Home//Total Film/November 2021/In This Issue
Total Film|November 2021WELCOME TO TOTAL FILMGrab your box of Poppets cos we’re off on a nostalgia trip this issue with the delight that is Ghostbusters: Afterlife. We talked to the cast and crew on this special multi-generational project to find out how they’ve preserved the magic of the original film while breathing new (after)life into it. Elsewhere we’re celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter, saddling up with Benedict Cumberbatch, hanging out with Alicia Vikander, Kenneth Branagh, Lin-Manuel Miranda and the irrepressible Jamie Lee Curtis – and celebrating a ’90s classic, Hot Shots! (you know you love it). We’ve also been swanning around the autumn film festivals like Venice and TIFF – look out for the ‘Festival Special’ flash throughout! Right, I’m off to find my Benetton logo sweater, scrunch-dry my hair and pop my Grolsch…1 min
Total Film|November 2021DialogueEMAIL totalfilm@futurenet.com WRITE Total Film, 1-10 Praed Mews, London W21QY (postal addresses will be used for the sole purpose of sending out prizes) gamesradar.com/totalfilm twitter.com/totalfilm facebook.com/totalfilm Drop us a line totalfilm@futurenet.comSTAR LETTER★ I’d like to confirm that from extensive observations with my bedroom telescope, I unsurprisingly never actually found the edge of the universe. I did, however, notice that the people at No.5 are missing a ridge tile. However, those super-nerds at Marvel have now established beyond all reasonable doubt that there is a multiverse out there. I’m not sure if they’re basing this on their investigations of the tell-tale concepts of cosmic inflation and quantum physics... or perhaps more likely, that they’ve discovered a new star constellation which they’re calling ‘The Cash Cow’, which now permits endless moneyspinning variations…5 min
Total Film|November 2021GAME OF DEATHThough popular enough to have grossed over $1bn across six entries, the recent run of live-action Resident Evil movies scarcely resembled the cherished survival-horror videogames they were based on. The same will not be true of Johannes Roberts’ Resi, which is returning to the source. “We treated Resident Evil like we were adapting a novel,” says the writer/director, who’s long been “obsessed” with the games.Specifically, Roberts is drawing from the 2002 remake of Resident Evil and 2019’s ground-up reimagining of Resident Evil 2, combining characters, stories and settings into a single tale set over one long night in a zombie-infested Raccoon City. While Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen) and Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper) explore the sinister Spencer Mansion, Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) and Leon S. Kennedy (Avan…2 min
Total Film|November 2021YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH JASON ISAACSAre you talkin’ to me?I’m thrilled because I usually walk around talking to myself. I sometimes pretend I’m having a conversation with someone on bluetooth, but in fact I’m just doing that George Costanza thing of rehearsing things I wish I’d said to people that I’m never going to see again.Do you have an off switch?It depends who you ask. I’m sure my wife would say I never shut up. There are whole months, probably years, of my life when I don’t remember having slept. Actually, on set I’m a f*cking idiot. I’m normally making stupid jokes, keeping my body loose. It’s amazing how much everyone’s exhaustion evaporates when I start playing The Beach Boys.Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who…4 min
Total Film|November 2021MAKING WAVESIt’s a classic coming-of-age story,” Reggie Yates says of Pirates, the TV presenter, actor and documentary-maker’s first feature film as a director. “We’ve all grown up watching those sorts of stories but I’ve just never seen one based in London with a UK garage soundtrack and three young boys of colour.”Billed as “the world’s shortest road movie”, the comedy follows best mates and aspiring musicians Cappo (Elliot Edusah), Two Tonne (Jordan Peters) and Kidda (Reda Elazouar), who are trying to make a name for themselves on pirate radio. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve 1999 as they take an eventful trip through London in a tiny Peugeot, desperate to get into the ultimate millennium party. Cue heaps of ’90s nostalgia, some banging old-school tracks and colourful cameos from…2 min
Total Film|November 2021HALL PASSAs the daughter of legendary director Sir Peter, Rebecca Hall had always dismissed her lensing ambitions as an ‘arrogant’ pipe dream. But when she reached what she calls a ‘reckoning’ during her twenties as she explored her racial heritage, she was introduced to Nella Larson’s 1929 novella about two light-skinned Black women who choose different paths in how they present themselves to the world. While one lives in Harlem with her Black family, the other passes as white, her true heritage hidden from even her racist husband.“The book came to me at a point of my life where I was done not talking about my African-American heritage, because it had honestly been quite obscured from me,” she recalls. “I began to understand that what my grandfather must have done was…2 min
Total Film|November 2021FEST PRACTICEENCOUNTERThe second feature from Beast director Michael Pearce sees Riz Ahmed in an intriguing sci-fi-tinged thriller. Ahmed’s former marine Malik douses himself with bug spray to ward off the ‘non-terrestrial micro-organisms’ that have stealthily found a home on Earth. Collecting his estranged kids for a cross-country journey, he explains: “This ain’t a road trip, it’s a rescue.” It’s a gripping premise, and an impressive turn from Ahmed maximises the tension. Some later plot developments might go too far for some, but the chemistry between Ahmed and his onscreen sons make this a trip worth taking.TRUE THINGSBritish director Harry Wootliff follows her IVF drama Only You with another authentic tale of the male-female dynamic. Adapted from the book True Things About Me by Deborah Kay Davies, Ruth Wilson plays Kate, an…4 min
Total Film|November 2021ORIGIN STORYBeing adopted from another country is a difficult, emotional process. So imagine the trauma when, through no fault of your own, your new country turns on you, leaving you facing deportation. It’s a nightmarish scenario found at the core of Justin Chon’s new movie Blue Bayou. “I started to snoop around about five years ago… and realised no one’s talking about this!” the actor/director tells Teasers over coffee during the Cannes Film Festival.Chon’s third feature, following Gook and Ms. Purple, Blue Bayou casts him as tattoo artist Antonio, who was adopted at the age of three from Korea by a Louisiana couple, now deceased. He’s lived in the States for over 30 years, and is married to physical therapist Kathy (Alicia Vikander), but an altercation with police draws the hostile…2 min
Total Film|November 2021HALLE BERRYThe first and (still) only woman of colour to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress, Halle Berry’s been a Bond woman, a superhero (or two) and is about to take on her biggest role yet, as the director and star of MMA drama Bruised. “The last thing I wanted was for all of that work to mistakenly fall in the hands of a visionary that didn’t quite see it how I saw it.”How easy, or indeed difficult, did you find the transition from acting to directing with Bruised?I’ll tell you this – I was scared sh*tless! If you’re not having some sense of worry, then I don’t think you really care about doing your best. The easiest part was, I think, working with actors, because being an actor,…4 min
Total Film|November 2021WE GOT ONE!What makes a Ghostbusters ghost? Jason Reitman explains“The trickiest thing is to really figure out the classification of ghosts. If you look at the original, you have the library ghost, which is a floating humanoid ghost, and then you have Slimer, who they describe as a free-floating vapour. He’s a spuddy kind of ghost, and something that you could imagine being originally designed out of clay. There are Terror Dogs, that were reptilian ghosts. You have Gozer, who’s a god. You have the taxi cab ghost, who was a zombie. And then you have the ghost who comes up in the subway, which is this neon batwing ghost, right? And then you have the screaming ones that come out of the building.And obviously the Marshmallow Man.“So if you looked at…1 min
Total Film|November 2021HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE IN NUMBERS$1mReported cost of rights to the first book#2The film’s peak on the worldwide and UK all-time box-office chartsDaniel Radcliffe’s age when filming commenced11£1.007bnTOTAL BOX-OFFICE GROSS TO DATE (INCLUDING RE-RELEASES)81%The film’s Rotten Tomatoes score173length in minutes of an extended cut that Columbus test-screened (the final film came in at 162 mins)8FT 6INHagrid’s height as portrayed on screen (shorter than he is in the books)3 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONSBAFTA NOMINATIONS 76,000visitors per day to The Making Of Harry Potter studio tour at peak times…1 min
Total Film|November 2021A GRADEWhen Alicia Vikander first started out, people would often assume that she was British. The Swedish actress had appeared in several period dramas and her flawless English accent was so convincing that she had everyone fooled. “I played a few royals,” she laughs over Zoom. “They thought I was from a very high-class background.”Since then, she’s enjoyed a diverse and eclectic career, but her own working-class roots have remained largely untapped in her films. “I’ve wanted to tell those stories but people don’t offer me those roles.” Until now that is. In Blue Bayou, Vikander plays Kathy, the pregnant wife of Antonio (Justin Chon, who also writes and directs), a Korean-born adoptee facing deportation from the US due to a legal loophole even though he was brought there when he…8 min
Total Film|November 2021RIDE WITH THE DEVILIt’s been a dozen years since Jane Campion last directed a feature film, the sensuous John Keats biopic Bright Star. Since then, she created and oversaw two seasons of the brilliant Kiwi murder-mystery Top Of The Lake, but even she began to “reminisce” about making another film. “Two hours… I think it’s such a beautiful length to communicate something,” she says. “There’s such a sort of discipline and rigour to it. So I yearned for the idea of doing something carefully and beautifully again.”It’s day one of the Venice Film Festival, and the silverhaired Campion is sitting with Total Film on the sun-drenched Excelsior Hotel terrace. By the eleventh day, she will be back on the Lido to claim the Silver Lion for Best Director for The Power Of The…8 min
Total Film|November 2021enter sandwormDUNE 12AFILMOUT 21 OCTOBER CINEMASThis is only the beginning,” remarks Zendaya’s desert warrior Chani towards the end of Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s colossal 1965 sci-fi novel Dune. Those words alone should thrill fans, for Villeneuve wisely does not try to cram all of Herbert’s hefty tome into his two-and-a-half-hour running time – a lesson clearly learned from David Lynch’s much-maligned 1984 effort. Given the care and attention paid to setting up this intergalactic adventure, there’s no need to rush.Like his last two movies, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve’s third sci-fi in a row is jaw-dropping in its invention and boldness. While the film will play on small screens via Warner’s HBO Max streaming channel in some territories, there can be no doubt, you’ll be doing yourself a…4 min
Total Film|November 2021dangerous gameTHE CARD COUNTER TBCFILMOUT 5 NOVEMBER CINEMASPaul Schrader follows 2017’s Oscar-nommed First Reformed with a grounded tale of a guilt-ridden gambler. Oscar Isaac stars as William Tell, an ex-con who now makes a modest living at the blackjack tables in Middle America casinos. Able to count cards, Tell bets low, winning just enough to keep the casino bosses off his back. Tiffany Haddish co-stars as La Linda, a smooth operator who wants Tell in the big leagues.All the trappings are in place for a card-sharp face-off, but Schrader’s film soon reveals its true hand: this is no gambling movie. Tell was in the military, at Abu Ghraib, where horrifying torture of prisoners took place. He took the fall, spending eight years in jail, and has since lived a monastic life,…3 min
Total Film|November 2021myers’ marketHALLOWEEN KILLS TBCFILMOUT 15 OCTOBER CINEMASThere are multiple ways in which Halloween Kills is boxed in. For one, it has to plausibly all take place on the same night as its 2018 predecessor. It also has to explain how a gravely injured, ageing serial killer could survive being trapped in a flaming basem*nt. And it needs to leave enough unresolved to justify its already-announced sequel.So, given those constraints, it’s a wise choice on the part of director David Gordon Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Scott Teems to barely move the narrative forward at all. Where the previous Halloween explored how the trauma of the original ’78 massacre affected Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), this toggles the action back and forth to see how the fallout manifested across the entire…2 min
Total Film|November 2021hard returnBULL 18FILMOUT 5 NOVEMBER CINEMASLong story,” says Bull (Neil Maskell) when asked where he’s been. The same might be true of Paul Andrew Williams, one of the noughties’ most interesting independent British filmmakers. Now, after a decade spent largely directing prestige TV, he’s back to his genre roots, with a vengeance.In common with its aptly named anti-hero, Bull is lean and mean. Reminiscent of Dead Man’s Shoes and Oldboy, but with an uncompromisingly hard edge of its own, it’s Williams’ most startling work since his 2006 debut London To Brighton.Why has Bull returned after a decade to slash his way through his old gang, en route to big boss Norm (David Hayman)? And why doesn’t anybody believe he’s back? Williams juggles the then and now in a disorientating, non-linear structure…3 min
Total Film|November 2021young againTHE OUTSIDERS: THE COMPLETE NOVEL 12FILMSEXTRAS1983 OUT 15 OCT CINEMAS 8 NOV DVD, BD, 4K UHD, DIGITAL HD EXTRAS Original Cut, Commentaries, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Intro, MemorabiliaMany great rite-of-passage movies – American Graffiti, Dazed And Confused – were made by directors reliving their youth. But Francis Ford Coppola was in his twenties in 1961, the year The Outsiders, a mythic, stylised take on growing up, takes place.Admittedly, author S.E. Hinton was a teen when she published her classic novel about lower-class ‘Greasers’ battling the snobbish ‘Socs.’ Yet Coppola accentuates its sincerity and romanticism with honeyed light and panoramic framing. It’s earthier than Coppola’s subsequent Hinton adap Rumble Fish, but still vibrantly cinematic.The Complete Novel is Coppola’s recut, trimming certain scenes but adding many others, expanding the lean ’83 theatrical release…2 min
Total Film|November 2021sting of the pastPATH OF RESISTANCEIt’s 1962, and naïve young hairdresser Vivien Epstein (newcomer Aggi O’Casey) has followed her boyfriend Jack (Tom Varey, No Offence) from Manchester down to London. She finds Jack engaged in undercover work with the 62 Group: Jewish street fighters forcefully resisting the rise of British fascism. Horrified by the growth of far-right extremism less than two decades after the end of the war, she decides to join him. “Vivien turns out to be really good at it,” reveals O’Casey. “She cares so much about the cause, she’s a good actor and, because she’s a woman in a violent, male sphere, she is underestimated and can slip through the cracks.”MARSAN MISSIONAlongside O’Casey and Varey are Rory Kinnear as real-life National Socialist Movement leader Colin Jordan, Rita Tushingham as Vivien’s…3 min
Total Film|November 2021EXTRAS*****JAMES BOND BINGOBOARD GAME OUT 28 OCTOBERGoldeneyes down for a full house: this spin on the classic ball-drawing/ number-marking/lung-busting game features 64 characters (including allies, enemies and six James Bonds), plus all your favourite cars, gadgets and deathtrap-laden beauty spots. No free Martini (it’s a family product) but there is a trivia-stuffed booklet. Live and let buy at laurenceking.com.HARRY POTTER ACTIVITY BOOKSBOOKS OUT NOWOK, kids – wands down, needles up. And when you’ve whipped up an Unbreakable Vow Jumper or Golden Snitch Baby Blanket (from Lee Sartori’s Harry Potter Crochet Wizardry), please turn to Tanis Gray’s Harry Potter Knitting Magic, a second volume of Hogwarts-themed patterns, now with added Fantastic Beasts. And for extra credit, please paint and pen your way through Harry Potter Watercolour Magic and one of the…1 min
Total Film|November 2021another roundDEATHLOOPGAMEOUT NOW | PC, PS5Eight targets in one day? Colt has a busier schedule than your average hitman, and his kill list is further complicated by one of his marks being an assassin, too. But he has one distinct advantage: he’s experienced the last 24 hours several times over.Yes, Arkane’s FPS is yet another game equipped with the latest must-have feature: a time loop. The knowledge that a single slip-up resets the day lends extra pressure to the later hunts. When you’re down to one target, it’s almost unbearably tense, as the only reloading you’ll do is when you’re out of ammo.It should take a good few attempts to even get near to closing the loop. Yet there’s a constant sense of momentum, each go-around yielding discoveries – you might…2 min
Total Film|November 2021SUITS IN MOVIES01 DR. NOWould any list be complete without Mr. Bond, who has looked immaculate for 60 years? Of course not. But we’ll go back to the start and opt for Sean Connery at the baccarat table in Dr. No, dressed by Anthony Sinclair in a midnight-blue dinner suit.02 NORTH BY NORTHWESTDashing and debonair, Cary Grant always wore the hell out of a suit, and never more so than his plaid number in Hitchco*ck’s action-adventure classic. Grey with a blue weave, it was a shame to dirty it in the famous crop-duster scene.03 PULP FICTIONTarantino made the black suit, white shirt and thin black tie combo look cool AF in Reservoir Dogs, then doubled down in Pulp Fiction. Hitmen Jules and Vince (Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta) are iconic – even…2 min
Total Film|November 2021HOT SHOTS!There are plenty of movie spoofs out there, but few have had the same impact on pop-culture as those co-created by Jim Abrahams. Together with siblings David and Jerry Zucker, these friends-turned-filmmakers (collectively known as ZAZ) brought us 1980’s Airplane! – a movie that skewered the comedy genre and forever changed the lives of people named Shirley. Loaded with innuendo and an irresistible mix of the ridiculous and the deadpan, the film’s mile-a-minute humour quickly became the trio’s calling-card feature. However, as the ‘90s approached, they were itching to go solo – and while David found similar screwball success with 1984’s The Naked Gun and Jerry garnered Oscar nods with 1990’s supernatural comedy Ghost, Abrahams was finding it trickier to zero in on a film that best encapsulated his own…8 min
Total Film|November 2021KEY MOVIESONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA1984“The whole thing was larger than life, and magical, really magical,” said Connelly of going to Italy, aged 11, to appear in Sergio Leone’s sprawling gangster saga.LABYRINTH1986Connelly and an army of puppets do everything in their power (“What power?” “The power of hoodoo”) to distract attention from David Bowie’s crotch in this beloved musical fantasy.WAKING THE DEAD2000“It was a film I really campaigned for… I read the whole f*cking script auditioning for it – twice!” says Connelly of the romantic tragedy she credits with transforming her career.REQUIEM FOR A DREAM2000Connelly’s astonishingly raw performance keeps you hoping for a redemption that Darren Aronofsky’s visceral, harrowing portrait of drug addiction refuses to provide.ARROW, WARNER BROS, DISNEY, ENTERTAINMENT, PARAMOUNT, 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS, SONY, UNIVERSAL, LIONSGATE…1 min
Total Film|November 202160 Second ScreenplayFADE IN:EXT. SOUTH AMERICA, 16TH CENTURY Conquistadors led by non-CG EDGAR RAMIREZ searching for a magic healing tree are cursed by a tribe to live forever. Which is probably what they wanted anyway. Later, in 1916, EMILY BLUNT meets some male chauvinist explorers.EMILY BLUNTHello, can I have your mysterious arrowhead? It should lead me to a magic tree.MALE CHAUVINIST EXPLORERSNo, we won’t help! It will ruin our reputation. Women don’t know how to do science.EMILY BLUNTHey, I’m just as respectable as you. So I’ll steal the arrowhead instead. Yoink.EXT. AMAZON RIVERTerrible tour guide-slash-professional dad-joker DWAYNE JOHNSON goes about his daily routine: putting everyone off the real-life Disney ride on which the film is based.EMILY BLUNTI’m looking for someone to take me to a deadly location based on a myth.DWAYNE JOHNSONHa!…3 min
Total Film|November 2021CALL SHEETMATT MAYTUMDEPUTY EDITORMy Zoom interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda had already run over time when his laptop battery died, but he still called back to wrap up once he found a charger.JAMES MOTTRAMCONTRIBUTING EDITORI laid on an outdoor ottoman in Venice with the always-fun Jamie Lee Curtis for our interview. Talk about a relaxed chat!JANE CROWTHEREDITOR-IN-CHIEFYes, Kenneth Branagh is into his Shakespeare, but he’s also massively into his footie. He signed off our chat shouting ‘Come on, you Spurs!’ in enthusiastic fashion.…1 min
Total Film|November 2021BACK ONLINEIn August 2019, Warner Bros announced Lana Wachowski would be directing and co-writing a fourth Matrix movie. “Many of the ideas Lilly and I explored 20 years ago about our reality are even more relevant now,” she said. “I’m very happy to have these characters back in my life.”Just how Neo and Trinity, who both died in trilogy-closer Revolutions, are back in The Matrix Resurrections we don’t yet know. But Lana did explain, in September 2021, as the gobsmacking trailer dropped, why she chose to revive them – to help her deal with her parents’ deaths. “I couldn’t have Mum and Dad… yet suddenly I had Neo and Trinity,” she said. “It was immediately comforting.”Also comforting for fans is that the trailer and an early teaser gimmick make it clear…5 min
Total Film|November 2021LITTLE SAINT NICKThis is not your parent’s Christmas elf movie!” laughs Gil Kenan, only half-joking. “We had a set of rules on set: no red and green touching. No stripes. No bells on toes. And definitely no big buttons…” After spending most of his career celebrating Halloween with Monster House, City Of Ember and Poltergeist, Kenan decided to switch holidays after reading Matt Haig’s bestselling children’s novel about the origins of Santa Claus.“I just loved the character, and I loved the fact that there was an actual adventure at the centre of the whole story,” says Kenan. “But Matt Haig’s real masterstroke is in not holding back from the full weight of human emotior – this sense of darkness that’s there as a counterpoint to the light and the whimsy and the…2 min
Total Film|November 2021JORDAN PETERSIt was very exciting!” Jordan Peters beams as he talks about playing one of the leads in Pirates, a new comedy by Reggie Yates. After parts in Gangs Of London and Blue Story, the 25-year-old Londoner is ready to take centre stage. Coming up, he’ll also appear in Band Of Brothers companion piece Masters Of The Air, and literary adaptation Everything I Know About Love.What was it like working with Yates?He was just so collaborative throughout the whole process. Before we started shooting, he took me and the two other boys [Elliot Edusah and Reda Elazouar] to Suffolk just so we could have a bonding session.His energy is infectious. He’s so funny. I didn’t realise how funny he was! He’s like a mentor to me now.How did you tap into…2 min
Total Film|November 2021SOUND BYTES“He used to [think women belonged in the kitchen]. Until I kicked his butt.”Michelle Yeoh taught Jackie Chan a lesson.$10,000The estimated cost of Sylvester Stallone’s Versace-designed Judge Dredd costume at an upcoming auction of Stallone movie memorabilia.$24,263,000The total medical costs of injuries sustained by the Jackass gang over the last 20 years.“EVERYBODY IS SUPER SEXY IN SLOW MOTION.”Jessica Chastain reacts to her viral Venice red-carpet moment with Oscar Isaac.“NO MORE STOCK PHOTOS FOR THIS GUY.”Former stock-photo model turned superhero Simu Liu after Shang-Chi’s record-breaking US box office.“I just nerded out. I was like, here are the movies I think you should do! Galactus, Storm and Scott Summers team-up movie!”Before The Marvels, Nia DaCosta wanted to make an X-Men movie.“SOME PEOPLE HAVE ACTUALLY CALLED ME THE WORLD’S GREATEST ARCHER.”Kate Bishop (Hailee…1 min
Total Film|November 2021HANDMADE TAILWhen you put a camera in front of something real, magic happens,” says executive producer Sarah Cox. “There’s a depth to it, the shadows seem to be so much more three-dimensional, but you also see things that you didn’t plan for.”While the meticulous planning on Robin Robin started almost seven years ago, Aardman’s latest, most ambitious animated short took on a life of its own during production – with every character, prop and background element designed like handmade Christmas decorations, imperfections and all.“Everything has a wonk to it,” laughs Simon Farrell, the film’s art director. “We’ve tried to use real materials to keep them in their purest form, so we’ve used a lot of fabrics with fluffy fibres, like needlefelt for the puppets and floristry paper for all the leaves.…2 min
Total Film|November 2021MYTH MAKERIt could have been a disaster comedy if it didn’t work,” reflects writer/director Valdimar Jóhannsson, talking about his startling and surreal debut Lamb. The sensation of the recent Cannes Film Festival, this tale of loss and parenthood co-written by Valdimar with the famed poet, novelist and fellow Icelander Sjón was met with enthusiastic reviews along the lines of “batsh*t crazy” for its unique and off-kilter premise.“We really wanted to create a film we had not seen but really wanted to see,” comments Valdimar, who worked with Sjón for years crafting the story. For those who just want to take the plunge, stop reading now, as Lamb is difficult to discuss without spoilers. Still here? OK. Set on a remote sheep farm, the story follows childless couple María and Ingvar (Noomi…2 min
Total Film|November 2021SPIRITUAL REAWAKENINGLong before Jason Reitman was crowned king of the noughties comedy-drama, he was the world’s first Ghostbusters fan. The son of director Ivan Reitman, who called the shots on both Ghostbusters and its ’89 sequel, seven-year-old Reitman Jr. was bewitched by the work-in-progress cuts of his father’s latest film featuring four funnymen running around New York in boiler suits, catching ghosts with the unlicensed nuclear accelerators strapped to their backs. To say the film left a lasting impression would be an understatement the size of a rampaging Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.“It was a movie that I thought about more than anything, for years,” Reitman says over Zoom, speaking to TF while tousling a mop of unruly hair that could handily be described as Egon-esque. Several of Reitman’s earliest memories are from…17 min
Total Film|November 2021UP RISEThe last time TF sat down with Lin-Manuel Miranda – ahead of the 2018 release of Mary Poppins Returns – he professed to be sleep deprived on account of his then three-and-a-half-year-old and four-month-old children keeping him awake at all hours. Not that we were able to tell. Hanging with Miranda is like mainlining sunshine intravenously, such is his infectiously upbeat aura. So, when we catch up again in August 2021, the obvious place to start our chat is by asking if he’s getting any more kip these days. “I wish I could say that I’m very well rested,” he laughs. “But now the issue is that they’re mobile. They both charged into the room to sleep in our bed at around three in the morning, and I said, ‘I…9 min
Total Film|November 2021THE END OF THE AffairI really need you both to say that you’re having a horrible time without me!” says Odessa Young. “I want to hear how bad the weather is.” The Australian actress is addressing Josh O’Connor and Eva Husson, her co-star and director respectively on Mothering Sunday, a sexy new English period drama that blends all the poignancy of a Merchant Ivory piece with the sizzle of Bridgerton. “It’s scorching hot,” reports Husson. “Josh is sweating. He had pancakes under his armpits!”Even in pandemic times, this counts for a strange encounter. Husson, the French filmmaker behind teen film Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story (2015) and Kurdish war film Girls Of The Sun, is wearing an orange sun dress and is perched alongside Total Film on a cream sofa in a swish…8 min
Total Film|November 2021KENNETH BRANAGH“IMAGINING MY CAREER WASN’T THE HARD PART. THE IDEA THAT YOU COULD EVER DO IT – THAT SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE”I’m basically a forward-looking kind of guy,” shrugs Sir Kenneth Branagh when we catch up with him in LA in early September as he shuttles between the Telluride Film Festival and TIFF. “I don’t really look back. I’m not somebody who has lots of things on the mantelpiece and lots of mementos and stuff...” He taps his temple. “I have them in here.”The memories trapped in that head of his have been poured out in the last 18 months, though, as Branagh has recalled his childhood in Northern Ireland, specifically in the late summer of 1969 when his idyllic existence was shattered by sectarian unrest, for a self-reflective film titled after his…19 min
Total Film|November 2021live and let byeNO TIME TO DIE 12AFILMOUT NOW CINEMASOver an agonisingly protracted 18-month postponement, with the release date buffeted farther into the future at least three times, the title of the much-anticipated film formerly known as Bond 25 has taken on a grim irony.No Time To Die finally arrives six years after Daniel Craig’s last Bond adventure, Spectre (the second-biggest gap between films since the series began in 1962, eclipsed only by the hiatus between Licence To Kill and GoldenEye). This being the swansong for Daniel Craig’s take on the character, it was always going to be laden with expectation, something that the repeated Covid delays and its appointment as the potential saviour of cinema have only intensified.After such a long wait, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck…4 min
Total Film|November 2021blaze of goryTHE HARDER THEY FALL TBCFILMOUT 22 OCTOBER CINEMAS 3 NOVEMBER NETFLIXIt’s estimated that a quarter of cowboys were Black, but you’d never know it from Hollywood westerns, which so whitewashed American history that Mel Brooks found provocative humour in having a Black man holding the reins in 1974’s Blazing Saddles. Like Mario Van Peebles’ 1993 oater Posse, this debut by Jeymes Samuel looks to change things up and have a blast doing it, with its starry Black cast trading shots in thrilling sequences of stylised violence set to quality music.Many of the larger-than-life characters in The Harder They Fall are historical figures. But Samuel and his co-writer Boaz Yakin (Now You See Me, 2012’s Safe) aren’t past playing fast and loose with history themselves, albeit in less harmful ways. So…2 min
Total Film|November 2021sheet happensTHE FRENCH DISPATCH TBCFILMOUT 22 OCTOBER CINEMASWes Anderson’s latest, delayed a year by the pandemic, finally arrives in some style. The French Dispatch is a lovingly crafted tribute to old-school journalism; to an era long before tweets and ‘likes’ became a thing.The fictional French town of Ennuisur-Blasé plays host to the offices of the titular supplement, a satellite of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper. Dedicated to exploring politics, art and human-interest stories, the outfit is ably run by one Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray).The (very) eclectic content of this imagined publication allows Anderson to go off-script, jettisoning the usual feature-length narrative to replace it with an anthology-style approach. Taking the reader/viewer through the magazine, the three main ‘articles’ unspool as short films, in a whirlwind of cuts, cameos and…2 min
Total Film|November 2021killer upgradesTHE CAT O’ NINE TALES / DEEP RED 15/18FILMSEXTRAS1971/75, OUT NOW/25 OCTOBER 4K UHD EXTRAS Commentaries, Interviews, Alternate cut, Visual essay ( Deep Red); Original ending ( Cat…); Galleries, Booklet, Poster, Art cardsDario Argento didn’t invent the giallo, but he definitely popularised the Italy murder-mystery sub-genre with his 1970 feature debut The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. A box-office hit, the film kick-started a glut of imitators, with around 30 gialli hitting Italian cinemas in 1971 alone – including Argento’s sophom*ore feature, The Cat O’ Nine Tails.Despite several impressive setpieces, the film fails to recapture the energy and verve of Argento’s debut. Even the filmmaker himself considered it a disappointment, claiming it was “too American”. That said, The Cat O’ Nine Tales is far from a dud; merely a run-of-the-mill…3 min
Total Film|November 2021breaking pointA A volcano!” cries Jessica Chastain, summing up the emotional torrent that pours forth in Scenes From A Marriage, a new five-part remake of Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 series about a husband and wife rocked by infidelity. Written and directed by Hagai Levi (The Affair), it sees Chastain and co-star Oscar Isaac play Mira and Jonathan, a contemporary couple enduring the painful process of separation.How familiar were you with Bergman’s series?Super familiar. I worked with [original star] Liv Ullmann on Miss Julie [2014]. I read all of her books, talked to her a lot about Bergman and watched their movies. Once on the Tree Of Life set, in the middle of a take, Terry [Malick] goes [to DoP Emmanuel Lubezki], “Chivo, she looks like a young Liv Ullmann!” I told this…3 min
Total Film|November 2021dirty harryWhen Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callahan arrives on screen in 1971’s Dirty Harry, he gets straight to work: no introduction, no introspection. Lalo Schifrin gave Harry’s film a hugely influential, insistent score to match. Brisk and brimming with immersive detail, Schifrin’s score drags you swiftly into director Don Siegel’s San Francisco and ushers you through it like Eastwood’s Dirty dick, always on the go.Of course, Schifrin had form with laconic stars and driving music. Born in Buenos Aires, he was a classical and jazz musician before LA called. His indelible ’60s screen work ranged wide, from TV’s Mission: Impossible to Eastwood oater Coogan’s Bluff and Steve McQueen’s Bullitt. On all fronts, Schifrin applied his jazz chops to fertile ends: tense, experimental, cool.For Dirty Harry, he merged and upgraded each of these…2 min
Total Film|November 2021two moreBONFIRE PEAKSOUT NOW | PC, PS4/5, SWITCH A man carries boxes of his possessions to burn them in this autumnal Sokoban-style puzzle game about the struggle to gain closure. Each challenge is masterfully constructed, subtly teaching you new techniques, while a clever overworld structure lets less experienced (or patient) players skip the trickiest challenges en route to the mountain’s snowy pinnacle.LAKEOUT NOW | PC, PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE/SERIES Set in the mid-’80s, this gentle slice-of-life drama tells the story of Meredith, who takes a hiatus from her big-city job to deliver mail in her picturesque rural hometown. It’s a languidly paced game where very little happens, but as in Death Stranding (albeit with significantly lower stakes) the routine itself is pleasantly relaxing.BETHESDA, SUPERBROTHERS, PINE SCENTED SOFTWARE, SQUARE ENIX, NINTENDO, DRAKNEK…1 min
Total Film|November 2021IS IT BOLLOCKS?THIS MONTH JUNGLE CRUISEQ Emily Blunt’s botanist is in search of the all-healing tree of life in the Amazon. Possible plant or garden mulch?A JAMES WONG ETHNOBOTANIST@BOTANYGEEKIn my experience researching traditional medicine in Ecuador, there are plants that are surrounded by all sorts of colourful mythology. However, these tend to be beliefs about everyday plants like corn, not legends of mythical plants with magical powers. The vast majority of medicinal plants are usually common weeds in people’s immediate vicinity.It is totally possible that there are astounding species out there yet to be recorded but statistically it’s very unlikely to be a medicinal flower. That’s because the botanical world doesn’t produce biologically active compounds for our benefit, but its own. These active ingredients are usually defence compounds like toxins, which are…1 min
Total Film|November 2021JEAN-PAUL BELMONDOGrief’s stupid,” muttered Jean-Paul Belmondo’s hood Michel Poiccard in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960), the film that brought the French New Wave to international attention. But such was the impact of Belmondo on cinema and culture, there was no stemming the tears when the charismatic French star died on 6 September, aged 88.Born in Paris to a sculptor father and a painter mother, Belmondo had a brief spell as an amateur boxer before studying drama at the Paris Conservatory. A stage actor, he graduated to small roles for directors Marcel Carne (Les Trickers, 1958) and Claude Chabrol (À Double Tour, 1959) before Godard made him the face of the Nouvelle Vague, his sharp-suited car thief-turned-cop killer mimicking Bogart as he sucks on a Gauloise. Five years later, Belmondo reteamed with Godard…1 min
Total Film|November 2021DANCES WITH WOLVES’ BUFFALO HUNTAs John Barry’s epic score soars, a herd of 3,500 buffalo thunder over the curves of the South Dakota wilderness, dust spiralling and bodies jostling. Civil War soldier John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) and a group of 24 Lakota Sioux Native Americans race behind, the chase so exhilarating that Dunbar literally loses his hat. Over the next four minutes, the men take out several of the animals with gunshots and arrows – enough food to feed the tribe through the harsh winter to come…Though only four minutes long, the scene epitomised Costner’s (directing, producing and starring) intention with his film – to celebrate the American frontier in all its primeval glory and to hat-tip great westerns, despite critics coining his revisionist opus ‘Kevin’s Gate’ after Michael Cimino’s similarly epic, studio-sinking ode…2 min
Total Film|November 2021THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL01 SNOW TIME TO DIEAfter a confession-box murder, Willem Dafoe’s assassin Jopling prepares to flee by ski… The shot’s a nod to George Lazenby’s James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, confirms director Wes Anderson, who wanted to do “the snowglobe version” of 007. But how do you make Bond Anderson-esque?02 SMALL WONDERSDafoe hurtles down the slope… except, says Anderson, “Willem Dafoe didn’t spend a lot of time on skis for this movie.” Anderson didn’t have Bond-level money; besides, he liked the charm of the old-fashioned. Duly, he used miniatures and stop-mo animation for the chase: this Dafoe stands about 3-4in tall.03 SPEED CHASERSRalph Fiennes’ concierge Gustave and Tony Revolori’s bellhop Zero pursue Jopling on bobsled… Prep for the sequence involved a soundstage with toy trees and white paper;…2 min
Total Film|November 2021TOTAL FILM WINGMANDEAR WINGMANThis just isn’t on! I used to enjoy a once-a-month Saturday morning ritual: lying in bed with a cuppa and a long read through the latest crisp, fresh TF. However, this has now been desecrated after going downstairs to make said cuppa, only to return to find my wife reading the mag. The matter has been compounded by her regular interjections (“Oh, that looks good”; “I’d like to see that”); I’m left either trying to guess which delights she’s referring to, offering to swap for Good Housekeeping, or myopically peering over her shoulder. Any thoughts on restoring balance in my life?TONY M, VIA EMAILWINGMAN SAYS...There’s an easy solution here that will give you your mag back, soothe marital tensions and make that Saturday cuppa taste better than ever: simply…1 min
Total Film|November 2021OWEN WILSONWhen Owen Wilson was shooting Loki, he worried that audiences wouldn’t find his talky scenes with Tom Hiddleston sufficiently “compelling”. As if. Over 25-ish years, Wilson has established himself as a captivating talker, the kind you lean in and listen to as if his every line is a variant on “Just give in to the power of the tea.”If this makes his casting as a TV presenter with a “soothing whisper” in director Brit McAdams’ Paint seem especially on-brand, rest assured: other opportunities to be soothed also await. After Loki, Wilson returns to superhero turf for Secret Headquarters, about a kid who realises his dad might have an alter-ego. Although his role remains hush-hush, Wilson’s spectral tenor will surely benefit director Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion makeover. Before then, Wilson will…2 min
Total Film|November 2021BEAST WITHINAny new film by Guillermo del Toro is always an event. But when it’s his first film in four years – and when his last movie, The Shape Of Water, bagged four Oscars, including Best Film and Best Director – then it’s… well, an even bigger event. As in, huge.Nightmare Alley promises to be something of a change of direction for del Toro. Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, it’s a horrornoir set in and around a 1940s carnival populated by grifters, charlatans and femme fatales. Manipulative carny Stanton ‘Stan’ Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a nightclub mind reader, is its protagonist, hooking up with dangerous psychiatrist Dr. Lillith Ritter (Cate Blanchett). No spoilers here as to what they get up to, though we will repeat what del Toro is willing…2 min
Total Film|November 2021BULLET TIMEOld Henry is the sort of gloriously hyper-masculine film where you can smell the gunpowder and leather. For director Potsy Ponciroli, it was an opportunity to make the sort of western he had grown up loving, and judging by the acclaim it received following its Venice Film Festival premiere, he was not the only one feeling warm nostalgia for the genre. “Venice was a blast!” Ponciroli tells Teasers. “The premiere night was incredible, walking the red carpet and seeing how the crowd reacted to an old-school western was great. We left just glowing.”Ponciroli’s film stars Tim Blake Nelson as the eponymous Henry, living in isolation on a farm with his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) and trying to avoid any trouble. Their lives are thrown into disarray when an injured man…2 min
Total Film|November 2021HOUSE OF FUNEncanto directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush (Zootropolis) always knew that they wanted to make a musical. “There was this idea… many of us have big, big extended families that we had never seen represented in a Disney film.” Soon, an ideal real-world setting became evident: Colombia. “It sits as this crossroads of Latin America, where naturally there’s European, Indigenous and African influence,” adds Bush (also co-writer). “It felt like a real, natural fit.”FAMILY FORTUNEThe extended Madrigal family lives in a multigenerational house. Not only does the house possess magical properties, but each family member has a unique power too, from healing to super-strength. “I think as soon as we landed on this idea of being inspired by magical realism where the magic’s not arbitrary, where it’s actually tied to…3 min
Total Film|November 2021CHILD’S playIt just popped into my mind – two kids playing with each other, and they were mother and daughter,” says French auteur Céline Sciamma of the genesis of her fifth feature, Petite Maman. She was halfway through the production of 2019’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire when the lightbulb lit. “It was a mystical image,” she says. “A very troubling image...”Shot during the pandemic, Petite Maman is a drama of modest scale but huge impact. It begins with eight-year-old Nelly (Josephine Sanz) travelling with her mother Marion (Nina Meurisse) to the house of her grandmother, who’s just died. Marion can’t cope with packing the house up and exits, leaving Nelly with her father (Stéphane Varupenne). But soon our young heroine’s days are dedicated to building a hut in the…2 min
Total Film|November 2021IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALISTTHIS MONTH MEETING HORROR ICONS…As a teenager in the 1980s, I couldn’t get enough of slasher movies. Halloween, Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street… I hoovered up each series at my best friend’s house with the lights off, and my cycle ride home, along winding country lanes in the pitch black, was a terrifying affair. Particularly traumatic was the bit where I had to peddle furiously past two trees that stood opposite each other on either side of the lane – in Friday The 13th: A New Beginning, a motorcyclist is decapitated by a cunningly stretched-out clothesline, so I always ducked low to my handlebars and prayed.But what happens when you meet the guys behind the masks? Does it strip these nightmare movies of their fear factor when…3 min
Total Film|November 2021‘bustin’ outFILMGHOSTBUSTERS 1984The hit movie that started it all, as three NYC scientists strap on proton packs to ensnare pesky spirits. Out-grossed Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom.VIDEOGAMEGHOSTBUSTERS 1984Activision’s game was programmed in just six weeks to ride the movie’s success. Released on the Commodore 64 and Spectrum, the clunky game saw you attending to ghostsightings on a map grid. Many games followed, most rubbish...NOVELGHOSTBUSTERS 1984Larry Milne’s novelisation of the movie. Richard Mueller’s Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular, another book of the movie, was published the next year. There have been 1OO+ books (including graphic novels) since.GAMEGHOSTBUSTERS ROLE-PLAYING GAME 1986Published by West End Games and based on the 1984 film, this is set in the same universe but after the events of the movie. Ghostbuster characters can here fight not just…2 min
Total Film|November 2021Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone at 20It feels like yesterday, really,” says Chris Columbus, considering the impending 20th anniversary of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, which is being marked in the UK by a cinema rerelease. “Every aspect of that first movie, in terms of initially auditioning for the job, and waiting to find out if I was going to get the job, the casting process, the building of the sets, the design of the entire world… everything is very vivid.”The Harry Potter film series has, to date, earned $9.2bn at the worldwide box-office, adapting eight films from seven books, plus two (soon to be three) Fantastic Beasts spin-offs. And don’t forget the ever popular themepark attractions, Lego sets and studio tour that the films have inspired. But, back at the dawn of the 21st…12 min
Total Film|November 2021HIGH STAKES♦ It’s 10am. The patio at the Hungaria Hotel on the Lido is buzzing with guests, staff and film-industry types attending this year’s Venice Film Festival. In a quiet corner sits Paul Schrader, the famed writer of Taxi Driver and director of such celebrated films as Blue Collar, Light Sleeper and Affliction. His last film, 2017’s priest-led drama First Reformed, earned the 75-year-old the first (very overdue) Oscar nomination of his career for Best Original Screenplay.Now he’s back with The Card Counter, a brooding gambling drama with a darkly political undertow. “I was looking at professional gamblers on television, thinking it’s such an interesting way to spend your time,” he recalls. “Because all you’re really doing is running numbers. Card counting if you’re playing blackjack. Odds, if you’re playing poker,…8 min
Total Film|November 2021my life in pictures JAMIE LEE CURTISHALLOWEEN KILLS 2021Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, following on from the fiery climax of 2018’s Halloween sequel.“I wanted to make sure that if I did another Halloween, which I never thought I would do, that it had something to say. And I think David [Gordon Green, director] has done something with this new trilogy… the first one [2018’s Halloween], of course being about trauma. What happens to someone in trauma, and how do you reclaim your power? How does a woman take back her power? What does trauma really do to someone? And so I felt like it was an extraordinary point of view. And of course, Halloween Kills [is about] a sort of communal rage against the machine – that the system is broken, and the only one…9 min
Total Film|November 2021FIVE STAR TURNSHENRY V 1989Having earned his Bard stripes on the boards, Branagh adapted this historical play for cinema, playing the lead himself. He was Oscar-nommed for acting and directing and went on to put Shakespeare on film over five further movies.THOR 2011An unexpected choice to helm a Marvel film, but Branagh excelled in casting series stalwarts Hemsworth and Hiddleston and found a comedydrama tone that worked for the Norse god and ensured the further success of the MCU.MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 2011Branagh shared the same shoemaker (George Cleverly) as Laurence Olivier so wore his own custom-made brogues to play the esteemed actor opposite Michelle Williams’ Monroe. He got an Oscar nom for his performance.MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 2017Branagh donned a truly stupendous moustache to reinvent the Belgian detective for a…1 min
Total Film|November 2021ed tripLAST NIGHT IN SOHO TBCFILMOUT 29 OCTOBER CINEMASThere’s something about the ’60s that speaks to me!” says Last Night In Soho’s aspiring fashion student Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), a Redruth rube who’s left her native Cornwall and her doting gran behind to try her luck in London. She’s not kidding. No sooner has she turned the lights off at the shabby bedsit she now calls home than she is magically transported back in time to a neon-drenched vision of that most swinging-est of decades: a nocturnal wonderland full of happening nightclubs, sharp-suited gentlemen and darkly seductive temptations.The twist in Edgar Wright and co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns’ (1917) lushly retro Valentine’s card to Soho’s romanticised past is that Ellie doesn’t see it through her eyes, but through those of a glamorous mirror image:…2 min
Total Film|November 2021french twistsTHE LAST DUEL TBCFILMOUT 15 OCTOBER CINEMASRidley Scott does Rashômon by way of medieval France in his latest historical epic The Last Duel, a multi-perspective tale of truth, justice and honour. Based on a true story (via author Eric Jager’s 2004 account), the film feels far removed from earlier Scott work such as the Crusades-era Kingdom Of Heaven. Yes, there’s plenty of blood and thunder, but at the core is a human drama played out between former friends.Scripted by Enough Said filmmaker Nicole Holofcener and Good Will Hunting bros Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the story casts Damon as Jean de Carrouges. The nobleman falls from favour with the rakish Count Pierre d’Alençon (Affleck), who prefers the company of Adam Driver’s lusty, Latin-spouting Jacques LeGris, who violently enforces the Count’s…2 min
Total Film|November 2021keeping it royalSPENCER TBCFILMOUT 5 NOVEMBER CINEMASFollowing The Crown S4’s focus on Princess Diana, royal watchers get another Queen of Hearts fix with Pablo Larraín’s bio-drama. Unlike the Netflix series, Larraín’s film is set over three days in 1991, with Diana (Kristen Stewart) spending Christmas with the in-laws at Sandringham. Already rumours circulate about her paranoia, bulimia and self-harming.Similar to Larraín’s Oscar-nommed study of JFK’s widow in Jackie (2016), this attempts to put viewers inside its protagonist’s mind. “I’m a magnet for madness,” sighs Di in a film that sensitively explores her inner turmoil. The other royals are nearly all background characters; most interactions are with the staff, including Diana’s beloved dresser (Sally Hawkins) and head chef (Sean Harris).Some elements are too fanciful, not least Diana seeing the ghost of Henry VIII’s…3 min
Total Film|November 2021the song goodbyeDEAR EVAN HANSEN TBCFILMOUT 22 OCTOBER CINEMASA Broadway hit and winner of six Tony Awards, Dear Evan Hansen gets a big-screen adap from director Stephen Chbosky (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower) – an exciting prospect made more exciting still when you realise that music and lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul,who previously scored big at the movies with La La Land.Chbosky has musical previous himself – he co-wrote the screenplays for Rent (2005) and Beauty And The Beast (2017) – and while his latest effort doesn’t hit the high notes we might have hoped for, it’s a decent enough remix. It retains stage star Ben Platt in the role of anxious, depressed Evan (27 at the time of filming, he’s a teenager of the Rydell High variety),…3 min
Total Film|November 2021offenders assembleStephen Merchant wanders into a faux boardroom in a Bristol studio, looking harassed. Filming his new BBC series The Outlaws (formerly known as The Offenders) under Covid conditions has brought its own stresses, but Merchant concedes he may have taken on too much by not only acting, but also writing, directing and producing. Seems he’s regretting it…“Very much so,” he sighs with a smile. “I’ve done it before, but this is an ensemble show, so there are a lot of scenes with seven people where invariably I’m standing at the back because I’m the tallest and I don’t know what’s going on in the scene. I’m supposed to be directing but I can’t see anyone’s faces or look at a monitor, so I’ve got to hope for the best…”Luckily, he…5 min
Total Film|November 2021fresh spinNo Time To DieAfter all the time in the world, Hans Zimmer’s 007 entry docks with all bases sumptuously covered. Weaponised with choice retro homages and heavyweight rhythmic scoring, No Time ranges freely from Cuban frolics to insidious villain cues. Comparisons include (curiously) Ludwig Göransson’s Tenet score, but the high-stakes end stretch is pure Zimmer: huge, tense and – for ‘Final Ascent’ – sweepingly gorgeous.Halloween KillsYou can’t beat perfection, but father/ son duo John/Cody Carpenter and Dan Davies take a good stab for Michael’s latest homecoming. Spacious and jittery, the old themes dignify a stop-start opening stretch, before Kills hits its stride with the malevolent ‘Rampage.’ Febrile effects, death’s-head guitars and high-suspense synths offer expansive scare-scoring: sometimes mournful (‘It Needs To Die’), sometimes maximalist (‘Unkillable’), always oozing with mood.WARNER, DECCA…1 min
Total Film|November 2021FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA BOOKSIAN NATHAN/PALAZZO | MARK SEAL/GALLERY BOOKSWill Francis Ford Coppola fulfil a recently reported gamble to make his long-nurtured passion project, Megalopolis? After these books, you wouldn’t bet against it. In many ways, each shows how Coppola forged film landmarks from chaos, conflict, calamity. What’s a 40-ish-year delay by comparison?Ian Nathan’s The Coppolas: A Movie Dynasty ( ) digs deep into FFC’s childhood struggles and maverick persistence, teasing out personal currents across the family business. In-the-moment prose makes brisk work of the sprawling story, which peaks with Coppola “spiralling into obsession” for Apocalypse Now, chasing awe. Yet even after production company Zoetrope fails, old hungers reawaken for the flawed but ravishing Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The work of Coppola’s extended family variably dwindles by contrast, but the main man’s influence is tangibly…2 min
Total Film|November 2021JENNIFER CONNELLYBorn and raised in New York State, Jennifer Lynn Connelly has spent most of her life in front of the camera. At the age of 10 she landed a modelling contract; two years later she made the jump to the silver screen, appearing in Sergio Leone’s gangster epic Once Upon A Time In America (1984). Fellow Italian filmmaker Dario Argento then gave Connelly her first lead role in his 1985 fairytale fright-flick Phenomena.Connelly says her adolescent years left her feeling “like a kind of walking puppet”, making it oddly fitting that she entered the mainstream with Muppets creator Jim Henson’s 1986 fantasy Labyrinth. However, teen flicks Some Girls (1988) and Career Opportunities (1991) and comic-book flop The Rocketeer (1991) failed to launch Connelly’s career into the stratosphere – although a…2 min
Total Film|November 2021GHOSTSEASY1. True or false? The Sixth Sense was nominated for six Oscars but won none.2. Which actor’s Jedi ghost was ex(or)cised from the 2004 DVD release of Return Of The Jedi?3. Which Ghostbuster makes an uncredited appearance in 1995’s Casper?4. And which of these is not one of Casper’s uncles? a) Stretch b) Stinkie c) Floater d) Fatso.5. To date, what is the only film with ‘ghost’ in the title to be Best Picture-nominated?MEDIUM1. To date, what is the highest-grossing film worldwide with ‘ghost’ in the title?2. Nearly Headless Nick is the ghost of which house of Hogwarts?3. Ice Cube and Jason Statham versus possessed miners: name the movie.4. Which title links directors Tobe Hooper and Gil Kenan?5. Which actors play the title roles in The Ghost And Mrs. Muir?HARD1.…1 min
