New movies keep arriving in South African cinemas in jumbo servings. This week local film fans have four features to choose from, in addition to three more limited release options. The latter includes Bollywood crime drama Drishyam: The Conclusion; the chance to rewatch the original The Angry Birds Movie before Part 3 lands in December; and, from next week Wednesday, concert recording Queen Budapest on IMAX screens.
Arguably your biggest new release of the week is dark satirical drama Digger, which comes with serious filmmaking pedigree. The latest from Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who has made the likes of Babel, Birdman, and The Revenant, Digger stars a nearly unrecognisable Tom Cruise as a scummy oil tycoon whose company is responsible for a catastrophic climate disaster. It falls to our “hero” to act out of character and save the world. Also with Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller.
Calling fans of The Housemaid! Based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, Verity is a twisty psychological thriller that brings together Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett. Hired to ghostwrite for renowned but reclusive author Verity Crawford (Hathaway) by her husband Jeremy (Hartnett), up-and-coming Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson) discovers chilling autobiographical notes that change her perspective on Verity, and make it hard to separate fiction from reality.
Not to be confused with the Image Comics series of the same name, Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man is the first horror movie to arrive in Halloween month. From the maker of Cabin Fever, Hostel and Thanksgiving, Ice Cream Man sees an idyllic town descends into madness when a mysterious ice cream man (Ari Millen) arrives and starts serving the local kids sweet treats. Swiftly, the adolescents turn into homicidal maniacs. Weapons inspired much?
Too much intensity in this set of movie offerings? Maybe Charlie Harper will speak to you, and provide the movie entertainment you crave. Starring Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson, this heartfelt romantic drama centres on a couple who always believed they were made for each other, but as they leave home, and start their careers, they realise that they may be growing apart – and their long-imagined life together may forever remain fantasy.