What films are out in UK cinemas this week? Reviews from The Brutalist to Flight Risk

It's one of a trio of major releases out this week, with Steven Soderbergh's unconventional ghost story Presence and Mel Gibson's extremely conventional action thriller Flight Risk the other new films now available to watch.

Of course, several of the other Oscar nominees are also still playing in cinemas – including Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown – and you can find our reviews of all the major films currently out in the UK below.

Read on for your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas.

What films are released in UK cinemas this week? 24th-30th January

The Brutalist

As an upside-down Statue of Liberty drifts into view; it’s clear that The Brutalist will not be a straightforward, flag-waving take on the American Dream.

Director/co-writer Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader) takes his film-making to another level with the ambitious story of fictional architect Laszlo Toth, who arrives in America following the Second World War.

After an ignominious start, this Hungarian Jew is taken under the wing of Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr (Guy Pearce), who commissions him to work on a cultural centre in tribute to his late mother. The building’s construction takes its toll on both men, while later Laszlo is reunited with his wife (Felicity Jones) and niece (Raffey Cassidy).

This richly detailed film speaks volumes about America’s uneasy relationship with immigration. It captures the poison chalice of philanthropy through Pearce’s searing portrayal of the monstrous Van Buren, with Brody nailing the torment of a proud, talented man who cannot help but absorb the hatred of others.

Seven years in the making and shot in the defunct large-scale VistaVision format, the film is epic in its length, weight and ambition, like a modern-day Orson Welles picture. It’s a timely examination of how modern America came into existence, and the resentments that lurk beneath its surface. – Emma Simmonds

• Read our full The Brutalist review
• Read our interview with Felicity Jones

Presence

Steven Soderbergh may be Hollywood’s most inventive and well-rounded film-maker, having worked in practically every major genre. Presence, his first foray into traditional horror, is typically non-traditional.

Unfolding from the perspective of an unknown entity, this graceful ghost story unsettles with a sense of cosmic sorrow rather than blood and guts or bumps in the night. As the spirit observes the new owners of an old dark house, floating POV camerawork casts the spectre – and the audience – as an invisible member of a fractured family whose problems are also hidden from each other.

Convenience undermines the screenplay and the forlorn atmosphere is fatally punctured when a character is revealed to be too despicable for the story to contain. The tone, however, is always well balanced. Light on frights but steeped in intrigue and emotion, Presence is formally playful, deeply sad and slyly funny all at the same time. Its mournful elegance is sure to age as well as the ever-evolving horror genre. – Sean McGeady

Flight Risk

Mel Gibson sidelines the epic ambitions of Braveheart or Apocalypto for his seventh time in the director's chair, a contained but thumpingly conventional airborne thriller. Michelle Dockery plays Madolyn, a US marshal transporting a witness (Topher Grace) to trial. But as they cross Alaska in a charter plane, it turns out their pilot (Mark Wahlberg) isn’t who he claims to be, and a battle of wills ensues.

Dockery gives an impressively clipped study in steely poise under pressure, and she dredges hidden depths with subtlety as Madolyn’s secrets emerge. However, Grace is saddled with more quips than character as the goofball informant, while Wahlberg’s committed but cartoonish turn as a shaven-headed snake on a plane soon becomes boorish and grating.

Gibson handles the close-quarters fights and tension competently, though he’s working from a nuts-and-bolts script that squanders a promising set-up on autopilot clichés of plot and character. With its few twists telegraphed in advance, Flight Risk finds little room for surprises on its bumpy way to a rushed climax. – Kevin Harley

Best of the rest still showing in UK cinemas

A Complete Unknown

Timothée Chalamet excels as Bob Dylan in an absorbing biopic that charts the iconic singer/songwriter’s early career, with a dash of dramatic licence.

The narrative follows the aspiring musician’s arrival in New York in 1961, continues through his burgeoning success and popularity, and culminates four years later when Dylan incurred the wrath of folk purists by going electric.

Director James Mangold and co-screenwriter Jay Cocks take a few liberties with events, times and names, but nonetheless paint an evocative portrait of a superstar in the making and his growing disenchantment with fame, thanks to a compelling, layered portrayal by Chalamet. The actor projects his subject’s physicality and speech patterns perfectly, and especially impresses in his performances of the generation-defining songs, eloquently capturing the essence of Dylan.

In a strong supporting cast, Edward Norton stands out as Pete Seeger, the folk music traditionalist and civil rights activist who became Dylan’s most important mentor. He superbly conveys conflict and heartbreak as his role in the singer’s ascent to the A-list shifts from proud father figure to reluctant adversary. – Terry Staunton

• Read our full A Complete Unknown review
• Read our interview with Timothée Chalamet

Wolf Man

This dour take on the werewolf genre marries cabin-in-the-woods scares with Cronenbergian body horror.

When Blake (Christopher Abbott) inherits a remote Oregon farm from his estranged dad, he decides to drive out there with his wife (Julia Garner) and young daughter (Matilda Firth) for some much-needed family bonding. They’ve barely arrived when they’re attacked by a strange creature that bites Blake. The family seeks refuge indoors, but they're far from safe, as Blake begins to change...

Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, who hit gold with 2020’s excellent The Invisible Man, this is a thoughtful enough film about the slow transformation of man into monster that boasts plenty of gut-wrenching gore and effective jump scares along the way.

A ruthlessly de-saturated colour palette and earnest performances add to the tale's veneer of prestige. But ultimately, the thin plot and thinner characters render it all largely standard horror fare that fails to capitalise on its more interesting innovations, and runs out of steam well before the end credits. – Dave Golder

• Read our full Wolf Man review
• Read our interview with director Leigh Whannell

Maria

An on-song Angelina Jolie fronts this stirring biopic about opera singer Maria Callas. Beginning with her death in 1977, when Callas had a heart attack at the age of 53, the film then plays out the final week of her life.

Addicted to medications, the singer fantasises about being interviewed by a journalist (Kodi Smit-McPhee) named Mandrax – a neat device to see into her past. Switching between colour and black-and-white, the film smartly flashes back and forwards through time.

We are shown Callas in her glory years – mixing with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer) and President John F Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson) – and her struggle to come to terms with her fading status.

Pablo Larraín, the Chilean director behind films on Jackie Kennedy (Jackie) and Princess Diana (Spencer), contrasts glimpses of glamour with tender scenes showing the older singer’s isolated existence living with her maid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) and butler Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino). Unlike Callas's finest recitals, this isn’t a work that will move you to tears, but Jolie’s nuanced turn reminds us of what an accomplished actress she can be. – James Mottram

• Read our full Maria review
• Read our interview with Angelina Jolie

Babygirl

Nicole Kidman plays a CEO drawn into a submissive affair with an intern in this striking erotic drama. High-flyer Romy (Kidman) risks it all, including her family life and marriage (to Antonio Banderas’ theatre director), when she falls under the spell of Harris Dickinson’s charismatic Samuel.

Soon, she’s enjoying hotel room assignations, as he toys with her untapped desires. While her film threatens to move into Fatal Attraction territory, writer/director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) steers the story away from acts of consensual humiliation in the second half.

Instead, we get an intriguing look at female psychology, workplace hierarchies and male-female power-play. Kidman is tremendous as the babygirl of the title, but Dickinson shines as the twenty-something who isn’t as in control as he'd like to think. – James Mottram

• Read our full Babygirl review

A Real Pain

Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs and stars in this touching comedy drama, which is loosely inspired by his own family history. He plays David, a well-adjusted if rather uptight New Yorker embarking on a tour of Poland with his semi-estranged cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin), who leads a notably less settled life. The trip is intended to honour their late grandmother, who had survived the Holocaust before emigrating to the US.

As the cousins wrestle with this deep-rooted family trauma, though, the focus also extends to painful memories in the more recent past. Eisenberg’s sharp, witty script expertly teases out an emotionally complex history between the pair, and their dynamic – by turns tetchy and tender – feels totally genuine. Culkin, in particular, is in fine form, especially as it becomes clear that Benji’s brash, impulsive demeanour is masking a deep vulnerability.

Despite the heavy subject matter, it’s a fairly breezy film with a light touch, a commendable lack of self-importance and several laugh-out-loud moments, which ensures its emotional high-points are all the more potent. – Patrick Cremona

• Read our interview with Jesse Eisenberg
• Read our interview with Kieran Culkin

Nosferatu

FW Murnau's classic 1922 riff on Dracula gets a stylish, visually dynamic remake from director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse). Nicholas Hoult plays Thomas Hutter, a young clerk in 19th century Germany sent on business to Transylvania where he encounters Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård).

The ailing aristocrat boasts an unquenchable bloodlust, one that is soon focused terrifyingly on Hutter’s wife (Lily-Rose Depp). Strong support sees Emma Corrin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson play the Hutters's family friends, while Willem Dafoe (who played original Orlok actor Max Schreck in 2000's Shadow of the Vampire) appears as an expert on the occult.

Eggers remains faithful to the spirit of the original film, but works wonders with his creative team to craft a masterclass in gloomy, gothic atmosphere. Unrecognisable under prosthetics, Skarsgård is terrific, adding to his litany of fine horror-movie performances (It, Barbarian).

Hoult is a sturdy presence, while Depp brings the requisite purity. But really, this is Eggers’s baby: you’ll be left marvelling at the ominous, shadowy visuals and the creeping sense of dread that envelops the whole movie. – James Mottram

• Read our full Nosferatu review
• Read our interview with stars Bill Skarsgård and Nicholas Hoult and director Robert Eggers

We Live in Time

Love, mortality and time are the key concerns of this moving, thoughtful but faintly contrived romantic melodrama. Florence Pugh plays ambitious fusion chef Almut and Andrew Garfield is homely Weetabix rep Tobias, a contrasting duo who fall in love, have a child and make wedding plans. Yet, when Almut is diagnosed with reoccurring cancer, the question of how best to spend her remaining time weighs heavily on them.

Written by playwright and screenwriter Nick Payne, the script maps out this tale in non-linear fashion to uncertain effect. While John Crowley’s elegant direction makes it easy to gauge where we are in the couple’s history, the scrambled chronology lacks clarity of purpose.

Some twists, metaphors and writerly quirks can seem forced, including the occasionally overwritten dialogue. Compensation comes in part from Garfield and Pugh, who give likeable, expressive turns as the lovers facing tough choices.

With Bryce Dessner’s graceful score and Crowley’s sensitive handling also factored in, this fitfully absorbing weepy works best when it gives its emotions room to breathe. – Kevin Harley

• Read our interview with director John Crowley

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