Poster: ©Tobis Film She had worked hard to secure her retirement home in Switzerland through lies, deceit and murder. Yet in 1995, crime writer Patricia Highsmith was anything but happy. Her publisher is pressing her to write another Ripley novel and sends the young literary agent Edward with a book contract and a valuable dagger for her collection.
What director Anton Corbijn brings to the screen with his incisive style and flair feels like a genuine Highsmith film. Not least because, in terms of acting, he relies on the unfailing Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich in a dual role.

Anton Corbijn

Image: ©Tobis Film In the 1970s, Anton Corbijn, the son of a pastor born in the Netherlands in 1955, discovered a passion for photography. After taking countless portraits of musicians and bands, he entered the world of music videos in the 1980s via the Neue Deutsche Welle movement. In the 1990s, he became art director for the bands Depeche Mode and U2. Corbijn entered the new millennium as a director of artist biopics (‘Control’, 2007, and ‘Life’, 2015) and crime thrillers (‘The American’, 2010, and ‘A Most Wanted Man’, 2014). In “A Talent for Murder”, he combines both in his unmistakably stylised manner.

Martin McDonagh

Image: ©Walt Disney Germany The filmography of writer and director Martin McDonagh can be boiled down to two themes: picturesque locations and human stubbornness. From these, the Irishman – born in London in 1970 – weaves whimsical assassinations (‘In Bruges’, 2008), provincial infernos (‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, 2017), deadly friendships (‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, 2022) and, with ‘Wild Horse Nine’, now a coup d’état on Easter Island. And all of it always with an absurd ‘Waiting for Godot’-style appeal, which places indigestion on the same level of urgency as world politics.

Poster: ©Prime Video No sooner had ‘Ragebait’ been named Germany’s Youth Word of the Year for 2026 than the US series ‘Carrie’ – the perfect example of it – appeared on our screens. At the centre of the story is Carrie, a friendly but somewhat peculiar new pupil who comes from a strictly religious household. She quickly becomes the target of her classmates’ mockery. Worse still, a social media account is set up in her name, exposing pupils and teachers with malicious accusations. Creator Mike Flanagan (“The Life of Chuck”, 2024) has given Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel – and its legendary 1976 film adaptation – a highly topical update.

Image: ©Kranich Games After all the bloodshed on the big screen, on TV and on social media, people need to unwind every now and then. For many, gardening is a tried-and-tested way of doing this, though it isn’t particularly promising in winter. That’s exactly why the digital developers Arne and Sven Kranich have created the meditative sandbox game ‘Garden Ink’, in which the aim is to design, plant and tend a magical garden. Lots of little mini-games and amusing sidekicks make it pleasantly engaging.