Liverpool Theatre News & Reviews
This Week's Best Movie Releases & Discounted Liverpool Cinema Tickets
Below, we've rounded up the 9 best films currently screening in Liverpool cinemas together with the 10 best releases new to the streaming services this week. (Updated 22 Jan 2025):
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1 ~ THE BRUTALIST.
★★★★★ An astonishing film. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★★ Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones star in a majestic historical epic from the director Brady Corbet. This may be the film to beat at the Oscars. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ Brody is tremendous as a visionary architect in Corbet’s towering third feature, a state-of-the-US historical epic with the colour and fizz of a classical Hollywood comic drama. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ In a superb performance, Brody plays a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the US and begins a distinguished career under the patronage of a wealthy man. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ Brody is Oscar-worthy in a mighty, discordant anthem to the birth of modern America. ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ A life writ large on the screen that deserves such maximalist treatment. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ Brady Corbet’s seismic drama reaches for the sky as it surveys the soul of a man and a nation. There will be Oscars. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ It is impossible not to recognise The Brutalist as anything other than a filmmaking triumph. ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ A staggering achievement in every conceivable way. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★★ An unmissable giant of a film that deserves all the Oscars. ~ NME
★★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Independent.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
2 ~ SEVEN (30th Anniversary 4K Restoration)
★★★★★ An intelligently scripted work of extraordinary style, upsetting power and narrative daring, Director David Fincher's brilliant postmodern crime thriller is a grim and disturbing tale about a vicious serial killer on the loose in an unnamed city. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Se7en is an example of classic horror thrills, up-ended and twisted into a bewildering and claustrophobic web of tension. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ A dark, gripping thriller which saves it's most shocking revelations for the final scenes. ~ Empire.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
3 ~ A REAL PAIN.
★★★★ Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs and stars in a film that manages to be ruefully perceptive and laugh-out-loud funny, often at the same time. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ His story about two cousins on a Jewish tour to Poland is perfectly weighted between bleak and warm, poignant and irreverent. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ There is a lot going on in here, but Eisenberg is in full control. A Real Pain is funny and intelligent, a sort of buddy road comedy that knows when to laugh at itself and when to take matters seriously. ~ The Irish Independent.
★★★★★ The writer, director and actor effortlessly walks a tonal tightrope in this masterpiece about Jewish American cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland. But Kieran Culkin steals the show as the more mischievous cousin.~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ Eisenberg has done the world a favour with this movie. At a time when empathy seems to be diminishing across the globe, he's delivered a touching, intelligent, funny and achingly sad tale of love, loss and grief. ~ RTE.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
4 ~ VERMIGLIO.
★★★★ Maura Delpero’s beautifully-made drama explores the complex dynamics of a sprawling family near the wartime border with Germany. ~ The Guardian.
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
HOME Showtimes & Unlimited Films for £18
5 ~ CONCLAVE.
★★★★ A papal thriller that treads on eggshells, Conclave is one of the year’s most deftly balanced films. Pulpy and pensive in equal measure. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ Sinfully entertaining and divinely provocative all while breaking bread on modern day power struggles. ~ RTE
★★★★★ Ralph Fiennes gives one of the performances of the year as a cardinal assailed on all sides in Edward Berger’s elegant adaptation of Robert Harris’s Vatican bestseller. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ When the time comes to look back at his long career, a new high point has arrived in the form of this beleaguered papal gumshoe trying to solve a riddle. ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★★ Berger’s account of cardinals battling to be the new Pope is a thrilling succession story, and the Oscar-worthy astonishing Ralph Fiennes is simply hypnotic. ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ A high-camp gripper, like the world’s most serious Carry On film. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ The i.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
6 ~ BETTER MAN.
★★★★★ This Bonkers Robbie Williams chimp biopic is an unexpected triumph. ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ An honest, entertaining and endlessly endearing spectacle that seems certain to play well with a crowd. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Even more than with The Greatest Showman, director Michael Gracey has created a fun, bombastic, brilliant choreographed and totally enthralling film. ~ Time Out.
★★★★ "This Robbie Williams chimpanzee biopic is a bananas gamble that pays off." ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ RTE.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
7 ~ NOSFERATU.
★★★★★ An earthy, erotic masterwork, Robert Eggers realises a lifelong dream in reimagining the tale of Count Orlok, with spellbinding results. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★★ One of the most profoundly frightening horror films in years, a magnificent Lily-Rose Depp is the convulsing, hysteric target of Bill Skarsgård’s vampire, in this star-studded adaptation co-starring Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin and Willem Dafoe. ~ The Independent.
★★★★ A vampire film with 'so much to sink your teeth into. ~ BBC.
★★★★✭ ~ RTE.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
8 ~ BABYGIRL.
★★★★ A film that’s liable to get people talking, arguing and flirting. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ A raw, sexy and surprising examination of an illicit affair between a high-powered CEO and her much younger intern. ~ RTE.
★★★★★ Nicole Kidman’s 21st-century Fatal Attraction is a complete knockout. This electrifying film rewires current neuroses into a merciless torture machine. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ Director Halina Reijn portrays a torrid office affair in all its messy complexity – it's moving and darkly funny. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ A hot erotic mess. Bondage has seldom been as playful. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ NME.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
Watch at Vue - up to £3.59 off tickets
9 ~ WICKED.
★★★★★ This candy-coloured treat of a Broadway adaptation is carried by the phenomenal talent of Ariane Grande and her co-star Cynthia Erivo. ~ The i.
★★★★★ If you're a Wicked fan, it's hard to imagine you could want anything more from this thrillifying film adaptation. Grande's and Erivo's performances as Glinda and Elphaba will have you defying gravity. ~ Total Film.
★★★★ The stars enchant as young rival witches in Jon M Chu’s impossibly slick first instalment of his two-part adaptation of the musical juggernaut. ~ The Observer.
★★★★ The smash stage musical by Stephen Schwartz - inspired by The Wizard of Oz - gets the film treatment with this opulent, if slightly indulgent, adaptation. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ What an enjoyable spectacle it is. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ NME.
★★★★ ~ RTE.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Cineworld Cinemas - Save up to £4 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Apollo Theatre, London ~ Until 4 Jan 2026.
ALSO SCREENING:
★★★✭ Architecton.
★★★✭ Inside Out II.
★★★✭ The Order.
★★★✭ A Complete Unknown.
★★★✭ Maria.
★★★✭ Gladiator II.
★★★✭ Queer.
★★★✭ Paddington in Peru.
★★★ We Live in Time.
★★★ The Damned.
★★★ Moana 2.
★★★ Wolf Man.
★★★ Mufasa: The Lion King.
★★✭ William Tell.
★★✭ The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
★★✭ Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
★★✭ Panda Bear in Africa.
★★ Panda Plan.
★★ Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties.
★★ Here.
★✭ Kraven The Hunter.
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NEW TO STREAMING:
(Updated 17 Jan 2025):
BBC iPLAYER ~ SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
~ 1999 Oscar Winner: Best Picture + Best Director (Steven Spielberg) + Best Original Cinematography + Best Sound + Best Effects.
★★★★★ Devastating and essential viewing, this is an uncompromising, powerful war movie that does not pull any punches. It pefectly balances the inhumanity of war and the humanity of its protagonists. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ With this movie, Steven Spielberg created one of his greatest films, an old-fashioned war picture to rule them all – gripping, utterly uncynical, with viscerally convincing and audacious battle sequences. ~ The Guardian.
The 24-minute sequence at the start of Spielberg’s Second World War drama is one of the greatest pieces of combat cinema yet made. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ To show the carnage of the D-Day Omaha Beach landing, Spielberg used a barrage of sound and the unpolished immediacy of a hand-held camera to thrust the viewer into the conflict for a 24-minute sequence of relentless, random violence more intense than in any previous Hollywood war movie. ~ AllMovie.
The fighting is ferocious, the losses terrible, and we see, and are only moderately shocked by, angry, exhausted GIs killing German soldiers who emerge from pillboxes with their hands up. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ This is an important film that deconstructs war machines into separate, frightened men as it so likely was. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ A modern war classic. Steven Spielberg won the Oscar for Best Director for his powerful and brutal war film, which has an immaculate performance from Tom Hanks. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
AMAZON PRIME ~ THE BLACK PIRATE
A handsomely restored print, using the original score, of the authentic, silent, swashbuckling classic, an early two-colour Technicolor production that the athletic Douglas Fairbanks starred in [97] years ago. He performs his own stunts, fences gracefully and rescues the beautiful heroine, Billie Dove. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ Hailed as the first full-length feature to be made in two-tone Technicolor, this was one of the most spectacular swashbucklers undertaken by Fairbanks (who also took a story credit as Elton Thomas). ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ With The Black Pirate, Fairbanks provided silent movies with a glorious swansong. At a time of florid captions and dense visual symbolism, he produced a piece of populist escapism which, like Star Wars 50 years later, helped re-introduce cinema to a younger audience who had been frozen out by the Jazz Age's obsession with sin and sophistication. ~ Empire.
Definitely the best swashbuckler of the silent era. ~ All 4.
AMAZON PRIME ~ THE AWFUL TRUTH
~ 1938 Oscar Winner: Best Director (Leo McCarey).
★★★★★ This is a wonderful example of Cary Grant at his screwball comic best, playing one half of a sniping, divorcing couple who trade insults like gunfire and seek to spoil each other's future plans. ~ Radio Times.
BBC iPLAYER ~ THE HURT LOCKER
~ 2010 Oscar Winner: Best Picture + Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow) + Best Original Screenplay + Best Editing + Best Sound Editing + Best Sound Mixing.
★★★★★ Kathryn Bigelow's explosive, edge-of-the-seat thriller is one of the best war movies ever made. After years in the wilderness, the director's stunning return to form is set, fittingly enough, in the arid landscape of a scorched Iraq. ~ Sky Cinema.
★★★★★ Bigelow crowns several decades of excellent artistic enquiry with a film that everybody should see. ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ The most literally exciting film you will see this year. Forget the off-putting banner of another Iraq movie - go, watch, marvel, endure and book in the palliative of a stiff drink afterwards. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ Bigelow trumps liberal efforts with the most insightful Iraq film yet; a blazingly powerful anti-war action film. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★✭ Some have labeled The Hurt Locker an action film, but that's a bit deceiving. What it lacks in traditional combat scenes, it more than makes up for in nail-biting tension. ~ All Movie.
★★★★★ For, in short, in its gutsy, bare-bones beauty, The Hurt Locker is not simply a war movie. It is war poetry. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
ITV X & NETFLIX - JURASSIC PARK
~ 1994 Oscar Winner: Best Sound + Best Sound Effects + Best Visual Effects.
★★★★★ One of the big screen's very greatest thrill-rides. ~ Total Film.
★★★★★ Steven Spielberg’s meaty dino-fest is as delicious as ever. The classic movie’s unforgettable performances and CGI effects remain glorious 30 years after its original release. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ T-Rex and her chums may be the stars of the show, but Spielberg orchestrates the action with such effortless verve that, even today, it's hard not to be transfixed by the thrilling spectacle and the sheer scale of the director's vision. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Cliché or not, there's no getting around it - quite simply one of the greatest blockbusters of all time. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
Hold On To Your Butts (Jurassic Park Parody):
Lowry, Salford ~ 12 to 15 Feb 2025.
Octagon Theatre, Bolton ~ 18 & 19 Mar 2025.
CHANNEL 4 ~ GANDHI
~ 1982 Oscar Winner: Best Picture + Best Actor (Ben Kingsley) + Best Director (Richard Attenborough) + Best Screenplay + Best Cinematography + Best Art Direction + Best Costume + Best Editing.
★★★★★ Richard Attenborough's stately biopic of Mahatma Gandhi has all the hallmarks of David Lean: historical scope; sure command of thousands of extras; and, most of all, an ability to focus on individual endeavour amid the spectacle. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ This rightly lauded epic charts Gandhi's rise from impoverished nobody to lasting symbol of peace and understanding throughout the world. ~ Sky Cinema.
★★★★★ Gandhi is a worshipful tribute to one of the 20th century's greatest leaders with Ben Kingsley giving a superb performance in the title role. As was widely predicted, the film swept the Oscars, winning eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. ~ AllMovie.
CHANNEL 4 ~ PLAYGROUND
~ 2021 Cannes Winner: Un Certain Regard.
★★★★★ This vérité Belgian marvel captures the dynamics of childhood. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ A child's-eye view of bullying comes to the fore in the unremittingly tense debut of director Laura Wandel. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ A claustrophobic portrait of pre-adolescent turmoil, this is an exceptionally taut drama. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ Daily Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
Channel 4 & Disney+ ~ West Side Story (2021 version)
~ 2022 Oscar Winner: Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose).
★★★★★ Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story 2.0 is an ecstatic act of ancestor-worship: a vividly dreamed, cunningly modified and visually staggering revival. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ Heartfelt and heart-breaking, this feels like Spielberg has made an adaptation faithful to its roots but also, always, alive to the modern world. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ His finest film in 20 years, the director's first musical feels as definitive as the previous screen adaptation and a timely testament to the genius of Stephen Sondheim. ~ Telegraph.
★★★★★ Spielberg is wise enough to know that the original West Side Story was once-in-a-lifetime. He has created his own miracle, a diversely cast, socially-aware film for today that embraces all that is sublime in its incomparable source. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ ~ RTE.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
CHANNEL 4 ~ SWEET COUNTRY
★★★★★ Many great films have emerged from Australia, but few as good as Sweet Country. It has the terse, unsentimental grandeur of a John Ford western and memorably evokes a time and attitude of which all Australians should be ashamed. ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★★ Warwick Thornton’s "western" grippingly depicts Antipodean racial inequality. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★★ His gorgeous period drama cuts to the heart of Australia’s dark colonial past. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★★ A brutal Australian western which soars with Biblical starkness and possesses both shocking cruelty and haunting beauty. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ An Aussie western as stark, merciless and majestic as the Outback itself. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★✭ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ RTE.
CHANNEL 4 ~ BORDER
~ 2018 Cannes Winner: Un Certain Regard.
~ 2019 Oscar Nominee: Best Make-up.
★★★★★ A fabulously weird Swedish thriller with remarkable special effects. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ Leave all expectations at the door and give this knotty, genre-defying Swedish folk tale a spin. ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
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