week's best new releases are on digital. psychological thriller called she dies tomorrow. do i have to wear the helmet? yeah, definitely very important to wear the helmet. you know, these things look like big toys but hello there, and welcome to the film review with me, anna smith. you know, these things look like big toys but at the end of the day, if you hit anything to fast into straight on, this thing could flip right over. well, i'm going to die anyway. written and directed by actor amy seimetz, it stars kate lyn sheil as amy, a party girl who becomes convinced that she's going to die tomorrow. her friend jane thinks that she's imagining things, but then jane suddenly becomes convinced that she too will die tomorrow. but how do you know? i just know. but amy decides to go dune buggy riding in herfinal hours, as you do, jane barrels into her brother's house wailing about her impending demise much

to the annoyance of her sarcastic sister—in—law who celebrates her birthday. i just thought for a second that when the lights went out, that was it. this bitterly funny scene alone makes the film well worth the watch, but she dies tomorrow has more to offer than hollow laughs. it's an uneasy reflection on the nature of anxiety and paranoia. hey, it's amy. i won't be around tomorrow. or any date after that, but feel free to leave a message. obviously, this was made before the pandemic but it feels eerily relevant. morbid catastrophising spreads like wildfire in this film, and the question of whether it's imagined or genuine apocalypse hangs in the air. while it was a bit too long on her lead character's story, seimetz has assembled a terrific cast and creates a tangible sense of existential dread amid the trippy visuals and acutely observed character comedy. but many a disaster movie, this observes how different people react to the prospect of a catastrophe. at a trim 84 minutes, she dies tomorrow

doesn't have the time to fully explore the themes it raises, but it's a thought—provoking and entertaining watch. it's on digital now. speaking french. er... up next, matthias & maxime, a drama from canadian director xavier dolan. dolan‘s 2016 film it's only the end of the world split critical opinion at the cannes film festival. i remember being at the press screening and hearing both cheers and boos at the end of it. i'm generally quite open to dolan‘s leisurely character driven dramas that explore the dynamics of a group of self absorbed individuals, and matthias & maxime is another one of these. it stars dolan himself as maxime who is part of a close—knit gang of male friends including matthias who is ably played by

gabriel d'almeida freitas. the pair agree to appear in a student film, little knowing that they'll be required to kiss on camera. we'll not let in on all the details of what happens that day, but it's clear the shoot has had a profound effect on them both. the score hints at a foreboding thriller, but this is really a portrait of two friends silently, separately experiencing a sexual crisis. expressive performances go along and there's humour in everything from matthias‘s pedantry to the pretentious film student who throws american colloquialisms into her canadian french. british actor harris dickinson brings ample charm in a supporting role and like many characters we are not entirely sure why he's there but you're kind of glad that he is.

matthias & maxime is available on mubi. now, to the sussex coast and william nicholson's hope gap, a drama inspired by his own parents‘s sudden divorce. i always somehow feel that i'm in the wrong. i don't care about who's right or wrong, i just want you to be there. they argue. it's like somehow you sneaked away while i wasn't looking, i don't know how else to put it. josh o'connor plays jamie who is visiting his folks when he's shocked to learn that his father edward, played by bill nighy, is preparing to leave his mother grace, played by annette bening. i'm sorry. i can't make grace happy, i tried but i'm the wrong person. poorjamie is stuck in the middle when they usually downtrodden edward abruptly heads off, leaving the headstrong grace heartbroken and furious. this woman is clearly used to getting her own way. hello, i'm here too. hello, hello, hello! how are you, grace? fine, fine, fine... as you can imagine, nighy is spot

on in this kind of role, but american bening is woefully miscast and that's really not something i'd ever say. i usually worship the ground she walks on. how could he sit there and say that i am the entire value of the family home? while her physical performance is good, bening's english accent sounds distractingly affected, perhaps a hangoverfrom her theatre stint in noel coward's fallen angels where she took on the role previous played by the very deep—voiced frances de la tour. so, the settlement that you and edward have come up with, do i get more than i get if he died? her character is also underwritten so while hope gap is moving and charming in parts, it's not quite what you'd expect from this high quality cast. the location is the real star here. hope gap is in cinemas and on curzon home cinema now. if you're looking for a family film on the big screen, then the french fantasy the lost

prince mightjust fit the bill. directed by michel hazanavicius who gave us multiple oscar winner the artist, this stars omar sy as a widower who reads bedtime stories for his daughter, sofia. set in story land, this tiny feature itself as the hero prints and he does it rather well. but when sophia turns 11, she becomes less bothered about daddy's tall tales and more interested in, you guessed it, a boy at school. the lost prince flits between two worlds. there's the everyday father and daughter saga, and then there's story land, a kind of fantastical film studio where our hero finds himself displaced by his daughter's new boyfriend. it's not initially entirely clear if story land is a dream world that happens when one character is asleep, or a projection of his mental state which i found a little frustrating, and the jumps from the the two worlds often feels kind of random.

i was more engaged with the real trauma. it's always good to see the artist star berenice bejo in a slightly cliched role as the ditzy neighbour. subtitled and rated 12a, the lost prince is the kind of innocuous family comedy you can imagine being picked up by hollywood and remade starring dwayne "the rock" johnson. also in cinemas is an animation that's taken one young man 3.5 years to make single—handedly. away is written, produced, directed, animated, and composed by latvian film—maker gints zilbalodis. it tells the story of a boy travelling across an island on a motorbike. a dark spirit appears intermittently and the boy makes a series of

connections with different animals along the way. bearing in mind practical restraints, the animation is very impressive. there are shades of studio ghibli films like spirited away,