With the sad news this week that Ster Kinekor is retrenching staff and shutting nine cinemas across South Africa (with potentially more to come), movie outings are top of mind. Locals have three new big screen offerings to choose from this Friday, including an Oscar winner and a horror comedy that is better than it has any right to be. Head out and enjoy the entertainment experience while you can.
The winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, The Boy and The Heron is the first film from legendary animator and Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki in ten years. Set during World War II Japan, young Mahito moves to his family’s estate in the countryside after the death of his mother. There he is guided by a mischievous grey heron to an abandoned tower that acts as a portal to another world.
South Africans will be able to choose between both subtitled original Japanese and dubbed screenings of the film, with the latter featuring an all-star voice cast that includes Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh.
Look out for our review of The Boy and the Heron tomorrow morning.
Less about scares and more about gory over-the-top thrills, there’s horror comedy Abigail. From the makers of Ready or Not and the last two Scream movies, Abigail kicks off when a band of criminals kidnap the 12-year-old daughter (played by Alisha Weir) of an underworld figure. While waiting for the ransom, they hole up in an isolated mansion, only to discover their captive is an unstoppable vampire… and they’re locked in with her. The ensemble cast includes familiar faces Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand and Giancarlo Esposito.
Read Tracy’s review of Abigail here.
Finally, Russell Crowe stars in mystery thriller Sleeping Dogs, which is based on the bestselling 2017 novel The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici. While undergoing a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, a former homicide detective tries to solve a brutal murder that he can’t properly recall. As he pieces together evidence from a decade-old investigation, he soon uncovers a sinister web of buried secrets tied to his forgotten past. Also with Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillan.