June 2024

Total Film

The Modern Guide to Movies

Total Film2 min read
Welcome to TOTAL FILM THE SMARTER MOVIE MAGAZINE
Twister was a pivotal big-screen experience for me growing up. It was one of the first films - maybe even the first - that I saw at the cinema with friends but no parents present. The VFX might creak a little now, but it still retains that ineffable
Total Film4 min read
Teasers foley Grail
A new Beverly Hills Cop movie has been in the works for a long time. Various scripts have been written and discarded over the years, but exactly three decades on from the John Landis-directed third film, a fourth iteration - Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Total Film1 min read
Call Sheet This Issue’s Extras
Andy Serkis turning up to the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes launch event to conduct a Q&A with the cast was thrilling, but the whole room singing Happy Birthday to him was even more unforgettable. It was a true privilege to speak to Vicky Krieps
Total Film2 min read
Hot Right Now
They’re both ruthless women,’ Julia Garner said of her most prominent TV roles, Ozark’s Ruth Langmore and Inventing Anna’s Anna Sorokin. She’s an artist who’s made her name playing tough and ambitious characters that she often disappears into. Now, t
Total Film2 min read
Primal Fear
Fede Alvarez is fit to burst. No, the Uruguayan director behind Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe and The Girl in the Spider’s Web hasn’t had a run-in with a facehugger. He’s talking to Teasers shortly after the first trailer for Alien: Romulus unleashed to a
Total Film2 min read
Rest In Pieces
I have some nasty sleeping habits that torment my wife,’ confesses South Korean writer/director Jason Yu with a guilty grin. ‘I snore very loudly and I have sleep apnoea - I stop breathing for long periods of time. I guess, subconsciously, I’ve wonde
Total Film4 min read
You Talkin’ To Me?
You talkin’ to me? I am talking to you, after I listen to you, and here’s what a movie nerd I am - I know that everyone says, ‘Oh, that’s Taxi Driver,’ but it’s [inspired by] the movie Shane and Travis Bickle is quoting the dialogue at the bar betwee
Total Film2 min read
Running Men
The Bad Boys are now the bad guys,’ teases Bilall Fallah, co-director of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, part four of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s explosion-and-slow-mo-lovin’ hit action series. Bilall & Adil (Fallah is one half of a directing duo with Ad
Total Film2 min read
Peep Show
Ishana Night Shyamalan readily admits that making a horror film for her debut feature was in some ways inevitable. Having spent her childhood watching her director father, M. Night Shyamalan, hard at work, and getting her first directing experience o
Total Film1 min read
Sound Bytes
$14.5m THE IMPRESSIVE BOX-OFFICE HAUL OF THE PHANTOM MENACE’S GLOBAL RERELEASE. $500m ANIMALS DOING MARTIAL ARTS PROVES TO BE POPULAR, AS KUNG FU PANDA 4 HAS MADE MORE THAN HALF-A-BILLION AT THE BOX OFFICE. DOUBLE TROUBLE MARTIN SCORSESE IS DEVELOPIN
Total Film3 min read
The Ll word
You only need to look at what I chose to wear in the picture for this column to know that I love a summer blockbuster. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was released in June 1975 and spent 14 weeks as the No.1 movie in America, revolutionising the release mode
Total Film1 min read
Hiam Abbass
Q&A How did you react when Lina came to you with this? I said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ Of course, it wasn’t an easy task, really. It’s not like if she came and she said, ‘OK, I’m doing a feature and I want you to play a part.’ Playing myself in a m
Total Film2 min read
Origin Story
After making Their Algeria (2020), which dealt with both her paternal grandparents and the Algerian War of Independence, filmmaker Lina Soualem was faced with one question. ‘Everyone was asking, “How are you going to film your maternal family from Pa
Total Film2 min read
The Xxx Factor
I t’s a much bigger, sprawling story and it exists in a very different aesthetic to the first two movies,’ says writer/director Ti West of MaXXXine, the feverishly anticipated follow up to X and Pearl. ‘It’s a 1980s aesthetic. It’s poppy, but still g
Total Film2 min read
Next Big Thing
Over the last 10 years Ewan Mitchell’s career has been set on an impressive trajectory. At just 20 he appeared in a main role in The Last Kingdom. He’s worked with acclaimed directors such as Claire Denis (in her English-language debut High Life) and
Total Film2 min read
Making The Headlines
In a London studio, Live at Six news anchors Madeline (Karen Gillan) and Douglas (Hugh Bonneville) go through the motions, signing off with scripted zingers before the director yells cut. It’s smooth, slick and professional; yet, as recent scandals h
Total Film2 min read
Casino Royale
The Colosseum at Caesars Palace was the perfect venue for director Ridley Scott to introduce five minutes of fierce unfinished footage via video from London. The brutal scenes showcased the sequel’s top-tier cast - including Denzel Washington, Pedro
Total Film3 min read
Between Takes
What’s the first thing you do when you get to set? I put my coffee maker into the trailer, because I’m a bit of a coffee fiend and I like to be able to make my own rather than having to get nasty instant coffee! Do you have on-set superstitions? I do
Total Film3 min read
Baddie Daycare
If there’s one thing animation studio Illumination is renowned for, it’s the little yellow bundles of chaos known as the Minions. They’ve so far had five outings, the most recent being 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru. It’s been a long time, though, s
Total Film2 min read
Reservation Road
Native people are extremely vulnerable, and violent crimes committed against them often go uninvestigated,’ says writer-director Erica Tremblay. ‘There’s not a day goes by that I don’t log onto social media and see missing posters. If you look at the
Total Film3 min read
The Hero
From modelling and music videos to Oscar nominations for In America and Blood Diamond, Djimon Hounsou has come a long way in his thirty-plus-year career. Epic directors (Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott) are seemingly just the norm for the 60-year-old
Total Film1 min read
Lily Gladstone
Q&A Jax isn’t always easy to like. Was it liberating to not play squeaky clean? Absolutely. Especially as a Native woman. I feel a lot of non-white, non-male actors, when we do get leading roles, they’re too perfect. It’s the model minority – we have
Total Film13 min read
Second Wind
Crowing up in the southern state of Arkansas, Lee Isaac Chung was familiar with tornadoes. ‘At school, that was always the drill that we had to practise: the tornado drill,’ he tells Total Film. One of his earliest memories is as a four-year-old, thr
Total Film2 min read
Go Big Or Go Home
VFX artist Edwards wowed viewers with his $500,000 sci-fi road movie Monsters. Edwards made the film with a crew of five people, and rustled up the otherworldly beasts on his laptop. Its success encouraged Legendary Pictures to hand him $160m for God
Total Film1 min read
Torn’ Up
Famously, it’s a tornado that whisks Dorothy and Toto away from Kansas to the land of Oz. Special effects, er, wizard Arnold Gillespie suspended a 35ft muslin sock from a steel gantry and sprayed it with compressed air while pumping earth and dust at
Total Film8 min read
Once More, With Feelings
It’s perfectly teed up, right?!’ says director Kelsey Mann of sequel Inside Out 2, which takes its cue from emotion Joy’s final line in the 2015 original: ‘After all, Riley’s 12 now,’ says Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler). ‘What could happen?’ That’s the
Total Film9 min read
The Wild ones
There’s a moment in Jeff Nichols’ 60s-set hymn to open roads, purring carburettors and bad boys in leather jackets where Jodie Comer’s Kathy reluctantly gets on the back of a gleaming Harley belonging to Austin Butler’s wildcard biker Benny. As she c
Total Film9 min read
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN at 20
It was not very aware of Potter’s universe and I was suprised to be offered it, coming from Y tu mamá también,’ recalls director Alfonso Cuarón, who’s talking to Total Film 20 years on from the release of his one and only dip into J.K. Rowling’s Wiza
Total Film14 min read
‘I Really Believe If I’m Here On This Planet, I Might As Well Try And Contribute To Something That Is Alive.’ Vicky Krieps
As Vicky Krieps pops up on video chat, sporting a red jumper and a big smile, Total Film’s eye immediately does a recce around the Berlin-based living room that she shares with her partner and two children. Behind her, a heaving bookshelf, including
Total Film1 min read
Five Star Turns
Paul Thomas Anderson knew he was right to cast the little-known Krieps as unyielding Alma opposite Daniel Day-Lewis’ Reynolds Woodcock because she was unfazed upon meeting the acting titan. ‘We thought, “This is the girl, how did we get so lucky?”’ K
Total Film7 min read
Big Business
From Los Alamos to Arrakis, a rumbling in the sands of cinema has been heard lately. Denis Villeneuve channelled the vibrations in Dune: Part Two. Long after a young Chris Nolan thrilled to documentaries at the Museum of Science and Industry’s giant
Total Film1 min read
Screen
TAKES YOU HIRE SUPERB EXECUTION WORTH A SHOT FIRES BLANKS LEAVES NO TRACE ■
Total Film1 min read
See This If You Liked
Lopez and Clooney’s sizzle (and law-enforcement/perp dynamic) is echoed by Powell and Arjona. Dweeby pen-pusher experiments with ballsy alt-persona, reaps rewards. Murder, assassins, weapons, secret identities – but made super-sexy. Is that a gun in
Total Film3 min read
Hit Man 15
DIRECTOR Richard Linklater STARRING Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, Molly Bernard SCREENPLAY Richard Linklater, Glen Powell DISTRIBUTOR Netflix RUNNING TIME 115 mins OUT 24 MAY CINEMAS 7 JUNE NETFLIX Like David Fincher’s The Killer,
Total Film1 min read
Sting 15 Tbc
OUT 31 MAY CINEMAS Like E.T. gone wrong, director Kiah Roache-Turner’s underdeveloped but briskly suspenseful arachno-shocker sees a kid with family issues find solace in alien company. Only this spidery E.T. will gobble you up before it phones home…
Total Film1 min read
Sasquatch Sunset 15
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS Imagine if the monkey business at the start of 2001: A Space Odyssey carried on for the whole film. Such is the deal in Sasquatch Sunset, an absurdist comedy by fraternal filmmaking duo David and Nathan Zellner. Only instead of ac
Total Film1 min read
Freud’s Last Session Tbc
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS Adapted from Mark St. Germain’s play, Matthew Brown’s stodgy drama stages a fictionalised meeting between a cancer-stricken Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and a young C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode). Shaky accent aside, Hopkins is goo
Total Film1 min read
The Coffee Table Tbc
OUT NOW DIGITAL A humble coffee table becomes a monument to a family’s downfall in this nihilistic farce by Spanish director Caye Casas (2017’s Killing God). Already going through a rough patch, new parents Jesús (David Pareja) and Maria (Estefanía d
Total Film1 min read
In Flames 15
OUT 24 MAY CINEMAS Modern-day Pakistan’s patriarchal society is viewed through the lens of psychological horror in this bold and unusual take from first-time writer-director Zarrar Khan. The focus rests on Fariha (Bakhtawar Mazhar) and her daughter M
Total Film1 min read
Rosalie 15
OUT 7 JUNE CINEMAS Loosely inspired by the story of late-19th-century bearded lady Clémentine Delait, the second feature by Stéphanie Di Giusto (2016’s The Dancer) is a finely etched drama set in 1870s northern France. It begins as injured ex-soldier
Total Film1 min read
Bonus Track Tbc
OUT 1 JUNE SKY CINEMA, NOW There’s something of Bill Forsyth’s 1980 classic Gregory’s Girl in the charmingly lo-fi visuals, social awkwardness and inherently sweet nature of Julia Jackman’s debut. Set in 2006, it centres on shy, glum George (Joe Ande
Total Film2 min read
The Dead Don’t Hurt 15
DIRECTOR Viggo Mortensen STARRING Vicky Krieps, Viggo Mortensen, Solly McLeod, Garret Dillahunt, Colin Morgan SCREENPLAY Viggo Mortensen DISTRIBUTOR Signature Entertainment RUNNING TIME 129 mins OUT 7 JUNE CINEMAS Set in 1860s Nevada, Viggo Mortensen
Total Film1 min read
See This If You Liked
Kelly Reichardt’s feminist western rewrites the genre’s rules. Daniel Day-Lewis’ exquisite on-screen swansong is matched by Krieps’ breakout turn. Mortensen’s directorial debut proves he’s as intense behind the camera as in front of it. For more revi
Total Film1 min read
The Beast 15
OUT 31 MAY CINEMAS Spanning two continents, three eras and who knows how many genres, this unwieldy sci-fi drama from French auteur Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama) fully commits to its title. Loosely inspired by a 1903 Henry James novella, it stars Léa
Total Film1 min read
Riddle Of Fire 12a
OUT NOW ICON FILM CHANNEL 7 JUNE CINEMAS A trio of scampish kids set the all-over-the-place pace for writer/director Weston Razooli’s winningly distinct, if wayward, feature debut. In Wyoming, a poorly mum tasks her three BMX-riding charges to fetch
Total Film1 min read
Wilding Pg
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS Award-winning nature-film maestro David Allen turns this leisurely, animal-packed account of Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell’s 20-year rewilding project into a gentle, golden-lit hymn to conservation. Beetles scuttle, Tamworth p
Total Film1 min read
Àma Gloria 12a
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS Spirited six-year-old Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani) lives in Paris and worships her Cape Verdean nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego). But the latter has bombshell news for her young charge: she is returning for good to her West African
Total Film1 min read
Cabrini 12
OUT 27 MAY DVD, BD, DIGITAL The life and good works of Mother Francesca Cabrini, an Italian nun who brought housing and healthcare to the slums of 19th-century New York, are dramatised in a handsomely sepia-toned but rather pious biopic. Director Ale
Total Film1 min read
William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill 12
OUT 27 MAY BD, DIGITAL For a documentarian who has tackled Hitchcock (78/52), David Lynch (Lynch/Oz) and William Friedkin (Leap of Faith), the man who gave us James T. Kirk, T.J. Hooker and a spoken-word rendition of Rocket Man might not seem as weig
Total Film1 min read
Here Tbc
OUT 7 JUNE CINEMAS Over a summer weekend in Brussels, two immigrants cross paths. The sensitive Stefan (Stefan Gota) is a construction worker who’s on the brink of returning home to Romania for his holidays. Shuxiu (Liyo Gong), meanwhile, is a Belgia
Total Film1 min read
If U
OUT NOW CINEMAS Warm and well-intentioned but frankly sappy, John Krasinski’s ode to childhood fantasy centres on Bea (Cailey Fleming), a tween who lost her mother in early childhood and is now bravely facing her father’s upcoming heart surgery. As i
Total Film1 min read
A House In Jerusalem 12a
OUT 31 MAY CINEMAS A supernatural family drama that feels especially resonant given the current turmoil in the Middle East. Muayad Alayan’s thoughtful tale stars Johnny Harris as Michael, a British father who brings his 10-year-old daughter Rebecca (
Total Film1 min read
Hounds 15
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS We’re a long way from Rick’s café in this grittily atmospheric, Casablanca-set crime movie, written and directed by Moroccan first-time filmmaker Kamal Lazraq. Set over a chaotic 24 hours in the city’s rundown suburbs, this darkly
Total Film1 min read
Stopmotion 18
OUT 31 MAY SHUDDER Playing like some unholy mash-up of Eraserhead, Censor and Morph, Robert Morgan’s audacious, disturbing debut sees stopmotion animator Ella (Aisling Franciosi, God’s Creatures) lose her mind as she digs into psyche and soul to comp
Total Film1 min read
Unfrosted 12
OUT NOW NETFLIX A s packed with yuks as a Pop-Tart is with fruit-adjacent filling, Jerry Seinfeld’s wacky, pastel-coloured comedy turns the sorta-true story of the 1963 Kellogg’s/Post Foods ‘boxed breakfast pastry’ wars into a hilarious, The Right St
Total Film1 min read
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes 12a
OUT NOW CINEMAS I s there life after Caesar? That’s the question for Wes Ball’s franchise restart, tasked as it is with following one of the strongest fantasy trilogies of recent times, albeit without Andy Serkis’ pivotal character. Set ‘many generat
Total Film1 min read
Slow Tbc
OUT 24 MAY CINEMAS A sweetly tender Lithuanian love story with a difference, this Sundance favourite sticks to dancer Elena (Greta Grineviciute) and sign-language interpreter Dovydas (Kęstutis Cicenas) like a second skin, as they attempt to combine t
Total Film1 min read
Black Stone 15
OUT NOW CINEMAS 10 JUNE DIGITAL In this award-winning debut by Greek writer/director Spiros Jacovides, a documentary crew gatecrashes the house of Haroula (Eleni Kokkidou) to look for her missing son Panos (Ahilleas Hariskos), a civil servant accused
Total Film1 min read
Sorcery 15
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS A bizarre true story from 1880s Chile provides the basis for this eerie fable about an Indigenous teen (Valentina Véliz Caileo) who turns to her island’s secret sect of sorcerers after her father is murdered by a German Christian
Total Film1 min read
Bermondsey Tales: Fall Of The Roman Empire 18
OUT NOW CINEMAS 10 JUNE DVD, BD, DIGITAL ‘All Londoners and criminals love a good story,’ says one character in this low-budget, Guy Ritchieknock-off anthology starring lots of small-screen cockneys plus John Hannah and Vicki Michelle (‘Oh, René!’).
Total Film1 min read
A Family Affair 15
OUT NOW DIGITAL As the bank threatens foreclosure on the spiritual retreat owned by Edward (Joe Wilkinson) and Helen (Laura Aikman), their parents arrive for a getaway, and various potential buyers descend to purchase the country manor in an auction.
Total Film1 min read
Gasoline Rainbow Tbc
OUT 31 MAY MUBI Written, directed, lensed and edited by sibling filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross (2020’s Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets), this road-trip movie sees five high-school leavers from an unnamed Oregon town embark on a spur-of-the-moment 500-mil
Total Film1 min read
The Present Pg Tbc
OUT 24 MAY CINEMAS This time-travelling comedy adventure follows three precocious children as they attempt to prevent their parents’ impending divorce. The twist in this lowstakes Groundhog Day is that each reset of the clock follows a different fami
Total Film1 min read
New Life Tbc
OUT 3 JUNE DIGITAL Aiming to update David Cronenberg’s 1970s output (Shivers, Rabid) for the COVID-19 generation and – at times – succeeding, writer/director John Rosman’s debut is impressive stuff. Jessica Murdock (Hayley Erin) is a young woman on t
Total Film1 min read
Enter The Clones Of Bruce 15
OUT NOW DIGITAL 27 MAY BD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Outtakes When Bruce Lee died in 1973, aged only 32, the star was at the height of his popularity. Wowed by posthumous hit Enter the Dragon, audiences were left clamouring for more Bruce, leavi
Total Film1 min read
Poolman 15
OUT 7 JUNE PRIME VIDEO T here are two big questions at the centre of this terminally kooky noir, which debuted to a shocking reception at 2023’s Toronto International Film Festival. The first: how has Chris Pine’s directorial debut - which he also st
Total Film1 min read
Next Sohee Tbc
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS July Jung’s sombre, penetrating drama puts exploitative corporate practices under the microscope. Its opening hour follows ebullient teenager Sohee (a captivating Kim Si-eun), whose gruelling work placement at a telecom call centr
Total Film1 min read
Little Monsters Pg
OUT 31 MAY CINEMAS Not to be confused with 2019’s Lupita Nyong’o zom-com, this Russian-made, English-dubbed animation imagines a world where every home comes with its own invisible do-gooding furball. All bar one: a dilapidated dwelling in the town o
Total Film1 min read
Pandemonium 18
OUT 27 MAY ARROW ‘Humanity is evil by nature and must atone for its sins,’ says the monstrous psychopomp that escorts the freshly deceased Nathan (Hugo Dillon) to Hell, where he must suffer for eternity. If the episodic structure of Pandemonium (each
Total Film1 min read
Treasure Tbc
OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS A curiously cast Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham are father and daughter in writer/director Julia von Heinz’s take on Lily Brett’s book Too Many Men. A road movie of sorts set in 1990s Poland, it sees Fry’s Auschwitz survivor Edek Rot
Total Film1 min read
The Matrix 15
1999 OUT 7 JUNE CINEMAS As with George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy or Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, it’s hard to overstate the impact of the Wachowskis’ cyberpunk sci-fiaction classic. Rereleased in cinemas to mark its 25th anniversary, The Matr
Total Film1 min read
Trainspotting 18
1996 OUT 24 MAY CINEMAS In 2017, Danny Boyle’s Cool Britannia classic, based on Irvine Welsh’s zeitgeist novel, was rereleased into cinemas just ahead of the long-awaited T2 Trainspotting. Back then, revisiting the 1996 movie’s youthful exuberance, a
Total Film1 min read
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban Pg
2004 OUT 31 MAY CINEMAS Hogwarts found itself schooled in darker cinematic magic when Alfonso Cuarón took the directing job for year three. Murkier and chillier than the wizard larks of Chris Columbus’ likeable but lighter opening entries, Prisoner t
Total Film1 min read
Two Films By Yasujirō Ozu U
1932/42 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentaries, Booklet A double bill of father-son tales (mums are either making meals or dead) from Japanese master Ozu, both deceptively simple, understated, warm and wise. The director also brings the LOLs with the silent
Total Film1 min read
Black Mask 18
1996 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Alternate cuts, Commentaries, Featurettes, Booklet Universal Soldier meets Batman (with a dash of the Green Hornet chucked in for good measure) in this hyper-stylised Hong Kong superhero flick about a vigilante who’s impervious
Total Film1 min read
The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert 15
1994 OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS Stephan Elliott’s road-trip comedy was a mainstream boundary-breaker for LGBTQ+ representation. It follows two drag queens (Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving) and a transgender woman (Terence Stamp) as they take Priscilla (their to
Total Film1 min read
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock Pg
1984 OUT 27 MAY 4K UHD 14 JUNE CINEMAS EXTRAS Commentaries, Featurettes, Gallery, Storyboards The odd-numbered films are the weaker ones, so the argument goes; and following up the franchise-best Wrath of Khan (1982) was never going to be easy. With
Total Film1 min read
Chocolat 15
1988 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Documentary, Featurette, Short, Booklet Claire Denis’ exploration of France’s colonial past (Beau Travail, White Material) began with her quasi-autobiographical debut, in which a woman named France (Mireille Perrier
Total Film1 min read
Kind Hearts And Coronets U
1949 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentaries, Intro, Featurettes, Alt ending, Galleries The subversive heart of Ealing Studios’ output is fully evident in Robert Hamer’s dark masterpiece. Dennis Price shines as the serial killer attempting to murder his w
Total Film1 min read
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 18
1974 OUT 14 JUNE CINEMAS Setting the (dinner) table for decades of hillbilly horror to come, Tobe Hooper’s subgenre-defining classic still packs a wallop in this 50th-anniversary 4K cinema rerelease. In Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and Sally (Marilyn
Total Film1 min read
Backbeat 15
1994 OUT NOW DVD, BD EXTRAS Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Gallery, Essay Iain Softley’s (Hackers) directorial debut shifts the focus away from the pre-fame Beatles and onto original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) and his relation
Total Film1 min read
Once Upon A Time In The West 15
1968 OUT NOW 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentaries, Featurettes, Poster, Art cards, and more Celebrating its 56th birthday with a 4K UHD makeover (and plenty of collectable goodies to boot), Sergio Leone’s iconic western has been restored from the original came
Total Film2 min read
Extras
OUT NOW Because the internet (apparently) demanded it, Heinz and Mattel have turned an Insta-tease into a reality with this vegan mayo-with-BBQ sauce. Smoky, beetroot-y and startlingly pink, it’s available in a limited run from Tesco, Ocado and other
Total Film2 min read
Classic TV The League Of Gentlemen
1999-2017 AVAILABLE ON DVD, DIGITAL, iPLAYER Welcome to Royston Vasey. You’ll never leave!’ reads the sign that ‘greets’ arrivals to the fictional setting for one of the most intoxicatingly dark comedy series to ever grace TV. Part bucolic promise, p
Total Film1 min read
Fresh Spins
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross’ hot streak shows no sign of cooling. For Luca Guadagnino’s sex’n’sports flick, they whip up sweaty techno-house volleys of beats, synths and slamming (tennis) balls, with fleeting breathers. Yeah x10 plays like LCD Soundsys
Total Film1 min read
MVP
MARK GATISS AS LES MCQUEEN Heads may no longer turn when he walks into a urinal, but the former Crème Brûlée guitarist is a standout among Royston Vasey’s more iconic inhabitants. As one of the Gents’ few wholly endearing tragicomic creations, it’s t
Total Film2 min read
Games Lorelei And The Laser Eyes
OUT NOW PC, SWITCH Five years ago, indie developer Simogo gave us the tear-streaked sugar rush of Sayonara Wild Hearts, an ‘interactive pop album’ of heartbreak songs soundtracking thrilling bursts of arcade-style action. This, then, could be conside
Total Film2 min read
Classic Soundtrack Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
When it comes to evoking feelings in film music, Jon Brion knows no fear. Speaking to Interview magazine, the US producer, songwriter and composer noted how some filmmakers dread the accusation of ‘leading the audience’ with music. But not Brion: ‘I
Total Film1 min read
2 More
OUT NOW PC, PS5, SWITCH Lone developer Billy Basso’s debut is an astonishingly assured adventure in which a tiny creature negotiates a world of danger and wonder, armed with nothing more than a series of child’s toys. Its characterful, intricate subt
Total Film1 min read
2 More
Veteran noir-heads Alain Silver and James Ursini execute a taut history of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944). Kicking off with the true-crime story that inspired James M. Cain’s source novella, the authors then explore how the moviemakers’ track
Total Film1 min read
Passport To Fame: The Diana Dors Story
Despite being endlessly compared to Marilyn Monroe during her 1950s heyday, ‘the Siren of Swindon’ was never able to rival her film success or global fame. On home soil, however, the actor born Diana Fluck was embraced as a national treasure. Huw Pra
Total Film1 min read
Return Of The Jedi: A Visual Archive
KELLY KNOX CLAYTON SANDELL TITAN There’s perhaps not too much left to uncover about the Holy Trilogy’s last gasp (J.W. Rinzler’s 2013 Making of remains definitive), but this Hutt-sized hardback offers some fresh context, tracing Jedi’s legacy from 80
Total Film1 min read
Books Michael Mann: A Contemporary Retrospective
JEAN-BAPTISTE THORET WHITE LION PUBLISHING One of Hollywood’s premier stylists, Michael Mann’s obsessively authentic features and epoch-making 80s TV series Miami Vice provide a rich bran tub of themes for film critic Thoret to theorise lavishly abou
Total Film1 min read
Rebel Rising: A Memoir
REBEL WILSON HARPERCOLLINS From formative childhood moments to celebrity encounters, the Bridesmaids/Pitch Perfect star relates her life story with an unsurprisingly high degree of candour - although this UK version redacts the widely reported allega
Total Film2 min read
Total Film buff
Film Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots. THIS MONTH BACK TO BLACK Q In Back to Black, Amy Winehouse relapses and dies upon learning that her former lover Blake Fielder-Civil is becoming a father. True or false? A classic case o
Total Film1 min read
The World Is Yours: The Story Of Scarface
GLENN KENNY HARPERCOLLINS How did Howard Hawks’ 30s gangster classic get reborn 50 years later as a violent Miami cocaine saga? With help from its director, writer Oliver Stone and star Michelle Pfeiffer, Kenny’s tome painstakingly relates how Brian
Total Film2 min read
Plaster Casts In Movies
Saoirse Ronan’s titular teen throws herself out of a moving car to exit an argument with her mum. The vivid pink cast she then wears symbolises her defiance. You can buy posters of the cast inscribed with the legend, ‘What if this is the best version
Total Film1 min read
Reel Estate
FOR SALE Constructed in 1919, this 2,700-square foot Dutch Colonialstyle home is located at 1428 N. Genesee Avenue, Los Angeles, California (or is that 1428 Elm St, Springwood, Ohio?). With its twin pillars, green-shingled facade and stairway that tu
Total Film1 min read
Hindsight Corner
ANG LEE 3D DECEMBER 2012 ‘I think 3D makes it seem more like you are together with Pi, especially the ocean part… You literally feel you are there with him. I think that really helped the movie.’ APRIL 2024 ‘3D [is] so bad… The filmmakers are bad. Th
Total Film2 min read
Flop Culture
Why it was a good idea (on paper) From Marvel alumni to mutant bears, Alex Garland’s loose adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel spliced audience appeal with arthouse ambition. A starpowered female ensemble (Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Jenn

Total Film

More Issues From Total Film