York film preview: Mufasa, Sonic 3 and Better Man

Lions and hedgehogs and chimps, oh my!

A veritable cinematic menagerie awaits us over the Christmas holidays, from an origin story for Simba’s dad to an unorthodox music biopic that’s had critics going bananas – not to mention the further adventures of a certain spiky-haired speed-merchant.

There’s no rest come New Year’s Day either, as We Live in Time tugs at the heartstrings and Nosferatu goes for the jugular.

Have a good one, go easy on the sherry – and please don’t feed the animals…

So here it is: Christmas releases

Mufasa: The Lion King

As the title suggests, this prequel to the 2019 remake of the beloved Disney classic sees Simba’s father take centre stage, winding the clock back to the future ruler’s early years.

The story sees the young Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) tragically separated from his parents and taken in by another clan, quickly forming a brotherly bond with its prince, Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) – but when their territory is invaded by a vicious gang known as the Outsiders, the pair strike out in search of a fabled promised land on an adventure that will shape their destinies, for good and ill.

Directed by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, the film also continues Simba’s story in the present day, with Donald Glover and Beyoncé reprising their roles as Simba and Nala and Blue Ivy Carter voicing their cub Kiara, while the songs come courtesy of Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sega’s fleet-footed mascot returns for his third cinematic outing, which sees him face off against a powerful new foe.

Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and buds Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba) fear they have met their match when they cross paths with the sinister Shadow, the beefed-up, super-skilled product of a secret government programme who’s out for vengeance (and with Keanu Reeves voicing him, we can surely expect a John Wick nod or two along the way).

With no way of beating their new adversary, the trio are forced to contemplate the unthinkable – an alliance with their moustachioed nemesis, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey)…

Queer

It’s been a busy year for Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino: having served up a cinematic ace with tennis love triangle Challengers back in April, he teams up here with Daniel Craig for this adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novella.

Craig plays William Lee, an American ex-pat in 1950s Mexico City, whose listless existence is shaken up when he meets young ex-serviceman Eugene (Drew Starkey), with whom he becomes hopelessly infatuated.

Indications are that it’s a very different beast to the crowd-pleasing shenanigans of Challengers, with the story taking a head-spinning turn when the duo travel to South America in search of psychedelic enlightenment – but Time Out concludes that Craig’s ‘remarkable lead performance…makes it a trip worth taking’.

Better Man

Swing when you’re winning, indeed: this biopic of Robbie Williams garnered plenty of attention when it was revealed that the singer would be portrayed as a CG chimpanzee – but a string of rave reviews suggest it’s a gambit that’s more than paid off.

The film follows Williams’ trajectory from his working-class origins in Stoke to fame and fortune with Take That and subsequent solo megastardom – and all the well-documented ups and downs that accompanied it – with Jonno Davies playing his simian stand-in, courtesy of Planet of the Apes-style motion-capture technology (Williams himself narrates and sings the songs).

It’s a canny choice from The Greatest Showman director James Gracey, which has wowed audiences and critics alike since its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in August – with Empire hailing it as ‘an absolute blast’ and Time Out declaring that ‘Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody are just two of the lauded films left in the dust by Better Man’.

Look to the future now: New Year releases

Nosferatu

Remember when vampires were scary? Nope, me neither – the bloodsucking cape-swishers have been around so long that their presence on screen these days is more likely to be in the service of raising a titter (as in last year’s Renfield) than a scream.

But if ever there was a filmmaker who could restore them to their rightful place as full-on celluloid nightmare fuel, it’s Robert Eggers, the man behind creepy folk horror The Witch and blood-soaked Viking saga The Northman.

This remake of the classic 1922 silent film (itself unofficially based on Dracula) has been a long-held passion project of the director, and by all accounts it’s worth the wait, with the Independent calling it ‘one of the most profoundly frightening horror films in years’.

Bill Skarsgård (the man who breathed terrifying life into IT’s Pennywise the clown) stars as the diabolical Count Orlok, while Lily-Rose Depp is the object of his obsession.

We Live in Time

If NYE celebrations have left you feeling a little too fragile for gothic vampire horror, then this romantic drama starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield might be more your speed – though be warned that while your nerves may be spared, your tear ducts might not get off so lightly.

The film follows the romance between up-and-coming chef Almut (Pugh) and recent divorcée Tobias (Garfield), jumping back and forth in time through the course of their relationship from its carefree beginnings to the traumatic challenges of later years.

There have been plaudits aplenty for Brooklyn director John Crowley’s heartfelt tale, with the Guardian charmed by the ‘electric’ chemistry between the two leads and Time Out saluting it as ‘real, and honest, in a way that too few romantic films manage’.