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Shadows reviews Trailers and other previews... ALL COMMENTS BY RICH CLINE
C O M I N G S O O N to the UK & US...	O N T H E H O R I Z O N can’t hardly wait...
BFI Flare Fest: 19-30.Mar.25 28 Mar: THE END TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS HOLY COW (Fr) MISERICORDIA (Fr) VIET AND NAM (Vie) 4 Apr: FOUR MOTHERS FREAKY TALES* MR BURTON* THE MOST PRECIOUS OF CARGOES* (Fr) SEBASTIAN WILLIAM TELL 11 Apr: HOLY COW (Fr) THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN THE RETURN* THE UNINVITED* 18 Apr: DREAMIN' WILD THE WEDDING BANQUET* 25 Apr: APRIL* (Geo) 9 May: RIEFENSTAHL* THE UNINVITED* THE WEDDING BANQUET 30 May: HOT MILK* THE SALT PATH* RELEASE DATE TBC . . . HANDLING THE UNDEAD (Nor) HOW TO BUILD A TRUTH ENGINE RILEY SCARED SHITLESS 7 KEYS TOLL (Br) VIDEO VISION ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT* * reviews under embargo C O M I N G U P . . . • A WORKING MAN. NOVOCAINE. IRENA'S VOW. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THE BITTER TEARS OF ZAHRA ZAND. NIGHT STAGE. A MINECRAFT MOVIE. THE AMATEUR. RESTLESS. • SUNFLOWER. HEAVIER TRIP. BAM. F.L.Y. LUMINA. LOUD AND LONGING. QUEENDOM. ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE. • THUNDERBOLTS. DEATH OF A UNICORN. HORIZON CHAPTER II. UNRELEASED FESTIVAL FILMS . . . • Flare: DEPARTURES. A FEW FEET APART. HIGH TIDE. REALLY HAPPY SOMEDAY. SAD JOKES. WE ARE FAHEEM & KARUN. • FrightFest: THE DAEMON. DERELICT. FRIGHT. LADYBUG. SCARLET BLUE. TRAUMATIKA. • Annecy: ROCK BOTTOM. THE BIRTH OF KITARO: THE MYSTERY OF GEGEGE. See also: SHADOWS FILM FEST	DEATH OF A UNICORN dir Alex Scharfman; with Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Richard E Grant, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Anthony Carrigan, Jessica Hynes, Sunita Mani 25/US release US 28.Mar.25, UK 4.Apr.25 A terrific premise makes comedy fantasy this instantly intriguing: a father and daughter (Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega) hit a unicorn with their car, then find themselves entangled with a Big Pharma executive (Richard E Grant). Superb casting makes it even more enticing. The one question mark is first-time writer-director Alex Scharfman, who has produced some offbeat movies but remains unproven as a storyteller. Fingers crossed that it's audacious, funny and a bit freaky too. THE FRIEND dir-scr Scott McGehee, David Siegel; with Bill Murray, Naomi Watts, Ann Dowd, Carla Gugino, Constance Wu, Owen Teague, Josh Pais, Felix Solis 24/US release US 28.Mar.25, UK tbc Despite the awful generic title, this film is intriguing due to directing team, as Scott McGeehee and David Siegel are experts at bringing nuance and resonance to a story. This one is about grief, viewed through the prism of a writer who adopts a great dane that once belonged to her mentor. And the cast is terrific at adding texture to bring complex characters to engaging life. Reviews out of Toronto were positive, so it looks very promising indeed. Although there's no UK release date yet. THE ACCOUNTANT 2 dir Gavin O'Connor; with Ben Affleck, JK Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Andrew Howard, Grant Harvey, Mariel Suarez 25/US release US/UK 25.Apr.25 Nine years later, Ben Affleck reteams with director Gavin O'Connor and writer Bill Dubuque for a sequel to their corny but entertaining thriller about a maths savant who expertly cooks books and carries out precision hits. Also back are JK Simmons, Jon Bernthal and Cynthia Addai-Robbinson as the fed, killer and detective on his trail. We can hope this film is more logically coherent, but it's likely to be merely a continuation of the enjoyably mindless mayhem. ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOUR dir Paul Feig; with Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Perkins, Andrew Rannells, Joshua Satine, Bashir Salahuddin 25/US release US/UK 1.May.25 After the 2018 guilty pleasure, there are hopes that reuniting the cast and crew can result in more of the same kind of blackly comical fun. This time, the action shifts to the island of Capri with mafioso hijinks as Blake Lively's Emily marries an Italian businessman. Kendrick and Lively had terrific chemistry in the first film, and even if the plot looks a bit less nuanced, the addition of Allison Janney to the cast is a stroke of genius. THUNDERBOLTS* dir Jake Schreier; with Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Olga Kurylenko, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Geraldine Viswanathan, Lewis Pullman 25/US release US/UK 2.May.25 While this looks worryingly similar to Suicide Squad, with its misfit team of anti-superheroes, the trailer has a sparkier attitude to it that looks both funnier and warmer. And also of course packed with insane action nuttiness. Jake Schreier is a promising choice as director, as his career has featured a number of top-notch offbeat projects. And the cast is superb, a collection of proper actors who know how to time a perfect punchline. Avengers unavailable, indeed. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING* dir Christopher McQuarrie; with Tom Cruise, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Hannah Waddingham, Angela Bassett, Janet McTeer, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Nick Offerman 25/US release US/UK 23.May.25 Shot over what seemed like an impossibly long production schedule, this so-called "final" episode in the Tom Cruise movie series is gleefully fuelling the rumour mill that something conclusive is going to happen to Ethan Hunt during this particular impossible mission. These films are so slickly put together that no one is worrying about whether it's good, or whether the audience will have an appetite for more heart-stopping stunt-based action. It will be massive. And thankfully, they've tidied up that messy title too. CLEANER dir Martin Campbell; with Daisy Ridley, Clive Owen, Taz Skylar, Flavia Watson, Ray Fearon, Rufus Jones, Lee Boardman, Richard Hope 24/UK release US 21.Feb.25, UK tbc This looks like a potential guilty pleasure, a throw-back thriller about a company gala in Europe's tallest skyscraper, The Shard in London, that is attacked by extremists who are fighting violently amongst themselves. Expect the topical issues to be fairly generic as the focus will be on Die Hard-style action anchored by Daisy Ridley's window cleaner, who of course has a military past and comes to the rescue. And without the article "the", that title has a witty twist. Sky is releasing it digitally in the UK, but hasn't announced when. HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA - CHAPTER II dir Kevin Costner; with Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Abbey Lee, Luke Wilson, Dale Dickey, Georgia MacPhail 24/US release US/UK tbc After his enjoyable three-hour prologue ended on an extended montage of scenes to come, we're hoping for dramatic resolution to the various plot strands Kevin Costner left dangling. Chapter 2 looks just as spectacular visually, with its expansive settings and colourful ensemble, including a promising glimpse of a sneering Giovanni Ribisi. Word out of Venice was that it's more of the same, and Costner has planned on two further chapters. There's no US/UK release date yet, but Germany and Russia get it April 3rd. Also on my want-to-see list... Spring: HOLLAND NOVOCAINE THE WOMAN IN THE YARD G20 HAVOC FRIENDSHIP KARATE KID: LEGENDS SHADOW FORCE SINNERS Summer: BALLERINA HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON F1 28 YEARS LATER THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH SUPERMAN
Release dates: British film release schedules are much more fluid than American ones, so please be patient as I try to keep up with UK distributors. I'm working to keep this list up-to-date as they keep trying to outfox me. I'm sure it's personal. Embargoes: Britain's Film Distributors Association asks us to hold reviews until the week of release, and some distributors are even more restrictive. Normally, once the film is shown to a paying audience, either on release or at a festival, the full review can appear on the site. © 2025 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall HOME \| REVIEWS \| NEWS \| FESTIVAL \| AWARDS \| Q&A \| ABOUT \| TALKBACK