The top five films coming your way, according to this writer.

The bricks and mortar cinema experience may be in terminal decline, particularly in the USA. Only a handful of established blockbuster franchises are able to pack theatres on opening night, and with the envelope between theatrical release and streaming narrowing, consumers now have less time to wait for the cheaper, and arguably more convenient, experience of watching at home. What’s maybe more surprising is that the streamers are now increasingly willing to fund arthouse films that rarely turned a profit even in the pre-Covid days, but are perceived to add cache and ‘class’ to a streamer’s brand. Effectively, these are lower-budget films that serve as marketing tools by winning prestigious awards. The weird thing is, that to be eligible for these awards, the films do actually have to be shown in bricks and mortar cinemas, even if just for a week before showing up on TV. This change in the marketing model has impacted how film festivals are now being programmed. 

In the old days, you’d have some big-star wattage films where the red carpet was used for marketing, but the majority of films were arthouse films looking for distribution in cinemas. Nowadays, the proportion of films in the former category has increased and sadly the proportion in the latter category has decreased. But the result is that a lot of films I watched at the BFI London Film Festival this past October will be coming to your TVs in time for the holiday season, rather than waiting 9-12 months for a limited cinematic release in a handful of arthouse cinemas. And here’s my top five pick of the best:

One for the murder-mystery fans Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is Rian Johnson’s sequel to the smash-hit Knives Out. This one also stars Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, and leans even further into the camp of a fussily over-dressed and anachronistic famous detective in the Agatha Christie style. The new villain of the piece is Ed Norton’s tech billionaire, Miles Bron, clearly based on Elon Musk. He’s a vainglorious fake hippie who invites all of his old college friends to a yearly retreat, this time on his supervillain island lair. As the movie unfolds, in good detective tradition, we realise that each of the characters needs Miles for his money or connections, and has a motive to kill him. There’s even a MacGuffin, a piece of a new renewable energy-producing crystal widget that is also – oh, no! – rather dangerous. The result is a genuinely complex and satisfying murder mystery full of hilariously drawn characters in a political-satire-meets-whodunnit. 

One for the grown-ups In all my years of attending the BFI London Film Festival, the longest and most heartfelt standing ovation went to Brendan Fraser for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. This film is so full of humanity it can feel overwhelming. It’s so full of hope and empathy and persistent attempts at connection that it’s incredibly uplifting. Brendan Fraser wears heavy prosthetics to play Charlie, an online university teacher who is dealing with grief by over-eating to the point of being close to death. He is clear-sighted, sure of his intentions, and even when confronted with crass attempts at religious redemption retains his calm patience. Charlie is trying to reconnect with his daughter, Ellie, a whip-smart, angry, fierce teenage girl portrayed by Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink in what surely must be her breakout cinematic performance. This attempt at reconciliation is eventually rumbled by Ellie’s mother, Mary (Samantha Morton), a woman we think is going to be angry and mean, but is actually kind and hurt and damaged, but still full of love, just like her daughter and just like Charlie, and just like his best friend, Liz. This is a film that says life is rough, but better to face it truthfully and have the courage to let love in. Fraser is a dead cert for the Best Actor Oscar next year. 

One for the history buffs Corsage is a stunning piece of imaginative film-making from writer-director Marie Kreutzer, featuring a memorable performance from Vicky Krieps as the iconic Austro-Hungarian Empress Sisi. Kreutzer takes a bold ahistorical approach to get to the emotional truth of an incredibly famous, beautiful woman, trapped in a loveless marriage and burdened by the obligations of her public role. 

The wonder of Krieps’ performance is that Sisi never seems passive or a victim even when she is: she’s actually spiky, bitchy, rebellious and wild, to the point of neglecting her duties with her indulgent cousin Ludwig of Bavaria. And I love that Kreutzer shows us people in full costume dress with retinues of obsequious servants, but places them in derelict locations filled with anachronistic props. It sounds too on the nose, but it actually works really well to underpin how rotten the edifice of the central European monarchy was at that stage, and the sham of these great imperial monarchs with their rotten teeth and fake beards. Kreutzer’s Sisi just takes that fakery one step further. 

One for families Tim Minchin’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda is a phenomenal musical with a big heart and an incredibly talented cast. Matilda (newcomer Alisha Weir) is an unwanted, but clever and courageous little girl, whose neglectful parents send her to the Dickensian Crunch ‘Em Hall, run by the tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Emma Thompson in full prosthetics is the holds-nothing-back Miss Trunchbull, playing her with full evil comedic glee. But the real surprise in the cast is Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey, in a role that shows her range beyond the athletic action of a James Bond film.

One for the older kids: Giullermo del Toro’s new stop-motion animated version of Pinocchio takes the beloved children’s story and recasts it with new musical numbers and added violence in the midst of early 20th century European fascism. It stars Ewan MacGregor, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz and Cate Blanchett. The result is a film that is strangely full of childish enthusiasm and hope, but doesn’t shy away from the reality of mortality, death and war. Del Toro was straightforward about its agenda when he introduced the film in its world premiere: it’s a film about disobedience as a virtue. And as one of the stars, Christoph Waltz, said, there’s something worthwhile in a film about a wooden puppet who wants to be a boy, at a time when humans are being made into puppets.

Giullermo del Toro’s Pinocchio will be released on Netflix on 25November; Matilda the Musical will be released on Netflix on 9 December; Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will be released on Netflix on 23 December; Corsage will be released in cinemas in the USA on 23 December and in the UK on 24 December; The Whale will be released in cinemas in the USA on 9 December and in the UK on 3February 2023.