Best films released in the UK this month: February 2024

Highlights from the rest of the month include the acclaimed French film The Taste of Things, real-life wrestling drama The Iron Claw and sweary black comedy Wicked Little Letters – which is based on a true scandal that rocked 1920s England.

Meanwhile, if you're after a new film to watch on Valentine's Day, there are two very different options to choose from: Bob Marley biopic One Love and superhero flick Madame Web.

To help you pick out the highlights, we've put together a selection of some of the best films to watch this month – check out the video above or read on for our choices.

American Fiction

Release date: Friday 2nd February in cinemas

This Oscar-nominated satire stars Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison, a Black writer who is struggling to sell his next novel as publishers believe it is not "Black enough".

After seeing the success of another author – Issa Rae's Sintara Golden – he decides to write a novel that he believes panders to Black stereotypes, and finds much to his dismay that great success follows.

Argylle

Release date: Friday 2nd February in cinemas

Matthew Vaughn's latest spy thriller features a star-studded cast, but the film's twists and turns – and even the truth about its source material – have been kept firmly under wraps, although Vaughn has shot down rumours that Taylor Swift is in any way connected.

We do know that Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell and Henry Cavill all have key roles, while there are also significant parts for Bryan Cranston, Samuel L Jackson, Catherine O'Hara, John Cena, Ariana DeBose and even pop superstar Dua Lipa.

The Zone of Interest

Release date: Friday 2nd February in cinemas

This chilling drama from acclaimed filmmaker Jonathan Glazer – his first since Under the Skin a decade ago – follows the everyday life of the commandant of Auschwitz and his family while the horrors of the Holocaust are ongoing.

Loosely adapted from a Martin Amis novel of the same name, it's an expertly crafted and deeply disturbing look at the banality of evil, and has been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

The Iron Claw

Release date: Friday 9th February in cinemas

Sean Durkin tackles the true story of wrestling's Von Erich clan – who achieved significant success and gained national attention in the 1980s, only for a devastating series of tragedies to follow, plunging the family deeper and deeper into disarray.

The film boasts an impressive cast that includes Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Lily James and Zac Efron, with the latter turning in an arguably career best performance as Kevin Von Erich.

Bob Marley: One Love

Release date: Wednesday 14th February in cinemas

Bob Marley is the latest musical icon to get the biopic treatment, with Kingsley Ben-Adir playing the lead role in a film that focuses on his life after an attempted assassination in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1976.

The film follows the reggae superstar over a two-year period, rather than attempting a cradle-to-grave life story, covering the recording of his landmark album Exodus and various personal and professional obstacles he faced at the time.

Madame Web

Release date: Wednesday 14th February in cinemas

Dakota Johnson has the lead role in this new superhero flick, playing Cassie Webb a paramedic and clairvoyant who develops the ability to see future events within the "spider world".

She is joined in the cast by Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor, Isabela Merced and Tahar Rahim, with the film following Cassie as she confronts her past while trying to save three young women from a deadly adversary.

The Taste of Things

Release date: Wednesday 14th February in cinemas

This acclaimed French film stars Juliette Binoche as a cook who forms a relationship with her boss – Benoît Magimel's Dodin Bouffant – based on the delicious meals they cook for one another.

It was selected as France's entry for the Best International Feature Oscar – slightly controversially ahead of Anatomy of a Fall – but despite some rave reviews, the film was not one of the five ultimately nominated for the category.

The Promised Land

Release date: Friday 16th February in cinemas

Mads Mikkelsen has the lead role in this Danish historical epic about war hero Ludvig Kahlen, who sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow.

When he arrives there, he clashes with Frederik De Schinkel, a merciless nobleman who currently rules the land and reckons Kahlen poses a major threat to his power – leading to a violent and intense confrontation between the two men.

Wicked Little Letters

Release date: Friday 23rd February in cinemas

Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman star in this sweary black comedy based loosely on a true letter-writing scandal that rocked the seaside town of Littlehampton in the 1920s.

It follows events when a resident named Edith (Colman) is targeted by a series of obscene letters, and suspects her neighbour Rose (Buckley) as the culprit – with the police eventually drafted in to help solve the increasingly perplexing mystery.

Shoshana

Release date: Friday 23rd February in cinemas

This political thriller is set in 1930s Tel Aviv, and follows the relationship between Thomas Wilkin, who works in the British Palestine police force, and Shoshana Borochov, the daughter of a Zionist activist.

Based on a true story, this is written and directed by Michael Winterbottom, while the cast includes Douglas Booth, Irina Starshenbaum, Harry Melling and Ian Hart.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on tonight.

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