This week’s movie releases

The roster for the X-Men movies keeps on growing and growing. In the latest instalment, X-Men: Days of Future Past, the seventh in the Marvel superhero series, you have not just the cast of the original trilogy returning – including Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto – but also their younger selves, as incarnated by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in 2011 origins tale X-Men: First Class. The film is thus both a sequel to that movie and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and tying it all together is Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, whose consciousness is sent back to 1973 by Ellen Page’s Kitty Pryde to prevent a murder that will change the course of history. Director of the original trilogy Bryan Singer is back behind the camera, while Oscar-winning trio Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry and Anna Paquin, not to mention Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage, are also along for the ride.

The Invisible Woman, which is actor Ralph Fiennes’ second film as director after 2011’s Coriolanus, tells the tale of author Charles Dickens’ scandalous romance with actress Nelly Ternan during the last 13 years of his life. Fiennes himself plays the famous writer who casts aside his family for his secret lover (Felicity Jones) in this adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s biography.

With shades of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, French drama The Other Son follows the complex fallout resulting from a young Israeli’s discovery that he was accidentally switched at birth with a Palestinian boy following a hospital bomb attack.

For the record

Argentinean comedy Días de vinilo is the story of four childhood friends united by their love of music – Facundo (Rafael Spregelburd), Damián (Gastón Pauls), Marcelo (Ignacio Toselli) and Luciano (Fernán Miras) – who realize they have all reached the age when they should be settling down.

Spanish kids’ adventure Pancho, el perro millonario is the story of a millionaire dog who finds himself in hot water after turning down a shady business proposal from a corrupt businessman. Tom Fernández’s flick stars Iván Massagué, Patricia Conde, Armando del Río, Secun de la Rosa, Alex O’Dogherty and María Castro.

Also from Spain, Tirso Calero’s comedy-drama Blockbuster examines the relationship between a disillusioned veteran actor (Manolo Zarzo) and a passionate youngster (Adam Jezierski) who dreams of directing a movie.