It’s may not be a holiday weekend, but this Friday is bringing four very different new movies to South African cinemas – including a long awaited, era-ending Marvel Cinematic Universe entry. Find out more about each of them below.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Writer-director James Gunn wraps up his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy here with 150 minutes of sci-fi superheroics, adventure, comedy, heartfelt camaraderie and an amazing retro soundtrack. Still reeling from the loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) rallies his team to defend one of their own against a sociopathic scientist known as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). Also making a return to this MCU movie are Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel (voice only), Bradley Cooper (voice only), Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff, while Will Poulter plays cosmic hero Adam Warlock for the first time on the big screen.
Read Kervyn’s full, spoiler-free review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 here.
Beau is Afraid
From a crowd pleaser to reportedly one of the most divisive movies you’ll watch this year. Beau is Afraid is a surreal three-hour comedy drama about an anxiety-riddled man who confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque journey home to reach his controlling mother. Joaquin Phoenix plays the title character, while Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley, and Richard Kind also appear. This A24 movie is a passion project, and complete direction change, for Hereditary and Midsommar’s Ari Aster.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Your other unusual big screen odyssey of the week is heartfelt British drama The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Based on the 2012 bestseller by Rachel Joyce, the film centres on quiet, unassuming pensioner Harold (Jim Broadbent) who sets out to post a letter to a former friend and colleague now dying in hospice care… Except, still with the envelope in hand, Harold impulsively decides to walk across the country to see her instead. Familiar face Penelope Wilton plays Harold’s bemused wife.
Assassin
It feels like there have already been at least three other bargain bin movies marketed as Bruce Willis’s last film role before professional retirement as a result of dementia. Sci-fi actioner Assassin is another one. In the future-set film, microchip technology is used by private military organisations to place agents’ minds in other people’s bodies to carry out covert missions. When one agent is killed, his wife (South Africa’s own Nomzamo Mbatha) must take his place to get justice. Also with Dominic Purcell.