Skip to main content
Games Radar
  • Newsarama
  • Total Film
  • Edge
  • Retro Gamer
  • PLAY
  • SFX
Total Film The smarter take on movies
Subscribe
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12.99
View
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Subscribe
  • Podcast
  • Newsletter
  • Magazines
    • About Us
    • Retro Gamer
    • Play
    • Total Film
    • Edge
    • SFX
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. Movies

Movies to watch this week at the cinema: Goodbye Christopher Robin, Home Again, and more

By Total Film Staff
published 25 September 2017

  • Comments
Out on Friday September 29

Out on Friday September 29

An engrossing biopic with Domhnall Gleeson as A.A. Milne. A diverting social comedy with Reese Witherspoon on top form. Michael Winterbottom goes on tour with Wolf Alice.

Yes, here's this week's new releases. Click on for our reviews of Goodbye Christopher Robin, Home Again, Brimstone, On the Road, Daphne, Young Frankenstein, Zoology, Killing Ground, Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards, The Marker, Pecking Order, The Road to Mandalay, and Black Sabbath: The End of the End.

For the best movie reviews, subscribe to Total Film.

Page 1 of 14
Page 1 of 14
Goodbye Christopher Robin

Goodbye Christopher Robin

One of the most famous children’s characters of all time, the honey-stealing bear Winnie-the-Pooh is beloved the world over. Far less is known about his creator, A.A. Milne, whose life was shaped by trauma in the trenches and drama on the home front: Milne had difficult relationships with his wife, Daphne, and son Christopher Robin, the inspiration for Pooh’s boyhood friend

Scripted by Simon Vaughan and Frank Cottrell Boyce – the latter’s past biopics include the out-there Tony Wilson story 24 Hour Party People and the more conventional Jacqueline du Pré tale Hilary and Jackie – Goodbye Christopher Robin begins with Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) returning from World War 1 to London high society to join his spirited spouse, Daphne (Margot Robbie).

Soon pregnant, Daphne endures a difficult birth with Christopher Robin, whom they nickname Billy Moon. As Billy (Will Tilston) gets older, his father – in search of tranquillity – moves the family to the Sussex countryside. While Billy settles in nicely with the help of family nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), Daphne’s adjustment to this rural retreat is anything but smooth.

Not that Milne notices: still shell-shocked by his wartime experiences, he resolves to write an anti-war piece. But with Daphne taking an extended trip to London, abandoning her duties to party with whomever she can, the frustrated author is left to bond with Billy, whose strongest emotional ties are to Olive. 

Amid this, the toy bear given to Billy by his parents – not forgetting the donkey Eeyore, the tiger named Tigger and others – become inspirations for Milne to create his 1926 collection of short stories Winnie-The-Pooh, featuring illustrations by his friend Ernest Shepard (Stephen Campbell Moore), which becomes a bestseller.

Directed by Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn), the film’s emotional grist arrives as Billy becomes an unwitting celebrity. With the boy who inspired Christopher Robin now an unfortunate PR tool, Billy’s search for his own identity is confused with that of Pooh’s fictional friend. Only as he becomes a young man (Alex Lawther) does this childhood trauma become clear.

Curtis’ work isn’t perfect. Milne’s PTSD is poorly represented, notably in the scene where he and Billy are in the woods and buzzing insects bring back memories of bombs. But a restrained Gleeson does his best playing a man who isn’t easy to like. Robbie, with a faultless English accent, and the ever-reliable Macdonald, are also credible, helping build towards a moving final chapter.

THE VERDICT: An engrossing biopic. More than just another author/creation story, Curtis’ film has things to say about celebrity, wartime and family.

Director: Simon Curtis; Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Will Tilston, Alex Lawther; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

James Mottram

Page 2 of 14
Page 2 of 14
Home Again

Home Again

“Seems like you’ve got it all,” Alice Kinney’s envious best friend tells her, “child care, tech support and sex.” Alice (Reese Witherspoon), recently separated from her NY husband (Michael Sheen), has moved back to her native LA with her two young daughters and is trying to launch her career as a designer.

Out celebrating her fortieth with two girlfriends, she encounters three young, aspiring filmmakers newly arrived in the city – and soon, with a little nudging from her mum (Candice Bergen), all three are installed in her summerhouse.

It doesn’t hurt that the actor Teddy is an IT whiz, the writer George is great with kids and the would-be director Harry – well, the age difference between him and Alice doesn’t seem to worry either too much. So, it’s all hunky-dory until her husband shows up, suitcase in hand…

This debut feature from Hallie Meyers-Shyer (daughter of It’s Complicated writer/director Nancy Meyers, producing) showcases a neatly gauged performance from Witherspoon, not least in her sparring with Bergen. Sheen is excellent as always, while there’s fine support from the younger guys – especially Jon Rudnitsky as George. The only disappointment is the glib ending, which wraps things up rather too neatly.

THE VERDICT: A diverting social comedy with a hint of depth from debut director Meyers-Shyer, with Witherspoon on top form.

Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer; Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Michael Sheen, Candice Bergen; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Philip Kemp

Page 3 of 14
Page 3 of 14
Brimstone

Brimstone

With more hellfire, bloodshed and damnation than a Nick Cave album, Martin Koolhoven’s gothic western is closer in tone to Se7en than The Magnificent Seven. At its centre is the epic battle between mute ex-prostitute Dakota Fanning and creepy preacher Guy Pearce.

With slaughtered lambs, dead babies and prostituted children, it’s Old Testament to the core and handsomely, if heavy-handedly, executed.

Director: Martin Koolhoven; Starring: Kit Harington, Carice van Houten, Dakota Fanning; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Matt Glasby

Page 4 of 14
Page 4 of 14
On the Road

On the Road

Released in time for indie-rockers’ Wolf Alice’s second album, prolific Brit helmer Michael Winterbottom’s latest fact/fiction rock ’n’ roll hybrid works better as a tour-bus doc-rocker than a semi-improv romance.

The blistering live Wolf footage offers a thrilling snapshot of a ripping group’s rocket-fired blast-off, uniting band and fans in tight, sweaty moshpit communion.

Director: Michael Winterbottom; Starring: Shirley Henderson, Paul Popplewell, James McArdle; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Kevin Harley

Page 5 of 14
Page 5 of 14
Daphne

Daphne

Emily Beecham stars in Peter Mackie Burns’ intriguing tale of a London waitress adrift in an unforgiving city. Boozing, taking drugs and sleeping around, Daphne isn’t far removed from most aimless youngsters until she witnesses a violent crime and gradually goes off the rails.

The results aren’t startlingly original but Beecham is terrific: a real human portrait of a woman on the verge.

Director: Peter Mackie Burns; Starring: Emily Beecham, Geraldine James, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

James Mottram

Page 6 of 14
Page 6 of 14
Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein

Mel Brooks has Gene Wilder to thank for this loving homage to Universal’s horror cycle, the actor having pitched the project during a break in shooting on Blazing Saddles.

Only Brooks, though, could have infused it with such unchecked anarchy or conceived such an unhinged notion as Peter Boyle’s Monster ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ in top hat and tails. Well worth a watch.

Director: Mel Brooks; Starring: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman; Theatrical release: September 27, 2017

Neil Smith

Page 7 of 14
Page 7 of 14
Zoology

Zoology

Move over Catwoman: the frumpy cat lady in this Russian fable has an actual tail. Natasha (Natalia Pavlenkova) is a bullied office worker who inexplicably sprouts a dangler, prompting a makeover of the body and soul as she rebels against her dowdy existence.

Pavlenkova mesmerises as the unorthodox creature of the night, but the story is just a little too scatter-brained to become a true body-horror classic.

Director: Ivan I. Tverdovskiy; Starring: Aleksandr Gorchilin, Masha Tokareva, Natalya Pavlenkova; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Josh Winning

Page 8 of 14
Page 8 of 14
Killing Ground

Killing Ground

Australian Outback horrors are so effective because, well, everything there will kill you. So it proves for smug couple Harriet Dyer and Ian Meadows, who encounter an ominously empty campsite and hunters Aaron Pedersen and Aaron Glenane.

It’s familiar territory – and no Wolf Creek – but tensions run high as it crosscuts between different timelines, creating scenes of sometimes breathtaking cruelty.

Director: Damien Power; Starring: Harriet Dyer, Tiarnie Coupland, Mitzi Ruhlmann; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Matt Glasby

Page 9 of 14
Page 9 of 14
Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards

Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards

Fashion veteran Michael Roberts’ portrait of shoe-designer Manolo Blahnik is a visual feast but a banquet of clichés. Ravishing shoe close-ups and endless praise for the celebrity cobbler get repetitive.

However, the playful use of archive, animation and dramatised snippets of Blahnik’s hard-partying past give the film a fun, fizzy feel.

Director: Michael Roberts; Starring: River Hawkins, Rick Kissack, Manolo Blahnik; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Kate Stables

Page 10 of 14
Page 10 of 14
The Marker

The Marker

A criminal tormented by the ghost of the woman he killed sets out to protect the daughter he orphaned in a sombre British noir with more on its mind than the usual gangster clichés.

Writer-director Justin Edgar establishes a bleak mood from the off, while the Tom Hardy-like Frederick Schmidt brings a brooding purposefulness to his role as the redemption-seeking Marley. (Yes, as in Marley’s ghost.)

Director: Justin Edgar; Starring: Ana Ularu, John Hannah, Ian Sharp; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Neil Smith

Page 11 of 14
Page 11 of 14
Pecking Order

Pecking Order

Power, politics and poultry drive Slavko Martinov’s eye-opening doc about competitive chicken pageantry in New Zealand. As eccentric breeders compare their hobby to alcoholism, it feels like a real-life Best in Show, with crazier characters and more quotable lines than most 2017 comedies.

Yet, as feathers are ruffled by ego and envy, the film doubles as a surprisingly affecting fable of fun turning fowl.

Director: Slavko Martinov; Starring: Doug Bain, Sarah Bunton, Bob Dawber; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Simon Kinnear

Page 12 of 14
Page 12 of 14
The Road to Mandalay

The Road to Mandalay

Taiwanese director Midi Z pins docu-style heft to a resonant character drama about Burmese migrants in Bangkok. Lianqing (Wu Ke-Xi) is ambitious, Guo (Kai Ko) isn’t: but evocative images – looming cranes, webbed silk – show them equally entrapped in a potent tale of desperation and exploitation, steered to a stinging climax with taut emotional purpose.

Director: Midi Z; Starring: Kai Ko, Ke-Xi Wu; Theatrical release: September 29, 2017

Kevin Harley

Page 13 of 14
Page 13 of 14
Black Sabbath: The End of the End

Black Sabbath: The End of the End

Black-metal progenitors Black Sabbath return to Birmingham for a farewell gig in this devilishly disarming doc. Between Ozzy Osbourne’s cracked clown persona and the bluff address of some genuinely moving material, the veterans present winningly earthy faces.

Yet it’s on-stage where they shine, as the gig honours the Sabs’ looming legacy.

Director: Dick Carruthers; Starring: Black Sabbath; Theatrical release: September 28, 2017

Kevin Harley

Page 14 of 14
Page 14 of 14
  • Comments
Total Film Staff
Social Links Navigation

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

More about movies
Sex Education and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

The 7 best new movies and shows to stream this weekend

stop making sense

Over 40 years on, Stop Making Sense remains the ultimate cinematic experience

Latest
Bruce Greenwood as Roderick and Carla Gugino as Verna in The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher review: Succession meets AHS in Mike Flanagan's mean-spirited miniseries

See more latest ►
See comments
Most Popular
One of the best JRPGs of 2023 is coming to Xbox Series X next year

By Hirun CryerSeptember 21, 2023

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth reaffirms itself as my most-anticipated JRPG by keeping me guessing

By Iain HarrisSeptember 21, 2023

I never found Lae'zel in Baldur's Gate 3 and it turned me into a villain

By Jasmine Gould-WilsonSeptember 20, 2023

Bloodborne changed the face of action RPG horror, but Lies of P could redefine our expectations

By Joe DonnellySeptember 20, 2023

The best 4K monitor for gaming 2023: Spectacular PC and console screens

By Phil HaytonSeptember 20, 2023

Predator Versus Wolverine "just makes sense," says Benjamin Percy

By Stephen JewellSeptember 19, 2023

The Squid Game virtual reality experience is coming, and it completely misses the point of the Netflix show

By Fay WatsonSeptember 19, 2023

My heart isn't ready for this Journey-inspired adventure game about protecting a very good boy

By Heather WaldSeptember 19, 2023

How the Saw franchise has stood the test of time and broken the torture porn curse

By Megan GarsideSeptember 19, 2023

If you can't play Starfield, this sci-fi Skyrim mod has 7 districts, 200 interiors, 400 NPCs and is perfect for space envy

By Joe DonnellySeptember 19, 2023

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - The sad story of Aquababy

By George MarstonSeptember 18, 2023

Load Comments
Recommended
Mortal Kombat 1 review: "An exceptional, confident fighting game"
Starfield review: "The best thing Bethesda's done since Oblivion"
  1. FC 24
    1
    EA Sports FC 24 review: "Kicks off the post-FIFA era with precision, power, and panache"
  2. 2
    Payday 3 review: "Competently crafted, yet stubbornly old-school"
  3. 3
    Witchfire review: "Enters Early Access with a bright future ahead of it"
  4. 4
    Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty review: "The culmination of CD Projekt Red's efforts"
  5. 5
    Party Animals review: "Delivers ample amounts of chaos and chuckles"
  1. The Expendables 4 (2023)
    1
    The Expendables 4: "What was once a fun OAP action series is now DOA"
  2. 2
    Cassandro review: "Should earn Gael García Bernal plenty of Oscar buzz"
  3. 3
    Poolman review: "Chris Pine’s directorial debut is a misfire that should sink without trace"
  4. 4
    Woman of the Hour review: "Anna Kendrick's assured directorial debut"
  5. 5
    Wildcat review: "Ethan and Maya Hawke's literary biopic is stronger on mood than momentum"
  1. Prospero, Camille, Leo, Bill, Tamerlane, and Arthur in Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher
    1
    The Fall of the House of Usher review: Succession meets AHS in Mike Flanagan's mean-spirited miniseries
  2. 2
    Sex Education season 4 review: "Hasn’t found its modesty, but lacks a certain bite"
  3. 3
    The Continental episode 1 review: "A slog with none of John Wick's glossy magic"
  4. 4
    Ahsoka episode 6 review: "Genuinely disturbing even if it prioritizes style over substance"
  5. 5
    Ahsoka episode 5 review: "Despite being overly steeped in nostalgia it's easily the best episode yet"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.