PLANNING ON HEADING to the cinema this weekend?

There are a few new movies out, but which is a must-watch, and are there any you should avoid?

We take a look.

Never Grow Old

What we know

This Irish-American-French Western – written by Irishman Ivan Kavanagh – sees Emile Hirsch star as Patrick Tate, an undertaker who starts to profit after outlaws ride into town and start killing around them. John Cusack stars as king of the outlaws.

What the critics say

• “Hirsch provides a solid ballast as the man scrabbling to stay alive and keep his family safe, but there’s an unexpectedly strong performance from Deborah Francois as the morally-upright Audrey, making the most of a wife-in-the-kitchen role which normally gets such short shrift.” – Screen Daily 
• “This slowly uncoiling drama is based on a smart, convincing screenplay. Mind you, the Coen brothers could not make Never Grow Old with a straight face; it would descend into manic comedy, even if they tried not to make it so.” - RTÉ

What’s it rated?

• RottenTomatoes: 93%
• IMDB: 5.8/10

Scary Stories to tell in the Dark

What we know

Horror fans will be interested in this film about a book of scary stories that comes true.

What the critics say

• “Heavy on jump scares, cobwebby corridors and CGI-assisted fiends, Øvredal and del Toro revel in the genre’s bloody heartland, and don’t seem too fussed about trying anything new.” – Empire
• “Yet if you watch Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark simply as the movie it is, what you’ll experience is a period teenage horror film at once wide-eyed and scattershot, one that never begins to sustain a mood, and that projects, a bit too callowly, its eagerness to cash in on the demo of It and Stranger Things.” – Variety

What’s it rated?

• RottenTomatoes: 80%
• IMDB: 6.5/10

Pain and Glory

What we know

Pedro Almodovar’s latest film stars Antonio Banderas as a film director who’s facing depression and the downward turn of his powers. But a meeting with a new friend sees him remember the high and low points of his past. 

What the critics say

• “There is a masterful nimbleness in Almodóvar’s narrative style: one thing leads on to another, or back or sideways to another, or to an associated memory, or to a created fictional version.” – The Guardian
• “Pain and Glory has the emotional resonance of an artist coming to terms with the intimate nature of his work, and in the pantheon of the films-about-filmmaking genre, it’s a paragon of the form — a bittersweet 8 1/2 centered on the quest of an artist in search of his own tale.” – IndieWire

What’s it rated?

• RottenTomatoes: 93%
• IMDB: 7.8/10

Which one would you go see first?

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