Hugo Weaving leads a delightful drama about the trials and tribulations of a bunch of friends of a certain age, and the bluegrass wunderkind returns with a remarkable new album
Summed up in a sentence A beautifully written Australian drama following the heartbreaks and hilarities of a group of old friends in their 60s, starring Hugo Weaving. What our reviewer said “Dalliance is not about plot. There are no murders nor mysteries to be investigated or suspects to be harangued. It’s a mood piece and an array of portraits of characters who have actually lived some life, been formed by meaningful experiences and come out the other side – at a later stage than we are used to seeing on our screens.” Lucy Mangan
Summed up in a sentence A riveting feature-length documentary about the bizarre story of French secret agents blowing up a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand in 1985. What our reviewer said “It’s gasp-inducing stuff, even if the documentary is at pains to keep the mood fizzy via skittish editing and a soundtrack consisting of wine-bar jazz and, inexplicably, Wang Chung.” Sarah Dempster
Summed up in a sentence Another moreish Hugo Weaving drama, this time about a do-gooder minister who is always saving the day at work. What our reviewer said “I doubt the lives of real airport chaplains are anywhere near as frenetic as those of this show’s protagonist, Tobias Wallace (Weaving), whose existence is a testament to that old saying: “Not all heroes wear capes.” Sometimes, they wear hi-vis.” Luke Buckmaster
Further reading Shabana Azeez: ‘The most disgusting thing I’ve seen on The Pitt? American coffee’
Summed up in a sentence A tense, powerful thriller about an Afghan family and the shameful events of when the Americans withdrew and the Taliban moved in.What our reviewer said “Its thriller tropes, of a race against time and of risks taken under the gaze of an implacable enemy, are utilised effectively to make the story as compelling as it is appalling. August 2021 in Kabul was an awful, shameful moment in history; this show vividly re-lives it.” Jack Seale
Summed up in a sentence Simon Abkarian plays the great Gallic general and Resistance leader, opposite Simon Russell Beale as Churchill, in the first half of a lavish two-parter.What our reviewer said “This very enjoyable and gallopingly eventful biopic offers a good-humoured, though naturally sympathetic, perspective on France’s great wartime hero. A tiny touch of comedy makes it resemble an old-fashioned 60s war film.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘The spirit of resistance’: De Gaulle biopic turns into surprise hit for France’s younger viewers
Summed up in a sentence Pedro Almodóvar’s autofictional and meta drama is about a director writing a film about a director writing a film. What our reviewer said “A candidly personal movie, circling around ideas of grief, loss, the vampirism of art and the betrayal involved in basing fictional characters on real people: a complex, slightly muddled, almost surreally modernist noir-melodrama.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘It is the riskiest film I’ve ever made’: Pedro Almodóvar on being the villain in his own movie
Summed up in a sentence Frenzied K-horror action from the director of Train to Busan traps a small group of the non-infected in a tower block swarming with rabid hive-mind zombies.What our reviewer said “Working with a company of South Korea’s top contemporary dancers, movement choreographer Jeon Young makes many of the action and gore scenes resemble something you might see on stage at Sadler’s Wells. Michael Jackson’s Thriller video might have done it first but Colony does it better, more scarily and on an epic scale” Laurence Phelan
Summed up in a sentence The first feature-length adventure of cinema’s most adorable ovine hero gets a rerelease ahead of next month’s (18 September) sequel The Beast of Mossy Bottom.What our reviewer said “It’s a quasi-silent film jam-packed with gags, visual ideas and narrative invention and positively bursting with comedy flavour. Like Jim Henson’s muppets, the stop-motion Aardman figures are effortlessly funny, as well as being better performers than most humans.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Baa-hind the scenes on the Shaun the Sheep movie: ‘In a good week we can shoot two minutes’
Summed up in a sentence Low prices and rising debt levels have caused a suicide epidemic among agricultural workers in rural India; this documentary is about some of the women left behind. What our reviewer said “Sanjivani not only works in the fields but also performs domestic labour for her extended family – cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. Her resilience is stunning to witness, but even more impressive is the emotional support provided by a tight-knit network of other widows.” Phuong Le
Further reading Suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers linked to climate change, study claims
