From Steven Spielberg's new movie The Fabelmans starring Michelle Williams to the Nan Goldin documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, here are the films in cinemas this weekend
Filmmakers are entering their creative and nostalgia eras this January. Todd Field’s TÁR and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon both tackle art and the people making it; Empire of Light looks back to Sam Mendes’ semi-fictionalised past in 80s Margate. The Fabelmans encapsulates the best of both eras with Steven Spielberg examining his youth, in which he found films and filmmaking, setting him on the path to becoming the world's most famous film director.
Like Empire of Light, The Fabelmans is also a semi-autobiographical effort. Names are changed and situations are enhanced, but Spielberg is clearly carved into every frame. It's transparent when his surrogate Sam Fabelman grows into a teenager and strongly resembles the man himself (played by the brilliant Gabriel LaBelle). But as Sam improves upon his passion, his parents Burt (Paul Dano) and Mitzi (Oscar-nominated Michelle Williams) seem on the brink of separation. For Sam, filmmaking provides a temporary order in the chaos of his family.
Before the image of gallery protests was mugged by misguided (if well-intentioned) vandals chucking soup and mash, the photographer Nan Goldin organised effective and evocative rallies in museums around the world. Lying ‘dead’ next to a moat filled with pill bottles at The Met. Throwing hundreds of prescription slips into the atrium of The Guggenheim. These are proper displays of anger, protesting these institutions for their connections to the Sackler family – the big pharma titans responsible for peddling OxyContin as a non-addictive painkiller.
Laura Poitras’ Oscar-nominated documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed follows Goldin as she plans and conducts these protests with the activist group P.A.I.N (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now). The film also delves into her own past, growing up in the ‘banality and deadening grip of suburbia’ before entering the New York underground art scene.
Never mind the mixed reviews – Babylon is an ecstatic, cinephilic triumph from La La Land and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle. This epic, ensemble comedy plunges into the heady, hedonistic days of 1920s Hollywood, in which stars and producers and directors indulge in raucous, orgiastic activities.
Manny (Diego Calva) is a waiter and a fixer, desperate to work in the film industry. Margot Robbie plays the Clara Bow-inspired actress Nellie LaRoy, the new It Girl in silent cinema before the talkies ruin everything. The arrival of sound and the Hays Code dismantle the kingdom of vice, making former bright stars like Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) fade into has-beens. Three hours is a long time to stay in this period, but stick with it: Babylon is a party you never want to leave.
Photo: Paramount
A bright spotlight is falling on Iran. The theocratic regime faced widespread protest after the death of Mahsa Amini, detained by the morality police for improperly wearing a hijab. Prior to that, filmmakers like Jafar Panahi were arrested for criticising the government. That tense atmosphere seeps into every scene of Holy Spider, the Danish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi’s serial killer drama set in the city of Mashhad.
The ‘spider killer’ – based on a real case – hunts local sex workers like a religious Jack the Ripper, believing he’s cleansing the holy city of its vices. Zar Amir Ebrahimi (exiled from Iran in 2008) plays a fictional journalist searching for the truth – discovering that the killer evades capture because of patriarchal and religious apathy.
Abbasi’s film became controversial after premiering in Cannes last year, and there’s plenty to disgust your soul. You feel the pain experienced by the victims as the killer Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani) chokes out their lives. But even more heinous and nauseating is the reaction (covered in the second half), as many in the populace treat Saeed like a hero. Strangely, Abbasi prioritises the killer’s Taxi Driver-like personality over the details of the journalist driven to expose him, but Holy Spider is still an immersive, haunting and horrific shout against a frightening system.
Photo: MUBI
Todd Field isn’t a prolific filmmaker. Prior to TÁR, he hadn’t made a feature film in 16 years. Yet there’s always something refreshing and impassioned about this minimal approach: only the best ideas would’ve broken through. TÁR’s gripping slowness reflects that restraint. In this 160-minute character piece, Field paints an elusive and troubling portrait of a powerful artist.
Lauded composer Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is at the height of her powers: conducting in Berlin, lecturing at Juilliard, and being interviewed by The New Yorker. But a quiet kind of fear swarms around Lydia. Quieter still: there’s an uncertain fear buried deep inside her. As TÁR continues and her power starts to wane, one fear ingests the other. It’s a fervently fascinating piece to deconstruct.
![Empire of Light, dir. Sam Mendes [STAR:4]](/images/uploads/cw-58131.jpg)
Where are all the lovely movies for grown-ups? Avoiding the rougher sides of humanity, cinematic loveliness tends to manifest in kids’ films or weightless rom-coms. Maybe the new, semi-nostalgic project from Skyfall director Sam Mendes will inspire a trend of nice and endearing features for those old enough to drive.
It’s surreal, at times, to watch Mendes and the Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins tackling 1980s Margate. Smaller and quieter than The Trenches or the busy streets of London, Empire of Light unfurls in a seaside cinema run by a sweet surrogate family of characters. Well, except for the manager Donald (Colin Firth) who constantly takes advantage of his distressed deputy, Hilary (Olivia Colman). Hilary hides her mental illness and feels intense pangs of loneliness, until the young employee Stephen (Michael Ward) comes along. But he’s plagued with his own demons, facing racism from the droogy skinheads of Thatcher’s Britain.
Empire of Light is fluffy and schmaltzy at times, but isn’t a healthy piece of acute humanism what we all need right now?
Photo: Disney
![Corsage, dir. Marie Kreutzer [STAR:3]](/images/uploads/cw-58138.jpg)
Nowadays, almost by obligation, period dramas have to zhuzh themselves into something more seductive or postmodern. To attempt otherwise is to risk antiquated sterility as well as unwise nostalgia. You have to admire Marie Kreutzer for taking those risks in her fifth film Corsage, an intriguing if uneventful look at the Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the 1870s.
Vicky Krieps is perfect casting, capturing the dispirited personality of the monarch. Elisabeth is lorded over by her husband, the Emperor (Florian Teichtmeister), and she's desirous of causing trouble. In this time and place, trouble means pretending to faint or smoking cigarettes.
The first half is empty of energy, representing Elisabeth's own vacuous day-to-day existence – regrettably falling into that trap of sterility. The
provocative posters suggest another Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack) or
Emily Dickinson (Dickinson), but here the Empress's powers are minimal – closer to
Princess Diana in seasons four and five of The Crown, only without the
juicy scandals. Events pick up in the second half, but that's probably due to Elisabeth's heroin
prescription.
Photo: Picturehouse Entertainment
As video games become more like movies, movies become more like video games – Avatar: The Way of Water being the latest and most expensive example. Much is achieved in performance capture for the tall, blue inhabitants of the planet Pandora, who fight against American colonialists eager for their alien resources. This bloated and belated sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 film (still dominating the all-time box office gross at $2.9 billion) has taken over a decade to come to life, delayed and delayed and delayed to the point of frustration. So, is this $350 million investment worth the wait?
Not really. Cameron is stuck in an 80s movie mindset in which heroes are ultimately good and villains are cartoonish in their malevolence. Hasn’t fantasy moved on from such black-and-white representations after Game of Thrones? Apparently not. Returning is the former wheelchair user-turned-Na’vi soldier Sully (Sam Worthington), now raising a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña). But the human oppressors still shine in the sky, forcing Sully and his family to relocate to another Na’vi tribe that evolved alongside the sea.
The 3D technology is impressive, diving into complicated waters and building an intricate world into which it’s easy to escape. It’s refreshing after a lot of superhero dross. But the plot is scarce and the characters are barely drawn, a difficult combination when the story apparently requires three hours and 12 minutes to tell. There’s no need, especially when The Way of Water is close to tracing the original with the weird resurrection of Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang). There’s fun to be had, but it's hardly worth a trek through the cold.
Photo: Disney
When appealing to the adults, the first aspiration of any kids’ movie should be to grab their inner child – buried deep in the darkness of the real world – and return them to a brighter existence, though one punctuated with fear. The second is to make these viewers pine for nostalgic days of wonder and optimism; of piecing fantasies together and dreaming them to life.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical – based on the brilliant Broadway/West End show – achieves these goals with spectacular success. Director Matthew Warchus (Pride), scriptwriter Dennis Kelly (The Third Day), and songwriter Tim Minchin reunite to craft a colourful, spirit-raising movie musical that kids and grown-ups will watch and rewatch for years to come.
Here’s to the quiet films. Often the medium is tarred by Hollywood explosions, operatic emotions, and a need for action at every possible moment. Charlotte Wells’ debut film Aftersun is a perfect and poignant antithesis, delighting in the calm of a father-daughter holiday that hides a dark, buried layer beneath.
Normal People’s Paul Mescal stars as Calum, a young divorced dad to the 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio). The adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) watches old footage of their 90s holiday to Turkey, and casts her mind back to the sunlit hotel, the sapphire Mediterranean, and the parent she craves. She tries desperately to understand her father, clearly a depressed man, who obscures the bleaker parts of himself.
There are no melodramatic revelations here, just gentle moments of love, friction and sadness: in scenes as simple as swimming together or taking a photograph or dancing to David Bowie. Weaving in and out are the older Sophie’s abstract anxieties about her father and her loneliness without him. Wells crafts rare beauty out of simple humanity, dwelling on things left unsaid. Aftersun will hug and rip at your heart.
Photo: A24
Although high-class dining experiences can be tasty and fun, it’s hard not to poke holes in their various pomposities and the privileged people enjoying them. Succession director Mark Mylod skewers those dynamics with a razor-sharp kitchen knife in his new comedy-horror The Menu, a dark satire that mixes meals with blood.
Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Margot, partner to culinary wannabe Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). With a cluster of other moneyed customers, they attend one of these new dining experiences – choreographed by top chef Slowik (a tense and haunting Ralph Fiennes) on a secluded island. But Margot sees the strangeness straight away: the scarily co-ordinated staff, the ridiculousness of the dishes (including a breadless bread plate), and the stern, venomous looks she receives from Slowik. Those suspicions are confirmed in ways this writer won’t reveal here.
The Menu is best served cold to fully enjoy the shocks along the way. It's not perfect and it's more funny than scary, but Taylor-Joy – considering her breakthrough roles in The Witch, Thoroughbreds and Split – provides another ideal, addictive horror-film performance.
Photo: Searchlight Pictures/EPK
Chadwick Boseman led the first solo movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a Black superhero, and his death was devastating. There was no warning, no anticipation. That injustice ripples through Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – a mournful, superior sequel to the zeitgeist-shifting 2018 film. It serves as much as a moving, funereal tribute as a thrilling fantasy drama and, despite Boseman's absence, he's still the beating heart of the franchise.
Mourning the loss of King T’Challa (Boseman) after a secret illness, a new threat faces the hidden African country of Wakanda. Their private conservation of the powerful, near-magical resource Vibranium is envied by the world. However, that new awareness causes another hidden realm – the Atlantis-like Talocan, ruled by the vengeful Namor (Tenoch Huerta) – to emerge. Stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Michaela Coel and Martin Freeman.
Photo: Disney
Enter Ruben Östlund's Palme d’Or-winning satire with a strong stomach and a robust set of lungs. Triangle of Sadness could have you both laughing and gagging at once.
For the most part, the film takes place on a luxury yacht – supposedly captained by a socialist alcoholic (Woody Harrelson, in a brilliant cameo) and containing the ridiculously wealthy. The vessel turns into a hierarchical class structure, shared with cleaners and cabin crew, before descending into liquid chaos. Östlund pokes fun at these ridiculous realities through his own comical lens, soon reversing the structure to show how useless the rich really are. It’s too long at two-and-a-half hours, but never light on laughs.
Photo: Plattform Produktion
Like his masterful directorial debut In Bruges, Martin McDonagh’s fourth (and perhaps best) film unfolds in a purgatorial locale – a place from which, seemingly, there’s no escape. The fictional island off the Irish west coast in The Banshees of Inisherin wields a close-knit community, which includes best friends Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson). Well, at least they were best friends.
In a nightmarish scenario for the socially anxious, Colm suddenly ghosts his friend before declaring he doesn’t like him anymore. (‘But you liked me yesterday…’ says Pádraic.) The film turns into a dark, funny, absurdist tale of bandaging a friendship – despite horrific warnings from Colm to stay well away.
Photo: Disney
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