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 10 Jan 2025):
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1 ~ NICKEL BOYS.
★★★★★ A sublime, immersive adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s haunting reform school novel. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ A shatteringly powerful movie about abuse, this adaptation of Whitehead’s Pulitzer prizewinning novel is told completely through point-of-view shots of its two protagonists. It deserves Oscar attention. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ This adaptation of Whitehead’s novel about two young friends trapped by institutional abuse is told with piercing beauty by RaMell Ross. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ An artistically daring masterpiece. ~ The Independent.
★★★★★ Nickel Boys is a triumph. Its unique approach brings a new dimension to its source material, while amplifying the emotional resonance between the present and a horrifying past. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ The defining American film of the 2020s. There are about a dozen of the best shots I have ever seen in a movie. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
2 ~ ANORA.
★★★★★ Gorgeous, deranged - and one of the films of the year - the director of The Florida Project delivers an unpredictable rags to riches tale about a young stripper. ~ The i.
★★★★★ Sean Baker’s screwball Cinderella tale vaults him towards greatness. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ The most entertaining chronicler of contemporary degeneracy has miraculously resurrected the screwball comedy. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★★ His story of a Russian oligarch’s son who falls for a sex worker is a Coen Brothers-style black comedy and deservedly won the Palme d’Or this year. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ Energy fizzes through Baker’s anti-Cinderella story in which Mikey Madison is an Oscar shoo-in with her bristlingly real performance as a strip-club dancer. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ Madison makes a name for herself in this mouthy, moving story of stripper meets oligarch – and it's a laugh a minute. ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ ‘Pretty Woman’ with a vodka hangover? Sean Baker’s darkly funny sex-work screwball is a blast. ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
3 ~ SPIRITED AWAY.
★★★★★ This definitive animation remains an audacious viewing experience. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ With none of the sentimentality of Disney nor the computerised sheen of Pixar, this traditional animé even blows the brilliant Finding Nemo out of the water. It's epic story is more imaginative, rousing and luscious than anything American animation has produced since the halcyon days of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ A beautifully drawn and wonderfully composed work of art - really, no other description will do - which takes us on a rocket-fuelled flight of fancy. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ Despite a dip midway through, this is a captivating fantasy that sets a new benchmark for animation. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
4 ~ 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.
★★★★★ 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.
★★★★ ~ 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
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.
6 ~ THE SUBSTANCE.
★★★★★ Demi Moore goes full David Cronenberg in 2024's best – and goriest – film so far. This body horror instant classic is a pulsing, pumping blitzkrieg of pure entertainment. ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ In Coralie Fargeat’s riveting film, Moore’s has-been actress clones herself in an attempt to stay relevant – with sinister results. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ This magnificent shocker heralds the squelchy, sick-making birth of a new horror maestro. ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ Fargeat’s wild, wigged-out, satirical body-horror movie takes a flamethrower to the misogynistic beauty standards of the entertainment industry and has plenty of fun doing it. ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★★ A spectacularly disgusting body horror, this hugely entertaining spasm is a two-finger rebuke to the beauty industry which favours a full-frontal attack on the targets of its incensed satire. ~ Irish Times.
★★★★★ A sickening satire of society’s obsession with youth and beauty, it is a bombastic body horror with plenty to say. ~ NME.
★★★★✭ ~ RTE.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The i.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
7 ~ 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.
★★★★ ~ 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
8 ~ BABYGIRL.
★★★★ A film that’s liable to get people talking, arguing and flirting. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Nicole Kidman’s 21st-century Fatal Attraction is a complete knockout.
This electrifying film rewires current neuroses into a merciless torture machine. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ Kidman stuns as a botoxed CEO in a steamy thriller. ~ The Times.
★★★★ Director Halina Reijn portrays a torrid office affair in all its messy complexity – it's moving and darkly funny. ~ BBC.
★★★★ ~ Financial 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
9 ~ NOSFERATU.
★★★★ Nosferatu delivers a relatively straight re-telling of this classic gothic tale. It looks and sounds stunning and is packed with vampiric horror. It doesn't push many boundaries but if you wanted the classic Dracula narrative feeling exactly like it’s directed by Robert Eggers, you're going to love it. ~ Total Film.
★★★★★ 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.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The i.
★★★✭ ~ Irish Times.
ALSO SCREENING:
★★★✭ The Order.
★★★✭ Wicked.
★★★✭ Heretic.
★★★✭ A Complete Unknown.
★★★✭ Maria.
★★★✭ Gladiator II.
★★★✭ Queer.
★★★✭ Paddington in Peru.
★★★✭ Transformers One.
★★★ We Live in Time.
★★★ The Damned.
★★★ Moana 2.
★★★ Mufasa: The Lion King.
★★✭ The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
★★✭ Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
★★ It's Raining Men.
★★ Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties.
★✭ Kraven The Hunter.
★ 200% Wolf.
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NEW TO STREAMING:
(Updated 10 Jan 2025):
CHANNEL 4 ~ WITHNAIL & I
★★★★★ One of the funniest and most original British films in the second half of the 20th century, Withnail & I is a genuine cult classic. ~ AllMovie.
★★★★★ A brilliantly funny, enduring classic with an unforgettable performance from Richard E Grant. ~ NME.
★★★★★ Grant - a teetotaller - delivers the performance of his life as the doomed thesp, whether it be demanding the "finest wines available to humanity", downing lighter fluid, or feeling like a pig shat in his head.~ BBC.
★★★★★ Writer-director Bruce Robinson's sui generis masterpiece from 1987 was something to which nothing before or afterwards is really comparable (Straw Dogs?). It had a miraculously literate script whose every line deservedly became a quotable classic and the film boasts a once-in-a-lifetime combination of perfect performances from Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant, Ralph Brown and Richard Griffiths. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ A career high for all concerned, including '80s British cinema. Has any screenplay combined so many quotable lines with such tear-jerking pathos or blatant homophobia? ~ Total Film.
★★★★★ Fans can mouth the words of Grant's big speeches along with him, relishing every viperish turn of phrase...this is and always will be a perfect dark comedy and a student staple. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
CHANNEL 4 ~ LOCAL HERO
~ 1984 BAFTA Winner: Best Director (Bill Forsyth).
★★★★★ A Scottish-American charmer with a sublime soundtrack. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ A wistful 80s comedy which snares your heart with charm and beauty, Bill Forsyth’s happy-sad tale about a fishing village under threat from US oil money is as wonderful as ever, with standout turns from Burt Lancaster and youthful Peter Capaldi. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ This warm-hearted fish-out-of-water tale highlights the cultural differences (and underlying similarities) between a big city American capitalist and small town Scottish villagers. ~ AllMovie.
★★★★★ Life-affirming and often laugh-out-loud funny, this is feel-good movie-making par excellence. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
CHANNEL 4 ~ THE QUIET GIRL
~ 2023 Oscar Nominee: Best International Film (Lost to All Quiet on the Western Front).
★★★★★ This deeply moving tale of rural Ireland already feels like a classic. It is a jewel. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ A young girl sent to live with relatives for the summer blossoms in Colm Bairéad’s exquisite beguiling first feature. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ This delicately beautiful, unsettling 1980s-set drama has a pervasive sense of unspoken menace. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★✭ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
CHANNEL 4 ~ ZULU
~ 1965 BAFTA Nominee: Best British Art Direction
★★★★ Gripping from start to finish, Zulu has earned status among some critics as one of the finest war films ever made. ~ All Movie.
★★★★★ This is that rarity in films - an all-action, no-frills, straightforward re-creation of an heroic moment in history. ~ Sky Cinema.
★★★★★ Technically a revelation, this superb re-creation of the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift is a personal triumph for producer/director Cy Endfield and Welsh producer/star Stanley Baker. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ As a spectacular war film with a powerful moral dimension, Zulu pre-dates Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan by more than three decades. Like the defence of Rorke's Drift itself, its legend grows with the passing of time. ~ Empire.
CHANNEL 4 ~ A QUIET PLACE.
~ 2019 Oscar Nominee: Best Sound Editing.
★★★★★ A thriller worth shouting about. ~ RTE.
★★★★★ Part Steven Spielberg family drama, part John Carpenter creature feature, writer/director/star John Krasinski's sensational shocker is an instant sci-fi horror classic. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Blind aliens are coming for anyone who makes a noise in this masterful thriller. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ A nerve-racking overture follows a family as they tiptoe stealthily through abandoned streets and stores in search of medicine. ~ Irish Times.
★★★★★ If ever a film had me mentally tiptoeing over a booby-trapped carpet of eggshells while silently gibbering with anxiety, it’s this brutal sci-fi suspense thriller. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ A note-perfect horror film that sticks to its own fantasy logic. ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★★ You'll need a lie-down after this one. ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The i.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
★★★✭ ~ Little White Lies.
AMAZON PRIME ~ BLADE RUNNER 2049
~ 2018 Oscar Winner: Best Cinematography + Best Visual Effects.
★★★★★ A sequel that's worth the 35 year wait. ~ The i.
★★★★★ An astoundingly good film. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ To make a sequel, 35 years on, to one of the most important sci-fi movies is an act of incredible hubris. That Denis Villeneuve has made a Blade Runner movie that doesn’t sully Ridley Scott’s original is extraordinary. That he’s made a follow-up that perhaps even surpasses its parent is something close to a cinematic miracle. ~ NME.
★★★★★ Villeneuve’s film is a direct continuation in every respect; it’s difficult to imagine anyone – even Ridley Scott – making a better Blade Runner sequel. ~ Total Film.
★★★★★ A future classic, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic manages to be both visually stunning and philosophically profound. ~ Mark Kermode, The Observer.
★★★★★ As bold as the original Blade Runner and even more beautiful. Visually immaculate, swirling with themes as heart-rending as they are mind-twisting, 2049 is, without doubt, a good year. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ The most spectacular, profound blockbuster of our time. Like its forerunner, everything about it says slow-burning art film apart from its budget. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ Ryan Gosling plays an LAPD officer heading for an encounter with Harrison Ford’s Deckard in a film whose sheer scale leaves you hyperventilating. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ Gosling gives a soulful performance in a film that is always able to find the human dimension amid all the special effects and spectacle. ~ The Independent.
★★★★★ ~ The Irish Independent.
★★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ ~ RTE.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
CHANNEL 4 ~ MEMENTO
~ 2002 Oscar Nominee: Best Screenplay + Best Editing.
★★★★★ This dazzling, highly original "anti-thriller" has a complex, jumbled narrative that moves backwards in time. ~ Radio Times
★★★★ To call this an intricate thriller would be an understatement. Film noir has never been so labyrinthine. The same sequences are seen from different viewpoints, alternatively clarifying and muddling perceptions. It is edited like a random pile of mosaic tiles, but when the last one has snaps into place, a surprise sets the whole intrigue in motion again. ~ BBC.
★★★★ Genuinely perplexing and disturbing but still a thrill for true film lovers. ~ Empire.
NETFLIX & AMAZON PRIME ~ ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
~ 2020 Oscar Winner: Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt) + Best Production Design.
★★★★★ He’s finally done it. Quentin Tarantino has made his masterpiece. This is better than Pulp Fiction in 1994, better than Jackie Brown in 1997 and a monumental leap ahead of his recent canon (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight). ~ The Times
★★★★★ Tarantino’s most satisfying work in decades. The iconic director juxtaposes a washed-up actor with a star on the rise in this mature and masterful take on the changing fates of Hollywood figures. ~ NME.
★★★★★ Twenty five years on from Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino returns with his sun-soaked black-comedy that wrestles with one of the most notorious moments in Hollywood history. ~ The i.
★★★★★ With Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt playing a TV actor and stuntman who cross paths with the Manson cult, Tarantino has created outrageous, disorienting entertainment in his dazzling LA redemption song. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ An audacious, surprising and mind-bending narrative that sees Tarantino firing on all cylinders. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Brad Pitt's Oscar-winning role is pure movie-world intoxication. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ ~ NME.
★★★★✭ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ RTE.
AMAZON PRIME ~ SNOWPIERCER
★★★★★ ‘The Host’ director Bong Joon-ho has corralled a magnificent cast including Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Chris Evans and Ewen Bremner for this sci-fi actioner based on a French graphic novel. ~ Time Out.
★★★★ The sci-fi fable about a giant train turns out a wonderfully realised delight; something of absurdist theatre, Terry Gilliam meets Samuel Beckett. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Sky Cinema.
★★★★ ~ AllMovie.
CHANNEL 4 ~ 120 BPM
~ 2017 Cannes Winner: Grand Prix
★★★★★ Fly on the wall filmmaking at its best, this is pure cinema — an enthralling, enveloping experience that seizes you fully, effortlessly mixing politics, sex, life, death and art. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ A two-hour historical drama about gay activism in the late 1980s/early 1990s – with subtitles! – might sound like a hard sell, but French writer-director Robin Campillo’s 120 Beats Per Minute is also a deep house opera, an urgent, steamy love story and a jubilant battle cry that demands to be witnessed. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ A passionately acted ensemble movie about Act Up in France, the confrontational direct-action movement which demanded immediate, large-scale research into Aids. The movie compellingly combines elegy, tragedy, urgency and a defiant euphoria. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ There's love, tragedy and laughter in an inspiring, visually arresting look at a group that is living the hell out of life and not going down without a fight.~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
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