film A FILM OF THE MONTH A ON RELEASE:


November 2021 WORDS BY KEIRON SELF


BECOMING COUSTEAU (12) Documentary about the influential French


underwater environmentalist. Rather good.


MOTHERING SUNDAY (15) Adaptation of Graham Swift’s novel – a British WW1 period romance starring Josh O’Connor and his Queen from The Crown, Olivia Colman. Expect stiff upper lips and repressed emotion.


SHEPHERD (15)


Horror set on a remote island where a man grapples with his sanity following the death of his wife.


NATURAL LIGHT (15) Tense WWII drama from Hungary as a farmer


is forced to lead a military unit while chaos escalates around him. Solid war thrills.


PETITE MAMAN (15) From Celine Sciamma the acclaimed director


HOUSE OF GUCCI Dir: Ridley Scott (15, 120 mins)


Ridley Scott’s second film in two months could not be further away from The Last Duel, but it does also star Adam Driver. Based on the real life trials and ultimately murderous tribulations of the family behind the Gucci fashion house, this is an old fashioned family mobster- type epic, albeit a very well dressed one. Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Reggiani, a woman out for control and power amidst the Gucci family. After netting Driver’s Maurizio Gucci, she deals with jealousy and greed from his family and the competing desires of his father and brother.


Al Pacino chews scenery, Jared Leto is unrecognizable, and Jeremy Irons is forbidding as they wrestle over financial fortunes. A handsome film based on Sara Gay Forden’s book with some Dolmio sauce Italian accents and stars wrestling for Oscar approval, this should be an impeccably dressed, borderline-camp treat.


Out Fri 26 Nov


of Portrait Of A Woman On Fire, this follow-up is a sweet examination of childhood friendship.


PIRATES (15) The world’s shortest road movie as a group of


THE CARD COUNTER Dir: Paul Schrader (15, 111 mins)


Writer/director Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and most recently the excellent First Reformed, returns with a slow burn, neo-noir played to the hilt by its cast. Oscar Isaac is William Tell, a gambler – see what they did with the name there? – with a dodgy past. A veteran of atrocities at Abu Ghraib, for which he has spent years in prison, he’s out and looking for redemption and revenge. Willem Defoe’s contractor was responsible for the outrages Isaac went down for, and when he and trainee gambler protégé (Tye Sheridan) find him they exact a convoluted revenge.


This being Schrader, the plans don’t work out and darkness will reign, but the intensity of the ride anchored by Isaac’s dead eyes proves alluring. Tiffany Haddish escapes from a string of woeful comedies to do a solid turn as Isaac’s gambling agent trying to harness his card skills on the professional circuit. Solid, character-based loner stuff again from Schrader.


Out Fri 5 Nov


18-year-old friends travel from North to South London on New Year’s Eve 1999. Comedy hijinks ensue.


BOILING POINT (15) The ubiquitous Stephen Graham stars in a


one-take film about a head chef’s busiest shift in a restaurant. Tense and sweary. Better than Masterchef.


THE FIRST WAVE (15) Chilling documentary about the beginnings of


the pandemic, set in a hospital in Queens. The ignorance and the horror are palpable.


ETERNALS Dir: Chloe Zhao (12A, 157 mins)


Following the enjoyable kung fu freneticism of Shang Chi, Marvel is about to get mystical with their latest opus, directed by the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland. This is Marvel’s ‘Phase 4’ in full effect, introducing a whole new series of superheroes to an already stuffed universe. The Eternals are a group of Immortals who live on and protect Earth against the threat of another interstellar race, the Deviants. Following on from Thanos’ Snap, threat levels are even more heightened, leading this band of celestial protectors to fully reveal themselves.


Becoming Cousteau


Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kumail Najani are just some of the actors stepping into immortal boots in what will be new heroic territory. Lesser known than the Avengers, like Shang Chi this is more of a blank canvas – and who better to paint them than Zhao at the helm with her epic vistas and humanity? This lengthy epic should prove suitably Marvel-ous.


Out Fri 5 Nov 28 ENCANTO


Dir: Jared Bush/Byron Howard/Charise Castro Smith (PG, 101 mins)


A new Disney film with a glasses-wearing heroine, Colombian setting and songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda marks another leap forward in diversity and representation. Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) lives in Casa Madrigal, a house that has been blessed with magic, which extends to all of her family. There’s the ‘perfect’ Princess Isabella, making flowers grow wherever she goes, Luisa is superstrong, Antonio can talk to the animals, and so on.


Mirabel, however, has no special powers, much to her disappointment. But when the magic starts to disappear from her house and her siblings, it’s up to her to save the day by being who she is, in a ‘being yourself’ empowering kind of way. Bright and fizzy, this looks to be another crowd-pleasing, family formula favourite from Disney, albeit embracing different cultural touchstones with some Miranda toetappers.


Out Fri 26 Nov


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