6 OF THE BEST
Team Empire on the month’s essential movies
BLACK WIDOW OUT NOW / CERT 12 / 133 MINS
With its moody, low-key opening, Black Widow could have fully committed to pushing the limits of the ‘gritty’ end of the MCU spectrum. And there would have been nothing wrong with that. But, while it has pertinent and interesting things to say about the abusive commodification of women, it’s also not afraid to embrace the sillier superspy stuff, pushing Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) into some Roger Moore-level antics (there’s even a winky Moonraker cameo). It also reminded us just how hilarious Marvel’s movies can be, from David Harbour’s action-mansplaining as the oafish Alexei, to Florence Pugh’s killshot-precise deadpans as surrogate little sis Yelena. Yes, that’s right: it’s funnier than Spy Hard. DAN JOLIN
RIDERS OF JUSTICE OUT 18 OCTOBER / CERT 15 / 112 MINS
On the surface there’s plenty that’s familiar about Riders Of Justice, a film in which soldier Markus (Mads Mikkelsen, reliably superb) hunts down the violent gang responsible for his wife’s death. But there’s more depth and warmth to this thriller than you might expect, much of it thanks to the group of oddballs with whom Markus teams up. Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) gives the film a much-needed sweetness, while Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro) ensure that the laughs keep coming with riffs of absurd comedy. That this is all perfectly balanced with emotionally resonant themes of grief and healing, as characters try to make sense of the nonsensical, is all the more reason to seek this one out. AMON WARMANN
DRAGONS FOREVER OUT 18 OCTOBER / CERT 18 / 94 MINS
Made by the triumvirate of the ‘Three Dragons’, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Jackie Chan, Dragons Forever was sadly the last film to feature all three together. Starring Chan as a hotshot lawyer (who also, of course, knows martial arts), the film is another marvel of action design, which adds some earnest romance to the goofy comedy and scrappy fights of their past collaborations. Each absurd, acrobatic sequence leads toward a bravura showcase of Biao and Chan’s athletic talents and perhaps the greatest one-on-one brawl of Chan’s career: a brutal, bare-knuckle rematch with Wheels On Meals co-star Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez. That final act alone is worth any price of admission. KAMBOLE CAMPBELL
FREAKY OUT 4 OCTOBER / CERT 15 / 97 MINS
If you weren’t sure whether Vince Vaughn was a maestro of horror or comedy, Freaky proves the answer is both. With Vaughn hysterical as a teenage girl trapped in a serial killer’s skin, the body-swap thriller sees him trade places with Kathryn Newton’s Millie (also pretty terrifying with her deadly stare and blood-red lipstick) in an unlikely but entertaining romp. There are neat ruminations on gender and power dynamics in a script that’s sharp and silly in turn, but the film belongs to its actors — their ridiculous body language and hair-raising screams; their almighty differences and surprising strengths, that could only be harnessed in such an enjoyable way on the scariest day of the year: Friday the 13th. ELLA KEMP
LA DOLCE VITA OUT 18 OCTOBER / CERT 15 / 178 MINS
“By 1965, there’ll be total depravity. How squalid everything will be.” In this magnificent epic about triviality, Federico Fellini immortalised Rome’s fashionable party folk of 1959. He relishes the vicious attack on a world whose excesses are beyond satire, but is still fascinated by the parade of gorgeous parasites. Like A Clockwork Orange and Wall Street, it paradoxically set fashion styles, encouraging people to sit in cafés on the Via Veneto in an unironic attempt to emulate the sweet life. No-one has ever looked cooler in shades than Marcello Mastroianni as the tagalong journalist, and the Trevi Fountain had to post guards to stop people wading into it in imitation of Anita Ekberg’s statuesquely absurd starlet. KIM NEWMAN
PIG OUT 4 OCTOBER / CERT 15 / 92 MINS
A film about Nicolas Cage infiltrating Portland’s fancy cuisine scene to retrieve his stolen pig may sound like Taken with bacon. Yet this disarmingly tender curio instead presents Cage at his most sombre, and allows him to untether from a body of work that has mined his most manic tendencies. He shines as a mysterious culinary maven turned off-grid truffle hunter, whose sole pig is violently abducted, forcing him to confront his past. Film maker Michael Sarnoski takes this bombastic sounding premise and subverts it, turning in a grounded character study of a wounded soul who took pains to leave this performative world behind, yet can still reduce a grown man to tears through one single, unravelling exchange. BETH WEBB