5 more fantastic films to watch this weekend
This week we bring you an exquisitely shot history lesson on film, an instant classic of Italian magical realism, and the Japanese historical drama setting everyone’s tongues on fire.
The Big Screen
Evil Does Not Exist (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
The films of Japanese maestro Ryusuke Hamaguchi have never been the type to offer easy answers, choosing rather to revel in the questions themselves. His latest, Evil Does Not Exist, is no exception, and sees the Academy Award winning director of Drive My Car at the top of his game. The film follows a mountain community whose perfectly tuned ecosystem is threatened when a Tokyo-based mega-corp arrives with construction plans for “glamping” site that, if allowed to proceed, will throw the ecological health of their village into disarray.
Evil Does Not Exist is playing exclusively at the BFI now. You can read our interview with Ryusuke Hamaguchi here.
La Chimera (dir. Alice Rohrwacher)
Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera delivers arguably the most accomplished film in the Italian director’s Tuscan Triptych, starring Josh O’Connor as Arthur, a brooding British archeologist wayfaring Italy in search of treasured artefacts and his lost love. There’s shades of Orpheus in Arthur, who, like the tragic Greek hero, is revealed to have a supernatural ability himself, and the role is a career-best for O’Connor, proving without a doubt that he is leading man material after all. We’ve got an interview with Rohrwacher about the film incoming, so don’t miss the one-time-only screening of La Chimera at the BFI this weekend.
La Chimera is playing on Saturday 2nd March at the BFI. You can read our review of the film here.
Origin (dir. Ava DuVernay)
Not so much a movie as it is an immersive, exquisitely shot history lesson, Ava DuVernay’s Origin tells the true story of how journalist Isabel Wilkinson wrote her monumental 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which became famous for its recontextualisation of racism in the United States. DuVernay’s film is at once intimate and epic, and you’ll follow Wilkinson (played here by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) on a journey from the United States to Germany to India as she delves into the caste systems in each country’s history.
Origin is playing at the BFI for a limited time.
The small screen
Priscilla (dir. Sofia Coppola)
A Rabbit’s Foot Deputy Editor Chris Cotonou left a glowing review for Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla after seeing it at the Venice Biennale last year, calling it a “sober correction to Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis.” Her first film since the slightly underwhelming On The Rocks, Priscilla is a return to form for the beloved filmmaker, who puts her own spin on Priscilla Presley’s turbulent marriage to the King of Rock n’ Roll, all the while breathing new life into some of the themes we’ve come to associate with her oeuvre.
Priscilla is now playing exclusively on Mubi. You can read our review of the film here.
Shōgun (created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks)
Ok, so this one isn’t technically a film, but how could we ignore the staggering reception of the first few episodes of Shōgun, Hulu’s new TV adaptation of the classic James Clavell novel of the same name. Set in 16th century Japan, the show explores the entwined fates of Yoshii Toranaga (played by the always-magnificent Hiroyuki Sanada), a Lord caught in a dangerous political struggle where the stakes are life or death, John Blackborne (Cosmo Jarvis), an English sailor who washes up on Japanese shores, and Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a mysterious female samurai. People are calling this one the best historical drama series since Game of Thrones—you don’t want to miss it.
Shōgun is now playing on Disney Plus (UK) and Hulu (US).