If you’re smart, you would have taken the second half of this week off in South Africa, following Wednesday’s public holiday. Cinema chains seem to be hoping for that because there are loads of new movies to choose from this weekend, in addition to two more remastered BTS concert documentaries (at select Nu Metro cinemas on 1 and 5 October); a recording of Cape Town Opera’s take on Aida (starting 27 September); Cape specific screenings of South African family drama Carissa; and the Throwback rerelease of The 40-Year Old Virgin at Ster Kinekor.
It’s Paul Thomas Anderson, but also not Paul Thomas Anderson. The acclaimed There Will be Blood, The Master, and, most recently, Licorice Pizza, filmmaker unleashes action thriller One Battle After Another on the world, with Leonardo DiCaprio leading an ensemble cast. Years after leaving a revolutionary group, paranoid stoner Bob is forced to face his past when an old military nemesis (Sean Penn) kidnaps Bob’s daughter (Chase Infiniti). Also with Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor.
Look out for our One Battle After Another review tomorrow.
We’re always here for badass older ladies on the screen, and action thriller Dead of Winter delivers that courtesy of Emma Thompson. While fishing in snowbound northern Minnesota, a reclusive widow stumbles on the kidnapping of a teenage girl. Hours from the nearest town, and without phone reception, she realises that she’s the young woman’s only hope of escape. Also with Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca and Laurel Marsden.
The smash-hit Netflix children’s show comes to the big screen in Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, which once more combines live-action and CGI, courtesy of DreamWorks Animation. Laila Lockhart Kraner reprises her role as the title character, whose trip to Cat Francisco with her grandma GiGi (Gloria Estefan), puts her dollhouse at risk. When it’s stolen by eccentric cat lady Vera (Kristen Wiig), Gabby must put on her magical head band, shrink down and work with the Gabby Cats to save the day.
Mixing comedy, drama, and a liberal serving of romance is South African-made Loved Out. Ruva (Bahumi Mhlongo) is an ambitious entrepreneur and influencer trying to hold it all together as she takes her family’s restaurant to the big leagues. Then her scandal-prone mother (Khabonina Qubeka) is kidnapped due to a mob debt. With her life in chaos, Ruva must bet everything on winning a million-dollar online competition that could change everything.
Shot with 2024’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, and upcoming Chapter 3, The Strangers: Chapter 2 is filmmaker Renny Harlin’s revival of the unsettling home invasion horror franchise. Madelaine Petsch’s character from the first film returns, with Maya having surprisingly survived overnight torture by three masked, weapon-wielding figures. The fact that Maya is alive triggers the strangers’ return, with their cruel motives as inscrutable as before.