At The Movies

In the very last At The Movies, Simon Morris looks back on 24 years of movies – a quarter century that started with the first Lord Of The Rings, and an Oscar for Russell Crowe, and ended with two of the biggest films of the year, both made in New Zealand – The Minecraft movie and Avatar: Fire and Ash. But mostly he picks some (very) idiosyncratic favourites over the years, including the world’s smallest hit musical, the youngest action hero and the four best endings. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In the penultimate At The Movies, Simon Morris looks back over an eventful year. Apart from the usual winners and losers, he produces his personal Top Three (there seem to be four of them), his picks for the New Faces of 2025, and the traditional, annual Cate Blanchett Award for Being in Everything. Who will win this coveted award? And why has nobody in the western world heard of the biggest film of the year by a country mile? The country being China…. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Simon Morris kicks off the first of the final three At The Movies with films all connected with some old favourites. Wake Up Dead Man director Rian Johnson's career started with the neo-noir Brick back in 2005. Jennifer Lawrence, star of Die My Love, arrived five years later in 2010’s Winter’s Bone. And Zootopia 2 is the sequel to another favourite released in 2016. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Die My Love is a harrowing tale of a marriage under stress, with a dream team before and behind the camera. Produced by Martin Scorcese, directed by Lynne Ramsay (We have to talk about Kevin) from a book by Alice Birch (TV’s Normal People), it stars Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games) and Robert Pattinson (Twilight) with Sissy Spacek (Carrie). Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Wake Up Dead Man is another Knives Out mystery, starring Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc. Among the star-studded list of suspects are Josh O’Connor (Challengers), Glenn Close (The Wife), Andrew Scott (Ripley) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). Written and directed, as always, by Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi) .Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details