First things first, you must surely be aware that our city is the world capital of cinema this month with the arrival of the London Film Festival. So be sure not to miss all the coverage and reviews across the Evening Standard. In the meantime, it being October, here is an octet of the finest films on general release over the next 31 days too.
The Great Escaper
You might well remember when 89-year-old D-Day veteran Bernie Jordan hit the headlines in 2014. Unable to secure a ticket for an organised trip to Normandy, early one morning Bernie quietly hobbled out of his nursing home and did a runner to Normandy on his own steam for the 70th anniversary of the landings. Matching the absconder’s sprightly spirit, 90-year-old Michael Caine fleshes Bernie out on screen with the humble grace and effortlessness of a past master. This is no one-man show though; in her final role, the late Glenda Jackson delivers close to a career best as Bernie’s wife Irene, stuck on the shores of Blighty terrified whether her true love will return from France alive for the second time in her life. A victorious tribute to love and memory, with Caine and Jackson giving a such a masterclass in acting from the heart, you can’t help but weep. Out 6 October
If you’re, like, under 30 years old, this might as well be a comedy-drama about the rise and fall of the Corby trouser press (no? google it). However, the rest of us will vividly, nostalgically remember all those smug business folk and early-adopters glued to their BlackBerry phones at the turn of the millennium. Matt Johnson’s lolz-loaded tale tracks the ham-fisted ascent and equally hapless crash of the company founded by tech genius Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (hilariously played by Johnson as a sweatband-wearing mega-nerd). Those two are entertaining enough, but the real revelation is the brilliant Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, the fast and loose money shark who turns up and bludgeons his way to joint CEO of the company. With more than a hint of the off-the-rails anarchy of In the Thick of It, this is way more fun than this year’s Nike film, Air. If you only see one corporate calamity movie this year, make it this chaotic joy. Out 6 October
The Exorcist: Believer
Is The Exorcist (1973) the best horror film ever? Discuss. Yes, probably maybe is the correct answer. The Exorcist II (1977) and The Exorcist III (1990) not so great. Now, 50 years after the first head-spinning trip into terror, we have yet another sequel. Ellen Burstyn is back playing the same character as half a century ago: Regan’s mum Chris MacNeil, who is asked to help two possessed young girls because, you know, she’s been there, rode with the devil etc. If it’s the second greatest Exorcist film ever that will be an achievement. The film-makers certainly think you’ll like it, as The Exorcist: Deceiver is already slated for 2025. Out 6 October
Golda
After Bradley Cooper recently got it in the neck for piling on a prosthetic nose to play Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, no doubt there will be some unhappy with Helen Mirren’s humungous mounds of extra ‘flesh’ in her portrayal of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. It’s a knotty debate, but the result here does seem to make Dame Helen look barely recognisable as herself and a fair bit like the actual Golda Meir. She led the nation for five years, but Israeli director Guy Nattiv focuses on a brief but monumental three weeks in Meir’s premiership when in 1973 an Arab coalition launched a surprise attack on Israel, leading to the Yom Kippur War. It’s anxious and jittery war room stuff as Meir (a notoriously heavy smoker) stubs cigarette after cigarette into ashtrays while discussing battle tactics with her generals. Outside of the theatre of war, we see Meir’s private fretting as she lies awake in bed and her failing health as she is taken back and forth for hospital examinations (which she chainsmokes through). However, despite Mirren’s unarguably brilliant talents, we never quite get a real glimpse through that mountain of make-up to the soul of Golda Meir. Out 6 October
Killers of the Flower Moon
No more yearning and aching for cinephiles. After tantalising five-star reviews at Cannes back in spring, this year’s most-anticipated movie is eventually upon us. Based on David Grann’s non-fiction bestseller, Martin Scorsese’s period drama is a ravishing epic – 206 minutes epic, to be precise – as Leonardo DiCaprio and his uncle Robert De Niro set their sights on the dirty black gold beneath the ground of the Native Americans in Osage Nation. Lily Gladstone plays the local girl via who’s heart DiCaprio intends to secure the oil. As the bodies pile up, so too do the questions about any real care nephew and uncle have for the tribe. I say ‘ravishing’ even though I can’t pretend to have seen it yet (I’m getting my chance at the London Film Festival on October 7), but the trailer promises pure, devastating cinematic beauty. Out 20 October
It Lives Inside
We all want horror, so it seems. It’s the world’s favourite movie genre, apparently. So as a relatively torture-free alternative to last week’s release of Saw X, here’s a fantastically creepy debut from Bishal Dutta. Teenager Samidha (Megan Suri) used to be best friends with fellow Indian-American Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), but Tamira has unnervingly retreated into herself and resorted to carrying around a mysterious glass jar (yes, there’s something wicked inside it). As crises of cultural identity, loss and belonging ebb and flow, Hindu gods and demons rise to the surface; one nasty creature in particular who feeds upon the girls’ fears and loneliness. Suri and Krishnan are both superb as the helpless and heroic sides of victimhood, while the mood of impending doom is ratcheted up at perfect pace. If you enjoyed Talk To Me earlier this summer, this is your next treat. Out 20 October
Our River… Our Sky
The Hurt Locker. American Sniper. The Green Zone. All films set in Iraq during the recent conflicts and all having American soldiers as the principal characters. So there’s something refreshing about a movie that focuses on the daily lives of ordinary Iraqis during this time. Maysoon Pachachi, a London-based film-maker of Iraqi origins, takes us back to Baghdad in 2006 and the time of the execution of Sadam Hussain, when the city was experiencing extraordinarily bloody levels of sectarian violence. Random bombings, kidnappings and bodies floating down the river are an everyday occurrence. Amid this terrifying atmosphere of chaos and fear, Pachachi interweaves the storylines of people simply trying to get on with their lives. Many see their only hope as escaping abroad, but none of them really want to leave. And it’s this defiant love of their country which shines through the trauma and makes this a genuinely uplifting tale of humanity. Out 20 October
Beyond Utopia
However astonishingly film-makers manage to move us, the old adage tells us that truth is often stranger, more heart-breaking and life-enhancing than fiction. And there’s no more riveting an example than Madeleine Gavin’s clandestine documentary following the desperate plight of North Koreans attempting to flee abroad. Predominantly shot with hidden cameras, it follows indefatigable (despite his advancing age and ill-health) South Korean pastor Kim Seungeun’s relentless mission to assist escapees. As shadowy fixers are contacted in the North (phone calls are bleakly brief for fear of detection), Gavin focuses on the tortuous journey of a family, complete with young child and 80-year-old grandmother, from a forest on the Chinese border across numerous ‘unfriendly’ countries in their bid for freedom. Like other migration stories, this is heart-stoppingly tense stuff, yet all the more so amid the climate of fear and punishment of Kim Jong-un’s regime. The horrific fate of others who don’t make it out reminds us of the tragedy of North Korea, but this is ultimately an optimistic story of compassion and endurance against brutal odds. Out 27 October
