Home//Total Film/March 2016/In This Issue
Total Film|March 2016DIALOGUEBalls to the (fourth) wallHey, you jerks! The merc with the mouth is finally here, and we’re bringing you all the on-set juiciness. But that’s not the only action we’re celebrating this issue – along with pats on the back for our own incredible dashes to screenings, fights over sponge cake and eye-saucering agility with a laptop, the TF team also battled to bring you sweat-stained coverage of Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, Allegiant, Triple 9, Point Break and the top 33 most unlikely action stars ever. Plus we sat down with legends Kevin Costner and Tim Roth, talked news with the Truth team and enjoyed Tom Hiddleston in his pants on the set of High-Rise. Enjoy the issue.JANE CROWTHER EDITORDrop us a line: totalfilm@futurenet.comThe ups and downs of making…6 min
Total Film|March 2016Skeleton crew‘I like these girls. They’re tough to say no to’ BILL MURRAY“A great hope” is how Bill Murray has described the cast of the new Ghostbusters, and going by this first official shot of the fearsome foursome kitted up in their jumpsuits and proton packs, he’s bang on the money.Because, yes, the Ghostbusters are back, but they’ve gone through something of a change since we last saw them kicking spectral ass in 1989’s Ghostbusters II. Where that sequel reunited the original cast – Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson – for a second fight for New York, this much-belated new film hits the reset with a whole new crew. And, yep, this time they’re ladies. Director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy) has called on some of his funniest pals for…2 min
Total Film|March 2016You talkin’ to me?You talkin’ to me?Are you talking to me? I’ve spoken to a lot of journalists recently; I’ve just finished promoting The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. I’m just having to rewire my brain because this is my first day talking about The Forest.Do you feel lucky, punk?Yeah, I feel really lucky. I’m part of two incredible ensemble casts, with Hunger Games and Game Of Thrones, and now 2016 is all about me exploring my own projects as a leading female. I feel really lucky I’m being given opportunities like The Forest and about how the rest of my 2016 is starting to shape up. It feels like a new chapter, a new phase of my career.You either surf or fight…I don’t surf. I scuba dive. [laughs] I try to…3 min
Total Film|March 2016LISTEN UP HOLLYWOODTOP NUNTurns out Maverick (Tom Cruise) has been a priest for 30 years and Charlie (Kelly McGillis) joined a convent. The saintly duo must return to the Fighter Weapons School at Miramar, San Diego when the naval instructors develop food poisoning from pea soup and start blowing chunks. Maverick and Charlie tutor a new wave of aviators against the evil of 21st-century aviation: drones.TOP BEGUNWhy not go the prequel route and zoom in on 14-year-old Pete Mitchell as he bunks off school for a day and joyrides his dad’s F12 through the wide blue heavens? Riding shotgun is his trusty bud Gosling, the pair blasting ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ on a ghetto blaster. Romantic subplot: Mitch develops a crush on an androgynous geography teacher.TOP SHOGUNWell, the Cruiser has already starred…1 min
Total Film|March 2016New mutants1 “I saw the end of the world,” trembles a young Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), having just suffered a stormy vision of apocalyptic destruction. A more-put-together-thanbefore Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) reassures her “it was just a dream”, but given the film’s called X-Men: Apocalypse, we’re not exactly comforted.2 Rose Byrne’s returning CIA agent Moira MacTaggert explains that new baddie Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac, left) is back, and about to choose four beings to “imbue with power”. Cue Magneto (Michael Fassbender) heading up an ’80s version of the four horsem*n of the apocalypse, alongside Storm, Angel and Psylocke.3 “Not all of us can control our powers,” mopes Scott Summers aka Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), to which Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) replies: “Then don’t.” Looks like she’ll have an interesting approach to training as she…2 min
Total Film|March 2016IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALISTPaul Thomas Anderson is a big fan of watching movies on a seat-back screen, and happily confesses to viewing as many as he could cram in while flying hither and thither on the Inherent Vice press tour. This from the guy who advocates film over digital and who presented The Master in eye-saucering 65mm.His point being, yes, it’s entirely preferable to take in Interstellar or Mad Max: Fury Road on a 60ft screen, but sometimes, when you’re run off your feet and wind up missing a heap of movies you’re desperate to see, a 10-hour journey in a hurtling, fart-smelling tube equipped with in-flight entertainment is a godsend.Well, contrary to popular belief, a career in film journalism doesn’t (just) mean you’re paid to watch films – the little matter of…3 min
Total Film|March 2016The One To WatchI’m really a dork… I go to the dog park in my pyjamas,” says Alexandra Daddario, the 29-year-old actress who won a ‘Best Scared-As-S**t Performance’ MTV Award for playing final girl Heather in Texas Chainsaw 3D, and who is perhaps best known for Season One of True Detective, in which her Lisa Tragnetti handcuffs Woody Harrelson’s ’tec Martin Hart before stripping down to her birthday suit.Being asked to get bikini-ready as lifeguard Summer in the big-screen Baywatch reboot is unlikely to panic her, then. Daddario is the first lady in red to be cast and will play Summer (Nicole Eggert in the TV series), a fearless lifeguard who battles environmental destruction at the hands of an oil tycoon – and who gets inside the red trunks of a rule-flouting Zac…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Blade of gloryIt was Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that introduced mainstream western audiences to wuxia (wu is Chinese for ‘martial art’, xia is ‘warrior’), a genre of fiction or film in which the skilled fighters are often capable of superhuman feats. Well, as belated sequel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword Of Destiny prepares to land in IMAX theatres and on Netflix in February, here is a stunning offering from acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien to keep you going.An intimate, intricate tale set in the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty, The Assassin sees a female child stolen from her family and moulded into a deadly weapon. Now a woman (Shu Qi), she is assigned to return to the district of her childhood and kill Lord Tian Ji’an (Chang Chen), to…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Snow stoppersSWISS ARMY MANDaniel Radcliffe last hit Sundance in 2013, when he destroyed his Harry Potter image with Kill Your Darlings, so this second appearance at the fest is an exciting prospect. Radcliffe stars in Swiss Army Man alongside fest regulars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Paul Dano, and while plot details are under wraps, we know the film’s an absurdist comedy in which a man living in the wilderness befriends a dead body. First-time directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – collectively known as ‘The Daniels’ – have previously directed episodes of Funny Or Die, so we’re imagining Weekend At Bernie’ meets Stand By Me.TALLULAHEight years after Juno, Ellen Page and Allison Janney are back together for Tallulah, a dramatic comedy in which Page’s titular homeless woman takes a baby from…5 min
Total Film|March 2016Doctor’s ordersWill Peter Jackson direct an episode of Doctor Who? The Lord Of The Rings helmer’s TARDIS debut has been long mooted, but showrunner Steven Moffat has previously claimed “It would have to be when he’s available – and I don’t think he’s even been available to answer our emails of late!” Jackson recently posted a witty riposte video on Facebook, in which he’s polishing his Oscars as Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and a Dalek invade his living room. About timey-wimey…ETA | TBC Peter Jackson’Doctor Whoepisode is yet to be confirmed.ILLUSTRATION: GLEN BROGAN; PICTURE CREDIT: REX FEATURES…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Sound bites“Tell me the difference between stupid and illegal and I’ll have my wife’s brother arrested.” Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) is a straighttalker in The Big Short.“It’s true [about the feud]. Because Channing Tatum does not like me – and for many reasons, many being my own fault.” Alex Pettyfer discusses the Magic Mike cast fallout.“Honestly, it got so boring in front of the camera I had to quit.” Rose McGowan is taking a break.“Oh f**k you, Eddie, in your brilliant costume. I got jeans and a zip top for 10 years and you’ve got a great coat already?” Daniel Radcliffe is envious of Eddie Redmayne’s Potter-verse costume.“I’d love to do another Indiana Jones and work with Steven [Spielberg] again – if we get a script, I’d love to do it.”…1 min
Total Film|March 2016RoomLife on the inside…SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION 1994Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman bond behind bars in Frank Darabont’s prison saga.SHORT TERM 12 2013Larson’s on phenomenal form in this indie about a home for troubled teens.PRISONERS 2013Hugh Jackman won’t rest until his daughter’s found in this dark tale of serial abduction.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsYOU DON’T HAVE to be claustrophobic to be unsettled by Lenny Abrahamson’s latest, a tale of love, hope and survival that confines a significant part of its action to an airless, locked outhouse. Said shed has been the home of Ma (Brie Larson) for seven years, the length of time she has been held captive by a man we know only by the demonic moniker Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). The last…4 min
Total Film|March 2016THE VISIT: AN ALIEN ENCOUNTER“WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF MANKIND encountered aliens?” That’s the poser at the heart of this cerebral doc, which explores the prospect as science fact rather than science fiction. Experts and military advisors discuss in practical terms what the protocol would be for communicating with extra-terrestrial life, but filmmaker Michael Madsen (not that one) is less interested in the response we’d get and more in what we’d choose to share about the human race. Would we, for example, be honest about our own violent past? With stunning otherworldly imagery accompanying the deeply philosophical debate, The Visit pleases the eye as much as the brain.Certificate TBC Running time 83 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016The AssassinMurder she wrought.SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...HERO 2002, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS 2004Two more wuxia wonders, this time from director Zhang Yimou.THREE TIMES 2005Hou’s love-story triptych, starring The Assassin’s Shu Qi and Chang Chen before they went badass.THE GRANDMASTER 2013Wong Kar-wai and star Tony Leung’s artful telling of Bruce Lee teacher – and Wing Chun maestro – Ip Man.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsDIRECTING FOR THE FIRST TIME since 2007’s Flight Of The Red Balloon, Hou Hsiao-hsien returns with a martial arts epic like no other. Radiant, graceful, ambiguous and artful, this idiosyncratic take on the genre is far removed from, say, House Of Flying Daggers. And it’s already a critics’ darling, having hoovered up praise – and a Best Director gong – when it premiered at last…2 min
Total Film|March 2016GoosebumpsFrom page to scream…YEARS BEFORE THERE WERE queues outside bookshops for Harry Potter, kids were hiding under their duvets with Goosebumps, the hammy horror series by R.L. Stine that spawned more than 60 bestselling titles in the mid-’90s. It’s an odd move to land a movie adap now, when a lot of mums and dads will have all but forgotten the books, but you don’t need to know your Slappys from your Swamp Monsters to get the concept and love it. A box-fresh comedy horror that slings Amblin-esque heart, B-movie thrills and plenty of CGI at the screen, it’s a lot of dumb fun.Jack Black plays Stine (yes, it’s a bit meta) as a curious mix of Igor and Truman Capote – a reclusive writer who spends his days popping…2 min
Total Film|March 2016LOST IN KARASTANA LACK OF DIRECTION IS PRECISELY what flummoxes director Ben Hopkins’ mix of culture-clashing black comedy, romcom and meta-movie. Co-writing with Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida), Hopkins gets droll work from a cast led by Matthew Macfadyen as Emil, a blocked filmmaker attending a no-budget Eastern Europe film festival. MyAnna Buring is amusingly withering as an enigmatic PR, and Noah Taylor’s wildeyed actor galvanises proceedings, but laughs surrender to soul-searching and unearned darker spins. Too daft for drama and too solemn for satire. Merely lost.Certificate 15 Running time 96 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016RAMSTHE RAMS IN QUESTION BELONG TO elderly Icelandic sheep farmers Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) who, despite being neighbours in a remote valley, have not spoken to one another in 40 years. But when their flocks are threatened by disease, the estranged siblings must co-operate in defying the authorities. Deadpan Scandi-humour runs through writer/director Grímur Hákonarson’s carefully crafted tale, and there’s no doubting the film’s empathy for its protagonists. Shame, then, that the final-reel shift into tragedy feels misplaced.Certificate 15 Running time 93 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016BREAKDOWNEX-EASTENDERS ’ARD MAN CRAIG Fairbrass is Alfie Jennings, gangland’s top hitman and torturer, who finds himself on the wrong side of The Firm when he starts having embarrassing flashbacks in a kebab shop. Country-gent kingpin Albert (Game Of Thrones’ James Cosmo) doesn’t want a triggerman with a fickle finger, so he orders his gang of thumb-headed goons to try and take him and his whole family out. The debut feature of British director Jonnie Malachi, it’s a sad*stic, shallow little revenger whose only saving grace is a handful of half-decent performances.Certificate 15 Running time 110 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Dirty GrandpaThe beer hunter…WHILE ROBERT DE NIRO HAS done plenty of comedy in recent years, most of it’s been relatively clean-cut. Dirty Grandpa, a title that needs little explanation, sees him lusting after college girls, engaging in racial and hom*ophobic ‘banter’, and generally behaving badly. Is it what you want to see from the Taxi Driver star? Not really. But fans of De Niro have long become resigned to his shallow output in the two decades post-Heat.Directed by Dan Mazer (I Give It A Year), Dirty Grandpa is a coming-of-age frat film in which neither protagonist is at college. De Niro’s septuagenarian Dick Kelly has just lost his wife of 40 years and wants his grandson, Jason (Zac Efron), a preppy lawyer about to get married to Julianne Hough’s one-note fiancée,…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Still out, still good…THE REVENANT“A remarkably visceral, astounding film. With a director, DoP and cast at the top of their game, The Revenant is a filmmaking triumph, full of ambition, beauty and savagery. You cannot afford to miss Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s extraordinary wilderness drama on the big screen.”CREED“Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan re-ignite their Fruitvale Station chemistry while Sylvester Stallone delivers a knockout performance. Punchy and powerful, this Rocky rocks – it’s a movie hardcore fans of the series will love.”THE GOOD DINOSAUR“Simple but effective, Pixar’s latest doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s still damn fine entertainment. Coming into its own when its two heroes buddy up, it will have you feigning grit in your eye. And the scenery is beautiful.”THE NIGHT BEFORE“If buddy movies are your thing but Christmas movies aren’t,…1 min
Total Film|March 2016WORKING GIRLCan you tell us a bit about your character, Vanessa Carlysle?She’s Wade Wilson’s girlfriend, basically. She’s a prostitute when they meet. They meet at a bar and immediately have this amazing rapport, and fall in love really by giving each other a lot of sh*t [laughs]. And it’s really, really fun to watch and to play. She can keep up with him and give it back to him, which is, I think, what he’s attracted to.How was it working with Ryan Reynolds?He’s awesome. He has a tremendously difficult job to do, with all of the prosthetics and the suit. This is a project that has been his passion for over five years. He’s been trying to get this movie made. It was really amazing to see how hard he worked,…2 min
Total Film|March 2016COPSAND ROBBERSIf there’s a more powerful opening to a movie this year than Triple 9, then we’re in for a hell of a ride. A dirty-cops drama with a twist of cyanide, John Hillcoat’s pulsating thriller starts as it means to go on: sirens, screams and shots fill the air as five balaclava-wearing armed robbers lay siege to a downtown Atlanta bank. Not since Robert De Niro gunned his way through the streets of LA in Heat has there been a raid so visceral or vividly portrayed on film.“I think we all got into it,” admits Brit star Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose character – ex-military man Michael Belmont – leads this quintet as they raid the tills, safes and deposit boxes. “It had that feeling of doing it in real-time – you…11 min
Total Film|March 2016BODICE BUSTERLily James has battled her way through a shambling horde to meet Total Film at a private members club in London’s Soho. Just steps away from the quiet civilility of the Georgian interior and roaring open fire, chaos reigns on the pavements of Oxford Street. “Zombie Christmas shoppers!” James laughs as she flops into one of the wing-backed chairs, casually dressed in grey bobble hat and black-and-whitestriped jumper, fresh-faced and full of smiles.An apt joke – for though the 26-year-old Brit has been singing in Russian this morning for elegant new BBC mini-series War And Peace and is prepping for a run of Romeo And Juliet at The Garrick directed by Kenneth Branagh, Miss James is about to blast her gentile image (cultivated by a long-running role as lovely Lady…7 min
Total Film|March 2016CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDLaird Hamilton is calling Total Film from his ocean-view home on the island of Kaua’i in Hawai’i and even though he’s pulling press duties to discuss his role as Surfing Technical Advisor on the re-tool of Kathryn Bigelow’s beloved Point Break, he’s got an eye on the waves. “I’m looking at the sky and I’m hoping I can get in the ocean today,” he wistfully admits. Spoken like the true surf legend he is. During a three-decade career, 51-year-old Hamilton has conquered some of the world’s biggest (80ft and counting) and most dangerous waves; and pioneered the concept of ‘tow-ins’ (riding a ski-line behind a jetski) to get to previously impossible breaks.So merman is Hamilton that he was Kevin Costner’s stunt double on Waterworld and provided the impressive boardwork during…4 min
Total Film|March 2016KEVIN COSTNERBLACK OR WHITE (2014)“Black Or White is as emblematic of my career as any movie I’ve ever done, because when no one would make it, I put my money up to make it. It’s kind of how I run my whole career. If it was the last movie I ever made, I would be OK with that. I actually grew up in a community of Compton [LA]. Not my entire life, but the disparity between those two communities, Compton and, say, Beverly Hills, it’s very disparate. This [movie] was just honest, I thought. This was a fight over how to protect this child, and two people [Costner and Octavia Spencer] very suspicious of each other that it could be done. Was it difficult to play a drunk? Yeah. I’m not…9 min
Total Film|March 2016GOING UPTom Hiddleston roams the Bangor Castle Leisure Centre in Northern Ireland clad in a white towel dressing gown and white pumps. Spying Total Film, he sashays over to say hello and executes a neat twirl to show off his outfit. A length of thigh, a flash of pants. Half an hour later, emerging from a closed-set shower scene in a navy robe, a thought strikes him. “You’re not going to write about the gown are you?” he grins knowingly. Well, it would make for a colourful intro…It’s mid-July 2014 and a 60-strong crew is buzzing around the leisure complex. Opened in 1970 and closed in March 2013, it hulks, dilapidated, but has been temporarily revived to offer locations for Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise. The 1975 novel tells…11 min
Total Film|March 2016TIM ROTH“IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT HAVING A LONG SHELF LIFE. YEAH, I’VE DONE A LOT OF sh*t MOVIES AND I’VE DONE A LOT OF GOOD ONES...”Tim Roth is sneaking a crafty cigarette out of the window. Taking a final drag as Total Film walks into the hotel room, he tosses the butt and flaps his arm wildly to keep the smoke out as he ducks back in.The 54-year-old actor is holed up in a London hotel to promote The Hateful Eight, his first team up with Quentin Tarantino for two decades. Roth, of course, was there at the start, playing Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs, Pumpkin in Pulp Fiction and Ted the Bellhop in Four Rooms. And while there’s a certain symmetry to his reuniting with QT on this particular project…15 min
Total Film|March 2016Double whammyLEGEND 18OUT 18 JANUARY DIGITAL HD 25 JANUARY DVD, BD, STEELBOOK, VOD‘Brian Helgeland views the Krays through a stylised, quasi-mythical prism’FROM BRONSON TO BANE, from Warrior’s Tommy Conlan to Max Rockatansky, Tom Hardy has been such a protean force of nature in recent years that the notion of casting him as both of the Kray twins seems not so much an audacious flourish as an appropriate deployment of thespian resources.Why shouldn’ Britain’s leading cinematic chameleon play the criminal siblings who lorded over London’s swinging ’60s underworld with a lethal combination of thuggish brutality and seductive showbiz glamour? The movies have clearly mastered the technical demands of allowing one actor to give multiple performances in the same frame, a sleight of hand now so familiar it’s been seen in everything from…4 min
Total Film|March 2016DOPE 15OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL HDA SMART, OPINIONATED FILM WHOSE teen heroes really heart the ’90s, Rick Famuyiwa’s fleet-footed dark comedy sets high-school geek Malcolm (Shameik Moore) spinning when a drugs raid lands him with a backpack of ‘Molly’ he has to shift pronto. Unafraid to mix Boyz N The Hood-style action, Spike Lee-influenced social comment and funky Pharrell Williams-penned musical numbers into its caper comedy, it’s an exuberant piece. But warm performances from newbie Moore and Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel) keep it grounded rather than gangsta-struck.EXTRAS › Featurettes…1 min
Total Film|March 2016RICKI AND THE FLASH 12OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HDA SPIRITUAL SEQUEL OF SORTS TO Jonathan Demme’s 2008 drama Rachel Getting Married, this Diablo Cody-scripted musical drama gives Meryl Streep another chance to exercise her vocal chords as Ricki, a failed rocker clinging to the dream she never saw fulfilled. When her estranged daughter (played by Streep’s own lookalike daughter Mamie Gummer) attempts suicide, Ricki’s drawn back into the fold of a family who despise her. Demme directs relatively anonymously, while Cody’s script is less spiky than you’re used to. Naturally, Streep shines, but even she seems to be coasting in a film that settles for frustratingly easy fixes.EXTRAS › Making Of › Featurette › Deleted scenes › Photo gallery…1 min
Total Film|March 201699 HOMES 15OUT 18 JANUARY DIGITAL HD 25 JANUARY DVD, BDUNLIKE ITS HERO, UNEMPLOYED construction worker Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), 99 Homes has plenty going for it. Directed by Ramin Bahrani (of 2005’s excellent Man Push Cart), it features a great set-up, strong performances and a genuine social conscience. Evicted by reptilian realtor Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), who’s stripmining the Orlando suburbs of foreclosed houses after the 2008 crash, Nash begins working for his nemesis, and a Margin Call-meets-Training Day narrative begins. Though well-made and well-intentioned, the results are one rewrite from greatness, the awful facts remaining slightly more compelling than the fiction.EXTRAS › TBC…1 min
Total Film|March 2016The round-upReese Witherspoon and Sofía Vergara? Sounds great on paper. Doesn’t work out so well on screen. A buddy com from The Proposal’s Anne Fletcher, Hot Pursuit (⋆⋆, out now, DVD/BD/Digital HD), sees a cop (Witherspoon), and a criminal’s wife (Vergara) on the lam from some guntoting hoods. Manic and mugging-intensive, it’s a midnight run that goes nowhere, fast…Love EDM? Love Zac Efron? You might just make it through We Are Your Friends (⋆ͺ⋆, out now, DVD/BD/Digital HD), a resistible tale of a co*cky LA DJ on the rise. With sex, drugs and an animated PCP freak-out on the playlist, there’s no denying it has a pulse, but non-converts may prefer less obnoxious company…Arty shag-fest Love (⋆⋆, out now, DVD/BD/Digital HD) boasts director Gaspar Noé’s usual dazzling visuals, courtesy of DoP…1 min
Total Film|March 2016TOTALFILMONLINETOTALFILM ONLINEON OUR WEBSITE…50 BEST TEEN MOVIES OF ALL TIMEhttp://www.gamesradar.com/50-bestteen-moviesHopeless at relationships, no direction in life, covered in volcanic zits… but enough of Dialogue’s problems – have a read of this list, featuring many of John Cusack’s finest hours.50 GREATESTSTAR WARSSCENEShttp://www.gamesradar.com/50-greateststar-wars-scenes-oldFrankly, we could’ve run to 100, but there’s only so much space on the internet. All selections come from Episodes I-VI, so no spoilers if you haven’t seen The Force Awakens yet. Why haven’t you?60 BEST ANIMATED MOVIEShttp://www.gamesradar.com/bestanimated-moviesNot only a rundown of the finest ’toonery in cinema history, but quite possibly the only list we’ve ever run that includes Ringo Starr, Saddam Hussein and the Catbus.@TOTALFILMPEANUTS MOVIE VISITORS OF THE MONTHhttps://twitter.com/totalfilm/status/677131146237485056Yes, there was some bother with the double doors in order for Charlie to get his head through, but it…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Jungle fever“It was very exhausting,” admits Alexander Skarsgård of his latest role – Tarzan. “It was eight months, with prep, all in all. It was really intense. A phenomenal experience.”In what is clearly the True Blood star’s largest role to date, he relished the chance to slip into the loin cloth in this latest live-action adventure inspired by the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. “I was so intrigued by that character and this take on a very classic story.”Directed by Harry Potter veteran David Yates, The Legend Of Tarzan sets its story years after its protagonist has left the jungles of Africa to make a new life in 1880s London as John Clayton III – AKA Lord Greystoke – with his wife Jane (Margot Robbie). But when he returns to the…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Between takes‘I would retire tomorrow if I ever got bored with what I do’You star inKung Fu Panda 3as Po’s long-lost birth father, Li. How did you channel your inner panda?Li’s a big boy so I wanted the resonance of my voice to be big and the laugh to be big. He’s just this larger-than-life character so I wanted a physicality to be behind that so when you see him, you feel like the voice does match that size of a man, or panda, or man-panda? A man-da?Jack Black told us your character was originally a lot more serious?Yes, we started to record when the script was more serious. It was OK but wasn’t infused with as much energy or fun as we felt it could be. They took a step…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Man or puppet‘ There was no computer animation – we built the city, we lit the buildings...’ DUKE JOHNSONThe brilliant mind behind Being John Malkovich is back. Charlie Kaufman has been absent from our screens since his dense directorial debut Synecdoche, New York premiered in 2008.Since then, he’s written three screenplays and three TV pilots – all unrealised. “I’ve been trying,” he sighs. “I couldn’t get things made. I wasn’t silent by choice.” Thankfully, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind has not seen his wonderfully weird worldview diminish in all this time. His latest film Anomalisa is a sublime stopmotion animation about motivational speaker Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis), who arrives at a Cincinnati hotel to give a keynote speech only to become engulfed by an existential…3 min
Total Film|March 2016Funny peopleName: Blake HarrisonJob: ActorFilms/TV: The Inbetweeners, Him & HerUpcoming: Dad’s ArmyMY COMEDY PRESENTThey sent me the script for DAD’S ARMY, and I had a chat with [director] Oliver Parker. It just seemed like a no-brainer. Oliver didn’t want carbon copies of the original characters. But in the style of comedy and that kind of witty wordplay, the essence of the characters is still very much in keeping with what was there originally.MY COMEDY HEROJim Carrey was up there, and Robin Williams before that. That larger-than-life performance; very physical, hugely energetic. I was really into that when I was younger. Now I look at people like… Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd... Do you know what? MELISSA MCCARTHY – when she’s let loose to just adlib [in This Is 40’s outtakes], it’s just…2 min
Total Film|March 2016FLASH BACKCOVER STORYTF cowered on set of Mission: Impossible III as a 16-wheeler truck flipped over and a chopper zoomed low with a leering Philip Seymour Hoffman leaning out. Tom Cruise spent the day sprinting but found time to pant, “I knew J.J. had the ability to tell stories, so the first thing I said to him was, ‘I want this film to be J.J. Abrams’Mission: Impossible.’” Abrams, meanwhile, was keen to point out that “Tom is a really normal guy” and that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt was finally about to meet his match: “He comes up against an adversary that is scary, clever and mysterious. Philip is just amazing.”THE INSIDE SCOOPAlso in the issue, Peter Jackson took us on a personal tour of the Weta workshop, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington…2 min
Total Film|March 2016The need-to-know...THE NICE GUYSIt’s hard to imagine The Nice Guys will finish last by anyone’s estimation. For one thing, it’s Shane Black’s first film since delivering the blockbuster goods for Marvel with Iron Man 3. The Nice Guys sees the writerdirector back in familiar territory, with hardboiled noir plotting, electric dialogue and a potentially cracking double act in the form of Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. The pair team up to solve a mystery in the sleazy ’70s, and if the trailer’s anything to go by, they’ll have chemistry to burn, with Crowe’s brawn-forhire Jackson Healy looking like his best role in years.TRAINSPOTTING 2Danny Boyle’s long-anticipated sequel is finally shooting this year, 20 years after the original arrived on the scene and gave British cinema a kick up the arse. Picking…2 min
Total Film|March 2016The Talent‘I was dead set on working with Ryan Coogler’You might remember her from Selma. You’ll definitely remember her from Dear White People. Now Tessa Thompson is enjoying her blockbuster breakout with Creed, in which the 32-year-old is no passive bystander to the film’s heavyweight bromance. “My favourite Rocky?” she asks. “The first one. Then Rocky IV. It ended the Cold War!”Were you a Rocky fan before Creed?I wasn’t a huge fan as such, but there were things I remembered – like in the original, when he’s in the pet store talking to Adrian, that was the first time I understood what it looks like when a guy’s trying to flirt with you; sort of bumbling around, making dumb jokes and finding excuses to engage with you.How did you land the…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Family misfortunesTalk about a hot streak. After scoring international hits with The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet and Rust And Bone, French writer/director Jacques Audiard now serves up Dheepan, a socialrealist movie shot through with thriller elements that arrives on UK shores having plundered the coveted Palme d’Or award at Cannes.Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) is a Tamil Tiger who teams up with a woman, Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan), and a child, Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby), to escape the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s civil war. They pretend to be a family and are granted passage to Paris. But as this makeshift clan develop real bonds, they find their lives threatened once more as a drug war explodes on their housing project…While Brit viewers might see the ghost of Harry Brown in Dheepan, Audiard…2 min
Total Film|March 2016FIVE POINT FIX…1 Get an auteur to dismantle his image, like David Cronenberg remixing R-Pattz in Cosmopolis.2 Approach reboots cautiously. Think carefully about the lessons learned via the Ranger/U.N.C.L.E. flops: fresher bids are called for.3 Be unlikeable, like Tom Cruise in Magnolia. That smoothie charm needs soiling a bit.4 Be ridiculous, like Clooney for the Coens. Mocking those matinee-idol looks could well disarm audience resistance.5 Struggle in the indie/ensemble trenches. He’s only 29: work back up to the headline gigs.…1 min
Total Film|March 2016The Hateful EightTarantino’s gunslingers get cabin fever...SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...STAGECOACH 1939John Ford’s standard-setting western follows eight strangers on a perilous journey.AND THE THERE WERE NONE 1974An isolated group’s numbers drop one by one. The Hateful Eight is Agatha Christie with guns.RESERVOIR DOGS 1992Colour-coded crims rendezvous in a warehouse to argue it out after a botched heist.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsNO ONE COULD EVER accuse Quentin Tarantino of a lack of self-importance. The Hateful Eight, his first western if you obey his call to view Django Unchained as a ‘southern’, begins with a sketch of a horse-drawn stagecoach dwarfed by red, snowcapped mountains, the word OVERTURE printed on the screen. Said overture lasts several minutes. Ennio Morricone’s music is at once lush and menacing, the full orchestral swells layered…4 min
Total Film|March 2016JoyTop of the mops…SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS 1955Like Russell, Douglas Sirk riffs on soapy melodramas to give us an unbreakable woman.ERIN BROCKOVICH 2000Soderbergh moves events along at a fair old clip, and his heroine will not take no for an answer.WINTER’S BONE 2010The drama that demonstrated J-Law’s steely core and elevated her to the big league.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsAS STEVE JOBS TAUGHT US last year, biopics don’t have to be staid, predictable, cradle-tograve dramas. Well, David O. Russell couldn’t do staid if he tried. Going into this tale of Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop, on a serious (or rather seriocomic) hot streak that’s brought us The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, Russell again corrals his repertory troupe…3 min
Total Film|March 2016LEE SCRATCH PERRY’S VISION OF PARADISEIF PRONOUNCEMENTS ABOUT HIS previous life as a fish raise concerns that this docu-portrait of Lee Scratch Perry will uphold ganja-baked whimsy over insight, they soon pass. Shot over 13 years, Volker Schaner’s hugely entertaining study of the spry dub legend digs deep and ranges wide. From Jamaica’s Black Ark studios, we get rich juice on his Bob Marley work. Muso fans celebrate how he produced inexplicable sounds – one reckons he blew smoke on the tapes – while a visit to his mum is touchingly intimate. The real Perry gradually emerges, and his genius is all the more thrilling for it.Certificate TBC Running time 97 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUESEISMIC TALENT, SENSITIVE SOUL, dead by 27: Amy J. Berg’s stirring, shattering Janis Joplin portrait shares more than a first-name title with Asif Kapadia’s Amy. Like Kapadia with Winehouse, Berg digs deep into Joplin’s past, presenting her as a wounded radical in repressive Texas. California offered freedom, an outlet for her awesome blues rasp – and temptation. As crackling live footage (‘Ball And Chain’kills) celebrates her talent, revealing letters and rigorous interviews show how Joplin revelled in her stage persona yet struggled with life: a recipe for triumph then tragedy, here given its punchy and desperately poignant due.Certificate TBC Running time 107 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Daddy’s HomeBelow pa.WILL FERRELL’S FIRST LIVE-ACTION family-friendly comedy since 2009’s Land Of The Lost falls between two stools: arguably too saucy for kids, definitely too lame for adults. Ferrell plays Brad, a big softy who is stepdad to his wife Sarah’s (Linda Cardellini) two kids. But when biological pop Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) arrives on the scene, fully intending to win his ex back, Brad’s manhood is more than challenged.As set-ups go, there is potential. Wahlberg is the cool father on the motorbike who can handle a toolbox and a skateboard – “like Jesse James and Mick Jagger had a baby,” as Sarah puts it. Ferrell is all about caring, sharing and conflict resolution (he even works at a smooth-jazz radio station, run by Thomas Haden Church’s goateed goof). Needless to say,…2 min
Total Film|March 2016THE 33IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME before a movie was made about Chile’s 2010 mining disaster, and here it is – a real-life tale that owes as much to formula as fact. Antonio Banderas leads the cast as ‘Super’ Mario Sepúlveda, keeping up the spirits of his 32 fellow miners trapped underground. Director Patricia Riggen charts the cave-in and ensuing rescue efforts to stirring if conventional effect, abetted by one of the late James Horner’s final scores. The biggest problem is the distracting lack of non-Chilean casting, with even Gabriel Byrne asked to approximate a South American accent.Certificate 12A Running time 127 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016YouthSpa trek.PAOLO SORRENTINO’S FIRST English-language movie, This Must Be The Place (Sean Penn as an ageing Goth-rocker pursuing the Nazi who maltreated his dad), was a bit of a bust. So it’s good to see that with Youth he’s regained the form of his best Italian work (The Consequences Of Love, The Great Beauty, etc). We’re in a plush Alpine spa resort where two old friends, retired Brit composer/conductor Fred (Michael Caine) and US movie director Mick (Harvey Keitel) have met up each year to enjoy the treatments, reminisce over their past lives and observe the to-ings and fro-ings of their fellow guests.Who are a highly colourful bunch. For starters, there’s an actor (Paul Dano) miffed that all he’s remembered for is playing a robot. Then there’s Mick’s bickering five-person…2 min
Total Film|March 2016PARTISANTHE TITLE SUGGESTS A WW2 MOVIE, but Australian writer/director Ariel Kleiman’s debut is an enigmatic drama about a secretive Eastern European cult. Leading this tribe of single mothers and children is the messiah-like Gregori (Vincent Cassel), who trains his young charges to become assassins; yet his 11-year-old surrogate son Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel) is beginning to question his supreme power. Kleiman seems less interested in explaining the ‘whys’ of his scenario than in observing his characters and their interactions – a strategy that pays off thanks to excellent lead turns.Certificate 15 Running time 94 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Our Brand Is CrisisCampaign flail…IN SANDRA BULLOCK’S LAST cinematic brush with politics, she was dolled up as a pageant queen and championing world peace. Our Brand Is Crisis sees her taking a more hardline approach as a neurotic campaigner attempting to boost the popularity of a presidential candidate, but it’s hard not to yearn for the comparatively sharp satire of Miss Congeniality (for more, see p143).The ninth film produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures – which has a pretty even split between the sublime (Argo, The Ides Of March) and the ridiculous (The Men Who Stare At Goats) –OBIC is actually more in the vein of director David Gordon Green’s quirkier comedies. Echoes of Pineapple Express abound as ‘Calamity’ Jane Bodine (Bullock) is hired by Bolivian presidential hopeful Pedro Castillo…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Coming soon...POINT BREAK 12 FEBRUARYSurf’s up – as well as snowboarding, motorbiking, and wingsuit flying. Can this remake be as big as Bigelow’s? More importantly, will Gary Busey do a Big Brotherstyle “HONK!” over the end credits? For more, albeit not including any human geese, see p82.PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES 12 FEBRUARYThis one’s been a long time coming (producer Natalie Portman was once attached to star), but the living dead aren’t renowned for their haste. The well-spoken, viscera-covered cast is headed by Lily James, who spills her guts (not like that) on p78.ZOOLANDER 2 12 FEBRUARYFilm’s most famous Derek (not counting Bo, Jacobi or Malcolm) is back, older and dimmer than before. Expect an Anchorman-load of cameos, including Justin Bieber as one of the celebs whose Blue Steel-related deaths spark…1 min
Total Film|March 2016HARD SELLLO-BLOWDeadpool confirms the film will be R-rated by crushing presenter Mario Lopez with a TV camera… during a Ryan Reynolds interview.TRICK OR TREATA Deadpool/X-Men crossover happened sooner than expected when Reynolds spent Halloween in full costume, and shared the results on YouTube.LETHAL WEAPONDeadpool whips his gun out for an in-your-face poster.RUG PULLNot every superhero announces their new film to the world with a Burt Reynoldsinspired shoot...SPECIAL DELIVERYDeadpool shows off his bedside manner in a classy photo tweeted by Reynolds in celebration of Mother’s Day.BLACK CHRISTMASThe festive trailer launch gets a tease from “the other jolly guy in a red suit with a lap worth sitting on”…1 min
Total Film|March 2016CHARGE SHEETFREE FIREBen Wheatley goes Stateside for this old-school Reservoir Dogs-like tale set in Boston in 1978, as two gangs meet in a deserted warehouse and sparks fly. Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Sam Riley and Cillian Murphy lead the stellar cast.CRIMINALDirector Ariel Vromen already put his stamp on the crime genre with hit tale The Iceman. This latest effort sees Kevin Costner turn nasty as a dangerous inmate who gets a brain-boost when a dead CIA operative’s skills are implanted in his head.TRESPASS AGAINST USMichael Fassbender and his Macbeth co-star Sean Harris team up for this tale of a man trying to leave his criminal family behind. The feature debut of Adam Smith (Skins), it also includes a score from dance music pioneers The Chemical Brothers.GREEN ROOMMore gangb*ngers here, as director…1 min
Total Film|March 2016PEAK PERFORMANCEWearing a thick winter coat and gloves, Édgar Ramírez is limping. He takes a seat opposite Total Film in a tent on the side of a mountain and gingerly lifts his left foot onto a small stool. “I twisted my ankle yesterday,” he tells us with a shrug. “I jumped over a motorcycle, landed the wrong way, and twisted it. It’s fine, it’s part of what happens when you shoot an action movie.” And not just any action movie. We’re on set of Point Break, Ericson Core’s global-focused remake of the iconic ’90s flick, which adds extreme sports (proximity flying, off-road motorbiking, snowboarding) to the more recognisable skydiving/surfing sequences created by Keanu Reeves’ FBI mole, Johnny Utah, and Patrick Swayze’s wave-riding robber, Bodhi, in Kathryn Bigelow’s adrenaline-soaked original. And in…10 min
Total Film|March 2016THE 33 UNLIKELIEST ACTION HEROES01 KURT RUSSELL ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, 1981ORIGIN STORY First seen on the big screen kicking Elvis Presley’s shins, Kurt spent his formative years starring in wholesome Disney offerings like The Barefoot Executive and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.ACTION STATION Having cast him in his 1979 Elvis TV movie, John Carpenter fought to give Russell his career-revolutionising role: “Snake” Plissken, an authority-baiting, eyepatch-sporting soldier-cum-robber turned reluctant presidential saviour. The actor knew he’d nailed the part when he unwittingly freaked out some local hardnuts while filming in St Louis. Many rugged action heroes followed.MUSCLE MEMORY His gladiatorial mano a mano with burly bruiser Slag (Ox Baker).02HUGH JACKMAN X-MEN, 2000ORIGIN STORY Before donning Wolverine’s iconic mutton-chops, Jackman had appeared in some Aussie TV and little-seen features, but he drew wider acclaim for…17 min
Total Film|March 2016$O MONEYMargot Robbie in a bubble bath sipping champagne while she explains America’s scabrous financial system direct to camera… Doesn’t sound like your average Wall Street drama, does it? That’s because The Big Short is anything but. For a start, it’s directed by Adam McKay, who swaps the belly laughs of Anchorman and Step Brothers for a darkly humorous adaptation of Michael Lewis’ tell-all book. Think Moneyball via The Wolf Of Wall Street and you’re halfway there.Then there’s Ryan Gosling in fake tan and a steel-wool wig as Deutsche Bank dealmaker Jared Vennett (based on Greg Lippmann), who’s tipped off by Michael Burry (Christian Bale) that betting against the housing market will reap rewards in the billions when the market inevitably crashes in 2008. “We didn’t want to make it sexy,…11 min
Total Film|March 2016PEG ITBoth Mad MenandHigh-Risedeal with bubbling neuroses and social breakdown...Absolutely. Sometimes [on High-Rise] it was like we were shooting a war film. We were all covered in blood and bruises and dirt. Before every scene, they come up to you and pat you down with dirt. It became quite normal!Was the finished film different to what you thought you were making?It struck me how beautiful it is. I had no idea they were shooting it like that. It didn’t feel like that. I remember walking up to the penthouse set for the first time, and it looked kind of shabby. You’re like, “How is this going to work with the outdoor garden and everything? It looks very low-rent.” And then, on screen, it just looks gorgeous.Both the novel and the film…2 min
Total Film|March 2016FIVE STAR TURNS1 MADE IN BRITAIN 1982Dropping into a south London theatre to borrow a bicycle pump, Roth found himself auditioning for the role of Trevor, a racist, glue-sniffing skinhead whose contempt for polite society is as plain as the swastika etched on his glabella. Director Alan Clarke was so impressed, he recommended Mike Leigh cast Tim in Meantime.2 RESERVOIR DOGS 1992Initially put up for Misters Pink and Blonde in QT’s hugely influential thriller, Roth plumped for Orange “because he’s a liar. I’ll be an Englishman, playing an American, playing a cop who’s playing a villain.” The actor’s reward for spending weeks on end dying in a pool of blood? Pulp Fiction’s Pumpkin and the bellhop part in Four Rooms.3 ROB ROY 1995“Love is a dunghill, Betty, and I am but a…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Maim of thronesMACBETH 15OUT 25 JANUARY DIGITAL HD 1 FEBRUARY DVD, BD, STEELBOOKWITH ITS BRUTALLY FOCUSED narrative punctuated by visceral warfare and eerie fantasy, it’s no surprise that so much of cinema’s A-list – Welles, Kurosawa, Polanski – has tackled Shakespeare’s fabled ‘Scottish play’. Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) has big boots to fill in only his second feature, but delivers an astutely judged and exquisitely moody addition to an already impressive canon.Kurzel offers a curious blend of the mythic and the muddy, trying to print the legend and the reality. Tackling Macbeth with bloody aplomb, he achieves a tremendous balance between sensory experience and a pessimistic anti-hero portrait.The trick with filming Shakespeare is to translate the Bard’s remarkable language into sights and sounds. Kurzel houses Macbeth in a memorably bleak, rainswept campsite and…1 min
Total Film|March 2016EVEREST 12OUT 18 JAN DVD, BD, 3D BD, DIGITAL HDTHE TRUE-LIFE TALE OF TWO SEPARATE expeditions beset by disaster in 1996, Everest inevitably loses something in the transition from IMAX 3D to the living room. Even so, the mix of a suffering cast (the likes of Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin filmed at 10,000 feet) and invisible FX make for a teeth-chattering experience. And despite the unwieldy ensemble leaving little time to dig into characters, there’s still an emotional kick. Keira Knightley, Emily Watson and Robin Wright are especially shortchanged, left to fret on the phone.EXTRAS › Commentary › Making Of (BD) › Featurettes…1 min
Total Film|March 2016THE LOBSTER 15OUT 8 FEBRUARY DVD, BD, DIGITAL HDEVEN BY DIRECTOR YORGOS LANTHIMOS’ absurdist standards (Dogtooth, Alps), The Lobster is pretty weird. In a sort-of future where it’s a crime to be single, lonely heart Colin Farrell checks into a dating hotel. The rules are simple: find a mate within 45 days or be transformed into an animal. Extra time is earned by hunting down rogue singles in the woods – which is where Farrell flees, trying to keep his forbidden romance with Rachel Weisz a secret before Léa Seydoux hunts them down and cuts their bits off. Self-consciously bonkers, gorgeously shot (in long, slow-mo takes) and oddly moving, it’s incomparable stuff.EXTRAS › TBC…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Ladd’s nightSHANE PG1953 OUT NOW DUAL FORMATSEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...MY DARLING CLEMENTINE 1946Henry Fonda brings civilisation to the west in John Ford’s take on the Wyatt Earp legend.STEEL DAWN 1987Shane meets Mad Max in this post-apocalyptic Patrick Swayze starrer.UNFORGIVEN 1992Clint Eastwood’s retired gunfighter un-retires to right some wrongs.GEORGE STEVENS’ CLASSIC Western blends two staple set-ups of the genre: the territorial clash between ranchers and homesteaders, and the lone gunslinger with a mysterious past who rids the settlement of villainy before returning to the wilderness whence he came. Alan Ladd plays the buckskin-clad Shane who shows up at the little farm of Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur, in her final film role) and their young son Joe Jr (Brandon De Wilde), just in time to witness the…2 min
Total Film|March 2016A NEW LEAF PG1971 OUT NOW DUAL FORMATGOLDEN GLOBE-NOMMED ON RELEASE but largely neglected since, comic legend Elaine May’s directorial debut is a gem that deserves rediscovery. When rich snob Henry Graham (Walter Matthau on imperious form) discovers he’s broke, he targets eccentric botanist Henrietta Lowell (May), hoping to marry – and then murder – her. The film was disowned by May after Paramount sliced her original three-hour cut in half, but the studio might have done her a favour. There is virtually no fat here; the screwball pacing suits the story’s deft mix of erudition, slapstick and pitch-black wit, and the stars’ off-kilter chemistry is a joy.EXTRAS › Video essay › Booklet…1 min
Total Film|March 2016WILDE 151997 OUT NOW BD, DIGITAL HDONE GREAT BON VIVANT PORTRAYS another in Brian Gilbert’s Oscar Wilde biopic. Stephen Fry is such a dead ringer for Wilde that he must have been the first and only choice; yet his fragile, emotional performance is much more than simple imitation. Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave and Michael Sheen join the cream of British acting talent trying hard to lift a safe script from over-campness and endless witticisms, but it’s Fry who succeeds with the performance of his career. A chat-track with the actor would have made an essential bonus, but this is a bare-bones disc.EXTRAS › None…1 min
Total Film|March 2016THE FALLEN IDOL PG1948 OUT NOW DVD, BD, VODLONG OVERSHADOWED BY THE THIRD Man, Carol Reed’s previous collaboration with Graham Greene on this dark, delicate story about misguided loyalty is just as noirish, and possibly (heretically) even better. A superbly nuanced story of the bond between a diplomat’s lonely little son and the butler (a gloriously understated Ralph Richardson) whom he tries to defend when he’s accused of murder, it’s a practically perfect chamber piece. Shot for maximum tension and recently restored to mint-condition monochrome, it’s a real beauty.EXTRAS › Featurettes › Interviews…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Bust a Cap“We all agree Nazis are bad, space aliens are bad,” muses Chris Evans AKA Captain America. “This is the first time you really have two points of view. There’s no wrong answer here...”In case you’re wondering, things are about to get very complicated in Captain America: Civil War, the third solo outing for the star-spangled superhero. Except it’s not all that solo anymore, the threequel featuring pretty much every Marvel hero so far (with the exception of Thor), plus a few new faces, including Chadwick Boseman, who calls his Black Panther “a bit of a maverick”If the action-packed trailer’s anything to go by, this will be the biggest thing to happen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since, well, Tony Stark went public about being Iron Man back in ’08. Ever…2 min
Total Film|March 2016RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHTGeorge Clooney has lined up a trio of A-listers for his next directing gig. The long-gestating Suburbicon has a script by the Coen brothers, and Josh Brolin, Matt Damon and Julianne Moore are set to star.Keanu Reeves’ actioner The Seventh Sword is bruised: director Gee Malik Linton has lobbied to have his name taken off the credits. Rumours of Reeves supervising a new edit have been denied.Every actor and his Wookiee are in line for the standalone Han Solo spin-off. Among the 2,500 names said to be on the longlist for the lead role are Miles Teller, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack Reynor, Logan Lerman and Dave Franco.It doesn’t look like Daredevil and Jessica Jones will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon. “There is the possibility of a crossover, but…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Mad AxeIf you want a mighty fine western starring Kurt Russell, there’s The Hateful Eight. If you want a truly superb western starring Kurt Russell, there’s Bone Tomahawk. Debut director S. Craig Zahler tells us about his The Searchersmeets-The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hybrid.BACK STORY“I wrote a dark western called The Brigands Of Rattleborge, which got picked up by Warner Bros. A number of A-list directors and actors moved through it and did not commit – including Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. So I wrote Bone Tomahawk. Kurt Russell came on board, and Richard Jenkins shortly thereafter. They were committed for years.”SHOOTING PAIN“We shot Bone Tomahawk in 21 days. The cast [Russell, Jenkins, Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson] committed, and no one was well paid. All these guys did their own stunts.…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Q/A JENNIFER JASON LEIGHHow did you feel when you first saw Anomalisa?It is a lot to take in, and you’re responding so emotionally… It hits you in such a deep way. Your brain is being tricked all the time. You keep forgetting they’re puppets. At least I did. And then I’d remember... Like the sex scene is so intimate and so awkward and so real – but they’re puppets.How would you describe Lisa?We all know a Lisa or we all are a Lisa in a certain way. She’s the best of all of us. I love her. She’s so sweet and she’s a good girl… She sees the world as it sees her. She’s not downtrodden. She’s not selfpitying. She just accepts who she is. She’s one of the best roles I’ve ever…2 min
Total Film|March 2016THE SHORT LIST1 FRANKENSTEIN (1931)James Whale’s stalwart offering set the bar for every Frankenstein film that followed in its lumbering wake. As influential as the novel itself, many tropes created for the film were mimicked by later outings to lesser effect.2 BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)One of the first – and best – horror sequels to achieve the same levels of success as its predecessor. James Whale returned, lured by the promise of creative control: a risk that paid off for the studio.3 YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)Spoof? Parody? Homage? Whatever you choose to call it, this is Mel Brooks at his finest, poking fun at the mythology through this brilliantly-realised comedy. Shelley’s story is expanded upon and mocked, all in the name of subversion.4 GODS AND MONSTERS (1998)This awards favourite was a fictionalised quasibiopic…1 min
Total Film|March 2016OLD NEWSJames Cameron announced that he planned to end his sabbatical from feature films with long-festering movie dream Project 880, also known as Avatar. Cameron described it as “crazy, balls-out sci-fi” spun around an agile warrior woman.Hugh Jackman assured us that trilogy closerX-Men: The Last Standhad “the best script of any of the three” while director Brett Ratner was adamant there’d be no more. “This is closure for the series,” he stated. “This is the last stand, for sure.”Neil LaBute revealed that his remake of The Wicker Man would move the action to an island off the coast of Maine and that Nic Cage’s copper would have an allergy to, er, bee stings. “I always loved the [original] movie… But never thought it couldn’t be touched.”Legendary director Werner Herzog told us…1 min
Total Film|March 2016The scaleON FIRERyan CooglerAfter delivering a knockout blow with the critical and commercial success of Creed, the Fruitvale Station director is in line to direct Black Panther’s solo film for Marvel.Alicia VikanderSeen as a lock for an Oscar nod for The Danish Girl, Vikander’s not disappearing any time soon: she’s currently working on Bourne 5, and she’ll star in Wim Wenders’ next with James McAvoy.Hunger Games prequelsLionsgate is planning arenabased spin-offs to extend the life of its franchise. No J-Law, however. “I wouldn’t be involved,” she says. “I think it’s too soon.”DinosaursJurassic World might have ruled the box-office in 2014, but The Good Dinosaur proved that prehistoric doesn’t mean untouchable, as Pixar’s latest underwhelmed at the box office.Rob SchneiderRemarkably, he’s still working, but his Netflix series has been panned, and the…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Pool partyRalph Fiennes is co*ked-up and jiving to ‘Emotional Rescue’, the best Dad dancing you’ll ever see. Tilda Swinton has lost her voice. Dakota Johnson is lounging in her bikini. And Matthias Schoenaerts is looking hacked off. This is just one of the killer scenes in A Bigger Splash, the sizzling, sun-kissed new film from Italian director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love).“This movie,” he says, “was a chance to talk about a suffocating circle of desire.” Come again? “A quadrangular, inescapable ‘playfield’ of desire.” OK, that might sound pretentious but A Bigger Splash is actually a sharp, sexy remake of Jacques Deray’s 1969 film La Piscine, which starred Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. “It’s a re-interpretation,” clarifies Belgian star Schoenaerts, who plays Paul, a docmaker caught up in this oddball quadrangle.Set…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Career injectionChin of an anvil, eyes like the sea, face that could launch a thousand grooming kits, name like a Marvel A-lister. In stardom’s game, his words as Cameron Winklevoss seem to fit: “Is there any way to make this a fair fight?” Yet in Armie Hammer’s career, victory hasn’t panned out as hoped.Hammer somehow managed to snag our sympathy through surface shows of entitled indignation as the Winklevi twins in David Fincher’s The Social Network, but elsewhere misfortune – in part, at least – has scuppered his bids for graduation glory. Unlike actors who build up audience bonds through TV, Hammer had to settle for single-ep stints on Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives and Veronica Mars. He might have given good chin as Batman in George Miller’s canned Justice League, but…2 min
Total Film|March 2016Diane LaneHanging out with Olivier on A Little Romance and Cruise on The Outsiders, Oscar nominated for Unfaithful, playing Supes’ adoptive mother in Man Of Steel… Diane Lane’s career is as eclectic as it is electric. This month, Lane returns as wife to Bryan Cranston’s communist screenwriter in Trumbo before reprising Martha Kent in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice.‘It never entered my mind that I’d get an Oscar nomination’What did you think of Dalton Trumbo and his wife Cleo?He possessed so many qualities. But he seemed to be having lofty ideals, and he was willing to elucidate them very clearly through his screenplays or [his novel] Johnny Got His Gun… He was working things out that were part of our culture and our political system. Cleo, though, was physically confident…3 min
Total Film|March 2016Star Wars: The Force AwakensJ.J. stays on target…SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE 1977The blueprint for the gorgeously crafted new instalment. J.J. studied it closely.STAR TREK 2009Here’s one he made earlier... Abrams jumpstarts a flagging flagship franchise.SUPER 8 2011J.J’s loving tribute to ’70s and ’80s Spielburbia. Innocence and awe to trigger goosebumps.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsBLUE LETTERS ON black: ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…’ And then: STAR WARS. If that doesn’t elicit goosebumps, the receding crawl that follows – straightforward, enticing, with not a jot of gobbledegook about trade tariffs – thrillingly echoes the openers of the original trilogy.This is old-school stuff, pitched just right, and so it is with most of the film that follows. Forget the overstuffed, overpolished,…5 min
Total Film|March 2016The Big ShortLaughing all the way to the bank…SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...CRAZY STUPID LOVE 2011Steve Carell’s affable sadsack is the perfect foil for Ryan Gosling’s alpha-male machismo.MONEYBALL 2011Brad Pitt produces and stars in another numbercruncher based on a book by Michael Lewis.THE WOLF OF WALL STREET 2013Scorsese’s stockbroker biopic makes iffy investments look like a helluva lot of fun.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsON PAPER, ADAM McKAY SEEMS an unlikely choice to direct a film about the ins and outs of the recent global financial crisis. The absurd and OTT humour of Anchorman and Step Brothers doesn’t immediately spring to mind when thinking about a subject that’s so often dry and incomprehensible, but it turns out that his light touch and Ron Burgundy-level energy were just what the sub-genre…2 min
Total Film|March 2016SpotlightAnd the Oscar goes to…SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED...THE INSIDER 1999Research chemist Russell Crowe decides to appear on 60 Minutes to blow the whistle on Big Tobacco.ZODIAC 2007Reporters hunt for the Zodiac killer and become ensnared by their own obsession.PHILOMENA 2013Crimes of the Catholic church (and the media) are uncovered in Stephen Frears’ moving drama.For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/reviewsFROM THE DIRECTOR OF ADAM Sandler’s The Cobbler comes the frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar, an ode to old-fashioned journalism with nary a shred of sentiment or, one histrionic scene aside, sensationalism. Tom McCarthy’s sobering drama demonstrates disciplined filmmaking built upon scrupulous storytelling, clear-eyed direction and unshowy performances, as befits a true-life tale about journalists who painstakingly piece together a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about systematic child abuse by…2 min
Total Film|March 2016KRAMPUSIF YOU THOUGHT GREMLINS HAD A twisted take on Christmas, brace yourself for Krampus. Forged in the image of that Joe Dante classic, its assortment of festive fiends are the stuff of snowbound nightmares as young Max (Emjay Anthony) and his family battle the titular anti-Santa and his army of razor-toothed nasties. When finally unmasked, these mostly prosthetic critters are a grim delight. With its blizzards, creepy snowmen and gung-ho cast, there are moments where Krampus scrapes the underbelly of brilliance. A slow-burn mid-section and a try-hard climax limit its impact, meaning this isn’t quite a festive classic, but it sleighs, ahem, slays most recent Christmas movies.Certificate 15 Running time 98 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016TrumboWriters blocked…WITH FOUR EMMYS AND A TONY already, Bryan Cranston is making a strong run at the EGOT Club with his first leading screen role since Breaking Bad. His affable and commanding performance as persecuted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo puts a spring in the step of what’s otherwise a somewhat plodding biopic, its workmanlike production an uncomfortable fit for its stranger-than-fiction true story.We pick up in 1947, with the well-liked and wildly successful Trumbo (best known now as the writer of Spartacus) teetering on the brink of a fall from grace. He, along with nine others, finds himself blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with Congress’ anticommunist witch hunt and, after a spell in federal prison, finds himself virtually unemployable. Once he was one of the highest-paid writers in Hollywood; now he’s…2 min
Total Film|March 2016INNOCENCE OF MEMORIESIN 2012, TURKEY’S ORHAN PAMUK folded fact into fiction when he opened a museum of objects documenting a tale of obsessive love from his novel The Museum Of Innocence. Pop-promo director and docu-maker Grant Gee’s reflection on book and museum sustains Pamuk’s between-states thinking, creating a literary travelogue that drifts into hypnotic territory. Lines blur between love/obsession, memory/delusion, time/space. The result veers closer to arty film noir than reportage: a stylised love letter to the city, memory and objects, charged with fading but potent feeling.Certificate TBC Running time 90 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016THE LAST DIAMONDFRESHLY RELEASED FROM PRISON, con man Simon (Yvan Attal) agrees to help steal the fabled Florentine diamond. His plan involves befriending and then betraying diamond expert Julia (The Artist’s Bérénice Bejo), who hires him as security advisor for the jewel’s auction following the mysterious death of her mother. What starts as a familiar, frivolous caper (complete with jazzy score) strays into noir territory as twists complicate the plot to the point of confusion. Luckily, director/co-writer Eric Barbier never forgets the vital ingredient – fun – even if the character interplay doesn’t always sparkle like the titular gem.Certificate TBC Running time 108 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016ONE AND TWOQUIETLY COMPELLING AND BEAUTIFULLY lensed, this intimate tale of sibling love in spite of an abusive father looks and feels like a 19th-century tragic melodrama, with one major difference: the brother and sister pair have the ability to teleport. Their vanishing act is a simple-butimpressive special effect in an otherwise relatively low-budget production filled with angst-ridden vulnerability from stars Timothée Chalamet and Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men’s now-teen Sally Draper). But the sci-fi element confounds rather than enhances; we’re left with a sense of anticlimax fuelled by loose ends and unexplored potential.Certificate TBC Running time 90 mins…1 min
Total Film|March 2016Box office charts 30.11.15 – 20.12.15STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENSAt long last, the ghost of Jar Jar Binks can be laid to rest. Just to be sure, if the worst comes to the worst, Lucasfilm is keeping Max Von Sydow on board to perform an exorcism.CHRISTMAS WITH THE COOPERSIn the US this festive fam-com is called Love The Coopers; the UK title sounds a lot less cloying, though we would still have preferred ‘Not Quite As Awful As The Family Stone’IN THE HEART OF THE SEAThey delayed the release because of the film’s “winter” feel; everyone getting on each other’s tit*, yes; but blokes eating and drinking bugger all hardly screams Christmas, does it?UK TOP 10US TOP 10BLACK MASSAs the awards race heats up, those in the know are saying this could well be Depp’s…1 min
Total Film|March 2016HOLDING OUT FOR AN ANTIHEROWHAM!No, we haven’t just taken a beating inside a comic-book panel. That four-letter word is the top-secret working title for Deadpool, letting us know we’ve come to the right place. It’s a rainy morning in Vancouver, April 2015, and Total Film is in the southern suburb of Surrey to visit the set of the first solo outing for Deadpool, Marvel Comics’ most raucous, rude and rule-busting creation, known for his fourth-wall breaking soliloquising, despicable sense of humour and questionable morals. Also known by his alter ego Wade Wilson, he’s nicknamed the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ for his tendency to spout off. Think of him as Professor XXX-rated and you’ll start to get the measure of the man.We’re strolling around the Amix Recycling depot, home of the production’s biggest set. The…16 min
Total Film|March 2016FACE VALUETHE SOURCE“There are so many different ways you could go with that look. [In the comics], they’ve illustrated him anywhere from little scars to like a Walking Dead rotted corpse. We were very gung-ho about being very faithful, and not holding back on the make-up. That being said, we still had a studio that was very cautious about going too graphic or too horrific and we still had to maintain a bit of Ryan Reynolds the sex symbol [laughs]. That’s a crazy line to walk.”THE DESIGN“I did four initial concepts that were very different from each other, from seeing through his skin to exposed muscle tissue, to more of a mutated kind of look. And then based on those, we all just picked things that we liked, that we gravitated…2 min
Total Film|March 2016PUSHING BOUNDARIESYou’ll have seen it in the trailer: the moment where the heroes of The Divergent Series: Allegiant, led by Shailene Woodley’s Tris, are bolting for their lives, pursued by unseen forces. They flee across a field, running and running until they see an enormous stone wall – the kind that keeps giants out. A dead-end? Not exactly. They scamper towards it, letting grappling hooks fly. They run up the wall, 60ft to the top. A race towards the heavens. How’s that for action?“That was crazy,” Woodley says, taking a break from filming, cheeks glowing red. “We were suspended in the air with all these harnesses and wires. We also [did some crazy stunts] in a rock quarry. There were no harnesses that time – it was just legit rock-climbing gear.…10 min
Total Film|March 2016A REAL BLUE FLAME SPECIALLUKE BRACEY“I’m a huge fan of the original, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it. It’s so beloved, especially by me. Johnny Utah’s backstory in this is completely different to the first one. He’s not a college football player, he knows how to snowboard, he knows how to motocross, he has surfed before. The original is such a great film so, for me, I wanted to pay my respects by updating it and bringing it to 2016.”ÉDGAR RAMÍREZ“I watched Point Break when I was 13 years old and it had a huge impact on me. What Patrick Swazye did was beautiful, and it was unique. No one in this movie is trying to emulate what came before, what Keanu or what Patrick did in the past. The magic…2 min
Total Film|March 2016GETTING SERIOUSSYLVESTER STALLONE COP LAND, 1997Sly piled on the pounds and played deaf in one ear as a small-town sheriff (below) who roots out police corruption. Holds his own against De Niro, Keitel and Liotta.ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER MAGGIE, 2015Yes, it’s a zombie film, but Arnie sprouted a grey beard and a perma-frown to watch his on-screen daughter slooowly die before his watery eyes.JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME JCVD, 2008The Muscles from Brussels played himself as a washed-up actor. Includes a six-minute to-camera monologue about his failed marriages and drug abuse.BURT REYNOLDS BOOGIE NIGHTS, 1997The muscular, moustachioed ’70s icon was revived by PTA to play a p*rno patriarch with a big – wait for it – heart. Nominated for an Oscar.SEAN CONNERY THE HILL, 1965No one expected Mr Bond to give such a raw, punishing…1 min
Total Film|March 2016TRUE LIESSeptember 8 2004 is a date that’s doubtless ingrained in the mind of Mary Mapes. A producer on CBS News, this well-respected journalist had already picked up a Peabody Award for breaking the story on the Abu Ghraib tortures in Iraq in 2003, where US army personnel violated the human rights of prisoners of war on a massive scale. As scandalous as that was, Mapes had an even bigger story cued up: the war record of President George W. Bush.Working on it for five years, the tenacious Mapes had obtained memos from a confidential source suggesting that Bush had received preferential treatment in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s. Included in the papers were statements by Bush’s commander – the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian – that…9 min
Total Film|March 2016BALLARD 101WHO IS HE?James Graham Ballard was a novelist and essayist whose dystopian visions of a world knocked off its axis by ecological disaster, societal anarchy and the misuse of technology saw him likened in his lifetime to the likes of George Orwell and Brave New World writer Aldous Huxley. Born in 1930 in the Shanghai International Settlement, ‘J.G.’ partly owed his jaundiced view of humanity to having his own world inverted by the Japanese invasion of 1941 and the three years he spent with his family in an internment camp.THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR…Probably because it was the basis of Empire Of The Sun, a semi-autobiographical book that Steven Spielberg filmed in 1987 with Christian Bale. Crash, about a guy turned on by car accidents, was also (controversially) made into a 1996…2 min
Total Film|March 2016LIFELINE14 MAY 1961Born in Dulwich, London to teacher Ann and political journalist Ernie.1982-1984Made In Britain, Meantime and The Hit make him part of the Brit Pack.1989-1990Goes arthouse, working for Peter Greenaway, Robert Altman and Tom Stoppard.1992-1995Team QT: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms. Oscar-nominated for Rob Roy.2001Monkey business as villainous General Thade in Planet Of The Apes remake.2005-2008US remakes of Dark Water and Funny Games; reimagining of The Incredible Hulk.2009-2011Plays expert lie detector Dr. Cal Lightman in 48 episodes of crime series Lie To Me.2014-2016Makes up for Grace Of Monaco with Selma, Chronic and The Hateful Eight.…1 min
Total Film|March 2016NO ESCAPE 15OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HDOWEN WILSON AND FAMILY TOUCH down in Southeast Asia and become embroiled in a violent coup, forced to run and gun for their lives. If you can ignore the rampant xenophobia (the copy-andpaste mob is not even granted subtitles), No Escape passes muster as a fun, dumb, OTT action movie – tense, frantic and enlivened by Pierce Brosnan as an Estuary-accented poor man’s Bond. Wilson mans up effectively and Lake Bell pulls off the thankless wife/mother role. “It’s a family drama masquerading as an action film,” claims director John Erick Dowdle on the extras.EXTRAS › Deleted scenes › Featurettes…1 min
Total Film|March 2016VACATION 15OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HD“THE SCRIPT WAS SO DAMN FUNNY,” enthuses Ed Helms on the 10-minute Making Of that accompanies this reboot. He’s not wrong – leading a game cast as the head of the next-gen Griswolds, Helms and on-screen family (Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins) exhaust funny bones as their road trip sees them battling futuristic tech, faecal spa facilities and Chris Hemsworth’s prosthetic schlong. “I’d be annoyed if people said this was the best one,” admits Chevy Chase, who cameos – and this Vacation very nearly earns that accolade.EXTRAS › Making Of (BD) › Gag reel (BD) › Featurette (BD) › Deleted scenes…1 min
Total Film|March 2016AFERIM! 18OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL HDWINNER OF THE SILVER BEAR AT Berlin and hovering as a possible Oscar contender, Radu Jude’s sparse, authentic Romanian western exposes the deepest roots of Balkan social history. Set in Wallachia in 1835, it sees rural cop Costandin (Teodor Corban) hired by a boyar lord to track down the gypsy slave who ran off after sleeping with his wife. Tightly plotted and surprisingly funny (with some spectacularly creative swearing from Corban’s bad-tempered, intolerant old jobsworth), Jude’s black and white pastoral does a fine job of tracing the racial and social divisions that are still affecting the region.EXTRAS › None…1 min
Total Film|March 2016THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL 18OUT NOW DVD“I HAD SEX TODAY – HOLY sh*t!” SAYS 15-year-old Minnie, setting a no-bull tone for Marielle Heller’s boundary-busting coming-of-ager. Neither prurient nor prim, Heller’s spin on Phoebe Gloeckner’s ’70s San Francisco-set graphic novel gatecrashes the boys’ club of lusty teen-pics and owns it. A Royal Night Out’s Bel Powley is a royal revelation as the sex-mad teen who shags mum’s (Kristen Wiig) boyf (Alexander Skarsgård). And although the set-up could invite broad comedy, Heller anchors it in Ghost World-ly wit, bittersweet truths and a brash, believable female PoV: canny choices for a debut crackling with forthright confidence.EXTRAS › Featurette…1 min
Total Film|March 2016KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN 151985 OUT 25 JANUARY DVD, BDTWO CHALK-AND-CHEESE CELLMATES in a squalid South American prison find friendship and respect in this touching drama. William Hurt plays the transgender Luis, imprisoned for “corrupting a minor”; sharing his space is Raul Julia’s political prisoner Valentin. The only respite from their ordeal? Luis’ elaborate re-telling of an old Nazi spy movie. While it was Hurt who bagged an Oscar for his troubles, Julia is just as moving as a man clinging to his beliefs as the fascist stooges manipulate, torture and even poison him. Powerful, provocative and groundbreaking. Extras include a featurette on source novelist Manuel Puig and a whopping photo gallery.EXTRAS › Making Of › Featurettes › Gallery…1 min
Total Film|March 2016DAY OF THE OUTLAW PG1959 OUT NOW DUAL FORMATA BLEAKLY AUSTERE WINTER WESTERN set in a small snowbound Wyoming town, André de Toth’s film pits Robert Ryan at his most gauntly embittered against an invading band of baddies headed by Burl Ives. Bertrand Tavernier, in his lucid video essay, calls it ‘one of the few Dreyer-esque Westerns’ and you can see what he means. De Toth pares everything down to a stark minimum, building tension as the claustrophobic situation teeters out of control. A dance sequence is about as uncelebratory as can possibly be imagined.EXTRAS › Video essay › Music track › Booklet…1 min
