🎟️ Box Office: STAR WARS is back in the green!

In the US, despite industry concerns about the muted response to the marketing and the mixed critical reviews, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu became a huge Memorial Day weekend hit. It made $89M over three days in North America, which may be low compared to the main-saga films, but Disney will be pleased that Star Wars’ return to the big screen didn’t crash-and-burn.

Obsession also saw a jump in ticket sales in its second week, which is a rare occurrence, as turnout was up by 39% and it climbed to №2 thanks to good word-of-mouth. The new horror release Passenger debuted at №6 with just $8.7M.

Boot Riley’s crime comedy I Love Boosters also came in at a low №8 with $3.7M, despite a star-studded cast that includes Keke Palmer, Naomie Ackie, LaKeith Stanfield, Don Cheadle, Demi Moore, and others.

🇺🇸 US Box Office

1. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu — $81.9M (NEW)
2. Obsession — $23.9M (week 2)
3. Michael — $20.7M (week 5)
4. The Devil Wears Prada 2 — $12.5M (week 4)
5. The Sheep Detectives — $8.9M (week 3)

In the UK, it was a slightly less-impressive story for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. It still managed to reach №1 with £5.3M, but that’s the second-lowest opening for a Star Wars movie ever in the UK and Ireland — just above Solo: A Star Wars Story’s £4.9M. For context, Rise of Skywalker opened to £14.4M in 2019.

Obsession likewise improved on its first-week debut, going up the chart a spot to №3, while The Devil Wears Prada 2 crossed the £30M mark overall.

🇬🇧 UK Box Office

1. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu — £5.3M (NEW)
2. Michael — £1.8M (week 5)
3. Obsession — £1.3M (week 2)
4. The Devil Wears Prada 2 — £1.1M (week 4)
5. The Sheep Detectives — £536K (week 3)

👀 The Watchlist

Remy Dean:

“Just made a start with Starfleet Academy. The period setting of a far-future, recovering Federation made it feel fresh and I loved the visualisation of futuristic tech. The pilot episode felt like a recap of an entire season, as if it were a ‘previously on’. World-building and character arcs happened super fast and the kind of tropes that are usually strung out over several episodes have been dealt with already. I’m wondering if they kept enough ideas back for the remainder of the series.”

Jack Heslop:

“Twin Peaks: The Return. My third or fourth rewatch of this, in my opinion the best single season of TV ever made. It’s really an 18-hour film diced up into manageable chunks. David Lynch’s epic of demonic possession and the battle between good and evil is funny, scary, and mesmerising, a surrealist masterpiece, and with the most haunting ending to maybe any film or TV show I’ve ever seen. Gets better each time you watch it. Many will find it too strange and abstract, no doubt, but for those attuned, it keeps giving.”

Barnaby Page:

“Quite by coincidence, three very different films about parents and wayward adult children stood out for me last week. In Frédéric Hambalek’s Model Olimpia from 2020, a mother takes it upon herself to cure her son of his dark sexual fantasies. But perhaps she herself is more a problem than a solution? It’s peculiar, slightly disturbing, clinically cold, and very German.

In Michael Pearce’s Beast from 2017, too, things are not what they seem — in fact, this Channel Islands-set tale of a young woman falling for a guy who may or may not be a serial killer points us very successfully in the wrong direction for a long time. Though the crime-and-detection aspects of the narrative don’t really convince, great performances from Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn in the leads — as well as support from Geraldine James and Trystan Gravelle — keep it compellingly watchable. (I was slightly reminded of Rose Glass’s 2019 horror Saint Maud.) Revelations are genuinely unexpected, and the ambiguous ending grows on you, too.

Jan Komasa’s Good Boy (aka Heel) from 2025 has been called Kubrickian, though really the resemblance to A Clockwork Orange is slight — better to think of it as an updating of Shaw’s Pygmalion for the age of the chav. There’s not much to the storyline, but powerhouse performances from Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough and Anson Boon are more than enough to hold together a film that switches from the blackly comic to the surprisingly touching with complete assurance. Strongly recommended.”

Marios Papadoniou:

Some say this film is a size 6. Well, I’d say it’s a size 4. A new Emily with big shoes to fill that perfectly fits into the pair, yet new feet mean a different stride. The Devil Wears Prada 2 takes what was once a character-driven film and makes a sequel that is much more plot-driven, yet it’s driven by the characters of yore who remain familiar yet have changed with the passage of time.

20 years since her exposure to the fashion world, Andy Sacks (Anne Hathaway) has become way more confident, more sure of herself; Emily (Emily Blunt) is still blunt, pun intended, but now works fashion retail, because to her, it’s the only profitable facet of the fashion world left; Nigel (Stanley Tucci) is still sassy, yet shows more love; and, most importantly, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep,) the devil herself, has gone a little soft, a little passive, which has made her seemingly powerless in the current world of journalism, one of a digital ether.

How does the fashion world navigate this newly terraformed landscape, which has become completely unpredictable, apathetic, and avaricious because of advancements in technology? They fold and let the current take them which way.

It falters in some places, but nothing major; just some missed opportunities with characters, but regardless of this, The Devil Wears Prada 2 stands out amongst other legacy sequels. It isn’t some troglodyte fanfare that uses the past to mask the inability to write a screenplay that properly follows up its legacy; it’s an actual sequel with a screenplay that is appropriately zeitgeist and telling of the uncertainty of our future.

The next time I’m in a conversation with someone who asks what sequel to a film that came out 20+ years ago actually lives up to the first film, one that didn’t heavily rely on nostalgia, callbacks, and repeated plot points yet masks itself as a new film because it doesn’t know how to write a proper sequel, I will respond, and always respond with, ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2.’”

Film News: Lonnergan returns, MICHAEL 2 & ISLE OF MAN starts filming

• A decade after earning an Academy Award for Manchester by the Sea, acclaimed playwright and director Kenneth Lonergan is finally returning to the director’s chair. His fourth feature film, Tomorrow Is a Drag, officially hit the Cannes Film Market package circuit last week with a massive ensemble cast attached: Adam Driver, Vanessa Kirby, Aubrey Plaza, and Matthew Broderick. While plot details are being kept under tight wraps, the production is scheduled to begin filming this autumn on location in New York City.
• In one of the more surprising studio development announcements of the week, Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson revealed during a corporate update that a sequel to the Michael biopic is already moving forward rapidly.
• The high-octane racing drama Isle of Man, which centres around the notoriously dangerous real-world motorcycle TT (Tourist Trophy) races, officially commenced principal photography on the island on 22 May. Coinciding with the start of production, the film announced three major additions to its cast line-up. Oscar-nominee Ciarán Hinds (Belfast), Marvel alumnus May Calamawy (Moon Knight), and rising indie star Ruaridh Mollica have officially signed on, joining Channing Tatum and Eve Newson.

🔎 Critical Lens: POSSESSION at 45

Marios Papadoniou reviewed Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, ahead of its remake being developed, for its 45th anniversary.

Beyond the narrative, Bruno Nuytten’s cinematography is impeccable. The dynamic camera movements evoke the suffocating claustrophobia of two people trapped in a dead union. Triangular compositions within the liminal spaces of their apartment mirror their psychological asphyxiation.

MANDALORIAN & GROGU find The Way at the US box office this summer was originally published in Frame Rated on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Possession (1981) • 45 Years Later — a ghastly, unnerving masterpiece of artistic catharsis

A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behaviour after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.

Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is considered a masterpiece by those who venerate it, yet it remains a blind spot for many cinephiles and horror enthusiasts. While this observation may be anecdotal, outside of Letterboxd, video essays, and forum posts, I seldom see it discussed with the same fervor as other legendary genre instalments — or, indeed, the trite banality of modern “cotton-candy” horror.

The single-serving friends I chat with at bars and public gatherings have rarely heard of the film; if they have, they’ve never seen it. Yet, those who have experienced it sing hymns of reverence to its every frame. Possession is, by far, one of my favourite horror films, precisely because its ability to induce overwhelming terror and uneasiness is unlike anything else in cinema.

Żuławski was a filmmaker who defied genre norms, operating in the avant-garde tradition of New Wave icons like Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Věra Chytilová, and Toshio Matsumoto. He constantly played with the boundaries of conventional cinematic structure. His transitions between the orthodox and the unorthodox occur unexpectedly yet seamlessly. It never feels stilted — a level of proficiency that can be traced right back to his debut feature, The Third Part of the Night (1971).

Żuławski’s films drew heavily from his life, weaving multifaceted and layered narratives within specific genres that resonate with the profundity of a experience. In Possession, he uses horror to process the tumultuous volatility of his own divorce. The film captures the deterioration of the psyche and the collapse of domestic stability when faced with cold indifference. Crucially, it illustrates how clinging to a rotted intimacy is the worst way to save what little remains, especially when done solely for the sake of the children.

Possession opens with two separate, one-point perspective shots of the Berlin Wall. It then cuts to a massive black crucifix, its arms wrapped in barbed wire, with a wreath hanging from its base. The only breaks in this ominous iconography are a few red and white flowers protruding from the wreath — a visual overture introducing the film’s themes of separation, atrophy of faith, and marital decline.

From here, a continuous point-of-view shot roves across West Berlin, lingering on derelict buildings and sections of the wall, one of which features the crudely spray-painted graffiti: “Die mauer muss weg” (“The wall must go”). This perspective belongs to Mark (Sam Neill), a spy for a secret government agency. Returning home from a stint of espionage, he is instantly blindsided by his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), who demands a divorce. They confront their mutual emotional decay, though the angst appears painfully one-sided; Anna looks overwrought with internal confusion, frustration, and a total absence of affection.

Her feelings don’t wane. Instead, they ripen in intensity. Mark and Anna’s interactions rapidly dissolve into a dense fog of emotional instability, fueled by mutual contempt, crossed boundaries, infidelity, and bouts of profound hysteria. This escalation of domestic horror makes other cinematic depictions of marital decline pale by comparison. Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (2005) or Marriage Story (2019) could never compete.

Mark acts as a physical barrier, trapping Anna in confrontations regarding her fidelity and the state of their marriage. Anna, in turn, succumbs to rage-induced paroxysms — convulsing uncontrollably, slicing her own skin while preparing dinner, and violently striking Mark when cornered. She vanishes for days on end to an unknown location, leaving their young son, Bob (Michael Hogben), starving and neglected. In one heartbreaking scene, Mark returns to find Bob sitting on the hallway floor, covered head-to-toe in peanut butter and jam, desperately trying to feed himself.

This domestic instability provides the film’s initial horror. At times, Anna’s screaming fits reminded me of the outbursts my own mother would have during childhood conflicts. These scenes made the hairs on my back stand up, my skin freezing in terror at the shared emotional recognition.

Yet, the horror in Possession evolves during the second act, trading kitchen-sink realism for a surreal, figurative growth that commits entirely to the breakdown of intimacy. It’s here that the film steers into unapologetic arthouse experimentation.

I adore this trajectory, but I recognize that Żuławski’s extreme metaphorical approach to divorce won’t be to everyone’s taste. My advice: don’t get comfortable with the initial domestic drama, or you’ll be left wondering what the point was.

Beyond the narrative, Bruno Nuytten’s cinematography is impeccable. The dynamic camera movements evoke the suffocating claustrophobia of two people trapped in a dead union. Triangular compositions within the liminal spaces of their apartment mirror their psychological asphyxiation. Close-ups capture every nuance of distress, anguish, and hatred on Neill and Adjani’s faces. Meanwhile, the camera glides in dizzying circles around the actors, amplifying the viewer’s discomfort during tense arguments about custody or bizarre subplots involving secret agencies and a man who exclusively wears pink socks.

Żuławski’s mastery extends deep into colour theory, particularly his calculated use of blue.

The symbolism of blue has shifted drastically throughout art history. In the medieval period, it was reserved for religious iconography to convey holiness and virtue. Because ultramarine pigment derived from lapis lazuli was so rare and expensive, it was used to denote the eternal. These pigments adorned the very churches where marriages were ritualized. By the Renaissance, blue expanded to signify material wealth and aristocratic prestige — not unlike the financial consolidation of modern marriage, with its shared incomes and property.

Then came the Industrial Revolution, which made blue affordable. Pablo Picasso famously used the cheap pigment to define his “Blue Period,” linking the colour permanently to sorrow, poverty, and depression. In an ironic twist, industrialisation stripped blue of its status and turned it into the universal hue of human melancholy.

Żuławski synthesises both the spiritual and melancholic histories of the colour beautifully. Anna is dressed almost exclusively in blue, accented only by black scarves — the colour of mourning. This palette bleeds into their apartment, where blue carpets and fabrics are contrasted against stark white walls. The visual irony of this “pure” environment is striking.

To maximise visual engagement, Żuławski balances these heavy blues with warm, complementary orange hues in the first half of the film: a vibrant orange telephone, earthy book spines, and an amber sofa. In the second half, the palette shifts to a complimentary combination of chromatic reds and greens, the former more towards colouring flesh and viscera while the latter accents interior spaces. As a painter and admirer of art history, I was completely enamoured with Żuławski’s understanding and use of colour theory; the man is a genius.

Possession is a multifaceted, effortless exploration of romantic absurdity that deepens with every subsequent viewing. My admiration grows each time I spot a new, understated detail in the dialogue or frame. I simply can’t get enough of it.

Which brings us to the upcoming, Paramount-funded remake by Parker Finn-the director behind Smile (2022) and Smile 2 (2024). Remakes are always a gamble, as you can rarely recapture lightning in a bottle, but this project feels particularly precarious. The goal of a remake is to preserve the essence of a story while applying a fresh coat of paint. But given how deeply autobiographical the original text is, one has to ask: how exactly does Finn plan to adapt someone else’s divorce?

FRANCE * WEST GERMANY | 1981 | 124 MINUTES | 1.66:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH * FRENCH * GERMAN

Cast & Crew

director: Andrzej Żuławski.
writer: Andrzej Żuławski (adaptation and dialogue co-written by Frederic Tuten).
starring: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Heinz Bennent, Margit Carstensen, Johanna Hofer, Carl Düring & Shaun Lawton.

Originally published at https://www.framerated.co.uk on May 22, 2026. All visual media incorporated herein is utilised pursuant to the Fair Use doctrine under 17 U.S.C. § 107 (United States) and the Fair Dealing exceptions under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (United Kingdom). This content is curated strictly for the purposes of transformative criticism, scholarly commentary, and educational review.

Possession (1981) — a ghastly, unnerving masterpiece of artistic catharsis was originally published in Frame Rated on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.