What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 15th May 2025

The 51st annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) launches on Thursday 15th May and runs through until Sunday 25th May. SIFF is a Seattle-based arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education. Beginning in 1976 with the annual Seattle International Film Festival, then expanding into year-round programming, SIFF envisions a thriving arts ecosystem where film discovery encourages a more empathetic, joyful, and connected world. SIFF traditionally attracts approaching 150,000 attendees to celebrate films from more than eighty countries and regions around the world. Many of the features, short films, and documentaries screened will not have a return to US cinemas, making it an amazing event to discover new and underrepresented voices and stories.

The years Opening Night Film presentation is 'Four Mothers' from Ireland and the UK and Co-Written and Directed by Darren Thornton, about a gay YA novelist (James McArdle) who must look after four ageing women left in his care. The Closing Night Film is 'Sorry, Baby' from the USA and Written, Directed and starring Eva Victor with Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, Kelly McCormack, and John Carroll Lynch and is about a melancholic English professor’s complicated path toward healing in the aftermath of an all-too-common tragedy.

The films in Official Competition this year demonstrate some of the finest filmmaking this year from around the world. Spanning a variety of genres, these films advance themes of worldwide resonance, like friendship, coming of age in times of political turmoil, and the challenges inherent to romantic and familial relationships. The Official Competition Jury, comprised of filmmakers, journalists, and industry professionals, selects the winning film, which will be announced at the Golden Space Needle Awards on 25th May and awarded a cash prize of US$5K.

Those films in the Official Competition line-up are as follows :-

* 'Home Sweet Home' from Denmark and Written, Directed and Edited by Frelle Petersen. Sofie starts a career as a caretaker for the elderly, only to be humbled by the toll it takes on her physical and mental health.

* 'The New Year That Never Came' from Romania and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Bogdan Muersanu. Six lives intertwine in the days leading up to the 1989 Romanian revolution in this darkly funny film about living under Communist rule.

* 'Raptures' from Sweden and Written and Directed by Jon Blahed. A devout woman living along the Finland-Sweden border must protect her family from her husband’s newly formed sectarian cult.

* 'Rebuilding' from the USA and Written and Directed by Max Walker-Silverman. Josh O’Connor stars as a Coloradan cowboy who reconnects with his daughter and ex-wife after a wildfire takes his family ranch. Also starring Meghann Fahy, Amy Madigan and Lily LaTorre.

* 'Remaining Native' from the USA and Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Photographed by Paige Bethmann. Ku Stevens wants to become a cross-country runner in memory of his great-grandfather, who escaped from an Indian boarding school.

* 'The Safe House' from Switzerland and Co-Written and Directed by Lionel Baier. A nine-year-old boy and his quirky artistic family experience the turbulence of 1968 Paris from the relative safety of their multigenerational home.

* 'Seeds' from the USA and Co-Produced, Directed and Photographed by Brittany Shyne. Multiple generations in the lives of Black farming families in Thomas County, Georgia from social challenges to financial straits and their dedication to one another.

* 'Summer's Camera' from South Korea and Written and Directed by Divine Sung. A high school girl navigates first love while uncovering her late father’s secret life.

For the full descriptors of the above named films, plus the other competitive strands, being the Short Films Competition, New Directors Competition, New American Cinema Competition, Ibero-American Cinema Competition and the Documentary Competition, plus the complete itinerary of films being showcased and a whole bunch of other good stuff, you can go to the official website at : https://www.siff.net/festival

Turning the focus then back to this weeks six new release movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you, we kick off with the sixth instalment in this horror franchise about a young woman who has a recurring dream about dying in a fire that occurred in the 1960's, and she soon realises that it's not just a dream, but a premonition of the fate that awaits her family. Then we turn to a musical psychological thriller in which, plagued by insomnia, a musician gets pulled into a nightmarish odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence. Next up we have a film set in the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, where dreams and desperation collide as the staff each chase the elusive American dream. Following on is an Aussie psychological thriller about a man who revisits his childhood beach to surf with his son, where, humiliated by the locals, he becomes entangled in an escalating conflict that pushes him to his limits. This is followed by a British biographical drama offering that sees a couple lose their home and later discover that the husband has been diagnosed with a terminal illness as they embark on a year-long coastal trek along the south-west coast of England.; and closing out the week there is the story of a widowed Greek fisherman and a teenage refugee who form an emotional bond while sailing the azure waters of the Aegean Sea.

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

'FINAL DESTINATION : BLOODLINES' (Rated MA15+) - is an American horror film that is Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein in their third Co-Directing outing following 'Freaks' in 2018 and 'Kim Possible' in 2019. This horror franchise that includes six films, ten novels, and two comic books, has so far grossed US$667M from combined production budgets from the first five films of US$154M, making this film a no brainer. The franchise has been praised for its innovative premise of the invisible abstract concept of Death killing people instead of a usual slasher killer, and the creativity of the films' death sequences. The last instalment in the series 'Final Destination 5' was released in 2011.

This film takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death's twisted sense of justice. Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie Lewis (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all. Also starring Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Gabrielle Rose, Rya Kihlstedt, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tinpo Lee, Max Lloyd-Jones all as members of Stefanie's family and the late Tony Todd reprising his role as William Bludworth, the owner of Bludworth Funeral Homes and who has expert knowledge of Death and its forces or capacities. The film is released in the US this week also.

'HURRY UP TOMORROW' (Rated MA15+) - this American musical psychological thriller film is Co-Written, Directed and Edited by Trey Edward Shults. The film serves as a companion piece to Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye's sixth studio album of the same name, which was produced in conjunction with the film. Shults' previous feature length credits take in his debut with 'Krishna' in 2015, then 'It Comes at Night' in 2017, and 'Waves' in 2019. The film stars Tesfaye as a fictionalised version of himself, an insomniac musician on the verge of a mental breakdown who is pulled into an existential odyssey by a mysterious stranger. Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan also star. The film is released in the US this week too and cost US$20M to produce.

'LA COCINA' (Rated MA15+) - Spanish for 'The Kitchen' this film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios which expands on the theme of his own short film from 2008 'Cafe Paraiso', which is based on Arnold Wesker's 1957 stage play 'The Kitchen' which was subsequently adapted into a British drama film of the same name in 1961. This film transfers the kitchen action to New York and captures the frenetic energy of the lunch rush at 'The Grill', a bustling restaurant in Manhattan's Times Square. When money goes missing from the till, suspicion falls on the charming but hot tempered Mexican Pedro (Raul Briones), an undocumented cook who dreams of a better life and is in love with Julia (Rooney Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to a relationship. Rashid (Oded Fehr), the restaurant owner, has promised to help Pedro obtain legal status, but a shocking revelation about Julia compels Pedro to spiral into an act that threatens to shut down one of the city's busiest kitchens once and for all. The film had its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in mid-February 2024, and was released in the US in late October last year, having so far grossed US$249K, and has garnered mixed or average reviews.

'THE SURFER' (Rated MA15+) - is an Australian and Irish Co-Produced psychological thriller film Directed by Lorcan Finnegan who made his feature film making debut with 'Without Name' in 2016 and would follow this up with 'Vivarium' in 2019 and 'Nocebo' in 2022. Here then, a man (Nicolas Cage) returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. But his desire to hit the waves is thwarted by a group of locals whose mantra is 'don't live here, don't surf here'. Humiliated and angry, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising in tandem with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him to his breaking point. The film premiered in the Midnight Screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May last year, was released Stateside earlier this month and has garnered generally favourable reviews.

'THE SALT PATH' (Rated M) - this British biographical drama film is Directed by Marianne Elliot in her feature film Directorial debut and is based on the 2018 memoir of the same name by Raynor Winn. Here, a married couple Raynor and Moth Winn (Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs respectively) receive a bad health diagnosis and are left homeless after legal trouble, so they embark on the 1,010km  South West Coast Path, the longest uninterrupted path in England, from Minehead to Poole around the coast of Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, and Dorset. The film Premiered in the Special Presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September last year, and is due for release in the UK at the end of this month. 

'THE AEGEAN' (Rated M) - this Australian drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jacob Richardson in his feature length debut. Here, in a world that has started to forget him, Hector (Costas Mandylor and Nikolas Chalkiadakis as the young Hector), a widowed fisherman, feels the weight of his solitude. Everything changes when he encounters Theodore (Nicky Dune), a teenager desperately seeking a saviour to rescue him from a dire situation. United by their shared struggles, they embark on a journey across the enchanting Aegean Sea, where amidst the azure waters, they discover a newfound purpose and a reason to carry on.

With six 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-