* The People's Choice Award Winner : 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' - Directed by Martin McDonagh, starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrleson, Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell and Abbie Cornish about a frustrated and grieving mother who antagonises the local Police force to call to attention the lack of progress in searching for her daughter's murderer.* The People's Choice Award First Runner Up : 'I, Tonya' - Directed by Craig Gillespie, starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan and Bobby Cannavale about controversial Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in this tragic and comedic examination of one of the biggest scandals in US sporting history.
* The People's Choice Midnight Madness Award Winner : 'Bodied' - Directed by Joseph Kahn, starring Calum Worthy, about an exploration of the world's most artistically brutal sport — battle rapping, when a progressive graduate student finds success and sparks outrage when his interest in battle rap as a thesis subject becomes a competitive obsession.
* The People's Choice Midnight Madness First Runner Up : 'The Disaster Artist' - Directed by James Franco, starring James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Brie Larson and Jackie Weaver about eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and his friend, actor Greg Sestero, whose notoriously awful film 'The Room' has become one of the most beloved cult classics of all time . . . for all the wrong reasons!* The International Jury Award Winner : 'Sweet Country' - Directed by Warwick Thornton, starring Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Ewen Leslie and Hamilton Morris about an Aboriginal stockman and his wife, accused of murder, try to stay ahead of a fervent posse in the harsh outback of the Northern Territory, in this Australian outback Western inspired by true events.
* The International Federation of Film Critics Award Winner (FIPRESCI) : 'Ava' - Directed by Sadaf Foroughi, starring Mahour Jabbari, Bahar Nouhian and Leili Rashid, about a 16-year-old girl living and growing up in Tehran and her relationship with her family that is challenged after her mother takes her to a gynaecologist in order to ensure she’s still a virgin.* The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award Winner (NETPAC) : 'The Great Buddha+' - Directed by Huang Hsin-Yao, starring Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chen and Leon Dai about a security guard and his best friend who become entangled in a web of dark secrets after stumbling upon videos that document the promiscuous meetings of a wealthy factory owner.
For the full listing of the films screened during the eleven days of TIFF 2017, simply Google 'TIFF 2017' and all will be revealed across a myriad of websites, including the official site.
With the focus returning to this coming week, there are six new release movies coming to an Odeon near you. We launch with a sequel to an action spy comedy that took the world by surprise first time around, and looks like doing it all over gain as the action is ramped up a notch or two and the star power in front of the camera is equally ratcheted up. We then go to an unexpected dinner invitation for a stranded massage therapist that has far reaching consequences for herself and one other ruthless businessman in particular. Next up is an Australian drama that sees three worlds collide on our national holiday; and then a horrific day at the office unwinds during the 9 to 5 that has eighty dutiful employees whittled down to one in a macabre experiment; followed by a story of man suddenly released from captivity whose only knowledge of the outside world is via a televised fictional toy bear; before wrapping up with those world popular coloured interlocking animated brick characters turning on the ninja action to thwart an evil enemy and save the day.
Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six new release films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are here cordially invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your big screen cinema experience during the coming week.
'KINGSMAN : THE GOLDEN CIRCLE' (Rated MA15+) - 2015's first instalment in this growing action spy comedy franchise 'Kingsman : The Secret Service' was both a critical and commercial success taking in US$415M from its US$81M budget outlay. Now some two years later Matthew Vaughn returns to the Director's chair for this hotly anticipated, eagerly awaited, much hyped sequel, on which he also Co-Produces and Co-Writes the screenplay based on the comic book series of the same name by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons. Released in the UK and the US this week also, the film once again has an all star cast, that this time sees hands stretched across the sea as the US unites with the UK to thwart an evil international foe. Taron Egerton returns as Eggsy, Mark Strong as Merlin, Colin Firth has risen from the dead as Harry Hart joined this time around by Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Vinnie Jones, Michael Gambon, Bruce Greenwood, Elton John, Sophie Cookson and introducing Julianne Moore as a notorious criminal mastermind.
The film here unwinds when the headquarters of The Kingsman is destroyed and the world is held to ransom by Poppy Adams, a notorious criminal mastermind and global entrepreneur associated with 'The Golden Circle', a secret New World Order organisation. Members of Kingsman find new allies when they discover a spy organisation in the United States known as The Statesman. In an adventure that tests their strength, cunning and wits, the elite secret agents from both sides of the Atlantic must pull together to battle a ruthless enemy and save the day, save the world and all humanity. Vaughn has confirmed that he has a treatment already in mind for a third film in the franchise and has indicted Dwayne Johnson might be the ideal candidate to play the arch villain next time around. 
'BEATRIZ AT DINNER' (Rated M) - Directed by Puerto Rican Miguel Arteta who previous credits include 'The Good Girl', 'Youth in Revolt', and 'Cedar Rapids' here brings us a comedy drama film that was Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, was released in the US back in early June, and now gets its Australian release having grossed US$7M so far. Starring Selma Hayek as Beatriz - a Mexican immigrant who has rebuilt her life as a holistic healer and masseuse who travels by car to the coastal home of her very well off and well to do client Kathy (Connie Britton). Upon leaving, her old Volkswagen breaks down, and so Kathy extends the hand of friendship and invites Beatriz to stay the night and attend a business dinner that she is hosting at her home that evening. When the guests arrive, belly's are being filled and the wine flows, so Beatriz finds herself in an ever increasing heated war of words with a ruthless real estate billionaire mogul, Doug Srutt (John Lithgow) who is more interested in money than he is in people. Their round table conversations results in life changing circumstances that neither could have ever imagined. Also starring Chloe Sevigny and Jay Duplass.
'AUSTRALIA DAY' (Rated MA15+) - this drama film is Directed by Kriv Stenders who previous film credits include 'Red Dog', 'Kill Me Three Times', 'Red Dog : True Blue' and the upcoming mini-series of the classic Australian novel and film of 1971 'Wake in Fright' which goes to air later this month. The film had its World Premier at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year, and now gets its general release having done the festival circuit. Here the lives of three Australians on the run from varying cultural and social backgrounds collide in the steamy streets of Brisbane. Persian-Australian Sami (Elias Anton) is running from an angry gang of white lads for allegedly sleeping with one of their sisters. April (Miah Madden) is a desperate Indigenous girl running away after killing her abusive father. And Lan (Jenny Wu) is a Chinese sex slave running from captivity in an illegal brothel. Also caught up in this dramatic web of intrigue are a guilt-ridden Aboriginal Police Officer (Shari Sebbens), a detective on a manhunt (Matthew Le Nevez), and a bankrupt cattle farmer (Bryan Brown). These three stories will intertwine, intersect and culminate on the hot summer day that is January's Australia Day Public Holiday.
'THE BELKO EXPERIMENT' (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Australian Greg McLean who is perhaps most noted for his 'Wolf Creek' and 'Wolf Creek 2' Australian outback horror movies, here brings us another horror offering this time set in Bogota, Colombia. The film Premiered at TIFF in September 2016, was released in the US in mid-March, has so far recovered US$11M from its US$5M budget outlay and now gets its limited release in Australia. This films tells the story of what starts out as an ordinary day at the office for eighty personnel employed at the Belko Corporation Offices in Bogota. When the shutters go down and those eighty are trapped inside a voice over tells them that within the next thirty minutes two colleagues must be dead, or else more will be killed randomly. Attempts to escape are futile, and the next announcement over the intercom is that thirty must die within two hours, otherwise sixty will die at random. And so the announcements and the killings continue as friends turn into enemies, new (short-lived) allegiances are formed, and only the strongest survive leaving just two men standing, and ultimately, one alone! Starring John Gallagher Jnr., John C. McGinley and Michael Rooker. The film was written by James Gunn - he of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' fame.
'BRIGSBY BEAR' (Rated M) - Directed by Dave McCary and Written and also starring Kyle Mooney, this film had its Premier at this January's Sundance Film Festival and was released in the US in late July, and so far has taken US$516K at the Box Office. Telling the story of James Pope (Kyle Mooney) who has led a life of forced captivity in an underground home with parents Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams respectively) where his only connection with the outside world was a television show called 'Brigsby Bear'. When the Police descend on the Mitchum household and arrest Ted and April who are proven not to be James' real parents and have held him in captivity since he was baby, they also advise James that Brigsby Bear is not real and was a television show created exclusively for his benefit by the Mitchum's. As a result of James' changed circumstances and the Brigsby Bear television show coming to an unexpected and abrupt halt, James takes it upon himself to finish the storyline, but to do that means coming to terms with a new life and a new world he knows nothing about. Also starring Greg Kinnear, Claire Danes and Andy Samberg.
'THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE' (Rated PG) - 'The Lego Movie' was released in 2014 and was the first in what is becoming a successful computer animated adventure comedy film franchise. That film cost US$60M to bring to the big screen and raked in US$493M. A spin-off film 'The Lego Batman Movie' was released earlier this year costing US$80M and recorded a US$312M Box Office take. Now in late 2017 we have the second spin-off, 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' a computer animated action comedy martial arts offering which is Directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan. Telling the story of the battle for the city of Ninjago as young Master Builder Lloyd Garmadon, aka the Green Ninja (voiced by Dave Franco) along with his friends and fellow ninja's Kai (Michael Pena), Jay (Kumail Nanjiani), Nya (Abbi Jacobson), Zane (Zach Woods) and Cole (Fred Armisen), are led by Master Wu (Jackie Chan). Together they must defeat the evil warlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), who just happens to be Lloyd's estranged father. Pitching father against son, the epic battle tests these brave yet undisciplined modern-day ninjas as they learn to control their egos and unite to unleash the inner power of Spinjitzu. Olivia Munn also stars. The film is released in the US and other territories this week too. A third spin-off 'The Billion Brick Race' is in development, and 'The Lego Movie Sequel' is due for release in February 2019.With six new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, taking in an action comedy spy sequel, an unexpected dinner date, an Australia Day drama, a survival of the fittest horror offering, a television show created for an audience of just one who knows nothing different and an animated action comedy martial arts offering, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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