What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 4th October 2018.

The Adelaide Film Festival goes live on 10th October and runs for eleven days up to and including 21st October. The Adelaide Film Festival, in its current guise, has run since 2002 and is described as an international film festival held over two weeks in mid October, in Adelaide, South Australia. The film festival has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content. This particular Festival featured in Variety Magazine's Top 50 unmissable film festivals around the world, saying 'Of the planet’s 1,000-plus film fests, only a select few pack industry impact. A few dozen more, by virtue of vision, originality, striking setting, audience zest and/or their ability to mine a unique niche, also rank as must-attends'.

This year, the opening night presentation is 'Hotel Mumbai' Directed by Anthony Maras telling the true story of 26th November 2008 when a wave of devastating terror attacks throughout Mumbai catapult the bustling Indian metropolis into chaos. In the heart of the city’s tourist district, Jihadist terrorists lay siege to the iconic Taj Palace Hotel, whose guests and staff become trapped in a heroic, days-long fight for survival. Starring Armie Hammer, Dev Patel and Jason Isaacs.

The closing night feature presentation is 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' Directed by Marielle Heller recounting the real life exploits of Lee Israel, a noted American author who became a literary forger and thief. The film stars Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel who made her living through the '60's, '70's and '80's writing profiles of high-achieving women such as Katharine Hepburn, cosmetics executive Estée Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen and charts her subsequent life as she attempts to revitalise her sagging writing career in the '90's by forging letters from deceased authors and playwrights. She died in 2014 aged 75. The film also stars Richard E. Grant as her loyal and trusted friend Jack Hock.

Of the 84 feature films being screened over the eleven days, the International Feature Film Award values idiosyncratic voices, bold storytelling, creative risk-taking and overall fabulous films. Those films in competition this year are : 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (USA); 'Beautiful Boy' Directed by Felix Van Groeningen (USA); 'Burning' Directed by Lee Chang-Dong (South Korea); 'Capharnaum' Directed by Nadine Labaki (France, Lebanon, USA); 'Celeste' Directed by Ben Hackworth (Australia); 'Emu Runner' Directed by Imogen Thomas (Australia); 'Girl' Directed by Lukas Dhont (Belgium); 'Memories of My Body' Directed by Garin Nugroho (Indonesia); 'Roma' Directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Mexico) and 'The Seen and Unseen' Directed by Kamila Andini (Australia, Indonesia, Netherlands, Qatar).

Needless to say there's a whole lot more great movie stuff going on down Adelaide way during their Film Festival, which you can check out at the website at : adelaidefilmfestival.org

This week we have just three new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with a new Superhero from the Marvel stable that does not sit within the realms of the MCU but rather is supplementary to it, seeing this human host taken over by an alien liquid parasite where the two must live in a mis-matched symbiosis and dispense their own brand of justice. We then have an art heist film that tells the true story of four likely University lads who hatch a scheme to rob a Uni library of some of its most prized, most rare and therefore most valuable books. And we wrap up the week with a telling of a famed Anton Chekov play brought to the big screen with an all star cast. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three 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.

'VENOM' (Rated M) - a big screen version of this Marvel character has been in development since 1997 when David S. Goyer had penned a script with Dolph Lundgren set to star. That went nowhere, and then in 2007 with the release of Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man 3', Venom made an appearance with Topher Grace playing the role, with a spin-off film focused on Venom being announced mid-2007. Subsequently over the following years the project was on again, off again, with various Writers coming and going, various Directors being attached and varying views and opinions as to where Venom should sit - in his own movie, as part of the rebooted 'Spider-Man' franchise, or even in the 'Avengers' universe. And so, finally, Venom gets his own big screen treatment as anti-Superhero based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name first appearing in 'The Amazing Spider-Man' comic edition in May 1984. This film is Directed by Ruben Fleischer, cost US$100M to Produce and is intended to be the first film in Sony's Marvel Universe, adjunct to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the two are unlikely to cross over but will complement each other and featuring other Marvel characters to which Sony own the film rights. 

And so, following a scandal, investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) attempts to revive his career by investigating the Life Foundation which is headed up by genius inventor Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Through his investigations he encounters an alien symbiote - an amorphous, liquid-like form, that requires a host, usually human, to bond with for its survival. After bonding with Eddie Brock, the symbiote bestows its enhanced powers upon him. When the Venom symbiote bonds with a human, that new dual-life form usually refers to itself as 'Venom', and in bonding with Brock, gives him super human powers and a horrific alter ego as long as they share the same body. Also starring Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Scott Haze and Reid Scott. Tom Hardy has already signed up for a further two 'Venom' films, and there could easily be a cross-over into the 'Spider-Man' franchise that sees the two face off against each other, and not for the first time in their history.

'AMERICAN ANIMALS'  (Rated MA15+) - this true crime drama is Written and Directed by Bart Layton in only his second film making outing after 2012's 'The Imposter'. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, was released in the US back in early June, and in the UK in early September. It has so far taken just over US$3M and has received generally positive Press. This real life telling sees Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan), Warren Lipka (Evan Peters), Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas Allen (Blake Jenner) as four friends who live an ordinary and uneventful life in Kentucky. After a visit to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, Reinhard and Lipka develop a notion to steal an extremely valuable edition of John James Audubon's 'The Birds of America' and other rare and valuable books from the university library by disguising themselves as much older businessmen. As one of the most audacious and daring art heists in U.S. history begins to materialise, the young men begin to question whether their attempts to add some excitement and meaning into their lives are simply misguided attempts at getting rich quick by selling their ill gotten gains to a black market dealer in Amsterdam. Also starring Ann Dowd as Betty Jean Gooch - the only person guarding the books in the special collections section of the library. 

'THE SEAGULL' (Rated M) - Directed by Michael Mayer, this American drama film is based on the acclaimed 1895 play of the same name by Russian dramatist Anton Chekov. Shown first at the Tribeca Film Festival in April this year and released in the US in mid-May the film has taken so far just US$1.3M and has garnered generally mixed Reviews. The story here unfolds with ageing actress Irina Arkadina (Annette Benning) who visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin (Brian Dennehy) and her son Konstantin Treplyov (Billy Howle) on a picturesque lakeside estate during the Summer months. On one occasion, she brings along Boris Trigorin (Corey Stoll), a successful writer and her lover. Nina Zarechnaya (Saoirse Ronan), an innocent girl on an adjoining estate who is in a relationship with Konstantin, falls in love with Boris. What will become of this developing love triangle? Also starring Elisabeth Moss.

With three 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-