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

By way of an early heads up, the 68th Sydney Film Festival launches on Wednesday 3rd November and runs through until Sunday 21st November and takes place in various cinema venues around Sydney and online over nineteen days and nights, showcasing the greatest, strangest and most exciting works that cinema has to offer. The Opening Night film is 'Here Out West' that brings stories from eight talented Western Sydney writers that intertwine poignantly through themes of family and place in a groundbreaking film that reframes the Australian experience, and is Directed by Fadia Abboud, Lucy Gaffy, Julie Kalceff, Ana Kokkinos and Leah Purcell who join the creative collaboration to bring the writers' unique stories to the screen. The Closing Night film is Writer, Director and Co-Producer Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' starring an ensemble cast led by Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Timothee Chalamet, Owen Wilson, Elizabeth Moss, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton and Saoirse Ronan amongst others. 

Twelve films are selected for the Official Competition, which celebrates 'courageous, audacious and cutting-edge' cinema with an AU$60K cash prize. Sydney Film Festival also presents seven other cash awards over the course of the festival. Those films in Official Competition are :-

* 'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn' - from Romania, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Croatia in Romanian with English subtitles this film is Directed and Written by Radu Jude. The film won the Golden Bear at this year Berlin International Film Festival in June, and is about a school teacher who faces a very public scandal after a personal sex tape goes viral.

* 'Drive My Car' - from Japan and Co-Written and Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi this film won three awards at this years Cannes Film Festival including Best Screenplay and the FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics) Prize, and tells the story of a stage Actor and Director who seemingly is happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day she disappears.

* 'The Drovers Wife : The Legend of Molly Johnson' - from Australia and Directed, Written, Co-Produced and starring Leah Purcell in this period Western about a determined mother protecting her children – a searing reimagining of Henry Lawson’s classic with an Indigenous female viewpoint.

* 'Flee' - from Denmark, France, Sweden and Norway and Directed and Co-Written by Jonas Poher Rasmussen this documentary fuses animation and archival material to tell the story of a gay Afghan refugee in Denmark who kept his painful past a secret for two decades. This film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize : Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year.

* 'The Hand of God' - from Italy and Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Paolo Sorrentino this deeply personal film is an exquisite reflection on family, sport, love, desire, tragedy and cinema against the backdrop of 1980's Naples. This film won the Grand Jury Prize, at the Venice International Film Festival in September.

* 'Limbo' - from the UK and Directed by Ben Sharrock this film centres on four asylum seekers who are staying on a remote island in Scotland, and taking cultural awareness classes, while awaiting the processing of their refugee claims. The film has won eight awards and a further fifteen nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

* 'Memoria' - from Colombia, Thailand, UK, Mexico, France, Germany, Qatar, and Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Apichatpong Weerasethakul this film tells the story of a woman from Scotland (Tilda Swinton), while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance. The Director won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year. 

* 'Petite Maman' - from France and Directed and Written by Celine Sciamma about an eight-year-old girl, who has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother's childhood home. One day, her mother leaves suddenly, and the young girl meets a girl her age as she's building a tree house in the woods.

* 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' - is an international co-production Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jasmila Zbanic that here sees a UN translator in Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina attempting to save her family as conflict rages around them in 1995. The film has thus far collected twenty award wins and a further eighteen nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

* 'The Story of My Wife' - from Hungary, Germany, Italy and France this romantic drama film is Directed and Written by Ildiko Enyedi and tells the story of a sea Captain who makes a bet in a cafe with a friend, to marry the first woman who enters the place. Starring Lea Seydoux and Gijs Naber.

* 'There is No Evil' - from Germany, the Czech Republic and Iran, this film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Mohammad Rasoulof, here four stories that are variations on the crucial themes of moral strength and the death penalty that ask to what extent individual freedoms can be expressed under a despotic regime. This film has so far won fifteen awards and another nine nominations including the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. 

* 'Undine' - is a German and French romantic fantasy drama production Directed and Written by Christian Petzold that here tells the story of Undine, who works as a historian lecturing on Berlin's urban development, and when the man she loves leaves her, an ancient myth catches up with her that tells her she must kill her former lover and return to the water. Starring Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski the film has collected eight award wins and another sixteen nominations including the FIPRESCI Prize and the Silver Bear for Paula Beer for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020.

For the complete programme of films and events and other goings-on at this years Sydney Film Festival, you can go to the official website at : https://www.sff.org.au

Turning attention back to this weeks four new releases coming to your local Odeon, we launch with the twelfth instalment in this classic horror franchise, and a direct sequel to 2018's film which was a direct sequel to the very first instalment back in 1978 that sees that this nightmare isn't over as unstoppable killer Michael Myers escapes from Laurie Strode's burning trap to continue his ritual bloodbath, but this time the masked slayer has the people of Haddonfield to contend with who are intent on ending his reign of blood soaked terror. Next up is another horror offering (it's that time of year after all!) set in small-town Oregon where a teacher and her brother, the local sheriff, discover that a young student is harbouring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences. Next up is a black and white film set in the 1920's that follows the unexpected reunion of two high school friends, whose renewed acquaintance ignites a mutual obsession that threatens both of their carefully constructed lives. And closing out the week we have an animated feature about an awkward middle-schooler and Ron, his new walking, talking, digitally-connected robot device. Ron's malfunctions set against the social media age launch them on a journey to learn about the true meaning of friendship.

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.

'HALLOWEEN KILLS' (Rated MA15+) - is the twelfth film in this franchise and a direct sequel to 2018's 'Halloween' which served as a direct sequel to John Carpenter's classic 1978 'Halloween' set forty years after Michael Myers killing spree. 2018's film was made for US$10M and returned a handsome US$256M at the global Box Office, making this instalment a no brainer. Like its predecessor, this film is again Co-Written and Directed by David Gordon Green, who shares a writing credit with Danny McBride and Scott Teems. 'Halloween Kills' saw its World Premiere screening at the Venice International Film Festival on 8th September, following a year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was released in movie theatres in the US two weeks ago on 15th October. The film has so far grossed US$92M off the back of a US$20M production budget and has generated mixed reviews from Critics. 

Set minutes after the events of the last film, here Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked killer Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) locked-in and surely burning to death in Laurie's basement. Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor. But when Michael manages to free himself as a result of the fire brigade arriving on the scene in record time, his ritual bloodbath resumes, starting off with the very firefighters who were dispatched to save the house. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against the unstoppable monster. The Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael's first rampage who decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all. Also starring Will Patton and Anthony Michael Hall. The third and final instalment 'Halloween Ends' is set for release on 14th October 2022. 

'ANTLERS' (Rated MA15+) - this supernatural horror film is Directed by Scott Cooper whose previous film making credits take in his debut feature 'Crazy Heart' in 2009 with Jeff Bridges whose performance won his the Best Actor Award at the Oscars, then 'Out of the Furnace' in 2013 with Christian Bale, 'Black Mass' in 2015 with Johnny Depp and 'Hostiles' in 2017 with Christian Bale again. Based on Nick Antosca's short story 'The Quiet Boy', the screenplay was Co-Written by him and Cooper and the film is Co-Produced by Guillermo del Toro and David S. Goyer. The film was previously set for a release date of mid-April 2020 but was removed from the release calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was subsequently rescheduled to mid-February this year before being removed from the release calendar again, and now it finally arrives this week in the US and Australia. Here then Julia Meadows (Keri Russell), a school teacher in a small town in Oregon, and her brother, Paul (Jesse Plemons), the local Sheriff, become concerned about one of her students, a young boy named Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas) who is secretly keeping a supernatural creature inside his house. Also starring Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane and Amy Madigan. The film has garnered mixed or average reviews. 

'PASSING' (Rated PG) - is a black and white drama film Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by English Actress Rebecca Hall in her film making debut. This film is based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, and the title of the film and the book refers to African-Americans whose skin colour was/is light enough to be perceived as 'white', the practice of which is referred to as 'passing'. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, gets a limited release in the US and Australia this week before streaming on Netflix from 10th November. Here then, mixed-race childhood friends reunite in middle class adulthood and become increasingly involved with one another's lives and insecurities. While Irene (Tessa Thompson) identifies as African-American and is married to a black doctor, Brian (Andre Holland), Clare (Ruth Negga) 'passes' as white and has married a prejudiced, but wealthy white man, John (Alexander Skarsgard). Also starring Bill Camp, the film has garnered universal Critical acclaim.

'RON'S GONE WRONG' (Rated PG) - Directed by Jean-Philippe Vine and Sarah Smith this computer animated Sci-Fi comedy film and is the first film from London based animation studios Locksmith Animation. The film saw its World Premier screening at the BFI London Film Festival in early October, went on release in the UK on the 15th of this month, followed by the US one week later and now this week is on release in Australia. Here, this is the story of Barney (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer), a socially awkward middle-schooler and Ron (voiced by Zach Galifianakis), his new walking, talking, digitally-connected device, which is supposed to be his 'Best Friend out of the Box.' Ron's hilarious malfunctions eventually draws the attention of a shady executive who wants to protect his company's stock price at all costs, while set against the backdrop of the social media age, which launches the pair into an action-packed journey in which boy and robot come to terms with the wonderful messiness of true friendship. Also starring the voice talents of Olivia Colman, Ed Helms, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney and Kylie Cantrall, the film has generated mostly positive Reviews.

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 at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-