From an Oscar front runner to the usual January trash dump (along with a surprise or two), here’s what is landing at South African cinemas this Friday.
In addition to the four new features below, you can also check out Bollywood human trafficking tale Mardaani 3, and the Throwback return of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, on the big screen in its extended edition format – notably for the very first time.
Let’s start with the prestige choice first. Now in running for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay is period drama Hamnet. Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao oversees this tale, which delves into the grief of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) on losing their 11-year-old son Hamnet, and how their attempts at coping lead to writing of Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet.
If you’re in the mood for something dark, sharp and different, your best bet for the week is Send Help. Evil Dead and Spider-Man’s Sam Raimi, a cult movie icon, directs Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien in this mix of survival thriller and black comedy. Linda Liddle is mistreated and underestimated by her sexist boss Bradley, but the pair’s power dynamic is turned on its head when a plane crash strands them on a deserted island. Cue a battle of wills to make it out alive.
More conventionally horror leaning is Primate, an animal attack film featuring a cast of mostly unknowns. Returning to her family’s remote Hawaiian home from college, with friends in tow, student Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) soon finds herself in a desperate fight for survival. The nightmare kicks off when the family’s hyper-intelligent pet chimpanzee Ben contracts rabies and goes on a rampage. It doesn’t sound or look like it, but apparently Primate delivers the emotionally gripping and chilling goods.
Didn’t Emma Thompson just make this movie? In actioner Shelter, Jason Statham plays Mason, a reclusive man living in a remote setting by the sea. When he rescues a girl from drowning in a storm, he’s forced out of isolation, and must confront troubled choices from his past as violence comes his way. Behind the camera for this one is Greenland, Greenland 2 and Angel Has Fallen filmmaker Ric Roman Waugh. If you want to watch Shelter, you’ll have to find a Ster Kinekor cinemas where it’s screening.