At The Movies

Joy tells the story of the development of IVF – the then-notorious “test-tube babies”. Featuring Bill Nighy (Living) and James Norton (TV’s Happy Valley), it stars New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit) and is produced by New Zealand-born Finola Dwyer (An Education). Streaming on Netflix.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Blitz follows an 11-year-old boy, trying to rejoin his mother at the height of Hitler’s bombing raids on London. Written and directed by Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) and starring Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun), Stephen Graham (Snatch) and musician Paul Weller as Grandad. Streaming on Apple Plus.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Simon Morris dodges the Musical of the Year - Wizard of Oz prequel Wicked - in favour of three smaller (and harder to find) titles. These include Apple Plus’s Blitz, directed by Oscar-winner Steve McQueen, a small indie film starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard called Memory, and the real-life story behind IVF, Netflix’s Joy, starring Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Memory sees the meeting of two troubled souls, one haunted by bad memories, the other by the loss of them. Starring Jessica Chastain (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye) and Peter Sarsgaard (An Education), it’s written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco (Sundown). Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Simon Morris finds himself getting picky at the end of the year as Christmas movies start to clog up the cinemas. Instead he checks out Ridley Scott’s second blockbuster in a year, Gladiator II, a French film that sees a couple stranded at the bottom of the world – Suddenly - and a New Zealand documentary directed by Warrior Queen Lucy Lawless.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Gladiator II sees Paul Mescal take over Russell Crowe’s (unhistoric) leather wrist-straps as Son of Maximus. Directed by the tireless 86-year-old Sir Ridley Scott, it co-stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and from the first movie, Connie Nielsen.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Suddenly sees two married adventurers sail round the world, but come adrift when they’re stranded on an Antarctic island when their boat is swept away in a storm. Written and directed by the award-winning Thomas Bidegain (A prophet) it stars Mélanie Thierry (Da 5 Bloods) and Gilles Lellouche (Farewell Mr Haffman).Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Never Look Away is the story of one of CNN’s first war camerawomen, Margaret Moth. Reckless, courageous and dedicated, the New Zealander’s story is almost as exciting as the events she covered. Directed by actress turned director Lucy Lawless (Xena Warrior Princess)Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Jason Reitman’s comedy focuses on the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to the debut of the famous television variety show Saturday Night Live. Dan Slevin reviews.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Dan Slevin reviews a documentary about the legendary screen composer, John Williams, and his seven decade career in Hollywood.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Dan Slevin reviews Music by John Williams, a Disney+ documentary about the legendary film composer; Australian animated tragicomedy, Memoir of a Snail, and Saturday Night, a comedy about the birth of the entertainment juggernaut, Saturday Night Live.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Oscar-winning Australian animator Adam Elliot’s latest feature is a tragicomedy about twins separated after the death of their father and their eventual recovery. Reviewed by Dan Slevin.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

On At the Movies, Dan Slevin reviews three films in which change can be welcome or unwelcome but inevitable all the same. In Head South, a Christchurch teenager discovers New Wave music and a way forward to the rest of his life. Here is a simultaneously experimental and sentimental film about the multiple generations of people who pass through a simple suburban Pennsylvania living room. And in A Different Man, a New York actor with a facial disfigurement is offered a miracle cure – but will it make him happy?Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Sebastian Stan stars as a struggling New York actor with a face deformed by rapidly growing tumours caused by neurofibromatosis. He is offered a miracle ‘cure’ but will the transformation make him happy? The film also stars Adam Pearson, an actor who has the same condition. Dan Slevin reviews.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

An experimental and sentimental drama shot from a single point-of-view in a single location but presenting people and events over many decades. The stars, screenwriter and director of Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Eric Roth and Robert Zemeckis) are reunited (and Dan Slevin reviews it).Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Dan Slevin reviews Jonathan Ogilvie’s autobiographical portrait of the Christchurch New Wave music scene in 1979. Ed Oxenbould plays schoolboy Angus, discovering the underground music scene and a community of his own.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Critic features Sir Ian McKellen as a much-feared theatre critic who’ll do anything to keep his job, no matter who gets hurt. Also starring Gemma Arterton (Byzantium), Mark Strong (Kingsman) and Lesley Manville (Mrs Harris Goes To Paris). Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Lee is the story of one of the great World War Two photographers, Lee Miller, and why she slipped into obscurity when the war was over. Starring – and produced by – Kate Winslet, with Marion Cotillard, Andy Samberg and Alexander Skarsgård.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Simon Morris looks at three films that owe their audiences to attractive casts – Kate Winslet in the Oscar hopeful Lee…. a star-studded comedy drama, The Critic featuring Sir Ian McKellen and Gemma Arterton…. And a Netflix true-crime thriller, starring and directed by Anna Kendrick. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Woman Of The Hour is a true-crime thriller about an actress who goes on a TV dating show, only to discover that one of the contestants for a date with her is a serial killer. Starring and directed by Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect). Currently showing on Netflix.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details