SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY
12A) 145mins
★★★★★
Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie is his best yet Credit: Alamy
MJ (Zendaya) with Spidey Credit: CTMG/Jay Maidment. All Rights Reserved. Marvel and all related character names: Copyright and Trademark 2026 Marvel
AFTER years of multiverse mayhem, Marvel has finally gone back to the roots of a really great superhero film.
The high-flying fourth film in this Spider-Man franchise sees Tom Holland and Co back in his motherland of New York.
And there’s no better place to swoop from skyscrapers and save the world.
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We meet Peter Parker (Holland) as a seemingly regular New Yorker, going to work every day, then getting home to his sad apartment full of empty pizza boxes.
He’s plugging away at keeping the city safe and taking painkillers for his bruises while dealing with his high-flying job.
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But Peter is lonely.
He has no family and no mates who remember him after Doctor Strange cast a spell that meant everyone in his life forgot who the man behind the mask was.
The most important of these are his lost love MJ (Zendaya) and best mate Ned (Jacob Batalon).
Peter sneakily manages to get back into their lives at a house party, which makes for poignant moments with the nerdy threesome.
Zendaya gets the tone spot-on as the love interest who is baffled by Spider-Man’s protection.
And while there are plenty of high-swinging action scenes, they have all been done with attention to detail rather than necessity.
There are also some very exciting crossovers of Marvel characters that are slotted in seamlessly and with plenty of humour.
This is the best Holland has been in the role, without a doubt.
Seeming to have finally grown into it, he is able to keep the balance of a nice, shy guy trying to use his powers for good.
He shows a Spider-Man who is bruised by solitude and grief, but still trying his very best.
The action sequences draw from the comics’ history, and there are some superb slowed tableaux sequences.
Overall, this film, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, feels like a more authentic, mature version of the brand — not just the character, but the storyline, too.
It has risen to the task of dealing with a cast (and audience) that are nearly a decade older than they were when Holland first took on the solo role in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
This sleeker, more sophisticated, and often scarier Spidey will have fans happy to be caught in its web.
MOCKBUSTER
(12A) 90mins
★★★★☆
Mockbuster is a touching and often hilarious documentary Credit: Unknown
THIS touching and often hilarious documentary is all about the passion of filmmaking – and how it isn’t like it looks in the movies.
Aspiring director Anthony Frith grew up in Australia thinking he would collect Oscars, but when we meet him, he is making corporate films to support his family.
In a last-ditch attempt to fulfil his ambitions, the new dad heads to Hollywood to meet production firm The Asylum, who are behind thousands of low-budget action films.
Best known for their 2013 hit Sharknado, the team of disillusioned movie makers allow Anthony to direct one of their straight-to-digital films – which becomes the subject of his documentary.
But there are catches, including a very low budget, an unfinished script, no star cast and only six days to complete filming on a new version of The Land That Time Forgot.
Anthony’s film will also be the first the studio has shot in Australia.
With all these problems in place, he still tries to get “artistic” and make a quality piece of work, which is something the crew find laughable.
Yet Anthony makes a film he’s proud of – and a great documentary.
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ISH
(15) 89mins
★★☆☆☆
Ish is a coming-of-age drama about a 12-year-old boy Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
THIS coming-of-age drama about a 12-year-old boy called Ish living in Luton looks into the complications of young male friendships and growing up surrounded by racial profiling.
Writer and director Imran Perretta’s debut, filmed in black and white, focuses on Ish, who has lost his mum.
He is clearly lonely and desperate for affection, spending his days hanging out with best friend Maram in the woods and playing video games.
But when Maram is stopped and searched because of his race, the pals’ lives go down very different paths.
Raging about the injustice of it – and wanting to lash out at the system – Maram is drawn towards a dangerous friendship group and gets involved with gang life.
There are also news reports of Palestinian suffering streaming into their living rooms.
Much of this hard-hitting and often very slow drama feels straight out of a Ken Loach playbook, with lots of rage boiling up in a poverty-stricken part of the UK.
While nicely crafted and delivered by the young cast, there are long scenes that feel vastly overrun and distractingly void of dialogue.
