What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 28th January 2021.

On January 9th this year, the first awards were presented of the season at the 55th National Society of Film Critics Awards honouring the best in film for the 2020 year. The National Society of Film Critics was founded in 1966 in New York City, with the original founding film critics, who were overwhelmingly based in New York, called their new group a 'national' organisation because they wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers with a national circulation. The organisation is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the more prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In past years, many of its Best Picture winners have been foreign films, and the choices rarely parallel the Academy Awards. It has agreed with the Oscar in eight instances over the past 43 years however,  with 1977's 'Annie Hall', 1992's 'Unforgiven', 1993's 'Schindler's List', 2004's 'Million Dollar Baby', 2009's 'The Hurt Locker', 2015's 'Spotlight', 2016's 'Moonlight', and 2019's 'Parasite'. The NSFC have about sixty members who write for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers along with major publications and media outlets. Any film that opens in the U.S. during the 2020 year, in theatres or on streaming platforms, is worthy of consideration. There is no nomination process and voting is conducted using a weighted ballot system. There is no awards party.

This years winners and grinners, together with the also rans, are as given below :

* Best Picture - awarded to 'Nomadland' beating out 'First Cow' and 'Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always'.

* Best Director - awarded to Chloe Zhao for 'Nomadland', beating out Steve McQueen for 'Small Axe' and Kelly Reichardt for 'First Cow'. 

* Best Actor - awarded to Delroy Lindo for 'Da 5 Bloods', beating out Chadwick Boseman for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' and Riz Ahmed for 'Sound of Metal'. 

* Best Actress - awarded to Frances McDormand for 'Nomadland', beating out Viola Davis for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' and Sidney Flanigan for 'Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always'.

* Best Supporting Actor - awarded to Paul Raci for 'Sound of Metal' beating out Glynn Turman for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' and Chadwick Boseman for 'Da 5 Bloods'.

* Best Supporting Actress - awarded to Maria Bakalova for 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' beating out Amanda Seyfried for 'Mank' and Youn Yuh-jung for 'Minari'.

* Best Screenplay - awarded to Eliza Hittman for 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' beating out Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt for 'First Cow' and Charlie Kaufman for 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things'.

* Best Cinematography - awarded to Joshua James Richards for 'Nomadland' beating out Shabier Kirchner for 'Lovers Rock' and Leonardo Simoes for 'Vitalina Varela'.

* Best Foreign Language Film - awarded to 'Collective' from Romania and Directed by Alexander Nanau, beating out 'Beanpole' from Russia and Directed by Kantemir Balagov which tied with 'Bacurau' from Brazil and France and is Directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelle.

* Best Non-Fiction Film - awarded to 'Time' Directed by Garrett Bradley, beating out 'City Hall' Directed by Frederick Wiseman and 'Collective' Directed by Alexander Nanau.

You can visit the NSFC official web pages for more information at : https://nationalsocietyoffilmcritics.com/about/

This week we have four new release movies to tempt you out to your local air conditioned Odeon on a hot balmy Summer's evening, comprising two Aussie films, one American and one British offering. Launching with the first of the Australian films, we have a story of a massacre of an Aboriginal tribe soon after the end of WWI, but twelve years later the only survivor of that massacre is now a tracker hunting down one of his own attacking white settlers together with the Policeman who saved him all those years ago - with dire consequences for them both. Next up we have a heist road movie of three people on the lam across Ireland trying to evade a small time crim, a gun totting Priest and a dead body to boot. Then we have a Western set some time shortly after the end of the American Civil War that sees a former Captain agreeing to escort a young ten year old girl across the sometimes treacherous and deadly plains of Texas to reunite her with her aunt and uncle. And we conclude this weeks latest cinematic release with the sequel to a 2018 Australian Sci-Fi actioner that sees some familiar faces team up with a bunch of new ones in defending Earth from marauding aliens determined to make our humble little blue planet their own and wiping out all of mankind in the process - except them pesky alien types didn't count on mankind's secret weapon!

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 coming week.

'HIGH GROUND' (Rated MA15+) - is an Australian action thriller film that is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Stephen Maxwell Johnson in only his second feature film outing since 2001's 'Yolngu Boy', although he has Directed a number of episodes for the TV series 'Legacy of the Silver Shadow', 'Out There' and 'Dead Gorgeous' in the meantime. The film saw its World Premier showcasing at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival back in late February last year and was due to go on release in Australia in early July 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic put pay to that, and its release was subsequently delayed to this week. 

After fighting in World War I as a sniper, Travis (Simon Baker), now a Policeman in the Northern Territory of Australia, loses control of an operation that results in the massacre of an Aboriginal Australian tribe in 1919 at an picturesque watering hole deep within Arnhem Land. After his superiors insist on burying the truth, Travis leaves in disgust, only to be forced back twelve years later to hunt down Baywara (Sean Mununggur), an Aboriginal warrior whose attacks on new white settlers are causing havoc. When Travis recruits mission-raised Gutjuk (Jacob Junior Nayinggul), the only known massacre survivor of now twelve years ago, as his tracker, the truth of the past is revealed and Travis becomes the hunted. Also starring Jack Thompson, Callan Mulvey, Caren Pistorius, Ryan Corr and Aaron Pedersen. 

'PIXIE' (Rated MA15+) - this British comedy thriller is Directed by Barnaby Thompson in only his third film making outing following 'St. Trinian's' in 2007, and 'St. Trinian's II : The Legend of Fritton's Gold' in 2009, although Thompson has spent much of his time in the last twenty years Producing feature films and TV movies. Released in the UK in late October, the film has garnered generally positive Reviews so far. Here, Pixie O'Brien (Olivia Cooke) is the daughter of a small-town gangster Dermot O'Brien (Colm Meaney) in the west Ireland town of Sligo, looking to start a new life by any means necessary. To avenge her mother's death, Pixie masterminds a heist but must flee across Ireland from gangsters, take on the patriarchy, and choose her own destiny, which becomes more of challenge than she initially thought when a dead body lands on her doorstep and she embarks on a road trip with a couple of strangers - Frank (Ben Hardy) and Harland (Daryl McCormack) but a gangster priest, Father Hector McGrath (Alec Baldwin) isn’t far behind. Also starring Dylan Moran.

'NEWS OF THE WORLD' (Rated M) - is an American Western drama offering Co-Written for the screen and Directed by Paul Greengrass whose previous filmography takes in 'Bloody Sunday', 'The Bourne Supremacy', 'United 93', 'The Bourne Ultimatum', 'Green Zone', 'Captain Phillips', and 'Jason Bourne', and is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles. Released in the US on 25th December last year and on Netflix in selected international markets the film has so far recovered US$9M from its US$38M production budget and has garnered generally favourable Reviews. Set some five years after the end of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) crosses paths with a ten year-old girl taken by the Kiowa people - Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel). Forced to return to her aunt and uncle, Kidd agrees to escort the child across the harsh and unforgiving plains of Texas. However, the long journey soon turns into a fight for survival as the traveling companions encounter danger - both human and natural - at every turn. Also starring Neil Sandilands, Ray McKinnon and Bill Camp. 

'OCCUPATION : RAINFALL' (Rated M) - Written, Executive Produced, Directed and Edited by Luke Sparke this Australian sequel to 2018's 'Occupation' (also Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Sparke) saw its World Premier screening at Monster Fest on 30th October 2020, and gets a limited release across 120 theatres in Australia from this week. Two years into an intergalactic invasion of Earth, survivors in Sydney, Australia, fight back in a desperate ground war. As casualties mount by the day, the resistance and their unexpected allies, uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end. With the Alien invaders hell-bent on making Earth their new home, the race is on to save mankind. Starring once again Temuera Morrison and Dan Ewing this time joined by Ken Jeong, Daniel Gillies, Vince Colosimo and Jason Isaacs.

With four 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-