Peaky Blinders to The Bride!: 10 of the best films to watch in March

From Jessie Buckley in a reworking of Bride of Frankenstein to Tommy Shelby's big-screen debut, these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month.

1. Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

From 2013 to 2022, Peaky Blinders chronicled the fortunes of a Birmingham street gang through the 1920s and into the '30s. The series helped to turn Cillian Murphy into a major star, as well turning flat caps into major fashion accessories, so it was no surprise when a spin-off film was announced. The Immortal Man is set during World War Two, when Murphy's anti-hero, Tommy Shelby, is dragged back to Birmingham while the city is being devastated by German bombs. There are some familiar faces from the series, alongside new guest stars including Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth and Barry Keoghan as Tommy's son. But is this the last we'll be seeing of Tommy himself? Stephen Knight, the series' creator and the film's screenwriter, hasn't confirmed anything. "I hope it feels like the end of a novel," he said in Empire. "It's the last few chapters of a long novel, where you get to round it off. And prepare people for what comes next." 

Released on 6 March in cinemas in the US and the UK, and on 20 March on Netflix internationally

The 30th animated feature film from Pixar Studios, Hoppers approaches a time-honoured cartoon staple – talking animals – from a new angle. The premise is that a girl named Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) has her mind "hopped" into the body of a robotic beaver. This allows her to communicate with animals of all kinds (just go with it), and she soon learns that they are sick of being mistreated by humans. Will Mabel stick with her furry friends when they rise up against us? And can we assume that the animal-friendly premise will stop Hoppers from having any tie-in deals with burger restaurants? "There were times I was crying with laughter, but then I'd cry from horror, but then I'd also cry because of the tenderness in the story," says Lauren Ashton in Animation Scoop. "It's bold and feels ambitious, especially coming from Pixar. It's something really fresh and different."

Released on 4, 5 and 6 March in cinemas internationally

Stephen Graham won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for co-writing and starring in Netflix's hit series, Adolescence. Now he can be seen in a somewhat different story about a troubled British teenage boy. He and Andrea Riseborough play a couple with their own ideas about disciplining the younger generation. Having watched the drink-and-drug-fuelled social-media videos posted by a rowdy 19-year-old (Anson Boon), they kidnap him and chain him up in the basement of their suburban house. And they won't free him until they've trained him to be a "good boy". Jan Komasa's black comedy thriller is "A Clockwork Orange by way of Misery, Pygmalion with stun guns and a telescopic baton", says India Block in The Standard. "There are many stand-out moments that had the audience in fits of nervous laughter that are too good to spoil. You never know which way a scene will turn, towards charm or squirmy fear." 

Released on 5 March in Italy, 6 March in the US, 7 March in Germany, and 20 March in the UK

After years of success as an actor, Maggie Gyllenhaal made her directorial debut in 2021 with an Elena Ferrante adaptation, The Lost Daughter, which co-starred Jessie Buckley. Gyllenhaal's second film is inspired by a 1935 horror classic, The Bride of Frankenstein. But she was less interested in what that classic included than in what it left out. "I watched the movie, and I realised [the Bride] doesn't speak," Gyllenhaal said in Entertainment Weekly. "She's only in it for five minutes at most. She's still formidable, but I thought, there's a problem with this........

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