As well-crafted and unbearably tense as the original A Quiet Place was, one thing that always confused me about it was the shot of press clippings seen near the start.
A collection of newspaper front pages is, of course, a time-honoured way for films to quickly fill in a bit of backstory – but given that John Krasinski’s smash hit thriller was all about a deadly alien race with ultrasonic hearing, I couldn’t help thinking that the poor saps whose job it was to print out revelatory headlines such as ‘IT’S SOUND!’ would have been swiftly eviscerated the moment the presses clanked into action.
Maybe the aliens were bopping to their invasion playlist on noise-cancelling headphones at the time? All will be revealed this week as A Quiet Place: Day One shows us how it all began – while Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are back to scandalise audiences anew with Kinds of Kindness…
New releases
Kinds of Kindness
No-one can accuse Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos of resting on their laurels: just a few months after their fantastical period drama Poor Things was the talk of the town (and bagged Stone her second Best Actress Oscar), the pair return here with a new collaboration, which sails out even further into the waters of weirdness.
Stone reunites with her Poor Things co-star Willem Dafoe alongside Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau in three separate but loosely connected tales set in modern-day New Orleans, with the cast playing different roles in each story.
As ever with Lanthimos, surreality and pitch-black humour are assured, with reviews indicating that this is a return to the darker, bleaker tone of the likes of 2017’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer and the director’s 2009 breakthrough Dogtooth.
| Cert 18, 164 mins | |
| Cineworld, City Screen, Everyman, Vue | |
| From Fri Jun 28 |
A Quiet Place: Day One
As the title indicates, this latest instalment in the hit sci-fi horror franchise takes things back to the start, revealing just how the world came to be terrorised by a race of alien killing machines who hunt by sound.
Lupita Nyong’o stars alongside Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn in this origin story, which the trailer suggests will combine the series’ trademark nail-biting set-pieces with a full-on action onslaught, as the big green beasties lay siege to New York.
With the first two films’ director John Krasinski having taken a side-step into more family-friendly fare with recent release IF, there’s an intriguing replacement behind the camera in the form of Michael Sarnoski, who made 2021’s highly acclaimed Nicolas Cage drama Pig.
| Cert 15, 95 mins | |
| Cineworld, City Screen, Everyman, Vue | |
| From Fri Jun 28 | |
| More details |
Fancy Dance
Lily Gladstone follows up her Oscar-nominated role in Killers of the Flower Moon with this family drama about a Native American woman trying to care for her niece when her sister disappears.
With young Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) set on attending an upcoming powwow where she believes she will be reunited with her mother, her aunt Jax (Gladstone) desperately searches for clues as to her sister’s whereabouts while trying to fend off the social workers who want to award custody of Roki to Jax’s semi-estranged father.
It’s a solid debut fiction feature from documentary-maker Erica Tremblay, with another charismatic turn from Gladstone and an impressive performance from Deroy-Olson as her wide-eyed protégée.
| Cert 15, 91 mins | |
| City Screen | |
| From Fri Jun 28 |
Other screenings
Family-friendly films
Cineworld’s Movies For Juniors selection this week ties into their ongoing 1999 season, with that year’s hugely acclaimed animated version of the Ted Hughes classic The Iron Man screening on Sat 29th and Sun 30th (tickets £2.50) – they’re also showing an adaptation of a work by another literary colossus in the form of A Greyhound of a Girl, a coming-of-age tale based on the book by Roddy Doyle and featuring the voices of Sharon Horgan and Brendon Gleeson (Sat 29th, Sun 30th, £7.99).
City Screen’s Kids’ Club is showing French fantasy adventure A Monster in Paris on Sat 29th (£3.30), while Kung Fu Panda 4 is showing in Vue’s Mighty Mornings strand on Sat 29th and Sun 30th (formerly known as Mini Mornings, but fortunately there’s no price rise to match the prodigious increase in stature which the rebranding implies – tickets are still £2.49).
Vue’s Big Shorts strand (formerly Kids TV, and I’m starting to sense a certain size-based insecurity on the part of their marketing team) is screening The Gruffalo’s Child and Zog and the Flying Doctors daily (£3.99), while there are more Julia Donaldson antics on offer at Everyman courtesy of Stickman and The Gruffalo’s Child on Fri 28th and Sat 29th (£6.25 for children, £8.75 for adult plus toddler).
Foxx picks up a deadly fare and Kiefer rocks some killer hair: old favourites back on the big screen
Oh what a night! City Screen’s season of films that take place once the sun’s gone down continues with Collateral, Michael Mann’s 2004 action thriller in which Jamie Foxx’s unsuspecting cabbie accepts an offer of $600 to drive someone round Los Angeles – only to find his fare is actually a contract killer who’s got a big to-do list to get through.
A rare chance to see Tom Cruise cross over to the dark side as the hit man in question, it also features an early role for a baby-faced Mark Ruffalo – hail a cab to Coney Street on Sat 29th (though confusingly, given the theme of the season, it’s actually showing at 16:20 – maybe wear shades to keep the nocturnal vibe going).
City Screen celebrate la vie Parisienne on Sun 30th as their season of films set in the French capital showcases a New Wave classic in the form of The 400 Blows, legendary director François Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical 1959 debut feature about a rebellious teenage boy who runs away from home – much like Cléo from 5 to 7 which opened the season last week, it’s not only a great film but one which really does feel like stepping back in time onto the streets of Paris.
Having grudgingly let her arch rival take centre stage for the first two weeks, it’s Bette’s turn to hog the limelight in City Screen’s Bette vs. Joan season on Mon 1st with a screening of 1938’s Jezebel, which stars the divine Ms. Davis as a headstrong Southern belle on a mission to win back her man.
As Pride Month draws to a close, Vue are keeping the rainbow flag flying with another screening of 80s-set rabble rouser Pride on Sat 29th, as well as a couple of chances to catch last year’s high school fight club comedy Bottoms on Fri 28th and Mon 1st.
The summer-long celebration of the films of 1999 continues with makeover-tastic romcom She’s All That at Vue on Sat 29th and Weds 3rd, while in addition to their Movies For Juniors screenings, Cineworld are also showing The Iron Giant for all ages on Mon 1st.
Over at Everyman, their Throwback strand is taking us on a treasure hunt in the irrepressible company of The Goonies on Sun 30th and Tues 2nd.
And finally, here’s a fun fact for readers of a certain age: the first series of 24 is now nine years older than The Lost Boys was when 24 started.
Did I say fun fact? Sorry, I meant ‘chilling reminder of the remorseless onward march of time’ – so let’s forget I ever said it, don our finest mullets and head down to Everyman for a late night screening of the Kiefer Sutherland vampire classic on Fri 28th.