What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th September 2018.

The dust has now settled on the 43rd annual 'Toronto International Film Festival' ('TIFF') which closed its doors and lowered its curtains this year on 16th September, with the closing night film being 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' Directed by Justin Kelly. TIFF has grown to become one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people each year. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has become a permanent destination for film culture operating out of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

This year, the winners and grinners arising out of the festival were :
* The People's Choice Award is the award presented to the film rated as the years most popular with the film going audience and went to the comedy drama 'Green Book' Directed by Peter Farrelly and starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali and Linda Cardellini. The first and second runners up were 'If Beale Street Could Talk' by Barry Jenkins and 'Roma' by Alfonso Cuaron respectively.
* The People's Choice Award : Documentary was presented to 'Free Solo' by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and profiles rock climber Alex Honnold, on his quest to perform a free solo climb of El Capitan, a vertical 900meter high rock wall located in Yosemite National Park.
* The People's Choice Award : Midnight Madness went to 'The Man Who Feels No Pain' an Indian Hindi language action comedy film written and directed by Vasan Bala. The first and second runners up prizes were awarded to 'Halloween' by David Gordon Green and 'Assassination Nation' by Sam Levinson.
* The Platform Prize which is presented to the film which demonstrates high artistic merit and a strong Directorial vision was awarded this year to 'Cities of Last Things' a Chinese, Taiwanese, French and US Co-Production Directed, Co-Produced and Written by Ho Wi Ding.
* The FIPRESCI Discovery Prize (International Federation of Film Critics) was this year awarded to 'Float Like a Butterfly' by Director and Writer Carmel Winters and centres around a young Irish Traveller girl who idolises Muhammad Ali and aspires to become a boxer.
* The FIPRESCI Special Presentation went to biographical drama 'Skin' and is Directed, Co-Produced and Written by Guy Nattiv and charts the life of former skinhead group member Bryon 'Pitbull' Widner.

This week there are five new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with a true story of a man who became wheelchair bound at age 21 only to subsequently discover his talent for sketching cartoons which brought him notoriety and acclaim. Next up is an adventure tale possibly of the origins of mans best friend. This is followed by a story of an Australian soldier who seeks forgiveness from the family of a man he killed while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. We then turn to a French language film about a bitter divorce and the warring couple's eleven years old son caught in the crossfire, before wrapping up the week with a comedy about a no hoper forced to attend evening classes to attain the high school certification which he turned his back on all those years ago.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new movies 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 most welcome 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 in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'DON'T WORRY, HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT' (Rated M) - this biographical comedy drama offering is Directed, Written for the screen, and based on the story adapted by Gus Van Sant and John Callahan from Callahan's own memoir of the same name. Gus Van Sant's previous Directing credits include 'Drugstore Cowboy', 'My Own Private Idaho', 'To Die For', 'Good Will Hunting', the frame for frame remake of the Hitchcock classic 'Psycho', 'Finding Forrester', 'Elephant', 'Milk' and 'The Sea of Trees'. The film saw its World Premier at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, went on release Stateside in mid-July, has so far taken US$3M at the Box Office and has generated generally favourable Reviews. John Callahan FYI, was a cartoonist, artist, and musician in Portland, Oregon, most noted for dealing with macabre subjects and physical disabilities. He became a quadriplegic following a car accident at the age of twenty-one when after a day of drinking, his car, in which he was a passenger at the time, was being driven by a man with whom he was bar hopping was involved in a collision in which Callahan's spinal cord was severely injured. Following the accident, he became a cartoonist, drawing by clutching a pen between both hands, having regained partial use of his upper body. His visual artistic style was simple and often rough, although still legible. He died in July 2010, aged 59.

And so after nearly dying in the aforementioned car accident, the last thing that slacker John Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix) intends to do is give up alcohol. Encouraged by his girlfriend Annu (Rooney Mara) and a charismatic sponsor Donnie Green (Jonah Hill),  Callahan reluctantly enters a treatment program and discovers that he has a knack for drawing. The emerging artist soon finds himself with a new lease of life when his irreverent and edgy newspaper cartoons gain a national and loyal following. Also starring Jack Black and Mark Webber.

'ALPHA' (Rated PG) - here we have a historical adventure film set some twenty thousand years ago in the Old Stone Age, and is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Albert Hughes otherwise known as one half of the Hughes Brothers who have Co-Directed such films as 'Menace II Society', 'Dead Presidents', 'From Hell' and 'The Book of Eli' before going their separate ways and each doing their own thing. The film has garnered generally favourable Reviews and has so far taken US$91M off the back of its US$51M budget outlay since its release in the US in mid-August. The story here surrounds young teenager Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who is sent by his father Tau (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) on a rites-of-passage hunting trip with another young friend. When the young friend is taken by a large sabre tooth tiger, Keda is left to his own devices and must fend for himself and find his way home before the harsh Winter season takes hold. Having sustained an injury, he is attacked by a pack of wolves which he manages to fend off but not before injuring one of their own, which they leave for dead. Soon however, Keda and the young wolf form a bond as he nurses Alpha (the name he has given to the wolf) back to strength. But before they reach home, there are several other challenges that wait them calling for each to come to the rescue of the other. You could say this is an origin story for how the dog became man's best friend.

'JIRGA' (Rated M) - Directed, Written and Photographed by Aussie Benjamin Gilmore, this Australian film is set three years after an Australian army helicopter raid on a small Afghanistan village led to the killing of an unarmed man (which is seen through night vision goggles in flashback). Former Australian soldier Mike (Sam Smith) who killed the civilian, returns to Afghanistan to find the victim’s family. Doggedly, he sets off on a perilous journey over the sparse mountainous terrain where both the Taliban and ISIS are active. Mike is however, determined to make amends and seek forgiveness, and so puts his life in the hands of the Jirga – the village justice system. Filmed on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Director and his leading man shot the film using a camera purchased in some Pakistan shopping mall, and were in constant danger of being kidnapped or killed themselves. The film runs for a very efficient 78 minutes only, but is described as a sensitive and compassionate depiction of the true cost of war, on all sides.

'CUSTODY' (Rated M) - this French foreign language drama offering is the feature length debut by Xavier Legrand and was screened in main completion of the 2017 Venice Film Festival where it took out the Silver Lion Award. Here Miriam (Lea Drucker) and Antoine Besson (Denis Menochet) have divorced, and Miriam is seeking sole custody of their eleven year old son Julien (Thomas Gioria) to protect him from a father she claims is abusive and violent. Antoine pleads his case as a scorned, downtrodden father whose children have been turned against him by their vindictive mother. Unsure who is telling the truth, the appointed Judge passes a ruling of joint custody. Caught right in the middle of the ever increasing conflict between his warring parents, Julien is pushed to the edge to prevent the worst from happening. This hard hitting, confronting roller coaster of a film has received widespread Critical acclaim.

'NIGHT SCHOOL' (Rated M) - this comedy offering is Directed by Malcolm D. Lee whose previous credits include 'Undercover Brother', 'Soul Men', 'Scary Movie 5', 'Barbershop : The Next Cut', and 'Girls Trip' and is Co-Produced, Co-Written and stars Kevin Hart. Here, Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) who works as a fast food restaurant mascot, sees his life take an unexpected turn when he accidentally blows up his place of employment. Forced to attend night school to get his GED (General Equivalency Diploma tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills) he must now deal with a group of misfit students (Rob Riggle, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anne Winters, Romany Malco and Al Madrigal), a feisty teacher Carrie (Tiffany Haddish) who doesn't think he's too bright and Principal Paterson (Taran Killam) who presides over the school with a fist of iron. Sounds like a barrel of laughs!

With five new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends 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-