Christmas 2019

Total Film

The Modern Guide to Movies

Total Film4 min readFashion
Money Business
I’m pretty sure there’s over 160 drafts of the script,” Josh Safdie winces. Teasers gets the impression he’s not exaggerating. The Safdies, Josh and his brother Benny, have spent almost a decade bringing Uncut Gems to the screen, making music videos,
Total Film4 min read
Dialogue
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Total Film2 min read
James Dean
From Lou Reed to Taylor Swift, many musicians have sought ways to immortalise James Dean in song. Now, a new film proposal has taken the idea of immortalising the Indiana icon of youthful outsiderdom to new, less desirable extremes. Sixty-four years
Total Film3 min read
You Talkin’ To Me?
IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTHMARTIN FREEMAN You talkin’ to me? Yes, I am. I am definitely talking to you. If I was imagining this, it’d be frightening. Do you feel lucky, punk? Yes. I do feel very lucky; in life, generally, and in my work. I’m also pr
Total Film2 min read
Trail Blazers
In the trailer for Queen & Slim, Bookeem Woodbine’s Uncle Earl dubs the eponymous pairing the “black Bonnie and Clyde”. But despite surface similarities to other ‘criminal couple on the run’ movies, it stands apart for being rooted in the black exper
Total Film2 min read
Scary Poppins
First published in 1898, Henry James’s novella The Turn Of The Screw has been chilling readers to the bone for over a century. But for such a landmark genre work, it’s been largely left alone by filmmakers. Maybe they were daunted by Jack Clayton’s e
Total Film2 min read
Cleaning House
As one of the OG Avengers, audiences are accustomed to seeing Mark Ruffalo save the planet. But as Rob Bilott, the litigator who exposed a decades-long chemical cover-up by the DuPont corporation, he’s playing a very real hero. “Since there was a reg
Total Film2 min read
The Accused
Back in 1996, Richard Jewell was a security guard working in Atlanta during the Olympics. During a concert in Centennial Park, he found a suspicious package, which turned out to be a bomb. Although it still exploded, his actions saved hundreds of liv
Total Film2 min read
Knight Fever
Battling studios, buffeted by fate… Terry Gilliam has had more than his fair share of turmoil during a long and winding career that’s taken in Monty Python, Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. But nothing compares to his Sisyphean
Total Film2 min read
Thomasin Mckenzie
I’ve definitely been lucky with it,” Thomasin McKenzie says modestly of the explosion of interest since her terrific 2018 drama, Leave No Trace. Though it looks more like talent than luck now that the 19-year-old New Zealander has since worked with m
Total Film2 min read
Flaming Passions
Given French writer/director Céline Sciamma has painted herself as one of the most fascinating social-realist filmmakers of recent years with Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood, it comes as something of a surprise that her fourth feature, Portrait Of
Total Film2 min read
What The Dickens?
As soon as you mention ‘period drama’, something happens to people’s voices – they go like this,” winces Armando Iannucci as he deepens his voice to sound theatrically sombre. “I said, ‘Don’t. Just [adopts casual tone] go like this. Don’t stride, jus
Total Film3 min read
It Shouldn’t Happen To A Film Journalist
THIS MONTH RECORDING COMMENTARIES This week I found myself sitting in a hi-tech sound booth opposite a rather nervous writer/director ready to record a commentary track for a bells-and-whistles Blu-ray release of his debut movie. It was the filmmaker
Total Film3 min read
Anthony Daniels
What’s the first thing you do when you get to set? A typical day [on Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker] would be going to my trailer and putting on my under-suit things, and then a tracksuit or whatever, before wandering on to a set lit by a few light
Total Film2 min read
Agent Of Change
It’s a rite of passage for budding action megastars to appear alongside precocious young actors in a family-friendly comedy. Arnie, Vin and The Rock have all done it, and now Dave Bautista is giving it a shot with My Spy. But according to the film’s
Total Film2 min read
Maclunkey
Back in 1997 George Lucas was getting ready for the theatrical release of his Special Editions of the Star Wars trilogy, which saw the original films updated with new CGI and cut scenes restored. “Films are never completed… only abandoned,” he said a
Total Film2 min read
American Psychos
Adam Egypt Mortimer used to have an imaginary friend. “He was called Mr Nobody. He was this kind of egg-shaped creature with arms and legs – and no face!” A far less benign being is the star of the Some Kind Of Hate director’s second feature (though
Total Film1 min read
Patrick Schwarzenegger
What attracted to you to the role? It was that the film had real depth to it, that it touches on these ideas of toxic masculinity. What sort of behaviour does Daniel bring out in Luke? At first Luke thinks he’s cool. Daniel helps him get women, helps
Total Film2 min read
A Winter’s Tale
Maybe it’s some kind of masochism!” says director Agnieszka Holland, reflecting on how she always seems to end up shooting in harsh conditions. Her 2011 Oscar-nominated film In Darkness, about Jewish refugees in occupied Poland, “happened in the sewe
Total Film1 min read
James Norton
How much could you find out about Gareth? Lots. And it was a really enjoyable journey to go on. The family of Gareth Jones have been celebrating and singing from rooftops about this man for so long, and few people have been listening. He was relative
Total Film3 min read
Emilio Estevez
The eldest son of Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez became the leader of the ’80s Brat Pack in such movies as St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club and Young Guns before leading the family-friendly Mighty Ducks series. His directing credits include Bobby an
Total Film3 min read
Little Women
OUT 26 DECEMBER CERTIFICATE UDIRECTOR Greta GerwigSTARRING Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura DernSCREENPLAY Greta GerwigDISTRIBUTOR SonyRUNNING TIME 135 mins For Hollywood, Little Women is the gift tha
Total Film2 min readCrime & Violence
Just Mercy
OUT 17 JANUARY CERTIFICATE TBCDIRECTOR Destin Daniel CrettonSTARRING Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Rafe Spall, Rob MorganSCREENPLAY Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew LanhamDISTRIBUTOR WarnerRUNNING TIME 136 mins (TBC) A true-life death-row
Total Film3 min read
1917
OUT 10 JANUARY CERTIFICATE 15 (TBC)DIRECTOR Sam MendesSTARRING George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth, Andrew ScottSCREENPLAY Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-CairnsDISTRIBUTOR eOneRUNNING TIME 110 mins (TBC) Many films have dabbled with the fake
Total Film2 min read
Uncut Gems
OUT 1O JAN CINEMAS 31 JAN NETFLIX CERTIFICATE TBCDIRECTOR Benny Safdie, Josh SafdieSTARRING Adam Sandler, Idina Menzel, Kevin Garnett, LaKeith Stanfield, Eric BogosianSCREENPLAY Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein DISTRIBUTOR NetflixRUNNING T
Total Film2 min read
Jumanji: The Next Level
OUT NOW CERTIFICATE 12ADIRECTOR Jake KasdanSTARRING Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, AwkwafinaSCREENPLAY Jake Kasdan, Jeff Pinker, Scott Rosenberg DISTRIBUTOR SonyRUNNING TIME 123 mins In December 2017
Total Film2 min read
The Gentlemen
OUT 1 JANUARY CERTIFICATE 18DIRECTOR Guy RitchieSTARRING Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Eddie Marsan, Hugh Grant, Colin FarrellSCREENPLAY Guy Ritchie DISTRIBUTOR EntertainmentRUNNING TIME 113 mins Believe it or
Total Film2 min read
Waves
OUT 17 JANUARY CERTIFICATE 15DIRECTOR Trey Edward ShultsSTARRING Kelvin Harrison Jr., Taylor Russell, Sterling K. Brown, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lucas HedgesSCREENPLAY Trey Edward ShultsDISTRIBUTOR UniversalRUNNING TIME 136 mins What a difference a d
Total Film2 min read
Jojo Rabbit
OUT 1 JANUARY CERTIFICATE 12ADIRECTOR Taika WaititiSTARRING Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel WilsonSCREENPLAY Taika WaititiDISTRIBUTOR FoxRUNNING TIME 108 mins There were two hot-ticket yo
Total Film2 min read
Seberg
OUT 10 JANUARY CERTIFICATE TBCDIRECTOR Benedict AndrewsSTARRING Kristen Stewart, Jack O’Connell, Zazie Beetz, Anthony Mackie, Vince VaughnSCREENPLAY Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse DISTRIBUTOR UniversalRUNNING TIME 102 mins Jean Seberg was the gamine A
Total Film2 min read
Weathering With You
OUT 17 JANUARY CERTIFICATE 12ADIRECTOR Makoto ShinkaiSTARRING Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Shun Oguri, Tsubasa HondaSCREENPLAY Makoto ShinkaiDISTRIBUTOR National AmusementsRUNNING TIME 112 mins It never rains but it pours in Weathering With You. Set in a
Total Film2 min read
A Hidden Life
OUT 17 JANUARY CERTIFICATE TBCDIRECTOR Terrence MalickSTARRING August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Michael Nyqvist, Matthias Schoenaerts, Bruno GanzSCREENPLAY Terrence MalickDISTRIBUTOR FoxRUNNING TIME 173 mins The myth of Terrence Malick isn’t what it on
Total Film2 min read
Cleanin’ Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters
OUT 17 JANUARY CERTIFICATE TBCDIRECTOR Anthony BuenoSTARRING Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, Sigourney WeaverSCREENPLAY Anthony Bueno, Claire BuenoDISTRIBUTOR Kew Media Distribution Despite being one of the biggest hits of its decade, 1984’s
Total Film12 min read
Fun And Dames
It’s really surreal,” says Margot Robbie, looking at a poster for Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn), to give it its full title. “I feel like I’ve spent so long thinking about it, and working on it, that it’s going t
Total Film2 min readFashion
Dressed To Kill
The fun and interesting part about this project was that we weren’t recreating what we’d seen Margot in previously. We were starting from scratch. I really just started with character. Things like: irreverent and comedic and strong and funny and zany
Total Film1 min read
Squad Goals
Suicide Squad director David Ayer has been outspoken on the film’s reception, and recently described the frustration of “being hammered for something that was not my original vision.” Robbie adamantly denies any sense of that during filming. “During
Total Film1 min read
Box Office Charts
Its box-office success is no surprise, but will it match the original’s Oscar haul? Has the Dolby Theatre made preparations for singing reindeer? Do we need to dust off our Adele Dazeem memes? Viewers: ho ho ho! Critics: no no no! Could’ve got an ext
Total Film2 min read
Tenet
“Time has come for a new protagonist. Time has come for a new kind of mission.” Those words are about all that’s known about Tenet, the upcoming ‘action epic’ from the mind of writer/director Christopher Nolan, a film that started breaking rules from
Total Film1 min read
Wonder Woman 1984
There’s a reason why the DCEU’s second female-led film is titled Wonder Woman 1984, and not Wonder Woman 2. It’s set in the ’80s, yes, but returning director Patty Jenkins also wanted to make clear from the get-go that this outing won’t be so much of
Total Film2 min read
The King's Man
Writer/director Matthew Vaughn has opted to completely shake-up in the next instalment in the Kingsman franchise. Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Harry Hart (Colin Firth) are out, as the action shifts back to the time of World War 1. “It felt like it was g
Total Film3 min read
No Time To Die
Officially Her Majesty’s longest-serving 007, Daniel Craig has been keeping the British end up for Bond’s most fruitful era, starring in two of the series’ most acclaimed entries and its highest grossing, even adjusted for inflation (in Skyfall). Tho
Total Film1 min read
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
“It was pure accident,” says director Jonathan Butterell of stumbling across Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, the BBC3 documentary that inspired his big-screen debut, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. “I don’t even watch TV. I was channel surfing and I just h
Total Film1 min read
Soul
Think Inside Out was ambitious when it came to wrestling a deep metaphysical concept into a family-friendly animation? Soul’s just about ready to blow away any remaining preconceptions of what a ‘cartoon’ can be. Directed by Pete Docter (cast-iron Pi
Total Film2 min read
Onward
For 25 years, the cyber pioneers at Pixar have been at the digital animation vanguard. But Onward, the beloved Emeryville studio’s 22nd feature, contains a technical innovation that leaves all previous breakthroughs in the dust: “We’ve given pants em
Total Film2 min read
The Invisible Man
When The Mummy’s meagre box-office returns sealed the fate of the overambitious Dark Universe, it wasn’t long before Universal pivoted. Now, instead of blockbuster budgets and an interconnected world, Universal’s classic monsters would be handed over
Total Film2 min read
Free Guy
“It’s visually huge, because in a videogame world, where anything is possible, you have every cinematic possibility that opens up,” Shawn Levy tells Total Film about his upcoming action-adventure, Free Guy. “There’s huge action. And a ton of frankly
Total Film1 min read
Top Gun: Maverick
Do you feel the need for speed? To once more take the highway to the danger zone? Then you’ll want to buckle up for this super-powered sequel to the 1986 blockbuster that shot Tom Cruise into the stratosphere. Set as the art of dogfighting is being s
Total Film3 min read
A Quiet Place Part II
John Krasinski’s taut, smart 2018 horror was no franchise bolt-on or flashy slasher, so before its debut at SXSW few might have expected it to become the box-office champ it did ($341m) with great reviews and awards to boot. A self-contained (in ever
Total Film1 min read
FAST & FURIOUS 9
As rumours of Paul Walker’s on-screen resurrection swirl, shooting has wrapped on the 10th instalment of the skidmarked saga (after Hobbs & Shaw), with Diesel back as reformed(ish) family man Dom Toretto. Determined to take down Theron’s returning cy
Total Film2 min read
Dolittle
“I can’t think of another movie that has done what we’ve done,” says Dolittle producer Susan Downey. “We shot a live-action movie and then had to animate, almost a full CG movie, on top of it. All of the animals are created digitally, apart from a fe
Total Film2 min read
Ghostbusters 2020
It’s difficult to remember a time when a Ghostbusters sequel wasn’t being talked about. Ever since 1989, when Ghostbusters II unleashed a torrent of supernatural sewer slime into cinemas, writer/star Dan Aykroyd has talked up various threequels, all
Total Film1 min read
Calm With Horses
NFTS grad Nick Rowland remembers that the film that inspired him to direct was Trainspotting – so it’s fitting that his raw, brutal/beautiful thriller following a boxer-turned-henchman for a ruthless Irish mob family should exhibit the kind of direct
Total Film2 min read
Black Widow
Poor old Natasha Romanoff didn’t fare too well in Endgame. So it’s gratifying to anticipate Marvel’s 24th offering, which resurrects the Black Widow (Johansson) and provides post-Civil War/pre-Infinity War context for her – likely filling in the juic
Total Film2 min read
Eternals
Following ScarJo’s curtain-raising Black Widow, Phase 4 of the MCU is set to blaze a trail for better representation. Disney villainess Jolie might be the marquee name – as Thena, warrior princess – but alongside her, and reunited GOT brethren Madden
Total Film1 min read
Last Night In Soho
Few people on the planet have a deeper affection for and knowledge of the horror genre than Edgar Wright, so the thought of him making a straight-up psychological genre movie is beyond thrilling. Having previously pioneered the romzomcom with Shaun O
Total Film1 min read
Dune
The best-selling science-fiction novel of all time, and previously adapted by David Lynch in his first (and last) foray into blockbuster filmmaking, Dune is essentially Game Of Thrones in space, but with colossal sandworms instead of dragons. Set on
Total Film1 min read
Morbius
Vampires, you say? They’re making a comeback in 2020, apparently, with Sony fast-tracking this adaptation of the Marvel comic after the studio’s runaway success with Venom. Don’t expect Morbius to stray anywhere near the territory of sparkles and qui
Total Film1 min read
Mulan
Yes, it’s another live-action update of a Disney animation, but at least Mulan comes with a ready-made feminist subtext. As the ancient folk ballad has it, on order of the Emperor, every Chinese family must provide a soldier for the Imperial Army. So
Total Film1 min read
Death On The Nile
It’s open season on Agatha Christie adaps, with Rian Johnson co-opting the country-house mystery for Knives Out and Poirot being recast as a priest in BBC One’s ABC Murders. But director-star Branagh’s second outing (written again by Logan’s Michael
Total Film1 min read
West Side Story
A million miles from both Spielburbia and sci-fi, the mean streets of Leonard Bernstein’s masterpiece have been well-trodden on stage since the ’50s. But Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ 1961 film adap – the winner of 10 Oscars – has remained sacrosan
Total Film6 min read
Primetime’s Up
Before there was Harvey, there was Roger. In July 2016, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes. The CEO of Fox News since 1996, Ailes was one of the most prominent men in corporate America. But b
Total Film6 min read
Upstairs Downstairs
As Bong Joon-ho arrives at a beachside restaurant in Cannes, he has an announcement. Or at least his translator does. “He wants to talk more about soccer with you,” she says, chirpily. The South Korean director behind Snowpiercer and Okja is seemingl
Total Film14 min read
Taika Waititi
When Total Film meets Taika Waititi in London’s Soho Hotel in October 2019, he’s extremely tired, wiped out from having flown in from LA. “So if I yawn throughout this – just, y’know, a pre-warning disclaimer – it’s not you.” The tiredness hasn’t blu
Total Film1 min read
BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC
“Very moving and we all laughed a ton” is how writer Ed Solomon described a nine-hour meeting with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter earlier in 2019, mere months before cameras rolled on their long-gestating threequel Bill & Ted Face The Music. This is th
Total Film3 min read
The Party’s Just Beginning 15
FILM OUT NOW Digital HD highland lows KAREN GILLAN GOES FOR THE TRIPLE… After her blast-off from the Doctor Who-niverse into the MCU and the Jumanji jungle, Scotland’s Karen Gillan lands back in Inverness with an awkward bump here. Inspired by male s
Total Film4 min read
Godzilla: The Shõwa Films 1954-1975
FILM EXTRAS 1954-75OUT NOW Dual FormatEXTRAS Commentaries, Featurettes, Alternative cuts, Booklets atomic breadth A FEAST FIT FOR A KING OF THE MONSTERS… Cinema’s biggest irradiated iguana commands one of the world’s longest-running franchises, still
Total Film1 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! Tbc
FILM OUT NOW Digital HD mixed grill SPURLOCK’S PLUCKY SEQUEL IS HALF-COCKED… Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 breakthrough Super Size Me saw him almost destroy his liver by eating McDonald’s for a month. In this belated follow-up, he examines how the fast-food
Total Film2 min read
Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood 18
FILM EXTRAS OUT NOW DVD, BD, 4K, DIGITAL HD EXTRAS Featurettes (BD), Deleted scenes, Memorabilia moving picture HOW TARANTINO’S FILM REWRITES HIS OWN HISTORY… When the credits rolled on the ninth film by Quentin Tarantino at the Cannes Film Festival
Total Film2 min read
Rising Stars
The last time we saw Lost In Space’s Robinson family they were stranded in another galaxy. Seven months have passed, but they’ve made the best of the situation, with the parents growing closer. “John and Maureen are a unit in Season 2,” says showrunn
Total Film3 min read
Fangs To Come
For a man who declares, “I never drink… wine,” Dracula keeps well stocked with the red stuff.Small Screen is standing in a gloomy cellar with candleholders attached to its grotty walls. Wine racks are dotted about, two ornate chairs in the middle, pe

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