You’d better march into cinemas this month. David Michael Brown breaks down the best stuff arriving for UK cinema-goers, from superheroes to the latest action from Guy Ritchie and Michael Bay.
The Batman
Batman returns as DC tries, once again, to bring the Caped Crusader some much-needed critical love. It’s directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In, and two entries in the recent-ish Planet of the Apes trilogy) and stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, an unrecognisable Colin Farrell as The Penguin, and Paul Dano as The Riddler (now inspired by The Zodiac Killer who terrorised San Francisco in the 70s). From trailer glimpses so far, this will be a gritty noir-ish affair.
Channelling darker Batman comics like Frank Miller’s Year One and 70s detective films like Dirty Harry, we can expect Pattinson’s Batman, portraying the early years of the Dark Knight, to be in full-on tortured vigilante mode as he prowls the streets of Gotham City struggling with his inner demons. After the less than satisfactory Affleck years, there is a lot riding on his cape tails but early reports suggest this bat will fly.
Red Rocket
Directed by lo-fi stalwart Sean Baker (Tangerine), Red Rocket follows charismatic conman and washed-up porn star Mikey Saber (a cocky Simon Rex) as he returns to small-town Texas to hustle his way back to the big time. Battling a hometown that barely tolerates his arrogance and the inherent stigma against sex workers of any kind, Mikey moves in with his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss) under the condition he gets a job.
Hindered by his sordid past, however, the only gig he can land is his old job selling pot. Dryly comic, Red Rocket continues Baker’s low-rent exploration of Americana taking inspiration from the outdoor aesthetic of Steven Spielberg’s Goldie Hawn-starring road movie The Sugarland Express and 70s sexploitation flicks of Umberto Lenzi and Fernando Di Leo.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen was seen as a return to form for the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director after the critical drubbings dished out to The Man From U.N.C.L.E and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The most memorable character in the director’s star-studded cockney gangster knees-up was Hugh Grant waxing lyrical as a private investigator. Ritchie’s latest cheeky caper sees Grant breaking bad once again, with his now well-practiced cockney accent.
Operation Fortune stars Jason Statham as super-spy Orson Fortune who blackmails Hollywood’s biggest movie star, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), into helping him stop billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Grant) from selling deadly new weapons technology that will send the global populace into meltdown. They say fortune favours the brave: Ritchie will be hoping that the ever-charming Grant, along with an impressive cast that also boasts Aubrey Plaza and Eddie Marsan, will hit big.
The Phantom of the Open
Everyone loves a good old-fashioned underdog, and unrelenting optimist Maurice Flitcroft perfectly fits the bill. Based on the biography The Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, The World’s Worst Golfer by scriptwriter Simon Farnaby and Scott Murray, this uplifting heartwarmer follows Flitcroft’s efforts to enter the British Open Golf Championship Qualifying in 1976…and his subsequent worst round in Open history.
Following in the footsteps of Eddie the Eagle, the hapless sportsman-turned-folk-hero is played by Spielberg favourite Mark Rylance. The rest of the cast boasts the ever-wonderful Sally Hawkins as his wife and Rhys Ifans as an officious official. Happier than Happy Gilmore, this feel-good true story claims that dreamers deserve their one shot. Flitcroft failed to hit his target, but it looks like The Phantom of the Open is on course to be a winner.
Ambulance
A remake of the tense 2005 Danish thriller of the same about two adoptive siblings turned bank robbers, who steal an ambulance occupied by a paramedic and a police officer in critical condition. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman, The Matrix Resurrections) plays Will Sharp, a war veteran in desperate need of cash. He asks for help from his adopted brother Danny (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a charismatic criminal with his eyes on the biggest bank heist in Los Angeles history.
Baby Driver star Eiza González plays the medic fighting for her life in the commandeered vehicle of the title. With director Michael Bay behind the camera, we can expect to see Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen II screaming as they unload clips in slow-motion, in a machismo fuelled display of heroic bombastic bloodshed.
The Worst Person in the World
A twice Oscar-nominated romantic comedy about self-realisation, writer-director Joachim Trier claims the third part of his Oslo Trilogy—following Reprise and Oslo, August 31st—is “the rom-com for people who hate rom-coms.” Bitingly funny, gleefully breezy, and emotionally wrenching in equal measure as it subverts rom-com tropes, The Worst Person in the World chronicles four years in the life of medical-student-turned-trainee-psychologist-turned would-be-photographer Julie, played by Renate Reinsve, as she navigates the choppy waters of modern-day relationships.
Reinsve gives a multifaceted performance with able support from Bergman Island’s Anders Danielsen Lie as acclaimed comic artist Aksel Willman, and Herbert Nordrum as barista Eivind, the two men in her life. Julie may think she is the worst, but this poignant affecting comedy is one of the best.
Morbius
Following the huge success of Spider-Man spin-off Venom and its sequel Let There Be Carnage, it was only a matter of time before another of the Spidey franchise’s dark denizens would make an appearance. After his controversial take on the Joker in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, Jared Leto has another crack at a super anti-hero with Dr. Michael Morbius Ph.D. aka Morbius the Living Vampire, who uses vampirism to cure a rare blood disease.
Promising chills with its comic book thrills, this will be darker and bloodier than your usual Marvel fare. It’s already been announced that Michael Keaton will reprise his role as Adrian Toomes/Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming but other big questions remain. Will the Web Slinger make an appearance? And then there is that other blood-sucking nemesis who exists in this Universe—will Morbius introduce Blade into the MCU?
