Cinema: The best of the big screen

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Asteroid City, Wes Anderson

James Drew looks at four movies due out in the weeks to come.

Those of us who grew up watching Indiana Jones films won’t be able to resist the Dial of Destiny, there is a new offering from Wes Anderson, a biopic on music promoter Neil Bogart and an action-packed thriller.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Ford, Spielberg and Lucas say this is definitely the last Indy adventure, and is also the first one to be neither filmed by Spielberg nor written by George Lucas, with the pair serving as executive producers instead. As well as Harrison Ford, the film also sees the return of John Rhys-Davies as Salah, Indy’s old friend who helped him find the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. It’s 1969, the space race is in full swing, and Indy is uneasy about the fact that the US government has hired former Nazis to help beat the Soviets to the moon. The mighty Mads Mikklesen stars as Jürgen Voller, one such miscreant, who wants to use the moon landing programme for his own ends. Quite what the ‘Dial of Destiny’ is, who can say, but how can anyone resist the return of Indy?
Running time: 142 mins.

Kandahar

Tom Harris (Gerard Butler) is a CIA secret agent working in the Middle East. A leak of information reveals his identity. Stuck in hostile territory, Harris and his translator must navigate their way out of the desert to Kandahar, Afghanistan while evading the elite special forces chasing them. Ric Roman Waugh (Angel has Fallen (2019)) directs.
Running time: 103 mins.

Spinning Gold

Spinning Gold is a US biographical drama film written and directed by Timothy Scott Bogart, based on the life of his father, Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, who was responsible for discovering and promoting many big musical acts, including Donna Summer, KISS, Village People, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and the Isley Brothers.
Running time: 137 mins.

Asteroid City

A Wes Anderson film with the highly stylized signature that people tend to love or hate. The film is a sci-fi romantic comedy drama, with world-changing events spectacularly disrupting the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention in an American desert town in 1955. Anderson has pulled in some very big names: Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton and Adrien Brody, to name but a few.
Running time: 139 mins.