Home//Total Film/June 2018/In This Issue
Total Film|June 2018WELCOME TO TOTAL FILMEXCLUSIVE JURASSIC PARK POP! VINYLS OFFER P9Life does indeed find a way, eh? We’ve been obsessed with all things dinosaur this month for the return of Chris Pratt and his scaly mates in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – even going so far as to pet a T-rex. When we weren’t poking around on one iconic franchise, we were checking out another with Solo: A Star Wars Story. And when we weren’t doing that, we were having the pants scared off us by this year’s most terrifying horror, Hereditary. We also hung out with Gandalf himself, got ecclesiastical with Ethan Hawke and took a long hard look at the most important films of the ’40s. And, of course, we saw every movie released so that our reviews can give you an…1 min
Total Film|June 2018TOTALFILM ONLINEINGRID GOES YASSS!bit.ly/2HHBtvaWe used up more emojis than The Emoji Movie when this carefully curated package arrived for the DVD release of Ingrid Goes West. Once that avocado tree grows it’ll be avo on toast for every meal.WONDER(OUS) EASTER EGGbit.ly/2qEZKtFWeeks since Easter and we’re still getting through this beast, which has outlasted both the book and film of Wonder it came with. Seriously, the choc’s so thick in places we’re thinking of contacting a tree surgeon.VISITOR OF THE MONTH CENTURYbit.ly/2qEbhu8Mr. Stay-Puft, The Alien, Aaron Eckhart… none can hold a candle to our greatest-ever guest, military dog Lola, who popped in with her ace handler Sgt. Donna Smith to promote Rex on home-ent. Lola, la la la Lola…BUTT-CHUG KIT OF THE MONTHbit.ly/2HKxJcoWe thought we’d spare Twitter’s blushes by not doing a…1 min
Total Film|June 2018ON THE ROAD AGAINMade for a million bucks, and grossing one hundred times that thanks to barnstorming DVD sales, Super Troopers was the little comedy that could. Eminently quotable (“Hurry up meow”) and hugely likeable, a sequel seemed inevitable, but five-man comedy group Broken Lizard – the film’s writers and stars – were initially hesitant.“We always had dreams of following Python,” says Jay Chandrasekhar, who also directs. “We said, ‘Why don’t we just make different movies?’” Beerfest, Club Dread and The Slammin’ Salmon followed, but demand for a sequel never went away. “We thought, ‘Well, now may be the time to get those crew cuts.” The only problem? In the 17 years since Super Troopers, financing a comedy had become much harder. “The studio system became totally centred around movies with capes and…2 min
Total Film|June 2018TOTAL FILM TOP 1001 PHANTOM THREAD02 THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI03 THE SHAPE OF WATER04 LADY BIRDFunny, poignant, Greta Gerwig’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale is hugely impressive.05 BLACK PANTHER06 YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE07 A QUIET PLACE NEWJohn Krasinski’s inspired horror does for sound what Jaws did for sharks. Best to skip the popcorn with this one.08 TULLY NEW09 GHOST STORIES NEWThis throwback to Amicus’ anthology movies offers delicious chills via old-school suspense and practical effects. Brrr.10 I, TONYA…1 min
Total Film|June 2018MOTHER COURAGEWe live in days of war,” states Fatih Akin. “That’s what I believe. We have a world war going on. Some people are not aware of this, or don’t want to face it.” The Turkish-German director is talking about terrorism, where the casualties are civilian and the battlefields are the streets. It’s the subject of In The Fade, in which a Hamburg woman loses her Turkish husband and son in a nail-bomb attack.Akin’s film has already won its star Diane Kruger, in the first German movie of her career, Best Actress in Cannes, as well as claiming the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Akin (Head On) wrote In The Fade after the so-called NSU (National Socialist Underground) killings in Germany, when three neo-Nazis sporadically killed 10 people, nine…2 min
Total Film|June 2018IN THE CANNESEVERYBODY KNOWSIt’s rare for Cannes to open with a movie that’s not French or in the English language, so prepare for very good things from this Spanish-language thriller by Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi, whose previous film, The Salesman, won the Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards at Cannes 2016. Starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Ricardo Darín, it follows Carolina (Cruz) as she travels with her family from Buenos Aires to her native village in Spain, only for unexpected events to bring hidden secrets floating to the surface. Expect talk and torque.UNDER THE SILVER LAKEDavid Robert Mitchell’s noir follow-up to breakout horror It Follows is the hottest ticket in town. The trailer plays up its Inherent Vice-alike goofiness as the increasingly discombobulated Sam (Andrew Garfield) plunges into an LA underworld…2 min
Total Film|June 2018SHORT CUTSTHEY’VE GOT ITJames McAvoy and Bill Hader are in line to play writer Bill and joker Richie in It: Chapter 2. If the deals pan out, they’ll join Jessica Chastain (as Beverly) and Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise) for the sequel, due in storm drains September 2019.BOURNE FOR TVJason Bourne is heading to the small screen. A pilot of prequel TV series Treadstone has been ordered by ABC and will be overseen by Heroes showrunner Tim Kring. The biggest mystery to solve: who can possibly replace Matt Damon?KATE EXPECTATIONSEx-Ghostbuster Kate McKinnon is in talks to bring the funny to Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis’ still-untitled comedy, a “music-themed” film set in the ’60s and ’70s, and co-starring Lily James and Himesh Patel. Will she add a British accent to her oeuvre?X-PECT DELAYSIn…1 min
Total Film|June 2018POWER HOUSE‘I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE COOL TO THROW ELASTIGIRL INTO THE DEEP END’BRAD BIRDThe Incredibles always seemed like such an obvious Pixar film to get the sequel treatment, given that it ends on a cliffhanger and superheroes lend themselves to multi-film franchises. What took so long? “Well, it wasn’t an intentional thing,” says writer/director Brad Bird of the hiatus. “I mean, people almost act affronted if you don’t immediately follow up a successful film with a sequel.”Incredibles 2 picks up immediately after the first film, as supervillain Underminer bores up into the city, and the family suit up for action. “From the point of view of a filmmaker, it’s just as hard to make a sequel as it is to make an original,” continues Bird. “It’s got its own set…2 min
Total Film|June 2018HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIESOUT 11 MAYCERTIFICATE 15 DIRECTOR John Cameron Mitchell STARRING Alex Sharp, Elle Fanning SCREENPLAY Philippa Goslett, John Cameron Mitchell DISTRIBUTOR Studiocanal RUNNING TIME 102 minsCroydon supplies the unlikely backdrop to an oddball romance from John Cameron Mitchell that starts off amiably before going gradually off the rails. Set in 1977 and based on a Neil Gaiman short story, it’s a Romeo And Juliet-style tale about a teenage punk who stumbles upon a hive of alien visitors while looking for a party.Blithely assuming they’re all kooky Americans, Enn (Alex Sharp) forms an attachment with Zan (Elle Fanning), a rebellious E.T. keen to have as many new experiences as she can. But their forbidden relationship soon sets her tribe of shape-shifting cannibals on a collision course with the local head-bangers, incongruously led…1 min
Total Film|June 2018THE BREADWINNEROUT 25 MAYCERTIFICATE 12A DIRECTOR Nora Twomey STARRING Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, Noorin Gulamgaus SCREENPLAY Anita Doron, Deborah Ellis DISTRIBUTOR Studiocanal RUNNING TIME 93 minsCartoon Saloon quietly made two of the past decade’s finest animated films in The Secret Of Kells and Song Of The Sea, both stories drawn from Celtic mythology. Based on Deborah Ellis’ best-selling children’s book, The Breadwinner is a departure for the Kilkenny-based studio, but features Saloon hallmarks including resonant emotions, flights of fantasy and ravishing animation.Set in Taliban-controlled Kabul, it follows Parvana (Saara Chaudry), a girl forbidden by her religion from venturing outside without her father. So, when Pops is unjustly thrown in jail, Parvana has no choice but to assume the identity of a boy so she may earn money to feed her family.Refusing…1 min
Total Film|June 2018ANONOUT 11 MAYCERTIFICATE TBC DIRECTOR Andrew Niccol STARRING Clive Owen, Amanda Seyfried, Colm Feore, Mark O’ Brien SCREENPLAY Andrew Niccol DISTRIBUTOR Sky Cinema RUNNING TIME 99 minsWhen sci-fi scribe Andrew Niccol wrote The Truman Show in the mid-’90s, little did he know it would usher in the reality-TV era. Niccol’s knack for hot-topic prescience is at full force in Anon – a gumshoe murder mystery set in a world without privacy.Sal (Clive Owen) may be a high-ranking detective, but thanks to The Mind’s Eye – a mandatory biotech implant – he’s a glorified delivery man, picking up felons minutes after their crimes are detected by the system. One day, hours after crossing paths with an anonymous Woman (Amanda Seyfried), Sal is called to an impossible crime scene, one glitch too…1 min
Total Film|June 2018BOX OFFICE CHARTSA QUIET PLACENoisy snackers shamed into putting their popcorn away surely doubled down in Rampage; you could crunch through apples/carrot sticks/Groot’s left leg without risk of disturbing anyone.RAMPAGEGentle souls freaked out by the monsters in A Quiet Place should have owned their fears by giving them cuddly Rampage-esque names: Eyeless Ian; People-Eating Pete; Dwayne.READY PLAYER ONESpielberg’s biggest hit in ages, pushing his lifetime box office past a record $10bn. Still, imagine the moolah if he’d had Lincoln fight Mechagodzilla, or War Horse trotting round The Shining.BLOCKERSThe poster image of a ‘rooster’ caused some moral concern; luckily, Big Screen calmed down when it saw it wasn’t some insidious Kellogg’s product placement, just a stand-in for co*ck.SHERLOCK GNOMESPlease, gnomes more with the puns. But if we must speculate on the next title……1 min
Total Film|June 2018AGAINST ALL ODDS“I GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS…” says pilot-for-hire and future hero of the Rebellion Han Solo while knee-deep in bin juice in the bowels of the first Death Star. It’s a phrase that may have sprung to mind in July 2015, when Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced a spin-off ‘Anthology’ film focusing on a young Solo. Starting with a risky idea – the recasting of an iconic character inextricably linked with Harrison Ford – matters only deteriorated from there, culminating in the departure of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller almost five months into principal photography, a near unprecedented move for a film of this scale.But much like the reckless scoundrel’s uncanny ability to emerge unscathed from certain-death situations, Solo may yet snatch victory from the jaws of defeat…14 min
Total Film|June 2018Ian McKellen my life in picturesMcKellen: Playing The Part 2018“When [director] Joe Stephenson asked if would I agree to do this [documentary], I said, ‘What would it involve?’ He said, ‘Well, sitting at home in a chair, answering my questions.’ I thought, ‘Well, it would be rude not to, really, because that’s a talented young director, wanting to do something a bit different.’ I’m very grumpy throughout – I had to get up early and sit in my chair and talk about myself, and that’s the last thing I wanted to do. I don’t enjoy it, really. I didn’t know why I was doing it, and I think that comes through in the film: I keep saying, ‘Who am I?’ Well, indeed, I’ve spent my life pretending to be somebody else. That’s what I do.…10 min
Total Film|June 2018BILL PULLMAN“DAVID LYNCH SAID HE LOOKED ME RIGHT IN THE EYES AND THOUGHT, ‘HERE’S A GUY WHO COULD GET HIMSELF IN A LOT OF TROUBLE’”When David Lynch was readying himself to shoot Lost Highway, he was flummoxed as to who could play lead role Fred, a jazz saxophonist who’s framed for the murder of his wife and then, while in jail, metamorphoses overnight into mechanic Pete. He needed somebody who’s at once bland and innocent, compelling and sinister. Or, as Lynch put it, “I’m looking for someone who looks like [an] Everyman but has depth.” “Talk to Bill Pullman,” said his daughter Jennifer, who would herself cast the actor more than a decade later in Surveillance, this time playing an FBI agent on the path of a serial killer.Rather oddly given…19 min
Total Film|June 2018award heroesDARKEST HOUR PGOUT 21 MAY Digital HD 4 JUNE DVD, BD, 4K EXTRAS Commentary, Making Of, FeaturetteTHREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI 15OUT 7 MAY Digital HD 21 MAY DVD, BD EXTRAS Making Of, Short, GallerySome years, you just know who’ll win. Sure, there are always upsets – but was there ever much doubt that Gary Oldman would bag Best Actor for his thunderous turn as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour? Or that a fearless, fearsome Frances McDormand would win her second Best Actress Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri?Encased in remarkable, Oscar-snaffling prosthetics, Oldman conjures not just Britain’s wartime leader, but his own gallery of real-life portrayals: Joe Orton, Lee Harvey Oswald, Sid Vicious… all from an earlier phase of his career when he’d regularly disappear inside characters. Here,…2 min
Total Film|June 2018THE DISASTER ARTIST 15OUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Commentary, FeaturettesIften cited as the worst film ever made, writer/director/star/producer Tommy Wiseau’s The Room has developed a cult following since its 2003 release (in one LA cinema paid for by Wiseau). The Disaster Artist is writer/producer/star James Franco’s affectionate tribute to its madcap making, as talentless actor Greg (Dave Franco) hooks up with mysterious Wiseau (James) to make movie tragic. Funny and touching, even if you’ve never attended a shout-along screening (“OH, HAI MARK!”).…1 min
Total Film|June 2018WOODFALL: A REVOLUTION IN BRITISH CINEMA 15OUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Commentary, Making Of, Featurette, Music videoNamed after a street sign in Chelsea, Woodfall Films began as a vehicle to produce screen versions of the John Osborne plays Tony Richardson had directed to great acclaim at London’s Royal Court theatre. But after producing Look Back In Anger (1959, ★★★★) with a miscast Richard Burton and The Entertainer (1960, ★★★★) with a grandstanding Laurence Olivier, the company rapidly broadened its horizons.It created some of the key texts of the kitchen sink movement: incendiary works of social realism that dealt with class, race and sexuality with a clarity that helped drag Britain’s conventional cinema into the swinging ’60s.Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960, ★★★★★) and The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962, ★★★★) saw Albert…1 min
Total Film|June 2018dishonourable gentlemenDecades before the O.J. Simpson and Oscar Pistorius scandals dominated news cycles, the peculiar tale of Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976, made sensational headlines. A brilliant politician who led the Liberals to notable election success and established a legacy as an internationalist, a supporter of human rights and an opponent of Apartheid, Thorpe’s position was made untenable when, despite ultimately being acquitted, he was put on trial for conspiring to kill his former lover, model Norman Scott.“It’s much more English than those cases,” says director Stephen Frears when asked if Simpson and Pistorius are the best comparison points to draw viewers under 40 to his three-part BBC miniseries. “It’s a good story. A crime story. [The people involved] were so incompetent you wouldn’t believe…4 min
Total Film|June 2018the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ringQuite often I felt like Frodo,” said Howard Shore of scoring Peter Jackson’s “unbelievable gamble” of a trilogy. No, he didn’t mean he needed some shoes. Besides underscoring the emotions at stake, Shore laboured hard to create something operatic, something steeped in the sights and sounds of Frodo’s undertaking. Each musical motif formed part of a mammoth overall structure, where Shore aced the task of evoking Middle-earth’s multi-faceted cultures: no small feat.In a covetable package you would not fancy carrying over mountains, Rhino is giving Shore’s Complete Recordings the rerelease treatment, beginning with The Fellowship Of The Ring. Seventeen years after Fellowship’s release, no fantasy score has so fully expressed so densely populated a world, Jackson’s two sequels aside. It rages and seduces, transports and terrifies. Sometimes it’s cataclysmic; sometimes…2 min
Total Film|June 2018two moreCHUCHELAn angry scribble on legs chases after a delicious cherry in this madcap point-and-click adventure that blends the kid-friendly slapstick of Pingu with flashes of Gilliam-esque surrealism. Making a virtue of its trial-and-error mechanics by hiding a punch-line behind every ‘mistake’, this is a work of interactive comedy genius.NI NO KUNI 2: REVENANT KINGDOMA belated sequel to 2013’s Ghibli collab, this loses the studio’s input but retains the first game’s wide-eyed whimsy, as a deposed king attempts to unite the nations of a fantastical land. The result is beautiful but bloated, with brisk melee combat and absorbing storytelling stymied by humdrum tactical asides.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018DETECTIVE PIKACHUGAMEOUT NOW | 3DSFeaturing the most unrecognisable transformation this side of Darkest Hour, this unlikely spin-off recasts one of gaming’s most iconic figures as a grouchy sleuth. With Pokémon developing aggressive tendencies, the tubby mouse joins forces with the likeably earnest Tim, a teen looking for his missing dad. The nine cases are smartly assembled, though it’s clearly aimed at a younger audience, with reveals telegraphed well in advance. Still, this is a solid appetiser for next year’s Ryan Reynolds starrer.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018THE GIRLBOOKMICHELLE MORGAN | RUNNING PRESSThis is Morgan’s fifth book about Monroe (subtitled Marilyn Monroe, The Seven Year Itch And The Birth Of An Unlikely Feminist), so slight hints of barrel-scraping are maybe inevitable. Main focus: the two years covering the making of The Seven Year Itch and its aftermath, with the star striking out for independence. Morgan’s out to shatter the dumb blonde stereotype and present her heroine as intelligent, well-read and – yes – a feminist. Special pleading perhaps, but done with passion.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018ON LOCATIONWHAT? Firefighters rush past an old cinema as Mr. Fox and his fellow bandits attack the farmers’ town with a flurry of burning pine cones, in Fantastic Mr. Fox.WHERE? The Little Theatre Cinema, Bath.GO? Bath institution The Little remains a working cinema, which Wes Anderson included after visiting the Somerset city and deciding its look would be perfect for the film. See picturehouses.com. Thanks to Amy Wylam.Snapped yourself at a film location? Send us the details at totalfilm@futurenet.com…1 min
Total Film|June 2018THE MUPPETSAt the start of 2011’s The Muppets, Kermit was a shadow of his former frog, sliding into obsolescence before a grand reunion beckoned. How history repeats itself. Green reduced to grey once more, Kermit is on the slide again.The latest issues in Muppet-ropolis come well-documented. While 2011’s reboot The Muppets scored with critics and fans, the sequel, Muppets Most Wanted (2014), didn’t match its titular claims at the box office. We’ve since had ABC’s frog-umentary show The Muppets, its grown-up ambitions suggested by trailers featuring Nathan Fillion lusting after a pig. Cancellation hardly surprised. And, amid much mud-flinging, long-standing Kermit voice-actor Steve Whitmire was replaced by Matt Vogel.Frank Oz, meanwhile, has felt a need to challenge the Mouse House’s current Muppets stewardship: “As much as Disney loves The Muppets and…2 min
Total Film|June 2018OR WERE MOVIE STARS BETTER BEFORE SOCIAL MEDIA?As a saucer-eyed, cinemamad kid, I had no idea what Michael J. Fox’s kitchen looked like. I hadn’t a clue what Harrison Ford’s workout consisted of. And I was blind to how Jennifer Grey spoke and moved in everyday life. Indeed, I had no concrete conception of the filmmaking machine behind the fantasy. I was fully immersed in watching Marty, Indy and Baby, believing implicitly in their backstory, reactions and character choices.Then the internet happened. And social media. And my Pandora’s Box sensibilities meant I couldn’t not look. I greedily followed filmmakers and stars on multiple platforms, hungry for every behind-the-scenes tidbit, each glimpse into their lives and a greater context for movie moments. I craved more information, more, more…And now, like looking into the Ark of the Covenant, I’m…2 min
Total Film|June 2018THE SHINING’S DOOR AXINGThree days of filming. Sixty doors totalled. One priceless line of improvisation as a hyperventilating Jack Nicholson mimics Ed McMahon’s introduction of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show (Stanley Kubrick, a longtime UK resident, almost used another take as the ghoulish gag was lost on him). Add the stats together and heeeeeeere’s what we have: the scene that regularly tops polls of the scariest moment in movies.Even people who have never watched a horror film know the sequence, as Jack Torrance (Nicholson), the winter caretaker of the deserted Overlook Hotel, axes his way through a locked bathroom door to get to his screaming, cowering, knife-wielding wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall). Hacking away until one of the panels is as splintered as his mind, he pokes his head through the hole and…2 min
Total Film|June 2018TOTAL FILM WINGMANDEAR WINGMAN,I wonder if you can confirm if it is acceptable for my husband to classify Shaun Of The Dead as a rom-zom-com?HANNAH JONES, FAREHAMWINGMAN SAYS…Finally, an easy question that doesn’t require the Wingman to be up all night skimming Halliwell’s Film Guide, pitching a tent inside the BFI late at night or trying to Facebook his old media-studies lecturer. Yes, it’s perfectly acceptable for Mr. Hannah to call Shaun a ‘rom-zom-com’; the phrase is so legit it’s even in the dictionary. The Urban Dictionary, admittedly, which can be something of a rabbit hole (not a phrase you should look up on there, just to warn you).Frankly, Wingman thinks every film should have its own ‘romcom’ variant: favourites include Theron-com (Tully); Tom-com (Jerry Maguire); ram-com (Shaun The Sheep); Dom-com (Fast…1 min
Total Film|June 2018THE BLING STINGEven the best-laid confidence trick in the world would not have secured 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen high returns on the Bechdel test. Right up-front, George Clooney’s Danny and Brad Pitt’s Rusty offered only the flimsiest of excuses (“Not their fight…”) for the absences of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones from the stag do of a trilogy-closer. Ellen Barkin, meanwhile, had to endure those thumpingly naff seduction scenes with Matt Damon and his false conk.Happily, the tables are turning for Ocean’s 8, a female-fronted refreshment of the caper-flick franchise. And if your brain aches at the notion of a reboot of a reboot (Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven rebooted 1960’s Rat Pack original), take comfort in the alternative description Sandra Bullock gave EW: “We’re not a reboot… It’s not even a passing of…5 min
Total Film|June 2018YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH: OWEN WILSONYou talkin’ to me?Who doesn’t sometimes get kind of irritable? I find I say that sometimes to myself. I’ll be like, “Hey, what are you doing? Who are you looking at?” Kind of the way De Niro does it.Do you feel lucky, punk?I actually have a tattoo that says “luck”. So I would have to say yes, although I don’t like being called “punk”.You talk the talk, do you walk the walk?That’s Full Metal Jacket, so it reminds me that I went to military school from 16 to 18. In a way, that’s what led to me working in movies. My roommate at military school was from Houston, and was friends with Wes Anderson, so that’s how I ended up meeting Wes.What’s the last…4 min
Total Film|June 2018LAYING A CABLEThe one downside of subversive superhero movie Deadpool blindsiding everyone with its $783m take at the worldwide box office? HUGE pressure on the sequel, which crashes into multiplexes this month… minus the surprise factor.Not that incoming director David Leitch seems to be feeling the weight on his shoulders. Coming off the back of John Wick and Atomic Blonde, his action credentials are firmly marked, and, it seems, immersing himself in Deadpool’s wickedly dark humour was no biggie.“It’s farther out comedically than Wick or Atomic but it didn’t require a real adjustment,” he says. “My way in, and process, is always character first, and with Deadpool, his heart is so big and he’s so flawed, so it’s easy to follow him into a story. You can’t help but fall in love…2 min
Total Film|June 2018NOCTURNAL AFFAIRSIt’s November 2017 and Teasers is in an abandoned office block just outside of Uxbridge in London, watching a couple of men engaged in mortal combat. As they land fast-paced punches, high-kicks and air-spins, the surrounding metal shelves vibrate with impact.No, we haven’t stumbled into some white-collar fight club – we’re on set of Marc Price’s follow-up to his ultra low-budget zombie movie Colin. It’s called Nightshooters, and tells the story of a film crew, led by stunt man Donnie (Jean Paul Ly), who accidentally witness a gangland hit. They have to fight to survive the night (shoot) as they’re attacked by thugs well-versed in martial arts.Price climbs to the highest shelf to get a new angle of the fight. The shelf wobbles, the crew worries, but Price isn’t just…2 min
Total Film|June 2018Q & A DIANE KRUGERThis is your first German role, which is surprising as you were raised there. How come it took so long?I don’t know! I would have liked it to come earlier! But with maturity comes more life experience. Life has a funny way of making things happen when you’re ready for them. I’m not sure I could have played this part 10 years ago. I wasn’t even sure I could play it last year!Fatih Akin originally wrote the character as male, then re-wrote it. How did that make you feel?I think it speaks for Fatih. He’s a devoted family man and he has such a respect for his wife, who truly is the anchor of his ship, and he thinks all mothers are superheroes. I think it’s amazing; a man who…1 min
Total Film|June 2018NETFLIX VS. CANNESWhen Netflix movies Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) screened in competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, it marked a turning point: recognition that the enfant terrible of the film industry deserved its place among the heavyweights of world cinema. A year later, Netflix has pulled all its films from the prestigious festival following a new rule that bans any feature without theatrical distribution in France from playing in competition, pushing reset on years of progress.Cannes may be stuffier than a car with the windows up, but it’s a more complicated issue than mere snobbery. Netflix isn’t subject to French cultural exception – a policy that requires a percentage of ticket sales be reinvested in homegrown cinema and, more pertinently, a 36-month delay between theatrical release and…2 min
Total Film|June 2018YOU’VE GOT MALEI did live really close to an ex when I was in college,” admits Sophie Brooks, writer-director of the fizzy new romcom The Boy Downstairs. While it’s not strictly autobiographical, this Manhattan-set feature debut most certainly comes from the heart. “Yes,” she blushes, “I’ve experienced a romance where I’ve been over-thinking things.”The film stars Zosia Mamet as Diana, who gets the shock of her life when she realises old flame Ben (Matthew Shear) is living in the apartment beneath her. “It’s much easier to not think about someone,” says Brooks. “When you are confronted with them, it’s really easy to start thinking, ‘Did I make the wrong decision? Do I love this person?’”Fans of HBO’s Girls will certainly get a kick out of seeing Mamet back in the same world…2 min
Total Film|June 2018IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALISTTHIS MONTH MEETING YOUR HEROESNever meet your heroes, they say. But 20 years in this job has proved to me that they don’t know sh*t. Sure, I get it. Those impossibly glamorous, ridiculously cool, sickeningly talented people we all grow up revering while hemmed in by our bedroom walls in some backwater smudge of a town are exactly that – people, no different to you and I. Cut them and they bleed; set up secret cameras in their splendid homes (no, don’t do that) and they pick their noses, go to the toilet, maybe even listen to James Blunt. Thirty feet high on screen, they might be 5ft 7in in real life.What they’re not, in my experience, are assholes – at least for those 30 or 40 minutes I’ve spent…3 min
Total Film|June 2018RAMPAGEOUT NOWCERTIFICATE 12A DIRECTOR Brad Peyton STARRING Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Joe Manganiello, Malin Åkerman, Jake Lacy SCREENPLAY Ryan Engle, Carlton Cuse, Ryan J. Condal, Adam Sztykiel DISTRIBUTOR Warner Bros RUNNING TIME 107 minsI can’t believe we survived that,” says Naomie Harris after an especially ludicrous set-piece in Dwayne Johnson’s latest. It’s a line she could deploy at almost any point. Throwing the three-act structure out of the window, Rampage employs a radical first for cinema: the one-act structure, consisting of back-to-back sequences of escalating stupidity until the credits roll.Let’s be clear: this is not (necessarily) a bad thing. Director Brad Peyton knows the level he’s operating at, and Rampage – a loose adaptation of the fondly remembered ’86 arcade game – aspires to little more than…3 min
Total Film|June 2018MCKELLEN: PLAYING THEPARTOUT 27 MAYCERTIFICATE TBC DIRECTOR Joe Stephenson STARRING Ian McKellen, Scott Chambers, Luke Evans, Milo Parker, Adam Brown DISTRIBUTOR Trafalgar RUNNING TIME 96 minsMy professional life is devoted to strangers, but they’re potential friends,” says Ian McKellen in this adept documentary about his life and work. Starting with the star’s childhood love of drama, Playing The Part then wends its way through the halls of Cambridge University to the Royal Shakespeare Company and beyond, cleaving closer to the professional than the personal.Through it all, McKellen narrates from a cosy armchair, heightening the (quality) teatime-telly feel. The 78-year-old makes for an understated guide; when he talks of the death of his parents, it’s with surprisingly few words. He also refrains from going into much detail about the ’80s Aids crisis that…1 min
Total Film|June 2018FILMWORKEROUT 18 MAYCERTIFICATE TBC DIRECTOR Tony Zierra STARRING Leon Vitali, Matthew Modine, Ryan O’Neal, Danny Lloyd, Stellan Skarsgård DISTRIBUTOR Dogwoof RUNNING TIME 94 minsIn the quarter-century between Barry Lyndon (1975) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Leon Vitali became Stanley Kubrick’s right-hand man. This meant everything from casting/coaching young Danny Lloyd in The Shining to overseeing the Kubrick Archive in line with the maestro’s scarcely achievable standards. One look at Vitali’s haunted face tells you it was both a blessing and a curse.Without access to Kubrick himself, Tony Zierra’s proxy doc aims to shed light on both master and apprentice through talking heads and behind-the-scenes snippets. In truth, neither man comes off particularly well. Vitali is a strange, slightly pitiable person – an “Igor character” still furiously loyal to Kubrick after…1 min
Total Film|June 2018MY FRIEND DAHMEROUT 1 JUNECERTIFICATE TBC DIRECTOR Marc Meyers STARRING Ross Lynch, Alex Wolff, Anne Heche, Dallas Roberts SCREENPLAY Marc Meyers DISTRIBUTOR Altitude RUNNING TIME TBCWith serial killers real and imagined such a staple of movies and TV, this surprisingly clear-eyed drama by writer/director Marc Meyers takes an interesting tack that separates it from the pack.It’s an origin story, zooming in on real-life murderer Jeffrey Dahmer’s adolescence at an Ohio high school before calling time at the exact moment he finds the first of his 17 victims. Here, Dahmer (Ross Lynch) is a classroom outcast who tries to gain acceptance through misjudged goofball antics before slouching home to dissolve roadkill in acid. He falls in with some other nerds – including John ‘Derf’ Backderf (Alex Wolff), the cartoonist behind the graphic novel…1 min
Total Film|June 2018STILL OUT, STILL GOOD…TULLY“A tough, tender dramedy about the dark side of child-raising… Playing an exhausted mother, Charlize Theron is astonishingly good, giving a subtle, vanity-free performance full of deadpan comedy and emotional truth.”MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER“A weird, wonderful fantasy that’s likely to satisfy adults and kids alike. Bright, inventive, enchanting.”FUNNY COW“A story of strength, endurance and the power of humour to wipe away the tears, this is the sort of film the British do best. Maxine Peake is superb.”GHOST STORIES“The big surprise is not that this expert adap of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s play is frightening and funny, but that it’s so cinematically crafted.”…1 min
Total Film|June 2018CREATURE FEATURETHINK BIG“If anything was terrifying, it was just the scale of it. A T-rex is enormous. I’ve never done that before. The head’s got to be nine-foot long, I would have thought. It’s got to be 30ft long, when it lies in that container. It probably weighed about a tonne. We played with some false perspectives, so the body’s actually bigger than it should be. Otherwise, the body would diminish too quickly [on camera].”TAG TEAM“In hindsight, when you look back [at Jurassic Park, 1993], Spielberg’s use of practical and digital was actually pretty amazing. It was a perfect combination. By having a dinosaur that is practical, that you know is real, and it is being touched, and it is a practical effect, it sets you up to be ready for…2 min
Total Film|June 2018AN UNLIKELY STORYTam PoslaYou may have spotted Tam in the background of the Rogue One and Solo trailers. So who is he/she? Well, their main claim to fame is being a bounty hunter tracking down Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba – the “he doesn’t like you” duo from the Mos Eisley cantina.Davin FelthNot only did Davin Felth – the stormtrooper who says, “Look, sir, droids!’” in A New Hope – have a name, he had a reason for being on Tatooine. He was exiled for discovering that AT-ATs were vulnerable to being toppled with cables. Of course, he eventually defected.LobotLando’s right-hand roboman lived a rich life beyond the screen – once working for the Empire, and following Lando on various adventures. At one point, however, he’s gravely wounded by an Imperial agent…1 min
Total Film|June 2018DEATH IN THE FAMILYA couple of years ago, Toni Collette decided she’d had her fill of making movies that put her through the wringer. “Y’know,” she recalls, “I said to my agent, ‘I’ve done enough crying. I’m tired. I don’t want to do emotionally heavy films any more. I just want to do funny films that are light and make everyone feel wonderful. Please don’t send anything other than that – thank you!’” Shortly after, while she was shooting a romcom in Paris, the script for Ari Aster’s Hereditary arrived, along with a note from her agent. “Toni,” it said, “I know you said you didn’t want to do anything like this, but I really think you need to read it.”Which she did, as a kindness. “I thought, I’ll humour him,” Collette laughs.…8 min
Total Film|June 2018FIVE STAR TURNSSPACEBALLS 1987After a small role in Midler/DeVito vehicle Ruthless People, Pullman played a key part in this spoof ensemble as Lone Starr, joyfully sending up Han Solo – even though he hadn’t seen Star Wars at the time.INDEPENDENCE DAY 1996“Today… we celebrate… our Independence Day!” During the Clinton era, Pullman played a president we could believe in, delivering the stirring speech to (ahem) trump them all, before leading the charge against the aliens.LOST HIGHWAY 1997In a rare leading role (his first) for David Lynch, Pullman aces his turn as a jazz saxophonist who undergoes a makeover after being jailed for his wife’s murder.ZERO EFFECT 1998“I’m asked to do these parts where adults are jerks,” Pullman said. “Especially the fathers.” He broke the mould, though, with this, a buddy film slash…1 min
Total Film|June 2018SUICIDE SQUAD: HELL TO PAY 15OUT NOW DVD, BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes (BD)This DC animated feature sees Amanda Waller (voiced by Vanessa Williams) send Task Force X, led by Deadshot (Christian Slater), on a mission to retrieve a supernatural artifact. A violent adventure ensues, one that becomes a road-trip tour of colourful DC characters, spiced with gratuitous gore, grave debates about faith and more-hit-than-miss comic relief. Extras include a peek at the upcoming The Death Of Superman – interesting to see how it’ll compare/contrast with BVS……1 min
Total Film|June 2018THE GREATEST SHOWMAN PGOUT NOW Digital HD 14 MAY DVD, BD, 4K EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Sing-along option, GalleriesIf you’re looking for a warts-’n’-all biopic of Phineas Taylor Barnum, the 19th Century impresario/entrepreneur/huckster who specialised in fake news 150 years before Trump’s circus hit town, look elsewhere. But for anyone after a heart-on-sleeve musical studded with punch-the-air power ballads, this is (big) top entertainment. And that’s a lot of people, clearly: The Greatest Showman’s theatrical run (and run) shocked everyone; not since Titanic and The Full Monty have we seen such sustained business.The story is slight, though, tracking PTB (Hugh Jackman) as he corrals social outcasts including a bearded lady (Keala Settle), a horse-riding dwarf (Sam Humphrey) and an ‘Irish’ giant (Radu Spinghel) for punters to ogle. A snooty critic (Paul Sparks) leads the…1 min
Total Film|June 2018EXTRASSOLO: A STAR WARS STORY FIGURESTOYS OUT NOWThis season’s galactic look? Fur. Well, going by the new line of Solo: A Star Wars Story toys. And not just Chewie – both Qi’ra and the hulking range trooper are sporting/rocking sheepskin (or maybe it’s wampaskin). There’s a whole slew of fresh figures out there, not just from Solo but The Last Jedi and Rogue One too, so you can mix ’n’ match time periods to your canon-disrupting heart’s content. Also new: the Force Master Lightsaber, which allows you to switch sides (and blade colour – red, blue, green or purple) at the flick of a button.AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR ASSEMBLER GEAR GAUNTLETS/HERO VISION MASKTOYS OUT NOWInfinity Gauntlet? Whatevs. Never mind having the power to control time, space, bath temperature etc. What you…2 min
Total Film|June 2018THE ALIENIST TBCSHOWAVAILABLE NOW | NETFLIXNetflix’s serial-killer thriller, based on Caleb Carr’s best-selling 1994 novel, is an ambitious attempt to cash in on the period-crime bug popularised by Peaky Blinders or, more pertinently, Ripper Street. Like the latter series, it brings together an unlikely team of sleuths to capture a fiend, albeit in 1890s New York rather than Britain.The head crim-catcher, and the alienist of the title, is Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), a doctor specialising in psychological disorders. As the series’ opening explanation puts it, “People suffering from mental illness were thought to be alienated from their own true natures.”When a young male prostitute is found dead and disfigured, Kreizler has a hunch he’s not the first victim and calls on newspaper illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) to sketch the body.…2 min
Total Film|June 2018fresh spinREADY PLAYER ONERetro-pop hit list aside, Spielberg’s retina-rush gets old-school orchestral scoring from an old pal. Mixing stirring noise with character nuance, Back To The Future’s Alan Silvestri loads up on brassy vigour, adrenalised strings, pummelling percussion and wistful piano. On-point Horner/Williams flavours join homages to Kong, Godzilla and the DeLorean, but Silvestri’s hero theme has legs of its own.ISLE OF DOGSCraft, playfulness, connoisseur-ish cuts: the soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s mutt-romp delivers as hoped. Despite charges of appropriation, the cultural exchange between Alexandre Desplat’s scoring and Kaoru Watanabe’s taiko-drum settings receives careful handling. Jazzy flourishes and Kurosawa homages splice nicely, while The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra add psychedelic uplift.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018FAR CRY 5GAMEOUT NOW | PC, PS4, Xbox OneUbisoft’s latest open-worlder drops you into another fictitious region in chaos, this time to battle a Christian doomsday cult. Beyond a handful of structural tweaks and an excellent level editor, this isn’t much different to previous entries – its missions are unpredictable and explosively entertaining, but it never settles on a consistent tone. Between the savagery of its story quests and its self-consciously wacky side-missions, it’s a game that makes a lot of noise but has disappointingly little to say.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018THE ART OF READY PLAYER ONEBOOKGINA MCINTYRE | TITAN BOOKSBatman, Gremlins, Thundercats, Space Invaders, Garfield (!)… And that’s just the image on page 100. One of the best things about Art Of books is being able to savour details that whizz by on the big screen.Given that Ready Player One could alternatively be titled ‘Blink And You’ll Miss It: The Movie’, this tome’s handy for ‘Gunters’ looking to prise more pop-culture nods from Spielberg’s VR epic. And there’s the bonus level of Easter eggs that didn’t make it past the pitch, either because they didn’t fit or permission wasn’t granted (“Almost all the studios were cooperative,” says producer Donald De Line). Mind you, if the familiar-looking chair on page 152 had made it in, fans’ heads may have exploded…Shots of actors studded with ping-pong balls…1 min
Total Film|June 2018STAR WARS: LAST SHOTBOOKDANIEL JOSÉ OLDER | CENTURYFollowing Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy, Daniel José Older’s novel continues to explore the events between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens, this time focusing on Han and Lando as they face an old foe threatening to annihilate Cloud City. Neatly released to stoke anticipation for Solo: A Star Wars Story, Older’s book does a good job of recreating the voices of everyone’s favourite scoundrels. A time-hopping narrative and deliciously dark baddie also please.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018ASPECT RATIO CHANGES01 INTERSTELLARShooting the interiors of the spaceship in standard 16.9 widescreen, Christopher Nolan supersizes to IMAX to convey the vastness of space. It’s a trick much-favoured by Nolan, who sought IMAX(imum) impact for key set-pieces in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.02 BOOGIE NIGHTSPaul Thomas Anderson stimulates his p*rn epic by shuffling in plenty of cinematic techniques, including shrinking the 2:39.1 widescreen picture to a shrivelled square when presenting footage from Dirk Diggler’s grot pics. Talk about stripping away the glamour.03 GRAND BUDAPEST HOTELHopping between the 1980s, ’60s and ’30s, Wes Anderson’s adventure uses 1.85:1, 2.31:1 and 1.37:1. This last, the Academy ratio favoured in the ’30s and ’40s, packages décor, manners and screwball antics familiar from movies of that era.04 OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFULHow to beat…2 min
Total Film|June 2018LAST MONTH IS BATMAN RETURNS THE BEST BAT-MOVIE?LEGO LADWhile the Keaton-Burton Batmans are very underrated as a whole, they can’t compete with the Bale trilogy in acting ability, depth of story and complexity of character.DENNIS QUIXANOLet’s be honest, these movies were just a showcase for Burton’s weirdo aesthetic.KURT RIVEROThe story was a mess.MIKE STANKOVICHProbably the best comic-book movie ever made.ANDREW JAMESIt was batsh*t mental and dark. I bloody LOVED IT.DAVID MILLARI suspect that’s more to do with Michelle Pfeiffer in PVC than its quality as a film…MARK ROBSONIt’s my top superhero movie.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018KING KONG 200501 ESCAPE PLANAspiring actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) gives the slip to that damn flirty ape who’s been holding her captive, but then finds herself pursued across Skull Island by two giant iguanas. The fictional creatures were dubbed ‘Weta-saurs’ in a tribute to the NZ-based FX house that worked on the film.02 JUNGLE RUNAnn is initially relieved when the Weta-saur is dragged away by an off-screen predator, before it becomes apparent that it has fallen victim to something even more terrifying – a T-rex-alike Vastatosaurus-rex. “Do they sell more toys if they call it a V-rex?” muses director Peter Jackson.03 THREE-WAY THROWDOWNThe V-rex pursues Ann through the jungle, before Kong returns to her aid. The first V-rex is just a juvenile though, and mum and dad soon join the fight…2 min
Total Film|June 201860 Second ScreenplayFADE IN:EXT: sh*tSVILLE, 2045TYE SHERIDAN [VOICEOVER]Hello. You might remember me from X-Men: Apocalypse as the slightly dull kid moping about in a visor amid an avalanche of ’80s kitsch. In which case we’ve just added yet another layer of meta.We see an array of slum-dwellers flailing round their front rooms in virtual reality gear, fighting aliens/skydiving/shagging someone in Australia.TYE SHERIDANThe future’s so sh*te, I gotta wear shades, to paraphrase an old song. Hope you’re keen on those, btw; our soundtrack’s called Now That’s What I Call A Budget Big Enough To Buy Up Every Old Chart-Topper Going.INT: ERNETTYE enters the virtual omniverse known as the OASIS (Old Anoraky sh*t, Internet-Salvaged), morphing into his chosen avatar: Riley’s imaginary boyfriend from Inside Out. In a bid to find a priceless Easter egg,…3 min
Total Film|June 2018TIFFANY HADDISHThere is triumph over adversity and then there is Tiffany Haddish. Living out of her car when she started the LA comedy club hustle is the least of it. Before that she was in foster care, and before that, for three years, she looked after her half-siblings and her mother, who suffered a brain injury after a car crash.Bullied at school, it was the Laugh Factory comedy camp that saved her, aged 17. Haddish recalls how mentors Richard Pryor, Dane Cook and the Wayans told her, “You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re talented.” She says, “It was enough to light a fire.”The Girls Trip star’s rise was, in truth, one step at a time: guest parts on TV shows, then recurring roles in If Loving You Is Wrong and The Carmichael…1 min
Total Film|June 2018NOVEL CONCEPTThe story of a woman who opens an independent book store in a small English town in 1959, Isabel Coixet’s new movie could easily be filed under ‘quaint’. But the fiery Spanish director is having none of it. “Books are dangerous,” she says. “They make you think, they make you question things, they make you grow up… I don’t see books as this innocent thing.”Based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, Emily Mortimer plays Florence Green, who arrives in a Suffolk coastal village to upset the locals – chiefly Patricia Clarkson’s queen bee – when she opens her shop on a site intended for a local arts centre. Her only supporter is the reclusive Mr. Brundish (Bill Nighy), for whom she falls after they bond over books.The dung really hits…2 min
Total Film|June 2018ARTFUL DODGERMAIN MANIn the same way that Robert Downey Jr. instantly embodied Tony Stark, Ryan Reynolds just is Deadpool. “It’s the same marriage of talent and character,” says Liefeld, who expects Reynolds to still be playing Wade Wilson when he’s in his dotage. “I keep telling him, what with all the prosthetics and make-up he puts on to become Deadpool, he can keep doing it into his sixties. It’s not like Downey Jr., who has got to stay in a certain shape.”ACTION MANAdmitting that some fans wished the original film had boasted one additional action sequence, Liefeld believes that Deadpool 2 more than makes up for that. “We have the greatest action director currently working in David Leitch,” he says, referring to the John Wick/Atomic Blonde helmer who replaced Deadpool’s Tim…2 min
Total Film|June 2018PAWS FOR THOUGHTThe one thing I wanted from this flipping film is the dog doesn’t die,” says Patrick director Mandie Fletcher, a self-confessed sucker for mutt movies and an owner of three Westies. “With Marley And Me they said, ‘The feelgood film of the summer.’ Liars!”In this family tale, the titular Patrick is a pug bequeathed to Sarah (Beattie Edmondson) by her grandmother. Only Sarah doesn’t want him. Recently dumped, now grieving and, as Fletcher puts it, “in a bit of a muddle,” she can barely look after herself, let alone some squishy-faced beast. But Patrick of course turns things around: having to walk him each day forces Sarah to exercise and she meets new friends in the park. Even getting evicted for disobeying a ‘no pets’ rule means she moves to…2 min
Total Film|June 2018BOXED INFrom Midnight Express to Rescue Dawn, the sight of foreigners toughing it out in remote prisons is nothing new in cinema. So when Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire took on Billy Moore’s 2012 autobiography A Prayer Before Dawn, he knew he’d have to deliver something different. The answer was authenticity. “I had the feeling if the film was a life-experience for the crew and the actors, [then] it becomes an experience for the audience as well.”A former heroin addict and one-time career criminal, the Liverpool-born Moore spent time in notorious Thai prison Klong Prem – aka the ‘Bangkok Hilton’ – where assault, rape and murder are commonplace. To replicate this, Sauvaire shot in an abandoned jail in Thailand, using real-life gang members and tattoo-clad ex-prisoners. As for Moore, he went to Peaky Blinders…2 min
Total Film|June 2018CULT FICTIONSo you want to live forever? Then take a look at The Endless. “We put it into [the] context of something that is existentially horrifying,” says co-helmer Justin Benson. “It’s confirmation that there are things worse than death.” Well, that’s cheery. But then Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s latest low-budget brainteaser is more than just a scare-story about the possibilities of eternal life.Following their excellent 2014 film, Med-set monster movie Spring, The Endless continues their interest in character-focused, high-concept sci-fi. It’s the tale of brothers, Justin and Aaron Smith (played by Benson and Moorhead, respectively) who return to the California cult they once fled. For the eagle-eyed, there are connections to Benson and Moorhead’s 2012 micro-budget debut, Resolution, which dealt with a freaky drug intervention.“There’s a universe and mythology that’s shared…2 min
Total Film|June 2018ON CHESIL BEACHOUT 18 MAYCERTIFICATE 15 DIRECTOR Dominic Cooke STARRING Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Anne-Marie Duff, Samuel West SCREENPLAY Ian McEwan DISTRIBUTOR Lionsgate RUNNING TIME 110 minsHow to adapt Ian McEwan’s 2007 novella, an intimate, claustrophobic work detailing a young couple’s awkward attempt to consummate their marriage in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore? Is it even possible to make a film from a setting so contained, from prose so forensic in its chronicling of every gesture and expression, where each tic, stutter and silence is freighted with pinpoint psychology?Well, employing McEwan himself to pen the screenplay isn’t a bad start. The author maintains much of the burning embarrassment and soul-sick sadness that brings such weight to his slender source work. Perhaps inevitably, he opens the story out, first…3 min
Total Film|June 2018THE CUREDOUT 11 MAYCERTIFICATE 15 DIRECTOR David Freyne STARRING Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Stuart Graham SCREENPLAY David Freyne DISTRIBUTOR Arrow Films RUNNING TIME 93 minsBetween The Walking Dead’s decline and goofy filler like Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, the pressure’s on to sharpen zombies’ bite. Colm McCarthy’s The Girl With All The Gifts managed it; so did Yeon Sang-ho’s rattling-good Train To Busan. Now, writer/director David Freyne’s feature debut tackles its revivalist task boldly, splicing a zombies-as-allegory premise with the ‘infected’ sub-genre’s untamed instincts and plenty of raw-nerve feeling to toothsome ends.Despite some rough edges in the plot and character departments, Freyne’s blend of kitchen-sink pungency, charged politics and pummelling shocks harnesses the conviction needed to hold up besides its more obvious precedents. Echoing 28 Days Later via the…3 min
Total Film|June 2018I FEEL PRETTYOUT 4 MAYCERTIFICATE 12A DIRECTORS Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein STARRING Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Rory Scovel SCREENPLAY Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein DISTRIBUTOR STX RUNNING TIME 110 minsAmerica’s sweary, small-screen sweetheart Amy Schumer likes her movies to riff on her on-stage comic personas. Having been a loud ladette in Trainwreck and a needy narcissist in Snatched, she turns down the volume as insecure loser Renee, in this fun, ragingly relatable chick-flick.Comically snubbed by men, shop assistants and prettier rivals, Renee is obsessed that beauty is the winning ticket in life’s lottery. But then a head injury in spinning class upends her world – making her see herself, Shallow Hal-style, as supermodel-hot. Flaunting bulletproof confidence, she’s soon bulldozed herself a boyfriend (an amiable Rory Scovel), and powered into a glossy job at…3 min
Total Film|June 2018REVENGEOUT 11 MAYCERTIFICATE 18 DIRECTOR Coralie Fargeat STARRING Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède SCREENPLAY Coralie Fargeat RUNNING TIME 108 minsWomen kicking ass is empowering, right? And über-gory murder is totally OK in the name of revenge, yeah? That appears to be the argument of director Coralie Fargeat, whose feature debut has garnered midnight-crowd love for its supposedly feminist reclaiming of the ‘rape revenge’ sub-genre that started with I Spit On Your Grave (directed by a man) 30 years ago.Sadly, the conversation doesn’t seem to have moved on much since then, and certainly not with Revenge. From its opening moments, the camera leers at Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz), and it only gets worse after she’s sexually assaulted by a couple of crooks (Vincent Colombe, Guillaume…1 min
Total Film|June 2018COMING SOONJURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOMOUT 6 JUNEAn adventure, um, three years in the making, the follow-on from 2015’s multiplex mosasaurus (the big fishy one) offers a killer cross-breed: the dino-movie mated with the disaster flick. This one’s more of a lava story, as the dinos face extinction all over again when a volcano decides it’s time to kick ash. Former Jurassic directors Spielberg and Trevorrow exec-produce, handing the reins to J.A. Bayona, who’s well versed in natural awfulness (The Impossible), personable beasts (A Monster Calls) and imperilled moppets (The Orphanage). For more, chomp your way through our feature, starting on p54.OCEAN’S 8OUT 22 JUNEJust when you thought it was safe to flaunt your obscene wealth, along comes another cool crew to swagger off with it. Keeping it in the family, the…1 min
Total Film|June 2018MAKING A MONSTER“What can I say about the things I cannot talk about? [laughs] We really enjoyed creating a new creature and designing the scenes where the creature would be the star. I think everyone remembers these movies for a specific dinosaur. We wanted to create new ones that people will remember, specifically from this movie.“It’s very overwhelming when you see the design that ILM did for the Indoraptor. All of the elements were taken from reality. Because these animals are always very grounded in reality. So you can tell the colour of the skin. The eyes were taken from a different animal. The textures, the way it crawls, it was taken from a very specific lizard. It was very exciting to see. I remember, they had a graphic where you could…1 min
Total Film|June 2018EMILIA CLARKETell us about your character…I play Qi’ra. Han and Qi’ra grew up together and were incredibly close when they were younger.What is it about Han that attracts her?Han is such an opportunist, and even if he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he does it anyway. I feel like that is incredibly endearing and so impressive, because he always lands on his feet. He does these stupid things that should never work, and they do. And he does them with bravado. So it’s even more satisfying to him, and just endearing to Qi’ra.Tell us about working with Ron Howard…Ron is just a dreamboat. He’s just so great. He is such a joy to work with. It’s quite incredible. He is like a kid on this movie. He loves it. I remember…3 min
Total Film|June 2018CROSS TO BEARPaul Schrader is on tour. When Total Film catches up with the 71-year-old writer-director, he’s at the Dublin Film Festival presenting his new film, First Reformed. Hanging outside the room where we meet is a giant poster of Raging Bull, one of several collaborations with Martin Scorsese that made Schrader’s name as a screenwriter all those years ago. It’s almost as if they knew he was coming. Despite Scorsese classics such as Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation Of Christ also on his CV, Schrader hasn’t worked with his old buddy for almost 20 years, since their paramedic drama Bringing Out The Dead. “I realised during Bringing Out The Dead that we wouldn’t work together again,” he says. “I was just thinking too much like a director. I wasn’t thinking…8 min
Total Film|June 2018COCO PGFILMEXTRASOUT 21 MAY DVD, BD, 3D BD, Digital HD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenesCoco is Pixar’s ninth film to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. To put things in perspective, only eight films from other studios have ever won the same award. Yet Pixar’s ubiquity, once taken for granted, has been in doubt in recent years. Its parent company, Disney, had won in three of the previous four years. Only Inside Out broke that run, but it’s a mark of how out of favour Pixar has fallen that Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory and Cars 3 weren’t even nominated.The obvious conclusion to draw from Coco’s triumph is: never write off Pixar. But the more interesting response is to look at how Pixar has moved with the times.…4 min
Total Film|June 2018MOLLY’S GAME 15OUT 4 MAY Digital HD 14 MAY DVD, BD EXTRAS Commentary, FeaturetteCelebrated scribe Aaron Sorkin makes his directorial debut with this Oscar-nominated drama, starring Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom, an ex-Olympic skier pursued by the FBI for running high-stakes poker games. Facing jail time, she’s defended by lawyer Idris Elba, while flashbacks reveal her fractious relationship with dad Kevin Costner. Adapting Bloom’s autobiography, Sorkin’s debut is every bit as thrillingly motor-mouthed as his previous scripting jobs. Think Fincher-esque gloss twinned with a keen sense of the ridiculous and you’re there.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018JURASSIC PARK 25TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION 121993–2015 OUT NOW Boxset 21 MAY DVD, BD, 4K EXTRAS Making Ofs, Featurettes, Storyboards, Art cardsWhen you let the genie out of the bottle, can you control it? In 1993, Spielberg sparked that debate when his ground-shattering dino FX inadvertently birthed decades of CG-splattered spectacle. But, just as Jaws transcended its event-movie copycats, so you can’t blame Spielberg for post-Park pixel overload; after all, the original Jurassic movie (★★★★★) had the foresight to foreground the genie and bottle issue.Despite CG dinosaurs’ later ubiquity, Park’s self-awareness and controlled plotting still merit endorsem*nt. As raptor and hunter lock eyes in the cage-rattling opener, Spielberg seeds a ‘seeing’ motif that binds his various strands: Dr. Grant’s brachiosaurus sighting, Nedry’s specs crisis, debates about the hunger for spectacle, the raptor’s mirror issues… And, wherever…2 min
Total Film|June 2018THE AWFUL TRUTH U1937 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Interviews, Video essay, Radio adap, BookletCary Grant and Irene Dunne’s wisecracking, New York high-society couple find the road to divorce complicated by distrust, dalliances and dog custody in this screwball corker, which scrubs up nicely on Blu. Oscar-winning director Leo McCarey’s (Duck Soup) discovery of Grant’s gift for relaxed light comedy (and surprising slapstick) is neatly analysed in the extras package. Elegant but hilariously playful, Dunne is his perfect foil, while Skippy (as Mr. Smith) is one of the all-time great movie pooches.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018royal bloodBlow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout. Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the co*cks!” Blame Shakespeare for writing it. Blame the English weather for making it possible. Or, better yet, blame whoever decided to shoot a King Lear adaptation in the middle of a quarry at 1am in November. That would be veteran National Theatre director Richard Eyre. Looking on, Small Screen is standing shin-deep in rain and mud: steeples drenched, co*cks well and truly drowned.We’re somewhere in Aylesbury, standing in a rusty, waterlogged refugee camp as extras huddle inside ripped tents and rain machines make the winter weather into even more of a storm. Striding through the thick wet clay comes Anthony Hopkins in an overcoat, water running down his face,…4 min
Total Film|June 2018ON DEMANDLOST IN SPACE TBCSHOWAVAILABLE NOW | NETFLIXTwenty years after the middling movie reboot starring Joey from Friends comes another pass at the iconic sci-fi serial. Coming on like ‘J.J. Abrams’ Lost… but in space!’, this Netflix Original swaps out the creaky camp from the ’60s show in favour of characterisation, intrigue and gripping adventure, all on a cinematic scale.Set 30 years in the future, it sees this new swish family Robinson knocked off course while en route to colonise a new planet, crash landing in a world filled with dangers, both Earthly and extra-terrestrial.The first episode (of 10) immediately thrusts peril upon our troubled family, led by hardened soldier dad John (Toby Stephens) and brilliant engineer mum Maureen (Molly Parker). Flashbacks threaded throughout the series reveal how they came to…3 min
Total Film|June 2018on stranger tidesSEA OF THIEVESGAMEOUT NOW | PC, Xbox OneAfter four years in development, Rare’s online pirate adventure finally makes its maiden voyage… and it still doesn’t quite feel shipshape. It’s as capable of producing unforgettable anecdotes as leaving you bored or frustrated: lone buccaneers will always be outmatched by fully manned ships, with friendly overtures often met with cannon fire and a swift trip to Davy Jones’ Locker.Yet with a full crew of friends, these high-seas quests can be a swashbuckling treat, as you battle skeleton armies, sharks and rivals, gathering trinkets to sell.It’s a distinctly unorthodox brand of online game. While your job involves defeating enemies and finding loot, you’re as likely to engage in a grog-drinking (and then puke-chucking) contest or launch into a concertina rendition of ‘Ride Of…1 min
Total Film|June 2018A WAY OUTGAMEOUT NOW | PC, PS4, Xbox OneFormer filmmaker Josef Fares follows his spellbinding debut, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, with a tale of two cons, as prisoners Vincent and Leo plan a jailbreak. Like them, you’re forced to co-operate: this must be played with a friend, though you’ll only need one copy even when playing online. The two-player dynamic gives familiar scenarios a fresh twist – Vincent must keep guard while Leo chisels out a crawlspace – but it’s let down by a flimsy script that stumbles towards an overwrought finale.…1 min
Total Film|June 2018two moreAVENGERS BOOKSWhat is Marvel? Why is Loki such a jerk? Are animal suits the new trend? All (genuine) posers from Marvel Studios: All Your Questions Answered, DK’s diagram-tastic, film-by-film guide (bar Spider-Man: Homecoming – must be a rights thing) to the MCU suitable for newbies, younger readers and vexed editors struggling to remember who died how and in which Phase. Also from DK, the encyclopaedic Avengers: The Ultimate Guide: New Edition, heroically distilling decades of the comic-book team’s history (and revolving-door roster).THE MANY DEATHS OF SCOTT KOBLISHDeath by cat. Death by steamroller. Death by falling coconut. Death by cat (again). Whatever strange psychological impulse drives Marvel artist Scott Koblish (Deadpool, Spider-Man) to depict his demise over and over again, it’s worth its weight in lolz. Never mind the rampaging T-rex…1 min
Total Film|June 2018IS IT BOLLOCKS?THIS MONTH DOC BROWN’S 88MPH PUFFER TRAINQ In Back To The Future Part 3, Doc Brown sends Marty from 1885 to 1985 via a full throttle steam train. But could a train of that era actually reach that speed?A BOB GWYNNE, ASSOCIATE CURATOR, THE NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM.NRM.ORG.UKNot in America, no. Speed on rails works for two reasons; that the locomotive is powerful and that the track is good enough to take it. American tracks were very lightly laid – they were often just dog-spiked to sleepers because they were trying to lay it fast, particularly going into the west. As a result, average speeds were quite slow. The best tracks were on the east coast of America, but even on those, around that time, you’d be doing well if you…1 min
Total Film|June 20181940sBOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONSAs the ’40s began, two wars were to impact deeply on cinema, one real and one not. As stars and directors joined the World War 2 effort in various capacities, cinema’s responses to wartime’s horrors, privations and psychological scars included propaganda films, escapism, morale-boosters, take-to-the-streets realism, noir-tinted allegories and more. Elsewhere, a war of the worlds galvanised the career of a man whose debut feature absorbed the previous decade’s innovations with an abundant vim that resonated for decades to follow.In 1938, Orson Welles sent America into a panic-spin with his notoriety-boosting War Of The Worlds radio broadcast. Three years on, he channelled the influences of innovators Jean Renoir, John Ford and Fritz Lang into his feature debut, Citizen Kane. With Herman J. Mankiewicz (cowriter),…10 min
