Horror to heartfelt. That’s the emotional experience offered by this week’s four new cinema releases. Screening in limited release, meanwhile, are a recording of Wagner’s Die Walküre, performed by The Royal Opera, the Met’s take on Strauss’s Salome (yes, more theatrical opera transplanted to the big screen), and the Throwback rerelease of Philadelphia, the topical AIDS drama that won Tom Hanks his first Oscar.
Halloween, Scream and upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer have all done it. Now Noughties horror hit Final Destination is getting a revival in the form of Final Destination: Bloodlines, 14 years after the last film in the death-defying franchise was released. Plagued by nightmares of disaster, college student Stefani realises she must save her family from the grisly demise, and that means turning to the person who first triggered Death’s cruel course correction.
Look out for our Final Destination: Bloodlines review soon.
Ambitious musical thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow stars Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, in his first leading film role. He plays a fictionalized version of himself: an insomniac musician on the verge of a mental breakdown, who is pulled into an existential odyssey by a mysterious stranger. Rounding out the cast are Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan.
Based on the 2018 memoir of Raynor Winn, and popping up on the Nouveau circuit, The Salt Path Life is an inspirational drama starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. They play a British couple who have lost everything, and are facing a degenerative health condition on top of it all. So, with nothing but the packs on their back, they decide to walk the 1,010 km South West Coast Path, the longest uninterrupted hiking route in England.
Also screening in limited release is musical drama Stelios, based on the life of Stelios Kazantzidis, one of the most prominent Greek singers to emerge in the 20th Century. Stemming from a refugee family, Kazantzidis managed to survive and thrive against all odds, thanks to his immense talent and resilience in the face of social and personal challenges.