Stephen Giddings gives a committed performance as a recovering alcoholic who’s started betting again in this often tense experimental docudrama The line between fact and fiction is thin to vanishing in this Liverpool-set experimental docudrama, a study of addiction and how it rumbles down through generations. It’s directed by visual artist Melanie Manchot and is being shown as a multiscreen installation in Cornwall as well as screening in cinemas. Manchot worked with a Liverpool recovery group, hiring members, with lived experience, as actors. At its worst the result has a bit of a workshop fe ..read more

In this adaptation of the John McGahern novel, about a middle-aged man who has returned, with his wife, to the countryside of his childhood, makeshift friendships are forged and life’s grand rhythms observed ‘Does anything happen, or is it the usual?” asks a regular loose cannon in Pat Collins’ rural-set Irish drama. “Not much in the way of drama, just the day-to-day stuff,” replies his writer friend. That’s very much the lay of the land in this film, with squirely novelist Joe Ruttledge (Barry Ward) serving as a proxy for John McGahern and his early-Joycean realism, and from whose lauded fina ..read more

Popular manga characters receive their first film adaptation as they seek out a villainous colonel and an elusive dessert, brought off with great style by director Takashi Katagiri After a successful TV adaptation, the popular characters of the bestselling manga Spy x Family are ready for their big screen closeups. Directed by Takashi Katagiri from an original story, this highly entertaining film maintains the ingenious blend of espionage escapades and slice-of-life shenanigans that has made the series a smash hit, all while expanding its set pieces to a more spectacular scale. To achieve this ..read more

Author Félix Bruzzone fronts this haunting film about Campo de Mayo, where his mother was among tens of thousands of people who ‘disappeared’ under the dictatorship The dark past of Campo de Mayo, a military camp that once served as a vast detention centre during Argentina’s so-called dirty war, is excavated in Jonathan Perel’s haunting documentary. Following noted author Félix Bruzzone as he jogs alongside the infamous site, the film is structured around the writer’s run in which the past and the present entwine. His encounters with witnesses of the dictatorship’s atrocities show that history ..read more

Actors Rei Hance, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams – who improvised most of horror film’s dialogue – claim they didn’t have proper union representation in 1999 and seek residuals The stars of The Blair Witch Project have called for more compensation for their work in the original film, as well as “meaningful consultation” on any reboots and sequels, after it was announced that the horror franchise is being revived yet again. On Saturday, actors Rei Hance (formerly known as Heather Donahue), Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams issued an open letter to Lionsgate, the studio that now owns the ..read more

​Rachel Lambert’s perceptive tale of a ​l​oner with a vividly imaginative inner life​ proves an unexpected showcase for the Star Wars actor​’s talents Some people settle effortlessly into the business of living. Others find it a near-impossible challenge. Fran (a revelatory performance from Daisy Ridley) falls into the latter camp. A painfully introverted thirtysomething office worker, Fran has barricaded herself behind a rigid routine that minimises the risk of social interaction, both at work and after it. It’s not that she’s antisocial exactly, just that she has never quite grasped the rule ..read more

The pun-packed, Arnie-starring original that strayed wildly from Stephen King’s book is one trashy 80s sci-fi romp that could actually benefit from a remake Why bother remaking much-loved 80s and 90s science fiction movies? Frankly it never ends well. Len Wiseman’s 2012 reworking of Total Recall, with a baffled-looking Colin Farrell taking over from Arnold Schwarzenegger as the amnesiac dreamer of futuristic secret agent dreams, struggled to capture the bombast of the superbly trashy Paul Verhoeven original, and never even made it to mutant-heavy Mars. The maverick Dutch director’s 1987 versio ..read more

The Oscar-winner and the Nobel laureate have teamed up to make Bread & Roses, a new film about the abuse of women in Afghanistan. In an emotional interview, they warn that the west ignores its message at their peril “Strong women are not easy women,” says Jennifer Lawrence, “and a woman’s life is lonely. So much of our experience cannot be shared or understood by men, and our rights are in their hands. That’s why we need each other.” The two other people on our video call nod in agreement. One is Malala Yousafzai, who, with Lawrence, has produced a new documentary about the oppression of A ..read more

Vidya Balan shines in this witty remake that sees a married couple, both cheating on each other, on the verge of breaking up The algebra of love is a multiple-choice conundrum in Shirsha Guha Thakurta’s debut, a witty remake of Azazel Jacobs’ romance The Lovers starring Debra Winger. Transporting the original story of a disaffected American couple caught up in extramarital affairs to Mumbai, Do Aur Do Pyaar often heads to the city’s beaches, whose shifting tides bring to mind the unpredictable ebb and flow of long-term relationships. In the film, the weight of marital distance is etched on to ..read more

The director is planning to return to his long-delayed project with Jennifer Lawrence co-starring as Ava Gardner – but rights may prove a stumbling-block Martin Scorsese is reportedly reviving his dormant Frank Sinatra biopic, with regular collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. According to Variety, Scorsese is planning to start filming a Sinatra project directly after completing shooting on his film about Jesus, adapted from a book by Japanese writer Shūsaku Endō. Variety also suggested that DiCaprio will play Sinatra while Jennifer Lawrence will be cast as Ava Gardner, who was marr ..read more