“How do you film the life of an artist as protean, elusive, egomaniacal, imaginative, surprising, and heavily mythologized as Bob Dylan? Haynes’s playful, gutsy biopic, in which six actors take turns embodying one of America’s most legendary musicians, considers that question and swallows it whole. It was in Haynes’s movie that Heath Ledger gave one of his best performances, but the star of the show is Cate Blanchett, who turns Dylan’s rock-star persona into a heroic, electrifying showcase for her own remarkable gifts.”

Screening in preparation for the forthcoming new Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, which screens at The Riverside in early February.

In poor health, Maria Callas wanders around a picturesque Paris as she recounts to an adoring journalist the highs of her career and litany of past loves. Angelina Jolie gives a transforming performance, capturing the myriad layers and masks of this legendary singer’s personality, from pithy to heartbreakingly vulnerable, while showing flashes of the personality that saw her idolised as an opera star. Featuring a stellar cast that includes Valeria Golino, Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher, Maria is a stunning addition to Larraín’s portrait of iconic women subjected to an alarming degree of scrutiny, while the world looked on.

Luca Guadagnino and Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes transport us to Mexico City in the 1940s with their adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novel. Daniel Craig dazzles as William Lee, an outcast American expat who becomes infatuated with an elusive younger man while living in Mexico City. He also revels in the city’s nightlife and its colourful, larger-than-life characters. Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville and impressive newcomer Drew Starkey populate Guadagnino’s richly evocative and sensual film, which features a typically immersive score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.