Empire UK - April 2023

Marco Vittur A GROUCHY PEDRO Pascal, navigating an unrecognisable planet on a mercenary mission, dodging sci-fi dangers while chaperoning an adorable sidekick. Yes, The Last Of Us rocks. Wait, what did you think I was talking about? Ah, The Mandalorian. The return of the Beskar badarse is imminent. And now he comes equipped with a Darksaber (think a lightsaber, but dark) as well as being reunited with Grogu (50 years old, still burbling). With hype levels hitting hyperspace, we’re celebrating the coolest Star Wars show in the Outer Rim Territories with a big old blow-out event issue. Yes, your hunt for bounty is over. Over 20 pages of world-exclusive images and interviews, we chat to Mando masterminds Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni about how they keep this show, plus several others, ticking over; hear from the creators of Grogu on how the little green dude took over planet Earth; and find out what goes into making an episode of TV’s hottest property. (Clue: a surprising amount of sea-sickness.) Walk the way of the Mandalore from page 50. Grogu sadly isn’t up for an Academy Award this year — we checked. But it still promises to be an Oscars night for the ages, full of twists and turns and clips featuring hot-dog fingers. From Paul Mescal’s Best Actor nomination to the unfortunate snubbing of Danielle Deadwyler, we rake over the highs and lows of the nominations. We also spent a day with the person behind the biggest surprise of all: Andrea Riseborough, whose performance in the little-seen To Leslie made it into the running, against all odds. Head to page 76 for our spectacular shoot with her. Oh, and we also have a great piece on The Last Of Us. No Grogu in that yet, but it’s early days.             Enjoy the issue. NICK DE SEMLYEN EDITOR @nickdesemlyen The Mandalorian is famously a man of few words; luckily we managed to squeeze some out of Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau — photographed exclusively for Empire back in December — for our cover story. See the results on page 50. HUNG OUT WITH THE MANDALORIAN TEAM PHOTOGRAPHED OSCAR NOMINEE ANDREA RISEBOROUGH Andrea Riseborough is having a moment. Very soon after the actor’s first-ever Academy Award nomination, for To Leslie, she was hanging out with Empire. Read her chat with Olly Richards, plus photography by Zoe McConnell, on page 76. SPOKE TO JASON BLUM (AND FRIEND) ON ZOOM M3GAN is the horror star du jour. Empire’s Alex Godfrey chatted to Blumhouse supremo Jason Blum on Zoom about her; the producer proudly revealed his custom-made M3GAN wig. Hear what Blum has to say on page 16. WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO THIS MONTH Marco Vittur Empire ISSN 0957-4948 (USPS 6398) is published every four weeks by H Bauer Publishing Ltd, Media House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA United Kingdom. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named World Container INC 150-15, 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA. Periodicals Postage Paid at Brooklyn, NY 11256. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Empire, Air Business Ltd, c/o World Container INC 150-15, 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA. Subscription records are maintained at Bauer Media, Subscriptions, CDS Global, Tower House, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, Leicester LE16 9EF, United Kingdom. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. SUBSCRIBE TO This month’s exclusive subscriber cover by Jacey TURN TO PAGE 10 FOR DETAILS ON HOW TO SUBSCRIBE

Spine lines issue 411: Newsstand: “San Angeles will be a beacon of order. With the purity of an ant colony” is from Demolition Man. Subs: “A wasp! Deadly. Poisonous” is from Anaconda. 12 FAST X Director Louis Leterrier tells us what to expect from the penultimate Fast & Furious movie. Namely, Dom Toretto is about to run out of road. Not surprising — a quarter of a mile isn’t that long. 22 SHAZAM!: FURY OF THE GODS Do you agree or not that the Greek goddesses Anthea, Hespera and Kalypso are a real danger to the world? “Hardcore agree,” tweeted Shazam. 24 ANTHONY MACKIE The new Captain America has A Ghost. 26 TETRIS The latest Taron Egerton film produced by Matthew Vaughn. Somehow not titled ‘Blocketman’. 33 PINT OF MILK Sam Riley lives in Germany these days. Wie viel ist ein halber milch, ja? 50 THE MANDALORIAN Pedro Pascal (and chums) gets to grip with his helmet again and travels the galaxy in the eagerly-awaited return of the Star Wars show that allows us to write sentences like “Pedro Pascal gets to grip with his helmet” without alerting HR. This is the way. 56 GROGU We want to see the baby. The inside story of the li’l green guy who first captured Werner Herzog’s heart, then everyone else’s, and became a macaron-eating, merchshifting, Mando-melting phenomenon along the way. 62 JON FAVREAU AND DAVE FILONI In conversation with the authors of all Din Djarin’s pain, the duo who are slowly annexing a corner of George Lucas’ cinematic sandpit. They have spoken. Quite a lot, as it turns out. 70 INFINITY POOL Brandon Cronenberg on his new film Infinity Pool, a horror so hardcore it may well have made even Brandon’s dad go, “Now hang on a minute, son, this is a bit much.” 76 ANDREA RISEBOROUGH The rise of Riseborough: Empire talks to the British actor who has finally bagged an Oscar nomination, for her performance in To Leslie. 82 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES Inside the latest roll of the 20-sided dice from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Game Night directors. 88 MABEL NORMAND The astonishing story of arguably the funniest — yet now forgotten — woman of the silentmovie era. 94 BILL NIGHY The greatest living Englishman? Certainly the greatest Englishman in Living. 108 BROS Still don’t think Billy Eichner looks anything like Luke Goss. Or Matt. 110 THE RANKING Al Pacino. HOO-HAH! 34 PEARL Ti West and Mia Goth reteam for their X prequel. (W was taken.) 41 SHARPER More twists than a Chubby Checker biopic directed by M. Night Shyamalan. 48 LOCKWOOD & CO. Joe Cornish is back on TV, with nary a puppet in sight. Above: Re-enter the world of The Mandalorian. Below: Saying hello — Al Pacino as Tony Montana. 6 APRIL 2023

“Ask me about my guitar.” Editor NICK DE SEMLYEN Creative Director CHRIS LUPTON Photography Director JOANNA MORAN Deputy Art Director MIKE CATHRO Features Editor ALEX GODFREY Reviews Editor JOHN NUGENT News Editor BETH WEBB Editor-At-Large HELEN O’HARA Associate Editor (Production) LIZ BEARDSWORTH Executive Editor CHRIS HEWITT Editor-In-Chief (Digital) JAMES DYER Deputy Online Editor BEN TRAVIS Social Media Editor SOPHIE BUTCHER Editorial Assistant WHITNEY JONES CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ian Freer, Boyd Hilton, Dan Jolin, Bill McConkey, Ian Nathan, Kim Newman, Nev Pierce, Paul Shipper, Adam Smith, Amon Warmann CONTRIBUTORS Words: Lillian Crawford, Kelechi Ehenulo, Tom Ellen, Hannah Ewens, Hanna Flint, Al Horner, Michael Jones, Ella Kemp, Richard Newby, Olly Richards, Mark Salisbury, Timon Singh Photographers: Dylan Coulter, Zoë McConnell, Marco Vittur Illustrations: Arn0, Neil Edwards, Jacey, Bill McConkey, Russell Moorcroft Design: Russell Moorcroft Subbing: Julie Emery, Lucy Williams Picture assistance: Giuseppe Frusteri H BAUER PUBLISHING CEO of Bauer Publishing UK Chris Duncan EA to CEO Vicky Meadows EA to CFO Stacey Thomas Group MD — Women’s Mass & Celebrity, Premium And Entertainment Helen Morris Publisher – Premium And Entertainment Lauren Holleyoake Chief Financial Officer, Bauer Magazine Media Lisa Hayden Business Analyst Alison Bennett Managing Editor — Premium and Entertainment & PA to Group MD and Publishing Director Elisha Thomas MARKETING Marketing Manager Susan Litawski Subscriptions Marketing Leah Roberts 01733468366 Newstrade Marketing Manager Karen Caruso PRODUCTION Print Production Controller Carl Lawrence 01733-468858 Ad Production Controller Jackie Doran 01733-468107 ePublishing Production Director Alan Kindell 020-7859 8604 ADVERTISING Head Of Magazine Media Clare Chamberlain Head Of Magazine Brands Anu Short MD — Bauer Media Advertising Simon Kilby Brand Director Joel Stephan 020 3879 2125 Head Of Film Sarah Clarke 020 7295 3576 Film Account Director Louise Williams 020 3879 2189 Senior Display Executive Sian Hogan 020 3879 3394 Regional Sales Manager Katie Kendall 020 7295 8560 Sales Operations Co-ordinator Talys Andres 01733 366342 Head Of Classified Ben Peck 01733 363206 Classified Sales Executive Max Garwood 01733 366405 Inserts Manager Simon Buckenham 020 7075 0812 SUBSCRIPTIONS, BACK ISSUES AND OVERSEAS SALES To ensure you don’t miss an issue visit www.greatmagazines.co.uk. 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Our Editorial Complaints Policy (including full details of how to contact us about editorial complaints and IPSO’s contact details) can be found at www.bauermediacomplaints.co.uk HOLY COMPLIMENT, BATMAN! Shout-outs to Amon Warmann and Simon Crook for their articles on Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm and Jim Carrey respectively [issue #411]. Both articles were incredibly well written and contained a great deal of pathos. Moreover, the article on Jim Carrey really dived deep into his psyche and made me reevaluate just how impactful and important an actor he is. Keep up the great work. MARTIN SMITH, VIA EMAIL The last time Jim Carrey and Batman were mentioned in the same breath, it was far less flattering. Thanks for your kind words, Martin — have a Picturehouse membership on us as thanks. CONTACT US VIA: EMPIRE MAGAZINE, THE LANTERN, 75 HAMPSTEAD ROAD, LONDON NW1 2PL [email protected] / @EMPIREMAGAZINE (#EMPIRELETTERS) / FB.COM/EMPIREMAGAZINE THE TARS ALIGN Hello there. 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No./ The Fast family approaches the finish line THIS MONTH’S ESSENTIAL FILM AND TV NEWS Director Louis Leterrier on the franchise’s dramatic penultimate chapter, FAST X. It’s boom time AT SOME POINT in 2001, Louis Leterrier and Jason Statham had a bit of time off from creating car-nage aplenty on The Transporter in Paris. So the director and his star popped along to a cinema near the Champs-Élysées to check out a new release: Rob Cohen’s The Fast And The Furious. “We watched it and we looked at each other like, ‘This changes everything,’” laughs Leterrier.  His instincts weren’t wrong. At the time, The Fast And The Furious was seen as an unexpectedly fun sleeper hit, a loose remake of Point Break with speeding cars and muscly stars, but over the years it turned into a series, which turned into a franchise, which turned into a billion-dollar behemoth. Now, it appears that this monumental journey is coming to an end, with a two-part finale beginning with this summer’s Fast X. And Leterrier (as director) and Statham (as returning hardcase Deckard Shaw) are along for the ride with Vin Diesel and company. Only this is the Fast & Furious instalment that actually might change everything. “There’s a war [ EDITED BY BETH WEBB ]

brewing,” teases the director. “It’s coming to an end, and it is a race to the finish. There will be some tremendous casualties.”  Uh-oh. Sounds like Dom Toretto and his extended family (including Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty, Sung Kang’s Han, Tyrese Gibson’s Roman, Nathalie Emmanuel’s Ramsey and Brie Larson as a mysterious character called Tess) are going to come under some seriously heavy fire this time. “When you have fought so hard to keep your faith and protect your family, and literally change the world, which is the case for Dom Toretto,” says Leterrier, “there’s a price to pay. His enemies are coming after him. There’s a total sum of enemies that are coming after him.”  Among those enemies are Charlize Theron’s master hacker, Cipher, and a new Big Bad in the sculpted shape of Jason Momoa as Dante. “He’s an incredible new character. It’s 1,000 per cent Momoa,” says Leterrier. “And they are bad news, but one is more afraid than the other. One is worse news than the other.”  This is a Fast & Furious movie, though. A grand, OTT confection where the plot twists and turns like a car doing doughnuts in a car park. It’s what Leterrier calls “the fastest telenovela of all time”. Villains often flip to become heroes, and vice versa ( just ask Statham). The dead don’t stay dead. That’s the idea here, too. “People are going to need to take sides,” says Leterrier. “Alliances will need to be made. Good guys will become bad guys, bad guys will become good guys.”  Leterrier was parachuted into the Fast X (he pronounces it “Fast Ten”, as in “fast ten your seatbelts”) mayhem at very short notice, replacing Justin Lin after filming had already begun, when Lin — who had directed five Fast movies, and is as responsible for the franchise’s upscaling as anyone — bailed, citing creative differences. It’s hard to take over any vehicle when it’s already moving, let alone one that’s barrelling along at 200 mph. Leterrier, though, has long been a fan of the franchise and was able to impact proceedings. “I’m more practical than other directors, and I brought it back to earth,” he says. “We went for real stunts, which we’re enhancing with visual effects. We shot in LA, London, Rio, Portugal. We blew up Hummers flying around Rome. There’ll be some iconic imagery in this one. You will see: as long as Dom Toretto is behind the wheel of a car, there’s nothing he cannot do.”  Leterrier says that he will be involved in Fast XI, which would be the final film in the franchise. Among his tasks for that movie: resolving the cliffhanger at the end of Fast X. Because make no mistakes, folks: there will be a cliffhanger at the end of Fast X. “This one is big,” he laughs. You know, I don’t want to oversell it, but what we’re planning on the next one is just gigantic, in terms of action, scope and emotion. You will feel all the feels. Tears will roll.” Pass the tissues, Toretto. CHRIS HEWITT FAST X IS IN CINEMAS FROM 19 MAY Clockwise from left: Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), ready to ride again; Jason Momoa as extravagantly coiffed villain Dante; Brie Larson’s Tess really wants a drink; Director Louis Leterrier with Momoa. APRIL 2023 13

Alamy, Marco Vittur. Illustration: Russell Moorcroft DC’s new breed of heroes are ready for action WATCH OUT, KEVIN Feige. With James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm of a brand-new DCU (DC Universe), Warner Bros. clearly means to match Marvel step-for-step with a superherostuffed slate replete with big guns, small guns and obscure guns, all under the auspices of the biggest Gunn of them all. HEROES RELOADED While Gal Gadot may or may not be returning as Wonder Woman, DC’s other two A-list heroes are being placed at the centre of Chapter 1 of the DCU, aka the ‘Gods And Monsters’ phase. There are plans for two separate Batman projects — Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II will debut in 2025, and see Robert Pattinson return in a project that is seen, like Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie À Deux, as separate to the DCU. But there’s also The Brave And The Bold, which will introduce another version of Batman, and team him with Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian, as the first big-screen Robin since 1997. Expect mischief: Damian is, teases Gunn, “a little son of a bitch”. Then there’s Superman: Legacy — to be written and possibly directed by Gunn — which is planned for July 2025. It will introduce a different Man Of Steel (farewell, Henry Cavill). With the studio unveiling its new super-slate, we break down the ins, outs and weaponised weasels SQUAD SPIN-OFFS After Peacemaker, two further further off-shoots from Gunn’s The Suicide Squad are incoming. The very first thing we’ll get to see from the DCU will be Creature Commandos, an animated series that will feature a cadre of colourful characters (even by Gunn’s standards), including the lanky, google-eyed Weasel. In live action, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) will bark orders at underlings again in Waller, a TV show which, with a second series of Peacemaker on hold, will see the characters from that show (including, it’s presumed, John Cena’s titular lunk) show up and butt heads with Davis’ no-nonsense bureaucrat. BRAVE NEW WORLDS For years, Green Lantern has been a four-letter word in DC circles ( just ask Ryan Reynolds), but Lanterns will introduce two Green Lanterns — John Stewart and Hal Jordan — in a cosmic HBO Max show that Safran has likened to True Detective. Only with magical rings. Paradise Lost, meanwhile, will explore the origins of Themyscira, the island of Amazonian warrior women, before Diana Prince is born. And while Gunn and Safran didn’t announce any directors, James Mangold tweeted a picture of Swamp Thing, the horror-tinged hero, suggesting he’s set to follow in Wes Craven’s footsteps by bringing the lumbering lettuce to the big screen. FROM THE FRINGES Gunn is keeping schtum on the DC futures of Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Ezra Miller (The Flash) and Zachary Levi (Shazam!) for now, but it’s clear that there will be many fresh faces. Booster Gold will see a hapless bloke from the future travel back in time and claim to be a superhero, while The Authority will turn Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch’s team of hardcore super-antiheroes into a movie. Whatever happens, the MCU clearly has stiff competition for the first time in ages. Let battle commence. CHRIS HEWITT Clockwise from main: Who you calling a weasel? — Creature Commandos; The Authority; Paradise Lost will explore the origin of the island inhabited by Amazonian warrior women, Themyscira. No./ 14 APRIL 2023

No./3 IN RECENT YEARS, the number of Black and brown heroes on screen has risen, and I’ve watched with gleeful excitement as Shuri, Miles Morales and more have taken centre stage and saved the day. But Black and brown villains are few and far between. It’s a point raised by Kumail Nanjiani, who recently described his desire to play the baddie, referencing Sebastian Stan’s creepy cannibal in Fresh. “He does these big Marvel movies, and then he’ll play a psychopath,” he said. “I was told that’s going to be hard because people don’t want to cast non-white people as bad guys.” Nanjiani has now got his wish, as slippery Somen Banerjee in Welcome To Chippendales. And with hype for Jonathan Majors’ big bad Kang in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania at an all-time high, Hollywood seems to be coming back around.    The fear is that casting people of colour as evildoers will lead to accusations of stereotyping and racism. But some of the greatest performances by actors of colour have come when they’re allowed to break bad. Think Denzel Washington’s complex, swaggering turn as Alonzo in Training Day, or Giancarlo Esposito’s smart and slicksuited drug Kingpin Gus Fring in Breaking Bad IT’S TIME FOR NONWHITE ACTORS TO BREAK BAD AGAIN Hollywood producers are apparently afraid of. It’s why Marwan Kenzari’s basic, reductive Sabbac in Black Adam stands in stark contrast to Tenoch Huerta’s Namor, and especially Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, the latter managing to remain relatable and even earn some sympathy despite his evil deeds.      Picking up the malignant Marvel mantle, Majors as Kang is set to push Black villainy to exciting new heights. Getting to see different versions of the same bad guy across multiple MCU entries should be the best example yet of the great work that can come when actors of colour aren’t limited by decision-makers. It’s good that Hollywood is thinking about the type of characters actors of colour should play. But they must be careful not to over-sanitise — playing a good guy is great. But playing the bad guy, when it’s done right, can be even better.  — multifaceted characters fully in charge of their villainy.    And that’s the key. If today’s villains of colour are written as one-dimensional foes for the hero to take down — like Michael Clarke Duncan’s Kingpin in 2003’s Daredevil — then those films and TV shows risk running headfirst into the stereotypes that some Bad to the bone: Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. CLASSIC PICK OF THE MONTH SHAFT (1971) Richard Roundtree is cool and commanding as Shaft, the swaggering “Black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks”. An iconic Blaxploitation flick, with a theme song by Isaac Hayes that has stood, and will continue to stand, the test of time. AMON WARMANN chews over the main moment in Black film and TV this month With Michelle Yeoh calling for a musical EEAAO spinoff, we imagine the perfect accompanying songs EVERY-SING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE ‘LAUNDROMAT POP & LOCK’ A lively opening number that, via the medium of pop and lock, introduces Michelle Yeoh’s laundromat owner Evelyn and husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and their journey from China to the States in the hopes of creating a bright future for themselves.  ‘MARCH OF THE FANNY PACK’ In the movie, an accessory-based showdown saw Waymond, armed only with his trusty fanny pack, take on a hoard of IRS cronies. This vibrantly choreographed version sees dancing bum-bags face their enemies, West Side Story-style. ‘HOT DOG FINGERS CONCERTO’ In one of EEAAO’s many multiverses, Jamie Lee Curtis’ IRS inspector plays the piano with her feet as her fingers are, obviously, hot dogs. For the musical, a custom piano is built to accommodate said fingers, resulting in an impassioned, orchestra-backed piano performance like no other. ‘EVERYTHING BAGEL BLUES’ A sultry, sad solo from Joy (Stephanie Hsu), Waymond and Evelyn’s frustrated daughter, about the metaphorical everything-bagel black hole created by her multiverse alias. Kicking off with the excellently delivered line from the film: “Sucked… into… a bagel…” ‘THE RACACOONIE RUMBLE’ In the film, Evelyn’s misinterpretation of the popular Pixar flick became its own sentimental subplot, complete with deception, loss, and a rescue mission. Could this be a stage production in its own right? It worked for Ratatouille The Musical! But here, an energetic puppet-led sequence with Evelyn and the off-brand critter does the trick.  BETH WEBB APRIL 2023 15

Pull out the big guns with a scissor kickflip that would make Patrick Swayze blush. A robotic jut of the head instantly engages your victim with a deadly dance. Let all your AI inhibitions go with a series of wildly swinging windmill arms. Use your surroundings! A cute donkey kick off a nearby wall? Why not? 1 2 3 4 No./ M3GAN: from AI to A-lister Blumhouse’s JASON BLUM on the doll’s phenomenal success — and sequel JASON BLUM WANTS to show us his wig. Well, not his own wig as such, but the wig he wore when, weeks before M3GAN hit cinemas, Blumhouse’s CEO dressed as the soon-to-be iconic character for Halloween. “That’s real hair, by the way,” he says, proudly, via video chat. Presumably the entire costume was specially made for the occasion? “Yes, of course. I mean, you don’t find a M3GAN outfit in my size off the rack,” he deadpans. That might change soon. Since the release of the horror film about an AI doll, built for parenting assistance before going, well, on a psychotic murder spree, M3GAN has been ubiquitous. There’ll be an army of them on the streets come next Halloween. “There will be,” laughs Blum. “We’ll shoot that for the DVD.” He laughs a lot during our interview — so would you if your film, which had a reported budget of $12 million, made $150 million at the box office (so far). Other than the fact that it is so fantastically entertaining, Blum thinks its success is down to a unique tone, just at the right time. “There’s been a real shortage of movies that are fun,” he says, alluding to the fact that M3GAN is as wildly comedic as it is stressful, not least with the doll’s already-iconic dance sequence (see below). “We’re coming out of Covid, and I think sometimes Hollywood is a little tone-deaf, with all these serious, serious movies. Obviously it’s important to provide movies that make people think, but it’s also important to provide an escape. And M3GAN is an escape.” Its success has delighted him, and not just financially. “With the rise of streaming, it’s more complicated than ever to get a movie to connect theatrically,” he says, explaining that doing that with a $300 million event movie is one thing, but having it happen with such a (relatively) small production is not so common. “This has showed that in a post-Covid world, and a post-streaming world, if you tell a very clever, fun, interesting story, there’s an audience who will go pay to see your movie.” And of course, a sequel is on the way. “James Wan is one of the most creative, inventive people I know,” says Blum of the film’s co-story writer. “He’s an idea machine, and as we were winding up the movie he had about seven different ideas Your step-by-step guide to striking a pose, M3GAN-style DO THE ROBOT WORDS BETH WEBB ILLUSTRATIONS BILL McCONKEY

Did we say big guns? We meant a paper-trimmer blade. Any weapon will do for your gory finale. 5 Rye Lane director Raine Allen-Miller on showing a different side to her city South London gets its romcom moment WHEN RYE LANE director Raine Allen-Miller thinks of her native South London, she thinks of jerk seasoning, bright colours, and… pooches in strollers. She loves it so much that she’s made her unconventional romcom — and directorial debut — a tribute to the area. “It’s an amazing cultural hub, and the oddness is brilliant,” she tells Empire. “You get people walking around with a dog in a pram, and fake Louis Vuitton laundry bags. There’s nowhere like it.” Here’s her guide to the neighbourhood…  THE LANE The film’s main characters, Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson), meet in the unisex toilets of Copeland Art Gallery, before spilling out onto one of London’s busiest streets, Rye Lane. “Art is usually quite inaccessible, you feel like you have to have a degree to understand it,” Allen-Miller says. “I didn’t want the gallery to feel like an exclusive, Mayfair-esque place. It felt nice to have them come out of a gallery and be plunked in the middle of a busy multicultural street.”  THE KARAOKE BAR Yas and Dom stop by a karaoke bar on their mission to find a key to Yas’ ex-boyfriend’s flat, and are cajoled into of what the sequel could be.” Blumhouse has announced that M3GAN 2.0 will be among us in January 2025. For the M3GAN army, two years is a long way away. “We’ve got to write a script. I mean, you gotta give us a little bit of time,” laughs Blum. The point, he says, is that they want to get it right, having learned lessons from past franchises like the Paranormal Activity movies that would come out every year. “The creative process suffers when you do that,” he reflects. “You pretend you’re not making compromises, but you always do. So I wanted to give us enough time to make the movie great, and we have that now. And we have the whole team coming back, we’re not having to hire a writer or a director — all those people are in place.” The M3GAN stans will have to wait. Until then, there’s always Halloween. ALEX GODFREY No./ Clockwise from left: M3GAN boots up; Flesh-andblood M3GANs at a special NY screening of the movie; Director Gerard Johnstone on set; All dressed up: Jason Blum in his specially made Halloween outfit. a rendition of Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Shoop’. “The beauty of that bar is that it’s narrow. I really like spaces that feel big and have depth, and this felt bigger than it was,” says Allen-Miller of Tola — which isn’t usually a karaoke spot. “It was important to support local business. I didn’t want to find a location somewhere else that looked perfect — it had to be in Peckham.”  THE CINEMAS South London cinemas the Ritzy Picturehouse and Peckhamplex are both given the romcom treatment in Rye Lane. The latter, a multiplex with pink, ’80s-style interiors, barely needed any tweaks to fit Allen-Miller’s vision. “I really like incorporating as much colour as possible [into my work]. I’m known for wanting to paint every location, because I really don’t like white walls,” the director says. “You don’t need to do any production design in Peckhamplex; it’s already perfect! That’s the beauty of South London, so much of it is already so colourful. I like things to feel juicy all the time.” Richard Curtis had better be taking notes. ELLA KEMP  RYE LANE IS IN CINEMAS FROM 17 MARCH Clockwise from above: Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) on Peckham’s Rye Lane; Popcorn time at the Brixton Ritzy Picturehouse; Karaoke king and queen. Getty Images APRIL 2023 17

No./ The twists and turns of the Oscars race From big risks to a year of dicks, this year’s list of ACADEMY AWARDS contenders came with highs and lows aplenty IT WAS A nominations announcement to remember. Co-hosts Allison Williams and Riz Ahmed brought their own unique energy to the proceedings, from Williams quipping that Ahmed was easier to work with than her AI co-star in M3GAN to Ahmed’s droll delivery of the title of Best Animated Short contender My Year Of Dicks (“We’ve been delighted at the hot takes,” the film’s writer, Pamela Ribon, tells Empire of the resulting internet chatter). But the most major moments came with the revealed Academy shortlist, which this year proved to be especially unpredictable. We break down the big talking points.  HAPPY SURPRISES ANOTHER ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT SHELL-SHOCK  The World War I trench drama — adapted from German veteran Erich Maria Remarque’s acclaimed book — released on Netflix to little fanfare last October. But, in awards season as on the battlefield, momentum can swing suddenly. Which is how director Ed Berger’s epic ended up adding nine Oscar nods to the record-equalling 14 it picked up in the race for the BAFTAs.  THE ANDREA RISEBOROUGH GAMBLE PAYS OFF  In a sensational twist, a sudden wave of public praise from big-hitters like Jane Fonda, Edward Norton and Kate Winslet (who called Riseborough’s work “the greatest female performance on screen I have ever seen in my life”) skyrocketed the actor’s under-the-radar turn as an alcoholic single mother in To Leslie to the Best Actress shortlist in a matter of weeks. Head to page 76 to read Riseborough speaking firsthand about her wild month.  ANGELA BASSETT MAKES MARVEL-AT-THEOSCARS HISTORY  It took 30 films, but Marvel finally has an acting nominee thanks to Angela Bassett’s powerhouse performance as the grieving Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Is this nomination a stepping stone (or indeed, an Endgame-style portal) to more awards recognition for Kevin Feige’s superhero stable? Bassett’s odds are vibranium-strong.  STEPHANIE HSU GETS HER DUES  Stephanie Hsu missing out on BAFTA and Golden Globes nods for her Everything Everywhere All At Once breakout performance has been one of this awards season’s biggest sore points. But her supercharged performance as a neglected, bagel-obsessed queen of darkness has earned her Academy recognition. “I really feel like any time good news happens, it’s not just for me, it’s for so many other people as well who don’t get to be seen,” the actor said of her nomination. PAUL MESCAL HITS BIG It’s rare that a young star gets a Best Actor nod for their first leading role, let alone one for a British indie from a first-time director. Yet Normal People breakout Mescal has done just that for his soulful turn in Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun. Where his performance had audiences reaching for tissues, it could now have him reaching for a trophy.  IN FACT, THE IRISH HIT EVERYWHERE  From the nine nods for The Banshees Of Inisherin, including a first-time nomination for Colin Farrell, to Best International Feature shortlister 18 APRIL 2023

The Quiet Girl — a film featuring dialogue exclusively in Ireland’s native tongue — this is a huge year for the country’s cinematic exports.  UNEXPECTED SNUBS RRR MISSES OUT  Sure, there was a Best Original Song nomination for the Indian epic’s show-stopping ‘Naatu Naatu’, but no Best Picture or Best Director love despite a groundswell of momentum — including a lengthy public endorsement from James Cameron — around S.S. Rajamouli’s Tollywood epic. What’s Telugu for, “Come on, Academy voters, didn’t you see the scene with the tiger fight”?  LEADING BLACK WOMEN GET NO LOVE  Hotly rumoured contenders Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis didn’t earn recognition for their performances for Till and The Woman King respectively. Deadwyler’s snub caused Till director Chinonye Chukwu to take to social media to call out the “unabashed misogyny towards Black women” within the industry.  MISSED OPPORTUNITIES FOR FEMALE DIRECTORS Chukwu was among those omitted from the allmale Best Director nominations line-up, alongside The Woman King’s Gina Prince-Bythewood and Women Talking’s Sarah Polley, calling into question just how far Hollywood is striving for parity among its filmmakers. AL HORNER From Michelle Yeoh to Jennifer Coolidge, Hollywood is giving sexagenarians their due No./ The rise of the 60+ female star DURING HER OPENING monologue with Amy Poehler at the 2014 Golden Globes, Tina Fey cracked a joke: “Meryl Streep is so brilliant in August: Osage County, proving that there are still great parts in Hollywood for Meryl Streeps over 60.” Indeed, the industry has largely under-served women in the 60-and-over bracket since its genesis, with the exception of Streep or, more recently, Frances McDormand. As late as 2021, a US study — titled ‘It’s A Man’s (Celluloid) World’ — concluded that in the topgrossing films of that year, only six per cent of speaking characters were women over 60 (11 per cent were men in that age bracket).  Yet at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, nine years after Fey’s takedown, there came glimmers of hope. Sixty-year-old Michelle Yeoh was crowned Best Actress In A Motion Picture — Musical Or Comedy. “Forty years... not letting go of this,” said the Everything Everywhere All At Once star while clutching her trophy. Sixty-four-yearold Angela Bassett claimed Best Supporting Actress for playing matriarch Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with an Oscar nomination hard on its heels. Jennifer Coolidge, fresh from her Emmy win, scooped another prize for playing the troubled, tragic Tanya in The White Lotus. The 61-year-old actor, who returned for the show’s second season, has spent her career playing the best friend, or in her own words “weirder people”, Getty Images. Illustration: Mike Cathro only getting her big break in recent years.  It took Coolidge’s longtime friend, the show’s creator Mike White, to pull her in from the periphery and give her a role that was still weird, but more worthy of her sensibilities. Similarly, EEAAO filmmakers Daniels wrote the role of Evelyn — a struggling Chinese-American laundromat owner — with Yeoh in mind. The film became 2022’s biggest box-office surprise success, making over $105 million on a $14 million budget. Yeoh recalled to Empire her emotional response to finally reading a script about an ageing “superhero”, and how it made her relatable to a new wave of younger fans. “They get it right away,” she said of the film’s themes of intergenerational trauma. “They come up to me on the street and say, ‘You’re pretty cool.’”  And audiences’ appetite for these characters doesn’t appear to be dwindling. The acclaimed comedy Hacks — which follows Deborah Vance, a legendary stand-up regaining autonomy in her later years — is now entering its third season. Seventy-oneyear-old Jean Smart stars in her first leading role in decades as Vance, and has earned a flurry of awards for her acerbic, complex performance. This uptick in major roles for sexagenarian women has resulted in lucrative, golden-trophy-spouting, undeniable success. Streep and McDormand have suddenly got a whole lot of company. BETH WEBB Clockwise from top: Angela Bassett; Jennifer Coolidge; Michelle Yeoh; Jean Smart. Going for gold: The list of 2023’s Oscar nominees features some unexpected names — such as Andrea Riseborough, Stephanie Hsu and Paul Mescal — but a few glaring omissions. APRIL 2023 19

THERE’S A PHRASE famous among screenwriters, “Save the cat” — referring to a moment early on in a movie when a character is kind to an animal, to signal to the audience that they’re a nice person. “‘Drug the bear’ is its crazy-fun, very violent cousin,” laughs Jimmy Warden, the writer behind buzzy upcoming comedy-thriller Cocaine Bear. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, the film was inspired by a post Warden spotted on Twitter in 2019: a screengrab of an article about a real-life bear who, in the mid-1980s, consumed a package of drugs, discarded in the woods during a botched drug heist. “The caption was something like: ‘This bear must have been the most dangerous apex predator on Earth,’” Warden recalls. “And I just thought, ‘How do you not make that a movie?!’”  Producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller agreed, Banks came on board to direct, and the finished film promises furry, violent, entirely fictional hijinks aplenty. At first glance, the story of a bear higher than Scarface and even more murderous might seem like a unique cinematic proposition. Warden, though, says the film in fact harks back to one of the earliest and most iconic creature-features. “There’s a King Kong sort of framework to it,” the writer explains. “I wanted to create an empathy for the bear like Kong. He’s not the bad guy in this story. He’s just doing what a bear does — it’s the drugs that have made him insane.”  It was important to approach the bear as a character, Warden says, with a distinct personality beyond his sharp claws and blood-lusty roar. “I put a lot of my trust in the people doing the CG to make it realistic, knowing that if they achieved a photo-realism that grounded the animal in reality, I could go crazy with what the bear does in the script.” How crazy did he go? “Oh, I did not hold back,” grins the writer. “The script was very bloody and crazy from day one. You don’t make a movie called Cocaine Bear then limp to an R-rating. You give How Cocaine Bear got uncaged JIMMY WARDEN, the writer of the year’s grizzliest thriller, on how he found ursine inspiration the audience what they deserve.”  Good news for us — but bad news for the not-so-happy campers about to encounter the creature in this movie. When those characters go down to the woods next month, they’re in for a very big surprise. AL HORNER  COCAINE BEAR IS IN CINEMAS FROM 24 FEBRUARY Top to bottom: For some reason, the bear couldn’t stop roaring; Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and Stache (Aaron Holliday) absorb a startling sight; Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) makes a sensible move; “Police! Stash it!” No./ 20 APRIL 2023

features in a supporting role, with Lesley Sharp cast opposite Jones), then was taken to Wainwright to flesh out. She wrote 19 episodes, the result one of the most authentic and involving of UK cop shows. McMAFIA (PRIME VIDEO) James Norton’s performance as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley turned him into one of the all-time great TV psychopaths. In the break between series two and three, Norton took on the similarly charismatic role of investment banker Alex Goldman in this ambitious eightparter. Goldman starts out as a slick but essentially upstanding British citizen, but when his family connections to the Russian Mafia start to impinge on his life, his moral compass gets increasingly wayward. It’s this series which led to speculation linking Norton with the role of James Bond, which makes total sense when you watch him in his suit grappling with Russian heavies. HAPPY VALLEY IS OUT NOW ON BBC iPLAYER JULIA (SKY ON DEMAND/NOW) While Sarah Lancashire — Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood — is superb in every show in which she’s appeared, her take on US TV chef Julia Child in this HBO Max series from last year proves how extraordinarily versatile she is. Her version of Child (played by Meryl Streep in movie Julie & Julia) is as disarmingly light and charming as Sergeant Cawood is scarily intense. A second season of this delightful show is on the way. SCOTT & BAILEY (ITVX) TV snobs might have dismissed this “Cagney & Lacey of Manchester” when it aired over five series from 2011 to 2016, but it showcases some of Sally Wainwright’s most powerful writing. The idea of a British drama centred on two no-nonsense female detectives came from actors Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay (who only UNFORGIVEN (ITVX) This 2009 three-parter from Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright feels in retrospect like a bit of a dry run for that series, sharing as it does many of the same thematic concerns, as well as its Halifax setting. Suranne Jones plays Ruth Slater, newly released from prison having served time for killing two police officers when she was a teenager. She tries to find her sister, who was adopted soon after Slater’s conviction, but faces the anger and vengeful attacks of the locals who know her story. Also starring Happy Valley’s Siobhan Finneran in a key role, Unforgiven is thrilling yet thoughtful at the same time. You fell in love with that incredible new TV show. And then it ended! Don’t despair — Boyd Hilton recommends the sibling shows to watch next IF YOU LOVED... NEXT IN THE SERIES No./9 H A P P Y VA L L E Y INTO BATTLE With 2000’s Gladiator earning half a billion dollars, work swiftly began on a sequel. The original film’s screenwriter, John Logan, wrote a story exploring, somehow, the return of Maximus (the afterlife was involved), while also focusing on his son Lucius. Ridley Scott, it would become apparent, could not let go of Maximus... CHRIST KILLER Around 2006, this resulted in a Nick Cave screenplay called ‘Christ Killer’, in which Maximus is sent back to Earth as a warrior for Roman gods. There he kills Jesus, so stopping Christianity in its tracks, becomes immortal, fights in the Vietnam War and ends up working in The Pentagon. Scott then decided, actually, no. MAXIMUS LIVES “I know how to bring him back,” Scott told press of his dead Roman hero in 2017, suggesting a Crowe-led sequel was still on the cards. “Russell’s changed a little bit,” he offered. The film, written by Peter Craig, was now once again said to be set around 30 years on from the first, focusing on Lucius. ENTER MESCAL In 2021, Scott told Empire that he would direct the sequel after his Napoleon biopic (now in the can). With a new draft written by All The Money In The World’s David Scarpa, the final iteration looks set to star Aftersun’s Paul Mescal. As Lucius? Maybe. Will this definitely happen? Hopefully. It’s about time. ALEX GODFREY No./10 THE ROAD BACK TO THE COLOSSEUM With Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel seemingly finally ready to go, we unleash 23 years of development hell Alamy, Getty Images APRIL 2023 21

No./ Meet the godly sisters taking on Shazam HELEN MIRREN, LUCY LIU and RACHEL ZEGLER reveal the highs and lows of their magic-wielding DC debut A TRIPLE THREAT is unleashed in Shazam! Fury Of The Gods in the form of the Daughters Of Atlas. Hespera, Kalypso and Anthea — Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler — enter the DCEU as mythical antagonists hellbent on retrieving their powers from Zachary Levi’s wizard and his found family. Speaking with Empire, the actors break down their villainous team-up.  What was the key to playing the nymphdaughters of Atlas?  Helen Mirren: It’s tough when you’re playing a goddess, honestly. You have power, a visceral aura or sense of superiority, that’s for sure. Gods are supposed to know everything, but the physical complications of a human character don’t really come into it.  Lucy Liu: Within that world of fantasy we were able to still play the dynamic in a grounded way of ourselves as siblings. There’s an energy and an order to it. That’s what we played on camera, but behind the scenes, there was this crazy chemistry between us that continues on. And we are all like soulmates.  Mirren: Shazam! is all about family. That’s one of the most important driving elements and why I think people love the movies. I’m not used to being an older sister, which I was in this particular group, because I have an older sister. So I really understood the dynamic between the youngest sister [Zegler’s Anthea] and the oldest. How did you solidify the sisterly bond?  Rachel Zegler: We went shopping for Helen’s birthday.  Liu: We were bargain shopping — we had a paper-bag lunch together. It was nice to know that you don’t have to be fancy with each other. That is the most crucial way to understand that we all have different backgrounds, and we all struggled to get to where we are.  Mirren: The other thing we bonded over was that we were unbelievably uncomfortable in our costumes. We totally bonded out of our sense of suffering with getting through the day!  What was the weirdest thing you had to do for the shoot? Liu: Working against the blue-screen. There’s a lot of imagination and David [F. Sandberg, the film’s director] is not a man of many words. He’ll say things like, “More,” and we just look at each other like, ”Okay, let’s just do it bigger.” You think, “Oh God, this is really over-acting.” But it ended up looking fantastic.  Mirren: The other challenge for me was the young actors who were so good and inspiring, especially Jack [Dylan Grazer], but I could never understand a word they were saying. It was the moment I realised life has moved on in a way that I couldn’t quite grasp.  Zegler: I’m three years older than Jack and couldn’t understand stuff! There were times where Helen turned to me and asked me about what a certain slang word meant and I was like, “I have no idea.”  Did you have a choreographer to work on the film’s magical elements? Liu: Some of the [scenes using] props had to be choreographed because even though we were goddesses, they were very heavy. They were like, “Can you pick [the staff ] up and walk over?” I was like, “I can’t!”  Zegler: I remember [prop master] Vinny [Mazzarella] asked you to pick it up with one arm.  Liu: Yes, so the choreography was just not stumbling and looking weak. The first scene that Helen and I had, we had to walk down these stairs with these incredible creatures, and the steps were a quarter of the size of their feet.  Mirren: And we had huge high heels on. 

very technical. It’s the creation of a world using incredible artisanal abilities.  Zegler: A lot of that gets swept to the side when talking about franchise films and superhero movies. They’re true artists who are making something out of literally nothing. Do you have a favourite DC movie?  Zegler: The Christopher Nolan Batman movies are amazing and Heath Ledger as the Joker is an iconic, Oscar-winning performance. Those movies were so influential to me in [making me love] the lore of the comic-book world.  Mirren: I know a lot about Shakespeare. I know nothing about comics.  Liu: And that’s why she is a goddess! HANNA FLINT SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS IS IN CINEMAS FROM 17 MARCH Clockwise from main: Kalypso (Lucy Liu), Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler); “He’s behind you!”; When Shazam met Hespera. Liu: So we had to wait for those guys to rehearse how to walk down the stairs without falling on their faces in order for us to feel like these powerful goddesses in our introduction in the movie. These poor guys. They couldn’t see because of the costumes; their eyes were at a different place than they were anatomically.  Mirren: It’s not a normal acting experience. It’s APRIL 2023 23

THE DAWN OF a new era of Anthony Mackie is upon us. The MCU stalwart, who rose through Hollywood via small roles in prestige dramas (and Best Picture winners) like Million Dollar Baby and The Hurt Locker, is now soaring into a fresh phase of his career. Soon enough we’ll see him assume the Captain America mantle in Captain America: New World Order after nearly a decade of playing Sam ‘The Falcon’ Wilson, and before then, he plays a difficult dad in the Amblin-style comedy-horror We Have A Ghost, alongside David Harbour as a lost, friendly spectre who befriends his son. He gives Empire the skinny on what lies ahead.   We Have A Ghost sees you in your first major dad role. Was this a conscious effort to move into more familycentric stories?  Being a dad, I wanted to do something fun that my kids would enjoy. Growing up, we had so many family-friendly horrors. One of my favourites was Gremlins. There were so many movies that I could sit down with my parents and watch which had a really heartfelt meaning, but also you were able to be scared and just enjoy it. And I really wanted to work with Chris [Landon, the film’s writerdirector] because I love all his movies. So it was like killing two birds with one stone.  Do you have a take on ghosts?  I believe in them. I live in an old house in New Orleans that was built in 1868, and the first day I had my family over, my brother was looking out the window, and he was like, “This house is haunted.” So he gave the ghost a name, and I was like, “Yo, you can have the house, but I’m out.”  Jennifer Coolidge plays a TV medium in the film. What was she like to film with?  There’s no way two per cent of the stuff she was doing could make it into the movie; it was just so off-the-wall and so funny and so unique and so fresh. There’s a scene where we’re all in the house, and she’s flirting with me. That wasn’t written in the script, it was just her doing that. I looked at Chris like, “I don’t know…” and he’s like, “It’s great. Keep going!” She’s just a really sweet woman and everything you expect her to be.  When the Avengers come back, they’ll need a leader. Do you think that Sam Wilson could be that guy?  Sam is the only character without superpowers. He’s just a regular dude hanging out with a bunch of weirdos. Being from New Orleans, I’ve been in a few fights. And heart and charisma never helped me in a fight. That usually just got me beat up. So that might cause an issue when you go fight somebody like Thanos.   You make sure to correct people who call Sam the ‘Black Captain America’. He’s just ‘Captain America’...  If you look at Captain America and you look at me being a Black dude in America, that question is going to be raised. But at no point in my career have I ever labelled or restricted myself by my race, my economic background, or my gender. It’s the same thing with being Captain America. When you look at a superhero, they’re superheroes. They’re characters that we should look to for leadership. And race doesn’t play into that. As long as he’s a good person, every kid of every race can admire him and look up to him. When I grew up, I didn’t know Superman was white until I was a grown man. He was fucking Superman, you know?  Harrison Ford’s first MCU film is Captain America: New World Order. How excited are you to be working with him?  I met Harrison at the beginning of my career. I did this movie called Hollywood Homicide, and played this character who had two scenes. It was an amazing opportunity to work with him and hear his stories. It was the first time I met a movie star and somebody who had a charisma and charm that would affect an entire room. I’ve never seen anything like that before or since.  Do you still say, “Cut the cheque!” after doing a great take on set?  That’ll always be my line. I don’t need five or six takes. I know when a take is good. I’m working on a movie with my good friend George Nolfi right now. It’s gotten to the point where he literally yells, “Cut the cheque!” at me when he’s ready to move on [laughs]. AMON WARMANN  WE HAVE A GHOST IS ON NETFLIX FROM 24 FEBRUARY Top to bottom: Anthony Mackie is flying high; Frank Presley (Mackie) with his son, observed by resident ghost Ernest (David Harbour). “‘Cut the cheque!’ will always be my line on set. I know when a take is good” [ THE Q&A ] With his fun family horror We Have A Ghost incoming and Marvel trajectory rising, ANTHONY MACKIE is suiting up for his next chapter No./12 24 APRIL 2023

Mike Ruiz/Contour by Getty Images TRIANGLE OF SADNESS Rocky seas plus haute cuisine cause projectile problems for the privileged in Ruben Östlund’s visceral 15-minute vomit-fest. Kudos to the sequence’s MVP: Sunnyi Melles, a real-life princess who can throw up on command. THE WHITE LOTUS: SEASON 2 Mike White’s Sicilian-set satire climaxed in an offshore shoot-up that was deliciously daft and tragic, with Jennifer Coolidge leaving no doubt that her renaissance has (sea) legs. Television that is hard to beat. GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY Benoit Blanc and co. sail out to Miles Bron’s (Edward Norton) Grecian getaway on his fancy yacht. With Miles serenading his pals upon arrival, this vessel may as well be named HMS Douchebag. Proof that theatrics thrive on open water WORDS BETH WEBB ILLUSTRATIONS BILL McCONKEY DRAMABEARING YACHTS No./14 WHEN JAMES CAMERON first briefed his design team on Payakan — the feisty ‘space whale’ who’s become Avatar: The Way Of Water’s surprise star — they immediately began thinking about how to unlock his relatability. “Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc. was a reference,” laughs production designer Dylan Cole. “It started as a joke, but it’s 100 per cent the same problem: how much can you express with just an eye?”  In Payakan’s case: quite a lot. “You read Payakan through it,” says concept artist Constantine Sekeris. “He’s not some killing machine: he’s a hero. An outcast, [trying] to prove himself worthy.” Lead creature designer Zach Berger adds: “He’s a freedom fighter. The other [tulkun] are passive, but Payakan sticks up for himself. There’s something relatable in that.”  And this outcast freedom fighter has been making waves with audiences. Since The Way Of Water opened, recently passing the $2 billion mark at the global box office, fans have gone mad for the aquatic exile, creating Payakan artwork, a song and even having him etched on their skin. “It’s just a great design,” says Avatar fan Christophe Abi Akle, who boasts a tulkun tattoo. “The double fin, the snout. I liked the idea behind [Payakan], too: you can’t always solve things with peace and philosophy. Sometimes you need action!”  Said song — ‘Jump, Jump Payakan’ — comes courtesy of Scott Gairdner, host of podcast The Ride. “The Payakan revenge sequence was like watching an athletic event. People in the theatre were standing, screaming, cheering,” he recalls. “It felt like an iconic moment. Payakan encapsulates everything that’s great about Avatar: beautiful to look at, disarmingly sincere, with surprisingly gritty action.”   For the designers, witnessing Payakanmania has been “surreal”, laughs Berger. “An incredible rush.” Cole adds: “You never know how these things will land. On paper, [the tulkun] could sound silly, but once the characters are invested in Payakan, the viewer is, too. You’re along for the ride with him.” And the ride isn’t over. With Payakan confirmed to return for the next chapter, fans can look forward to diving deeper into the world of the elevated whale, with Cole confirming that they will be “exploring the whole tulkun culture and their hierarchies”. Brace yourself for the Tulkun Extended Universe. TOM ELLEN AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER IS IN CINEMAS NOW Payakan-mania explained The Avatar: The Way Of Water scene-stealer’s designers and fans on why this hyper-whale is winning hearts Top to bottom: Surprise star tulkun Payakan gets close to Lo’ak (Britain Dalton); Having a floating good time together. No./ APRIL 2023 25

No./ [ ON-SET REPORT ] The iconic game’s genesis gets a dramatic adaptation for Apple TV+ WHERE: Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Scotland  WHEN: 17/18 February 2021  WHY? “They’re making a movie about Tetris? With the falling blocks?” asks the server at an Edinburgh burger restaurant when Empire tells him why we’re in town. The answer is yes, and no. Director Jon S. Baird is making a movie about Tetris, but it’s not a Pixels-style adaptation of the insanely addictive video game. Instead, this is the Big Short-esque story of the cut-throat battle to secure the rights to the game, which involved disparate players like Robert Maxwell (yes, that one, played by Roger Allam),  underdog video-game designer and entrepreneur Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton), and the Russian creator of the game, Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov).  WHAT IS BEING FILMED? In Edinburgh, doubling for the Kremlin, Robert Maxwell (Allam looking uncannily like the infamous tycoon, thanks to prosthetics from Mark Coulier, who transformed John C. Reilly into Oliver Hardy for Baird’s Stan & Ollie) is with son Kevin (Anthony Boyle). They’re mid-showdown with Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev (Matthew Marsh) in an attempt to get a leg-up in the race for the rights to Tetris. It doesn’t end well, with Maxwell Sr. hissing, “Get me Tetris!” at his hapless son. The next day, in an industrial estate on the fringes of Aberdeen that has somehow become Nintendo HQ in Tokyo for the afternoon, it’s Taron time as we watch Egerton don a fake moustache and a cheap suit and, as Henk Rogers, charm and then trick his way past reception in an attempt to blag a meeting with Nintendo’s big boss.  WHAT’S EGERTON SAYING? He’s excited to reteam with Matthew Vaughn for the fifth time, with this being the third time that the producer-star duo have made a true-life tale, following Eddie The Eagle and Rocketman. The indefatigable and nakedly ambitious Henk Rogers, though, is nowhere near as well-known as either Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards or Elton ‘The Rocketman’ John. “I wanted to do something that feels really different,” he tells Empire, while we try not to get distracted by his dog, Nelly. “I love the story, and I really love this character. He’s just a big fucking puppy. Anything and everything that can go wrong does in his pursuit of this thing, which is his desire to get rich, to help Alexey, and to bring this game to the world in a way that isn’t crooked.” And the ’tache? “The one that God gave me, shall we say, is not as impressive. But I love the way it looks. It makes me feel quite different. In my head, I’m Clark Gable. But I probably look like fuckin’ Luigi brought to life.” ANYTHING UNUSUAL? The set visit is roughly a year into the pandemic, just as some regulations are being relaxed. But Edinburgh and Aberdeen are still largely deserted, with masks all over the place, so sightseeing is right out. Not that Baird needs time to explore Aberdeen, what with it being his hometown. “They don’t do big movies up here, and I wanted to take something back here someday,” he says. “I never thought it was going to be this, but we’ve got two or three of our best locations up here. There’s a building at the Aberdeen University which I used to walk past every day that we’re going to be filming at. I feel very proud.” You could say everything just fell into place. CHRIS HEWITT  TETRIS IS ON APPLE TV+ FROM 31 MARCH Alamy, Getty Images Above, middle: Director Jon S.Baird with Nikita Efremov (who plays Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov) and Egerton on set. Above: Roger Allam and Anthony Boyle as father-son duo Robert and Kevin Maxwell. Left: A moustachioed Taron Egerton as video-game maven Henk Rogers. Below: Toby Jones plays Andromeda Software’s Robert Stein. 26 APRIL 2023

Sick Of Myself star Kristine Kujath Thorp on getting under the skin of a 20-something liar Putting on a one-woman pity parade MANY WOULD SHY away from playing a wretched young woman who makes extreme, life-threatening gestures in a bid to win public sympathy. Kristine Kujath Thorp went the other way. “I thought it was hilarious,” she tells Empire of her first impression of the Norwegian social satire from director Kristoffer Borgli. “And then I felt really shameful after I finished reading it.” Her character, Signe, personifies an amplified brand of narcissism; in an early scene, she attempts to agitate a dog into biting her, hoping it will make for a sad story. It is, as Thorp says, darkly funny, but it also struck a sombre chord with her. “I think if we’re being really honest, we can see a mirror of ourselves. When we tell a story, we add a little extra flair to it to get more attention or more sympathy.”  For the role, Thorp studied the social-media accounts of influencers and compared their online behaviour to how they seemed in real life. She read up on a case in Denmark where a woman faked a brain tumour: “I stalked her a lot and tried to THE TOPICALITY! Before Greta Thunberg was even born, Captain Planet and his Planeteers (five international kids with magic rings) united in bringing down Earth’s biggest threats, from nuclear waste to deforestation. The stereotypical depictions of the Planeteers could use some updating, but their mission couldn’t be more relevant. Glen Powell hopes to write and star in the ’90s animated superhero’s movie outing. Here’s why you should be excited No./17 CAPTAIN PLANET POWERS UP THE TALENT! The TBS show attracted A-listers like Jeff Goldblum as villainous part-rat, part-human Verminous Skumm; Meg Ryan, who voiced a mad scientist; and Whoopi Goldberg as “the spirit of the Earth”. With Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company lined up to back Powell’s project, we could see another A-list voice cast. THE TUNES! Well, one tune in particular: the rap-infused title song. With the show’s core messages baked into its catchy bars — “Looting and polluting is not the way / Hear what Captain Planet has to say!” — the lyrics encouraged viewers to join the Planeteers in their mission to “bring pollution down to zero.” These were truly the first environmental influencers. DON CHEADLE? In a 2011 Funny Or Die parody, Cheadle donned green hair, a tight costume and blue body paint to play Planet. Only this eco-hero swiftly descends into madness, turning the population into trees before being mauled to death by woodpeckers. If this doesn’t earn him a cameo, we don’t know what will. BETH WEBB figure out what brought her to faking this illness and what she got out of it.” And she watched Martin Scorsese’s The King Of Comedy, finding inspiration in Rupert Pupkin’s acute lust for fame. Yet no research could prepare her for the unusual physical demands of the shoot, during which Signe’s body suffers from self-inflicted mutilation as her appetite for validation grows. “We had a whole day practising falling in a way that felt believable, and a whole day where I was shaking, and a whole day where I was puking,” she laughs, recalling an instance where electroshock dog collars were strapped to her legs to make her convulse. The performance has polarised audiences. Some viewers relate to Signe, though Thorp admits that some responses have been hostile: “People are really disgusted, like they can’t stand her. But I get that.” The actor’s experience making the film has made her sympathise with Signe, whose warped quest is ultimately rooted in sadness. Love her or loathe her, there is more to this wretched woman than meets the eye. BETH WEBB SICK OF MYSELF IS IN CINEMAS FROM 21 APRIL Top to bottom: Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) chooses the yellow pill; Things get messy, as boyfriend Thomas (Eirik Sæther) takes a back seat; Thorp gets (fake) bloodied on set. No./ APRIL 2023 27

No./ Inside an apocalyptic masterpiece The team behind THE LAST OF US’ stand-out third episode describe its journey to the small screen IT’S ALREADY BEING hailed as one of the best episodes of television in years. ‘Long, Long Time’, the third episode of zombie video-game adaptation The Last Of Us, stunned viewers by moving away from the main Joel-and-Ellie storyline (led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) to tell the story of Nick Offerman’s Bill and Murray Bartlett’s Frank in an unusually romantic, largely standalone subplot. Here, the people behind the episode explain to Empire how they did it.  THE GAME The original game saw Bill as a minor character who reluctantly helps Joel and Ellie. Weaved into the game are subtle hints about Bill’s relationship with Frank, whom he describes as “somebody I cared about”.  Nick Offerman: I’m not a gamer. I had literally never heard of the game.  Craig Mazin (co-creator/writer): I’ve played through The Last Of Us maybe seven times. I have a sense memory of fighting through Bill’s town. But what I really remember are the moments where Bill talks about his “partner” — and that just felt like something I wanted to know more about.  Peter Hoar (director): I’m a big gamer. My director of photography dug out the cutscenes from YouTube. I’d forgotten some of the subtleties of it — the pornography under the seat, the letter...  I just thought that was a really clever piece of storytelling for a game.  THE SCRIPT Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the showrunners of the TV adaptation, saw Bill and Frank’s story as an opportunity to deviate sharply from the game.  Offerman: It was just the best script I’ve ever been handed.  Hoar: I got sent the script. It was beautiful. I’d worked on It’s A Sin, so I understood why this particular episode had come to me.  Offerman: To take this incredibly tough survivalist, this trope you see ad nauseam in Western stories, and flip it on its head and tell this love story... it’s like a Sundance movie plunked into the middle of the series.  THE CASTING The White Lotus’ Murray Bartlett was cast first as Frank, after an audition that moved Druckmann to tears. As Bill, Offerman was a harder nut to crack.  Offerman: I’ve known Craig [Mazin] for a long time, socially. My woodshop sponsored his son’s Little League baseball team; Craig was just one of my baseball dads. Then, at some point, the penny dropped. I was like, “Wait a second. Craig is the Chernobyl guy?”  Hoar: With big stars like Nick, you don’t get to meet them beforehand. You have a good conversation about who you think it could be, and then you offer, and you hope they say yes.  Offerman: Craig sent me a script. The month they needed me was already full. I didn’t even want to read it, because I knew I couldn’t do it. I said to Megan [Mullally, Offerman’s wife], “Just read this and tell me what to do.” She read it and said, “Buddy, you’re going to Calgary.” The script was just so undeniable. 

Adam Sandler is set to have his most creatively daring year yet. Here’s why we need to pay him more attention Welcome to the year of the Sandman Above: Adam Sandler’s 2023 is about to go stratospheric. Below: On location with Benny and Josh Safdie for Uncut Gems. TO PARAPHRASE ONE particular meme: Adam Sandler is unbothered, moisturised, happy, in his lane, focused, and flourishing. 2023 is a huge one for the actor. He has three films due to be released — including the serious sci-fi drama Spaceman, and Leo, an animated musical in which he plays a 74-year-old lizard. He is riding high on some of the best reviews of his career for last year’s sports drama, Hustle. And he’s about to start shooting what could, perhaps, be his most exciting work yet. Are we about to experience Peak Sandler?  ’Twas not ever thus. In the early-to-mid-2010s, Sandler’s career seemed to hit a nadir: he was starring in a succession of critically reviled comedies; he was regularly getting nominated for ‘Worst Actor’ at the Razzie Awards; and films such as The Cobbler were flopping.  Then, two things happened. In 2014, Netflix signed a partnership with his production company, Happy Madison, the start of a hugely fruitful partnership which continues to this day (next up is THE SHOOT Filming took four weeks, in September 2021, on location in Calgary, Canada.  Offerman: On set, there was a sense of, “Oh boy, this show is beautiful.” Everyone understood there was this reverence for the script. I had a healthy level of insecurity — like, “I think we’re up to this task, but I really hope I don’t fuck this up.”  Hoar: Nick is Bill. There were so many times on set, he would be fixing things because all of Bill’s tools were everywhere.  Offerman: Everything had been handcrafted to the highest degree. And then Murray shows up. That was another crazy cherry on the cake because we had just seen Season 1 of The White Lotus. It’s like we had just seen Star Wars and they said, “Alright, now we want you to work with Han Solo.”  THE REACTION The episode aired in January 2023, to universal acclaim — and a lot of tears.  Offerman: I’m not a terribly ambitious artist. I’ve already far surpassed anything I ever hoped to do with the good fortune that has come my way. So the fact that the world is allowing me to do work like this makes me really grateful.  Hoar: As I left the set on the last day, Craig said, “This is going to be great! You better get ready [for the reaction]!” I love Craig. An effusive American often says these things. But he isn’t wrong.  Offerman: There’s been a lot of generous things said about the episode. All the signals are telling us that we didn’t screw it up. JOHN NUGENT THE LAST OF US IS ON SKY ATLANTIC AND NOW NOW No./ the cheerful, Agatha Christie-riffing Murder Mystery 2, out in March). The streamer still feels like the best fit for Sandler to do what he does well, and most comfortably: goof off in silly, broad, easily accessible bro-medies with his regular troupe of pals and loved ones. (His 84-year-old mother just filmed a cameo in new comedy You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!.)  The other thing that happened: he was cast by Josh and Benny Safdie in 2019’s thriller Uncut Gems. Bonding over a shared Jewish heritage, the directing brothers recognised something in Sandler, a nervous energy that was both riveting and terrifying to watch; it should have at least earned him an Oscar nomination. (“Bad news: Sandman gets no love from the Academy,” Sandler tweeted of the snub. “Good news: Sandman can stop wearing suits.”)  It was a collaboration so significant that Sandler and the Safdies are currently gearing up to shoot their next film, a currently untitled thriller set in “the world of high-end card collecting”, according to Deadline. “This movie we’re going to do is pretty amazing,” Sandler told The Hollywood Reporter. “The first draft was 340 pages! It was insane and it was great.” Insane and great: yep, Peak Sandler might just be on its way. JOHN NUGENT Illustration: Russell Moorcroft Top to bottom: Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett); Armed and dangerous; Bartlett’s casting was “the cherry on the cake” for Offerman; Director Peter Hoar (centre) on set. APRIL 2023 29

TRAILER TALK Ben Travis (Deputy Online Editor): I’m very excited for this. I kind of wish they hadn’t given away what the film is, but at the same time knowing what it is — a future man battling dinosaurs on prehistoric Earth — makes me want to see it so much. The fact that the man is Adam Driver is even better. Beth Webb (News Editor): Adam Driver in this role is interesting to me. Thus far he’s gone for very unconventional roles, even in a big franchise like Star Wars. This is his first shot at playing a straight action hero. Ben: The last thing I saw him fight was that wall in Marriage Story. Beth: It’s exciting that Sam Raimi’s involved in this. John Nugent (Reviews Editor): It doesn’t scream Raimi. Maybe Army Of Darkness? But it’s always nice to see his name, sure. Mike Cathro (Deputy Art Director): It doesn’t look scary enough to be Raimi. Beth: Maybe Bruce Campbell voices one of the dinosaurs. Ben: Maybe Adam Driver’s going to get vomited on by a tree. Sophie Butcher (Social Media Editor): Maybe there’ll be a music fight between Adam Driver and a T-Rex, like in Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness. Ben: So, Kylo Ren is on the way to Exegol, but halfway through he encounters an “undocumented asteroid” and spins down to Earth. Is what seems to be happening here. Sophie: What is an “undocumented asteroid”? Do asteroids tend to have much paperwork? Ben: I’m confused. Is the whole point that Adam Driver coming to Earth is the start of humanity? Beth: His name is Adam. And he is the original man. John: Well, this was set 65 million years ago, which was, as I’m sure we all know, the end of the Cretaceous period, which is the point at which the extinction event happens. Beth: Are you making this up or is this a fact that you have readily available for moments like this? John: No, that’s all correct. Sophie: Are we saying that this undocumented asteroid is the same asteroid as the one that killed the dinosaurs? Ben: I think we’re going to find out that actually all of the dinosaurs were killed by Adam Driver. John: He goes on an extinction-level killing spree. Sophie: Adam Driver yelling, “Every day I wake up and I hope you’re dead!” at the dinosaurs like he does at Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story. John: I like that they went to him and said, “So Adam, you’re going to be playing a futuristic space-astronaut man. Do you maybe want to have a military haircut?” And he was like, “No, I’m just going to have my shoulder-length medieval bob that I have in every film and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Sophie: It works for him. He’s already been in the military in real life; his short-haired days are behind him. Ben: This is why I loved Jurassic Park and I really liked Kong: Skull Island. It’s like, “Everything in this jungle wants to kill you.” I feel like we don’t get enough of that. Mike: Did anyone ever play Dino Crisis? Because these are the vibes that I’m getting. Futuristic militia with guns and dinosaurs. It was an awesome game. Beth: We really don’t have enough dinosaurs in big action films, aside from the obvious franchise. Ben: Yeah it’s just that and The Tree Of Life, isn’t it? Beth: The Jurassic Park films, The Tree Of Life and the Toy Story films. What a canon. Ben: A shout out to The Land Before Time as well. Beth: No — we can’t talk about that film unless you want me to sob through the rest of this Trailer Talk. I can hear that Diana Ross theme song in my head already. Mike: That’s very Jurassic Park. John: It’s nice that he calls it “alien”. I like this idea that if you came to a new planet and you saw dinosaurs but you didn’t know what they were, you would think they were aliens. Because they’re bloody mad, aren’t they, dinosaurs? They’re absolutely massive and scary. Beth: I have to say I’m finding this fatherdaughter dynamic in stories a little overbearing now. We’ve just seen it in The Last Of Us, for example. John: See also Jurassic Park and Dr. Alan Grant. It’s been done. Mike: I still think that it’ll be a big, fun laugh. Sophie: Dinosaurs: good. 65 IS IN CINEMAS FROM 17 MARCH Unfiltered, uncensored, uncompromising trailer reactions from team EMPIRE 65

Getty Images ON BREAKING INTO ACTING My older brother Gulliver was set to co-star in Aloft with Cillian Murphy in 2014. He got cast as a younger version of Cillian’s character, but then there were delays and he grew out of the age-gap, so the director asked if I could try out. I was ten and I ended up getting the role Gully had. ON PREPARING FOR THE SON I watched Manchester By The Sea to prepare, and tried to analyse Lucas Hedges’ accent [in the film] because I’m Australian. Lucas gives an outstanding performance. The movie is about an uncle and a kid, [which] is close enough to a father and son. ON IDOLISING HUGH JACKMAN Hugh is the nicest person you’ll ever meet. He’s humble and kind to everyone. He was amazing in Denis Villeneuve’s film Prisoners and I watched him as Wolverine as a kid. But there’s Hugh Jackman and Hugh: I worked with Hugh, and then there’s Hugh Jackman on the internet. They’re two separate things. ON HIS AMBITIONS I’ve always been a huge fan of grand-scale sci-fi films; and I’ve been a Star Wars fan forever. I’d love to act in something with cool futuristic suits of armour — so I could be a stormtrooper, even though I’d have to wear a helmet the whole time. ELLA KEMP THE SON IS IN CINEMAS FROM 17 FEBRUARY INTRODUCING... Zen McGrath THE AUSTRALIAN ACTOR PLAYS HUGH JACKMAN’S TROUBLED KID IN EMOTIONAL DRAMA THE SON No./ God’s Creatures’ codirectors break down their rainswept parable about a small-town predator Bringing a Greek tragedy to an Irish village Clockwise from main: Paul Mescal as Brian; On the set of God’s Creatures; Mescal with Emily Watson as his mum, Aileen. A MOTHER’S IMPOSSIBLE decision drives God’s Creatures, a bracing psychological drama that filmmaker Anna Rose Holmer describes as a “mythic Greek tragedy” set in an Irish fishing village. The mother, Aileen, is played by Emily Watson, who Holmer and her co-director Saela Davis wanted so desperately for the role that they wrote her a letter saying as much. “When we first got to chat to her, there was this electricity that was running through the process,” says Holmer. Playing her son Brian: a pre-Oscar-nomination, pre-Hollywood heat Paul Mescal, who read for the part fresh from Normal People. Fans of Mescal’s usual gentle-natured screen presence will be in for a shock. “He was very willing to go to these dark places in order to explore the psychology of the character,” remembers Davis. Brian returns home from Australia only to become the prime suspect in a local sexual-assault case, forcing Aileen, who herself has survived violence, to choose between loyalty to her son or the victim, co-worker Sarah (The Nightingale’s Aisling Franciosi). “We built this backstory for Brian that involves violence that he’s experienced in and outside of the home,” says Davis. Mescal channelled his character’s past into a physically tortured performance. “It’s like a tremor or a tension that he’s holding in his body that could be released at any moment,” describes Homer. Until things turn sour, however, the filmmakers aimed to make viewers root for the mother-son relationship, which all came down to Watson and Mescal’s chemistry. “We had this vacant hotel in Ireland and they played hide-and-seek as one of their first tasks,” says Davis. “We really wanted to build that chemistry between the two of them and then move it into that darker space.” As important to their story was the location, with the County Donegal-set community acting as a microcosm of a broader society. Holmer emphasises that the women in the community were especially important: “There were different representations of what it means to be a survivor, to have strength and to be defiant.” The confines of the village may be tiny, but God’s Creatures has big things to say. BETH WEBB GOD’S CREATURES IS IN CINEMAS FROM 24 MARCH APRIL 2023 31

In December, over 150 Empire readers attended a very special Q&A with legendary director James Cameron. Not only were attendees treated to a once-in-a-lifetime discussion, covering Cameron’s entire career from The Terminator to Aliens, The Abyss and Titanic, but he also pulled back the curtain on the movie currently burning up the box office, Avatar: The Way Of Water. All exclusively for Empire VIP Club members. If you’re not already a VIP, it’s the ultimate way to experience Empire. As well as access to events like our starstudded premiere of The Gray Man, our screening of Rogue One and Q&A with the Andor cast, and our screening of Top Gun: Maverick and Q&A with producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Christopher McQuarrie, you’ll also get the chance to see advance previews of movies ahead of everyone else. Plus you’ll get exclusive VIP-only access to virtual events, such as the Inside Empire series, featuring conversations with the Empire team. So don’t delay — for the buzziest nights out (and in), become a VIP member today! EMPIRE VIP WORTH OVER £130 PER YEAR MEMBERSHIP £7.99/month Includes: Picturehouse or Cineworld Cinemas’ My Cineworld Plus membership, with two free cinema tickets* Access to exclusive live and online events, including special screenings and Q&As Free access to the Empire Spoiler Special Podcast 13 print issues delivered free to your door with exclusive collectible covers Digital edition access via Members-only app and website Past editions archive Fortnightly ‘Empire Insider’ email newsletter Members-only rewards Selected audio articles Terms & Conditions: We can currently offer the Empire VIP Club Membership to UK customers only. Your magazine will start with the next available issue. Prices quoted apply when paying by recurring payment. One-off payments are also available, please see website for details. The minimum term is 13 issues. After your first 13 issues your Membership will continue at this offer price unless you are notified otherwise. You will not receive a renewal reminder and the recurring payments will continue to be taken unless you tell us otherwise. This offer closes on 10/05/23 and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. *Details of how to redeem your Picturehouse or My Cineworld Plus membership and tickets will be sent to you via email once payment has been received and after the 14-day cooling off period has passed. Please note this can take up to 16 days. NB: To sign up with Picturehouse you will need to be 16+ years old. SCAN HERE Order now: members.empireonline.com

ILLUSTRATION ARN0 the street, and all he had on was trainers. He was talking to a couple who were fully clothed, just chatting away. I thought: “Yep, I’m really in Germany now.”  On a scale of one to ten, how hairy is your arse? Do you ask Meryl Streep this question? No, I’m not very hairy. Between zero and one.  Whose poster was on your wall as a kid? I definitely had Liam Gallagher. I actually got in trouble at school for having a picture of Sharon Stone above my bed, which I’d cut out of Empire magazine. And I got kicked out of Biology once for reading Empire. [The teacher] and I had a big argument about it. I lost.  What do you do better than anyone else? The Ian Curtis dance [from Control]. I still do it sometimes. When we were filming On The Road, we had this big party scene, and Tom Sturridge and Danny Morgan said they’d give me their per diems if I snuck the Ian Curtis dance in. I don’t think it ended up in the film.  Have you ever written fan mail? I don’t think so. I wrote to Bill Nighy yesterday, about Living, telling him how proud I am.  What would you call your autobiography? I suppose the publishers would suggest The Life Of Riley. A friend once bought me Errol Flynn's autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, which is a fantastic title. Maybe I’d steal that.  Do you have any scars? I cut the end of my big toe off in a gardening accident here in Berlin. My German was really bad at the time: I didn’t even know what the emergency number was. I had to shout, “Hilfe!” at the woman across the street. But she’d locked herself out of her house and thought I was asking if she needed help. In the end, I had to wave my blood-covered sock at her. The toe’s been reattached, but it looks a bit odd. I can still dance, though. TOM ELLEN SHE IS LOVE IS IN CINEMAS AND ON DIGITAL NOW Which movie have you seen the most times? Either Point Break or Platoon. My brother and I knew those word for word. We were obsessed with action movies as kids, and we had a grandmother who didn’t understand film certificates [laughs]. The first time she took us to the video shop, we pointed at The Delta Force and she didn’t bat an eyelid. From there, we were away.  When in your life were you most starstruck? I was pretty starstruck meeting Angelina Jolie for the first time on Maleficent. Bordering on terrified, actually, because she was in full costume. Working with John Hurt on Brighton Rock was amazing, too. We’d have a fag together and he’d give me great practical advice on acting. And I met Clint Eastwood once when my wife was on a jury in Cannes. I grew up watching all the Spaghetti Westerns with my father, and as soon as Clint turned his back I was on the phone to my dad, like: “You won’t fucking believe who I’ve just met!”  How much is a pint of milk? Well, I asked my butler this question this morning... [laughs]. No, I’ve been living in Berlin for 15 years so I buy milk by the litre. It’s just over a euro, I think.  Do you have a favourite animal? I always liked cats. But when my wife and I thought we couldn’t have children, she insisted on getting a dog. Having gone through this heart-wrenching thing, I accepted. And as soon as we got the dog, she got pregnant. So, I now like dogs. We’ve just got a new dog called Twix.  When were you last naked outdoors? Probably filming Radioactive in Budapest. Rosamund Pike and I had to skinny-dip — run joyfully into the water in front of a crew of big Hungarian dudes. But in Berlin, I see naked people outside on a daily basis. We live opposite a lake, and even yesterday when it was three degrees, someone was out there naked. When I first moved here, I saw a guy walking his dog in FIREBRAND (TBC) In this retelling of Henry VIII’s (Jude Law) marriage to the last of his six wives, Catherine Parr (Alicia Vikander), Riley plays Tom Seymour, brother to Henry’s late wife Jane and Parr’s on-off love interest. CLICQUOT (TBC) A biopic about the Veuve Clicquot champagne family and the challenging early years on their vineyard in 19thcentury France. Riley joins Tom Sturridge and She Is Love co-star Haley Bennett for the film. COMING SOON SAM RILEY APRIL 2023 33

34 MONTH 2022 AUDIENCES FOR TI West’s effective, gruesome retro-shocker X — in which porno filmmakers run into an aged, homicidal farmwife in 1979 — were doubly surprised by the end credits. First, there was the revelation that ‘final girl’ Maxine and pension-age mass murderess Pearl were both played (extraordinarily) by Mia Goth. Then, there was a trailer for a Pearl-centric prequel which West and Goth (who co-wrote Pearl) put together before the first film was released. This might seem presumptuous or ill-advised — like making Joker, but with a newly minted character who hasn’t yet permeated pop culture. Several entries in the Texas Chainsaw franchise (to which X owes a huge, admitted debt) stumble by telling more than anyone cares to know about where Leatherface came from. In the event, Pearl isn’t an exercise in filmmakers doing their own fan fiction but the ambitious, impressive centrepiece in what’s now revealed as a trilogy. The threads will be drawn B I G S C R E E N . S M A L L S C R E E N . Y O U R R E V I E W S B I B L E S T A R T S H E R E [ EDITED BY JOHN NUGENT ] ★★★★★ EXCELLENT ★★★★ GOOD ★★★ OKAY ★★ POOR ★ AWFUL 17 FEB10 MAR PEARL DIRECTOR Ti West CAST Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Alistair Sewell PLOT Texas, 1918. Pearl (Goth) has married a neighbour in the hope of getting away from the family farm and her oppressive mother (Wright) and incapacitated father (Sunderland). But her husband (Sewell) has gone to war, leaving her dreaming of movie stardom. Sometimes, Pearl gets violent. ★★★★ OUT 17 MARCH / CERT 15 / 101 MINS

Mia Goth raises the bar as horror-icon-inthe-making Pearl. together next year in MaXXXine, which picks up Maxine’s story in 1985. Ti West has always been in love with recreating bygone modes of cinema — 2009’s The House Of The Devil, his breakthrough picture, was a perfect pastiche of the 1970s TV horror movie, and In A Valley Of Violence (2016) is a suspense Western — while finding ways of connecting the pop culture of the past with the things that scare us today. Pearl is set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, but the characters (who wear masks to venture into town) suffer from many of the woes of the modern lockdown era. Even isolated Pearl’s dream of becoming a movie star feels as close to a present-day aspiration to YouTube fame or influencer status as the eternal yearning of girls on farms to be spirited over the rainbow, as enshrined in classic Hollywood. West never lets the viewer forget that this is a new-old movie. The opening credits, over a freeze-frame of the smiling Pearl feeding expression of frustrated sexuality and seething, incipient mania. Just as X cobbled together elements from exploitation horror and sex films of the 1970s, Pearl references inside-the-mindof-a-maniac horror movies. A cooked pig left on the porch, which Pearl’s starving but proud mother won’t eat because it’s a charitable gift from her son-in-law’s family, decays and crawls with maggots like the rabbit that parallels Catherine Deneuve’s mental collapse in Repulsion. Pearl sometimes seems on her way to becoming Norman Bates’ mother, and a tableau of corpses around the dinner table evokes Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the slightly less mainstream down-home horror hit Deranged. The dilapidated farm of X is seen here 60 years earlier, with a fresh coat of paint, but that flesh-hungry ’gator already lurks in the lake on the property and Pearl is well on the way to becoming a magnificent monster. In recent years, there’s been a tradition of female actors getting showcase roles in horror — Essie Davis in The Babadook, Toni Collette in Hereditary, Rebecca Hall in The Night House. Goth, whose range encompasses Lars von Trier (Nymphomaniac) and Jane Austen (Emma), is an astonishing addition to this company. In a turning point, Pearl demands to know why the projectionist isn’t attracted to her anymore, and the grown-up gives a child’s response: “You’re scaring me.” Goth does a great deal more than scare us, with a showstopper soliloquy delivered to her absent husband, eloquent physical action in dance and murder scenes (she’s as limber a performer as the robot girl in M3GAN) — and a final smile more frightening than any of the rictus grins in Smile, perhaps the equal of the smirk on Mrs Bates’ mummified skull. KIM NEWMAN a pitchfork-skewered goose to her alligator best friend, are in a swirly pink font. The almostcontinuous orchestral score by Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams is a romantic counterpoint to the onscreen action. Pearl herself is constantly referring to the movies (she names her cows after film stars) and sneaking out against her grim mother’s (Tandi Wright) wishes, to waste money in the local picture palace. With her husband (Alistair Sewell) overseas — she imagines him waving cheerily as he comes home, stepping on a landmine in her yard and being blown to bloody little bits — Pearl is attracted to a ridiculously handsome projectionist (David Corenswet). In his secret cinema stash is a stag reel foreshadowing the Deep Throat-era smut of X, which will rekindle Pearl’s sexual fantasies and killer instincts. Pearl dances with a scarecrow and filches its top hat for her dance costume, but West and Goth take another Oz image and present it as an VERDICT The Godfather Part II of on-thefarm slasher-movie prequels, this is an American gothic shocker with a lot to say — and an awards-worthy lead performance from Mia Goth. APRIL 2023 35

ARRANGED MARRIAGE, OR assisted marriage as it’s now known, is a tricky subject to build a very traditional romcom around. The rules of the genre almost demand a whirlwind love affair in defiance of either society or fate, and a relationship supported by one’s parents is not conducive to that. That hasn’t deterred Shekhar Kapur and screenwriter Jemima Khan from this spin on the subject, but perhaps it should have done. The problem is that the grammar of the romcom demands an outcome that the story and characters don’t really support. Commitmentphobic documentarian Zoe (Lily James) is casting about for her next subject when she learns that her friend Kazim (Shazad Latif ) has decided to pursue an assisted marriage and settle down like his parents. She persuades him to let her film the quest, but her personal and philosophical misgivings threaten both her project and his. Kapur and Khan have gone to some lengths to point out the virtues of assisted marriage and the shortcomings of the Western romantic marriage — the disparity in divorce rates is striking — but such cultural sensitivity is undermined in the film’s entire thrust towards a romance between the two people on the poster, which it does not entirely earn. Latif, so good in Star Trek: Discovery, is a likeable, assertive presence as Kaz, and displays a facility for light comedy with a sharp point — as when reminding Zoe and her mum Cath (Emma Thompson) that he has to get to the airport early to be ready for ‘random’ searches. James is less sympathetic but convincingly torn, at least, between personal and professional loyalties. The problem is that they get relatively little time together, and even less time alone together, so any potential romance has to rely heavily on a backstory of childhood friendship and awkward first kisses, and a few steady glances. Shabana Azmi is wonderful as Kazim’s mum Aisha, composed and warm for the most part but stern when required, and Sajal Ali makes a convincingly appealing bride-to-be for Kazim as Maymouna. Surprisingly, Thompson is less good as Cath. Perhaps we should blame the fact that it’s an odd role: Cath is mad about her neighbours and loves sharing their food, dress and celebrations, but also flings around insensitive language and (at least) microaggressions on a regular basis. It’s perhaps worthwhile to show how gross all these casual comments are, but coming from a character who we otherwise seem to be meant to like, it’s discombobulating. Maybe that’s the point. Kapur shoots it all glowingly but not too glossily, in a recognisably middle-class London rather than Richard Curtis’ millionaire version, and in Lahore. But the film drags as it trudges through the business of arranging a wedding that the audience can’t quite believe in, and never delivers on the romance, assisted or not. There’s probably a moving character piece to be made about this kind of match, but this never quite gets there. HELEN O’HARA VERDICT A likeable cast and colourful depiction of Pakistani (and Pakistani-British) culture makes this look warm and inviting, but the central romance can’t hold our attention as it should. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? DIRECTOR Shekhar Kapur CAST Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Oliver Chris PLOT Oncologist Kazim (Latif) decides to have an ‘assisted’ marriage, one set up by his parents, and his childhood friend and neighbour-turneddocumentarian Zoe (James) decides to film his odyssey with all its complications. ★★ OUT 24 FEBRUARY / CERT 12A 109 MINS From top: Mothers in arms (Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson); Matchmaker Mo (Asim Chaudhry); Bride Maymouna (Sajal Ali). Meet cute? Childhood friends Kazim (Shazad Latif) and Zoe (Lily James). 36 APRIL 2023

‘As gripping as the finest thriller’ PETER JAMES PETER FAULDING DISCOVERTHE WORLD BEHIND THE TAPE... OUT NOW Available now in hardback, ebook and audio

Top to bottom: Sharp dressers as well as sharp shooters; Brown, the real maverick; Christina Jackson as wife Daisy. PERHAPS IN A year where Top Gun: Maverick didn’t dominate the global box office, J.D. Dillard’s gem of a movie, Devotion, would have gotten more attention. While Maverick popped up in end-of-year lists as one of the best films of 2022, Devotion landed as a direct-tostreaming release on Prime Video with little to no fanfare. Plenty of comparisons can be made between the two films: both capture the high-risk thrill of aviation and the perils of life-and-death dogfights. Both films share the natural charm of Glen Powell, an actor who can light up any screen. Both, too, share the same aerial coordinator in Kevin LaRosa, Hollywood’s favoured sky-combat expert. But the importance of Jesse Brown’s story — the first AfricanAmerican naval aviator — comes at a muchneeded time in showcasing how Black stories (especially heroic, historical accomplishments) have been hidden or erased from the history books. It makes for a different type of war movie. Change is in the air when we first meet Brown (Jonathan Majors) and Tom Hudner (Powell) at Quonset Point Naval Air Station. As America prepares to enter yet another war, this time in Korea, the assigned pilots of the VF-32 squadron begin testing out the Navy’s new weapon in their arsenal: the F4U-4 Corsair aircraft. If that sounds dry, it plays as a hugely immersive cinematic experience, carefully crafted by Dillard, LaRosa and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt; the first flight between Brown and Hudner as wingmen is captured with passion and grace. When the film lands on the ground, it re-focuses on Jesse’s family, with Christina Jackson as his wife, Daisy, taking centre stage. Even with the ugliness of racism and segregation, there is room to celebrate Black lives shared through joy and love. Dillard’s film does have its occasional stumbles. Aside from a few shonky VFX shots and a script that could have taken more chances, the rest of the VF-32 squadron (which includes Joe Jonas’ Marty Goode) are portrayed without any real distinction to their personalities. Powell gets a little more to do as Hudner, delivering a compelling turn while earning Brown’s trust and support. But make no mistake: it’s Jonathan Majors’ exceptional performance that drives Devotion. There’s a lot of emotional complexity here: resilience, excelling against the odds, the personal struggle of being Black in the 1950s military. At times, his character arc is euphoric: one scene depicts a Black naval crew watching in awe as Brown lands his Corsair aircraft on the USS Leyte to pass his carrier test, showing how being ‘the first’ can inspire. At other times, the vicious mental scarring of a man haunted by every racial slur and aggression imaginable requires tearful self-motivation, Brown facing himself in the mirror. Even with the most minimal material, Majors extracts every bit of nuance to make you feel invested in his character — right up to the film’s powerful end. KELECHI EHENULO VERDICT With plenty of heart and soul, Devotion delivers an emotional spectacle, packed with soaring highs and gutwrenching potency. It’s another compelling performance on Jonathan Majors’ increasingly impressive résumé. DEVOTION DIRECTOR J.D. Dillard CAST Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson, Joe Jonas, Nick Hargrove, Spencer Neville PLOT In 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean War, two US Navy pilots, Ensign Jesse Brown (Majors) — the first Black aviator in US military history — and Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Powell) forge a friendship while risking their lives for their country. OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) ★★★★ CERT 12 / 139 MINS Jonathan Majors as historymaker Jesse Brown, ready to take to the skies. 38 APRIL 2023

CREATURE ★★★★ OUT 24 FEBRUARY / CERT 12A / 88 MINS DIRECTOR Asif Kapadia CAST Jeffrey Cirio, Stina Quagebeur, Erina Takahashi A hybrid of combustible, contemporary dance courtesy of the English National Ballet and Asif Kapadia’s unobtrusive direction, Creature is a propulsive drama set against an abandoned Arctic research station. Creature (Jeffrey Cirio) is a lonely, bottom-rung worker, subjected to brutal experiments by a doctor, and pining after a kind woman under the watch of a cruel mayor. The plot is kept loose, though with Frankenstein and Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck cited as influences, there are strong themes of otherness and the dark nature of man. Kapadia’s simple approach to filming and a stark palette keeps Creature’s focus glued to the vigorous choreography. A soulful and engaging feat in collaborative filmmaking. BW EPIC TAILS ★★ OUT NOW / CERT U / 95 MINS DIRECTOR Alaux David CAST Kaycie Chase, Rob Beckett, Josh Widdicombe, Giovanna Fletcher TAT, the French animation studio responsible for Madagascar knock-off The Jungle Bunch, returns for this similarly cheap-and-cheerless spin on Greek myths. It centres on mouse Pattie (Kaycie Chase), whose dreams of becoming a hero take her on a quest that involves a kraken-like sea beast, a bevy of cyclops and a robot. This English-language overdub (character mouths, jarringly, don’t move in sync with the dialogue) sees Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe voicing the gods of Mount Olympus, which may be the only saving grace for parents. Otherwise, an incoherent plot, godawful musical numbers and below-par animation is unlikely to justify any family-sized cinema ticket price. JN RELEASED IN 2018, Searching seemed the natural cinematic response to a generation of people raised and nourished by screens. Directed by Aneesh Chaganty, it practically invented a cinematic language, a subgenre that producer Timur Bekmambetov labelled ‘screenlife’ — where the entirety of the onscreen action takes place within the confines of a computer or phone browser window, the drama playing out in FaceTime calls, texts, and frantic Google searches — the ‘mise-en-screen’, if you will. It was an ingenious, original and very of-its-time thriller. Missing, the spiritual sequel to Searching, involves an entirely new story and — save for a sly reference to John Cho’s character in the prologue — an entirely new cast, but it retains the cinematic grammar and philosophy of the original film. New writer-directors Will Merrick and Nick Johnson served as editors of Searching, and were heavily responsible for co-creating that screenlife style. Clearly, they have a keen understanding of how this unusual format works, how it should look, and how its visual limitations require pace and drama as counterpoint. So, again, underneath the flashily vibrant, music video-style editing, there is fleet-footed storytelling, a mystery that builds and evolves, twists, red herrings and long-dormant secrets behind every new browser window. The stage is nicely set for a well-made retread, then. But Missing is so nakedly entertaining and consistently satisfying that, in a few ways, it perhaps even edges past its predecessor. For one thing, switching the main perspective from John Cho’s naive middle-aged dad to Storm Reid’s tech-literate Gen-Z hero June feels a particularly smart move: it makes far more sense that an Extremely Online 18-year-old would have the amateur sleuthing skillset to slowly unravel the mystery of her missing mother. For her part, Reid is excellent, engaging company. Her performance also helps contribute to the fact that this is, impressively, more emotionally rich than the original film. While both are stories about fractured relationships between parents and children being healed through a traumatic experience, Missing finds surprising, dramatically powerful ways to deepen that arc, with a final-act reveal that hits hard. And while the plausibility of the screenlife format is certainly stretched — as with Cho’s character in Searching, June helpfully leaves her FaceTime camera on at all times, even when not on a call — it’s never totally broken, Merrick and Johnson finding new ingenious ways to keep the action on a screen (from a remote security set-up to a smart watch camera). In fact, amid the heartrateswelling suspense, it even finds room for warmth and humour — a joke about CAPTCHAs is particularly well-observed — and crucially, tells a story that would still work gangbusters in a conventional film. That’s Missing’s true strength: as shrewd and gimmicky as its format is, it is, fundamentally, a good film first. JOHN NUGENT VERDICT A gripping, well-told, incredibly watchable thriller for a new generation of TikTok sleuths — and a compelling argument to up your average screen-time. The new seekers: June (Storm Reid) and Veena (Megan Suri) on the hunt. MISSING DIRECTORS Will Merrick, Nick Johnson CAST Storm Reid, Nia Long, Ken Leung, Joaquim de Almeida, Amy Landecker, Daniel Henney PLOT Single mum Grace (Long) and her new boyfriend Kevin (Leung) go on vacation to Colombia, leaving Grace’s teenage daughter June (Reid) home alone. When the couple suddenly go missing, June must use all the online tools at her disposal to track them down — uncovering unexpected secrets along the way. ★★★★ OUT 24 FEBRUARY / CERT 15 111 MINS APRIL 2023 39

CAST AWAY MADE you feel affinity with a volleyball; Everything Everywhere All At Once made you feel existential about a couple of rocks; now get ready to feel emotional about a shell. Adapted from the viral video shorts of the same name, Marcel The Shell With Shoes On performs a minor miracle of filmmaking. If a tiny, talking, invertebrate exoskeleton can make you cry, is there anything cinema can’t do? It could so easily be a proposition to dismiss. Marcel, and the fanciful world he inhabits, are almost aggressively twee — a cutesiness the filmmakers happily lean into, from co-writer/ co-creator Jenny Slate’s adorably childlike voice as Marcel, to the shell’s big-single-eyed innocence, to the flagrant sweetness of the script. (“Guess why I smile a lot?” Marcel offers at one point. “Because it’s worth it.”) But there is more to this film than just being extremely adorable. Apart from anything else, it is a thrilling testament to the power of animation. There’s nothing flashy about the traditional stop-motion techniques used here — Clockwise from main: Nana Connie (voiced by Isabella Rossellini) and Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate) in the great (well, quite small) outdoors; Cadging a ride; Legendary US TV reporter Lesley Stahl, set to interview our diminutive hero; A key scene... MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON DIRECTOR Dean Fleischer Camp CAST Jenny Slate, Isabella Rossellini (voices), Lesley Stahl, Dean Fleischer Camp PLOT Marcel (Slate) is a one-inch, anthropomorphic shell who lives a quiet life with his grandmother (Rossellini) in an Airbnb home. With help from a documentary filmmaker (Fleischer Camp), Marcel embarks on a quest to rediscover his missing family — and learn more about the wider world. OUT 17 FEBRUARY ★★★★★ CERT PG / 90 MINS 40 APRIL 2023

DO YOU LIKE films with twists? How about a film with a hundred twists? Sharper presents itself in a handful of different chapters, one for each of the main protagonists/antagonists (they’re all a bit of both), each instalment providing a new perspective, each one rewinding, peeling back onion layers and revealing spiralling levels of fuckery. It’s both fun and tedious. Tom (Justice Smith, here a sympathetic sap) works in a humble, quiet New York bookstore. When Sandra (Briana Middleton) appears, looking for an old classic, his synapses spark. He’s lost and lonely, she’s all sweet smiles and empathy, and soon they’re in love, enjoying a blissful relationship, until trouble emerges. Her brother needs money — a lot of money — and Tom thinks he can help. From there, a film which has for ten minutes been a sweet millennial meet-cute changes into a con drama in which anything mentioned here would be spoilery, but suffice it to say, nobody is what they seem, everyone is taken for a fool, and people are double, triple, quadruple-crossed to dizzying degrees. Director Benjamin Caron directed some episodes of Andor, including the final two — masterclasses in tension and dramatic action. Oddly, there’s not much of that going on here, despite the jigsaw-like story and the high stakes. It’s slick, handsome work (thanks to cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen, who made A Quiet Place look so good), but if you’re expecting Andor stress levels, you might feel deflated. It’s easy to see, though, why the cast would have been into it — they’re all playing, basically, liars, who get to present themselves one way, and then another, and in some cases, yet another. As the romantic partner of John Lithgow’s gazillionaire widower, Julianne Moore has a blast being very Julianne Moore, without doing anything she hasn’t done better before. Briana Middleton is great, the best thing here, the film’s heart and soul. She contains multitudes. Sebastian Stan, meanwhile, doubles down on his recent penchant for playing obnoxious, volatile, violent assholes. From Fresh to Pam & Tommy and now this, he’s sandwiching much sleaze between his MCU outings, once again playing an insalubrious scumbag, a swaggering moral abyss. He’s good at it, clearly delighting in unlikability — all hail the new king of toxic masculinity. So this is a good cast and crew, chewing on knotty material. Yet Sharper is a somewhat vapid affair, the shaggiest of dogs, where revelations feel like shrugs and coincidences feel like contrivances. There’s enough to hold your attention — it’s entertaining here and there, in its silliness — and it’s not un-fun watching this lot — but there’s something missing. It’s all plot, and not nearly enough humanity — it would be a whole lot more effective if we were given more reason to actually care about these people, or about what happens to any of them. If you’re up for a diverting yarn, it is definitely that. But only that. ALEX GODFREY VERDICT As a dramatic thriller, Sharper isn’t quite as dramatic or thrilling as it could be — but it’s got more than enough Big Bastard Energy to give you a good time. basic hand-drawn lines denote smiles, for example — but the way it blends seamlessly into live-action footage makes it feel excitingly authentic, no acclimatisation required. Crisp macro cinematography and natural light gives the whole thing an organic texture. Visually, it’s a genuine one-of-a-kind. That all injects a huge amount of pathos into the character of Marcel. As absurd as it sounds, you start to feel protective of this tiny little shell almost immediately; you care. If the animation takes you most of the way there, the delightful performances from Slate and others complete the spell. Dialogue is mostly conversational, and seemingly semi-improvised, especially if the generous laughter from director Dean Fleischer Camp (who plays a semi-fictional version of himself, hovering on the edges of the frame) is anything to go by. Yet despite the loose approach and gentle pace, the script (by Slate, Fleischer Camp and Nick Paley) feels thoughtfully crafted. Much like last year’s Brian And Charles, another deeply uncynical mockumentary, Marcel embraces whimsy but is anything but shallow. There is real character depth here, through both laugh-out-loud silliness (“She’s from the garage, that’s why she has the accent,” Marcel explains of his grandmother’s heritage, in an oddball bit of worldbuilding) and through the thematic richness of grief, loneliness, and family. Marcel wears his heart on his sleeve, but his limited understanding of the world does not equate to stupidity: when he becomes an internet hit, with TikTokers dancing on his front lawn, he is immediately wise to the hollowness of fame. “It’s an audience,” he says, gravely. “It’s not a community.” That sense of connection feels like the thrust of the whole project. Slate and Fleischer Camp have taken what started out as an in-joke and turned it into a paean for finding your tribe. The kid-friendly vibe might put some off, but open yourself up to Marcel and you, too, could find yourself openly weeping at a stop-motion mollusc. JOHN NUGENT VERDICT Funny, profound, weird, sad, and gorgeously constructed — Marcel is a true original, liable to melt even the most cynical heart. A very special shell indeed. Damn them for revealing the end of Happy Valley. SHARPER DIRECTOR Benjamin Caron CAST Sebastian Stan, Briana Middleton, Justice Smith, Julianne Moore, John Lithgow PLOT After New York bookstore owner Tom (Smith) falls in love with customer Sandra (Middleton), his life changes — in more ways than expected. As both are revealed to have complex backgrounds, an array of untrustworthy characters look to take advantage — to take, in fact, whatever they can. OUT 17 FEBRUARY (APPLE TV+) ★★★ CERT 15 / 116 MINS APRIL 2023 41

THAT A COUNTRY like Pakistan could produce a film like Joyland is, in itself, fairly remarkable. The film’s story — of an unorthodox, extramarital relationship between a married man and trans woman — caused a huge stir in its country of origin, where conservative religious values hold sway and LGBTQ+ rights remain woefully backwards; the film’s release was banned by the right-wing government there last year, only to be unbanned (with some scenes censored) after voices as loud as Amnesty International and Malala Yousafzai spoke up. Those expecting something provocative or shocking might be surprised by the controversy once they see the film, however: this is actually a very thoughtful, nuanced, sensitive story of queer love, and a deeply considered exploration of how modern ideas of gender and sexuality sit awkwardly in a rigidly traditional society that still expects marriages to be arranged, men to be breadwinners, and women to be homemakers. It is, above anything else, a vivid and beautifully pitched character study, told with a formidable ensemble of actors, and a script that treats each role with respect and consideration. Most impressive is Alina Khan as Biba, depicted as a transgender woman with real agency and power, in a culture that can treat her like a second-class citizen. She is tough and sharp-tongued — we get brief glimpses of Lahore’s khwaja sira (“third gender”) community that supports and sustains her — but vulnerable and flawed, too. Khan is an amazing find: making her feature debut here (like many on the cast list), her screen presence is immediately head-turning. Little wonder that Haider (Khwaja Sira) soon falls under Biba’s spell. Under pressure from his father to meet certain societal expectations (get a job, provide a son), Haider accepts a gig at an erotic dance show, initially, it seems, just to prove he’s not a washout. He is a gentle soul and, it’s implied, perhaps somewhere on the queer spectrum (he once starred as Juliet in a school production of Romeo And Juliet) — but his extramarital affair with her is played out without sensationalism. He is tenderly protective of Biba, while also grappling with a sexual and romantic desire he doesn’t fully comprehend. Filming with natural lighting but also stylish, vibrantly inventive cinematography, first-time director Saim Sadiq (who also co-wrote the script with American filmmaker Maggie Briggs) affords nearly every character this level of care. In another, more soapy film, Haider’s wife Mumtaz (a superb Rasti Farooq, another feature first-timer) might have been little more than a ‘wronged-woman’ caricature, but she gets layers to her, too: trapped by the patriarchal system that suffocates her own desires. Mumtaz becomes the unexpected focus of the film’s final act, which takes such an unexpectedly tragic turn that the film’s title starts to feel misleading; after the subtlety of what came before, the film’s conclusion is almost unduly melodramatic. But the overall effect still lands. This is a genuinely remarkable film, and deserves to be seen widely — in Pakistan and beyond. JOHN NUGENT VERDICT A storming debut from writerdirector Saim Sadiq: emotional, tender, and quietly radical. With any luck, it will herald a new era for Pakistani cinema. JOYLAND DIRECTOR Saim Sadiq CAST Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani, Salmaan Peerzada PLOT In Lahore, Pakistan, three generations of the Rana family live together, headed by an ageing, strict patriarch (Peerzada). When Haider (Junejo) gets a job at an erotic dance theatre, he falls for trans dancer Biba (Alina Khan) — sparking an affair that threatens to cause familial chaos. ★★★★ OUT 24 FEBRUARY / CERT 15 127 MINS Top to bottom: All smiles; Biba takes centre stage; The pair’s complex relationship is tender and nuanced. The star-crossed Haider (Ali Junejo) and Biba (Alina Khan). 42 APRIL 2023

THE INSPECTION ★★★ OUT 17 FEBRUARY / CERT 15 / 95 MINS DIRECTOR Elegance Bratton CAST Jeremy Pope, Bokeem Woodbine, Gabrielle Union, Raúl Castillo Set at the height of Clinton’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy on gays in the military, Elegance Bratton’s semi-autobiographical film sees Jeremy Pope as homeless gay man Ellis French, who enlists in the Marines to escape life on the streets. What follows is an often formulaic boot-camp-brutality drama, but one that breaks the mould by successfully tapping into French’s inner life. Outed by an untimely erection, French suffers ostracism, abuse and near-death at the hand of his squad and a sadistic drill instructor (Bokeem Woodbine), but it’s not all Full Metal Jacket-style abuse. Pope’s performance is sensitive and balanced, drawing us into a story that, while by-the-numbers, is elevated by emotional truth and a lens of all-too-lived experience. JD SHOTGUN WEDDING ★★★ OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) / CERT 15 / 91 MINS DIRECTOR Jason Moore CAST Jennifer Lopez, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Coolidge, Lenny Kravitz Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) are about to get married on a beautiful island in the Philippines — but nightmare in-laws, surprise ex-boyfriends and pineapple centrepieces keep getting in the way. Their biggest obstacle? A gang of pirates that turn up and take their whole wedding-party hostage. The not-so-secret weapon of Shotgun Wedding is J-Lo herself, managing to balance being an overwhelmed bride, action hero and full-blown goofball. She and Duhamel have an easy comedic chemistry — and Jennifer Coolidge is undoubtedly the standout of the supporting cast. The action is absurd and the banter slightly try-hard at times, but this is a silly, sporadically funny, action-packed jaunt, carried by the star power of its leading lady. SB UNWELCOME ★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 104 MINS DIRECTOR Jon Wright CAST Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Colm Meaney In the CGI era, practical effects are fast becoming a lost cinematic art; on that basis alone, we should welcome Unwelcome. Clearly influenced by 1980s critter horror-comedies like Gremlins or Ghoulies, this is a film that benefits greatly from the practical execution of its puckish perils. It tells the story of a young English couple (Hanna John-Kamen and Douglas Booth) who move to rural Ireland, where they encounter unfriendly locals and even unfriendlier leprechaun-esque goblins. It can be tonally jarring — there is surprisingly distressing violence towards a pregnant woman, yet it also has a giggly goblin who says things like “Silly billy!” — and has perhaps too many plot-threads. But when the lovingly-crafted monsters cause mischief, Unwelcome is a goofy horror treat. JN JUNG_E ★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 12 / 98 MINS DIRECTOR Yeon Sang-ho CAST Kim Hyun-joo, Kang Soo-yeon, Ryu Kyung-soo The latest film from director Yeon Sang-ho will be at once recognisable and unfamiliar for fans of Train To Busan. That zombies-on-a-locomotive surprise smash hurtled towards its destination, calling at Sharp Social Commentary and Tender Parent-Child Emotion along the way; seven years later, the writer-director is at it again. JUNG_E, a dystopian sci-fi set almost 200 years in the future, centres on two family members trying to repair their relationship, amid explosions on trains in a world full of brutal class divides. Sound familiar? Look closer, and JUNG_E is more ambitious: an Elysium-esque tale about AI and what makes life worth living. The late Kang Soo-yeon is moving as ailing scientist Seo-hyun, and there’s emotion aplenty to make up for an uneven script. AH CLOSE ★★★★ OUT 3 MARCH / CERT 12A / 104 MINS DIRECTOR Lukas Dhont CAST Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Émilie Dequenne The pain and vulnerability of coming of age is framed with life-shattering repercussions in Lukas Dhont’s Close, a portrait of two 13-year-old boys’ intense friendship, and the huge impact of their growing apart after they experience homophobia. Eden Dambrine plays Léo with wondrous sensitivity, while Gustav De Waele’s performance as his best friend Rémi is heartbreaking. Dhont is fascinated with the wars we wage within ourselves, looking closely at the weight of performative masculinity, but carefully avoiding gratuitous violence while communicating the tragedy of their broken friendship. They run through rainbowcoloured flower fields, wear bright whites and poppy reds, and in the end, hope remains that wounds can heal. A beautiful, brave story. EK YOU PEOPLE ★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 15 / 117 MINS DIRECTOR Kenya Barris CAST Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus Before their wedding, Ezra (Jonah Hill) and Amira (Lauren London) must first deal with the in-laws from hell. This is essentially Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, given a fresh coat of 21st-century paint: not since Bradley Whitford wished for a third Obama term in Get Out has a white parent like Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ awkward mother made such uncomfortably cringey gestures to an interracial couple. Eddie Murphy’s Nation Of Islam father, meanwhile, is quietly hilarious: a terrifying, softly spoken patriarch who will “kill you and get a solid nine hours’ sleep”, as one character puts it. This is a romcom, so it is almost deliberately formulaic, with a final act so neat it could have been manicured. But at its best, You People is funny and insightful on America’s still-fractious racial divide.JN APRIL 2023 43

PATHAAN ★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 146 MINS DIRECTOR Siddharth Anand CAST Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham In many ways, Pathaan is designed to be the perfect Bollywood blockbuster, to break the chain of big-budget flops that have hammered the industry of late. The fourth instalment in the popular YRK Spy Universe — think MCU but with chiselled super-spies — Pathaan delivers everything that an Indian blockbuster should: a guaranteed box-office draw in Shah Rukh Khan, exotic locales, stunning dance numbers, and gravity-defying stunts that make the Fast & Furious franchise look positively restrained. The plot offers up nothing you haven’t seen before — stolen viruses, betrayed secret agents, double crosses, triple crosses and car chases — but it is the charisma of Khan that holds it all together. TS ELECTRIC MALADY ★★★ OUT 1 MARCH / CERT TBC / 84 MINS DIRECTOR Marie Lidén PARTICIPANTS William Hendeberg With her feature documentary debut, Swedish-born filmmaker Marie Lidén wants to bring a misunderstood condition to your attention. Known as ‘electrosensitivity’, it is a self-diagnosis believed to have no scientific basis despite its sufferers experiencing pain when exposed to electromagnetic radiation. Lidén’s mother had this condition, and so does William, who lives in a remote Swedish cabin using makeshift therapy, including covering himself in layers of fabric. The effect is ghost-like and Lidén uses this image to craft a strange kind of folk horror. There’s something slightly disturbing about depicting a medical condition through genre tropes, yet Lidén at least gives William a voice, where others might be dismissive. LC AFTER SPECTRAL THERAPISTS, agriculturally inclined aliens and homicidal house plants, it’s quite refreshing to be confronted by an M. Night Shyamalan production in which the most ridiculous thing is the luxurious in-house library at an Airbnb. The film’s remote getaway (4.96 rating — Wi-Fi, free parking and end-of-days cultists included) is a bolt-hole to die for. It is, in fact, the perfect place for Eric (Jonathan Groff ), Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Wen (Kristen Cui) to spend some family time in the bosom of mother nature. It’s also, at first glance, an eye-rollingly tired setting for a bit of stabby-stabby horror. But Shyamalan is never one to do things by the book, and this eschatological thriller, like its setting, has more going on than a cursory glance at its listing would suggest. Adapted from Paul Tremblay’s harrowing 2018 novel The Cabin At The End Of The World, this is a tighter, simpler tale than many of the filmmaker’s original flights of fancy. It also wastes no time whatsoever. We’ve barely a moment to catch our breath before the family’s arboreal paradise is upended, an oppressive and sinister air descending after less than five minutes of screen time. Wen, gleefully catching grasshoppers in the woods, sees the hulking form of Leonard (Dave Bautista), trudging towards her in a crisp, short-sleeved missionary shirt and looking like a headliner for Mormon Summerslam. He is swiftly joined by companions Sabrina (Nikki AmukaBird), Redmond (Rupert Grint) and Adriane (Abby Quinn) — each wielding a medieval-looking instrument of torture — who inform the family they have a particularly difficult choice to make. The secluded location and home-invasion set-up might be as old as the hills, but that’s the extent to which Knock At The Cabin plays by standard rules. This isn’t a horror that trades in shock and gore, adopting instead a deceptively soft, almost gentle air as it lays out the boundless monstrosity of the family’s quandary. The bursts of savage violence, when they come, are potent but never lurid, relying on psychological wounds over splatter to make their point. Paranoia, denial and twisted attempts at persuasion are the film’s primary tools, character and performance packing far more punch than the 9mm pistol locked out of reach in the boot of Andrew’s car. Groff and Aldridge’s rising panic is palpable, fuelling the suffocating tension, which mounts almost without respite over the course of 100 agonising minutes. Bautista is the standout, though, here gifted with what seems like more lines than all his previous screen roles combined. He perfectly undercuts Leonard’s physical menace with an almost childlike tenderness that’s chilling in its affable restraint — all politeness and consideration, even when staving in skulls. Book fans might be disappointed to see some of the source material’s edges sanded off, and not all of Shyamalan’s choices land as intended, but this is a brutally stressful and effective thriller that doesn’t need a third-act rug-pull to leave the audience breathless. JAMES DYER VERDICT A harrowing, economical thriller that will sit with you for days, this is Shyamalan’s best film in years, and a calling card for Bautista in his strongest performance yet. Leonard (Dave Bautista, right): an altogether unusual horror villain. KNOCK AT THE CABIN DIRECTOR M. Night Shyamalan CAST Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui PLOT Eric (Groff), Andrew (Aldridge) and their young daughter Wen (Cui) decide to get away from it all at an idyllic cabin in the woods. Their bliss is cut short when four strangers, led by the mysterious Leonard (Bautista), turn up to declare that one of them must be sacrificed to prevent the end of the world. ★★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 100 MINS 44 APRIL 2023

IT’S IMPRESSIVE THAT such an experimental film as Skinamarink has managed to become a viral sensation. What’s even more impressive is that writer-director Kyle Edward Ball managed to make it — in his childhood home — for $15,000. The kind of analogue horror that has found success on YouTube over the past decade, spawning internet theories and mythology out of cryptic creepiness, Skinamarink plays loose with narrative and form, and hinges on thematic vagueness that asks its audiences to fill in the gaps with their own fears. The success of the film has already drawn comparisons to 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, but such an analogy is a set-up for false expectations: that foundational found-footage film had clearly developed characters, rules and themes, more traditional than not. It broke down a barrier between the audience and the idea of cinema as a fabricated construct, allowing a plausibility that the footage was in fact authentic. Skinamarink isn’t trying to sell you on its authenticity: in fact, it draws attention to its own constructed fabrication as the camera lingers, gazing at corners, carpeted floors covered in Lego, and the TV screen playing old cartoons, with characters who are obscured in some way, out of focus or off-camera, and whose voices are whispers, sometimes undecipherable. The dark, grainy footage we’re invited to look in on is a cinematic impossibility, a point of view that isn’t narratively supported by the film or even suggestive of a directorial authority. While film, by the very nature of the medium, invites us to look, Skinamarink is adamant that we don’t, prevents us — sometimes frustratingly so — from doing so, by keeping us in the dark. This is a film that plays on our primal fear of darkness. As we gaze down dim hallways and entryways, the shifting gloom takes hold of our imagination and we start to see familiar shapes in the film grain that swims in the blackness, start to see faces we can attach to the scratchy, whispering voices. In many ways, the film feels like the Lego pieces that are scattered across the floor in the film, loose shapes and partially constructed structures to which we try to assign some logical form, but could so easily become strange cages. Does Skinamarink mean anything outside of being an experiment in fear? It seems entirely up to the viewer, save for a few facts that Ball delivers early on. The first is that the young boy, Kevin (Lucas Paul), fell down the stairs and hit his head shortly before the events of the film. The second is that their mother disappeared before the narrative begins, and Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) doesn’t want to talk about her. There is a sense that child abuse, perhaps even murder, has been committed by the mother, and what we’re witnessing is that experience as seen through the eyes of young children. But perhaps even that is too easy, a desperate attempt to lessen the fear by assigning some logic for which there is none — only childhood nightmares, recorded for posterity by some omnipotent dreamer. RICHARD NEWBY VERDICT Skinamarink is equal parts frustrating and fascinating. It’s an unsettling Rorschach test with a haunting ending that will settle in the pit of your stomach like a stone. But it can be a polarising experience that pushes the limits of patience. SKINAMARINK DIRECTOR Kyle Edward Ball CAST Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul, Jaime Hill PLOT 1995. Two young children, Kaylee (Tetreault) and Kevin (Paul), wake in the middle of the night and find their father has disappeared, along with the doors and windows of their house. Hours turn to days as the children fend for themselves — while something in the dark beckons them. ★★★ OUT NOW (SHUDDER) CERT NR / 100 MINS Above: The camerawork features grainy and lingering shots of disparate objects such as old cartoons and dolls. Taking a dim view: Skinamarink plays on our fear of the dark. 46 APRIL 2023

THE MAKANAI: COOKING FOR THE MAIKO HOUSE ★★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / EPISODES VIEWED 9 OF 9 SHOWRUNNER Hirokazu Kore-eda CAST Nana Mori, Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita, Keiko Matsuzaka Hirokazu Kore-eda’s nine-part Netflix show shares many of the filmmaker's hallmarks: tenderness, compassion, enchantment in the everyday. While it lacks the emotional heft of his best work, it’s still a lovely way to spend just over 400 minutes. Set in contemporary Japan, it follows 16-yearold besties Kiyo (Nana Mori) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who travel to Kyoto with dreams of becoming maiko (apprentice geisha). Sumire passes muster, Kiyo does not, but finds a new lease of life as the in-house cook — the Makanai. Little of significance happens, but slowly and surely you get caught up in the tiny dramas and loves of these women. As warm and comforting as nabekko dumpling soup. IF SERVANT: SEASON 4 ★★★★ OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 10 SHOWRUNNER M. Night Shyamalan CAST Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free, Rupert Grint M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant started out as an atmospheric but truly warped psychological horror story about an ultralife-like ‘newborn’ doll. But the show has become as much about a religious cult. Shyamalan and his team have skilfully juggled these elements to create an epic battle of wits between a damaged mother (Lauren Ambrose), her TV-chef husband (Toby Kebbell) and their nanny (Nell Tiger Free). Throw in Rupert Grint continuing to have great fun as Dorothy’s dissolute brother, the ornate crumbling house (a key element of the show’s mythology), and the truly unnerving plague of bedbugs, and you have the set-up for a riveting climax to one of Shyamalan’s greatest works. BH READY FOR ANOTHER ‘sadcom’? In the last few years, shows such as Fleabag or BoJack Horseman have taken morbid pleasure in offering silliness with a side order of sadness, a balance Shrinking now embraces. Along with star Jason Segel, it’s co-created by Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein of Ted Lasso fame — a sitcom itself unafraid to take on potentially depressing storylines. This feels like an American cousin of the largely British Lasso: it is essentially a cadre of decent people trying to understand their own psychological flaws, with lashings of whimsy and warm-hearted wit. At the heart of Shrinking is an effort to understand the paradox inherent in therapists — that they are fallible humans too, that the people trained to understand their patients’ minds might not always understand their own. It’s a solid premise, though you wonder what actual therapists watching might think of a show that depicts one of their own going rogue, throwing decades of best practices out of the window. What are the ethical considerations of a “psychological vigilante”, as Segel’s character Jimmy anoints himself? What happens when you preach radical honesty to mentally unwell people? To its credit, the show shows the consequences of Jimmy’s unorthodox and occasionally reckless methods. To its detriment, though, it slightly forgets that high-concept idea as the season progresses, morphing into a standard, sort-ofsingle-camera workplace sitcom, where everyone is deeply involved in each other’s personal lives. Still, as a sad dad, Segel is great. It’s a delight to see him back in the goofy-galoot-type role that made him famous (see: Forgetting Sarah Marshall), while tapping into his more vulnerable side (see: Forgetting Sarah Marshall again). There’s a great ensemble propping him up, with newcomers like Luke Tennie and Lukita Maxwell showing as much spark and comic timing as experienced actors like Jessica Williams and Christa Miller. But it’s Harrison Ford who is the biggest surprise. It might seem strange to call an iconic 80-year-old A-lister a “revelation”, but this is only his second TV gig, and — his bizarre werewolfbased Anchorman 2 cameo notwithstanding — arguably his first purely comic role; as it turns out, he has an aptitude for LOLs. Cannily, the writers lean into Ford’s own reputation for grumpiness, lending him deliciously blunt material while speaking the therapeutic language of love and respect (“Grief’s a crafty little fucker,” he grumbles). He is also gifted a glorious two-episode arc of physical-comedy brilliance, off his tits on weed gummies, which must be seen to be believed. As the show advances, it can feel a little overly cosy and Californian — therapy, after all, is largely the domain of wealthy, privileged people. Like Lasso, it’s mostly gently funny and unashamedly schmaltzy. But at its best, it’s the rare show that understands humour is a vital lifeline in one’s bleakest moments. “That plant is deader than your dead mom,” is the kind of line you will hear here. Freud, you suspect, would approve. JOHN NUGENT VERDICT Like Ted Lasso, Shrinking is sweetly funny, and sentimental almost to a fault. It’s worth watching for a goofily poignant Jason Segel — and a gloriously grouchy Harrison Ford. ‘Indiana Jones And The Quest For The Missing Glasses’. SHRINKING SHOWRUNNER Bill Lawrence CAST Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Michael Urie, Luke Tennie, Lukita Maxwell PLOT Psychotherapist Jimmy Laird (Segel), still grieving over the recent death of his wife while struggling to be a good father, decides to start telling his patients how he really feels about them. His veteran colleague and mentor Paul Rhodes (Ford) has other thoughts, however. ★★★ OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / EPISODES VIEWED 9 OF 10 APRIL 2023 47

THE THORNY PROBLEM of how to establish the rules and mythology of a fantastical parallel world in a multi-part TV or film series has been cunningly solved by writer/director Joe Cornish in the opening titles of Lockwood & Co.. Instead of relying on a lengthy voice-over, clunky expository dialogue, or, heaven forbid, an opening-title crawl to explain where we are and what’s going on, the title sequence is a helterskelter montage of newspaper headlines and TV news reports explaining the alternate universe in which the series is set. The salient facts: this is basically our world but stuck in a time closely resembling the 1980s, due to an epidemic of ghosts who can actually kill people. So, there are no smartphones, no social media, no flatscreen televisions or, indeed, streaming TV services, and barely any digital tech at all. This archaic, analogue society, hewing closely to the original source material of Jonathan Stroud’s YA book series, is beautifully realised by production designer Marcus Rowland. It’s essentially Thatcher’s Britain minus Thatcher (stark, edgy and dangerous), and the show’s use of real London locations — a lot of austere concrete buildings and crumbling mansion houses — works a treat. This meticulously realised setting provides a vivid backdrop to the main action, and the three young protagonists, Lucy, Lockwood and George, are given a lovely, fusty old base in a distinctly Sherlock-ian, 221B Baker Streetstyle house as a home for their ghost-hunting operation. There’s a wonderful sense these three teens have found in each other their own version of family, and the rickety old house feels like a sanctuary away from uncaring and exploitative adults. Lockwood, a nerdy yet dashing 18-year-old in suit and tie, surrounds himself with antique books and objects. There’s not only a head in a jar in the basement but an entire no-go area of a mysteriously locked room, which Lockwood doesn’t like to talk about. Cameron Chapman brings this elusive, complicated character to life in a brilliantly modulated performance, and Ali Hadji-Heshmati is equally well cast as Lockwood’s super-smart, slightly difficult best friend George. The most relatable of the three young heroes, however, is Lucy, and Ruby Stokes not only imbues her with a kick-ass determination to do the right thing, she also sells her big confrontations with the supernatural nasties so well that we’re genuinely scared on her behalf. None of this impressive world-building, character development and storytelling would work, though, if it weren’t for the consistently intelligent, wryly funny dialogue. Forget the YA label; this is an addictive, sophisticated supernatural thriller which will keep cynical old duffers entertained throughout. (It helps that the ’80s pop-goth needle-drops, from Bauhaus and The Cure to The Stranglers and Siouxsie And The Banshees, are so well deployed.) Let’s hope the notoriously ruthless Netflix big cheeses give Lockwood & Co. more opportunities to delight and intrigue us. BOYD HILTON VERDICT The latest in a long line of YA supernatural sagas from Netflix is a cut above, thanks to smart choices from showrunner Joe Cornish and a sparky young cast. LOCKWOOD & CO. SHOWRUNNER Joe Cornish CAST Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman, Ali Hadji-Heshmati, Michael Clarke, Ivanno Jeremiah, Luke Treadaway PLOT In an alternate version of London where marauding spirits pose a constant threat to living humans, young Lucy Carlyle (Stokes) has the psychic ability to sense their presence. She joins a small ghost-hunting operation run by two ambitious teens, Anthony Lockwood (Chapman) and George Karim (Hadji-Hesmati). ★★★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX ) EPISODES VIEWED 8 OF 8 Middle: “Can you smell burning?” Above: The dapper Golden Blade (Luke Treadaway). Here: That diavolo pizza had been a mistake. Right: Lockwood (Cameron Chapman), Lucy (Ruby Stokes) and George (Ali Hadji-Heshmati). 48 APRIL 2023

FOR MORE REVIEWS, VISIT EMPIREONLINE.COM Carry on doctor: Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg) embarks on a whole new life. HAVE YOU EVER wished you were “normal”? That’s what Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg), a hepatologist going through a messy divorce and mid-life crisis, wants: “a normal life, a normal marriage, a normal girlfriend”. Sadly, life’s not quite that easy — and what even is a “normal” marriage, anyway? It’s a question that Taffy Brodesser-Akner deconstructed masterfully with her 2019 novel Fleishman Is In Trouble, which she adapts here into a limited series. It follows Toby as he tries to juggle his work and reinvigorated sex life with taking care of his children after former spouse Rachel (Claire Danes) leaves them in his apartment in the middle of the night and fails to contact him for weeks. Has she abandoned her kids? It takes a while to find out, as BrodesserAkner excellently transfers the perspectiveswitching that made her book so impactful to the screen, teasing out that central mystery and fully fleshing out Toby, his kids, and his college pal and series narrator, Libby (Lizzy Caplan). Eisenberg is perfectly cast as a jittery Jewish guy, oppressed by his own sense of morality and the kind of disregard for his wife’s obsession with financial security that only comes from someone privileged enough to have never worried about it. Danes is his ideal foil as Rachel, embodying every stage of their relationship with ease — giggly young love, the trauma of new motherhood, the icy apathy of a partnership on the rocks. Their arguments feel wincingly realistic, both hurling the kind of insults that only come from those who know us best, and have loved us the most. Perhaps even more fascinating is Libby. A stay-at-home mother in the suburbs, she is a distorted mirror-image of Rachel: a dissatisfied depiction of the other side of the ‘having-it-all’ coin, a woman who woke up one day and wonders where all the excitement in her life went. Caplan is magnetic — an intelligent, cynical, witty presence, she is instantly believable as an outsider, even within her domestic confines. The non-linear structure can be disorienting, and the flashbacks start to verge on overt sentimentality, but despite its dialogue-heaviness, there is visual flair to appreciate — particularly in how the upside-down New York skyline of the book cover is incorporated and experimented with, the camera swinging queasily to match the characters’ emotional turmoil. But the writing and performances are the things to be savoured: one can’t help but reflect on personal experience when watching Libby explain why she’s checked out of her own existence, or the three college friends bicker about long-dormant grievances, or Rachel descend into a spiral of work-related stress. It’s a wonder just how much of the human condition this story explores — as Libby says at one point, “Why write about anything if it’s not about everything?” SOPHIE BUTCHER VERDICT Boasting a strong, committed central trio, this is a compelling, confronting examination of getting older, and of life’s big choices. An excellent, faithful adaptation by first-time screenwriter Taffy Brodesser-Akner. FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE SHOWRUNNER Taffy Brodesser-Akner CAST Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, Claire Danes, Adam Brody, Christian Slater PLOT Toby Fleishman (Eisenberg) is a doctor, a dad, and a recent divorcee. Trying to build a new life by reconnecting with old friends Libby (Caplan) and Seth (Brody), while getting lost in a whirlwind of dating apps and casual sex, his reinvention is disrupted when ex-wife Rachel (Danes) drops their kids off early and goes off the grid. OUT 22 FEBRUARY (DISNEY+) ★★★★ / EPISODES VIEWED 8 OF 8 FILM OUT NOW DEVOTION ★★★★ P38 EPIC TAILS ★★ P39 JUNG_E ★★★ P43 KNOCK AT THE CABIN ★★★★ P44 PATHAAN ★★★ P44 SHOTGUN WEDDING ★★★ P43 SKINAMARINK ★★★ P46 UNWELCOME ★★★ P43 YOU PEOPLE ★★★ P43 17 FEBRUARY THE INSPECTION ★★★ P43 MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON ★★★★★ P40 SHARPER ★★★ P41 24 FEBRUARY CREATURE ★★★★ P39 JOYLAND ★★★★ P42 MISSING ★★★★ P39 WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? ★★ P36 1 MARCH ELECTRIC MALADY ★★★ P44 3 MARCH CLOSE ★★★★ P43 17 MARCH PEARL (ABOVE) ★★★★ P34 TV OUT NOW LOCKWOOD & CO. ★★★★ P48 THE MAKANAI: COOKING FOR THE MAIKO HOUSE ★★★★ P47 SERVANT: SEASON 4 ★★★★ P47 SHRINKING ★★★ P47 22 FEBRUARY FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE ★★★★ P49 APRIL 2023 49

WORDS HANNA FLINT FOR THE ACTORS ON THE SHOW, THE MANDALORIAN IS AN EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER. AND, AS P E D R O 50 APRIL 2023