Our top 5 film picks for October

Although it’s surprising that a film of this period hasn’t been made before, this handsomely mounted production is well worth the wait.

Carey Mulligan plays Maud, a working-class woman in London, 1912, who almost literally gets dragged into protests demanding equal voting rights for women. She soon attracts suspicion from the authorities and disapproval from her husband (Ben Whishaw).

Although Maud is fictional, many others in the drama are real, including Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep in a slightly distracting cameo) and Edith New (Helena Bonham Carter), the women who first advocated
civil disobedience. Abi Morgan’s screenplay also nicely summarises the key events.

Colin Farrell plays David, a man living in a dystopian world where finding a partner is a matter of life and death. Singletons are taken to a hotel and given 45 days to pair off—those who fail are turned into animals and released into the woods.

Fans of the surreal will no doubt relish this setup, and there are many hilarious twists on the journey. Those with more straightforward tastes, however, should tread carefully. 

Much like 2011’s Bobby Fischer Against the World, this riveting documentary looks at the Soviet system through the lens of competitive sport—in this case, ice hockey, which the Russians dominated from the mid-1950s to the break-up of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

This isn’t the first film to explore the link between sport and politics, but it brilliantly depicts the ideological tensions of the Cold War, and the human beings who were caught in the middle.

American cyclist Lance Armstrong (played here by Ben Foster) won the Tour de France a record seven times between 1999 and 2005, until a doping scandal destroyed his reputation and career.

This biopic reveals the extent of the deception, but it’s also a fascinating study of Armstrong himself, who went from global icon to global pariah in the blink of an eye. Chris O’Dowd and Dustin Hoffman also star.

This latest take on Shakespeare’s tragedy—starring Michael Fassbender as the murderous Scottish noble and Marion Cotillard as his scheming wife—is one of the best film adaptations.

It benefits hugely from its bleak and atmospheric Highland setting and a great supporting cast, including David Thewlis as King Duncan and Paddy Considine as Lord Banquo.

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