Missflicks

Blue Heron wasn’t on my radar but the positive word of mouth encouraged me to change that. I’m so glad I did because it’s now one of my favourite films of the year. The semi-autobiographical story, written and directed by Sophy Romvari, follows a Hungarian immigrant family who have moved around a bunch but have now settled on Vancouver Island in Canada. It is told through the eyes of Sasha (Eylul Guven), who is basically a stand-in for Romvari.

Jodie Foster in A Private Life (Altitude) If you thought you had seen all Jodie Foster has to offer, just wait until you see her in A Private Life, in which she has her first-ever French-speaking lead role. Foster plays Dr. Lilian Steiner, an American psychiatrist who has lived in France for years and has an adult son with her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil).

Steven Strait and Andi Matichak in Serena (Courtesy of Raindance) Andi Matichak first came to my attention with the Halloween revival trilogy and I have been keeping an eye out for her ever since. So I obviously couldn’t resist seeing her playing an AI assistant in the screenlife thriller Serena. The film follows Chris Sadowski (Steven Strait), a former rock star and recovering addict now making a living by creating little tunes for Fiverr customers.

Dylan Arnold and Sarah Pidgeon in Born to Lose (Courtesy of Raindance) As someone who knows Dylan Arnold best as the fresh-faced teenager in the TV series You, it’s a bit of a jump scare seeing him as a heavily tattooed drug dealer in Born to Lose. In the film, he plays a biker and small-time drug dealer named Andy who offers to take over his father’s big-time enterprise with local gangster Roddy (Shane Callahan) after he passes away.

Haley Bennett in Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day (Vue Lumiere) Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel Night and Day is one of her lesser-known works, in comparison to Mrs Dalloway or Orlando, and has not been adapted for the big screen before. Considering the film is called Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day, you’d assume it was a loyal adaptation, but it’s actually quite different from the source material.

Bullseye and Jessie in Toy Story 5 (Pixar/Disney) The Toy Story franchise seemed to come to a beautiful, natural end in Toy Story 3, when Andy went off to college and gave his toys to Bonnie. However, the series continued with 2019’s Toy Story 4, its weakest entry so far, and now it’s back for more with Toy Story 5. The Pixar animation centres upon Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), who is now in charge of Bonnie’s room following the departure of Woody (Tom Hanks) in the previous film.

Sarah Friedland (Photo by Anna Ritsch) Almost two years ago, writer-director Sarah Friedland premiered her debut feature film, Familiar Touch, in the Orizzonti (Horizons) strand of the Venice Film Festival and walked away with the Best Director and debut film prizes, while her lead Kathleen Chalfant scooped the award for Best Actress. Despite that auspicious start, it has taken a long time to make it over to our shores in the UK.

Emily Blunt in Disclosure Day (Universal) Steven Spielberg has explored the alien theme twice before, in E.T. the Extraterrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and after a 44-year hiatus, he returns to this subject in Disclosure Day. The film stars Josh O’Connor as Daniel, a cybersecurity expert who has gone rogue from his company Wardex, taking a mysterious device and whistleblowing footage that proves the existence of aliens.

Marlon Wayans as Shorty in Scary Movie 6 (Paramount) To prepare for the release of Scary Movie, aka Scary Movie 6, I watched or rewatched all five instalments of the franchise. I didn’t need to do the first two because I have them on DVD and have seen them multiple times, but it would be rude not to start with those. I then saw 3-5 for the first time for the purpose of this piece.

Anna Faris and Regina Hall in Scary Movie (Paramount) The team behind the original Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2 are back for the sixth instalment – annoyingly called Scary Movie – and in typical meta fashion, it parodies horrors while also referencing itself. As someone who has watched Scary Movie countless times, it felt like my duty to note down all the inside jokes, references and parodies.