The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Hitlist From Glasgow superheroes to Downton and art-house hits, 10 of the best upcoming films
AS restrictions ease and cinemas return to something approaching normal service, the days when films were released at a rate of one or two a month are (thankfully) behind us. Here, then, is our pick of the best cinematic experiences to look forward to between now and April.
DEATH ON THE NILE
Busy man, Kenneth Branagh. Having recently turned out Artemis Fowl and sort-of biopic Belfast, he now returns to Agatha Christie and picks up where he left off with 2017’s Murder On The Orient Express.
This time it’s the famous crime writer’s much-loved 1937 novel about skullduggery on board the SS Karnak, supposedly treating its passengers to a luxurious Egyptian cruise. Instead, murder most foul ensues. If you watched the 1978 Peter Ustinov version when it was on over Christmas, try to forget who dunnit. Branagh reprises his role as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot and among the all-star cast are Annette Bening, Gal Gadot, Rose Leslie, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and Russell Brand.
February 11
THE JUSTICE OF BUNNY KING
Described by debut director Gaysorn Thavat as “a social justice action film about motherhood”, The Justice Of Bunny King is set in New Zealand and follows down-on-her-luck mum Bunny (Essie Davis) as she battles to regain custody of her two young children, who have been taken into care.
Between run-ins with the authorities she spends her day washing car windscreens around Auckland and struggling to win niece Tonyah (Jojo Rabbit’s Thomasin McKenzie, currently starring in Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho) to her cause. It comes to UK cinemas trailing plaudits and superlatives, and if you’re a fan of the work of Ken Loach, this is one for you.
February 11
CYRANO
Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage heads the cast in Joe Wright’s spin on Erica Schmidt’s stage musical, itself a take on Edmond Rostand’s muchadapted 1897 play Cyrano De Bergerac (see 1987 Steve Martin vehicle Roxanne etc.).
Hayley Bennett stars as Roxanne and Kelvin Harrison Jr and the great Ben Mendelsohn also feature. And if you’re a fan of five-piece US indie rockers The National you’ll be pleased to learn that Matt Berninger and twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner – respectively the band’s singer and guitarists – have written the music. February 25
THE BATMAN
Shot partly in Glasgow and (according to director Matt Reeves) heavily influenced by Nirvana and by Gus Van Sant’s film about Kurt Cobain, Last Days, this latest Batman re-boot stars Robert Pattinson as the gloomy crime fighter. The story catches Batman early on in his career and features a plot involving a serial killer. Joining Pattinson in the cast are Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as Riddler and Colin Farrell as Penguin, and if you rate superhero films by their length, this is the one for you: the running time is just a fraction under three hours.
March 4
PARIS, 13TH DISTRICT
This latest film from French director Jacques Audiard, whose credits include A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipper and Palme d’Or-winner Dheepan, is an adaptation of the work of American graphic novelist Adrian Tomine with a script co-written with acclaimed film-maker Céline Sciamma.
Lucie Zhang, left, making her screen debut, has already picked up award nominations in France for her performance and she’s joined in the cast by Makita Samba, Noémie Merlant (who starred in Sciamma’s recent Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) and Jehnny Beth. Better known as a musician, Beth fronts British art-punk band Savages and last year collaborated with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie.
The plot? A ménage à quatre set in Les Olympiades, a development of a dozen 1970s tower blocks in Paris named after Olympic cities.
March 4
DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA
French acting legend Nathalie Baye joins the cast for this second big screen outing for the Downton Abbey crew, a sequel to 2019’s Downton Abbey, which brought the action up to 1927.
Simon Curtis directs Julian Fellowes’ script which sees Lady Violet (Maggie Smith) inherit a villa in the south of France. Among the other new cast members are Dominic West, Hugh Dancy and Laura Haddock as Myrna Dalgleish.
March 18
THREE FLOORS
Italian great Nanni Moretti directs this affecting domestic drama, set over a decade in a three storey block of flats and telling the tale of three families whose lives and loves become intertwined.
A hit at Cannes last year, it’s based on a novel by Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo, with the action transplanted from Tel Aviv to Moretti’s usual stomping ground of Rome.
The director also stars, and joining him in the cast are veteran Italian actors Margherita Buy and Anna Bonaiuto alongside Tommaso Ragno and Alba Rohrwacher, who played together in the award-winning Happy
As Lazzaro, directed by Rohrwacher’s younger sister, Alice.
March 18
COMPARTMENT NO 6
A hit at Cannes last year and currently sitting on the shortlist for Best International Feature at next month’s Oscars, this offbeat Finnish drama follows archaeology student Laura (Seidi Haarla) as she boards a train en route to a date with some rare rock paintings in Russia’s Murmansk region. Sharing her second-class compartment is rough and ready Russian Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), who swigs vodka, eats sausage and scatters showers of sparks from his cigarette everywhere. Over the courses of the journey, however, an unlikely bond emerges. Before Sunrise it ain’t, but it could just prove to be one of the year’s sleeper hits.
April 8
BENEDETTA
Hollywood action legend Paul
Verhoeven, director of RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers, returns to his native Europe for this biographical drama about real-life mystic Benedetta Carlini, who scandalised the church in 17th century Italy by having a relationship with a fellow nun.
Belgian actress Virginie Elfira, who starred alongside Isabelle Huppert in Verhoeven’s 2016 French language drama Elle, takes the title role. British acting icon Charlotte Rampling also stars and the soundtrack is by Elle composer Anne Dudley, co-founder of 1980s synth-pop jokers Art Of Noise.
A hit at last year’s Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d’Or, it is also screening at next month’s Glasgow Film Festival.
April 15
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE
Director David Yates, who helmed the last four Harry Potter films, returns for this third instalment in the Potter spinoff series, now not featuring Johnny Depp after he was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen.
Eddie Redmayne reprises his role as Ministry of Magic whizz Newt Scamander and we pick him up a few years after the events of the previous film, which was set in 1927. Now he is asked by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to take on a mission which will pit him against dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen) and his fearsome army, while the film itself broaches the subject of what the wizards were doing while the Muggles were slugging it out in World War Two – so expect Newt to touch down in Germany at some point.
April 18