WRATH OF MAN | Stream from 20 December 2021
MTV Movie Award winner Guy Ritchie and Critics’ Choice Nominee Jason Statham – the action dream-team that gave us Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and Revolver – are at it again in Wrath of Man.
Statham (best known as The Transporter, Crank, and Deckard Shaw in the Fast & Furious films) stars as H, a new security guard for a cash truck company, who faces mistrust from his crew after unleashing precision skills during a heist, leaving them questioning his identity, and his motives.
Wrath of Man also stars multiple Teen Choice Award nominee Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin, Black Hawk Down), multi-award winner Eddie Marsan (The World’s End, 21 Grams), BAFTA nominee Niamh Algar (Raised by Wolves, MotherFatherSon), Laz Alonso (The Boys), Teen Choice winner Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad, The Outpost) and Oscar nominee Andy Garcia (the Ocean’s films, The Godfather Part III).
It’s the 35th biggest film of 2021 so far, with RogerEbert.com calling it, “A star vehicle for Jason Statham at his meanest… one of Guy Ritchie’s best-directed movies,” and praising the film’s “voluptuous darkness, so sinister that you may wonder if its main character is the devil himself.”
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN | Stream from 20 January 2022
Everyone said Cassie (Carey Mulligan in an Oscar-nominated performance) was a promising young woman… until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be: she’s wickedly smart, tantalisingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story.
Writer-director Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve) won the 2021 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay – just one of 110 awards the film has won. Promising Young Woman has a 90% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “A boldly provocative, timely thriller, Promising Young Woman is an auspicious feature debut for writer-director Emerald Fennell – and a career highlight for Carey Mulligan.”
Emmy winner Bo Burnham (Inside, The Big Sick), Emmy nominees Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black) and Connie Britton (The White Lotus), Critics’ Choice nominee Alison Brie (GLOW), Teen Choice winners Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus) and Adam Brody (The O.C.) co-star.
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday | Stream from 6 January 2022
Andra Day was nominated for a 2021 Best Actress Oscar and won Black Reel, Golden Globe and Webby Awards as legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday, who was targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.
Two-time Oscar nominee Lee Daniels (Precious, The Butler) directs this adaptation of Johann Hari’s book Chasing The Scream. Black Reel winner Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Screen Actors Guild nominee Garret Hedlund (Mudbound) and four-time Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Orange Is The New Black) co-star.
As Deadline puts it, “You simply cannot say enough about what Day achieves in this role, particularly being a first-time actor. She gets beneath the skin of Holiday, giving a raw and honest portrait of an artist under duress but determined in her belief that she can use that art and talent to make the world a more just place.”
PALM SPRINGS | Stream now, first on Showmax
The wonderful indie romantic comedy Palm Springs follows two strangers who meet at a wedding in Palm Springs, only to get stuck in a time loop.
The movie stars Emmy winner Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Jake, Saturday Night Live) and Critics’ Choice Award nominee Cristin Milioti (Mythic Quest, Fargo, How I Met Your Mother), who respectively won Best Actor and Best Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie at the 2021 Critics’ Choice Super Awards, where the film also won Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie. Among other honours, Palm Springs won the 2021 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Comedy, after breaking the records for the biggest sale of a film at Sundance and the most-viewed film in its first weekend on Hulu. It holds a 95% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with IndieWire calling it, “Sweet, funny and demented.”
The cast also includes Oscar winner JK Simmons (La La Land, No Activity, Spider-Man), and Golden Globe winner Peter Gallagher (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Grace and Frankie, The O.C.), as well as award-winning Zimbabwean actor Tongayi Chirisa (Antebellum, iZombie).
THE MARKSMAN | Stream now, first on Showmax
Oscar nominee Liam Neeson (Taken) stars in The Marksman as a rancher (and former US Marine) living on the Arizona border who becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy fleeing cartel assassins.
Critics’ Choice nominee Katheryn Winnick (Vikings’ Lagertha), Teresa Ruiz (Narcos: Mexico), and newcomer Jacob Perez co-star.
Directed by triple-Oscar nominee and Clint Eastwood-collaborator Robert Lorenz (Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima, American Sniper), it’s the 90th biggest box office hit of 2021 so far.
