What films are out in UK cinemas this week? Reviews from Wild Horse Nine to La Bola Negra
November is always a busy time for film releases, and this week's schedule is pretty packed with a very varied selection of new – including some potential awards players.
Perhaps the films most likely to gain the attention of Oscar voters are acclaimed Spanish epic La Bola Negra – which could well become a real best picture competitor – and Martin McDonagh's latest comic drama Wild Horse Nine, which has already seen its star John Malkovich enlisted as favourite for next year's best actor gong.
But crowd-pleaser I Play Rocky could also go down well with the Academy, while Godzilla Minus Zero may be hoping to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor Godzilla Minus One, which took home the best visual effects Oscar in 2024 over some major Hollywood movies.
Also out this week is the first Christmas film of the season (yes, already) in the shape of Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint while drama Onwards and Sideways is an affecting romantic drama that also raises awareness for Parkinson's disease.
Meanwhile, there's also Chris Rock's Misty Green and epic blockbuster Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, which is the most expensive film in India's history.
We don't have reviews for those latter two releases just yet, but you can find our verdicts of all the other films below, while you can also discover our lowdown on other major movies released in UK cinemas in recent weeks which are still available at your local movie theatre.
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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? 30 October - 5 November
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell headline this witty, acerbic and profound drama from writer/director Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin). It's 1973, on the eve of Chile's military coup, and CIA operatives Chris (Malkovich) and Lee (Rockwell) are heading to Chilean territory – the Polynesian isle of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island – on a dark mission of their own.
Alongside this, Lee must manage an unusual request from Chris while also keeping an eye on his partner and friend, as their boss, MJ (Steve Buscemi), is concerned that the volatile veteran is about to publish a tell-all memoir. The wonderful end result is powered by a fabulous screenplay and tip-top performances, particularly from Malkovich who develops an effective fractious chemistry with his co-star.
While the story sometimes leans too far into absurdity (MJ has a heroin addiction that causes him to fall asleep at inopportune moments), McDonagh largely succeeds in stirring the personal and the political into a simmering comic cauldron. An intelligent glance at unchecked American imperialism that plays like the smaller-scale flipside of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle after Another, this is an untameable beast of a movie. – James Mottram
- Read our full Wild Horse Nine review
- Read our exclusive interview with Martin McDonagh
- Read our exclusive interview with John Malkovich
Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
John Bradley gives a likeable leading turn in this well-cast British riff on A Christmas Carol – a feelgood comedy drama that lacks a flinty element but sets out to warm hearts with gentle assurance. Thirty Christmases ago, seven-year-old aubrey experienced a tragedy at Christmas that means he now has no truck with the festive season.
However, when an accidental tussle with an OAP leads to his unlikely arrest he is assigned community service, where he and co-worker (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) are roped into helping stage a performance of A Christmas Carol at a retirement home. Meanwhile, a housing developer wants the site but if the play can establish the home as an active community hub, it gains protected status.
You can guess where this is going, but director Jack Spring makes a low-key virtue of predictability. Some flashes of knockabout comedy keep things spry, though the film works best as a measured tribute to the restorative qualities of community, classic literature and Christmas hugs. Even if you can see the finale coming a mile away, it isn’t over-indulged – this is a film that slips down lightly, with a twinkly score adding a restrained dusting of charm. – Kevin Harley
La Bola Negra
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
A dizzying triptych explores queer identity via Spain’s leftwing gay writer Federico García Lorca in this exhilarating blend of truth and fiction.
Inspired by the 2023 play La Piedra Obscura by Alberto Conejero – credited here as co-writer with directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi – the central spine unfolds in the Spanish Civil War, as young soldier Sebastián (singer Guitarricadelafuente) grows close to his captive, real-life Republican fighter – and Lorca’s lover – Rafael Rodríguez Rapún (Miguel Bernardeau).
Weaving around this is a 1932-set segment inspired by Lorca’s titular unfinished work, in which a young man from Granada, Carlos (Milo Quifes), is ‘black balled’ by a casino committee who suspect he’s gay. The third story takes us to 2017, as historian Alberto (Carlos González) makes surprising discoveries about his family heritage, craftily linking to the other stories.
Featuring cameos from a flamboyant Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close, deft editing from Alberto Gutiérrez and bold strokes from the film-makers, it all builds to a devastating emotional climax. – James Mottram
Godzilla Minus Zero
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Writer and director Takashi Yamazaki follows up his Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One with a sequel that delivers even more of the awe-inspiring spectacle and postwar drama that made its predecessor so effective. Set in 1949, two years after the previous film, it finds Japan struggling to rebuild after Godzilla’s devastating rampage, only for a new threat to emerge in the form of his longtime nemesis Ghidorah.
With the principal characters of naval engineer Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and ex-kamikaze pilot Koichi (Ryünosuke Kamiki) returning, the fight is once again led by resourceful civilians and their elaborate scientific schemes. Last time it involved balloons and water pressure; now they look to weaponise the weather.
Yet the spectacular action is balanced by textured and often wrenching storytelling about trauma and nuclear anxieties, and although the old-fashioned melodrama occasionally slips into cliché, the film’s social commentary adds welcome weight. With visceral visual effects too as Ghidorah’s gravity beams lay waste to entire towns and Godzilla reduces more of Tokyo to dust and concrete slurry, Yamazaki shows in this 39th Godzilla film that in his safe hands, there is plenty of life left in the nuclear lizard. – Max Copeman
I Play Rocky
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
The extraordinarily true story of Sylvester Stallone’s battle to win the lead role in the now iconic boxing movie he wrote makes a lively and uplifting film with a side order of comedy, and an across-the-board impressive cast. Anthony Ippolito is a revelation as Stallone, a perfectly pitched humble, mumbling hero who sticks to his guns while challenging the might of Hollywood, before learning the hard way just how much it takes to get his baby made on time and under budget.
Beyond the actor’s mantra that serves as the title, director Peter Farrelly’s film is also an affectionate though occasionally savage snapshot of the politics of the industry in the 70s. It’s fleshed out by great work from, particularly, Tracy Letts as a hard-nosed studio boss and Jay Duplass as John Avildsen, the original movie’s maverick director, relishing the task ahead.
Ippolito has great chemistry with the sparky AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone’s wife Sasha, by his side from the start on the road to his dreams becoming Oscar-winning reality. – Terry Staunton
Onwards And Sideways
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
Tremendous performances from Rhys Ifans and Laura Linney elevate this emotional, highly empathetic romantic drama exploring life in the aftermath of a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. Ifans plays schoolteacher Tony, who is stunned when he is unexpectedly and unceremoniously told of the condition and informed he has just "five good years" left.
While still reeling from the news he meets American musician Emma (Linney), who has also just received a similar prognosis. The pair come to develop a bond as they each manage the condition, even if Tony is initially resistant to Emma’s suggestion he should join a Parkinson’s ballet class.
Screenwriter Paul Mahew-Archer was himself diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2011, and it is abundantly clear that the film is coming from a place of expertise as he seeks to spread awareness of the challenges inherent in living with the condition.
John Madden’s (Shakespeare in Love) direction is unshowy if a little bland, and at times the film can feel a little mechanical in its structure, but the poignancy of the connection between the two central characters is undeniable. – Patrick Cremona
What else is still showing in UK cinemas?
Primetime
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
Robert Pattinson gives an impressively oily turn as TV presenter Chris Hansen in this bumpy true-life media tale. In the mid-2000s, Hansen hosted To Catch a Predator, a segment on the Dateline NBC magazine series that sought to expose men who had tried to groom youngsters online.
With a team driven by ruthless producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever), Hansen also lures in a wide-eyed newbie actor (Skyler Gisondo) to pose as the prey in these legally murky televised sting operations. Playing a slimeball akin to his memorable villain in The Odyssey, Pattinson is excellent at the head of a committed cast, as is Gisondo.
Sadly, the overall outcome veers into melodrama as writer/director Lance Oppenheim (You Can See Everything), making his narrative feature debut, ditches the realism of his earlier documentary work for a consciously operatic style, all ominous shadows and overwrought sound design.
The tone is muddled, too: is this a wry satire on media cynicism? An essay on the ethics of entrapping potential criminals? Or a character study of the morally dubious Hansen, who has the National Enquirer on his case? Either way, Oppenheim never strikes quite the right balance in an intelligent and compelling but increasingly underdeveloped film. – James Mottram
Wicker
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
This decidedly unconventional romantic comedy from writing/directing pair Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson is bolstered by a typically committed central performance from Olivia Colman. She plays an unnamed Fisherwoman who finds herself the butt of many jokes in her medieval village, owing both to her fishy stench and lack of a love life.
That is, until she employs the local Basket Weaver (Peter Dinklage) to handcraft her a husband made of Wicker. When he arrives on the scene a month later – played in deadpan form by Alexander Skarsgard – he instantly becomes the talk of the town.
The film’s commentary on gender relations is well-meaning if a little heavy-handed, while the humour is a touch too reliant on bawdy scenes featuring characters saying rude words in old fashioned parlance.
The general excess of quirk also occasionally becomes irksome, but there are some fun moments and fine performances, with Elizabeth Debicki having a ball as the village gossip and Colman really selling the film’s more emotional centre. – Patrick Cremona
Animol
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Actor Ashley Walters (TV's Adolescence and Top Boy) makes his feature directorial debut with this riveting prison drama. The excellent Tut Nyuot (Steve) takes the lead as Troy, on remand in a young offender institution for conspiracy to commit murder.
Upon arrival, he’s accosted by the dangerous inmate Dion (Sekou Diaby), who promises to make life very difficult on the inside unless Troy starts smuggling contraband for him. Incarcerated with unstable cellmate Mason (Ryan Dean), Troy has little choice but to side with Dion in this tinderbox environment.
Scripted by Nick Love, with whom Walters collaborated on TV show Bulletproof, this is a world away from Love’s own laddish films (The Business, Marching Powder). While it may not be as nihilistic as Alan Clarke’s Scum (1979) – still the daddy of all Brit prison flicks – Animol paints a grim but convincing picture of modern-day life behind bars, including drones used to drop illicit packages over prison walls.
Also featuring Walters’s Adolescence co-star Stephen Graham as a prison counsellor, it's an electric work that bristles with tension. – James Mottram
Gentle Monster
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Léa Seydoux delivers a gut-wrenching performance as a woman whose marriage implodes under the most terrible of circumstances in this bleak but brilliant drama. She plays Lucy, a French musician who moves to the German countryside with husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) and their son Johnny (Malo Blanchet).
But this idyllic life is shattered, horrifyingly, when the Munich child sex crimes unit arrests Philip. Upon his computer are images of child pornography, which he claims to be selling for money – the first in a series of lies. Writer/director Marie Kreutzer (Corsage) stays close to Lucy’s harrowing emotional journey, as she goes from absolute denial, desperate to keep her family together, to questioning whether her husband could have abused their son.
Meanwhile, in a parallel story, young investigating officer Else (Jella Haase) confronts the sexual misconduct of her ageing father. However, Gentle Monster is at its strongest when it stays with Seydoux’s soul-ripping turn. Elevated by music arranged by French musician Camille (Emilia Pérez), this is powerful and profound. – James Mottram
Nightborn
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
A couple face the ultimate parental nightmare in this twisted, tantalising Finnish folk horror. Saga (Seidi Haarla) and her British husband Jon (Rupert Grint) settle in the Finland countryside with their newborn baby. But the prodigiously hairy infant soon unsettles mum and dad – and not just because the boy has a strange tailbone and causes Saga wince-inducing pain when she breastfeeds.
With the nearby forest holding a mysterious power, we’re teased with notions that this offspring may or may not be causing unrest. Writer/director Hanna Bergholm, who follows 2022’s Hatching with another familial body-horror, builds the atmosphere well, creating a sense of creeping dread.
Smartly engineered animatronics help create the baby, but the film’s black humour wins out, with lots of jokes about Finnish people being standoffish and a top performance by Pirkko Saisio as Saga’s chilly mother. Grint is good value as the ineffectual hubbie, but – just as with pregnancy – it’s the woman who does the work, with an exquisite, earthy turn from Haarla. – James Mottram
Ken Russell's The Devils
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Ken Russell's adaptation of Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun is repulsive, hysterical, disturbing, overwhelming, stunning, compelling and fascinating. For once, Russell's surreal hallucinogenic style matches his frenzied material and, while condemned for being anti-religious, this is in fact a highly moral tale of absolute faith.
In one of the most controversial and censored films of all time, Oliver Reed gives his best ever performance as the 17th-century French priest destroyed by political manipulators, and Vanessa Redgrave is almost as good as a vengeful humpbacked nun; Derek Jarman's sets are nearly a match for them both, however. – Adrian Turner
Klara and the Sun
A star rating of 2 out of 5.
The choice of Taika Waititi to adapt Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian 2021 novel Klara and the Sun for the big screen results in a mismatch – with the director's quirky sense of humour entirely at odds with the tone of the more quietly introspective book. The film unfolds from the perspective of Klara (Jenna Ortega), an outdated model of "Artificial Friend" (or AF), who's greatest wish comes true when a girl (Mia Tharia) purchases her as a companion.
In the novel, the title character’s naive but often insightful observations drive the piece, but an awful lot of nuance and insight is lost in Waititi's translation. Meanwhile Ortega’s overly deliberate performance fails to capture the gentle nature of the character as she is on the page.
The film’s most obvious flaw is Waititi’s insistence on transplanting his familiar comic style to a story where it simply doesn’t fit, but there are also other issues, with many of the novel’s key plot points truncated or rushed, leading to a sense of incompleteness. This prevents the film from reaching the profound emotional and intellectual beats it needs to hit, despite Waititi’s frequent attempts to prise tears from the audience by leaning into his most egregiously schmaltzy impulses. – Patrick Cremona
Ghosts: The Possession of Button House
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder in this return to Button House and our favourite spectres after the BBC series finished in 2023. So it’s with utter joy that we are reunited with the gang, including living folk Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) and Alison (Charlotte Ritchie), after the two left the stately home to raise baby Mia.
When a bunch of kids led by disaffected teen Jack (Scott Ellis Watson) show up to host a seance, things get interesting: it turns out the ghosts can possess the bodies of living humans and leave the house. Just as well - a group of environmentalists protesting a planned new development aren’t quite what they seem, so the ghosts need to find a way to contact Mike and Alison.
Our favourites all get at least one “hero” moment and at 1h 37m it whips by, packing in a “one crazy night” plot with some real peril, and loads of great gags. Though it might not be cinematic high art, this is funny, heartfelt stuff. Good spirited, indeed. – Rosie Fletcher
- Read our full Ghosts: The Possession of Button House review
- Read our exclusive interview with the cast and creators of Ghosts
Wildwood
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
This stop-motion animation from studio Laika serves up an enchanting smorgasbord of gob-smacking creativity, fashioning a story that referentially bows to traditional fairy tales while lacing them with thoroughly modern motifs. Headstrong teen Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) lives in the Pacific Northwest of America with her unbearably hipster parents and baby brother Mac, and inadvertently leaves suburban home life behind when he is kidnapped by a murder of crows.
Thus begins a journey into the Impassable Wilderness, a mythical forest presided over by sad-eyed dowager Alexandra (Carey Mulligan) and her pack of military-attired coyotes. Based on a 2011 book by Colin Molloy and illustrator Carson Ellis, Wildwood touches upon the themes of loss and family dynamics prevalent in Laika’s screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novella Coraline.
Where it differs is in scope, in its determination to paint on as wide and as fantastical a canvas as possible, without losing sight of the everyday human element that propels the narrative. It all adds up to a feast for the eyes, mind and heart, an intelligent fable that’s also a paean to the innate dignity of outsiders everywhere. – Terry Staunton
Clayface
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
The third feature in James Gunn’s rebooted DCU might seem like a bit of an odd choice. A comic book movie dressed as a horror/thriller focused on a lesser known Batman villain, this is an origin story that goes nowhere. Welsh newcomer Tom Rhys Harries’ plays burgeoning Hollywood star Matt Hagen, who in a moment of hedonism and hubris, sleeps with the wrong girl.
When her mob boss boyfriend Szabo (David Dencik) finds out, he enacts a cruel and violent revenge on Hagen’s pretty face. Destitute and desperate, Hagen turns to Naomi Ackie’s Doctor Caitlyn Corr who is working on an experimental treatment that’s not been tested on humans yet.
With a script by Hossein Amini and Mike Flanagan, and Eden Lake’s James Watkins on directing duties, Clayface leans heavily into body horror. It’s a gory revenge movie, as Hagen picks off those who have wronged him in increasingly outrageous ways, though the arc here is really about the character losing his humanity. Tonally unbalanced, it’s pacey and gross but ultimately unremarkable. – Rosie Fletcher
Fatherland
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski was named best director at Cannes for this finely tuned film, which forms a spiritual trilogy with his previous efforts Ida (2013) and Cold War (2018). The focus is Nobel prize-winning German writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) as he travels across his homeland with his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) in 1949 to attend celebrations in his honour in both the West and East of the newly divided nation.
The pair regularly drive past bombed-out buildings and infrastructure, revealing a country in ruins not just physically but emotionally and morally. Pawlikowski is operating in similar aesthetic territory to those aforementioned earlier works, with Lukasz Zal's sumptuous black and white photography artfully transporting viewers to a Europe still reckoning with the horrors of the Second World War.
At barely 80 minutes long, the narrative is arguably a bit slight, but it’s undoubtedly a thematically rich piece of work that leaves the viewer with plenty to chew on. – Patrick Cremona
Street Fighter
The iconic, best-selling video game Street Fighter comes to the big screen, again, in this fitfully entertaining, but largely tedious, adaptation.
Created in league with Capcom, the video game giant behind the Street Fighter franchise, this latest iteration at least has the advantage of coming after the abysmal 1994 film, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kyle Minogue, and various animated films that made little dent on the cultural conversation. Surely, the Japanese-born American filmmaker Kitao Sakurai (2021’s Bad Trip) hasn’t got far to go to eclipse those.
Ken is soon paid a visit by Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who is recruiting the best fighters in the world for a second World Warrior Tournament. Bankrolling it is Bison (David Dastmalchian, hamming it up gloriously), a fascistic overlord who dresses in maroon military attire and is secretly plotting to harness the super-energy of these fighters to power-up himself. Reluctantly, Ryu turns up in Metrolao City, at Bison’s Golden Bullion Hotel, where the tournament is being held, to persuade Ken – who is not the slickest fighter out there – that it’ll be too dangerous for him to participate. – James Mottram
Forgotten Island
The bonds of childhood friendship burst into life across a colourful mythical realm in DreamWorks's psychedelic animated creature feature. Filipino teens Jo (voiced by singer H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) have been best chums since elementary school, but the latter is now about to leave for college in the States.
On their last night together, the pair get sucked into a portal taking them to the fantastical Nakali – a supernatural isle often spoken of by Jo's grandmother Lola (Triangle of Sadness star Dolly de Leon). The girls must roam a landscape dotted with mementoes and strange beasts, picking up allies along the way (including Dave Franco's friendly talking canine, Raww) as they try to find a route home before their cherished memories fade.
Co-directors Joel Crawford (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) and Januel Mercado draw heavily from Filipino folklore (the vampire-like tiyanak and the winged manananggal also appear), and bring in an eye-popping array of animation styles such as nods to 2D anime, as well as a banging soundtrack to underscore the 1990s-set action.
The outcome may be a well-trodden path, but the trippy visuals and offbeat humour burst with invention. – James Mottram
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, this follow-up to The Social Network relays events from 2019 to 2021, with Jeremy Strong playing Mark Zuckerberg as a reptilian and dead-eyed mogul who appears worlds away from the fast-talking and undergraduate genius of the earlier film.
The film’s real leading roles go to The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White and Anora’s Oscar-winner Mikey Madison, who portray Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz and Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen.
More of a traditional journalism and whistleblower drama than tech-world thriller, the film paints this central duo as two familiar figures, or even stereotypes. Madison’s Haugen is the mousy and socially awkward worker bee who’s rendered uncool for her wrist and ankle warmers, while Allen White’s Horwitz is the dishevelled but dogged journalist who leans on his interns for help with anything involving a screen.
Despite reasonable entertainment value and efficiency in telling his story, Sorkin can’t find the edge that made The Social Network so gripping. Audiences looking for more of the same from 16 years ago will find something serviceable, but a sequel in subject matter more than spirit. – Max Copeman
Digger
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Tom Cruise is utterly captivating in Alejandro G Iñárritu’s bizarre farcical satire. He plays oil magnate Digger Rockwell, the old, fat and filthy rich businessman whose practices set off a chain of events in Greenland which dislodges an ice shelf that threatens to destroy Europe.
Along with his close personal friend the president (a larger than life John Goodman), and a range of hapless political bods, he must decide what course of action to take – are they going to focus on a minimum loss of life, or is controlling the narrative the prime directive?
There are plenty of on-the-nose political jabs here, but at heart this is a film about storytelling – though its better not to spoil the two massive twists which may annoy as many people as they delight. The film is tinged with brilliance, but is so rich with references that at times it's overwhelming, while it also suffers from being too smart for its own good and lacking emotional resonance. But as a thought experiment, it’s fascinating. – Rosie Fletcher
Verity
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
A struggling writer finds herself caught up in the disturbing secrets of a bestselling author in this psychosexual thriller from Michael Showalter. Based on Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name, Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) is hired to ghostwrite a series of novels for smash-hit novelist Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway).
But after discovering a secret manuscript among Verity’s possessions that details some alarming revelations about Verity’s past, Lowen finds that finishing the book series is the last thing she wants to do – and that’s all without mentioning Lowen’s increasing attraction to Verity’s apparently devoted husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett).
Hathaway is particularly impressive in a role that requires her to essentially play two different characters at once, even on the occasions that Nick Antosca’s average script flatlines. Drawing inspiration from the erotic thrillers of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Verity is an absurd yet brilliantly pulpy guilty pleasure that does a serviceable job at preserving the addictive qualities of its airport-read source material. – Chezelle Bingham
Sense And Sensibility
A star rating of 3 out of 5.
It's tough to follow Ang Lee's 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved novel, but director Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean) rises to the challenge with a straight retelling that proves perfectly enjoyable. The story follows sisters Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) as they try to find love and security after their father's will leaves them basically penniless.
The film is exquisitely shot – all rolling hills, gloomy cottages and rattling carriages full of bonnet-clad women. The classic period-drama tropes are present, too: a ball, a threatening fever and a ridiculous distant cousin, played by a scene-stealing Fiona Shaw. The lead performances are decent, while George MacKay is strong as Elinor’s romantic match Edward Ferrars and Herbert Nordrum brings a gentleness to the steadfast Colonel Brandon.
But though Diana Reid's screenplay is funny and affecting, the film lacks a convincing rapport between the sisters, a bond that's crucial for the story and for Austen's emotional nuances to shine. This is undoubtedly nice to look at and decently acted, but without that signature Austen glow – a certain pang of melancholy and warmth – that the best adaptations of her work leave you with. – Alex Berry
- Read our full Sense and Sensibility review
- Read our interview with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esme Creed-Miles
- Read our interview with Fiona Shaw
Resident Evil
A star rating of 5 out of 5.
There have been a fair few Resident Evil films over the years, but this film from Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger, is comfortably the best yet. It’s evident after watching the film that Cregger isn’t just a fan of the video game franchise, he understands the DNA that sits at its very heart.
Choosing to craft an original story set within the universe, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), an organ courier who decides to take a last-minute gig delivering something very important to Raccoon City. Bryan is an everyman who’s a bit of an endearing screw-up and Cregger balances intense moments with both humour and body horror spectacle as his night goes from bad to worse.
It’s big, gory fun that highlights how a normal person might react to discovering a dog with tentacles pouring from its orifices. The structure of the film is fleshed out like a game run-through and there are references to the games littered throughout but they’re subtle nods to world lore rather than anything more egregious. – Ben Rayner
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Tom Holland's embattled web-spinner returns for his exhilarating fourth solo outing, which picks up a few years after the downbeat ending of 2021's No Way Home. With all memory of Peter Parker erased from the world, including from the minds of his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best bud Ned (Jacob Batalon), we now follow a lonely neighbourhood Spider-Man as he helps the police with baddies like the Scorpion (Michael Mando) and a ninja cult known as the Hand.
Still pining for his lost love, Spidey is then faced with multiple distractions: the return of Ned and MJ to New York; mutating powers which threaten to make Peter more spider than man; and an insidious mystery villain able to possess anyone instantly. Director Destin Daniel Cretton delivers plenty of nifty web-slinging and dizzying set pieces, not least when a rampaging Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) battles Spidey and the Punisher (Jon Bernthal, in his big-screen debut as the fearsome vigilante).
Indeed, Holland’s double act with the brooding Bernthal is a refreshing addition to the franchise. This is stuffed full of the usual Marvel Cinematic Universe cameos and Easter eggs, but it also strives to work as a coming-of-age tale, with our happy-go-lucky teenage hero now a battle-scarred adult struggling with various losses, exemplified by some poignant scenes between real-life spouses Holland and Zendaya. It's the stirring humanity beneath the mask that sticks in the memory as much as the pyrotechnics and punch-ups. – Jeremy Aspinall
The Odyssey
A star rating of 5 out of 5.
Christopher Nolan returns to the subject of warmongering with an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, one of the very cornerstones of western literature. Brought viscerally and vividly to life, it feels utterly of the moment.
Matt Damon is Odysseus, the cunning if arrogant warrior-king of Ithaca who recounts the horrors of Troy and the terrors faced by he and his men on their perilous journey home. Nolan blends in the fantasy of Homer – monsters, giants, whirlpools and even a trip to Hades to meet the undead – in a way few other directors can manage.
Shot entirely on IMAX cameras, The Odyssey looks nothing short of spectacular. The performances are equally grounded with Damon leading the line as the egotistical soldier who dismisses the idea of honouring the dead – until he comes to realise the pain of war. But it’s the female performances that stand the tallest – Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Samantha Morton all have their moments, as do Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya.
Filled with blazing action, blood-curdling fights and creatures that truly bring Homer’s epic poem to life, this is Nolan at his finest. Big-screen spectacle, expertly crafted and propelled by yet another masterful score by Ludwig Göransson. A powerful and profound achievement. – James Mottram
- Read our full The Odyssey review
- Read our interview with Christopher Nolan
- Read our interview with Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway
- Read our interview with Himesh Patel
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