What films are out in UK cinemas this week? Reviews from Marty Supreme to The Housemaid ...Middle East

Boxing Day is here, and there's a great selection of brand new films released in UK cinemas today to keep you going until the New Year.

First, two potential Oscar contenders are here in the shape of Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme and Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, two rather different films that have both been lavished with near universal praise, and could well become late entries on your Best of 2025 lists.

Then there's The Housemaid, a film which seems less likely to factor into the awards race but is still very much worth you're time – especially if you're after a fun, twisty thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously.

One other new release, which arrived on Christmas Day, is Anaconda – a reboot of the 1997 film, which stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd. We don't have a review of that one just yet, although it's perhaps worth noting that, on the whole, verdicts haven't been too kind.

You can find our positive reviews of the three other aforementioned films below, while you can also discover our lowdown on the other major movies released in UK cinemas in recent weeks, including Wicked: For Good, One Battle After Another and Wake Up: Dead Man.

Read on for your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas.

Marty Supreme

A ferociously good Timothée Chalamet pursues sporting greatness in this electric screwball comedy drama from Josh Safdie, who goes solo after co-directing Uncut Gems with his brother Benny. Set in 1952 in New York and very loosely based on the life of a real ping-pong hustler, this shaggy story follows 23-year-old Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman with the gift of the gab and an extraordinary talent with a table tennis bat.

As he represents his country with obnoxious showmanship in international tournaments, Marty's sweaty and scheming chase of the American Dream is exasperating for those in his orbit – including his long-suffering girlfriend (Odessa A’zion), a Japanese ping-pong prodigy (Koto Kawaguchi), a retired movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her millionaire husband (Kevin O’Leary).

No matter how deplorable Marty seems in the absurd and exhilarating chaos entirely of his own making, you will laugh as much as you condemn – and never look away. In a feat of sheer intensity, Chalamet channels Tom Cruise in The Color of Money or even Robert De Niro in Mean Streets, and the result is a breathless and brilliant all-American character study for our times. – Max Copeman

The Housemaid

A live-in maid finds herself in hot water with a well-to-do family’s mood-swinging matriarch in this frequently shocking psychological thriller, based on the novel by Freida McFadden. Recently paroled from prison, Millie (Sydney Sweeney) is desperate to keep the job in order to avoid being sent back behind bars. However, she endures all manner of poor treatment and violent outbursts from her unhinged employer (Amanda Seyfried) before more sinister problems come to the fore.

Director Paul Feig has form walking the darker corridors of domesticity, but whereas 2018’s A Simple Favour revels in blackly comedic upheavals to happy homes, The Housemaid is a genuinely unsettling depiction of dysfunctional families and breathtaking cruelty. Seyfriend excels in a role that calls for her to flit from pantomime-like to pure evil, and Sweeney is impressive, too, blooming convincingly from put-upon maid to plucky heroine. – Terry Staunton

Sentimental Value

An ageing film-maker re-assesses his life and his loved ones in this quietly moving English-Norwegian drama. Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) is a director looking to revive his waning career with a film about his late mother. Planning to shoot it in the family home, he comes into conflict with his grown-up daughters – theatre actress Nora (Renate Reinsve) and married mother Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Things further sour when he brings in Hollywood star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) to play the lead.

Winner of Cannes’ Grand Jury Prize, the film is co-written and directed by Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), who crafts a meandering mood piece that will grip those willing to go with its flow.

Skarsgård’s turn, lamenting the loss of things past, is terrific, especially in his tender scenes with a bright and watchable Fanning. For all its melancholy, there’s much-needed dark humour, too, especially when Gustav gifts his 10-year-old grandson some highly inappropriate DVDs, such as The Piano Teacher and Irreversible. Priceless. – James Mottram

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Returning us to the alien planet of Pandora, James Cameron’s third Avatar epic comes in all guns blazing, heating up the battle between the humans and the Na’vi. Though much of the focus is still on former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na'vi family, the threat from the colonising military group RDA grows worse when Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) forms an uneasy alliance with Varange (Oona Chaplin), leader of the fire-friendly Mangkwan clan, also known as the Ash People.

At over three hours long, the film's narrative never quite justifies its length, as Cameron lurches through multiple frenetic and overwhelming battles. But with a sincere if simple message baked in about the destructive qualities of humanity, several scenes – such as one where the planet's whale-like population is attacked – do hit home.

This is not least because of the spectacular world-building characteristic of this series; the sheer effort put into creating the bio-luminescent forests, turquoise oceans and, now, fiery volcanos is worth the ticket price alone. Released once again in state-of-the-art 3D, it's a marvel of CG craftsmanship and of Cameron's pursuit of technical perfection. – James Mottram

Lurker

Like its hanger-on protagonist, this psychological thriller seems unassuming to begin with, but gradually gets creepier and creepier. The plot brings LA shop-worker Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) into the orbit of up-and-coming British popstar Oliver (Archie Madekwe). Charismatic but thoughtlessly cruel, Oliver treats his entourage like playthings to be picked up and discarded at will. Once Matthew insinuates his way into a job shooting behind-the-scenes footage, he refuses to be so easily dismissed, no matter how many indignities are piled on him.

First-time writer/director Alex Russell worked on TV’s The Bear, so he knows how to turn up the tension to almost unbearable levels. Madekwe is excellent as the impulsive star-in-ascendence, but this is Pellerin’s time to shine.

"I’m just happy to be here," Matthew claims, a dopey smile frozen on his face while his eyes tell a different, far darker story. With its shades of The Servant and Nightcrawler, the film excels at daring us to keep watching, even as Matthew’s actions become more and more repellent. – Matt Glasby

Eleanor the Great

A grandmother forms an unusual friendship with a student in this cosy story that marks the directorial debut of actor Scarlett Johansson. June Squibb (Nebraska) plays Eleanor, a 94-year-old convert to Judaism who one day stumbles upon a Holocaust Survivor’s Group. For reasons best known to herself, she claims she lived through the Holocaust – a lie that gets worse as she befriends journalism student Nina (Erin Kellyman).

Scripted by Tory Kamen, the film largely spins on the likeable chemistry between Squibb and Kellyman in a story that gently prods themes of grief and loneliness. Squibb’s exquisite comic timing is present and correct, whether she’s berating a store clerk or embarrassing her daughter.

Making a solid debut, Johansson directs in an unfussy manner, with a strong sense of place and character. The result is a charming crowd-pleaser, even if it’s not the most earth-shattering narrative you’ll ever see. – James Mottram

Goodbye June

Kate Winslet makes her directorial debut with this tearjerking Yuletide-set drama, notably scripted by her 21-year-old son Joe Anders. The film tells the story of four siblings (Winslet, Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette and Johnny Flynn) who are forced to work through their differences when their terminally ill mother (Helen Mirren) takes a turn for the worse and seems unlikely to make it to Christmas.

With a laboured opening act and a tendency to lean too far into schmaltz, there are times where the screenplay feels like the work of a novice, but there are also some genuinely moving touches that show an emotional maturity to Anders's work.

The complicated family dynamics are well observed, even if this lacks the depth of another Netflix-released film about warring siblings thrust together to care for a dieing parent, Azazel Jacobs's His Three Daughters. Still, the idea of juggling the impending grief of losing a loved one with the unavoidable jollity of the festive season will no doubt resonate with a lot of viewers. – Patrick Cremona

Silent Night, Deadly Night

This reboot of a bygone festive slasher is considerably better than the creaky original. Rohan Campbell is the young drifter who, traumatised by seeing his parents slain by a Santa years earlier, answers the voices in his head by going on his own red-suited killing spree. Every victim is already on the naughty list, helping to keep his vigilante conscience clear, and soon the Yuletide righter of wrongs focuses on the mystery abductor of children in a small Midwestern town.

Writer/director Mike P Nelson stays faithful to the narrative of the 1984 film, improving on it with a tighter script, sly humour, stronger performances and more convincing gore. A deliriously over-the-top slaughter in a Nazi night club is both horrific and hilarious, and the visual palette is an affectionate homage to the genre as a whole.

With occasional nods to other 80s fright-fests, this is a film that knows its audience well, and treats it with a respect that guarantees it as a genuine crowd-pleaser. – Terry Staunton

Eternity

Lovers of golden age Hollywood supernatural comedies will love this third feature by self-described 'little Irish indie filmmaker' David Freyne (Dating Amber), who seems right at home in the big league. Elizabeth Olsen plays the woman who dies and arrives in limbo, where she is met by the spirits of her husband and the love of her young life. Which of these two contenders is she going to sail into eternity alongside?

Callum Turner and Miles Teller play the men – one died heroically in the Korean War, the other choked to death on a pretzel – and take turns aiming for Cary Grant screwball suavité. If they’re a touch interchangeable, that’s partly the point and it barely matters because Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early, as celestial Afterlife Co-ordinators, provide solid comedy back-up.

The production design is another standout and provides a running gag that keeps on giving, as this limbo is a teeming marketplace of competing versions of the afterlife (such as Beach World, Capitalism World, and Man-Free World). – Steve Morrissey

It Was Just an Accident

A chance encounter in modern-day Tehran sparks a cycle of violence in this cast-iron morality tale. Warehouse worker Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) spies family man Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) and kidnaps him, fully intent on burying him alive. He’s convinced his captive is a state interrogator who tortured him in prison, but blindfolded during his ordeal, doubts creep in. Was this the man he heard? And so he gathers others – including photographer Shiva (Maryam Afshari) – who might be able to verify the prisoner’s identity.

Winner of the Cannes festival's prestigious Palme d’Or, this tense, taut thriller comes from acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi (No Bears). Like his characters, he’s been imprisoned by the Iranian authorities, as well as banned from filmmaking, and there’s no escaping the film's in-baked sense of righteous anger.

But Panahi wisely seasons the film with black comedy: witness two security guards who take a bribe (with a handheld credit card terminal!) to look the other way when they hear a ruckus in Vahid’s van. A powerful, poignant meditation on the futility of vengeance. – James Mottram

Cover-Up

This eye-opening documentary is a sharp and sometimes knotty portrait of American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Blessed with a keen sense of distrust that’s vital in his business, Hersh is a combative and reluctant interviewee – co-director Laura Poitras first approached him 20 years prior to the film's release – as he sits in his home office recounting war stories. But you’re left to admire the tenacity of a journalist who has taken on government and military abuses of power, breaking stories that ranged from My Lai to Abu Ghraib.

Joined here by co-director Mark Obenhaus, Poitras is no stranger to tackling those who take on authorities at the highest level – notably in Citizenfour, her timely 2014 look at whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

Here, she meets her match in the 88-year-old Hersh, who continues to needle the great and the not-so-good. He frequently refuses to answer questions, guarding his anonymous sources, but the film never balks, even covering the scandal that engulfed him when penning his John F Kennedy memoir involving forged Marilyn Monroe letters. Thoroughly absorbing. – James Mottram

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Having previously staged star-studded murder mysteries at a cosy mansion and a lavish private island, Rian Johnson's third Knives Out film unfolds against the backdrop of a small Catholic parish in upstate New York. This time, Daniel Craig's Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc is tasked with solving the murder of an intimidating priest (Josh Brolin), whose increasingly warped fire and brimstone sermons have seen him brush up against Josh O'Connor's younger clergyman.

What makes the mystery so enticing is that it initially appears to be an impossible crime, with Johnson's script making several references to John Dickson Carr's classic locked room mystery novel The Hollow Man. The church setting allows the director to make cinematic use of religious iconography and deliver a pointed satire about the way contemporary right-wing figures have weaponised faith to their own ends.

Meanwhile, the film gets a little darker, more unsettling, and weirder than the previous instalments – embracing elements of gothic horror – and although there are times where the case threatens to get a little too convoluted, it eventually leads to a hugely satisfying denouement. – Patrick Cremona

Zootropolis 2

Brimming with rapid-fire sight gags and movie in-jokes, the sequel to Disney’s hit 2016 animation is a fast and funny combination of buddy cop comedy and conspiracy romp. It picks up where the original left off, with perky bunny Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) on police duty with her wily fox partner Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman).

Despite their clashing methods, the duo stumble on a mystery involving Zootropolis’s 100-year anniversary and Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), a rogue viper slithering amok in the supposedly reptile-free city. Predictable plot twists aside, the duo’s investigation nimbly spans genres and Disney tropes, with animal jokes, crime film influences and lightly handled messages about prejudice deftly interwoven.

Old and fresh characters are breezily balanced, with series newcomers Quan, Fortune Feimster and Andy Samberg playfully nailing their voice roles. Featuring a winning lead pairing, pacey chase sequences and a richly realised world, the film builds on its predecessor’s appeal with charm, energy and the wittiest nod to The Shining in a kids’ movie yet. – Kevin Harley

Pillion

A nerdy young man finds his mojo in this racy, charming and hilariously funny British gem. Colin Smith (Harry Melling) is a parking attendant locked in a humdrum life until, one day, he’s picked up in a pub by enigmatic biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård). After an unusual first date on Christmas Day, Colin is bewitched by this leather jacket-wearing hunk, and soon finds himself in an S&M relationship with the dominant, mysterious Ray.

With its titular double meaning – slang in the niche world of BDSM-practising bikers, meaning those who take the submissive role – the film may prove a little too outré for certain viewers. However, British writer/director Harry Lighton finds humour and sweetness in the premise, leaning into the sexual dynamics on show without ever kink-shaming its participants.

Melling and Skarsgård are wonderfully cast, especially Melling, who convincingly goes from dowdy and downtrodden to confident and cool. Seasoned with a dash of Mike Leigh-style suburban angst, Pillion will truly tickle your fancy. – James Mottram

Wicked: For Good

After last year’s Wicked: Part One, we’re back for some more Ozploitation. Jon M Chu’s two-part adaptation has already been a wild ride, tapping into the perennial enthusiasm for the long-running stage show by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which itself came inspired both by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and, of course, Hollywood Golden Age musical The Wizard of Oz. Part One conjured a healthy $756 million global box office, followed by 10 Oscar nominations and two wins.

There’s no reason to think Wicked: For Good won’t perform the same trick, or better it, with Chu bringing events to a rousing close. While he infuses enthusiasm into every frame, the same can be said for his leading ladies. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form as, respectively, the pink-hued Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the green-skinned witch who has been cast out of Oz, thanks to the machinations of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, wickedly charming as ever), the ultimately carney-man.

Now in exile, the demonised Elphaba’s name has been stained by the Wizard, in league with her one-time tutor, the former Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh, still wearing that delicious Mr Whippy ice-cream hair-do). The slightly vapid Glinda, meanwhile, thinks they need to be trademarking the word "good", while she’s also caught up in preparations for her impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who has been charged with capturing Elphaba. – James Mottram

Now You See Me: Now You Don't

Combining legacy characters with a new trio of younger illusionists, the third film in this action-comedy series is a busily disposable – if fitfully fun – combination of reunion gig and new-generation franchise spruce-up. Director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Uncharted) replaces predecessors Louis Leterrier and Jon M Chu, stepping in to juggle the expected ingredients of a tangled heist, some tricksy set pieces, a couple of crowd-pleasing cameos and splashes of globe-trotting glitz.

Yet as the crowded cast grapple with the script’s patchy supplies of sparkle and finesse, it can be hard to care which way the plot’s cards end up landing. The set pieces lift proceedings, with action sequences at a public diamond display and in a house of illusions showing flashes of pacy wit, levity and invention.

However, the narrative linking them is frustratingly loose – even for a franchise that revels in the ridiculous. One or two twists prove inconsequential, while the script is rarely as clever as it thinks it is and hardly ever as fresh as it should be. – Kevin Harley

One Battle After Another

This terrific film from Paul Thomas Anderson is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland. Rather than a straight adaptation, the auteur expertly borrows elements and crafts them into something his own, keeping the book's rebellious spirit, absurdist comic tone and thematic weight intact.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Bob Ferguson, a former member of resistance group the French 75, now completely sapped of his revolutionary spirit. But when his old nemesis (Sean Penn in sensationally odious form) re-emerges, Bob must rediscover his fight so he can protect his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti, a revelation).

The resulting chase is thrilling, uproarious and perfectly paced, with DiCaprio excelling as a frustrated layabout thrust back into the fold. Anderson stages the film's set pieces – including a mesmerising car chase – in unpredictable, inventive ways, with Jonny Greenwood's frantic, piano-led score the perfect complement.

The film feels urgent and timely, tapping into contemporary themes from the USA's barbaric treatment of immigrants to the growing prevalence of extremist ideologies among people with influence, but there's also a dash of hope and poignancy. Anderson's choice to put a touching father/daughter relationship front and centre amid the thrills gives his masterful film undeniable emotional heft. – Patrick Cremona

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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