Matt Damon, Zendaya, Seth Rogen and Kieran Culkin feature in a quartet of movies released in the week of July 17th, 2026Leisa Gwenllian in Effi o Blaenau. Photograph: MetFilm Sun Jul 19 2026 - 04:56 • 3 MIN READThe Odyssey ★★★★⯪Directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron. 15A cert, gen release, 172 minNolan follows up Oppenheimer with a thundering adaptation of Homer’s epic poem following Odysseus’s journey back to Ithica. Maybe the film, as is sometimes the case with Nolan, lacks an emotional core. But the sensory overload is so enormous that it proves hard to care. Shot fluidly on 70mm Imax cameras by Hoyte van Hoytema, scored with symphonic wit by Ludwig Göransson, this take on a foundational text should wear away even the most passionate resistance. Standout performances from Morton as Circe and Hathaway as Penelope. At its best in properly weird fantasy episodes. Irresistible. DC Full reviewAnimal Farm ★☆☆☆☆Directed by Andy Serkis. Voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Andy Serkis, Kathleen Turner. PG cert, limited release, 94 minBizarrely appalling adaptation of George Orwell’s indestructible (or so we imagined) 1945 allegory for the betrayals of the Soviet Union that abandons the original intent for a ham-fisted attack on contemporary capitalism in general and Donald Trump in particular. Orwell, an obsessive eulogist of English culture – “a cut off the joint, two vegetables and boiled jam roll”, he slavered in The Moon Under Water – would suffer apoplexy at the translation to the United States alone. The rapping and flatulence jokes offer further unforgivable offence. Not all films are equal, but few are less equal than this. DC Full reviewCactus Pears ★★★★☆ Directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade. Starring Bhushaan Manoj, Suraaj Suman, Jayshri Jagtap. No cert, limited release, 112 minFollowing his father’s death, Anand (Manoj), a call-centre worker in Mumbai, returns to his ancestral village in Maharashtra for the obligatory 10-day mourning ritual. Bereavement quickly becomes secondary to obligation: funeral customs dictate every aspect of daily life, while well-meaning relatives chastise. Manoj gives a beautifully internalised performance, carrying grief, exhaustion and decades of self-censorship in his hunched stances, while Suman provides an earthy, quietly confident counterpart. Parashuram’s film, the first in the Marathi language to be selected for Sundance, resists melodrama throughout, puppeting heartstrings with intimate gestures and dreams. TB Full reviewEffi o Blaenau ★★★★☆ Directed by Marc Evans. Starring Leisa Gwenllian, Tom Rhys Harries, Nel Rhys Lewis, Owen Alun, Carys Gwilym, Gavin Lee Lewis. No cert, limited release, 91 minNever mind that Christopher Nolan film. This week’s most compelling reworking of Greek mythology is Evans’s robust Welsh-language drama. Adapted by Gary Owen from his well-regarded play Iphigenia in Splott, the film relocates the action from Cardiff to Blaenau Ffestiniog. A Euripides tale of sacrifice becomes a contemporary tragedy about poverty, inequality and criminally underfunded healthcare. Gwenllian is magnetic, mapping Effi’s journey from vodka-swilling bravado to heartbreak with gusto. Defiant, abrasive and pained, she’s the beating heart of a film that stares into the lens and says, “What are you looking at?” But in Cymraeg. TB Full reviewIN THIS SECTION