It’s another lively week at the movies, as four new feature films debut. They’re joined by a few other niche experiences, like the recorded National Theatre Live production of The Fifth Step (starring Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden), Bollywood crime actioner Mirzapur: The Movie, and the Throwback return of Martin Scorsese’s gritty, all-time classic Taxi Driver, with Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster.
Sometimes you need to operate outside the law to achieve justice. That’s the premise of historical action thriller By Any Means, which is inspired by real-life events. When civil rights leaders start disappearing in 1960s Mississippi, Special FBI Agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is sent to investigate. To get to the bottom of the case, he’s forced to team-up with volatile mob hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg). Together they uncover a conspiracy that tests the limits of justice, loyalty and survival.
It got silly by the end, but for the most part, survival thriller Fall (2022) was a vertigo-inducing, breath-holding, seat-clawing experience. Especially if you’re afraid of heights. Four years, later, sequel Fall 2: Deadpoint is here to make you queasy. Grieving her daredevil sister’s death, Jax (Harriet Slater) connects with Luce (Arsema Thomas), her sister’s fearless friend, and together they decide to heal by tackling a dangerous mountainside plank walk in Thailand. When a rockslide traps them on a narrow plank 3000 feet up, they must work together to survive, opening the door to emotional closure.
If you think fondly of those chaotic, crude R-rated comedies of the Nineties and early Noughties, like There’s Something About Mary, you need to add Idiots to your watch list. Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. play the title characters – two unqualified bozos who accept a gig driving a rich teen (Mason Thames) to rehab. However, their straightforward job quickly spirals out of control as their passenger plunges them into a road trip filled with drugs, danger and crime. Also with Peter Dinklage.
South African drama Landmyn cleaned up at this year’s Silwerskerm Film Festival, taking home the awards for Best Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Female Supporting Performer. Now the Afrikaans film is getting a national release. Writer-director Nico Scheepers’ movie sees siblings Colette (Carla Smith), Johan (Ben Albertyn), and Lisa (Dhania Schultz) reunite for a winter holiday on the coast for the first time in a decade. But then their estranged mother Annatjie (Anna-Mart van der Merwe) arrives like a hurricane, forcing her children to confront how much influence she still has over their lives.