the gloomy DCEU with a ray of joy. In it, 14-yearold foster kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is granted superpowers by an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou), and finds himself transformed into a ripped adult superhero (Zachary…5 min
Total Film|March 2023CHAOS THEORYFor a moment there it looked like Fast X was a car crash in the making when, just two days into production, veteran Fast filmmaker Justin Lin slammed on the brakes and abruptly exited the saga's penultimate instalment as director (he would, however, remain on the project as a producer). Airdropped in to replace Lin was Louis Leterrier, whose action chops (he helmed the first two Transporter films) and deep knowledge of the series won over actor/producer Vin Diesel, putting him in the unenviable position of having to direct one of the biggest films ever made with next to no time to prepare.‘I had to change everything. I had to make it work,’ says Leterrier, who is surprisingly upbeat given that a few moments later he admits, ‘I don't sleep!…2 min
Total Film|March 2023SOUND BYTES‘HIS PORTRAYAL OF IRON MAN IS SO FASCINATING AND HE REPRESENTS AVERY CLEAR WORLD VIEW AND ENERGY OF THE AVENGERS. AND I THINK KANG REPRESENTS A DIFFERENT ERA.’ JONATHAN MAJORS WANTS ROBERT DOWNEY JR. BACK FOR THE KANG DYNASTY.17 THE AGE OF FILMMAKER KANE PARSONS, WHO WILL DIRECT AN A24 ADAPTATION OF HIS VIRAL YOUTUBE SERIES THE BACKROOMS DURING HIS SUMMER HOLIDAY.‘JAWS WITH COCAINE, I DON'T SEE HOW THAT LOSES.’ ELIZABETH BANKS HASAN IDEA, ALSO RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES, FOR A COCAINE BEAR SEQUEL.‘When I saw Tobey Maguire my heart went out, and I thought, “There's my old hero. My old friend.’” SAM RAIMI‘S WHOLESOME REACTION TO WATCHING NO WAY HOME7 THE NUMBER OF WEEKS AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER SPENT AT THE TOP OF THE US AND UK BOX…1 min
Total Film|March 2023SUITS YOU, SIRI decided to make a film in France, with a French star in French language,’ explains Catalan director Albert Serra (The Death of Louis XIV, Liberté), talking up his new film Padfiction. But while he secured Benoît Magimel (The Piano Teacher) to play his lead, he was adamant that he didn't want to set his politically tinged story in Paris. ‘I got bored,’ he grins. And so he chose Tahiti, casting Magimel as De Roller, the Polynesian island's French Fligh Commissioner, who lopes around in a white summer suit, beach shirt and orange espadrilles.‘It's a subject that is really contemporary,’ says Serra of the story, which sees De Roller meeting-andgreeting with visitors and locals alike. ‘It's about all societies and all the problems we all sense and feel and who…2 min
Total Film|March 2023DARK WATERSNot all comic-book movies feature spandex and superpowers. Case in point: Falcon Lake, an adaptation of Bastien Vivès’ 2017 French graphic novel A Sister, which tells the story of a 13-year-old boy, Bastien (Joseph Engel), and his summer dalliance with 16-year-old family friend Chloe (Sara Montpetit). ‘I found it obvious that this very sensitive and subtle story had immense cinematic potential,’ says Canadian star Charlotte Le Bon (The Walk, Fresh), making her feature debut as writer and director here. ‘But the most difficult thing in an adaptation is to make it your own.’Set around the titular Quebec body of water where Le Bon grew up, Falcon Lake is not a typical first-love story. Here, the ghostly spectre of death looms large thanks to Chloe's morbid fascination with a child who…2 min
Total Film|March 2023ARMAGEDDON TIME1THE CAST IS STACKEDWith a cast list that includes Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Kit Harington, Tobey Maguire, Edward Norton, Gemma Chan, Matthew Rhys, Forest Whitaker, David Schwimmer, Daveed Diggs, Tahar Rahim, Marion Cotillard, Keri Russell, Indira Varma, Cherry Jones and more, Apple TV+ is aiming high with this compelling new drama. Told over eight interconnected episodes, Extrapolations delves into the fate of humanity against the terrifying ticking time bomb of climate change.2 IT'S A LEARNING EXPERIENCEWith movies including Contagion and An Inconvenient Truth on his CV, Scott Z. Burns is no stranger to the timely topics of global warming and pandemics. ‘I wanted to tell a series of stories that allow you to go on an amazing thrill ride between where we are today and where we might end up,’…2 min
Total Film|March 2023SIMPLY THE FESTTALK TO METhe teens at the centre of this Aussie frightener have clearly never seen a horror film or read a thread on movie tropes. Otherwise they'd never be opening themselves up to spirits possessing them as a party game, pushing the ‘safe’ time a little longer for the LOLs… Opening with a truly shocking one-take tone-setter and ratcheting up the chills, Talk to Me taps into an exploration of the impact of trauma via unsettling visual effects and sudden, brutal violence. It also leaves an ending open for a possible franchise… No wonder A24 came calling.PRETTY BABY: BROOKE SHIELDSThat child actor Brooke Shields was exploited during her career is a given, but this enlightening documentary challenges viewers in understanding exactly how, as well as audience complicity in that damage.…4 min
Total Film|March 2023UNDER HIS EYEI'm a John le Carré fanatic!’ exclaims Swedish/Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh (The Nile Hilton Incident, The Contractor) on a sunny Cannes rooftop. The spymaster's influence is plain to see in Cairo Conspiracy, a film which swaps Le Carre's typical Cold War backdrop for Al-Azhar University in Cairo — the epicentre of power in Sunni Islam — while retaining a similar sense of dread-fuelled paranoia.Tawfeek Barhom stars as Adam, a fisherman's son invited to study at his faith's most respected academic institution. But shortly after enrolling, the Grand Imam dies, leaving a power vacuum at Al-Azhar's highest levels. Around the same time, Adam witnesses the assassination of a fellow student by masked assailants on university grounds, and is approached by state security officer Ibrahim (Fares Fares), who reveals that the murdered…2 min
Total Film|March 2023WORK SUCKSThunder and lightning crack the sky above an abandoned church in New Orleans. The wind howls and the rain lashes, while a terrified film crew takes shelter beneath a 30ft guillotine propped up over the altar, Nicholas Hoult sponging off buckets of blood from his face. If you're going to make a horror movie, this is the way to do it.‘If you're very quiet,’ whispers Chris McKay, almost a year after a real tornado threatened to flatten his entire film, ‘you can hear something in the wind… just this eerie, haunting atmosphere in the back of every dialogue track. I've spent so long trying to keep as much of that in the mix as possible. I wanted Hammer. I wanted Tod Browning. I wanted texture.’ This, after all, was Dracula.…16 min
Total Film|March 202325 GREATEST VAMPIRES OF ALL TIME19 MARTINJOHN AMPLASMARTIN (1977)Far from Twilight‘s teen-dream variant, John Amplas plays an awkward, outsider ‘sucker in George A Romero's character study. Is angsty 17-year-old Martin a vampire, though, or just ‘mixed-up’, as Romero intimated on a DVD extra? Off-screen remarks aside, Romero works hard to keep the issue ambiguous and psychologically convincing on-screen, transfusing vampire myths with the raw reality of teen malaise and melancholy.BITING POINT The quiet murder on a train exudes a matter-of-fact chill.20 VIAGOTAIKA WAITITIWHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014)Viago first appeared in the short Interviews with Some Vampires in 2005, a precursor to the What We Do in the Shadows franchise that brought him worldwide acclaim. Viago is 379 years old and displays an awkward charm and an uptight desire to manage his housemates’ schedules.…15 min
Total Film|March 2023Grief EncounterZach Braff is a self-confessed procrastinator. It's been 19 years since the Scrubs star's writing and directorial debut, Garden State, and nine years since he followed it with Wish I Was Here. Though he wanted to write a third film he struggled to get started. ‘There has to be a catalyst that really puts me in the chair,’ he laughs over Zoom from LA. ‘Like so many people who write, I'll do anything to procrastinate. So it has to be something that I'm really willing to dedicate so much time to, and also something that I feel like I have to say that's hopefully worthwhile to people.’All three of his screenplays happened at pivotal points in his life, he admits: Garden State springing from a ‘post-collegiate quarter-life crisis’, while Wish…9 min
Total Film|March 2023TARON EGERTON‘IF YOU REALLY CARE, THEN EVERYTHING ELSE LOOKS AFTER ITSELF’When Taron Egerton hops on a Zoom call with Total Film in early February 2023, he's not in the usual chic hotel room or video-studio setting. In fact, he's sitting in an unassuming kitchen, having returned home to Wales. After a busy run of work, he's back to spend time with his family. ‘It's nice, man,’ he smiles, dressed casually in a plain black T-shirt. ‘And also, I was in America for quite a while with [2022 Apple TV+ series] Black Bird being released. I came home for about a week, and then went and did a Netflix movie in New Orleans. So it sort of felt like I've not been home in ages.’The jumping-off point for our chat today is…19 min
Total Film|March 2023LUTHER: THE FALLEN SUN 15OUT NOW CINEMAS 10 MARCH NETFLIXMidway through this first feature-length outing for legendary London copper John Luther (Idris Elba), our burly, world-weary antihero wanders up to a bar for a drink. Looking shaken and stirred by his pursuit of a fiendishly clever and manipulative serial killer, he invites the barman to choose his beverage for him, only to roundly reject the suggestion of a martini and opt for plain old water instead.Is this, after years of talk, Elba telling viewers that he will most certainly not be replacing Daniel Craig as James Bond? If so, it's clear that he has an alternative career path mapped out, because Luther: The Fallen Sun is an attempt not just to upgrade the character from the BBC to the silver screen in a Netflix…4 min
Total Film|March 2023THE FIVE DEVILS 15OUT 24 MARCH CINEMASLéa Mysius follows 2017's Ava with an intriguing tale rooted in the supernatural. Adele Exarchopoulos is Joanne, a provincial French swimming instructor whose life is upended when her sister-in-law (Swala Emati) returns, opening up a Pandora's box of shared history. Touching on small-town racism, the film goes for broke with a subplot involving Joanne's daughter (Sally Dramé), who's able to sniff out – literally events from the past. The witchy atmosphere crackles and Exarchopoulos is a steely presence, even if the resulting story is slightly less than the sum of its parts.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023CLOSE 12AOUT 3 MARCH CINEMASTwo childhood pals drift inexorably apart during their first year at big school in Lukas Dhont's heart-tugging, accolade-laden tale. Sensitive, graceful and impeccably restrained, it gets us to invest in its youthful characters, only to then deliver a devastating emotional sucker punch. A touch manipulative? Maybe, but as in Dhont's debut, Girl (2018), it's all in service of fostering a greater empathy for those who don't conform to society's rigid dictates.When we first meet the angelic Léo (Eden Dambrine) and his 13-year-old bestie Rémi (Gustav De Waele), they're as thick as thieves. But as a new term starts, Rémi's neediness and tactility get noticed by the other kids, who are quick to tease. Léo's instinct is to assimilate, even if it means cold-shouldering his less adaptable friend.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM PGOUT 10 MARCH CINEMASThis Oscar-nominated debut feature from Bhutanese writer/ director Pawo Choyning Dorji centres on Ugyen (Sherab Dorji), a young teacher who's hoping to emigrate to Australia and become a singer. To his dismay, he's posted to the exceptionally remote yak-herding community of Lunana in the Himalayas, where the one-room school has just nine pupils. Charting its protagonist's high-altitude spiritual awakening, this warm-hearted tale is elevated by gentle humour, some majestic landscape cinematography and naturalistic turns by a predominantly non-professional cast.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023INFINITY POOL TBCOUT 24 MARCH CINEMASIs this a dream? It would make more sense,’ sighs holidaymaker Em (Cleopatra Coleman) halfway through writer/director Brandon Cronenberg's third feature. But in reality, the moral dilemma facing her and her novelist husband James (Alexander Skarsgård) is the stuff of nightmares: one that not only shakes their relationship to its very foundations, but gives ‘tourist trap’ a completely new meaning.Set in a fictional nation called Li Tolqa, an island paradise for wealthy vacationers provided they don't venture past their resorts’ barbed-wire fences, Infinity Pool takes the same setup as the recent Jessica Chastain/Ralph Fiennes film The Forgiven (western visitor kills local in road accident while on foreign soil) and proceeds to give it a delirious sci-fi twist.Said calamity happens after James, bored by the opulence of his…2 min
Total Film|March 2023FASHION REIMAGINED 12AOUT 3 MARCH CINEMASBeginning with some eye-opening facts about the fashion industry from its colossal carbon footprint to our voracious consumption of clothing – Becky Hutner's watchable doc focuses on designer Amy Powney's attempt to create a fully sustainable collection for London Fashion Week. As setbacks demonstrate the challenges of truly ethical sourcing, its subject's determination becomes more inspiring still. But, perhaps unavoidably, the ending feels anticlimactic: four years on, Powney's efforts have created a ripple of awareness, but the industry's environmental impact is bigger than ever.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023ELECTRIC MALADY 12AOUT 3 MARCH CINEMASHow do you explore an illness that few people accept or understand? You listen, suggests Swedish-born, Glasgow-based director Marie Lidén in her docu-study of William, a young man with electrosensitivity. Forced away from society, William lives under special fabrics in a foil-lined rural Sweden shack – a ghost exiled from the Wi-Fi age. As Lidén pays attention to William's frayed thoughts on fear and isolation, something tender emerges from the cabin-folk set-up: a portrait of endurance in the face of the imponderable, where music, beauty, family and empathy are the keys to hope.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023ATTACHMENT TBCOUT NOW SHUDDERWhen fledgling couple Maja (Josephine Park) and Leah (Ellie Kendrick) find their honeymoon period soured by freak injury, an extended stay at the home of Leah's superstitious, overbearing mother (Sofie Gråbøl) beckons. There's also the matter of demonic possession hanging over this sweetly depicted relationship but director Gabriel Bier Gislason seems less interested in the supernatural element of this bilingual-romcom-slashexorcism-drama (phew) than he does the rest. Still, the Jewishfolklore flavourings are distinctive, and it effectively captures the awkwardness of meeting a disapproving parent.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE 15SCREENOUT NOW CINEMASWith Steven Soderbergh back at the helm for the first time since original Magic Mike (2012), this glossy but fluffy threequel opts for romance over bromance. Last Dance sees Channing Tatum's broke bartender Mike reluctantly persuaded to give a scorching lap dance to Salma Hayek Pinault's wealthy socialite Max. But when she flies him to London to revitalise her dull theatre with a red-hot male-stripper show, neither Mike nor the film can decide if he's in love, or just in business with her. After that first torrid tumble, Hayek Pinault and Tatum's love-against-the-odds dynamic feels distinctly forced (Tatum's later duet with a fabulous female dancer in an on-stage splash zone restores some raunchy delight).But around them, Soderbergh constructs a fun, good-looking romp that swaggers through athletic audition montages,…1 min
Total Film|March 2023SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW 15OUT NOW PRIME VIDEOThe post-Fleabag ‘messy women’ wave continues with this enjoyable comedy romance, from IRL husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie. The latter stars as Ally, who unexpectedly reconnects with cherished ex Sean (Jay Ellis) and subsequently vows to sabotage his engagement to vivacious younger woman Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons). Julia Roberts romcom My Best Friend's Wedding is a clear touchstone – a fact the film acknowledges in amusing meta fashion – but Franco's assured direction and Brie's complex, badly behaved lead ensure this is more than mere tribute act.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023JANE 15OUT NOW DIGITALRiverdale‘s Madelaine Petsch produces and stars in this school-set thriller, which tackles hot-button topics with weak results. Beset by grief following best friend Jane's suicide, the highly strung Olivia (Petsch) suffers setbacks in her bid to get into Stanford. After she and old ally Izzy (Chloe Bailey) rekindle their friendship, the pair embark on an increasingly deadly cyberbullying campaign against those deemed responsible for Olivia's woes. Poorly paced, it plays like a homogenised Thoroughbreds, although the introduction of a supernatural element offers some compensation.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023WINNERS PGOUT 17 MARCH CINEMASWhen an Iranian director is unable to attend the Academy Awards, his Oscar is dispatched to his home. En route, however, the wayward statuette ends up in a provincial town, discovered by two children (Parsa Maghami, Helia Mohammadkhani) who set out on a quest to find its owner. Despite all the nods and Easter eggs, you don't need to be an expert in contemporary Iranian cinema to enjoy this warm, affectionate drama from writer/ director Hassan Nazer. Although even those only loosely familiar with one cameo-er's real-life acts of defiance won't fail to be elated by a climactic twist.DISNEY, 101 FILMS, UNIVERSAL, CENTRAL CITY MEDIA, MDDERN FILMS, D0GW00F, SOVEREIGN, KALEIDOSCOPE, EXHIBITION ON SCREEN, WARNER BROS…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE MIDDLE MAN TBCOUT 10 MARCH CINEMASNorwegian writer/director Bent Hamer (2005's Bukowski adap Factotum) delivers a bone-dry, absurdist dark comedy that offers a keen-eyed take on both grief and compassion. Set in a small, depressed, midwestern town, it stars Pål Sverre Hagen (Kon-Tiki) as Frank, an oddball loser who develops a sense of power when he is hired as the town's ‘middle man', a local-authority stooge who is tasked with delivering bad news to the residents. At times, the film feels as directionless as its main character in its attempts at satire, but it's buoyed along by Hagen's offbeat – and rather charming – performance.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA 12AOUT NOW CINEMASUntil now, the littlest Avenger has been a reliable resource of smaUer-scale larks amid the MCU's gustier arcs. Quantumania begs the question: can the mini-marvel shoulder larger saga responsibilities? The answer is a guarded ‘yes’, give or take a few wobbles. If Scott Lang/ Ant-Man's (Paul Rudd) growth curve gets choppy as he's mobilised to launch Phase 5, his footsteps still land louder than ever; which they need to, given the fresh threat he faces.When Scott discovers that daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has been investigating – inspired by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) – the Quantum Realm, he's impressed and horrified, as is Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). And he's doubly horrified when an accident sucks both families (Evangeline Lilly's Hope included) into the subatomic world, realm of many…2 min
Total Film|March 2023EPIC TAILS UOUT NOW CINEMASThis French-made animation centres on Pattie, a plucky mouse in ancient Greece who joins an ageing Jason and his reanimated Argonauts on a maritime quest to save their city from Poseidon's wrath. It's not just the setting that's antiquated – the references are too, with nods to Jaws, The Godfather and The A-Team dating the film far more than its mythic creatures and Olympian gods (voiced in this overdub by Giovanna Fletcher, Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe). The animal antics will no doubt amuse easily tickled moppets, but you can only pitta the grown-ups obliged to accompany them.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE AGE OF INNOCENCE U1993OUT 17 MARCH CINEMASA resplendent 4K big-screen restoration for the 30th anniversary of Martin Scorsese's most poignant film, a lush, expressionistic adap of Edith Wharton's tale of etiquette and (repressed) emotion set in 1870s high-society New York.Engaged to the well-connected May Welland (Winona Ryder, who bagged her first Oscar nom), lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) harbours an ardent love for his fiancee's unconventional cousin, Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). Dare he cast off the societal strictures that maintain the status quo?Released three years after Goodfellas and two years before Casino, The Age of Innocence was perceived, by many, as a change of direction for Scorsese. Poppycock – and not only because Scorsese's body of work has always been so varied. It is, in fact, something of a companion piece to the…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE SISTERS BROTHERS 152018OUT NOW 4K UHEXTRASCommentary, Making Of, Featurettes, Poster, BookletA Prophet's Jacques Audiard brings a quizzical European sensibility to this revisionist oater, about a couple of gun-slinging siblings (Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly) who see in Riz Ahmed's alchemist a chance to ride off happily into the sunset. That's as happy as things get in this downbeat western, though there are still guffaws en route thanks to Phoenix's reckless drunken antics and Jake Gyllenhaal's verbose detective. A bulging saddle-bag of extras includes an hour-long Making Of and a double-sided wanted poster.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023THE CASSANDRA CAT PG1963OUT NOW BDEXTRASCommentary, Short, BookletAlso known as When the Cat Comes, writer/director Vojtech Jasný's enjoyably whimsical yarn is set in a small town visited by a magician (Jan Werich) and a troupe of performers, including a sunglasses-wearing cat; once the shades come off, the human audience's true colours are revealed… Awash in vivid hues, this is both a contemporary fairy-tale-slash-musical and an anti-authoritarian satire, one that playfully lays bare the hypocrisy of party officials. Extras include co-writer Jiří Brdecka's 1963 animated short Badly Painted Hen.…1 min
Total Film|March 2023BLACKADDER1983-99 AVAILABLE ON DVD, DIGITAL, BBC iPLAYERIn a roundabout way, you can thank John Cleese and Connie Booth for Blackadder. At the dawn of the 1980s, Not the Nine O'Clock News alumni Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson decided to move away from the world of sketch comedy and try their hand at creating a sitcom instead. However, as Curtis remembers, there was one sizeable problem: ‘Fawlty Towers seemed so perfect to us at that point that the idea of writing a modern sitcom was too demoralising.’Thankfully, Curtis had a solution. He and Atkinson could escape the shadow of Fawlty Towers by giving their own sitcom a historical setting instead, ultimately plumping for the Middle Ages. An unaired pilot made in 1982 led to them being commissioned by the BBC to…2 min
