What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 26th March 2020.

Now in its seventeenth year, the London Independent Film Festival ran this year at the Genesis Cinema in London's East End from Friday 13th until Sunday 22nd March. The official website states that 'The London Independent Film Festival (LIFF) is the premier event for first and second-time film-makers, micro-budget and no-budget films in the UK. LIFF offers a fantastic opportunity for indie filmmakers to showcase their achievements, with spaces reserved for first and second time filmmakers and for films that have been overlooked by other events. LIFF presents the best of low-budget filmmaking from around the world, and mixes it up with relevant industry discussions and targeted social networking events. LIFF’s audience is London’s sizeable independent filmmaking community. It’s an indie film festival for indie filmmakers'.

Hosted every spring at the Genesis Cinema – repeatedly voted the best cinema in the UK – the 2020 London Independent Film Festival screened the work of over 100 filmmakers from around the world, showcasing short films and feature length films, guest speakers, networking and future collaboration opportunities.

In terms of feature films, awards are presented in the following categories : Best Low-budget Feature (over £100K), Best Micro-budget Feature (under £100K), Best No-Budget Feature (under £10K), Best UK Feature, Best Documentary, Best Sci-Fi/Horror Feature, Best Female Director Feature, Best LGBT film, Best Feature Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi/Horror Screenplay and Best UK Screenplay. Despite LIFF's best intentions, it seems that the awards were cancelled due to the ever increasing threat of the Coronavirus gripping the UK, and everywhere else around the globe. 

* This years feature films took in the drama 'GOLDEN AGE' Directed by Jenna Suru as the opening night presentation. Set in May 1967, a penniless Franco-American Producer living in Los Angeles returns to Paris, following in his mother’s footsteps to flee the Vietnam War. He meets an ambitious French theatre actress, who acts in small Parisian theatres in front of empty seats. Both desperate to change the world, they decide to embark on an artistic project together, ending up in a small village of St. Tropez in the South of France. It is here tinged with artistic revolution and music, that the experiences they'll share together will soon force them to face up to their choices - just how far are they prepared to go to change this world that doesn’t work for them?

* 'PALINDROME', Directed by Marcus Flemmings, this is a drama film of a young black man Fred as he struggles to find freedom in modern Britain. Mirroring this is a story about a female artist in modern England who is contemplating the true meaning of art. Set against the backdrop of Brexit and it’s impending economic and social uncertainty, this film tackles subjects such as the meaning of current slavery, gentrification, art, love, race, mental health and politics.

* 'REBORN', Directed by Julian Richards, here is a horror offering about a stillborn baby girl brought back to life by an electrical storm and then abducted from hospital by a morgue attendant. On her sixteenth birthday, empowered with the gift to manipulate electricity with her mind, she escapes her captor and sets out to find of her birth mother, leaving a bloody trail of destruction behind her.

* 'A SOUL JOURNEY', Directed by Marco Della Fonte, this documentary charts how every year, for the last 30 years, some of the greatest 'legends' of Soul and R&B music have performed at 'Porretta Soul' in Italy, the most prestigious festival in Europe for this genre of music. Narrating aspects of the intricate and delicate lives of the artists, and in particular, their artistic, human and emotional journeys to perform in such a small village 'lost' in the remote Italian countryside.

* 'YOUR EYES ON ME', Directed by Sergei Alexander, this drama film tells the story of a drag queen named Gloria whose life changes when she meets Kandi, a drag virgin auditioning for her next show. Suddenly the past and the choices Gloria made as a young man become a stark reality.

* 'PHILOPHOBIA', Directed by Guy Davies this drama film is set in the rolling hills of the English countryside, and with just one week of school remaining for Kai, an aspiring writer, and his friends, how they chose to spend this time will cost one of them their life and leave them all changed forever.

* 'KAT AND THE BAND', Directed by E.E. Hegarty, and the closing night film, this comedy centres around the music obsessed, Kat Malone who has big dreams. With bold dedication and a contagious energy, Kat longs to be a professional band manager and courageously sets out to achieve her goal. There’s just one little problem … she’s still at school!

For the full programme, you can visit the official website at : https://www.liff.org 

And so this week then, we have four latest release new movies coming to your local Odeon, kicking off with this most recent live action rendition of a previous animated film from the House of the Mouse of 22 years ago, that tells the story set in ancient China when a young woman masquerades as a man to fight the marauding huns ultimately winning her the respect of her country and her family. We then turn to another big screen adaptation of a famed book first published in 1850 by a renowned English author, telling the story of the formative life and times, inspirations and observations of a wannabe English gentlemen that he eventually turns into his autobiography. Next up is a Spanish foreign language offering set high up in the Colombian mountains where a group of child soldiers hold a western Doctor hostage, but when she makes a bid to escape, that group gradually starts to unravel as the strong ones prey on those weaker. And we conclude the week with a sequel to a 2016 animated feature starring a bunch of colourful troll like dolls with upcombed hair who are out to save the world's different music genres from complete obscurity at the hands of those whose preference is only for rock music. Understanding that many cinemas across the world have been closed down because of the escalating Coronavirus outbreak, these films were originally scheduled for a release in Australia this week, but that is no longer the case. Elsewhere in the world you may find some movie theatres still operating, and so you'll have to check your local guide for release dates.

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 and 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.

'MULAN' (Rated PG) - here this Disney live action remake of their former 1998 animated film of the same name is Directed by New Zealand film maker Niki Caro whose previous Directorial outings include her debut feature 'Whale Rider' in 2002 and then 'North Country', 'A Heavenly Vintage', 'McFarland, USA' and 'The Zookeeper's Wife' more recently in 2017. That animated feature film took US$305M at the worldwide Box Office off the back of a US$90M production budget and collected seventeen award wins (including ten Annie Award wins) plus 21 other nominations including an Oscar nod and two Golden Globe nods. The film is based on the Chinese folklore 'The Ballad of Mulan' which was first transcribed in the sixth century. Plans for a live-action 'Mulan' remake first got underway in 2010, but the project never came to fruition, until March 2015 when a new attempt was announced and Caro was hired to direct two years later. The production budget for this film was US$200M and the film was due for release in the US this week too.

When the Emperor of China (Jet Li) issues a ruling that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Chinese Army to defend the country from the northern Huns, Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei), the eldest daughter of an honoured warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma). She is spirited, determined and quick on her feet. Disguised as a man by the name of Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her innermost strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey spread over many years that will transform her into an honoured warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation as well as a proud father. Also starring Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An and Gong Li.

'THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD' (Rated PG) - based on the eighth book by Charles Dickens and first published in 1850, here Director, Co-Producer and Co-Writer for the screen adaptation Armando Iannucci brings us this British and American Co-Produced comedy drama film based on that acclaimed mid-Victorian era novel. Iannucci is the Scottish satirist, Writer, Director, and Radio Producer whose previous feature film credits include 2009's 'In The Loop', and 2017's 'The Death of Stalin' most recently. Born after the death of his father, David Copperfield (Dev Patel), is fortunate to be raised by his loving mother Clara (Morfydd Clark). But when she takes a violent new husband Edward Murdstone (Darren Boyd) who seems to have a particular dislike for young children, David is sent way to London to live with Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi), and so begins his odyssey sampling life's experiences (good and not so good) and inhabiting various abodes over the ensuing years (including an oppressive boarding school) and the country home of his eccentric aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton). However, his written words prove to be his saving grace as he produces hilariously pithy observations of all those he comes across - impressions that will one day constitute his autobiography. Also taking in an ensemble cast that includes Hugh Laurie, Ben Whishaw, Paul Whitehouse, Benedict Wong, Gwendoline Christie, Aneurin Barnard, and Daisy May Cooper. Costing US$16M to make, the film saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the UK in late January, and not in the US until early May, has generated mostly favourable Reviews, has so far taken US$8M at the Box Office and has picked up six award wins and a further eight nominations. I saw this film at an advance screening at Sydney's Open Air Cinema on 29th January, so you can check out my full Review there.

'MONOS' (Rated MA15+) - is a critically acclaimed Spanish language co-production between the US and Colombia that is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Colombian-Ecuadorian Alejandro Landes. The film saw its World Premiere screening at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award, and it was also selected as the official Colombian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Released in its native Colombia in mid-August before its US release in mid-September 2019, the film has so far grossed US$1.5M off the back of a US$2M budget and has garnered 25 award wins and another 45 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. Set on a remote mountain in Latin America, this film traces a young group of eight guerrillas with names such as Bigfoot (Moises Arias), Rambo, Wolf, Smurf, Dog and Boom-Boom who keep watch over an American hostage, Doctora Sara Watson (Julianne Nicholson). The teenage commandos perform military training games and initiate cultish rituals by day and indulge in youthful hedonism by night, an unconventional family bound together under a shadowy force know only as 'The Organization'. After an ambush drives the squadron into the jungle, both the mission and the intricate bonds between the group begin to disintegrate as order soon descends into chaos and within the group the strong begin to prey on the weak when the hostage tries to escape.

'TROLLS WORLD TOUR' (Rated G) - this American computer animated adventure musical comedy is the sequel to 2016's film 'Trolls', based on the 1959 created multi coloured plastic doll with upcombed hair supposedly resembling a troll. That first film grossed US$3350M at the global Box Office off the back of a budget investment of US$125M and positive critical acclaim. Directed by Walt Dohrn and starring an ensemble voice cast, this film follows on from the events of that first instalment. And so here, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) discover that there are in fact six different troll tribes scattered over six different lands. Each tribe is also devoted to six different kinds of music - pop, funk, rock, techno, country and classical. When rockers Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) and King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne) set out to destroy the other music to let rock music reign supreme, Poppy and Branch embark on a daring mission to unite the trolls and save the diverse melodies from becoming extinct. Also starring the voice work of James Cordon (hot on the heels of voicing Peter Rabbit, in last weeks release), Anderson Paak, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Gwen Stefani, Jamie Dornan, Walt Dohrn and Kunal Nayyar, the film is supposedly released Stateside on 10th April.

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-

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD : Wednesday 29th January 2020

I saw the 'THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD' at The Open Air Cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Point on Sydney Harbour earlier this week. Based on the eighth book by Charles Dickens and first published in 1850, here Director, Co-Producer and Co-Writer for the screen adaptation Armando Iannucci brings us this British and American Co-Produced comedy drama film based on that acclaimed mid-Victorian era novel. Iannucci is the Scottish satirist, Writer, Director, and Radio Producer whose previous feature film credits include 2009's 'In The Loop', and 2017's 'The Death of Stalin' most recently. Costing US$16M to make, the film saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the UK last week, and not in Australia until late March and the US until early May, and has generated mostly favourable Reviews.

The film opens up with the adult David Copperfield (Dev Patel) standing on a theatre stage at a lectern beginning his recital of his life story up to that point. His narration starts at the very beginning, that of his birth shortly after the death of his father at the tender age of 29, leaving his loving mother Clara Copperfield (Morfydd Clark) heavily in labour, with Peggotty (Daisy May Cooper) as the housemaid running around in a blind panic providing very little worthwhile assistance. Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton) meanwhile rocks up to the house and begins taking over the proceedings absolutely convinced that Clara is giving birth to girl. Trotwood is David's great-aunt on his fathers side, and has a dislike of boys. She storms out of the house after hearing that David's mother has had a son, rather than the daughter to whom she had every intention to be the godmother. And so as the young David Copperfield (Jairaj Varsani) grows up in a secure family unit, he begins writing down and drawing his life experiences, observations and memories on odd scraps of paper which he guards with his life almost.

By the time young David Copperfield is seven or eight years of age, his mother Clara has married the sinister, harsh and uncaring Edward Murdstone (Darren Boyd) who has moved into the Copperfield family home with his equally bleak, domineering and demanding sister Jane Murdstone (Gwendoline Christie), who plans to renovate and refurbish the household and teach the young Copperfield boy a thing or two about manners, etiquette and education. Things go somewhat awry for young Copperfield when he is asked to recite from a book, but is unable to do so because he has double vision which blurs the printed words on the page. His new father figure, manhandles him up to his bedroom, where he beats the young boy like a disobedient dog. Copperfield retaliates but in return is sent away to a wine bottling factory in London owned by the Murdstone's.

While there he is accommodated by Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi) and his long suffering yet fiercely loyal and trusting wife Emma Micawber (Bronagh Gallagher) and their band of children who do everything they can to keep their creditors at bay, the bailiffs from taking away all their meagre worldly possessions, and walk the financial tightrope every day. But young Copperfield is happy in Micawber's company, and relishes in his London accent and phraseology, which he records on his scraps of paper and keeps in a tin on the lid of which he has scratched a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral.

One day when Copperfield is in his late teens and has now grown into Dev Patel, we see him still working in the bottling factory but having graduated to hold some level of responsibility. He is visited by Edward and Jane Murdstone with the news that his mother has died and that she was buried last Saturday, to avoid any fuss. Copperfield rebels against this news, smashes many of the precious bottles, and runs out of the place never to be seen again. He walks back to Yarmouth - the home town of his mother and his great-aunt Betsey, having been robbed along the way, and having not eaten for days.

Being now grown up into a handsome young adult Betsey hardly recognises him, but when they are reintroduced she welcomes him in, and there he meets Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie) who possesses childish traits and an obsession with work on his memoir from which he is constantly distracted by thoughts of King Charles' head. Copperfield soon learns that that like him, Mr. Dick notes down all his musings, quotations and scribblings on odd scraps of paper which Copperfield persuades him to attach to a kite in order that his mind can be free of all the clutter clogging his memory. Mr. Dick thinks this is a wonderful idea and is promptly seen flying his kite at every opportunity.

Enter the somewhat pickled financial advisor to Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, a Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong) and his daughter Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar). Using funds freed up by Betsey, Copperfield is sent off to a private albeit somewhat run down school for young gentlemen near Canterbury in order to continue and finish his education. There he meets James Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard) and the pair strike up a strong friendship. He also meets at the school a member of the staff, Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw) - known for his cloying humility, insincerity and obsequiousness.

While at his graduation, he is introduced to Mr. Spenlow (Matthew Cottle) a lawyer, who has a job for Copperfield as a Proctor in his law firm, and who also has a daughter Dora (Morfydd Clark again), whom Copperfield is instantly attracted to. She is quite beautiful, but childish too and is more interested in playing with her pet dog, Jip, than in understanding the advances of Copperfield it seems. But he persists, taken in by her beauty and her innocent personality.

Meanwhile, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick have had their home repossessed and all of their investments as handled by Mr. Wickfield have gone belly up and as a result are now homeless, destitute and financially ruined. They move into Copperfield's London apartment provided for him by his employer but this proves untenable. In the intervening period Uriah Heep has manipulated his way into Mr. Wickfield's broken business and has firmly established himself as an equal partner, with a particular axe to grind against Copperfield. Heep sets up Copperfield, Trotwood and Mr. Dick in a run down part of London in a less than adequate and very cramped apartment.

Copperfield decamps back to Yarmouth with Steerforth to visit the seaside home of Peggotty, her husband Daniel Peggotty (Paul Whitehouse), their orphaned nephew Ham Peggotty (Anthony Welsh) and his fiancee Emily (Aimee Kelly). They all live in their cramped upturned fishing boat on the beach by the waters edge with the ageing and in ill health Mrs. Gummidge (Rosaleen Linehan). One day, feeling somewhat sorry for himself Steerforth bids farewell to Copperfield and then promptly elopes with Emily on board a rented sailing boat. Emily it seems wants more out of life than Ham can offer her. Ham vows to track Emily down now matter where she is and how long it takes.

Back in London, Agnes has uncovered evidence that Uriah Heep massaged his way into her fathers business by fraudulent and nefarious means, and armed with this evidence she, Copperfield, Trotwood, Mr. Dick, Mr. Micawber and Mr. Wickfield confront the unsuspecting Heep in his offices, where he comes undone. Peggotty in the meantime has heard of the whereabouts of Emily, and that she is in London. They track her down and learn that Steerforth has since deserted her. They take her back to Yarmouth with a storm on the horizon and learn that Steerforth is making his way back there aboard the sailing boat from France. Just off shore, the boat is caught in a squall and Steerforth is washed overboard and drowns.

Back at their ramshackle apartment Copperfield is busy writing his autobiography with Dora looking on. She says that she should be written out of his book as she does not fit in. She turns around and leaves. Sometime later Copperfield and Agnes are reunited and subsequently married - she had always held a candle for him although had never outwardly admitted doing so. With Trotwood and Mr. Dick reinstated in their country home, Copperfield returns their too having published his book and basking in the wealth it has brought him with all his friends around him.

In 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' Director Armando Iannucci has assembled a fine cast of English acting talent, from the lead with Dev Patel to the upstanding supporting cast of Swinton, Laurie, Whishaw, Whitehouse, Capaldi, Wong, Clark, Christie, Eleazar and Barnard whose diverse characters are all fleshed out enough to feel invested in them. The production values are also top notch, and here Iannucci has turned a classic story of some 170 years ago into a modern retelling that still resonates as much today as it did mid-19th Century - class inequality, the rich and poor divide, cultural and ethnic acceptance, the role of men versus women in society, and the daily struggles that had to be endured at the hands of an ever increasing modern world. All of this is underpinned by a tale that combines plenty of wit, whimsy, charm and creative storytelling that helps propel the film along at a good pace and ties up all the strands effectively at the end.

'The Personal History of David Copperfield' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE DEATH OF STALIN : Tuesday 24th April 2018.

'THE DEATH OF STALIN' which I finally got around to viewing this week is a highly acclaimed political satire Directed by the Scottish satirist, Writer, Producer and Director Armando Iannucci based on the French graphic novel 'La mort de Staline' by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. Starring an ensemble cast, the film was shown at TIFF back in early September last year, went on release in the UK in late October, the US in early March, and here in Australia at the end of March. The film has taken US$16M at the Box Office to date, and has picked up eleven award wins and eighteen nominations including two BAFTA nods, and has been banned in Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan . . . . can't think why!

It is 1953 and the film starts off with a Mozart piano recital by Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko) which is broadcast live over Russian Radio from Moscow. Mid way through the recital Comrade Andreyev (Paddy Considine) who is overseeing the live broadcast of the concert, receives a phone call from a mystery speaker asking him to call Joseph Stalin in seventeen minutes, exactly. Unable to contain himself, partly out of fear and partly out of excitement, seventeen minutes clicks over and the numbers are dialled. Stalin asks for a recording of the concert just as it ends, which will be picked up later that evening from the studio. Needless to say the broadcast was not recorded, so in a mad panic Andreyev orders the gathered and and already rapidly departing guests to be reseated, while he reassembles the accompanying orchestra and Maria Yudina. But many of the audience have already left the building, the Conductor has passed out, and Maria wants nothing of it. So Andreyev brings in passersby off the street to replicate the acoustics, hurriedly replaces the Conductor with another of some repute, and bribes the disgruntled lead pianist, and restarts the whole shebang for the purposes of a single recording for one man . . . but of course, Stalin is no ordinary man!

As the recording is handed over, Maria Yudina slips a hand written note in the sleeve of the record telling Stalin he has ruined the country, that he is a Dictator and that she wishes him dead. As Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) reads it in his country residence, he is stricken and collapses from a cerebral hemorrhage. He is discovered the next day, laying where he fell and the members of the Central Committee are alerted. The first to arrive are NKVD (the interior ministry for the Soviet Union) head Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), who discovers Yudina's note, and Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor). As Malenkov panics given that he is now elevated to Acting General Secretary, Beria guides him to take leadership, hoping to use him as a puppet for his own ends. Then the Moscow Party Leader Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) arrives with the rest of the Committee, except for Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) whom Stalin had added to his hit list only the night before.

The Committee together call upon a number of Doctors to confirm whether Stalin is in fact dead, and if so, the cause of death. However, because Stalin had all the top class Doctors in Moscow killed, the Committee is forced to seek out any third rate Doctors they could find that were still alive. In the meantime Beria shuts down Moscow, orders the NKVD to take over the city's security duties from the Soviet Army, and replaces Stalin's enemy hit list with his own, granting Molotov a reprieve in the process. With Stalin on his death bed overseen by the Committee, the Doctors and Stalin's composed daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough), and mentally unstable son Vasily (Rupert Friend), the ailing Dictator comes around momentarily, before finally popping his clogs. At which point the Committee members with Svetlana and Vasily, hurry back to Moscow as the NKVD pillage through Stalin's country residence, ransack the place and execute its staff and any onlookers.

Later Khrushchev goes to Molotov's home and attempts to secure his support, only to be visited by Beria at the same time seeking Molotov's loyalty by releasing his wife Polina from prison. Malenkov is in due course named Head of Government although his strings are being pulled by a controlling Beria. At the inaugural Committee Meeting in the wake of Stalin's death, Beria sidelines Khrushchev by suggesting he should take charge of Stalin's funeral much to Khrushchev's disdain but he is over-ruled by a unanimous vote (all votes are carried unanimously BTW, again largely out of fear for the possible repercussions of disagreeing). Beria also puts forward many of the liberal reforms which Khrushchev had planned to introduce, as his own ideas winning him further support from the Committee.

While Stalin's body lies in state for three days in the Hall of Columns, Beria's proposals swing into action including the release of many political prisoners, and the restrictions imposed on the Russian Orthodox Church - both of which earn Beria further support from the masses. Meanwhile, Field Marshall Georgy Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) arrives on the scene demanding answers as to why his Soviet Army troops have been sidelined, relieved of their duties and confined to barracks. Khrushchev then quietly approaches Zhukov, who agrees overwhelmingly to provide the Army's support in a coup to overthrow Beria, but only if the whole Committee concurs.

To undermine Beria's growing popularity, Khrushchev orders the trains back into Moscow so enabling thousands of mourners to travel into the city and to pay their last respects to their former leader by filing past his open casket, around which the Committee stand guard of honour. As he planned, the NKVD guards surrounding the Hall firing on the crowd, killing some fifteen hundred innocents. 

The Committee suggests laying the blame at lower ranking NKVD officers as Beria feels that blame associated with his security services will tarnish his reputation. In retaliation, he angrily threatens the Committee with incriminating documented evidence he has on them all. Molotov is the next to fall in line offering his secret support to overthrow Beria, but again, only if the entire Committee agree to it, including Malenkov. 

The day of Stalin's funeral arrives. Khrushchev tells the Committee and Zhukov that he has Malenkov's support, although at this point this is not true. Zhukov and his men overwhelm the NKVD guarding Beria and arrest him. Khrushchev convinces Malenkov into signing the papers for Beria's trial, which he does reluctantly calling that Beria deserves a fair trial. The entire Politburo find Beria guilty of treason, sexual assault, mass murder and countless rapes in a trumped up on the spot court that descends into a screaming match as Beria accuses the Politburo of hypocrisy. Beria is shot dead in the head by one of Zhukov's men, and petrol is immediately poured over the body and it is ignited where he fell. The ashes are later scattered in the wind. 

In the closing scene and some years later when Khrushchev is now the Leader of the Soviet Union (from 1958 until 1964) he is in attendance with his wife at a concert given by the pianist Maria Yudina, while future leader Leonid Brezhnev (who later succeeds him) watches over his shoulder.

There is no doubt that Iannucci has crafted a fine example of dark historical political satire at its most comically absurd and ludicrous. He has assembled a great cast too that pull off their characters dialogue and actions without missing a beat, and all delivered without a single Russian accent in sight (hearing Stalin speak with an east London accent, or Zhukov with a Merseyside accent only adds to the incongruous comedic effect). The jockeying for position by those within Stalin's inner circle immediately following his death, is both farcical and revealing in the depths that those power hungry schemesters will sink to in order to get ahead, and to stay alive, with Beria being the worst of a bad bunch and rotten to the core. Whilst this is a dark satire, it is based loosely on the political machinations of the totalitarian state at the time where paranoia, fear, famine, poverty, labour camps and widespread executions were the status quo. Naturally, these are hardly topics that would inspire mirth and merriment, but maybe that is Iannucci's end game here - to poke fun at a regime that is a blot on the historical political landscape and for some, still within living memory. And this he does, save for the final ten minutes when the comedy falls away to a more serious tone and the main protagonist gets his comeuppance in no uncertain terms. Worth a look for sure to see a fine assembled cast playing it straight, keeping it grounded and making it believable with farcical and at times frightening consequences.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 29th March 2018.

Being an avid reader and long time subscriber (since the inaugural issue in January 2001) of the Empire Australia movie magazine, I have naturally, by default almost, followed the annual Empire Awards. Now in its 23rd year, this annual British awards ceremony recognises achievement in the British and worldwide film industry. The awards, first presented in 1996, are presented by the British film magazine 'Empire', with the winners voted by the readers of the magazine. Just when you thought that the movie awards season had ended with the 90th Academy Awards earlier this month, so pops along another honouring the best in movie entertainment from 2017. The ceremony this year occurred on 18th March at London's Roundhouse Theatre.

The winners and grinners for this years 23rd Empire Awards were :-

* Best Film : 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi'
* Best British Film : 'God's Own Country'
* Best Comedy Film : 'The Death of Stalin'
* Best Horror Film : 'Get Out'
* Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film : 'Wonder Woman'
* Best Thriller Film : 'Kingsmen : The Golden Circle'
* Best Documentary Film : 'I Am Not Your Negro'
* Best Animated Film : 'Coco'
* Best Director : Rian Johnson for 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi'
* Best Screenplay : Jordan Peele for 'Get Out'
* Best Actor : Hugh Jackman for 'Logan'
* Best Actress : Daisy Ridley for 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi'
* Best Male Newcomer : Josh O'Connor for 'God's Own Country'
* Best Female Newcomer : Dafne Keen for 'Logan'
* Best Visual FX : 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi'
* Best Production Design : 'Baby Driver'
* Best Soundtrack : 'Baby Driver'

* The Empire Honorary Icon Award : Mark Hamill
* The Empire Honorary Legend of our Lifetime Award : Steven Spielberg.

This week we have eight new cinematic offerings coming to your local Odeon with a VR Sci-Fi film set in the near future that sees one young hopeful venture into a virtual world to play a game where the stakes are high and the potential rewards higher still. We then go to another Sci-Fi offering that sees a young teenager venture to another world in search of her lost father aided by three astral travellers. This is followed up by a satirical historical telling of the death of a Russian political leader back in the early '50's and the hangers on that jockey for position immediately afterwards. We then come to down to Earth with a present day comedy of three teenage girls Hell bent on popping their cherries on Prom night, and the actions of their parents in preventing them from doing so. Next up is a coming of age story about a high school lad's journey in coming out with the pressure of family, school peer group, a blackmailer and the secret identity of his online crush. Following up this is the Biblical telling of one of Christ's Apostles as told within Prison while he awaits his execution by the Emperor Nero. And finally we wrap up the week with two animated features - the first a stop motion tale of a Stone Age man having to settle a land dispute over a game of recently invented football, and then a mash up of Shakespeare and Doyle as a renowned super sleuth goes in search of garden gnome thieves.

Just in time for the Easter long weekend, whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the eight latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are here cordially invited 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, and best wishes to all readers of Odeon Online, for a happy, safe and relaxing Easter long weekend.

'READY PLAYER ONE' (Rated M) - and here we have the eagerly awaited, keenly anticipated and much hyped latest offering from Producer and Director Steven Spielberg. Based on the bestselling and highly regarded 2011 Sci-Fi book of the same name by Ernest Cline, this film is released in the US this week too, cost a cool US$175M to make and has so far garnered generally positive Press. Full of pop culture references to the '80's, '90's and early 2000's including several nods to earlier Spielberg works, as well as cutting edge CGI, this film will be a feast for the visual senses and overload for all the movie geeks out there.

Set in 2045 with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse due to overpopulation, climate change, pollution and corruption, the main centres of population have become slum like cities with make shift homes being stacked upon each other forming huge towers reaching skywards. To escape the desolation of their meagre existence, the people have found solace in the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance) where those users can engage in work, entertainment, relaxation and education. When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune and ownership of OASIS to the first person to find a digital Easter Egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest some five years after Halliday's death, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger with several allies to complete the game first, before Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the unscrupulous CEO of a competitor company, can beat him to it. Also starring Olivia Cooke, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg and Lena Waithe.

'A WRINKLE IN TIME' (Rated PG) - and so this much hyped Disney production as Directed by Ava DuVernay and based on the children's science fantasy novel of the same name by Madeleine L'Engle in 1962, was first made into an American/Canadian Co-Produced made for television film in 2003. Now armed with a US$100M budget (making DuVernay the first coloured woman to Direct a live action film with a nine figure budget number) and with an ensemble cast the premise here is that thirteen year old Meg Murry (Storm Reid) and her little five year old brother, Charles Wallace Murry (Deric McCabe), have been without their scientist father, Dr. Alexander Murry (Chris Pine), for five years, ever since he discovered a new planet and was teleported to that other world using a tesseract device that he was working on too. Joined by Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe (Levi Miller) and guided by the three mysterious astral travellers known as Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), the children brave a perilous journey to a planet that houses all the evil in the universe, which is also where their father ended up, Also starring Michael Pena, David Oyelowo, Zach Galifianakis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, the film has so far taken US$88M since its US release on 9th March, and has received mixed or average Reviews.

'THE DEATH OF STALIN' (Rated MA15+) - here we have a highly acclaimed political satire Directed by the Scottish satirist, Writer, Producer and Director Armando Iannucci based on the French graphic novel 'La mort de Staline' by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. Starring an ensemble cast, the film was shown at TIFF back in early September last year, went on release in the UK in late October and the US just a few weeks ago in early March. The story simply put centres around the former Soviet Union and the struggles that ensue immediately following the death of dictator Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) back in 1953, as various political hopefuls jockey for position to take his place. Also starring Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, Rupert Friend as Vasily Stalin, Andrea Riseborough as Svetlana Stalin, Simon Russell Beale as Lavrentiy Beria, Michael Palin as Vyacheslav Molotov, Jeffrey Tambor as Georgy Malenkov, Jason Isaacs as Georgy Zhukov with Olga Kurylenko, Paul Whitehouse and Paddy Considine. The film has been banned in Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan . . . . can't think why!

'BLOCKERS' (Rated MA15+) - this American comedy offering is Directed by Kay Cannon in her feature film Directorial debut, having Written the three 'Pitch Perfect' films so far and the Fox and Netflix television series 'New Girl' and 'Girlboss' respectively. Co-Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg amongst a few others, the film surrounds three high school senior girls Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlan) who make a pact to lose their virginity on the night of their High School Prom. Meanwhile, Lisa (Leslie Mann) mother of Julie, Mitchell (John Cena) father of Kayla, and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) father of Sam are three overprotective parents who are none to pleased to say the least when they find out about their daughters' plans. They soon join forces for a wild and chaotic quest to stop the girls from sealing the deal to their boyfriends Austin, Connor and Chad (Graham Phillips, Miles Robbins and Jimmy Bellinger respectively) no matter what the cost. The film goes on general release in the US on April 6th. And FYI, the films title references the term 'Cock Blocking' being a slang term for an action, intentional or not, that serves to prevent someone from having sex. A 'cockblock' or 'cockblocker' is a person who engages in such obstruction or intervention, and the term was first coined back in 1972.

'LOVE, SIMON' (Rated M) - here is a first! This American romantic comedy coming of age drama film is Directed by Greg Berlanti, was released in the US mid-March, cost US$17M to make, has so far grossed US$25M and is the first film by a major studio to focus on a gay teenage romance. Based on the 2015 young adult novel 'Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda' by Becky Albertalli this film surrounds Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), a closeted gay seventeen year old in high school in Atlanta, Georgia who is forced to walk a fine line between his friends, his family (mother Emily played by Jennifer Garner, father Jack as played by Josh Duhamel and sister Nora played by Talitha Bateman), and a blackmailer classmate threatening to out him to the entire school, while at the same time trying to discover the identity of the anonymous classmate whom he has fallen in love with online. Resolving all of these issues satisfactorily proves terrifyingly daunting, hilariously funny and life changing all at the same time. The film has received generally favourable Reviews from Critics.

'PAUL, APOSTLE OF CHRIST' (Rated M) - last week we had the story of 'Mary Magdalene' released in cinemas across the land, and this week we have another dramatic Biblical retelling, this time of Saint Paul, as Written and Directed by Andrew Hyatt. This film tells the story of Paul (James Faulkner) formerly Saul (Yorgos Karamihos), who in his younger days persecuted Christians relentlessly. He then sees the light and converts to Christianity, and is eventually imprisoned by Emperor Nero in Mamertine Prison in Rome because he is seen as a threat to the Roman Empire. He is sentenced to death, and must wait out his time chained in one of Nero's darkest and bleakest prisons. Whilst there Paul forms a close relationship with his jailer Mauritius (Oliver Martinez) and Luke (Jim Caviezel) the evangelist and his caretaker who over time records his Gospel, and what will lay the foundations for the Church as we know it. With time counting down on to the day of his execution, Paul ponders whether God will forgive him his sins. Also starring Joanne Whalley and John Lynch.

'EARLY MAN' (Rated PG) - here we have another stop-motion animated feature from those clever guys at Aardman Animation out of Bristol, England. This time Director, Co-Producer and Co-Writer of the story Nick Park, whose previous credits include the 'Wallace & Gromit' and 'Creature Comforts' short films as well as the full length stop motion animated features of 'Chicken Run' and 'Wallace & Gromit : The Curse of the Were-Rabbit', here brings us a story of primitive Stone Age tribal dwellers and in particular one plucky cave man named Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne), his sidekick and pet boar Hognob (Nick Park) and the rest of their tribe who face a grave threat to their simple existence. Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) plans to take over their land and transform it into a giant mine, forcing Dug and his clan to dig for precious metals. Not ready to go down without a fight, Dug and Hognob must unite their people in an epic quest to defeat a mighty enemy and the dawn of the Bronze Age in a head to head toe to toe game of association football. Also starring the voice talents of Timothy Spall, Maisie Williams, Miriam Margolyes, Rob Brydon and Richard Ayoade, the film was released in the UK in late January, cost US$50M to make and has so far grossed US$43M, and has been generally well received by Critics.

'SHERLOCK GNOMES' (Rated G) - this computer animated comedy film is Directed by John Stevenson and is the follow up to 2011's 'Gnomeo and Juliet' which took US$194M at the global Box Office off the back of its US$36M production budget. Released in the US this week also, the film gets its UK release in early May and is based on this classic literary masterworks 'Romeo & Juliet' by William Shakespeare and 'Sherlock Holmes' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . . . . if you hadn't worked that out already! Here Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) hire super sleuth detective Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and his trusty assistant Gnome Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help investigate the mysterious and baffling case of the disappearing garden gnomes. Also starring the voice talents of Mary J. Blige, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Matt Lucas, Stephen Merchant, Julie Walters, Richard Wilson and Ozzy Osbourne. The film cost US$59M and has so far recovered US$16M.

With eight new release films out in time for the Easter holiday 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, and meanwhile, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-