Top 5 films to watch in Hong Kong this week: August 11-17

Click on film titles to read scmp.com reviews.

1. The BFG

After winning the best supporting actor Oscar for his part in Bridge of Spies , Mark Rylance teams up again with Steven Spielberg for this enchanting take on the classic Roald Dahl story, lending a warm and touching performance via motion-capture wizardry. (Opens on August 11)

2. Love & Friendship

A deadpan comedy of manners that keeps on giving, American writer-director Whit Stillman’s acerbic take on Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan finds Kate Beckinsale in peak form as the charmingly amoral widow of its title. (August 17, part of the Summer International Film Festival)

3. Genius

Jude Law is the flamboyant author Thomas Wolfe and Colin Firth is the legendary editor Max Perkins in this literary biopic, which lifts an engrossing bromance out of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer A. Scott Berg’s massive book, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. (Opens on August 11)

4. Porco Rosso

Japanese icon Hayao Miyazaki’s gorgeous hand-drawn animation from 1992 is a sombre tale of a first-world-war fighter pilot who has turned into a pig due to his disillusionment with the world’s inhumanity. (August 14, part of MCL Cinemas’ Studio Ghibli Animation Retrospective)

5. The Menu

As print publications cede the spotlight to digital press and social media platforms, this film spin-off from HKTV’s hit 2015 series provides a flawed but deeply resonant account of the perilous state of Hong Kong’s media industry. A must-see for journalism researchers. (Now showing)

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