Home//Total Film/April 2017/In This Issue
Total Film|April 2017WELCOME TO TOTAL FILM THE SMARTER MOVIE MAGAZINEHappy Birthday to us! Total Film is 20 years old this month – so in-between celebratory drinks and pretending it’s still 1997 (see our pics) we chatted with Scarlett Johansson (12 years old on issue one) about Ghost In The Shell, Tom Hiddleston (15) regards Kong: Skull Island and all the Free Fire gang on set. We caught up with Charlie Hunnam (16) on spiders, snakes and scorpions, Henry Cavill (13) about his beefy new role and Gemma Arterton (11) on all things feminism, as well as remembering the incomparable Carrie Fisher. Back when TF first appeared, I was graduating from uni and hoping to become a film journalist. It’s testament to Total Film’s unswerving integrity, unbridled enthusiasm for all things movies and amazing writing that it’s still here all…1 min
Total Film|April 2017DialogueEMAILtotalfilm@futurenet comWRITE Total Film - Praed Mews London W QY gamesradar com/totalfilm twi ercom/totalfilm facebook com/totalfilm Drop us a line totalfilm@futurenet comSTAR LETTER* A friend of mine loves to watch films on her laptop at home – but as I told her, watching a film in the cinema, especially in IMAX 3D with hundreds of people, is far, far better. Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen The Bye Bye Man (not great, but scary for a 15), Manchester By The Sea, La La Land and Split in packed cinemas. People who watch on a small screen don’t know the fun they’re missing; the best place to see films, good, bad or indifferent, is the cinema.JOHN CURTIS, CIRENCESTERThe communal experience is hard to beat – so long as the commune…5 min
Total Film|April 2017THE BIG LEAGUE‘IT’S AN EXCITING CONCEPT… AND ONLY GETS BETTER WITH OUR INCREDIBLE CAST’ ZACK SNYDERThere’s no denying that DC’s Extended Universe got off to a wobbly cinematic start.Man Of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of JusticeandSuicide Squadwere all greeted with commercial success, but critical disdain. If Zack Snyder can pull this film off, 2017 will be the year that all that changes.The fifth film in the DCEU (following Wonder Woman in June) is the full-blown team-up movie BvS merely teased, and it’s this group dynamic, says Snyder, that will reinvigorate the nascent superhero series. “One of the more rewarding aspects of creating Justice League was having fun exploring the dynamic between this diverse group of larger-than-life characters with disparate backgrounds, ethics and unique perspectives all trying to come together and work…2 min
Total Film|April 2017TOTAL FILM TOP 1001 LA LA LANDNever mind its record-equalling 14 Oscar noms, Damien Chazelle’s delightful musical has danced to the summit of our top 10.02 MANCHESTER BY THE SEA03 TONI ERDMANN04 JACKIEIn Pablo Larrain’s drama set after JFK’s murder, a Chanel-sporting Natalie Portman sizzles as Jackie O – that’s gotta be ‘O’ for Oscar, right?05 A MONSTER CALLS06 T2 TRAINSPOTTING07 HACKSAW RIDGE08 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 209 SILENCEVoters may have ignored Martin Scorsese’s priest pic in this year’s awards season, but we still feel the need to confess (our love for it)10 SPLIT…1 min
Total Film|April 2017YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH: HUGH BONNEVILLEAre you talking to me?I certainly am, though I wish we were doing this face to face, then I could say, “Here’s looking at you, kid.”Do you like what you do for a living, these things you see?When you’re in a magnificent part of India, like Jodhpur, filming in a maharaja’s palace, you think, “It can’t get much better than this.” On the other hand, when you’re in a cold trailer somewhere at the back of Primrose Hill, talking to a stick whose name is Paddington, you don’t see the bright side so much.Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?I have, and his name is Tim McInnerny. I can remember Tim McInnerny dancing like a whirling dervish at his 40th…4 min
Total Film|April 2017JOSH GADWhat’s the first thing you do when you arrive on set?Have a cup of coffee, eat a little egg white omelette with some berries, and I go to the make-up trailer.Are there things you take on set with you?I always like to have a book and my music. Right now, I’m reading the actual Agatha Christie novel itself of Murder On The Orient Express and digging for clues in that. I have very eclectic musical tastes. I really have the sensibility of a 16-year-old girl. I love pop music. I love Drake. I love Katy Perry. I love Taylor. I just love fun music that’s kind of empty calories in the morning.Do you eat a hot or a cold lunch?I try to eat a salad. If I eat too hot…3 min
Total Film|April 2017THE WRITE STUFFIthink I’m in danger of becoming prolific!” laughs Terence Davies. After long periods of inactivity, the veteran British filmmaker behindThe Long Day ClosesandThe House Of Mirthnow has two films inside 12 months – 2015’s literary adaptationSunset Songand up-and-coming Emily Dickinson film,A Quiet Passion. “I don’t question it,” he adds. “I’m just glad it happened.”Davies first encountered American 19th Century poet Dickinson when he was 18, thanks to a TV documentary. “I’d never heard of her,” he says. “I can still remember the first poem – ‘Because I could not stop for death/He kindly stopped for me.’ I went out and read her poems – and I loved them. But I was 18. I never thought I would make films about her. I was still training as an accountant!”Thankfully, having ditched…3 min
Total Film|April 2017SPLIT’S BIG REVEALSPOILER ALERT!Admittedly, you go into an M. Night Shyamalan movie expecting a twist. Since his 1999 breakout hitThe Sixth Sensehad punters gasping in the aisles and endlessly quipping “I see dead people”, the writer-director-producer has made rug-pulls his USP.Split, however, contains one of his most audacious switcheroos yet.It was all going pretty well before that point, too. James McAvoy delivers a tour-de-force performance as the multiple personalities of Kevin, and his physical evolution into ‘the beast’ feels like the Shyamalan twist we were waiting for, ending the film with an adrenaline-pumped climax.But that’s not all. The closing moments show diner patrons comparing news of ‘the beast’ to one Mr. Glass, Unbreakable’s brittle-boned big bad. There to confirm the link? Bruce Willis’ David Dunn! So you weren’t just watching a claustrophobic…2 min
Total Film|April 2017MY MOVIE LIFETHE FIRST MOVIE I EVER SAWWe never went to the cinema very much but I remember seeing a James Bond double bill. One of them was definitely DR. NO and maybe From Russia With Love? Was that a Sean Connery one? It would have been early ’70s so it wasn’t as they were coming out, it was just that there was a double bill and I’d never seen a Bond film. I must have been about five. I have vague memories of the fight on the plane in whichever one that’s in [Goldfinger, perhaps?], but I remember the excitement of going to the cinema.THE FILM THAT ALWAYS MAKES ME CRYI was once watching LOVE ACT UALLY and it made me start crying uncontrollably, but not really to Love Actually. It…3 min
Total Film|April 2017SOUND BYTES“CHRIS NOLAN – WHAT A FANTASTIC DIRECTOR FOR A BOND MOVIE.”Tom Hardy has some ideas for Bond 25.60% The percentage of Ready Player One filmed in mo-cap for the Oasis virtual reality sequences.$307 MILLION Your Name’s worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing anime of all time.“As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, ‘take your broken heart, make it into art.’”Meryl Streep remembers Carrie Fisher in a powerful Golden Globes speech.“[GEORGE LUCAS] SAID, ‘I THOUGHT OF YOU AS ONE OF THE JEDI, BUT YOU’RE MUCH TOO POWERFUL FOR THE PART.’”Brian Blessed as a Jedi? It nearly happened.HERO OF DUNEDirector Denis Villeneuve isn’t leaving sci-fi anytime soon – after Blade Runner 2049 he’ll helm an adaptation of Dune.GOOD THINGBAD THINGR.I.P. WILLIAM PETER BLATTYNovelist/screenwriter/ director William Peter…1 min
Total Film|April 2017MOONLIGHTOUT 17 FEBRUARYAt some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you want to be,” says drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) to Chiron, a 10-year-old boy living in Miami with no father and a crackdependent mother (Naomie Harris). From this brief description, Barry Jenkins’ film might sound like every other ’hood movie. But little about this story of identity, sexuality, class and race is run-of-the-mill.Charting three distinct chapters in the life of Chiron, spanning roughly 16 years, Moonlight is almost impossible to categorise beyond its loose ‘comingof- age’ tropes. Touching on issues of bullying, addiction and, above all, sexual confusion and repression, it’s a superbly crafted piece of work that frequently takes a sledgehammer to the stereotypes too easily associated with African-American cinema.Inspired by Tarell Alvin McCraney’s theatre piece In…2 min
Total Film|April 2017CERTAIN WOMENOUT 3 MARCHAfter inching in the vague direction of the mainstream with the low-key genre thrills ofNight Moves, Kelly Reichardt here makes her most delicate film to date, adapting a trio of stories by Maile Meloy into a graceful snapshot of the everyday lives of three Montana women.Small-town lawyer Laura (Laura Dern) pursues an injury claim for construction worker Fuller (Jared Harris); Gina (Michelle Williams) goes on a camping weekend with her husband (James Le Gros) and moody teenage daughter (Sara Rodier); and a Native American credited only as The Rancher (Lily Gladstone) seeks a connection with Beth (Kristen Stewart), a young law tutor. Between them the tales involve a hostage situation, infidelity and thwarted romance, but the drama is muffled and melancholy, and all the richer for it.Just as…2 min
Total Film|April 2017ELLEOUT 10 MARCHSEE THIS IF YOU LIKED..BETTY BLUE (1986)Based, like Elle, on a novel by French scribe Philippe Djian.BASIC INSTINCT 1992Verhoeven’s biggest hit: sex, violence and lots of controversy.THE PIANO TEACHER 2001Huppert’s scarily enigmatic in Michael Haneke’s dark psychological drama.For more reviews visit gamesradar.com/totalfilmPaul Verhoeven’s double-Golden Globe winner – his first feature in 10 years – starts with a rape. Just the sounds of an assault over a dark screen: cries, blows, the smashing of glass and crockery. The first image we see is the face of a handsome dark-grey cat, watching impassively. Then we see Michèle (Isabelle Huppert), prone and half-exposed on the floor of her sitting room, and a man all in black wearing a ski-mask.Once her attacker is gone, however, she doesn’t weep or call the police.…2 min
Total Film|April 2017THE FOUNDEROUT 17 FEBRUARYIts title oozing more irony than a Big Mac spews gloopy sauce, John Lee Hanco*ck’s finely acted portrait of the McDonald’s empire’s huckster-in-chief needs more vinegar on its fries.Played by Michael Keaton with a perfectly pitched mix of live-wire charm and snake-oil smarm, Ray Kroc didn’t ‘found’ Maccy D’s. A struggling but persistent salesman, Kroc simply wondered why two California brothers wanted to buy his multi-mixers. When he visits Dick (Nick Offerman) and Mac (John Carroll Lynch) McDonald’s folksy but super-efficient, super-popular burger joint, Kroc spawns a “whizz-bang” idea that Hollywood would be proud of: franchise that sh*t. The McDonalds concur, only to eventually lose their baby in the dance with Keaton’s corporate devil.A satire of capitalist can-do thinking lurks in The Wrestler/ Turbo writer Robert D. Siegel’s…2 min
Total Film|April 2017COMING SOONBEAUTY AND THE BEASTOUT 17 MARCHAfter Maleficent ($517m worldwide), Cinderella ($543m) and The Jungle Book ($966m), Disney’s latest live-action-ing of a classic ’toon couldn’t be more of a sure thing if it was subtitled ‘A Star Wars Story’. You know the tale: Beast meets girl, then the entire crockery cupboard puts on a show. Who will steal the most scenes? Ian McKellen’s Cogsworth? Emma Thompson’s Mrs. Potts? Luke Evans looks set to come up trumps as macho moron Gaston, doggedly pursuing Emma Watson’s Belle. And talking of ‘horny’ men, here’s hoping Dan Stevens’ Beast shows us a soul as magnificently rendered as all his other bits and pieces.KONG: SKULL ISLANDOUT 10 MARCHHe’s big, hairy and crazy… but enough about John C. Reilly; the king of monsters is back! Director Jordan…1 min
Total Film|April 2017THE LONG GOODBYEA man walks into a bar, picks an argument with the wrong guy. “No man takes a beating like that without a mark to show for it,” growls the newcomer, goading the stogie-sucking giant who just emerged unscathed from a pulverising screen fight. Several scraps, 17 years, eight films, many cigars and numerous bouncebacks on from his screen arrival, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine might have pulled off another miracle: a fresh, original superhero movie in a market stuffed to the muttonchops with them.In James Mangold’s Logan, the clotted timelines of X-Men: Days Of Future Past and the global meltdown of Apocalypse are gone. The escalating cast-lists and universe-building found in Captain America: Civil War and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice are missing. There’s no sign of the 12A/PG-13 rating granted…8 min
Total Film|April 2017GEMMA ARTERTON“I WASN’T SHOWING WHO I WAS. I WAS GETTING INTO THE MACHINE OF IT. BUT I DON’T REGRET IT. IT’S SWITCHED ME ON”She’s strong, but in a quiet way,” says Gemma Arterton when describing her character in her latest film, Their Finest, over a cup of tea in a Covent Garden hotel. “There’s a very delicate progression that she makes and quite an honest one.” The Gravesend native might well be describing her own carefully navigated development over the last decade, from pin-up ingenue to respected, prolific actor who is vocal about her disapproval of poor female roles in Hollywood movies, proactive in forming her own destiny and unpretentious in her presentation of her ‘brand’.Arterton has always had a ‘can-do’ attitude in all the times Total Film has caught up…19 min
Total Film|April 2017CAPTAIN FANTASTIC 15FILMEXTRASOUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD Extras Making OfSee this if you liked...Witness 1985Mortensen debuted in this drama set in an Amish community.The Mosquito Coast 1986Harrison Ford and son River Phoenix head to the jungle.Inherent Vice 2015P.T. Anderson’s hazy, smoke-ringed battle for America’s soul.He’s royally ace as Peter Jackson’s Aragorn inThe Lord Of The Ringstrilogy and he has twice dug deep into the guts of violent, highly complex men for David Cronenberg (in 2005’sA History Of Violenceand 2007’sEastern Promises, for which he was Oscar nominated). But it is as Ben, a libertarian outdoorsman who’s raising his six children in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, that Viggo Mortensen delivers the performance of his career to date.It is, as the saying goes, the role he was born to play. An excellent…4 min
Total Film|April 2017THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER 12FILMEXTRASOUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Commentary, Short film, Isolated score (BD)As an actor, Brady Corbet has sat conspicuously apart from his peers, preferring gigs for the great European auteurs – Haneke, von Trier – to getting the call from Hollywood. So it’s little surprise that Corbet’s directorial debut shows that his maverick streak and impeccable taste extend behind the camera.On paper, this is a straightforward chamber piece about – as Corbet describes it – “a wayward boy”. Yet the setting, near Paris ahead of 1919’s Treaty of Versailles, gives the tantrums of Prescott (excellent newcomer Tom Sweet, a period-drama Damien Thorn) an allegorical edge. What kind of leader will this budding tyrant become when he’s already making life hell for parents Bérénice Bejo and Liam Cunningham?Right from the…3 min
Total Film|April 2017EXTRASLEGO BATMAN MOVIE PLAYSETSTOYS OUT NOWBoats do not float,” cautions the box for Batcave Break-In: pretty much the only imperfection we’ve found among the new range of Bat-themed play-bricks. Featuring a mighty Batboat vs Duckmobile showdown, Break-In’s the one that’s been stealing most of our weekends (definitely not our working hours, oh no), but we’ve also been fiddling endlessly with The Scuttler (vine monster, net shooter, hidden jetpack). Best title, though, goes to Clayface Splat Attack.BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN AND MONSTER MODEL KITCOLLECTIBLES OUT NOWLove isn’t easy, especially when you’re a literal monster with a reticent better half. This Bride of Frankenstein two-figure model kit features the amorous monster wooing his crazy-haired lady. Comprising 90 pieces, the 1:18 scale model kit features a sculpt by designer Jeff Yagher. The stunning final…2 min
Total Film|April 2017SHERLOCK: SERIES 4 15SHOWEXTRAS2017 OUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Featurettes, Video diariesAsSherlockreturns, Holmes’ co*ckiness is swiftly tested when he gets someone killed. It wouldn’t, surely, run counter to Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s none-more-meta Arthur Conan Doyle overhaul to read this as a reflection on the show’s own issues: Series 3 edged into self-indulgence (terrific climax aside) and 2016’s one-off special looked so smug, it practically screamed “punch me”.Yet just as Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes rediscovers his strengths (solving mysteries, getting wasted) in this three-episode return, so Gatiss/ Moffat reiterate their show’s virtues.True, Series 4 isn’t flawless: Gatiss’ opener over-stretches to delay a twist. But it recovers as that shock challenges both the Holmes/Watson bond and the show, a challenge that Moffat’s second episode rises to vigorously. Riffing on themes of monstrosity…2 min
Total Film|April 2017adapt or dieTo say the recentAssassin’s Creedfilm is one of the better videogame adaptations is to damn it with the faintest of praise. Many critics,TFincluded, thought this might be the one to finally break the game-to-film curse. The calibre of talent involved (Macbeth’s triumvirate of Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard and director Justin Kurzel, not to mention support from the likes of Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Charlotte Rampling) certainly suggested so. With hindsight, we should probably have been paying closer attention to screenwriter Adam Cooper, whose recent CV boasts copper-bottomed non-classics such asThe Transporter Refuelledand the anaemicAllegiant. It’s one thing to take an adaptation of popular material seriously, quite another to treat pulpy lore with such humourless reverence.Yet not all of the blame can be apportioned to the script – and Assassin’s…3 min
Total Film|April 2017THE MOVIESBRIT-FILM BOOMTrainspotting was a year old when TF launched; Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels would arrive a year later. The British were coming, moving away from the twin staples of period films and social realism to prepare the way for the current Brit New Wave of Wheatley, McQueen, Arnold, Barnard, Hogg, Glazer, Strickland et al. Film4 Productions flexed, Big Talk Productions and Warp Films became players, and facilities swelled as Leavesden Studios opened in 2012 and Pinewood Studios started its expansion in 2015.FOUND IN TRANSLATIONIn our lifetime we’ve witnessed foreign-language films transform from arty student staple to mainstream option: see Amélie, Crouching Tiger, Studio Ghibli.ACTION RE-BOURNEMatt Damon was the era’s definitive action hero: a smart everyman with inventive moves, political relevance and camera-shaking intensity.12A ARRIVESThe Bourne Identity was the…3 min
Total Film|April 2017OR ARE ALL MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE MOVIES THE SAME?Marvel does it again!” squealed the early reviews forDoctor Strange. And that, old friends, is entirely the problem. Though neither expert nor aficionado, I’ve seen nine out of the 14 MCU films to date, including bothAvengers(though I could barely finish Age Of Bloat-ron), the “good” one (Guardians Of The Galaxy), 1.5 Captain Americas and innumerable Iron Men. Frankly, even if Marvel pres Kevin Feige isn’t done, I certainly am.Shiny, samey and surprisingly cheap-looking, the films are increasingly hard to tell apart from each other – as are the villains. Is that Ultron or the Destroyer? A Chitauri or a Dark Elf? Tom Hiddleston with stupid plastic horns or Lee Pace with mascara issues? And the heroes don’t fare much better. Forever popping up in each other’s movies, there are so…2 min
Total Film|April 2017DEBBIE REYNOLDSWe watchedSingin’ In The Rainevery day for inspiration,” saidLa La Land’s Ryan Gosling in tribute to golden-age star Debbie Reynolds, who died aged 84 on 28 December, one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher. The 1952 musical had rocketed the Texas-born Mary Frances Reynolds to stardom, after success in a beauty contest led her into the Warner Bros and then MGM studio system, giving her five credits and one perky chart hit (‘Aba Daba Honeymoon’, fromTwo Weeks With Love) previously.Although Reynolds had no dance experience, she worked hard under Gene Kelly’s precision guidance (with additional tips from a certain Fred Astaire). The result was a musical of immeasurable pep, which she followed with versatile, often comic roles alongside Frank Sinatra in The Tender Trap, Bette Davis in The Catered Affair,…1 min
Total Film|April 2017DIRTY DANCINGHERE’S JOHNNYIt’s the end-of-season show at Catskills resort Kellerman’s, and ‘Baby’ Houseman (Jennifer Grey) is sitting with parents Jake (Jerry Orbach) and Marjorie (Kelly Bishop). Dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) has other ideas though. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner!” he declares, before pulling her up on stage.STAGE INVASION“Sorry about the disruption, folks,” Johnny tells the audience. “But I always do the last dance of the season!” He then informs the stunned crowd that he’s going to do “my kind of dancing with a great partner… somebody who’s taught me about the kind of person I want to be”.UNCHAINED MEDLEYThe routine that follows was originally performed to a demo of ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’ by Rachele Cappelli and songwriter Franke Previte. Only after shooting was it…2 min
Total Film|April 2017CALL SHEETMATT MAYTUMFEATURES EDITORSaw some amazing new films at Sundance this year But it’s Robert Redford who still creates a major buzz when he stomps around LegendJORDAN FARLEYNEWS EDITORFloored by footage from Alien Covenant One scene was enough to convince me it’s going to be the scariest and ickiest Alien sinceJAMIE GRAHAMEDITOR-AT-LARGEIt was fun comparing facial hair with the Free Fire cast They all wanted to rock a handlebar mustache but Michael Smiley got there first and bagsied the lookMATTHEW LEYLANDREVIEWS EDITORVery much enjoyed Danny Boyle’s intro to the T press screening when he revealed the cast’s earnest on-set pleas “This better not be sh*te Danny ”…1 min
Total Film|April 2017TOTALFILMONLINE@TOTALFILMUP CLOSE WITH ROBERT REDFORDhttp://bit.ly/2jVkUlsOur first day at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and who do we bump into? Only the A-list legend that founded it! But why so serious? Either it was something we said, or someone had stolen all the chairs.NEW LOGAN TRAILERhttp://bit.ly/2kppHZq“About damn time we had an R-rated Wolverine movie,” said @ Cheetara800m, echoing the views of many. New mutant X-23 went down particularly well.BLAIR WITCH BISCUIThttp://bit.ly/2jZ8QQFMarking the woodland sorceress’ Blu-ray bow, Friday 13th brought us a spooky cookie in the form of a Blair Witch stick figure. The ‘rope’, ‘dirt’ and press release were all edible. Culinary witchcraft!LEMONY SNICKET CAKEhttp://bit.ly/2kobTm3Celebrating the launch of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Netflix whipped up “a horrible gift” that was nothing of the sort. The ‘bite mark’ was in fact…1 min
Total Film|April 2017WOODY HARRELSONEver wondered where Han Solo got his flyboy chops from? An answer is coming in the shape of Woody Harrelson. After earning his franchise spurs inThe Hunger Gamesand the imminentWar For The Planet Of The Apes, the formerCheersbarman will (probably) prop up spaceport bars in another franchise heavyweight, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s as-yet-untitled Han SoloStar Warsanthology movie.Whether Harrelson is fast enough to out-run Imperial slugs seems undoubtable, going by his recent rapid-fire work-rate. He’s just directed one-take movie Lost In London, based on his tipsy run-in with police in 2002, plus starring roles due in 2017 offer an indie-cred spread, ranging from Martin (In Bruges) McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to Destin (ShortTerm 12) Cretton’s The Glass Castle and graphic-novel adap Wilson.But first, we’ll see his Colonel confronting…1 min
Total Film|April 2017GREAT EGG-SPECTATIONSChestbursters? Old news. Say hello to the backburster, an embryo that grows into new nasty, the neomorph. Rumours suggest we’ll see neos bursting out of other body parts too. Gross.Colonists haven’t had the best of luck in the Alien series, and the crew of colony ship the Covenant aren’t seeming likely to buck that trend after settling on Engineer home planet Paradise.Michael Fassbender pulls double duties as android David and new “artificial person” Walter. Quite what David is doing about his missing body remains to be seen, but it’s likely he’ll cause trouble.In an exchange reminiscent of Alien, Daniels (Katherine Waterston) questions captain Billy Crudup’s surface excursion. If the instantly familiar eggs they find are anything to go by, her wariness is valid.Back on Paradise, the crew of the Covenant…1 min
Total Film|April 2017INDEPENDENT SPIRITMANIFESTO“I am writing a manifesto because I have nothing to say,” Cate Blanchett declares at the start of this mesmerising, absurd and hilarious artistic experiment, in which she morphs into 13 different characters to recite the cultural musings of creatives and scholars such as Jim Jarmusch, André Breton and Claes Oldenburg. Playing a homeless man, a punk, a newsreader, a puppeteer and many others, Blanchett is nothing short of hypnotic, lending her signature gravitas and levity to German artist Julian Rosefeldt’s feature debut. Even more impressive – it was shot in just 11 days. Weird, challenging and unforgettable.INGRID GOES WESTAubrey Plaza flies over the cuckoo’s nest in this sharp (anti-)social media dramedy, which blends Election-style humour with the darkness of Girl, Interrupted. She’s both hilarious and horrifying as unhinged loner…2 min
Total Film|April 2017IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALISTTHIS MONTH WASTED ACCESSLast week, I was trawling Amazon when I stumbled upon the German disc forThe Zombie King. Not heard of it? The same would go for me, had I not been on set in Somerset in 2013, stood amid clucking chickens as I tried to interview a disengaged Edward Furlong and catch even a glimpse of the movie’s other ‘star’, Corey Feldman.Furlong, a sweet guy, mumbled staccato answers and concluded each hanging sentence with, “Rock ’n’ roll, man, rock ’n’ roll.” Feldman, meanwhile, repeatedly postponed our talk via a morning nap, a never-ending shower, a protracted costume fitting and a late-afternoon doze, before finally allowing me access to his trailer at 7pm. Still, it all made for lovely background colour… or would’ve done had this dire horror-comedy (I…3 min
Total Film|April 2017ALLISON WILLIAMSHaving rocketed to stardom as uptight princess Marnie in Lena Dunham’s critically acclaimed comedy dramaGirls, Allison Williams is about to add a movie career to her list of conquests. Her first project? A racially charged horror from comedy powerhouse Jordan Peele. “I’m open to anything,” she smiles. “With me, it’s always a 180, because I like to keep myself on my toes.”How did you get involved inGet Out?My agent told me Jordan had me in mind for Rose. I was nervous because a lot of what I’d been sent was different versions of Marnie. By the time I was done with the script I knew it had to be my first movie, because it’s surprising and different, and I thought it had the potential to challenge audiences.Could you identify with…2 min
Total Film|April 2017UNDER EXAMINATIONCristian Mungiu’s latest film,Graduation, began with a real-life incident. “There was this case I took from the press,” he explains. “This girl who was attacked, raped in the middle of Bucharest. And before she was raped, she was dragged on the street for half an hour between people and nobody interfered.” In Mungiu’s eyes, it said a lot about modern society. “We live among people but we just care about ourselves.”With the Romanian writer-director employing the austere approach he took for his Palme d’Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days, Graduation begins as Cluj-based 18-year-old Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) is sexually assaulted in broad daylight, the day before her final school exams. A star pupil, she has a scholarship offer from a British university, depending on her results. But after…2 min
Total Film|April 2017LIFE’S A WITCHSomewhere on a backstreet industrial estate in Cardiff, stuck between a recycling centre and a go-kart track,Teasershas stumbled through a portal to Hell. Stooping through a black cave, banging our head on swinging cages and rusty chains, the darkness reveals body parts stacked against the walls, ominous pits of fire, and a big hairy Spanish bloke in a dressing gown pretending to be a witch.Directed by Caradog James (The Machine), Don’t Knock Twice is pitched as an indie-horror with something to say. It casts Katee Sackhoff as a messed-up single mum who abandons her only daughter (Lucy Boynton) right before an evil child-stealing she-demon throws an ancient curse into the mix.“These aren’t blondes running away. These are strong women dealing with complex issues,” says James, referencing a dozen influences from…3 min
Total Film|April 2017JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2CERTIFICATE TBC DIRECTOR Chad Stahelski STARRING Keanu Reeves, Ruby Rose, Ian McShane, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio SCREENPLAY Derek Kolstad DISTRIBUTOR Warner Bros RUNNING TIME 122 minsOUT 17 FEBRUARYWhenJohn Wickarrived in 2014, it took everyone by surprise. Delivering a rabbit punch to the action genre’s solar plexus, this sharp mix of gun-fu fight choreography and New York noir offered Keanu Reeves yet another career rebirth, just asThe Matrixdid in 1999. Directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, former stunt doubles who worked with Reeves on that seminal Wachowskisdirected sci-fi, it was the sort of lean, mean actioner that had rarely been seen since John Woo’s Hong Kong heyday (The Killer,Hard Boiled).SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED…THE KILLER (1989)John Woo’s classic tale of doublecrossing assassins.THE MATRIX (1999)Reeves and Fishburne’s first team-up was…4 min
Total Film|April 2017T2 TRAINSPOTTINGOUT NOWOn paper, it looks like a scam. The sort of take-the-money-and-run job Renton (Ewan MacGregor) pulled at the end of Danny Boyle’s 1996 era-defining masterpiece. Get the gang – director Boyle, novelist Irvine Welsh, screenwriter John Hodge, producer Andrew Macdonald and a cast now more used to Hollywood than Holyrood – back together; loosely adapt another of Irvine Welsh’s junk epics (this time,p*rno), and retire on the attendant millions. Or maybe not.SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED…TRAINSPOTTING 1996Iggy Pop, Dale Winton and The Worst Toilet In Scotland = Brit classic.HUMAN TRAFFIC 1999Warmest and wittiest of the post-Trainspotting Brit flicks. Nice one bruva!24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE 2002Madchester’s musical history becomes a brilliantly meta comedy.FOR MORE REVIEWS VISIT GAMESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILMFor 20 years, T2 was the elephant in the room, the gang perhaps mindful…3 min
Total Film|April 2017HIDDEN FIGURESOUT 17 FEBRUARYA warm helping of family-friendly feelgood history, this well-played, empowering drama celebrates African-American maths whizzes Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson’s true-life contributions to the US space programme.Employed as lowly ‘computers’, hand-checking calculations in 1961’s race-segregated NASA, all three friends battle to join the all-white team that’s racing to beat the Russians into space. Taraji P. Henson’s dignified Katherine struggles with a bristling boss (Kevin Costner), hostile colleagues and ingrained racism to put her analytical geometry skills towards John Glenn’s 1962 Earth orbit. Friend Dorothy (tenacious Octavia Spencer) wants to programme the men-only IBM computer that baffles NASA eggheads. And Mary (a rebellious Janelle Monáe) can’t get on whitesonly engineering courses without taking on local courts.Uplifting but not schmaltzy, Theodore Melfi’s (St. Vincent) film is no maths-laden…2 min
Total Film|April 201720TH CENTURY WOMENOUT 10 FEBRUARYShort on plot, but long on heart, Mike Mills’ well-crafted coming-of-age tale is a tender, semi-autobiographical love letter to his late mother, making a matching pair withBeginners(2010), his deft fictional portrait of his gay father’s coming out.Mills is gifted with a blazingly smart and feisty turn from Annette Bening as doughty older single mum Dorothea, who enlists punky artist lodger Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and wild-child schoolgirl Julie (Elle Fanning) to help her troubled teenager Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) become a man.Part of the film’s charm lies in its note-perfect recreation of ’70s California, at the tail-end of the hippie era. But its warmth comes from its uniformly nuanced performances, especially Gerwig’s wounded intensity, and Fanning’s fear beneath the bad-girl bravado. If the dialogue’s a tad glib (“Wondering if…2 min
Total Film|April 2017BOX OFFICE CHARTSASSASSIN’S CREEDUnderwhelming box office, mostly negative reviews… alas, the Leap of Faith seems to have resulted in Planting of Face. On the other hand, it did dodge any Razzie nods. Silver lining!SPLITEverybody’s talking about that ending: when the audience reveals this is their favourite Shyamalan flick in years and are ready to forgive The Happening. Maybe not The Last Airbender, mind.SINGFifteen per cent of the budget reportedly went on the soundtrack; 65 on other production costs and 20 on poop scoops. Turns out the elephant was really nervous about singing.FENCESOdd how terrific films sometimes have the blandest titles (see also: Room) and vice versa. Not that we’re saying Strippers Vs Werewolves would’ve been a better fit for Denzel’s movie, obvs.LA LA LANDCould become the first Best Picturewinning musical since 2002’s…1 min
Total Film|April 2017RAGE J AGAINST THE MACHINEJust agreeing to doGhost In The Shell, I put the noose around my neck,” laughs Rupert Sanders. TheSnow White And The Huntsmandirector is joking (we hope), but there’s a kernel of truth to the sentiment. It’s January 2017, and in less than three months, Sanders’ name will forever be emblazoned on an American remake of the revered ’95 anime that James Cameron called “a stunning work of speculative fiction” and “the first truly adult animation to reach a level of literary and visual excellence”. No pressure, then. But if anyone knows about expectations, it’s Sanders. “The biggest fear was that people who know the anime will go, ‘It’s sh*t.’ That kept me awake all night, becauseIwas one of those people.”Taking the briefest of respites from the film’s intense post-production schedule,…15 min
Total Film|April 2017BLADES OF GORYKNIVES OUTX-MENFor their initial sighting, Wolverine’s claws had to make an impression. And they do: when some numb-nuts pulls a knife on him, Logan’s blades slide from his knuckles in sizzling, steaming, X-treme close-up. And when a barman trains a gun on him, Wolverine slices the barrels in two. No words needed.SHARP WITX-MENWhenever the X-saga risks flirting with pomposity, the bubble needs to be pricked. Jackman got good at this nice and early. Introduced to the spherical majesty of Cerebro, Logan looks on it with due amazement before killing the pan stone dead. “Well,” he quips, “it certainly is a big, round room.”TOOTH AND CLAWX-MEN“Hey bub,” snarks Wolverine, kicked senseless by Sabretooth, “I’m not finished with you yet.” High on the Statue of Liberty, the Sabretooth/ Wolverine ruckus plays like…3 min
Total Film|April 2017THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KINGAnother rainy day in Los Angeles,” sighs Charlie Hunnam, wistfully looking at the grey cloud front blocking out the traditionally blue California skies. “It’s been raining pretty much consistently for the last few weeks, which is much needed. A nice change from the monopoly of sunshine every day! I grew up for most of my childhood in the Lake District, where it rained about 200 days of the year, so I’m not afraid of a rainy day.”Despite this yearning for our inclement weather, and an accent that hasn’t lost its Anglo-origins, it can be easy to forget the 36-year-old Hunnam is English. Blue eyes, blond hair, ripped body – he could easily pass for a Californian surfer. And he’s been living in LA since 1998, “my base my whole adult…8 min
Total Film|April 2017FIVE STAR TURNSST. TRINIAN’s 2007A modern-day update of the cartoon about a riotous bunch of schoolgirls, a blackbobbed Arterton made an immediate impact as domineering head girl, Kelly Jones.THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED 2009Handcuffed naked to a bed, Arterton bared her soul as the victim of an abduction in this controversial kidnap drama. “It’s not a pretty film,” she said. “That’s why I wanted to do it.”BYZANTIUM 2012Post her so-so Hollywood sojourn, Arterton sizzled in this stylish seaside vampire yarn as single mother Clara – “a woman who sells her body and also ends up killing people”.THE VOICES 2014Offered the leading lady for this bizarre comedy, Arterton chose instead to play a decapitated talking head in a fridge. “I just wanted to be a bit silly,” she said.THE GIRL WITH ALL THE…1 min
Total Film|April 2017DON’T BREATHE 15FILMEXTRASOUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Commentary, Deleted/Extended scenesLast year was a great one for horror – perhaps because what was happening in the real world was so horrendous. Often, as inUnder The Shadow,Green Room,10 Cloverfield LaneandBaskin, the films showed people trapped by evil forces beyond their control – clearly a situation to which many could relate.Directed by Fede Álvarez, who made 2013’s fiendish Evil Dead remake, this home-invasion thriller is as perfectly timed as it is calibrated. It’s a deliciously simple set-up: three house-breakers (including one whose dad runs a burglar-alarm firm) plan to rob Stephen Lang’s blind army vet when they hear he’s hiding a fortune – but that’s not all he’s hiding…Set in the same decayed Detroit as It Follows and Only Lovers Left Alive, the…6 min
Total Film|April 2017BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA 18FILMEXTRAS1974 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentaries, Documentary, Lecture, Songs, BookletThough some would nominate 1977’s James Coburn-led WW2 dramaCross Of Iron, most agree that this bleak, savage and defiant picture is Sam Peckinpah’s last hoorah. The booze and brutal run-ins with studios had started to take their toll, but the director stood tall for one final, bloody battle before his career began winding down.Bring Me The Head… begins with a young pregnant woman in repose by a lake. But that’s your lot as far as tranquillity goes. The woman’s marched before her fat-cat industrialist father (Emilio Fernández) and brutalised until she gives up the name of the unborn child’s father: Alfredo Garcia. A price of a million dollars is put on Garcia’s head and a pair of bounty hunters (Gig Young,…2 min
Total Film|April 2017travel chaosBehind the scenes of E4’s gap-year-com, Foreign Bodies…“I did a gap year back in 1999,” explains Basden. “I remember not having any idea what I was meant to be doing. Even in the first flushes of getting drunk, I had the sense that I hadn’t lived long enough to know how to enjoy myself properly. The world of travel has really changed: there’s this enormous pressure on young people to make the most of their time and money. That was a meaty enough subject to justify spending time with these characters, without it being a collection of piss-ups and tuk-tuk rides.”These characters may make an unlikely quartet, yet they’re instantly familiar gap-year stereotypes whose depths are only revealed over time. Dylan (newcomer Anders Hayward) is an annoying pseud, but –…4 min
Total Film|April 2017fresh spinsROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORYDrafted in at short notice, Michael Giacchino tools up nicely for the Rebellion. The melodies aren’t quite John Williams-class, but welcome reserves of Williams homage light up ‘Krennic’s Aspirations’, among others. Elsewhere, the military attack-mode pieces brim with brassy bluster and the emo-alternatives soar: ‘Your Father Would Be Proud’ would make wampas weep.WESTWORLD: SEASON 1Composer Ramin Djawadi (Game Of Thrones) makes a potentially clever-clever idea sing for TV’s Michael Crichton upgrade. Haunting orch-tronic original cues and ‘western-ised’ covers (Morricone thrust, sloshed piano, dying squeezebox) of pop/ rock classics are carefully blended: ‘Paint It Black’ gallops with gusto, ‘No Surprises’ fits the cowpoke context like spray-on chaps and ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ emotes beautifully.…1 min
Total Film|April 2017SANTA CLARITA DIETSHOW2017 AVAILABLE NOW | NETFLIXIf there’s one truth in television right now, it’s that shows will always find new ways to tell stories about the undead. And this Netflix original series about a zombielike suburban mum really does feel genuinely, well, original. Its atonal clash between quirky comedy and repulsive bloodiness, all set against the backdrop of a sunny LA community, makes for refreshingly funny, if occasionally disorientating, viewing.A strong stomach for shock grossouts is needed early on, as Drew Barrymore’s realtor Sheila suddenly projectile vomits mid-sentence before dying and mysteriously waking up again with a penchant for human flesh. Along with materialistic husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and acerbic teenage daughter Abby (Liv Hewson), Sheila gets caught up in a chain of gruesome events while trying to satisfy her most…2 min
Total Film|April 2017THE TECHDISC ANALYSISDVD and Blu-ray might soon be supplanted by streaming, but discs have dominated the past 20 years, with featurettes, commentaries and, yep, scene selection.BOXSET BINGESIn 1997, you watched one episode per week. Thanks to DVD boxsets and later Netflix, binge-watching sessions became the norm.ART OF THE TEASETrailers nowadays offer spoilers, teaser-teases and TMI. While The Phantom Menace trailer launched with The Siege (!), The Force Awakens hit laptops.TIME OUTBum-numbing running times now come as standard. What was the last tentpole you saw that clocked in under 90 mins?BIG SMALL SCREENSThe size of ‘small’ screens has changed drastically, from 60-inch flatscreens in living rooms to smartphones/tablets viewed on the go.New dimensionsIn our lifetime, 3D had a huge revival, thanks to Avatar. Interest has waned, but 4DX experiences continue to intrigue.CINEMA…1 min
Total Film|April 2017TOP 10 FOOT CHASESPOINT BREAKHomaged so lovingly in Hot Fuzz, Kathryn Bigelow’s Reeves and Reagan run-off is the gold standard of movie foot chases. From its flame-thrower start, through alleys, gardens, a pile of washing and a dog, to the LA viaduct and that firing into the air moment, it’s sublime.THE BOURNE ULTIMATUMHaving already redefined the action-thriller genre with its bruising shakycam, Bourne saved its tautest set-piece for the threequel, with Matt Damon balcony-jumping his way across Tangiers in pursuit of hitman Desh (Joey Ansah).CASINO ROYALEKicking off his 007 tenure with a sturdy nod to Jason Bourne, Daniel Craig hotfoots it after parkour pioneer Sébastien Foucan. Showing a brazen disregard for hard hat rules, the pair monkey-man their way around a Madagascan building site’s girders and cranes.THE THIRD MANRobert Krasker won his Cinematography…2 min
Total Film|April 2017THE DUNKIRK DEVASTATION IN ATONEMENTCharred skies, ragged sails, drunken sailors staggering across shrapnel-scorched sands... Joe Wright’sAtonementreaches its bathetic pinnacle on the beaches of Dunkirk, where James McAvoy’s shell-shocked Robbie sleepwalks through a waking nightmare of colour-bleached horror.The scene was originally envisioned as a complicated series of shots that captured the full terror of the Battle of Dunkirk. With just one day to shoot at Redcar beach in Yorkshire, though, Wright opted for a single, unbroken, five-minute take, meticulously planned but a mammoth task for all involved – not least Steadicam operator Peter Robertson, who shouldered a Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL and hopped on and off a golf-cart-style ‘mule’ vehicle to navigate the location. “It was a case of necessity being the mother of invention,” says Wright, who deployed over 1,000 extras and rehearsed for…2 min
Total Film|April 2017CZECH NEW WAVEDuring the 1960s, until half a million Warsaw Pact troops invaded the country to quash reforms in August 1968, Czechoslovakia sought to introduce liberal amendments to the communist regime. Students of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) threw off social-realist strictures to unleash a volley of subversive films thrumming with absurdism, surrealism and midnight-black humour.Like the French New Wave, the Czech movement experimented with form and narrative, but was state funded (meaning higher production values) and frequently turned to literature for inspiration. The period proved startlingly fertile, ranging from Milos Forman’s docu-infused dramedy The Loves Of A Blonde to V?era Chytilová’s avant-garde explosion of madcap images, Daisies, to lyrical horror Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders.While Czech-language films dominate, key Slovak entries…2 min
Total Film|April 2017THE TF BRAIN 1997EASY1. Which well-loved trilogy was re-released in a series of Special Editions?2. In which blockbuster would you find the Heart Of The Ocean?3. Which Jurassic Park star did not return for sequel The Lost World? a) Jeff Goldblum b) Sam Neill c) Richard Attenborough4. Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch was adapted as which Tarantino movie?5. Which caper saw its heroines travelling in a Union flag-emblazoned bus driven by Meat Loaf?MEDIUM1. The stars of A Fish Called Wanda reunited for which zoo-based comedy?2. Which dim-witted BFFs together attended their 10-year High School Reunion?3. Who replaced Keanu Reeves to play the male lead in Speed 2: Cruise Control?4. Who did American ‘shock jock’ Howard Stern play in comedy Private Parts?5. If J is Will Smith and K is Tommy Lee Jones, then…1 min
Total Film|April 201760 Second ScreenplaySPOILER ALERT!FADE IN:TITLE CARD: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…AUDIENCEOi, who nicked John Williams’ music? The opening crawl? The words “Star” and “Wars”, FFS? Thieving Rebel bastards!EXT: PLANET LAH’MUImperial weasel BEN MENDELSOHN lands with his squad of deathtroopers, who are every bit as useless as regular stormtroopers, but taller.BEN MENDELSOHNCaptain Lanky – have your men locate all hedges and peer over them. Hey, DADS MIKKELSEN! Come back and finish my Death Star!DADS MIKKELSENI told ya, I gotta wait six weeks’ delivery for them tiles, and Mick the plasterer’s still busy wiv Mr. Vader’s en suite. Any chance of a brew?BEN MENDELSOHN’s Giraffes of Doom shoot the place up while DADS talks to MINI FELICITY JONES.DADS MIKKELSENRun, Felicity! Run like Ben told Luke to run! Like a…3 min
Total Film|April 2017TOTAL FILM WINGMANdear wingmanI watched the 1992 WW2 spy film Shining Through recently and absolutely adored it! Loved the plot and performances. Then I went to the IMDb to rate it and saw all the hate. It won Razzies for Worst Picture, Director and Actress and was nominated for Worst Actor and Screenplay! I couldn’t believe it. I found Michael Douglas magnificent and Melanie Griffith at least decent. What do you think? JIMMY KOLOKATHIS, VIA EMAILWingman sayS...Not to rub it in, but the film also won Worst Picture at The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, which we didn’t even know was a thing. But so what? Haters gonna hate. Your takeaway was enjoyment, so you win. As for us, we’ll say that we’ve seen worse and leave it diplomatically at that. Question/confession for…1 min
Total Film|April 2017SICK BOYThe world is not well. Five minutes in front of the news will tell you that. But when the placebo effect of detoxing, oxygen shots and the latest health craze no longer helps, where will people turn? That’s the question thatPirates Of The Caribbeandirector Gore Verbinski and hisLone Rangerscribe Justin Haythe found themselves asking. “It’s a great con, I think,” the softly spoken Verbinski says over the phone. “You’re not well, but there’s a cure. You get caught in a loop. It’s playing upon hope. But, of course, nobody ever gets better.”Emerging from discussions about Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain, which “deals with people clutching onto their sickness like a badge, before the outbreak of World War One”, Verbinski’s latest is set in and around a mysterious ‘wellness’…5 min
Total Film|April 2017HEAVY HITTEREver since he garnered rave reviews for his turn as a slimeball pimp in 2006’sLondon To Brighton, Baftanominated Johnny Harris has been trading in tough, tender, truthful performances – even as one of the seven dwarves inSnow White And The Huntsman.His writing debut, Jawbone, is no exception. Digging deep into Jimmy McCabe (Harris), it tracks the tentative journey of this ex-boxing champ as he seeks help for the one fight he can’t win – against the bottle. Turning up at his old gym, he tries to get back into a semblance of shape for an underground fight, and leans on gym owner Bill (Ray Winstone) and cornerman Eddie (Michael Smiley) to mentor him.“I was a national champion as a 16-year-old, so the club and the people within it… this is…2 min
Total Film|April 2017FUTURE FANTASTICThe 35-year gap betweenBlade Runnerand its sequel is almost over (‘just’ eight months to go), and if anticipation wasn’t at fever pitch already (it was), it went positively radioactive when the first trailer dropped a few days before Christmas.A mix of the familiar (murky neo-noir streets, flying cars, a strong hint of Vangelis’ iconic score in Jóhan Jóhannsson’s thrilling music) and the new (snow instead of rain, vast desertscapes as we venture beyond the limits of future-LA), it offers a mesmerising glimpse of a new blade runner, LA cop K (Ryan Gosling), questing for Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who’s been missing for the last 30 years.Finding him, it seems, is key to staving off some imminent threat that might just plunge this teetering society into even deeper chaos. “I did…2 min
Total Film|April 2017MAKING A STANDFilm-making isn’t inherently political, but in the hands of former film critic turned writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho, the simple act of storytelling forced an entire nation to sit up and take note. “As a cinephile, I’m aware that films sometimes become something… more,” Filho tellsTeasersin December, after a whirlwind 2016. “This clearly happened toAquariusin Brazil.”Filho’s Neighbouring Sounds follow-up drew the Brazilian government’s ire at the 2016 Cannes film festival. With the eyes of the world on the Croisette, director and cast used the film’s red carpet premiere to protest against the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff with placards reading, “Brazil is experiencing a coup d’état.”It wasn’t opportunism. The story of a 65-year-old former music critic who refuses to leave her apartment despite sinister strong arm tactics by property developers had…2 min
Total Film|April 2017FOLLOWING SUITReal, grounded, kinetic,” is how Dean Israelite describes the action sequences onPower Rangers– his big budget reboot of the campy kids show. He is, of course, aware that these aren’t words usually associated with a property better known for its dodgy sets and blokes in rubber suits kung fu-ing the heck out of each other.This Power Rangers will be both faithful and fresh, insists Israelite when Teasers meets him on set. Citing Amblin movies as influences, he describes the film as, “A coming of age story. The journey of these five kids becoming the Power Rangers is also the journey of them growing up.”The new film winds the story right back to 1993’s original Mighty Morphin TV series. Set in the Californian town of Angel Grove (in reality Vancouver and…2 min
Total Film|April 2017OCCULT APPEALWowing festival audiences around the globe,The Love Witchpresents beautiful witch Elaine (Samantha Robinson), who wants only to find true love and believes a woman should fulfil a man’s every fantasy. Retrograde bullsh*t? Not a bit of it – Elaine creates potions to ensure men fall for her charms, but the clueless lugs invariably disappoint and wind up dead.Anna Biller is the talent behind The Love Witch’s writing, directing, editing, set designs and costumes, and, glowing as the write-ups have been, she’s not happy. “People say I’m pastiche-ing Russ Meyer, Jess Franco or Mario Bava, but I don’t really know their work because I think so little of it,” she sighs. “My influences are actually highbrow – Josef von Sternberg, Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, French Symbolist theatre – but people interpret them…2 min
Total Film|April 2017SHORT CUTSNEIL BEFORE GOSWhiplashwünderkind Damien Chazelle has settled on his first post-La La Landproject: a biopic of the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.La La’s leading man Ryan Gosling will step into the Moon boots of Armstrong between 1961 and 1969 for a “visceral first-person account” of the sacrifices required to survive one of mankind’s most dangerous missions.Spotlight’s Josh Singer will pen the script based on James R. Hansen’s bookFirst Man: The Life Of Neil A. Armstrong.MARRIED TO THE MOBSteven Knight’sEastern Promisessequel,Body Cross, is finally moving ahead. Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen will reprise their roles as, respectively, Russian underboss Kirill and henchman Nikolai, though screenwriter Knight is thought to be inheriting directorial duties from David Cronenberg. The sequel will again shoot in London and is, says Knight, “much better…1 min
Total Film|April 2017KEVIN SMITHNew Jersey motormouth Kevin Smith, 46, embodied the ’90s US indie scene with films such asClerksandChasing Amy. He’s now back in the convenience store withYoga Hosers, the second of his ‘True North’ trilogy after 2014’s horror-comedyTusk. Starring Smith’s own daughter Harley Quinn and Lily-Rose Depp as two shop-girls battling Nazi sausages, you won’t have seen the like before…WithTuskand nowYoga Hosers, are you firmly into your Midnight Movie phase?Most people do it in reverse. They start in exploitation films, then do a little TV directing, then move onto features. You work yourself up a ladder. I made Clerks and suddenly I was a filmmaker. Everyone said, “You’re a director!” Now I’m going backwards. I didn’t get to do weird, experimental fun sh*t – I just made movies I could make, like…3 min
Total Film|April 2017THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIEOUT 10 FEBRUARYJust when it appeared we’d reached peak superhero, those wily folks at Warner Bros find another way to re-package the Caped Crusader and the other denizens of the DC Comics stable – one that also manages to ally them to the world’s most popular toy brand. (Ker-ching!) The result is a riotous follow-up to 2014’sThe Lego Movie.It also goes some way towards dispelling the lingering stink from last year’s Dawn Of Justice and Suicide Squad disappointments, films this one has no qualms about adding to its list of satirical victims. (“Get criminals to fight criminals? That’s a stupid idea!” mutters Batman at one point.)Marvel too gets its fair share of ribbing (check out the the password required to enter the Batcave), as do the conventions of superhero movies…2 min
Total Film|April 2017PATRIOTS DAYSEE THIS IF YOU LIKED..OMAGH 2004A heartrending look at the Troubles’ single-worst atrocity.UNITED 93 2006Passengers fight back in Paul Greengrass’ hijack drama.THE KINGDOM 2007US agents face terrorism in Saudi in Peter Berg’s thriller.FOR MORE REVIEWS VISIT GA MESRADAR.COM/TOTALFILMOUT 23 FEBRUARYMark Wahlberg and Peter Berg have carved out a niche as re-constructors of real-life disasters, from a Navy Seal op in 2014’sLone Survivorto the BP oil spill in last year’sDeepwater Horizon.Patriots Dayups the ante by dramatising the terrorist attack on the 2013 Boston Marathon and the manhunt that followed. The result is a tense slice of faction that nonetheless raises questions about how, and indeed if, events like these should be presented on screen.Like Deepwater, Patriots begins with breakfast. Not just in the home of Tommy Saunders (Wahlberg), a Boston cop…2 min
Total Film|April 2017PREVENGELOVE OF MY LIFEOUT 17 FEBRUARYTaking its cue from the blasé attitude of protagonist Grace (Anna Chancellor) on learning she may have only five days to live, this comedy-drama elicits chortles aplenty with its gently caustic humour despite the dark subject matter. Events spiral when Grace’s ex-husband Richard (John Hannah) appears, making her wonder; is he, or current husband (James Fleet), the love of her life? Stephen PuddicombeSWEET DREAMSOUT 24 FEBRUARYMiddle-aged journalist Massimo (Valerio Mastandrea) remains deeply troubled by the mysterious death of his mother when he was aged just nine. Shifting between Massimo’s sepia-toned ’60s childhood and his ’90s adulthood, this sentimental drama comes undone via the redemptive romance between its emotionally introverted protagonist and Bérénice Bejo’s compassionate female doctor. Tom DawsonTRESPASS AGAINST USOUT 3 MARCHMichael Fassbender stars in…2 min
Total Film|April 2017FENCESSEE THIS IF YOU LIKED..THE GREAT DEBATERS 2007Eloquence trumps prejudice in Washington’s second film as director.DOUBT 2008Viola Davis excels in another stageto- screen adap.AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY 2013Star-studded family friction in another adap of a Pulitzerwinning play.For more reviews visit gamesradar.com/totalfilmOUT 10 FEBRUARYThree decades on from its Broadway premiere, August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning play finally arrives on the big screen with its two leads – Denzel Washington and Viola Davis – reprising their Tony-grabbing performances from a 2010 revival that was one of New York’s hottest tickets. Small wonder the film, which Washington also directs, exudes brio and authority, most of it emanating from the actor’s powerhouse portrayal of a garbage collector in 1950s Pittsburgh who takes out his frustrations on his family.Garrulous, grandiloquent and fond of his gin, Troy Maxson was…2 min
Total Film|April 2017STILL OUT, STILL GOOD...HACKSAW RIDGE“Mel Gibson returns to film’s frontline with a ferociously felt anti-war movie… Andrew Garfield invests his true-life character with tremendous conviction.”JACKIE“A gutsy, non-linear portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy in the run-up to John F. Kennedy’s death… Natalie Portman is Oscar-worthy; Mica Levi’s score is sublime.”CHRISTINE“This biopic of tragic news reporter Christine Chubbuck is a meticulously constructed psychological drama boasting a show-stopping turn from Rebecca Hall.”TONI ERDMANN“Strikingly original, brilliantly acted, this serio-comic masterpiece constantly swerves expectations. Best catch it now before the already-rumoured Hollywood remake.”…1 min
Total Film|April 2017ANIME 101START HERE1 SPIRITED AWAYPractically the entire Studio Ghibli collection is essential viewing, and the perfect place to start for anime newcomers, but if we have to settle on one film that epitomises Ghibli’s magical realist sensibilities, and sees the studio at the height of its power, it has to be Hayao Miyazaki’s bewitchingSpirited Away. To this day it remains the only hand-drawn animation to win the Best Animated Film Oscar.SEE ALSO: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE2 YOUR NAMEMakoto Shinkai’s instant-classic recently pippedSpirited Awayto become the highest grossing anime of all time, and with good reason. The J-Pop-fuelled tale of a teenage boy and girl who body swap over space and time is charming, inventive and infectiously joyous. Visually dazzling and emotionally resonant, it was one of 2016’s finest, anime or not, and…4 min
Total Film|April 2017APEOCAL YPSE NOWJuly 2016:Total Filmis ensconced in the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel with the main players ofKong: Skull Island, who’ve arrived fresh from a presentation in Comic-Con’s famous Hall H. They are, fair to say, jazzed by the riotous reception. Tom Hiddleston is all handshakes and backslaps; Brie Larson has a smile as big as Kong’s heart; and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who sports a magnificent ZZ Top beard, is in loquacious form.“I used to go to the public library as a kid and they used to have these heavy books on movie monsters and creatures,” he starts. “As a kid, you’re not watching a black-and-white movie from the ’30s, but King Kong was this icon and this presence to me. My dad bought a 12-inch King Kong – it was on…10 min
Total Film|April 2017SUPER TROOPERS ★★★★There aren’t many soldiers who get to turn their experiences into cinema. John Huston, William Wyler and John Ford all served in World War Two. Clint Eastwood was drafted during the Korean War, though avoided combat. Most famously, Oliver Stone ploughed his time in the Vietnam War into his OscarwinningPlatoon. It was this that caught the attention of Chris Roessner. Having joined the US military in July 2001, shortly before the 9/11 attacks, this Ohio native was stationed in Iraq in 2003 as part of a Civil Affairs unit.One night, Roessner – then only 18 – was on duty in Saddam Hussein’s now-ransacked palace. Alone in this solid gold-and-marble residence – “super eerie and super creepy” he remembers – to pass the time, he put on a DVD of Platoon…10 min
Total Film|April 2017GEMMA ARTERTON FAN CLUB“I’ve always admired Gemma’s work, but I’ve always felt she was rarely in movies that gave enough to her, apart from, say, The Disappearance Of Alice Creed. I just found that she was an extraordinary physical creature.”Neil Jordan“She’s fiercely intelligent. She knows what she wants. She doesn’t come in saying, ‘Make me look good.’ She says, ‘Here’s what my character can offer.’”Sam Worthington“She’s absolutely perfect to work with. Very, very talented. Brought a lot of joy to the set [on Tamara Drewe] every day and added to the very laid-back and relaxed atmosphere on set on [that] film.”Dominic Cooper…1 min
Total Film|April 2017the round-upTaut and tense, WW2 thriller Anthropoid (, out now, DVD, BD, Digital) has Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan play real-life Czech resistance fighters tasked with killing top Nazi Reinhard Heydrich.Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland stars in Satanic (, out now, DVD), about some morbid mates who tour some LA murder hotspots and meet an actual satanic cult. All chant and no pay-off.Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s insidious thriller Creepy (, out now, Dual Format) lives up its title. A psychologist becomes obsessive over a missing-family case while his wife meets a weird – yep, creepy – neighbour.Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star in Woody Allen’s paean to ’30s Hollywood, Café Society (out now, DVD, BD, Digital), a familiar love-don’trun- smooth tale that’s spellbindingly shot by DP Vittorio Storaro.Two brothers are transported to a terror…1 min
Total Film|April 2017METROPOLIS PGFILMEXTRAS2001 OUT NOW Steelbook 3 MARCH Dual Format EXTRAS Making of, InterviewsBack in 1927, Fritz Lang directedMetropolis, one of the classic dystopian movies. Twenty-two years later the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy) produced his own highly idiosyncratic take on the story. Fast-forward to 2001, and screenwriter Katsuhiro Ôtomo (Akira) and director Rintaro (Galaxy Express 999) bring Tezuka’s vision to the screen. With spectacular results.And now it’s on Blu-ray; prepare to be bowled over by the sheer visual impact of the urban landscapes. As in the original, we’re in a towering futuristic city: Lang’s downtrodden workers have become robots. An unscrupulous politician, Duke Red, has commissioned an eccentric scientist, Dr. Laughton (a nod to actor Charles), to create a super-robot in the image of his dead daughter. But this…5 min
Total Film|April 2017home invasion1 THE NAZIS RULE BRITAINBBC One’s new five-part series is based on a novel by Len Deighton, the man behind Harry Palmer and The Ipcress File. It’s 1941, the Luftwaffe has won the Battle of Britain and, with the US still uncommitted and the pact between Hitler and Stalin in place, the war is effectively over. An apparently routine murder case attracts the attention of Scotland Yard ace Douglas Archer (Sam Riley), sidekick Harry Woods (Game Of Thrones’ James Cosmo) and some very senior Nazis. Archer, widowed during the invasion and with a young son to support, just wants to do his job and maintain law and order. Nazi stooge or rebel-in-waiting? Time will tell.2 IT’S A WARTIME NOIR…Chain-smoking and brooding beneath a trilby, Archer unavoidably recalls classic hard-boiled detective…3 min
Total Film|April 2017twin peaks/fire walk with meCLASSIC SOUNDTRACKHitchco*ck and Herrmann, cherry pie and coffee. Some pairings seem fated to be. Although the composer Angelo Badalamenti was into his forties when he first worked with David Lynch, the duo fast forged a marriage in soundtrack heaven. Or, on Lynch’s TV soap and its quasi-prequel, in the purgatorial hinterlands between terror and transcendence.The duo’s intuitive understanding first bloomed on ‘Mysteries Of Love’, a song written for Blue Velvet. Lynch’s lyrics didn’t obviously lend themselves to music, or vocals. But Badalamenti found the right suspended chords, Julee Cruise sang and the sublime result inspired continued collaborations on Cruise’s lush debut album, Floating Into The Night (1989), and TV.Seated at a piano while Lynch verbalised atmos-rich scenarios, director and composer worked closely on Peaks’ music. The result is a score…2 min
Total Film|April 2017THE BUSINESSDISNEY DOMINATESIts post-’97 animated output wavered initially, but Disney’s acquisition of Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar has made it the industry powerhouse.DOGME DAYSThe manifesto arrived in ’95, with Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen launching the movement in ’98. The stripped-back aesthetic still inspires.STEPP ING UPAs the Big Name Director declines, indie auteurs are now sought for big-budget franchises, presumably in pursuit of the next Nolan…THE GREY POUNDThe neglected older generation of cinemagoers became a sought-after audience with the likes of 2012’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.GEEK POWERFan culture is no longer the preserve of comic-book stores and stuffy basem*nts. Geeks went mainstream, and Hollywood has taken notice.BROADENING BOX OFFICEA film’s US gross is no longer the sole measure of success; the flourishing market in China is hugely influential.PROPERTY DEVELOPMENTIn the ’80s and ’90s,…4 min
Total Film|April 2017IS IT BOLLOCKS?THIS MONTH CAN GREAT WHITE SHARKS HOLD A GRUDGE?QIn Jaws, a white pointer with a taste for humans becomes fixated on scoffing Chief Brody, salty seadog Quint and shark specialist Matt Hooper. Realistic?AGEORGE H. BURGESS, DIRECTOR, THE FLORIDA PROGRAM FOR SHARK RESEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL SHARK ATT ACK FILE, FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.Spielberg and [writer Peter] Benchley are to be applauded for wonderful acts of fiction – but the notion that sharks are driven by revenge is nonsense. If you look at it from a statistical average, last year we had 76 attacks worldwide and four resulted in death. The type of attacks are what we’d refer to as hit-and-runs. They’re primarily mistaken identity, where the shark interprets the splashing of humans as normal prey. It’s more luck and error…1 min
Total Film|April 2017DISASTER MOVIESThere’s a storm coming, but don’t hold your breath. Dean Devlin’s directorial debut, Geostorm, began shooting in 2014. It boasts stars (Gerard Butler, Ed Harris), pertinent climate themes and a director with genre previous – he’s produced/written for disaster-master Roland Emmerich. But news of reshoots means Geostorm won’t strike until – earliest – October 2017.It raises a question: after their ’70s peak and 2000s revival, have disaster movies lost their puff? Precious few big disaster-blasters have delivered lately. Independence Day: Resurgence made less than half of its 1996 predecessor’s box-office haul; The Finest Hours was a rare Disney flop; San Andreas scored box office-wise, but the critics’ splat of 48 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes isn’t unfair. As for Pompeii – down with it.As interest declines in disaster pics, pixel-based…3 min
Total Film|April 2017CARRIE FISHERShampoo 1975Carrie Fisher’s mother, Debbie Reynolds, apparently wanted a rude word cut from her daughter’s film debut. But Fisher played her teen cameo in Warren Beatty’s satire like someone who brooked no censorship. Flirty, forthright and very funny over two scenes as tennisplaying Lorna, Fisher talks rings around Beatty (and lacerates her on-screen mother) before dropping the f-bombshell: “You wanna f*ck?”STAR WARS: EPISODES IV-VI 1977-83Aside from advising Daisy Ridley “not to go through the crew like wildfire”, Fisher’s other sagely advice to the saga newcomer went thus: “Keep fighting against that slave outfit.” Fisher didn’t only beat 26 name actresses to the role of Princess Leia. She also battled wardrobe and script issues to turn the royal rebel into a figure of fire and feeling: her co-stars had blasters and…5 min
