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Which new films to watch at the cinema and stream online now

Netflix's Mank is the film of the week, a murky and flickering masterpiece - Netflix
Netflix's Mank is the film of the week, a murky and flickering masterpiece - Netflix

The best new film this week is Mank, a murky, flickering masterpiece from David Fincher about the decay of 1930s Hollywood.

The Godfather, Coda brings the unloved third part of the mafia saga into the light it’s always deserved, thanks to a sharp recut from Francis Ford Coppola.

Falling, Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut, is a harrowing portrait of life with dementia – difficult both for the sufferer, and those living with them.

Crock of Gold is a filmic portrait of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, which melds archive footage and mumblesome modern-day interviews.

The Prom is a flamboyant vehicle for Meryl Streep and James Corden, attempting to champion LGBT rights through the medium of song.

Finally, A Christmas Carol sees Dickens’s classic tale brought to life through the medium of dance, with voices from Simon Russell Beale, Martin Freeman, Carey Mulligan et al.

Mank ★★★★★

David Fincher’s outstanding 11th film, about the murk and machinations surrounding the writing of Citizen Kane, comes slinking out of the shadows of cinema’s Golden Age. Half soul-chilling noir, half backstage screwball frolic, it stars a never-better Gary Oldman as Herman J Mankiewicz – a brilliant-but-slumming-it screenwriter with an informal side gig as court jester to California’s great and not-so-good. (It’s in cinemas and on Netflix now.) 12 cert, 132 mins

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David Fincher interview: film studios ‘don’t want to make anything that can’t make them a billion dollars’

Herman J Mankiewicz: the alcoholic ‘loser-genius’ who co-wrote Citizen Kane 

The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone ★★★★☆

Francis Ford Coppola’s savvy restructuring of the third Godfather film takes a movie that has never been loved, and creates something sharp and new. Both Part III and Sofia Coppola’s performance – much maligned down the years – make sense at last, and they should receive their due acclaim. (It’s in cinemas this weekend and on Blu-ray from Monday.) 15 cert, 158 mins

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When Sofia Coppola took a bullet: how an all-time bad performance killed The Godfather: Part III

Falling ★★★★☆

In Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut, he plays a man facing his sick, homophobic father (played with raw power by an extraordinary Lance Henriksen). It serves as a searing portrait of the havoc dementia can wreak on any sufferer – and how difficult the illness makes life for their loved ones, too. (It’s streaming on multiple platforms now.) 15 cert, 112 mins

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Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan ★★★☆☆

What do you get if you combine Shane MacGowan, Johnny Depp and Gerry Adams? A curious documentary, notionally about the Pogues frontman’s life, that degenerates into a rambling, often (literally) inaudible mess. Some of the archive clips are fascinating; many of the modern-day conversations are less so. (It’s in cinemas now and on streaming platforms from Monday.) 18 cert, 124 mins

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Julien Temple interview: ‘Chasing Shane MacGowan was like Attenborough going after the snow leopard’

The Prom ★★☆☆☆

Ryan Murphy’s latest project, in which Meryl Streep and James Corden play a pair of conceited musical-theatre veterans who line up a publicity coup by championing LGBT rights in a little American town, is garish, insincere and out-of-touch – thus uncannily mirroring the presence of all the A-listers involved. (It’s in cinemas now.) 12A cert, 131 mins

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A Christmas Carol ★★★☆☆

In this danced version of Charles Dickens’s tale, with voices provided by a galaxy of off-stage stars ranging from Simon Russell Beale to Martin Freeman and Carey Mulligan, a Christmassy cast reminds us on screen what we’re missing, thanks to the pandemic, on stages all round Britain. (It’s in cinemas now.) PG cert, 94 mins

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