Film round-up: October 22, 2026

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Fatherland, Wildwood, Clayface, Children of The Wicker Man, and Ali G: Who Iz I?

Music Review / 28 October 2026 Night of the Octos 28 October 2026 CHRIS SEARLE witnesses a cherished trio, still playing strong

DENNIS BROE examines Cupertino, the smartest show on TV this autumn, and questions how its anti-AI plot squares with its AI-funded backers

SUSAN DARLINGTON is compelled by a limb-tangled, queer reimagining of Bizet’s Carmen

MARY CONWAY admires a modern version of Ibsen’s study of the vanity and vulnerability of a man of ruthless ambition

JAN WOOLF applauds a fine play that tells the story of Rena Depas, the only survivor of a Jewish family in Crete

From the Spanish conquest of the Americas to a dystopian Venezuela where even the dead are turned into oil, two remarkable books expose the insatiable appetite of empire and capitalism, and the lives that resist being consumed

Dan Carrier speaks to historian of British-south Asian relations, TAJ ALI

SHOT in haunting black and white, Pawel Pawlikowski’s new drama is inspired by Nobel Prize winning German novelist Thomas Mann’s return to Germany after 16 years in exile to receive a top literary award. Co-written by Pawlikowski and Henk Handloegten, the film is set in 1949 and focuses on the relationship between Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter and assistant Erika (a superlative Sandra Huller), an actress, writer and rally driver in her own right, as they drive across a Germany in ruins. As they reach their destination Frankfurt, where Mann is to receive the Goethe Prize, the pair learn that Erika’s brother Klaus (August Diehl) has died. She is shaken by the news while her father accepts it and continues as if it is business as usual. Like his previous films, Fatherland examines the turmoils of history, exile and the need for home and belonging. While Mann doesn’t appear to be affected by his son’s demise, he is angered during a press conference when he is grilled by journalists for abandoning  Germany just as Adolf Hitler took power and emigrating to the US. It is a quietly powerful drama which also explores a divided Germany through the prism of a fractious father and daughter relationship. It isn’t a historically accurate depiction as the film takes some liberties with the facts and their chronology. It is driven by another powerhouse performance from Huller who is stunning here. Fatherland will stay with you long after the end credits have rolled.  MDIn cinemas October 23

SIXTEEN years in the making, this epic masterpiece in stop-motion animation from Laika Studios is absolutely magical. Set in Portland, Oregon, it centres on Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) who teams up with her friend Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) to rescue her baby brother who was abducted by a gang of murderous crows and taken to an enchanted forest. It is based on the 2011 dark fantasy novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis and is the longest stop-motion animated feature ever made, at 132 minutes. Yet it does not look like one. It is action packed and totally captivating, and features a star-studded voice cast which includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali and Awkwafina. Reminiscent of Labyrinth (1986), The Chronicles of Narnia and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds in one scene, this maybe too frightening for very young children. MDIn cinemas October 23 

THIS is a deliciously dark full-blown body-horror and psychological thriller, encompassed in a DC comic book villain origin story. This is not for the squeamish. Set in Gotham City, the film, directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake), follows rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen (a phenomenal Tom Rhys Harries) whose career is cut short when he is horrifically disfigured by a local mob boss. Dumped by his team and hitting rock bottom he seeks out Dr Caitlyn Corr (an impressive Naomi Ackie) whose cutting-edge nanotechnology research helps restore his face. However the physical and psychological side effects prove devastating. This is surprisingly frightening and contains genuine jump scares. It will make you squirm as the body horror is off the scale, with Harries sporting eighteen gruesome facial looks, courtesy of the makeup and prosthetics departments who have done an extraordinary job. Initially it explores the superficiality of showbusiness and the price people are willing to pay to remain at the top, before descending into a monster revenge drama which remains grounded due to Harries’s (a star in the making) outstanding performance. A must see. MDIn cinemas October 23

IF you’ve ever tried to make a low-budget feature in Scotland, this film will strike some chords: the wrong weather, the set-upon first-time director, the last minute casting, the financial squeeze, and the mad ritualism at the heart of the script. Such were the amusingly catastrophic circumstances in which The Wicker Man was shot in 1972.

But this film is only partly about that. It is in fact the testimony of two half brothers, seeking revenge and reconciliation with the urbane chancer who directed the film: their dad, Robert Hardy.

The cop is sacrificed in The Wicker Man, but Hardy sacrifices his then marriage (one of five marriages) and his wife’s fortune on his essay in folk horror, and thereafter fails to send letters of bland encouragement to his many estranged children that the brothers discover. It is odd that neither brother feels able to engage with their father’s imagination, and ask why his fantasy of murderous feudalism remains a cult movie.

A patchwork of animation, zoom calls, unsatisfactory location shoots and wayward film production documents, this is a strangely moving mix of bitter cinephilia and middle age crisis.ARIn cinemas October 23

AFTER more than twenty years Sacha Baron Cohen returns as the outdated and problematic cultural appropriating Ali G, and you wonder if it is two decades too late. It is the same old schtick which ordinary people are still falling for, as Ali G heads to the US after learning that HBO is going to renew his TV show making him rich. He travels there with his girlfriend Julie (Morgana Robinson) where two characters, one on the far right and the other on the far left, both played by Baron Cohen, are determined to destroy him. The film is a shock and awe satire aimed at exposing prejudice and bias, co-written, produced and directed by Baron Cohen in this his directorial debut. It also examines the dangers of fanaticism and conspiracy theorists.

From the start it makes it clear which actors are in on the joke, while the rest are just gullible Americans who clearly don’t remember Ali G. It begs the question how did Baron Cohen get them to sign on the dotted line. Especially the right-wing conspiracy theorists. I admit I did laugh out loud several times, and gasp in horror at other moments — particularly at a game show in which contestants, one of which was former politician and convicted fraudster George Santos, had to place as many dummies of immigrants as possible into a shower cubicle to be gassed as the audience cheered them on. While it was a bit hit and miss in places, what would have been more fascinating is a film about how Baron Cohen managed to pull all this off. MDIn cinemas October 23

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Cinema / 24 September 2026 Film round-up: September 24, 2026 24 September 2026 MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Heart of the Beast, Sense and Sensibility, Babystar, and Boorman and the Devil

Cinema / 9 July 2026 Film round-up: July 9, 2026 9 July 2026 KEVIN DONNELLY and MARIA DUARTE review Shoot the People, The Last One For The Road, Rosebush Pruning, and Moana