Scary. Survival. Silly. And sisters. That’s how you can sum up this week’s diverse set of new movies at South African cinemas. Along with the four feature debuts, you can also check out Bollywood actioner Jailer 2, and the Throwback return of Sofia Coppola’s stylish, now-cult-classic Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman.
Starting with scary first, Jessica Chastain stars in supernatural horror film Other Mommy. Faced with a fracturing home life, unhappy seven-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) encounters a supernatural entity that resembles her mother, and repeatedly asks to be let into her heart. As time passes, this “Other Mommy” becomes increasingly possessive and threatening to the family. From Rob Savage, the director of Host and The Boogeyman.
Still scary, but with a survival thriller bent is Whalefall. Resident Evil’s Austin Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, a young man who goes diving off the coast of California in search of the remains of his dead father (Josh Brolin). Then the unthinkable happens, and Jay finds himself swallowed whole by a sperm whale. With less than an hour of oxygen left, Jay turns to the lessons his dad taught him to escape. Based on the novel by Daniel Kraus.
Capcom’s arcade fighting game Street Fighter gets a movie reboot with this all-star action comedy that leans hard into its colourful retro origins. In 1993, friends turned enemies Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament, a brutal battle royale. Also with the likes of David Dastmalchian. Jason Momoa, 50 Cent, Roman Reigns, Eric André and many more.
Finally there’s a fresh film take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, with the last adaptation being 1995’s Oscar-winning effort starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Elinor, and Esmé Creed-Miles is Marianne, in this tale of the Dashwood sisters, who find themselves living in a humble cottage with their mother after their father dies and they’re forced to leave their family estate. Brought low by fate, they nonetheless find love, though there’s plenty of heartbreak in the mix.