Fingernails
Out now, Apple TV+
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White
The founder of a controversial love testing institute, one that purports to prove conclusively whether a couple is in love, is asked whether someone could love two people at once. “It’s a biological impossibility,” he tells Anna (Buckley) confidently. Anna is doubtful that Ryan (White) is the one for her, in spite of what their test results say. Curious about love and what makes relationships tick, she starts working at the institute, where she forms a bond with Amir (Ahmed) and soon starts to develop stronger feelings.
Jessie Buckley: Lost and found
This Irish actress and singer has been quietly gaining accolades for her work on stage and screen, fresh off an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress in 2022.
She may have gotten honours on stage, on television and in cinemas, but Jessie Buckley seems to be going under the radar most of the time.
Even in her Oscar-nominated film, The Lost Daughter, where she appeared as the younger version of the film’s protagonist played by Olivia Colman, the 33-year-old was appreciated by critics but didn’t quite become a household name.
In fact, arguably her next highest-profile role might also have been in a streaming movie – as 2021’s The Lost Daughter was – directed by Charlie Kaufman, the surrealistic film I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020).
In it, she played a young woman who considers breaking up with her new boyfriend while on a trip to see his parents.
In spite of her relatively low profile, Buckley hasn’t gone completely unnoticed. At just 19, after performing well in a talent programme, she was cast in a West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
Following several more stage roles, she worked in television on an adaptation of War and Peace, before making her film debut in 2017’s Beast, a well-received thriller about a girl who engages in self-harm.
Buckley was then nominated for a British Academy Film Award for her role as an aspiring country singer in the 2018 film Wild Rose. The following year, she appeared in a supporting part opposite Renee Zellweger in the biopic Judy.
In 2019 and 2020, she also appeared in the award-winning series Chernobyl and Fargo.
Once featured in a “30 under 30” list in Forbes, she has continued to perform with aplomb on stage. In 2022, Buckley won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, after playing the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
After her turn in last year’s Best Picture Oscar-nominated drama, Women Talking, Buckley can next be seen in a whimsical sci-fi love story, Fingernails.
Here, she plays a woman who seems scientifically proven to have found the love of her life, but who has serious doubts when she meets a fellow romantic.
Greatest Days
Out in cinemas now Shaw Theatres
Stars: Aisling Bea, Alice Lowe, Isabelle Bernardo
Four friends, who have been estranged for 25 years, are reunited when one of them, Rachel (Bea), wins tickets to a reunion concert of the boy band they had all loved in their youth. As they head to the concert in Greece, and anticipate seeing their beloved band again, the four are forced to examine the way their lives have turned out since they last met. In doing so, they finally come to terms with the missing member of their group, a friend who has passed on. Based on a hit West End musical with the music of Take That.
SAFRA members enjoy special discounts on MovieMax Member rates and Combo Sets at Shaw Theatres. For more info, go to safra.sg/promotions/shaw-theatres
Wish
Out in cinemas 23 November (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk
“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are,” goes a classic song. In Disney’s Wish, a wish made by a certain young girl in the Kingdom of Rosas makes a big difference in everyone’s life. Asha (DeBose) has become an apprentice of the King of Rosas, Magnifico (Pine), who has the power to grant wishes. When she realises that the King is deliberately not granting the wishes of his people for his own personal gain, she makes a wish of her own, which leads to a magical star falling from the sky.
Napoleon
Out in cinemas 23 November (available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ludivine Sagnier
The legend of Napoleon is that of a consummate military leader, who managed to conquer much of continental Europe at the start of the 19th century. Napoleon (Phoenix) was also known for having married Josephine (Kirby), whose name he uttered as one of his last words. This epic historical drama charts his rise during the French Revolution, the campaigns that took him as far as Egypt, his volatile romance with Josephine, who became Empress of the French after Napoleon’s own coronation in 1804, and his inevitable, tragic fall.
Vigilante
Out now, Disney+
Stars: Nam Joo-hyuk, Yoo Ji-tae, Kim So-jin
There is a serial killer on the loose and his victims have something in common: they’re all criminals who have evaded the justice system. A former victim of crime himself, Jiyong (Nam) was once enrolled at the police academy and has grown tired of watching repeat offenders walk free through loopholes. In his own words, his job is to “close” these loopholes, by any means necessary. As the vigilante sets out on a brutal killing spree, to force these criminals to repent, a detective (Yoo) and a journalist (Kim) are hot on his trail.
The Killer
Out now, Netflix
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Arliss Howard
A professional hitman (Fassbender) lives by certain rules and philosophies in order to do his job well. He tells himself constantly to “stick to the plan” and never improvise or let empathy get in his way. Naturally, things don’t go to plan after a botched hit, and the killer finds that he has to bend or break his so-called simple rules in order to stay alive. Pit against his employers, he battles his inner demons, wrestles with his rule to never trust anyone, and goes against his mantra to only fight the battles he is paid to fight.
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