What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 4th August 2022.

The 70th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. This year it runs in cinema's across the city from Thursday 4th August until Sunday 21st August and online from Thursday 11th until Sunday 28th August. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Festival in 1932, Cannes Film Festival in 1939 and Berlin Film Festival in 1951. MIFF’s 2022 in-cinema programme features eighteen days of premiere showcases, international features, exclusive screenings, commissioned works, panel discussions, industry events, live talks and XR experiences for cinephiles of all tastes and persuasions. 

This years Opening Night gala film presentation is the Australian feature 'Of an Age' Written and Directed by Goran Stolevski in only his second feature film outing following 'You Won't Be Alone' released earlier this year. The Closing Night gala film is the Australian documentary 'Clean' Directed and Co-Edited by Lachlan McLeod.

MIFF’s film competition, Bright Horizons, recognises the new, the next, the breakthrough and the best, as it presents an extraordinary international line-up of first and second-time filmmakers competing for one of the richest film prizes in the world. Initially comprising three awards, the MIFF Film Competition includes as its flagship prize the AU$140K Bright Horizons Award – the richest feature film prize in the Southern Hemisphere, plus the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award and the MIFF Audience Award. There are eleven feature films in competition, and they are :-

* 'Aftersun' from the UK and Written and Directed by Charlotte Wells. Coming of age drama about a father–daughter bond and the small moments that build it, and those that threaten to break it. Australian Premier.

* 'The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future' from Chile, France, Germany and the USA and Co-Written and Directed by Francisca Alegria. This drama fantasy is a surreal, offbeat fable of environmental destruction and familial reconciliation. Australian Premier.

* 'Domingo and the Mist' from Costa Rica and Qatar and Directed, Co-Produced and Written by Ariel Escalante Meza. In this drama fantasy a widower resists attempts to oust him from the land where his wife’s spirit returns to him as an ethereal mist. Australian Premier.

* 'Leonor Will Never Die' from the Philippines and Written and Directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar. This action crime fantasy drama sees fiction clashing with reality as an elderly filmmaker becomes the hero of her own life. Victorian Premier.

* 'Mass' from the USA and Written and Directed by Fran Kranz. This crime drama has two couples whose world's collide for a painful emotional reckoning in the aftermath of a school shooting. Australian Premier.

* 'Neptune Frost' from Rwanda and the USA and Co-Produced and Co-Directed by Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams, Written and Composed by Saul Williams and lensed by Anisia Uzeyman. This Sci-Fi LGBTQIA+ drama set in a past, present and future Rwanda unfolds like a dream, as a young coltan miner encounters Neptune Frost, an intersex hacker who leads us down a trans-dimensional rabbit hole of post-colonial possible realities. Australian Premier.

* 'Petrol' from Australia and Written and Directed by Alena Lodkina. This drama offering is about an idealistic film student who is drawn into an enigmatic performance artist’s shadowy world. World Premier.

* 'Playground' from Belgium and Written and Directed by Laura Wandel. This coming of age drama offers up a gripping child’s-eye view of the cycles of bullying and how the schoolyard mirrors the ‘playground’ of adult life. Australian Premier.

* 'Robe of Gems' from Argentina and Mexico and Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Edited by Natalia Lopez Gallardo. This crime drama explored the murky complexities of the Mexican drug trade. Australian Premier.

* 'Rodeo' from France and Co-Written and Directed by Lola Quivoron. This crime drama film is about a daredevil female motorcyclist who revs after a place to belong. Australian Premier.
* 'The Stranger' from Australia and Witten and Directed by Thomas M. Wright. This crime drama follows two brooding strangers, one a ragged loner and the other, a criminal, introduced by a mutual associate in the West Australian badlands. A single father, the criminal takes a special interest in the impoverished loner, while in the background one of the nation’s largest Police operations closes in.

For the full line up of all films, events and activities taking place at this years 70th Melbourne International Film Festival, you can go to the official website at : https://miff.com.au/

This week then with five new cinematic offerings to tease you out to your local Odeon, we kick off with an action comedy that sees five assassins who find themselves on a fast moving bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto with only a few stops in between, and in time they discover that their missions are not unrelated to each other. Next up is a New Zealand film about a self-destructive teenager who, upon returning home from his boarding school discovers his gin-soaked grandmother has moved in, and so the stage is set for a battle of wills to begin. Then we have a drama romance story concerning two strangers who wind up double-booked in the same upstate New York rental during the start of COVID-19, with the lockdown forcing them both to stay and confront the unexpected feelings that develop between them. This is followed by a Swedish comedy crime caper that sees the family patriarch serving jail time and by the time he is released ten months later his cronies now lead honest lives, but when he is tipped off about a lucrative job, to pull off the heist he will need his old friends. And we close out the week with a French comedy about a man who believes his job in a government department is set for life until cuts in spending put him at odds with a ruthless ministerial inspector who will stop at nothing to oust him from his job. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films 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 week ahead.

'BULLET TRAIN' (Rated MA15+) - this American action comedy film is Co-Produced and Directed by David Leitch whose previous film making credits include his uncredited debut on 2014's 'John Wick' with Chad Stahelski, then 'Atomic Blonde' in 2017, 'Deadpool 2' in 2018 and 'Fast and Furious Presents : Hobbs & Shaw' in 2019. The film is based on the Japanese novel 'Maria Beetle' by Kotaro Isaka, and is released in the US this week also.

Trained killer Ladybug (Brad Pitt) wants to give up the life but is pulled back in by his handler Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock) in order to collect a briefcase on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto, Japan. Onboard the train, he and other competing assassins discover their objectives are all connected. Also starring Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz, Logan Lerman, Andrew Koji and Hiroyuki Sanada. 

'JUNIPER' (Rated M) - is a New Zealand film Witten, and Directed by Matthew Saville in his debut feature film making offering. Here, when a self-destructive teenager Sam (George Ferrier) is suspended from school and asked to look after his feisty alcoholic grandmother Ruth (Charlotte Rampling) as a punishment, the crazy time they spend together turns his life around and enables her to face her own mortality. Also starring Marton Csokas, the film has generated widespread Critical acclaim. 

'ALONE TOGETHER' (Rated M) - this drama romance film is Written, Directed, Co-Produced and stars Katie Holmes in only her second feature film making outing following 2016's 'All We Had'. Travelling upstate for a short romantic getaway to escape the pandemic in New York City, food critic June's (Katie Holmes) plans go awry right from the off. Arriving at the AirBnB in advance of her boyfriend, John (Derek Luke), she is shocked to discover it has been double-booked by recently single Charlie (Jim Sturgess). When John decides to stay in the city to care for his parents, June has to settle in for the long haul as she realises that the initial two weeks of the pandemic might just drag on a little bit longer than anyone anticipated. As spring begins to unfold around them, June and Charlie make the most of the sudden break in their routines and develop an unexpected intimacy as they bond over their goals, ambitions and, of course, relationships. 

'THE JONSSON GANG' (Rated PG) - is a comedy crime film Co-Written and Directed by Tomas Alfredson whose previous film making credits include 2008's 'Let the Right One In', 2011's 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and 2017's 'The Snowman'. Featuring the family of felons who first appeared on Swedish screens way back in 1981, here the popular franchise gets its second reboot following the failure of its first attempt in 2015. Here then, after a failed heist, Charles Ingvar 'Sickan' Jonsson (Henrik Dorsin) spends ten months in prison. By the time he is released, his cronies now lead honest upstanding law abiding lives. When he is tipped off about a lucrative job, to pull off the heist he will need his old friends to return to the fold. Also starring Anders Johansson, David Sundin and Hedda Stiernstedt. 

'EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH' (Rated M) - this French comedy film is Written, Directed and stars Jerome Commandeur in only his second feature film following 2016's 'Ma familie t'adore deja', although he has thirty-two credits as an Actor. An irresistible force meets an immovable object when a zealous ministerial inspector Isabelle Bailliencourt (Pascale Arbillot), determined to do everything in her power to make cuts in civil service spending, comes up against Vincent Peltier (Jerome Commandeur), a peaceful civil servant at the Water and Forestry Department in Limoges. As far as he’s concerned, his job, is 'guaranteed for life!' The war of nerves has only just begun when she transfers him from one meaningless job to another and to some of the must inhospitable places on Earth, including the North Pole where he meets Eva Brebant (Laetitia Dosch), a scientist that changes his perspective on life. It is time for him to make a decision.

With five new release movie offerings 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 coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-