What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 8th September 2022.

The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) launches on Thursday 8th September and runs through until Sunday 18th September. TIFF is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permanent destination for film culture whose mission is 'to transform the way people see the world through film'. This years full lineup will comprise around two hundred feature films and about forty short films, the largest lineup the festival has booked since the pre-pandemic 2019 edition. 

The Opening Film of the festival will be 'The Swimmers' from the UK and US and Co-Written and Directed by Sally El Hosaini and starring Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa. The Closing Film will be 'Daliland' from the US and Directed by Mary Harron and starring Ben Kingsley, Ezra Miller, Barbara Sukowa, Rupert Graves and Suki Waterhouse. 'The Fabelmans', screening as a special presentation, marks the first time in history that a Steven Spielberg Directed film will Premiere at the festival.

The festival's main awards for films in the festival programme, including the People's Choice Award, will be presented at the conclusion of the festival. In the Official Selections Gala Presentations section, there are nineteen films, these being :-

* 'A Jazzman's Blues' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Tyler Perry. Starring Joshua Boone, Solea Pfeiffer, Amirah Vann, Austin Scott, and Ryan Eggold in a story of forbidden love and family secrets that reaches from the 1940's to the 1980's. World Premier.

* 'Alice, Darling' - from Canada and the USA and Directed by Mary Nighy. Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway. World Premier.
* 'Black Ice' - from Canada and Witten and Directed by Hubert Davis. This incisive, urgent documentary examines the history of anti-Black racism in hockey, from the segregated leagues of the 19th Century to professional leagues today, where Black athletes continue to struggle against bigotry. World Premier.

* 'Butcher's Crossing' - from the USA and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Gabe Polsky. Set in the 1870's, this Western stars Nicolas Cage as a buffalo hunter who lures a naive young man into an ambitious expedition in the Colorado Rockies. World Premier.

* 'Daliland' - from the UK and USA and Directed by Mary Harron. Starring Ben Kingsley and Barbara Sukowa, this film pulls back the curtain on the larger-than-life union of Spanish painter Salvador Dali and his wife Gala. World Premier.

* 'Hunt' - from South Korea and Co-Written, Co-Produced, Directed and starring Lee Jung-jae. In this 1980's-set thriller, in which Lee Jung-jae plays an intelligence chief who uncovers a plot to assassinate the President of South Korea while hunting for a mole within his own agency. North American Premier.

* 'Kacchey Limbu' - from India and Written and Directed by Shubham Yogi. The film follows a pair of siblings who find themselves on competing cricket teams as they struggle to balance familial loyalty with the pursuit of their passions. World Premier.

* 'Moving On' - from the USA and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Paul Weitz. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin star in this fusion of audacious comedy and bracing drama about estranged pals who are reunited when a beloved mutual friend dies, leaving her widower the target of a revenge plan. World Premier.

* 'Paris Memories' - from France and Co-Written and Directed by Alice Winocour. Starring Virginie Efira and Benoit Magimel this piercing examination of what it means to live through devastating violence, dramatises the way trauma can render our fragments of memory into a puzzle. North American Premier.

* 'Prisoner's Daughter' - from the USA and Co-Executive Produced and Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Granted a compassionate release, a dying convict (Brian Cox) tries to reconnect with his daughter (Kate Beckinsale) and the grandson he’s never known, but his violent past comes back to haunt them all. World Premier.

* 'Raymond & Ray' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Rodrigo Garcia. This intricate drama shot through with audacious gallows humour, stars Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke as long-estranged half-brothers who reunite to bury their father. World Premier.

* 'Roost' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Amy Redford. In this immersive thriller, a young love affair involving Grace Van Dien and Kyle Gallner becomes a menacing game of cat and mouse. Nothing and no one are as they appear to be . . . World Premier.

* 'Sidney' - from the USA and Co-Executive Produced and Directed by Reginald Hudlin. This documentary portrait of the late, great Sidney Poitier surveys his films, life story, and litany of accomplishments as an artist and activist who forever changed what it means to be Black in America. World Premier.

* 'The Greatest Beer Run Ever' - from the USA and Co-Written and Directed by Peter Farrelly. Zac Efron, Russell Crowe and Bill Murray star in this film about a merchant seaman who, in 1967, accepted a bet to personally deliver a case of beer from New York to his army buddies in Vietnam. World Premier.

* 'The Hummingbird' - from Italy and France and Co-Written and Directed by Francesca Archibugi. Based on the novel by Sandro Veronesi, this profoundly moving nonlinear epic depicts the strange, wondrous life of Marco Carrera (Pierfrancesco Favino) from childhood through adulthood to his final years. World Premier.

* 'The Son' - from the UK and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Florian Zeller. Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, and Anthony Hopkins star in this immersive drama about a family struggling to support a teenager in the throes of a mental health crisis. North American Premier.

* 'The Swimmers' - from the UK and Co-Written and Directed by Sally El Hosaini. This soaring epic drama tells the true story of two sisters who left their home in war-torn Syria for a new life in Europe — and the chance to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics. World Premier.

* 'The Woman King' - from the USA and Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. This epic tale brings to life the true story of the Agojie, the all-female military regiment charged with protecting the embattled African Kingdom of Dahomey during the mid-1820's. Starring Viola Davis, John Boyega and Hero Fiennes Tiffin. World Premier.

* 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' - from the UK and Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Starring Lily James, Shazad Latif, and Emma Thompson, this effervescent romantic comedy follows a filmmaker who decides to document her best friend’s journey toward arranged marriage. World Premier.

For all the other Official Selections taking in Special Presentations, Contemporary World Cinema, TIFF Docs, Discovery, Platform, Midnight Madness, Short Cuts, and Wavelengths, plus other events including Dialogues, Microsessions, Perspectives, Spotlights and Visionaries, you can go to the official website at : https://www.tiff.net/

Now that Spring has sprung (in Australia at least), but not so you'ld notice it, what better way is there to celebrate the fact than to spend a couple of hours in a warm dark place with a bunch of strangers all gawping up at a big screen with moving pictures! And so turning attention to this weeks four latest release new movies we launch with a comedy drama horror offering set at an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance, where a cohort find themselves embroiled in power struggles, artistic vendettas, and gastrointestinal disorders. We then turn to an Irish language film about a nine-year-old girl from a dysfunctional family who goes to live with distant relatives for the Summer, where living with a middle-aged farm couple, she discovers a new way of living. Next up is the fourth instalment in this romantic drama franchise that sees two young star crossed lovers finally growing up and coming to the realisation that they are not so different to each other after a shocking revelation about one of their families emerges. And closing out the week, we have an Aussie doco about Australia's most significant environmental battle to save the remote Franklin River from being dammed by a hydroelectric project in the 1980's, as told through the lens of a current-day solo rafting adventurer.

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

'FLUX GOURMET' (Rated MA15+) - this comedy drama horror offering is Written and Directed by Peter Strickland whose previous feature film outings include his debut in 2009 with 'Katalin Varga', then 'Berberian Sound Studio' in 2012, 'The Duke of Burgundy' in 2014 with 'In Fabric' in 2018 being his most recent before this one. This film saw its World Premier screening at the Berlin International Film Festival in mid-February this year, has so far taken just US$19K from its very limited release in the US and Canada but has garnered widespread critical acclaim and picked up three award nominations so far. 

A group of experimental performance artists Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed), Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield) and Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), known for their process of 'sonic catering' (where they extract disturbing sounds from various foods) take up residency at a remote artistic institution, run by an enigmatic Director Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Chrsitie). An outsider, Stones (Makis Papadimitriou) is tasked with recording the day-to-day rituals of the group, only to discover that he is slowly becoming part of their collective himself.

'THE QUIET GIRL' (Rated M) - is an Irish language coming of age film Written and Directed by Colm Bairead in his feature film debut although he has Directed several TV series, TV movies, short films and documentaries before. It is based on the 2010 novella 'Foster' written by Claire Keegan. Set in rural Ireland in 1981 a quiet, neglected nine year old girl Cait (Catherine Clinch) is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. She blossoms in their care and in their loving family home, but in this house in Rinn Gaeltacht, County Waterford, where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Berlin International Film Festival in mid-February, went on release in its native Ireland in mid-May and has garnered generally positive Reviews so far collecting twelve award wins and another seven nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

'AFTER EVER HAPPY' (Rated M) - is an American romantic drama film Directed by Castille Landon and is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Anna Todd. It is fourth film in the 'After' franchise, following 2019's 'After', 2020's 'After We Collided' and 2021's 'After We Fell' which was also Directed by Landon. Here then, as a shocking truth about a couple's families emerge, the two lovers discover they are not so different from each other. Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) is no longer the sweet, simple, good girl she was when she met Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) any more than he is the cruel, moody boy she fell so hard for. The film was released in the UK in mid-August, goes on general release here in Australia and the US from this week, and a fifth film in the series titled 'After Everything' is already in post-production with Langford and Fiennes Tiffin reprising their roles once again.

'FRANKLIN' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian historical adventure documentary film is Co-Written and Directed by Kasimir Burgess whose prior feature length films include his debut in 2014 with 'Fell' and his doco 'The Leunig Fragments' in 2019. Here then eighth-generation Tasmanian and environmentalist Oliver Cassidy embarks on a life-changing solo rafting trip down the beautiful yet remote Franklin River. His goal is to retrace his late father’s fourteen-day expedition to attend the blockade that saved the World-Heritage listed national park from being destroyed by a huge hydroelectric dam project in the early 1980's. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with key players and narrated by Hugo Weaving, the eight-year-long 'Franklin campaign' is revealed as the most significant environmental protest in Australia's history; an inspiring example of the power of non-violent direct action to bring about lasting change. 

With four 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 week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-