Challengers
Out in cinemas now (available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
As teenagers, three friends discover they have complicated feelings for one another as one, Tashi (Zendaya), is a rising star on the tennis circuit while the other two, Patrick (O’Connor) and Art (Faist), are aspiring tennis pros. When Tashi suffers a career-ending injury, she eventually marries Art, whose own career has gone on a fresh trajectory. Things come to a head one day when Art, on the back of a long losing streak, is set to face off against his former best friend, Patrick, who is also Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.
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Zendaya: From Disney to Dune
A child star who cut her teeth on the Disney channel, the 27-year-old singer and actress has become known for her award-winning roles in Euphoria, Dune and the Spider-Man movies.
It’s easy to see how Zendaya could have made her start as a child model.
A glamorous fashion icon today, Zendaya has released her own lines of apparel, has been a brand ambassador for numerous companies, and has been voted best dressed for her looks on and off the red carpet.
Lately, she has been gaining notice for her increasingly complex roles, starting from 2019 on the series Euphoria, playing a recovering teen addict, and more recently in the Dune movies, playing Chani, who is more than just a love interest for Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides.
As a child, Zendaya modelled and did commercials. As a young teen, she got her first big break in 2010 on the Disney sitcom Shake It Up, opposite Bella Thorne.
A string of family-friendly Disney credits would follow, such as Good Luck Charlie and Zapped. In 2013, she released her self-titled debut album. Three years later, she would appear in the music video for Bruno Mars’ “Versace on the Floor”.
It wasn’t until 2017, when she first played MJ on Spider-Man: Homecoming, that the then-21-year-old would find wider fame.
That same year, she appeared opposite Zac Efron on The Greatest Showman, where she acted and sang as a circus performer named Anne Wheeler.
While Zendaya has largely been recognised for her role on Euphoria, for which she has won the Golden Globe and Emmy awards, she has continued to garner strong notices for her cinematic work, including the 2021 drama, Malcolm & Marie.
Expected to return as Chani in the third Dune movie by Denis Villeneuve, Zendaya can next be seen in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, playing a former tennis prodigy who coaches her husband, a champion in the midst of a losing streak.
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
Out in cinemas 9 May (available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Owen Teague
Three hundred years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, as humans have become more primitive while intelligent ape civilisations have flourished, a new ape king named Proximus (Durand) has emerged. With past alliances between man and ape forgotten, Proximus twists the teachings of his forebear, Caesar, to encourage the hunting of humans as he seeks to find and use long-lost human technologies. Meanwhile, a few apes who question the morality of Proximus’ actions discover a human girl (Allan) who can speak.
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
Out in cinemas this month (available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen
The now-defunct Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was more than a little rough, back in the day. A dense enclave that contained more than 30,000 residents, it was a hive of criminal activity and lawlessness well into the 1980s. In this period drama, we see a desperate youth named Chan stumble into the walled city, where he offends a fearsome triad boss (Hung). However, Chan is lucky to find friendship within the chaos, as he meets martial arts master Tornado (Koo), and tries to stay on the right side of street justice.
Shardlake
Out 1 May, Disney+
Stars: Arthur Hughes, Anthony Boyle, Sean Bean
The lawyer Shardlake (Hughes) is a brilliant investigator who can “smell secrets and fear”. He himself instils fear as he is tasked by the statesman Thomas Cromwell (Bean) to solve a murder at a remote monastery. Aided by Cromwell’s man, Jack (Boyle), Shardlake discovers clues that suggest the murderer resides within the monastery. All around them, people seem to know more than they let on, and one suspect promises that more murders will follow. It is then a race against time for Shardlake to stop the killer – or killers.
Dark Matter
Out 8 May, Apple TV+
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga
A man is accosted by a stranger and drugged. After he regains consciousness, he stumbles back to find that his home is not the one he remembers. In fact, the woman there is also not the wife (Connelly) he loves. Jason (Edgerton), a physicist who has discovered a way to open the doors to alternate dimensions, finds himself trapped in a nightmare version of his own life. After realising that his friends don’t recognise him, he learns that an alternate Jason is behind all this, and he sets out to find a way home.
Atlas
Out 24 May, Netflix
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, Sterling K Brown
Atlas (Lopez) is a top data analyst who has a strong aversion to artificial intelligence. She doesn’t trust it even as she lives on a shiny, high-tech future Earth where humanity has leveraged on the benefits of AI advancements. One day, she joins a mission to capture a rogue intelligent robot, which is hell-bent on destroying humanity. In the process, she travels through space and ends up crash-landing on a barren alien planet, where she needs to rely on her own AI-powered mechanical suit to survive.
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