September 2022’s new film releases consist of everything from big Davey Cronenberg’s latest scalpel-slice of body horror Crimes Of The Future to a typically French Clare Denis feature with a knifey title Both Sides Of The Blade… plus eight more speculative spiels from Keiron Self, including Three Thousand Years of Longing and Don’t Worry Darling. Previews of all these films can also be found in the September issue of Buzz, available to read online now.
THE FORGIVEN
Adapted from Lawrence Osborne’s novel, this thoughtful drama is adapted by writer/director McDonagh, who also brought us the excellent The Guard and Calvary – and the less good War On Everyone. The Forgiven follows Brit Ralph Fiennes and his American wife Jessica Chastain, who aren’t getting along, sniping and hiding from their growing wreck of a relationship. They take up the offer of going to a weekend-long party in the desert in Morocco, hosted by a gay couple played by Matt Smith and Caleb Landry Jones. On the way there, there is an accident, an under-the-influence Fiennes knocking over a local boy with his car and killing him. Fiennes, confronted by the boy’s family, is forced to go along with them and face whatever remuneration they may want, whilst Chastain languishes at the party. A character study about privilege with actors of gravitas under McDonagh’s wry direction, The Forgiven should prove an intriguing, darkly comic drama.
Dir: John Michael McDonagh (15, 117 mins)
The Forgiven opens Fri 2 Sept
THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING
Director George Miller returns after the high-octane action of Mad Max: Fury Road with Three Thousand Years Of Longing, an epic genie-in-a-bottle story that looks to be full of quirk and insight. Based on AS Byatt’s short story, The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye, this follows Tilda Swinton’s solitary widowed scholar on a journey to Istanbul – where she encounters a pointy-eared Djinn, played by Idris Elba. Naturally, he offers to grant her three wishes in exchange for his freedom from the blue-stoppered vase that has kept him prisoner. She is wary, however, and instead wants to hear his story, at which the djinn duly recounts his three-millennia life. In doing so, they move from an Istanbul hotel room to more epic vistas, wars, orgies and Arabian Nights-esque flights of magical fantasy. Looking to be a visual feast with heart, this celluloid lantern should be well worth rubbing.
Dir: George Miller (15, 108 mins)
Three Thousand Years Of Longing opens Fri 2 Sept
BODIES, BODIES, BODIES
A twisted dark comedy horror that blends the slasher with the snark, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies looks set to bring some funny amidst the fear. Set at a remote house, a group of friends gather to have a party as a hurricane approaches: newly hooked-up couple Bee and Sophie (Borat’s Maria Baklova and Amandla Stenberg) heading to the house of Sophie’s unpleasant childhood best friend, played by SNL’s Pete Davidson. There are other so-called friends, too, including the excellent Rachel Sennot from Shiva Baby, along with Myha’la Herrold, Chace Sui Masters and Lee Pace, cheerfully much older than everyone else. As the storm progresses and the whodunnit game of the title begins, the real body count begins to rise. With attention drawn to character as well as shocks, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies should be a welcome addition and perhaps advancement of the meta-horror genre.
Dir: Halina Reijn (15, 95 mins)
Bodies, Bodies, Bodies opens Fri 9 Sept
BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE
Taking its title from the Tindersticks song composed for the film, sensual drama Both Sides Of The Blade aims to show the battle between impossible choices of sliding down both sides of a painful blade. Juliette Binoche reunites with frequent collaborator Clare Denis (Let The Sunshine In, High Life) as a woman caught between her long-term partner – Jean, the excellent Vincent Lindon – and past lover François, Jean’s best friend who has reappeared after 10 years and is played by Gregoire Colin. Binoche’s passion is reignited by his presence, as Denis, along with French novelist and co-writer Christine Angot, explore the fight against and for desire with a trio of very able French thespians. Expect plenty of gripping character complexity, complete with Denis’ directorial empathy and an unwillingness to take the easy storytelling route, making Both Sides Of The Blade a sensuous Gallic potboiler with depth.
Dir: Clare Denis (18, 116 mins)
Both Sides Of The Blade opens Fri 9 Sept
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE
Body horror ahoy as David Cronenberg returns to the controversial imagery and horror subgenre that has been a twisted spine through the majority of his work. Not since 1999’s Existenz has it been so full on and explicit, however; while 1983’s Videodrome had guns being pulled out of stomachs morphing the mechanical with the flesh, here “surgery is the new sex”. In Crimes Of The Future, Viggo Mortensen plays performance artist Saul Tenser, a transhuman able to produce new organs removed from his body for the entertainment of others. Helped along by his partner, Lea Seydoux’s Caprice, his experiments are getting ever more daring. Pain has been obliterated as the human race succumbs to Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, with all kinds of apparently prescient political subtext as Mortenson fights for the right to do what he wants with his body. Kristen Stewart provides a chilly turn as an agent for a National Organ Registry, in a sci-fi horror that is destined to disturb and churn stomachs. Hail the new flesh.
Dir: David Cronenberg (18, 107 mins)
Crimes Of The Future opens Fri 9 Sept
Discover how our brand new learning experience is giving young people in Wales the skills they need to get ahead.
SEE HOW THEY RUN
See How They Run is a star-filled Ealing Studios-esque comedy with a whodunnit at its centre in 1950s theatreland. Sam Rockwell plays world-weary Inspector Stoppard (a theatrical reference, to Tom Stoppard) paired with Constable Stalker, an enthusiastic Saiorse Ronan. One is cautious, the other impulsive, making for a hopefully hilarious dynamic as they investigate the murder of Adrien Brody’s actor, Leo Kopernik. The cast of suspects is impressive, with Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Reece Shearsmith, Shirley Henderson, This Country’s Charlie Cooper and Fleabag’s Sian Clifford rounding out the cast. There’s also the matter of Harris Dickinson, who plays none other than actor Richard Attenborough, also caught up in the hijinx. The debut film from Tom George (previously This Country’s director) and experienced comedy writer Mark Chappell, this ought to be a welcome tonic of silliness, blending meta jokes and slapstick with a solid comedic cast.
Dir: Tom George (12A, 108 mins)
See How They Run opens Fri 9 Sept
TICKET TO PARADISE
The romantic comedy returns with a top-drawer duo in the star-wattage shape of George Clooney and Julia Roberts, reunited after Money Monster and Oceans 12. In Ticket To Paradise, they play a divorced couple full of apparent hatred towards each other, that agree to team up to try and stop their daughter Lily, played by Kaitlyn Deaver, from marrying someone she has just met on a holiday in Bali (Maxime Bouttier). Cue some snipey barbs, beautiful locations and perhaps a rekindling of romance between the central pair as they try and shape their daughter’s life, much to her annoyance. They don’t want her to sacrifice her life options for something as transient as love. On best friend duties for Deaver is Billie Lourd, navigating the choppy waters of the warring parents and burgeoning love herself. Essentially, though, this is the Clooney/Roberts show, with the pair allowed to cut loose and have some fun under director Ol Parker’s inoffensive eye. Expect formulaic but enjoyable fun with two always-watchable stars.
Dir: Ol Parker (12A, 100 mins)
Ticket To Paradise opens Fri 16 Sept
AFTER YANG
A human sci-fi drama that allows Colin Farrell to do warmth and tenderness as a father readjusting to family life in the near future. Based on Alexander Weinstein’s short story, Saying Goodbye To Yang, After Yang follows Farrell’s Jake and his family, estranged wife Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) and adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) as they try and repair a ‘techno-sapien’ companion, Yang played by Justin H. Min. Essentially a helper for the family, he has recorded their interactions and his own way of viewing the world and when he breaks down, his memories are downloaded allowing the family to gain insight on what he has dispassionately recorded. Naturally, home truths are discovered and what it means to be human is magnified through the work of a robot. With Farrell on apparently brilliant form, this looks set on being a quietly moving futuristic drama.
Dir: Kogonada (PG, 96 mins)
After Yang opens Thurs 22 Sept
BLONDE
The mystique around the tragically short life of Norma Jeane Baker gets another shot of controversial adrenaline in this new telling of her alter ego – Marilyn Monroe, played by Ana De Armas. Blonde, directed by Australian Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination Of Jesse James) uses Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 book as its basis, and takes us on a journey into the inner life of the manufactured starlet and the differences between her public and private personas. Destined to create debate, with the film being granted an NC-17 certificate in the USA due to its graphic nature, this may be an uncomfortable watch. Supporting De Amas are Bobby Cannavale, as abusive husband Joe DiMaggio, and Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller – her other, perhaps more emotionally abusive husband. Moving between colour and black and white, this will be a stylish, unsettling biopic with De Armas reportedly on the award-winning form.
Dir: Andrew Dominik (18, 156 mins)
Blonde opens Fri 23 Sept; streaming on Netflix thereafter.
DON’T WORRY DARLING
After the excellent Booksmart, actor Olivia Wilde’s second feature, Don’t Worry Darling, is an ambitious 1950s-set thriller that seems to blend elements of The Stepford Wives with Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Handmaid’s Tale. At the centre of the drama are the excellent Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, a young couple who become part of a utopian community run by the charismatic if occasionally disturbing Chris Pine. When Pugh begins questioning what is going on within this community, matters take a disturbing turn. Residents seem brainwashed, sharing common stories about their past, while toxic masculinity and coercive control are rife. Unsettling, claustrophobic imagery abounds, making this a must-see for those who like their horror nuanced and intelligent; Pugh and Styles are on the ascendant, and director Wilde looks set to confidently build on her previous breakout directorial success. It looks like the characters, however, have plenty to worry about.
Dir: Olivia Wilde (15, 122 mins)
Don’t Worry Darling opens Fri 23 Sept
words KEIRON SELF