Allen White and Zac Efron are terrific in a bone-breaking wrestling biopic, and Eddie Murphy resurrects the wisecracking Axel Foley!

The Iron Claw

Sean Durkin’s A24 wrestling biopic was initially touted as an Oscar contender and, while that didn’t come to pass, it’s nevertheless a tremendous piece of film-making. Telling the story of the Von Erich family, a clutch of athletic young men struggling to escape their overbearing father, it’s tragic and heartrending and – if you’re the right age – unbearably nostalgic. Better yet, it’s rammed with top-notch performances. The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, as Kerry Von Erich, proves he has a long future outside the show, and Zac Efron is nothing short of a total revelation as his brother Kevin. Honestly, where has he been hiding all these years?
Friday 12 July, Prime Video

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Following 2021’s forgettable Coming 2 America, it’s safe to say that Eddie Murphy is now firmly in his revisitation period. It was only a matter of time before he made a Beverly Hills Cop sequel, and now debut director Mark Molloy has made it happen. Old favourites such as Judge Reinhold, John Ashton and Paul Reiser return, joined by new faces like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige. The real draw, of course, is getting to see Murphy back as the restless, wisecracking Axel Foley. Can he summon the old energy again?
Out now, Netflix

Eileen

At first glance, this psychological period thriller comes off as something of a Carol knock-off, with lots of sultry, smoky mid-century gazes between leads Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. But that’s only half the story, as the film plunges into its own special morass of obsession and violence. Half the fun is having the rug pulled out beneath you by a certain twist. It would be churlish to spoil it, but it’s well worth the price of entry for that alone. A pleasingly tense and darkly sexy way to spend a couple of hours.
Saturday 6 July, 2.25pm; 10pm, Sky Cinema

Tickled

A documentary about competitive endurance tickling sounds like the sort of thing that would permanently sully your Netflix algorithm. But please don’t let that put you off David Farrier’s film, because it’s more of a conspiracy thriller than a weird sex thing. Farrier attempts to get to the bottom of the tickling videos he has seen online. He encounters bullying, mysterious producers who repeatedly warn him to stop making his film, and things only get darker and weirder from there.
Wednesday 10 July, Netflix

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