Keiron Self looks into the immediate future of the proverbial big screen with his 10 picks from this November 2022’s rundown, from MCU colossi to a documentary about a pensionable Yorkshire film club. Previews of all these films can also be found in the November issue of Buzz, available to read online now.
A BUNCH OF AMATEURS
Formed in 1932, Bradford Movie Makers was a thriving club of cinephiles and amateur film producers. In 2019, its future is uncertain: made up of an older generation of retirees, numbers have dwindled to barely a dozen. We follow these members in this award-winning documentary as they try and save their club. Though they still make their own films – one of them dreams of recreating the opening of Oklahoma! – for others, the club has become their social network, a place of comfort when a loved one dies. A local DJ struggles to raise funds for the club, and they haven’t paid their rent for five years, but with the pandemic looming, is there hope for such a niche bunch? A Bunch Of Amateurs is a documentary that seems to be able to capture a warm, yet honest, portrait of a generation and a struggling town – and also to celebrate cinema on a very local level. One to catch for any film buff or dreamer.
Dir: Kim Hopkins (12A, 95 mins)
A Bunch Of Amateurs opens Fri 4 Nov
LIVING
A moving transportation of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1952 film Ikiru from Japan to the buttoned-up England of the 1950s, Living has already garnered critical acclaim, especially for its star Bill Nighy, apparently on career-best form. He plays Williams, a man of routine and habit caught up in a grinding job and with no apparent emotional life. When he receives a terminal diagnosis, Williams spirals and is determined to live life fully in whatever time he has left. This brings him into the orbit of Tom Burke’s boozer and then to Aimee Lou-Wood’s Ms. Harris, the only woman who works in his office: he hopes to rekindle something in him by spending time with her. Adapted by Kazuo Ishiguro, who knows all about repressed Englishness – he wrote The Remains Of The Day, which itself had Nighy at its centre – this will no doubt prove tearjerking and life-affirming.
Dir: Oliver Hermanus (12A, 102 mins)
Living opens Fri 4 Nov
WATCHER
A psychological horror with a feminist agenda, Watcher stars Maika Monroe as a young American woman who moves to Bucharest with her husband. Everything is alien and strange in this new landscape, but it is exacerbated by a shadowy figure that watches Monroe from the apartment building opposite hers. A serial killer is plaguing the city also, decapitating women; Monroe becomes increasingly convinced that her ‘watcher’ is the man responsible. Will anyone, even her husband (Karl Glusman), believe her? And who is following her around her new town, breathing heavily next to her in the cinema? This looks to be an accomplished, paranoid thriller with a heroine who is constantly gaslit; a strong central performance from Monroe will hopefully elevate it from run-of-the-mill stalk-and-slash horror fare into something more chillingly resonant.
Dir: Chloe Okuno (15, 91 mins)
Watcher opens Fri 4 Nov
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
The brilliant Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death from colon cancer cast doubts on whether a sequel to Black Panther could be made. The Marvel Cinematic Universe had already had a seismic shift, both in popularity and diversity, with the 2018 global smash hit: with their charismatic lead gone, could the franchise move on? The answer seems to be yes, with this sequel apparently embracing the fact that Boseman and his character T’challa have gone, leaving very large shoes to fill and Wakanda in a state of mourning. But who will become the new Black Panther, and how will they deal with the new threat posed by Tanoch Huerta’s Namor, the Sub-Mariner and his underwater kingdom, as technically advanced as Wakanda? With key cast members returning, including Letitia Wright’s tech genius Shuri and Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, along with new additions like Michaela Coel’s fierce warrior Aneka and Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart, this will hopefully be a fitting tribute to Boseman and a continuation of his legacy.
Dir: Ryan Coogler (12A, 120 mins)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens Fri 11 Nov
AFTERSUN
Another award-bothering film, Aftersun is a heartfelt exploration of a father/daughter relationship that seems destined to break hearts. Set in the 1990s, it follows a young father, Calum, played by Paul Mescal (so excellent in Normal People) and his daughter Sophie, brilliant newcomer Frankie Corio. They go on a summer holiday to a Turkish resort where they do the usual holiday things – scuba dive, lounge on the beach – before truths are revealed about the troubling state of Calum’s mental health and the issues his daughter might be having as well. Framing all of these memories are an older Sophie, looking back at camcorder footage and trying to make sense of her relationship with her father. This should make for a tearjerker with its apparent frank, intimate style and delightful central performances dealing with mental health issues in a detailed, accessible and moving way.
Dir: Charlotte Wells (15, 96 mins)
Aftersun opens Fri 18 Nov
ARMAGEDDON TIME
A deeply personal semi-autobiographical trip through the American dream from the perspective of writer/director James Gray, Armageddon Time takes its title from both a Clash song and a quote from Ronald Reagan about whether his generation would see Armageddon. Banks Repeta plays Paul, a version of the director as a teen in 1980s New York. He is best friends with black schoolboy Johnny (Jaylin Webb), forming a likeable, mischievous double act – but if they are ever in trouble, Johnny always gets worse punishment. When Paul gets sent away to a private school, he is forced to reveal his Jewish ancestry; his place in the world is upended, as is his friendship with Johnny. A great cast, including wise grandfather Anthony Hopkins and struggling, compromised parents Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, will attempt to guide him, no doubt with emotionally upsetting results – making this a solid family drama that is also about America itself.
Dir: James Gray (12A, 115 mins)
Armageddon Time opens Fri 18 Nov
CONFESS, FLETCH
It’s been a long time since the lightly comic Fletch appeared on our screens. Back in the 1980s, laconic pratfaller Chevy Chase embodied the investigative journalist with the sardonic wit in two films, Fletch and Fletch Lives: amiable comedies, and solid adaptations of Gregory McDonald’s novels. It’s taken years for another Fletch to get off the ground, with writer/director Kevin Smith attached for a while, but now finally under the helm of Superbad director Greg Mottola and a well-cast Jon Hamm, the next comic caper reaches the screens. Framed for multiple murders, it’s up to Fletch to clear his name whilst also searching for his fiancée’s stolen art collection. A great cast form the suspects – Marcia Gay Harden, Kyle MacLachlan, Annie Mumolo and Lorenzo Izzo – with supporting snark coming from Hamm’s fellow Mad Man, John Slattery. Hopefully, this will be as light, frothy and funny as its predecessors.
Dir: Greg Mottola (15, 98 mins)
Confess, Fletch opens Fri 18 Nov
THE MENU
At a cost of $1250 per head, Hawthorns, an exclusive restaurant on a remote desert island, can only attract a certain clientele. The guests for its taster menus are limited to 12 at a time, and it is ruled over by a severe culinary artist, Ralph Fiennes’ Chef Slowik. Among the guests are a young couple played by Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy, who soon find that there is more in store than the dishes on the menu. The other guests include a restaurant critic, played by Janet McTeer, struggling actor John Leguizamo and a wealthy older couple in the form of Reed Birney and Judith Light: all are vain and self-important, and it seems they’re about to learn a painful lesson in the pitfalls of privilege. Succession and Utopia director Mark Mylod is at the helm of The Menu, promising some scabrous dark satirical comedy amidst the epicurean delights. What starter are you having?
Dir: Mark Mylod (15, 106 mins)
The Menu opens Fri 18 Nov
BONES AND ALL
Reuniting with Timothee Chalamet after their last collaboration, Call Me By Your Name, this is a far darker love story for director Luca Guadagnino. Based on Camille DeAngelis’ novel, Bones And All is set in the mid-1980s and follows Maren, played by Taylor Russell – a girl who has problems fitting in, kept locked up by her father. She is something special, it seems, dangerous even… a cannibal, in fact. Mark Rylance plays the elder Sully who tries to guide Maren’s journey, but then she meets and falls for Chalamet’s Lee, and a blood-soaked road movie is set in motion. Seeming to blend the coming-of-age movie with something very dark, disturbing and gorily romantic, this is another horror movie from the director of the Suspiria remake. Already stacking up awards, this disturbing film also has a beating heart, it would appear – both to be eaten and within its central romance.
Dir: Luca Guadagnino (15, 130 mins)
Bones And All opens Wed 23 Nov
SHE SAID
The breaking of the monstrous actions of Harvey Weinstein gets a thorough big-screen outing in this journalistic thriller. It follows the New York Times investigators who broke the report, Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), with the screenplay based on Kantor’s devastating book. She Said follows the reporters as they try and find someone who is willing to go on the record to talk about Weinstein and his hideous, abusive actions, with a view to shattering the silence surrounding his practices and shining a penetrating light on the way Hollywood conducts itself. The problem is convincing them to put their head above the parapet. A star-studded cast add their gravitas to the film, with the likes of Samantha Morton, Jennifer Ehle and Patricia Clarkson all participating in a worthy story that launched the #metoo movement and exposed sexual harassment and abuse on an industrial scale. An important film, bound to be an awards contender.
Dir: Maria Schrader (15, 128 mins)
She Said opens Fri 25 Nov
words KEIRON SELF
