What films are out this week: From Pinocchio to Christmas In The Caribbean-Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Anna Smith-Entertainment – Metro

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a stop-motion masterpiece (Picture: Supplied)

If you’re looking for a film to watch from this weekend, either at home or in the cinema, then we have a bag of reviews to help you make a choice.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, a stunning gothic stop-motion animation, is set in Fascist Italy and casts the main character as a hero of the resistance.

The Silent Twins is based on a true story and turns into a disturbing thriller that will have you hooked.

Read on for other reviews of films coming out this week.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio

‘Eek, that’ll be dark’ was the reaction when I told pals Guillermo Del Toro was doing his version of Pinocchio. And, indeed, it’s the stuff of Disney nightmares.

The Oscar-winning director of Shape Of Water carves his distinctive gothic signature into this beautiful, stop-motion retelling of Collodi’s classic 19th-century fairytale about a little wooden boy (voiced by Gregory Mann) with an excitable nose.

Here the painstakingly animated action is re-located to Fascist Italy – the same as Del Toro’s earlier child’s-eye masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth. This means Pinocchio’s spirited disobedience suddenly becomes a form of heroic resistance, rather than something to be squashed out of him.

There’s a predictably starry voice cast, including Cate Blanchett as a naughty monkey and Ewan McGregor as a fatality-inclined Cricket. But top marks go to Tilda Swinton, whose blank-eyed Wood Sprite/Death character, with huge wings of blinking eyes, slithers around the screen looking like she could eat Disney’s Blue Fairy for breakfast – and probably just did. (Larushka Ivan-Zadeh)

15. Out now in selected cinemas and on Netflix on Friday

The Silent Twins

Black Panther star Letitia Wright and rising British talent Tamara Lawrance put in award-worthy performances in this engrossing drama based on an astonishing true story.

The pair play the older Jennifer and June Gibbons, identical twins who grew up in 1970s and 1980s Wales, and stopped speaking to anyone apart from each other.
They wrote books, kept diaries and made puppets, which are used to create imaginative fantasy sequences as the film shows the girls growing up, shut away from perplexed parents and teachers.

When their hormones kick in, the twins set their sights on a tearaway heartthrob, which is initially amusing. But the more the girls are faced with a system that fails to understand their mental health, the more this turns into a disturbing thriller.

If you’ve ever been curious about the psychic link between twins, this film is for you. (Anna Smith)

18. Out Friday in cinemas

Christmas In The Caribbean

Elizabeth Hurley stars as an unlucky-in-love London theatre critic (!) with a penchant for teeny weeny bikinis in this so-bad-it’s-hilarious Brit romcom. An exciting late contender for 2022’s worst movie.

PG. Out now on digital

Charlotte

Keira Knightley voices Charlotte Saloman, the titular young German-Jewish artist on the run from the Nazis, in this sobering animated biopic. Also featuring the speaking talents of Jim Broadbent, Sam Claflin, Sophie Okonedo, Eddie Marsan and the late Helen McCrory.

12. Out Friday in cinemas

Anonymous Club

If you haven’t heard of enigmatic singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, that’s probably exactly how she likes it. But the reclusive Brit-and-Grammy nominee is gradually coaxed from the shadows during the course of this stylised 16mm anti-rock-doc.

15. Out Friday in cinemas

The Kingdom Exodus

Third and final part of Danish auteur Lars Von Trier’s bonkers cult classic medical drama – a ghost story rooted in a hospital built on Copenhagen’s old bleaching ponds. One for Twin Peaks or adventurous Stranger Things fans.

18. Out now on MUBI

Nocebo

Actress Eva Green is always a good indicator you’re in for something stylishly weird. Here’s she’s a fashion designer with a mysterious illness that’s vexed both medical science and her hubbie (Mark Strong). Enter a Filipino carer (Chai Fonacier), whose folk healing reveals a horrifying truth…

15. Out Friday in cinema

MORE : Emancipation review: Will Smith pulls you in with gritty realities of slavery era

MORE : George & Tammy review: This faithful biopic starts to lose its sparkle

Entertainment – MetroRead More