What films are out this week: from My Policeman to the Banshees of Inisherin-Anna Smith and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh-Entertainment – Metro

From thrillers to absurdist comedies (Picture: Netflix/ Jonathan Hession/ Amazon Prime Video)

The London Film Festival might now be behind us, but don’t think that means there are no good movies on their way.

Cinemas and your favourite streaming services aren’t disappointing with an eclectic mix of movies dropping this week.

There’s Oscar-bait in the form of the wonderfully absurdist The Banshees of Inisherin, while Harry Styles fans get to see their idol in period love-triangle My Policeman.

Asian film is also in the spotlight with two thought-provoking films: a sophisticated South Korean thriller and an uplifting semi-autobiographical tale from Chinese-American director Ann Hu.

And if it’s an acting masterclass you’re after, Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne are on hand to show how it’s done — even if the move is somewhat underwhelming…

The Good Nurse

Jessica Chastain plays a nurse under pressure in this tense thriller (Picture: JoJo Whilden / Netflix)

Based on the true story of Charles Cullen, who murdered up to 40 patients while working at hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, The Good Nurse sees a gloomy New Jersey hospital ICU unit plagued by a mysterious increase of deaths following the arrival of a charming nurse… called Charlie (Eddie Redmayne).

His fellow night shift colleague, Amy (Jessica Chastain, right), is unwilling to believe her new friend is behind these deaths – but then she’s got a lot on her plate. A struggling single mum, Amy also has a heart condition that means she could drop dead at any moment when stressed (injecting a ticking timebomb element into the plot).

But Amy doesn’t get medical insurance until she’s been in the job a year, so she can’t afford to take the time off work. Luckily, Charlie’s around to help with the kids, right?

Diffuse and oddly restrained, The Good Nurse just can’t decide what movie it wants to be – a nail-biting psychothriller? A police procedural? An indictment of corporate health care corruption?

Luckily, Chastain and Redmayne are so good you won’t care. A sporadically tense actors’ showcase that’ll leave you feeling glad of the NHS.

15. Out today in cinemas and on Netflix October 26.

My Policeman

Harry Styles is the best reason to see this otherwise dreary period love triangle. Just as well, because (as lustful ‘Stylers’ will be thrilled to hear) we get to ogle an awful lot of him. Styles is Tom, a secretly gay policeman in the 1950s, a time when homosexuality was still a criminal offence.

So Tom decides to marry a fragrant schoolmistress called Marion (Emma Corrin, right, and later Gina McKee), while secretly carrying on an illicit sexual affair with an arty fellow called Patrick (David Dawson and later Rupert Everett). But secrets will out…

Framed in flashbacks from the 1990s, it’s a familiar and stuffy story of repression and despair. Styles lights up the screen, even if he’s not (as yet) able to comfortably fill leading man shoes. Dawson fails to seduce as the sophisticated siren, painfully lacking Everett’s handsome looks and mischievous charisma. The rest of the cast, also including Linus Roache as the older Tom, are perfectly capable, but there’s little to mark this out from the doom-laden queer miserabilism so en vogue in the Nineties and Noughties. A plodder.

15. Out Friday in cinemas and on Prime Video November 4

Decision To Leave

Park Hae-il and Tang Wei in Decision to Leave

A murder suspect charms an investigating cop in this gripping thriller from South Korea, directed by Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, The Handmaiden). He won best director at Cannes for this stylish puzzler, which invites you to play detective along with Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) – if you can keep up.

A mountain climber has fallen to his death and our hero wonders if he fell, or if he was pushed. He starts to follow the man’s beautiful young widow, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), but finds himself falling for her. As the pair overstep professional boundaries, his judgement blurs.

It’s a sophisticated Hitchcockian thriller that gives plenty of space for guessing games and features terrific performances from the lead actors. Both are complex characters – Hae-joon is a stressed, married insomniac, while Seo-rae is a Chinese immigrant and care worker with an air of innocence that may or may not be misleading. Is she a victim, femme fatale or something in between? Meanwhile, Hae-joon’s more straightforward wife, Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun), offers amusing interludes.

At over two hours, Decision To Leave is an intricate and challenging thriller – thought-provoking and with style to spare.

15. Out now in cinemas.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Colin Farrell stars in this Oscars contender (Picture: Jonathan Hession)

Martin McDonagh, the writer/director of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, has another Oscars contender on his hands.

A dark comedy set on a rural Irish island, it sees two men (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) fall out with bizarre results against the backdrop of the 1923 civil war. We gave it a five-star review.

15. Out Friday in cinemas.

The School For Good And Evil

(Sofia Wylie and Sophia Anne Caruso play two very different best friends (Picture: Gilles Mingasson/Netflix)

This is the first in what is dangled as a series of adaptations of Soman Chainani’s hit fantasy series. Two, very dissimilar, BFFs (Sofia Wylie and Sophia Anne Caruso) find themselves spirited away from their cosy village to rival schools – one training pupils to be fairytale heroes, the other villains.

Directed by Paul ‘Bridesmaids’ Feig, the starry adult cast includes Charlize Theron, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh.

12. Out today on Netflix.

Confetti

A mum is on a mission in this touching family film

Dyslexia is still not officially recognised in China, something writer/director Ann Hu clearly aims to change with this awareness raising, semi-autobiographical story.

A school janitor (Zhu Zhu) from a small Chinese town sets off on a mission to America, determined to give her gifted dyslexic daughter (Harmonie He) a better education. Watch out for original 1980s Supergirl Helen Slater as a mean headmistress.

U. Out Friday in cinemas.

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