Prepare to have chills sent down your spine by this week’s profoundly disturbing new release – a horror story about a dead-eyed, smirking visage that visits grievous misfortune upon all who encounter it.
If you’re not up for seeing the Donald Trump film, though, you could always go and see Smile 2 instead.
Those keen to avoid feeling queasy and/or terrified altogether are pointed in the direction of animated castaway adventure The Wild Robot – plus marmalade sandwiches at the ready for Paddington Day on Sunday…
New releases
The Apprentice
Sebastian Stan stars in this biopic focussing on the young Donald Trump’s relationship with Ray Cohn, the well-connected and unscrupulous lawyer who acted as his mentor.
Positing Cohn (played by Succession’s Jeremy Strong) as the man who schooled Trump in the dark arts of belligerence and bullish mendacity, the film shows how the master-pupil dynamic between the pair slowly shifts as Trump begins his rise to power.
Reviews suggest that it’s a blend of the titillating and the troubling, with Empire praising Stan’s and Cohn’s ‘award-worthy’ performances but warning that it’s ‘so intentionally grubby you may well feel in need of a shower afterwards’.
| Cert 15, 123 mins | |
| Cineworld, Everyman, Vue | |
| From Fri Oct 18 |
Smile 2
Released in 2022, Smile’s creepily effective premise – a woman terrorised by a sinister entity which manifests as a malevolent smirk on the faces of others – saw it scare up a storm at the box office, as well as picking up a fair few critical plaudits.
It’s no surprise therefore to see writer-director Parker Finn bringing the ghoulish grin back to our screens two years on, with a new cast of characters desperately trying not to turn that frown upside down.
Our heroine this time round is Skye Riley (Naomi Scott, Aladdin), a Gaga-esque pop sensation who rather unfortunately starts experiencing ‘increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events’ – viz, randos leering at her like a psychotic Cheshire cat – just as she’s about to embark on a world tour.
| Cert 18, 132 mins | |
| Cineworld, Everyman, Vue | |
| From Fri Oct 18 |
The Wild Robot
It looks like DreamWorks Animation (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda) could have another hit on their hands in this highly acclaimed new adventure about a robot washed ashore on a deserted island.
The story follows Rozzum 7134, aka Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), who must learn to survive in her strange and beautiful new habitat, as well as nurturing an orphaned gosling for whom she becomes an adoptive mother.
Written and directed by Chris Sanders (co-director of beloved animations such as Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon), this sounds like that holy grail of family films, one which can be enjoyed by kids and grown-ups alike – and as the aww-inducing synopsis suggests, you might want to bring a packet of tissues or two along with you as well.
| Cert U, 102 mins | |
| Cineworld, City Screen, Everyman, Vue | |
| From Fri Oct 18 | |
| More details |
Other screenings
Family-friendly films
All four York cinemas have declared this Sunday to be Paddington Day, which means you can spend four glorious hours in the company of the silver screen’s most heartwarming, hard-staring, Phoenix Buchanan-thwarting hero with a double bill of his first two adventures.
Everyman are showing both films again on Weds 23rd, with extra screenings of the first Paddington on Sat 19th, Mon 21st and Tues 22nd, and you can also catch Paddington 2 in City Screen’s Kids’ Club on Sat 19th (tickets £3.30).
City Screen have a relaxed screening of Matilda the Musical on Sun 20th (£3.30), while Harold and the Purple Crayon is this week’s budget viewing choice at Vue (Sat 19th, Sun 20th, £2.49), and Everyman’s Toddler Club offers the ghoulish delights of the 2019 animated take on The Addams Family (Fri 18th, Sat 19th, £6.25 child/£9.80 adult plus toddler).
There’s plenty for younger viewers to choose from this week too, with Disney Junior Cinema Club showing at City Screen on Sat 19th (£5.00), while Vue have a few more screenings of Bluey at the Cinema (Sat 19th, Sun 20th, Tues 22nd, £3.99), and it’s candles a-go-go with Bing & Friends: Birthday Celebration (Vue, Sat 19th, Sun 20th, £3.99) and Hey Duggee is 10 (Vue, daily, £3.99; Cineworld, Sat 19th, Sun 20th, £6.49 child/£12.98 adult plus child) – hope they haven’t double-booked the soft play area.
Oi Zemeckis, where’s my hoverboard: old favourites back on the big screen
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need…roads.”
It’s 35 years since the kids of the 1980s got a sneak peak at life in 2015 courtesy of Back to the Future Part II – and we’re still waiting for those hoverboards, hydratable pizzas and 15 further Jaws sequels we were promised.
Pull on your best self-drying clothes and head down to the cinema to mark Marty and Doc’s milestone at Cineworld (Mon 21st, Tues 22nd) and Everyman (Mon 21st).
Alternatively, you can hurtle back to the ancient past with a screening of Gladiator at City Screen on Weds 23rd, or head to a galaxy far, far away on Sun 20th as Cineworld’s epic journey through the Star Wars chronicles nears its end with 2017’s bewilderingly divisive instalment The Last Jedi.
Cineworld’s Celebrating Black Talent season continues on Weds 23rd with Inside Man, Spike Lee’s acclaimed heist film which saw him reunite with his frequent collaborator Denzel Washington to score his biggest box office hit.
As Halloween draws ever closer, there’s a welcome return to the big screen for the original coming-of-rage film as Sissy Spacek gives her classmates the prom from hell in Carrie, showing at Cineworld (Fri 18th, Sat 19th), City Screen (Fri 18th, Sun 20th, Mon 21st) and Everyman (Fri 18th).
Hocus Pocus is this week’s Throwback screening at Everyman (Sun 20th, Tues 22nd), and Bette Midler and chums will also be swooping by Vue throughout the week (daily except Mon 21st).
Pegg and Frost continue to hold off the flesh-eating hordes in Shaun of the Dead (Vue, Sat 19th, Mon 21st, Tues 22nd, Weds 23rd), while the Ghostbusters do battle with Zuul in the classic original (Vue, Sat 19th) before facing off against Vigo the Carpathian and him off Ally McBeal in Ghostbusters II (Vue, Fri 18th, Sat 19th).
And finally, City Screen’s Searchlight Pictures season continues on Sun 20th with one of the studio’s surprise breakout hits, 2006’s dysfunctional family comedy Little Miss Sunshine – so what better way to finish than with the backing music to its young heroine’s majestically inappropriate dance routine?