The nights are drawing in, and the knives are coming out…
We appear to be in something of a boom time for murder mysteries at the moment, with the success of 2019’s excellent Knives Out having kickstarted a trend for whodunnits with a sense of humour.
From the small-screen likes of The Afterparty and The Only Murders in the Building to the eagerly-awaited return of Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc this autumn, there’s no shortage of dastardly deeds to challenge our sleuthing skills, including two new cinema releases this week.
There’s a starry selection of lethal luvvies in See How They Run, while satirical Gen-Z slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies does exactly what it says on the tin…
New releases
See How They Run
A hotshot Hollywood director is found murdered – and everyone’s a suspect, in this fun-looking comic whodunnit set in London’s West End in the 1950s.
Sam Rockwell (doing a pretty creditable English accent, if the trailer’s anything to go by) stars as world-weary Inspector Stoppard, paired, as tradition dictates, with an over-eager new recruit in the form of Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan).
The top-notch supporting cast includes Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson and David Oyelowo alongside familiar faces from the British comedy scene including Reece Shearsmith, Tim Key and This Country’s Charlie Cooper (director Tom George, whose debut feature this is, helmed all three series of the hit BBC3 mockumentary show).
Cert 12A, 98 mins | |
Cineworld, City Screen, Everyman, Vue | |
From Fri Sep 9 | |
More details |
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Millennial mores (as well as various characters’ innards) come in for a skewering in this darkly comic slasher about a party which goes very wrong.
The plot sees a group of wealthy twentysomethings gather at a remote family mansion for a hurricane party (yes, a hurricane party. It’s a party one throws when a hurricane happens. You know, like those mild drizzle parties we have over here) – only for the titular guess-the-murderer party game to take a deadly turn when the lights go out…
If you can get past the nails-down-a-blackboard trailer, with its screamingly unsubtle litany of Gen-Z clichés, reviews suggest that there’s a fair bit to recommend it – not least a talented cast of up-and-comers including Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give), Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby) and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm).
Cert 15, 94 mins | |
Cineworld, Everyman, Vue | |
From Fri Sep 9 | |
More details |
Crimes of the Future
Director David Cronenberg returns to the body horror genre for the first time in over 20 years in this freaky new tale, set in a world where humans can no longer feel pain and where, as Kristen Stewart’s investigator declares, “Surgery is the new sex”.
The story centres on Saul (regular Cronenberg collaborator Viggo Mortensen) and his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), celebrity performance artists who draw in the punters with live autopsies of the new organs which Saul’s body is capable of growing.
Stewart plays an investigator from the National Organ Registry who obsessively follows the pair’s work – leading to the discovery of a mysterious group who plan to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Cert 18, 107 mins | |
City Screen | |
From Fri Sep 9 | |
More details |
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Family-friendly screenings
Out on general release this week, globetrotting animated caper Tad the Lost Explorer and the Curse of the Mummy sees the titular accident-prone archaeologist on a quest to save his friends from, you guessed it, a mummy’s curse – it’s showing daily at Cineworld, Everyman and Vue.
E.T. continues his 40th birthday lap of honour at City Screen (daily), Everyman (daily except Sun 11th) and Vue (Fri 9th – Sun 11th, plus Thurs 15th) – hopefully sticking to the alcohol-free beer, as he’s something of a lightweight as I recall…
Vue’s Pixar season arrives at the reliably sob-inducing Up on Sat 10th and Sun 11th (tickets standard price, £6.99 – £9.99), while their budget Mini Mornings selection this week is the studio’s latest, Lightyear (Sat 10th/Sun 11th, £2.49).
And finally, Emmet and friends do battle with their Duplo nemeses in The Lego Movie 2, which is City Screen’s Kids’ Club screening this week (Sat 10th, £3.00, showing with subtitles).
Other screenings
If ever a film needed ‘No, not that one’ as a subtitle, it’s this week’s big reissue.
Back on the big screen to terrify audiences afresh, Jaws (3D) is, to be clear, not the ridiculous SeaWorld-set threequel, but the classic 1975 original Jaws needlessly refitted with 3D – it’s showing at Everyman daily, and at Vue from Fri 9th – Sun 11th, plus Tues 13th and Thurs 15th.
My advice would be to head instead to Cineworld, where you can catch it in IMAX 2D throughout the week – truly, you’re gonna need a bigger boat.
Everyman head Back to the Future on Sun 11th as part of their Throwback season, which continues on Weds 14th with Terminator 2: Judgment Day – both screenings include a complimentary drink and pizza or hot dog.
Meanwhile, City Screen’s short Pam Grier season continues on Sun 11th with 1974 blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown, which sees our heroine on another revenge mission, this time against the drug dealers who killed her boyfriend.
Keeping it cult, City Screen are celebrating the upcoming release of Japanese anime director Masaaki Yuasa’s new film Inu-Oh (out later this month) with two picks from his acclaimed back catalogue, starting this week with 2004’s metaphysical drama Mind Game, showing on Mon 12th.
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That’s followed on Tues 13th by a preview of the latest film from the none-more-cult Kevin Smith, who returns audiences to the ‘View Askewniverse’ with Clerks III, the second follow-up to his much-loved 1994 original.
Over at Vue, there’s a preview of new British drama In from the Side, starring Emmerdale alumnus Alexander Lincoln as the new member of a gay rugby club who begins an adulterous affair with a fellow player – you can catch it on Weds 14th.
Music fans are well served this week, with a myriad of new and recent documentaries and concert films to choose from.
There’s another screening for pop travelogue George Ezra: End to End at Vue on Fri 9th, wherein the baby-faced troubadour hikes from Land’s End to John O’Groats, breaking out the old geetar on the way.
His teen heartthrob antecedents Westlife have an encore screening of their recent Live at Wembley Stadium concert show at Vue on Sat 10th, while the environmentally-themed A-ha: True North (City Screen, Thurs 15th) follows Morton Harket and co. as they record new music in Bodø, Norway, 90km above the Arctic Circle.
At the more Mojo end of things, Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall 1970 screens at Everyman on Mon 12th, while City Screen are showing new documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song on Weds 14th.
And finally, Vue’s 007 season arrives at 2008’s little-loved Quantum of Solace (Sat 10th), a film which, like the team-up of Jack White and Alicia Keys for its theme song, really should have been so much better. Never mind, Skyfall’s up next!