A new Star Wars adventure, a fabulous rom-com, two fine films with great actresses and a thriller with teen Jesus
The ever-reliable romantic-comedy formula gets a refreshing Gen Z spin in Finding Emily, a high-spirited love yarn set on the campus of Manchester university.
Smitten on the dancefloor by a comely lass called Emily, Owen (Spike Fearn) gets her number only to find out it’s one short.
Believing she might be “the one” he embarks on a desperate search that puts him in touch with another Emily (Australian actress Angourie Rice), an American psychology student who secretly uses him as the subject for a term project.
Breezy direction and a raft of wonderful, comic performances bring an enticing premise to life as online mania takes hold of Owen’s quest – is he a lovestruck fool or a creep? – and Emily has to face up to her deception.
A very satisfying blend of traditional romantic tropes and the campus crowd, whose addiction to the internet is turned into rom-com gold.
Star Wars fans of all stripes will warmly embrace and throughly enjoy The Mandalorian & Grogu, a high-quality movie spin-off of the terrific Mandalorian TV series (available on Disney+, alongside the entire Star Wars canon).
The action-crammed adventure sees the titular bounty hunter (who we met 46 years ago in The Empire Strikes Back) and Baby Yoda in pursuit of a high-ranking bad guy who is trying to get the Evil Empire back into power.
Energetically directed and co-written by Jon Favreau – creator of the hit TV show, still the best of all the Star Wars offshoots – the film has the old-school look and feel of the original movies, including the use of puppets and stop motion amidst all the impressive digital wizardry.
There are even nods to the old-fashioned scene transitions George Lucas used in the first Star Wars as a tribute to the ancient Flash Gordon serials that inspired him.
And for the record – the Star Wars legacy owes it all to the fans who flocked in throngs to see the first two films, often many times over. Back then these people were teenagers. Today they are called boomers.
Two superb veteran actresses headline two major new offerings at the arthouses.
The indefatigable, French-speaking Jodie Foster stars as psychiatrist-turned-sleuth Lilian Steiner in A Private Life, an intriguing Paris-based comedy-drama in which she suspects the alleged suicide of a patient is actually murder.
Also from France is The Richest Woman in the World, a fact-inspired drama about wealth, greed and manipulation headlined by the inestimable (and seemingly ageless) Isabelle Huppert.
The ultra-wealthy Marianne Farrère forms a friendly relationship with noted magazine photographer Pierre-Alain Fantin who inveigles himself so deeply into her social circle that friends and siblings begin to suspect his ulterior motives and apparent addiction to endless free cash. A really good film.
In the supernatural biblical thriller The Carpenter’s Son, Nicolas Cage (also a producer) plays the especially haggard father of teenage Jesus (Noah Jupe) who is being harassed in the scenic Grecian landscape by a teenage Satan (Isla Johnston).
Straight-faced, blood-smeared and somewhat gruesome, this passable time killer’s faith-based story and Christian imagery (crucifixions, serpents, miracles, halos, etc) proved offensive enough to the classification board of The Philippines to ban it, thus giving the film some curio cache. See it on Stan.
Oh, and for all those who love the loopiness of conspiracy theorists Bugonia has just landed on Netflix.
Starring Oscar-nominated Emma Stone as a pharmaceutical CEO and Jesse Plemons as her nutty kidnapper, it’s an enjoyably crazy ride – with a truly loony finale.
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