MEGALOPOLIS : Tuesday 15th October 2024

I finally got around to seeing the M Rated 'MEGALOPOLIS' this week, which was released here in Australia on 26th September. This American epic Sci-Fi film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, whose previous film making credits take in the classic 'The Godfather Parts I, II and III' in 1972, 1974 and 1990, 'The Conversation' in 1974, 'Apocalypse Now' in 1979, 'The Cotton Club' in 1984, 'Peggy Sue Got Married' in 1986, 'Gardens of Stone' in 1987, 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' in 1992, 'The Rainmaker' in 1997 with 'Twixt' in 2011 his most recent film before this one. Coppola spent US$120M off his own money to fund the production of this passion project which he first began considering in 1977 and for which he began script ideas in 1983. Production of the film has been on-again off-again over the years with him returning to the film in earnest in 2019. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival, where it Premiered in mid-May, and has proven divisive amongst critics with mixed or average reviews. Costing in the region of US$130M to produce, the film has so far grossed just over US$11M.

Set in an alternate USA, New Rome is dominated by an elite group of aristocratic families. Although the Roman elite professes to live by a strict moral code, these aristocrats decadently enjoy forbidden pleasures including wild parties, a lavish lifestyle and all the trappings of their wealth and social standing, while ordinary Romans live on the poverty line. Among this elite group is idealist and forward thinking architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) who wins the Nobel Prize for inventing the revolutionary building material Megalon. In addition, he secretly has the ability to stop time. He treats his superpower as a metaphor for his artistic workings - when Cesar stops time and space, everyone and everything else remains frozen.

Despite Cesar's success, he has fallen into bouts of alcoholism. Years earlier, his wife mysteriously disappeared, and District Attorney Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) prosecuted him for murdering her. Although Cesar was exonerated, he remains wracked by guilt, believing that his wife committed suicide because he was too wrapped up in his work. Cesar still longs for his wife, prompting his jealous mistress, TV presenter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), to leave him. 

Later at a live broadcast event, Cesar and Mayor Cicero offer different visions for the city's future. Cesar proposes using Megalon to build 'Megalopolis' - a utopian urbanist community, while Cicero argues that a casino will provide immediate tax revenue and jobs. During the event, Cesar meets Cicero's well educated, but directionless, daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel). They initially have a disliking for each other, but after showing her his vision for Megalopolis, Julia intrigues Cesar by showing that she is the only person who can still move when Cesar stops time. They become lovers.

Wow marries Cesar's uncle Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight) the world's richest man and the CEO and owner of the Crassus Bank. Although Crassus likes his nephew, his mind and health are in decline, and he is easily manipulated by individuals like his other nephew, Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) who has his own designs on inheriting the Crassus Bank. At the lavish wedding reception of the happy couple, the headline musical act is pop star Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal). 

In an attempt to discredit Cesar, Pulcher leaks a paparazzi video of Cesar having sex with the alleged sixteen year old Vesta, prompting Cicero to condemn Cesar publicly. Although Cicero arrests Cesar for statutory rape, Julia vindicates Cesar by discovering that Vesta faked her age and is actually twenty-three years of age. 

After a redundant Russian satellite crashes to Earth and destroys large swathes of New Rome, Cesar begins construction of Megalopolis from the ruins, financing the project with his family fortune. However, the high cost of building Megalopolis contrasts with the level of poverty on the streets. Pulcher becomes a populist politician, encouraging ordinary Romans to oppose Megalopolis as an expensive folly. The draw of power leads Pulcher from populism to fascist agitator.

Julia, now pregnant, tries to broker a peace accord between Cesar and her father by taking her father to see the Megalopolis construction site. However, Cicero is unimpressed with Cesar's utopianism, although his wife Teresa (Kathryn Hunter) feels the opposite. Cicero begs Cesar to leave Julia - in exchange for which, he offers Cesar valuable blackmail material - a written confession that Cicero knew Cesar's wife committed suicide and maliciously prosecuted Cesar anyway. Cicero gives Cesar three days to decide, but needless to say Cesar declines.

Wow tries to force Cesar to leave Julia and marry her instead by saying that when she has inherited the vast Crassus fortune, she would give it all to him. When Cesar outright rejects her, she freezes his account at the Crassus Bank. She enlists Pulcher to manipulate Crassus into handing over control of the bank. When Crassus learns of Pulcher's duplicity, he has a stroke and collapses. Pulcher hires an assassin in the form of a nine year old boy to kill Cesar, who shoots Cesar in the head at point blank range, while he is signing an autograph for the seemingly innocent young lad. Cesar's doctors use Megalon to rebuild his skull, and repair his severely damaged tissue. 

Cesar and Cicero become allies after rioting Pulcher supporters attempt to storm Megalopolis and City Hall. Pulcher and Wow taunt the seemingly bedridden Crassus, but Crassus kills Wow and injures Pulcher with a hidden bow and arrow shooting a arrow directly into Wow's chest and firing off two arrows into Pulcher's arse. Cesar confronts the rioters, pleading with them to believe in his vision of a better future. His speech wins over the crowd, whose followers hang Pulcher and his right hand man Aram Kazanjian (Balthazar Getty) upside down from a scaffold.

With renewed financial support from Crassus, Cesar finally completes Megalopolis. Cicero, holding Julia and Cesar's baby daughter, Sunny Hope, promises to help Cesar build a better future. On New Year's Eve, as the clock counts down the seconds to midnight, Cesar turns to Julia and asks that she stop time. She does so, freezing them both and all around them leaving only Sunny Hope unaffected by the time stop . . . and she's way too young to click her fingers to resume normal service like her dad would have done!

The film also stars Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwatrzman, James Remar, D.B.Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman.  

The film opens up with the words 'Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis : A Fable' etched in stone. In other words it is a short story that tells a general truth or is only partly based on fact, and so it is here with references aplenty to real characters and their goings on from ancient Rome transplanted into a future world where those characters play out much as their ancestors might of done in the days of the Roman Empire. And in that respect I guess the film delivers showcasing the wild parties, the sex, the back stabbing, the murders and the political intrigue all wrapped up in a utopian vision of a future city where everyone lives in harmony and happily ever after. Visually the film is rewarding enough but that's just about where the positives end, as the cast of top notch A-list talent appear almost bewildered by what the Director is asking of them except for Shia LaBoeuf who chews up the scenery and his dialogue with reckless abandon, while others - Hoffman, Schwartzman, Shire and Fishburne are underutilised. As for the story - it goes around in circles and never seems to go anywhere leaving you with the feeling that after almost two-and-a-half hours of viewing it is seriously undercooked. It's a real shame because from Coppola I would have expected a whole lot more, but then perhaps his long gestating opus is his last hurrah, he ploughed his own hard earned cash into it, and he finally got to realise his passion project on the big screen, and all the naysayers be damned!

'Megalopolis' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 26th September 2024

The 32nd edition of the FilmFest Hamburg takes place this year from Thursday 26th September through until Saturday 5th October. Every year the festival attracts over 50,000 cinema fans. Over ten days, 124 national and international feature and documentary films from fifty-five countries are shown on fourteen screens as world, European or German Premieres. The programme in ten sections ranges from cinematically sophisticated arthouse films to innovative mainstream cinema. It is the third-largest film festival of its kind in Germany after Berlin and Munich.

This years Opening Gala film presentation is 'Holy Cow' from France and is Co-Written and Directed by Louise Courvoisier in her feature film debut, with the Closing Night film being 'The Room Next Door' from Pedro Almodovar in his English language full length feature debut and stars Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola. 

There are a number of competitive film and television strands, with this years Hamburg Production Award for International Cinema Co-Productions centering on six films with an award of €25K as follows :-

* 'Armand' - from Norway, Netherlands, Sweden and Germany and Written and Directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tondel in his feature Directorial debut. After an alleged fight between two 6-year-old boys, the parents and school staff are called in to clarify the incident.

* 'Happy Holidays' - from Palestine, Germany, France, Italy and Qatar this family drama film is Written and Directed by Scandar Copti, and won the Award for Best Screenplay at this years recent Venice International Film Festival.

* 'Spirit in the Blood' - from Germany and Canada and Written and Directed by Carly May Borgstrom. This thriller tells the story of how after a young girl is found dead in a secluded religious mountain community, a pack of teenage girls decide to fight against the evil spirits they believe killed her by embracing their own dark nature.

* 'The Assessment' - from Germany, the USA and the UK and Directed by Fleur Fortune in her feature length debut and starring Elisabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Minnie Driver and Himesh Patel. In the near future where parenthood is strictly controlled, a couple's seven-day assessment for the right to have a child unravels into a psychological nightmare.

* 'The Vanishing' - from France, Germany and Tunisia and Directed by Karim Moussaoui. Reda seemingly has a life of privilege in Algiers, in his late twenties still living at the family home, with a father who has arranged a job and a fiancee. Reda is eager to please, yet the more he tries the more he veers off course

* 'Transamazonia' - from Brazil, Germany, France, Switzerland and Taiwan and Directed by Pia Marais. As a young child, Rebecca is rescued from a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest by a member of a nearby Indigenous tribe. Now a teenager, she is well known in the area as her father, an American missionary, claims that she is a faith healer. Rebecca's misgivings about her situation are compounded by the arrival of illegal loggers poised to disrupt the local way of life.

In addition the Douglas Sirk Award will go to British Director Andrea Arnold and French Director Jacques Audiard. The award ceremonies will take place on the occasion of the German Premieres of their current films 'Bird' and 'Emilia Perez' respectively, and is presented to those personalities who have made a special contribution to film culture and the film industry.

For the full details and the line up of the other competitive film and TV strands being showcased including The Hamburg Production Award for German Cinema Productions, The Arthouse Cinema Award, The Young Talent Award, The Critics Choice Award, and a whole lot more other good stuff worthy of your attention, you can go to the official website at : https://www.filmfesthamburg.de/en/

Turning the focus back to this weeks five new movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you, we launch with an epic Sci-Fi set in the city of New Rome where the main conflict is between a brilliant artist and architect in favour of a utopian future, and a greedy Mayor, and between them is the Mayor's daughter whose loyalty is divided between her father and her beloved architect. Then we have a horror thriller in which a family that has been haunted by an evil spirit for years, but their safety and their surroundings come into question when one of the children questions if the evil is real. Next up is a French comedy offering about two swindlers, who deep in debt, infiltrate a group of climate activists when they are attracted to the free food and drinks they are offered. This is followed by an American drama about a failing father who attempts to salvage some semblance of paternal standing while being rapidly exposed for the fraud he is; before closing out the week with a Vietnamese film about a man who becomes a 'God of Gamblers' suddenly with the help of a female Ghost.

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.

'MEGALOPOLIS' (Rated M) - is an American epic Sci-Fi fil Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, whose previous film making credits take in the classic 'The Godfather Parts I, II and III' in 1972, 1974 and 1990, 'The Conversation' in 1974, 'Apocalypse Now' in 1979, 'The Cotton Club' in 1984, 'Peggy Sue Got Married' in 1986, 'Gardens of Stone' in 1987, 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' in 1992, 'The Rainmaker' in 1997 with 'Twixt' in 2011 his most recent film before this one. Coppola spent US$120M off his own money to fund the production of this passion project which he first began considering in 1977 and for which he began script ideas in 1983. Production of the film has been on-again off-again over the years with him returning to the film in earnest in 2019. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival, where it Premiered in mid-May this year,  and has proven divisive amongst critics with mixed or average reviews. It is released in the US this week too.

In a decaying metropolis called New Rome, idealist architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is granted a license by the federal government to demolish and rebuild the city as a sustainable utopia using Megalon, a material that can give him the power to control space and time. His nemesis, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), remains committed to a regressive status quo. Torn between them is Franklyn's socialite daughter and Cesar's love interest Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who, tired of the influence she inherited, searches for her life's meaning. Also starring Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwatrzman, Kathryn Hunter, James Remar, D.B.Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman. 

'NEVER LET GO' (Rated MA15+) - this American survival horror film is Directed by the French filmmaker Alexandre Aja who made his English language Directorial debut in 2006 with 'The Hills Have Eyes' and which he would follow up with 'Mirrors' in 2008, 'Piranha 3D' in 2010, 'Horns' in 2013, 'The 9th Life of Louis Drax' in 2016, 'Crawl' in 2019 and 'Oxygen' in 2021. Here then, after an unspeakable evil has taken over the world, the only protection for a mother (Halle Berry) and her twin sons Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) is their house and strong bond. Needing to stay connected at all times, to the extent that they even tether themselves with ropes, they must cling to one another and never let go. However, when one of the boys questions if the evil is real, the ties that bind them together are severed, triggering a terrifying fight for survival. The film was released last week in the US, has so far grossed US$4.5M from a production budget of US$20M and has generated mixed or average reviews. 

'A DIFFICULT YEAR' (Rated M) - is a French comedy film Written and Directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. This story centres on Albert (Pio Marmai) and Bruno (Jonathan Cohen) who are both heavily in debt and so have turned to a community worker (Mathieu Amalric) to try and help get a grip on their lives. However, at one of their group sessions they instead stumble into an adjoining meeting room hosting a gathering of young social activists, led by a vivacious organiser Cactus (Noemie Merlant). Attracted more by the free beer and chips than the group's struggle against consumerism and protection of the environment, Albert and Bruno join the movement without any particular conviction, but soon sense an opportunity . . . if they don't get arrested first. The film was released in its native France in mid-October last year having screened initially at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. It has received mixed critical acclaim and has so far grossed US$7M. 

'NOTICE TO QUIT' (Rated CTC) - this American drama offering is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Simon Hacker in his feature film Writing and Directing debut. Here, Andy Singer (Michael Zegan), an out-of-work Actor now struggling as a New York City Real Estate Agent, finds his world crashing down around him when his estranged ten-year-old daughter, Anna (Kasey Bella Suarez), shows up unannounced on his doorstep just as he's to be evicted from his apartment. The film is released Stateside also this week.

'BETTING WITH GHOST' (Rated M) - is a Vietnamese comedy horror film Directed by Nguyen Nhat Trung in his screen debut and tells the story of Lanh (Tuan Tran), the son of a funeral director (Hoai Linh), who finds himself trapped in a downward spiral due to his gambling addiction. On the verge of losing everything, fate leads him to encounter a mysterious female ghost (Diep Bao Ngoc). United by their mutual desperation, they strike an unconventional deal, using each other to fulfil their hidden desires. The film was released in its native Vietnam earlier this month and has so far grossed US$4.7M at the Box Office. 

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-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 3rd December 2020.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) annual Awards were held on Monday 30th November at The Star Hotel and Casino in Sydney. The AACTA Awards (formerly the AFI Awards) have honoured screen excellence in Australia for over 60 years, since the first AFI Awards were held in 1958. Held annually in Sydney in recognition and celebration of Australia's highest achievements in film and television, the AACTA Awards more than fifty-five 55 awards across two major ceremonies. AACTA also recognises screen excellence, regardless of geography, through the AACTA International Awards, held annually in January in Los Angeles. The peer-assessed AACTA Awards are a world-class marker of screen excellence alongside the Oscars and the BAFTA's, and are the only Australian industry body to honour practitioners across all crafts and industry sectors, including feature film, documentary, short film, television, online, visual effects and animation.

The full list of winners and grinners in the feature film categories as presented on 30th November are as follows :-

* AACTA Award Best Film - presented to 'Babyteeth', Produced by Alex White and Directed by Shannon Murphy.

* AACTA Award Best Indie Film - presented to 'Standing Up for Sunny', Produced by Drew Bailey, Jamie Hilton and Michael Pontin, and Directed and Written by Steven Vidler.

* AACTA Award Best Asian Film - presented to 'Better Days' and Directed by Derek Tsang.

* AACTA Award Best Documentary - presented to 'Firestarter - The Story of Bangarra', Produced by Ivan O'Mahoney and Directed by Wayne Blair and Nel Minchin.

* AACTA Award Best Screenplay in Film - presented to Rita Kalnejais for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award for Best Direction in Film - presented to Shannon Murphy for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in Film - presented to Toby Wallace for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in Film - presented to Eliza Scanlen for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in Film - presented to Ben Mendelsohn for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress in Film - presented to Essie Davis for 'Babyteeth'. 

* AACTA Award for Best Short Film - presented to 'The Mirror' produced by Tom Davies and Mike Horvath and Directed by Joel Kohn.

* AACTA Award Best VFX or Animation - presented to Tim Crosbie, Joy Wu, Jason Troughton, Tom Wood, Julian Hutchens for 'The Eight Hundred'.

* The Byron Kennedy Award was also presented, recognising the impact of Australian low-budget genre filmmaking and celebrating the outstanding creative enterprise within the screen industry. Jennifer Kent was announced as the recipient for her international success on the AACTA Award-winning film, 'The Babadook'.

On Friday 27th November the Craft Winners were announced at the AACTA Industry Awards at an online event. Those proud recipients in the feature film categories are as follows :-

* AACTA Award Best Casting - presented to Kirsty McGregor and Stevie Ray for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award Best Cinematography - presented to Stefan Duscio for 'The Invisible Man'.

* AACTA Award Best Costume Design - presented to Alice Babidge for 'True History of the Kelly Gang'.

* AACTA Award Best Editing - presented to Andy Canny for 'The Invisible Man'.

* AACTA Award Best Hair and Make-Up - presented to Kirsten Veysey for 'True History of the Kelly Gang'.

* AACTA Award Best Original Score - presented to Amanda Brown for 'Babyteeth'.

* AACTA Award Best Original Score in a Documentary - presented to Amanda Brown for 'Brazen Hussies'. 

* AACTA Award Best Production Design - presented to Karen Murphy and Rebecca Cohen for 'True History of the Kelly Gang'.

* AACTA Award Best Sound - presented to P.K Hooker, Will Files and Paul 'Salty' Brincat for 'The Invisible Man'.

* AACTA Award Best Sound in a Documentary - presented to Emma Bortignon, Paul Shanahan, David Williams and Gemma Stack for 'Suzi Q'.

For the full low down on everything that went down at this years AACTA Awards, you can visit the official website at : https://www.aacta.org 

With the 1st December marking the first day of the Australian summer season, and already temperatures getting into the high 30⁰C and low 40⁰C, what better place is there than to cool down in your local air conditioned cinema for a couple of hours. And so to tempt you out to your local Odeon, this week we have six new cinematic releases kicking off with a war of wits, pranks and dangerous trickery as Grandpa and Grandson go head to head all because Grandpa is now shacking up with Grandson in his bedroom, and the latter wants the former outta there. We then have a 30th anniversary new edit and restored version of part three of a classic and epic story of a mafia crime family; before turning attention to a musical comedy about two down on their luck Broadway stars and two cynical Actors teaming up to give a High School graduate the Prom night she really deserves. Next up we have a Christmas offering about the anonymous cash donations left on the doorsteps of town and how one fortunate recipient takes it upon herself to do some investigative work to find out who, where and why these gifts originate from - with far reaching consequences. And we close the week with two doco's - the first about a famed British neurologist and science historian and the second about three brothers who went on to form one of the most successful pop music bands of the last fifty years. 

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

'THE WAR WITH GRANDPA' (Rated PG) - this American family comedy film is Directed by Tim Hill whose previous film making credits take in the likes of his debut 'Muppets from Space' in 1999, 'Garfiled : A Tail of Two Kitties' in 2006, 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' in 2007, 'Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever' in 2014 and 'The SpongeBob Movie : Sponge on the Run' earlier this year. This film is based on the children's novel of the same name by Robert Kimmel Smith. Released in the US in early October and costing US$38M to make, the film has so far grossed US$26M and has garnered generally negative publicity from Critics. Despite this, one of the Producers, Marvin Peart announced earlier last month that a follow up film is intended titled 'The World War with Grandpa'. 

And so here, Peter Decker (Oakes Fegley) and his recently widowed Grandpa Ed (Robert De Niro) used to be very close, but when Grandpa moves in with the family, Peter is forced to give up his most prized possession - his bedroom. Peter will stop at nothing to get his room back, scheming with friends to devise a series of increasingly dangerous pranks to drive him out. However, Grandpa doesn't give up easily, and it turns into an all-out war between the two. Also starring Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Christoper Walken, Cheech Marin and Jane Seymour.

'THE GODFATHER, CODA : THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE' (Rated MA15+) - to mark the  30th Anniversary of 'The Godfather: Part III', Director and Screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola brings a definitive new edit and restoration of the final film in his classic Godfather trilogy based on the books by Mario Puzo. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), is now in his sixties and is seeking to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. That successor could be fiery Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) but he could potentially be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob fuelled violence. The film’s meticulously restored picture and sound includes a new beginning and ending, as well as changes to scenes, shots, and music cues. Also starring Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Eli Wallach, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola and Joe Mantegna. The original film was released in 1990 and was nominated for seven Academy Awards and seven Golden Globes amongst its total haul of six wins and thirty-two nods. 

'THE PROM' (Rated PG) - this American musical comedy offering is Directed by screenwriter, Producer and film maker Ryan Murphy who previous Directorial outings take in 'Running with Scissors' in 2006 and 'Eat Pray Love' in 2010, as well a multiple episodes of TV shows including 'Nip/Tuck', 'Glee', 'American Horror Story', 'American Crime Story', 'Hollywood' and 'Ratched' most recently. Here, to support a high school girl Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman) who wants to bring her girlfriend Alyssa Greene (Ariana DeBose) to the prom a pair of self-obsessed Broadway theatre stars Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Cordon) go to a small conservative Indiana town with a pair of cynical Actors in tow - Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman) and Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells) as the foursome rally to give Emma a night at which she can truly celebrate who she really is. Also starring Keegan-Michael Key and Kerrie Washington. Scheduled to be released on Netflix on 11th December, the film gets a simultaneous release in selected cinemas.  

'CHRISTMAS JARS' (Rated PG) - Directed by Jonathan Wright who has a long list of TV movies themed around Christmas and two features 'Nostrum' in 2010 and 'Awakening the Zodiac' in 2017. This film was first released in the USA in early December 2019 and now gets a cinema release in Australia. Here, Hope Jensen (Jena Ross) is an aspiring reporter who has had her fair share of tragedy in life. Abandoned at birth, she’s grieving the recent death of her adopted mother when her apartment is robbed of all her possessions. While reporting the break in to the Police, Hope discovers a jar full of cash, labeled 'Christmas Jar'. Shocked and grateful for this act of kindness, Hope discovers that people all over her hometown have been receiving Christmas Jars for years when they needed it the most. The jars are always given anonymously and always contain different sums. Hope goes undercover to discover the secret behind the Christmas Jars, putting into motion a series of events that will change her life, and her community, forever. Also starring Markian Tarasiuk, Tara Yelland and Zerha Leverman. 

'OLIVER SACKS : HIS OWN LIFE' (Rated M) - this American biographical documentary film is Directed and created by the American documentary film maker and Writer Ric Burns about Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist, naturalist, science historian and author, based on his autobiography, 'His Own Life' and who died on 30th August 2015. The film stars Roberto Calasso, Kate Edgar, Atul Gawande and Shane Fistell besides Oliver Sacks as a protagonist character as he shares intimate details of his battles with drug addiction, homophobia, and a medical establishment that accepted his work only decades after the fact. It initially premiered in mid-August 2019 at the Telluride Film Festival, but a release was delayed due to COVID-19. 

'THE BEE GEES : HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART' (Rated M) - this documentary film is Directed by multi-award winning and nominated Producer, Director and occasional Actor Frank Marshall and tells the story of how three brothers created music that touched the collective unconscious across five continents for five decades straight. The film charts the rise of the legendary band 'The Bee Gees' and the evolution of their music over the years. Made up of brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, The Bee Gees wrote more than 1,000 songs and had twenty No. 1 hits throughout their career. Featuring revealing interviews with oldest brother Barry Gibb, and archival interviews with the late twin brothers Robin and Maurice. The name of the film is taken from their first US chart topping No. 1 single of the same name released in mid-1971. 

With six 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 coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

APOCALYPSE NOW : FINAL CUT - Friday 26th July 2019.

'APOCALYPSE NOW : FINAL CUT' which I saw late last week is rated MA15+, and this 1979 and now a classic American epic war film about the Vietnam War was Directed, Produced and Co-Written by Francis Ford Coppola and now gets it's 40th anniversary re-release in the manner that Coppola had seemingly always intended. Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Harrison Ford, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Scott Glenn and Dennis Hopper with the Screenplay, Co-Written by Coppola and John Milius was loosely based on the 1899 novella 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad. 'Apocalypse Now' was honoured with the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered unfinished before it was finally released on August 15, 1979. The film is today considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for eight Oscars at the 52nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Duvall, and went on to win for Best Cinematography and Best Sound among its total awards haul of twenty wins and another 31 nominations. The film took US$150M at the global Box Office off the back of a US$32M Budget. With a running time of 183 minutes, backed up by a 4k restoration and all the technological advancements in sound design, Coppola reportedly said that it now 'looks better than it has ever looked, and sounds better than it has ever sounded', and that he's 'thrilled beyond measure to present the best version of the film to the world.' 

In Vietnam in 1969, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) a veteran U.S. Army special operations officer is sitting in his Saigon hotel room locked up and gradually going insane without a mission to satisfy his hunger to be on the front line. He drinks and smokes heavily and sleeps for days on end reminiscing about his former marriage, his previous tours of duty, the stupefying heat of Vietnam and the sheer boredom of being holed up in the confines of his hotel room. Then there is a knock on the door. With his hand bleeding profusely from where he smashed a plate glass mirror and drunk too, he is manhandled into a cold shower by the two officers who came knocking. Next up he is in a room with Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford), Lieutenant General Corman (G.D. Spradlin) and a plain clothed mystery man Jerry (Jerry Ziesmer). They have a mission for Willard - to head up river into Cambodia and 'terminate with extreme prejudice' the highly decorated United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone rogue and supposedly completely insane at an outpost in Cambodia, is running his own military unit based there and is feared as much by the U.S. military as by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.

Willard with little choice but to accept the mission, joins a Navy River Patrol Boat crew captained by Chief Petty Officer George 'Chief' Phillips (Albert Hall) with young crewmen Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Lance B. Johnson (Sam Bottoms) a former professional surfer from Orange County; Engineman 3rd Class Jay 'Chef' Hicks (Frederick Forrest), a former chef from New Orleans; and Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Tyrone 'Mr. Clean' Miller (Laurence Fishburne), a seventeen-year-old street smart South Bronx-born crew member.

They rendezvous with seemingly fearless and mad keen surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment commander, to discuss going up the Nung River. Kilgore is at first offhandish but befriends Lance after discovering he is a famous surfer and agrees to escort them through the Nung's Viet Cong-held coastal mouth which is tidal and the lads can get in a long overdue surf. The helicopter squadron raids at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the local hostiles practically wiping them all out but not without suffering casualties also, and at the same time muttering those immortal words 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning'.

As Willard continues the journey up river studying the extensive dossier he has on Kurtz, he learns that a Captain Richard Colby (Scott Glenn) was previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and sent a message to his wife, intercepted by the U.S. Army, telling her that he was never coming back and to sell everything they owned. As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of an enemy hiding in the dense undergrowth along the riverbank, and Mr. Clean is shot dead. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives and killed too. Willard reveals the purpose of their mission to Chef, and in spite of Chef's anger towards their end game, he rejects Willard's offer for him to continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.

Continuing along their journey, the remaining crew members come across a French family holed up on their remote rubber plantation living the colonial lifestyle, and they spend the night having been welcomed by their well to do hosts dining on good food, fine wine, cognac and cigars. The next day the crew arrives at Kurtz's outpost, and the surviving crew are greeted by an American freelance photojournalist (Dennis Hopper), who crazily praises Kurtz's genius. As they wander through the camp, they come across a near-comatose Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz's renegade army. Learning that Kurtz is not at the camp at that time, Willard returns to the boat later taking Lance with him back to the camp and instructing Chef to stay behind and call in an air strike of the compound if they do not return within a certain time.

After Willard's initial introduction to Kurtz in a darkened temple he is subdued, bound and then tortured and imprisoned for several days during which time Kurtz drops Chefs severed head into the lap of Willard while he is tied up. Willard is subsequently released and allowed to freely roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human psyche and civilisation, while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. 

That night, as the locals ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz's chamber as he is making a recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters 'The horror, The horror' and dies. As the sun rises all in the compound see Willard departing the temple covered in blood spatter, carrying a collection of Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard then leads Lance to the boat and they depart unhindered.

The original shoot for 'Apocalypse Now' was fraught with challenges, including Marlon Brando arriving on set completely unprepared and overweight; entire sets being wiped out by Typhoon Olga in May 1976; Martin Sheen suffering a mental breakdown and a near fatal heart attack whilst on location; a production schedule that was due to last five months ran to over a year; the initial budget estimations of US$15M blowing out to closer to US$32M; the entire payroll being stolen overnight whilst under the watchful eye of bodyguards; and the final release of the film being delayed several times while Coppola edited over one million feet of film. All of that said, these challenges faced now over forty years ago will have dimmed into the far recesses of cinematic history and gave way ultimately to a classic Vietnam War film that has stood the test of time in all its visceral, hallucinatory, surreal and at times bizarre glory. The original film had a running time of 153 minutes, 2001's 'Apocalypse Now Redux' ran for 202 minutes and this version 'Apocalypse New : Final Cut' has a running time of 183 minutes and has been remastered frame by frame in stunning 4K quality, with the sound production enhanced by Dolby Atmos. This is the complete package and deserves to be either revisited or viewed for the first time on the big screen while you still can in selected theatres - you won't be disappointed by the experience as a chance to see one of the greatest films of all time just as Coppola had originally intended.

'Apocalypse Now : Final Cut' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 25th July 2019.

This years Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) launches on Thursday 1st August and runs through until Sunday 18th August. According to the official website 'MIFF is a not-for-profit organisation that has been continuously running since 1952, making it the leading film festival in Australia and one of the world’s oldest film festivals, alongside Cannes and Berlin. Presenting a curated global program of innovative screen experiences and the world’s largest showcase of exceptional Australian filmmaking, MIFF is an accessible, iconic cultural event that provides transformative experiences for audiences and filmmakers alike'.

This years Opening Night film is the Australian Documentary Directed by Daniel Gordon 'The Australian Dream'. Charting the life and times of Adam Goodes, who for years was a beloved hero of the game of AFL (aka Aussie Rules - Australian Football League). Then the two-time Brownlow Medallist, two-time Premiership Champion and former Australian of the Year began to call out racism, and his Australian dream turned into a nightmare. And the Closing Night film is 'The Farewell' Written and Directed by Lulu Wang and stars Awkwafina in this Sundance hit about a Chinese-American woman reuniting with her family to farewell her dying grandmother – who doesn’t know of her deadly diagnosis.

This years Programme Strands falls into a number of categories ranging from Animation, to Documentaries, to Australian Films, International Films, Headliners, Experimentations, Restorations, Music On Film, Night Shift, Virtual Reality and MIFF Shorts.

Amongst these are the following :
Australian Films
MIFF is one of the world’s biggest supporters of homegrown talent, with over sixty local films screening this year, across shorts, features and VR. Telling the true blue ocker Australian story through documentary, drama, thriller, comedy, innovative Indigenous filmmaking and award-winning queer cinema, with approaching thirty World Premieres shown this year.

Among those are : 'Alice' Directed by Josephine Mackerras in the SXSW Grand Jury prize winner; 'Angel of Mine' Directed by Kim Farrant and starring Noomi Rapace, Luke Evans, Yvonne Strahovski and Richard Roxburgh; 'Animals' Directed by Sophie Hyde and starring Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger; 'The Australian Dream' Directed by Daniel Gordon and the opening night film; 'Below' Directed by Maziar Lahooti and starring Ryan Coor and Anthony LaPaglia; 'Hearts and Bones' Directed by Ben Lawrence and starring Hugo Weaving; 'H is for Happiness' Directed by John Sheedy and starring Miriam Margolyes, Emma Booth, Richard Roxburgh and Deborah Mailman; 'Judy & Punch' Directed by Mirrah Foulkes and starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman; 'Measure for Measure' Directed by Paul Ireland and starring Hugo Weaving; and 'The Nightingale' Directed by Jennifer Kent and starring Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr and Damon Herriman.

International Films 

Every year, MIFF brings the freshest global cinema back to Melbourne. These international films – from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Latin America – represent the cream of the crop of world cinema, and include award winners from the most prestigious film festivals, your new and old favourite Directors, famous faces and far-flung places.

Among these are : 'American Woman' Directed by Jake Scott and starring Sienna Miller, Christina Hendricks and Aaron Paul; 'The Art of Self-Defence' Directed by Riley Stearns and staring Jesse Eisenberg; 'The Beach Bum' Directed by Harmony Korine and starring Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, Zac Efron, Snoop Dog and Martin Lawrence; 'Beanpole' Directed by Kantemir Balagov this Russian feature won both the coveted Best Director award and the FIPRESCI prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section earlier this year; 'Bellbird' Directed by Hamish Bennett; 'Dirtry God' Directed by Sacha Polak; 'Frankie' Directed by Ira Sachs and starring Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinear, Isabelle Huppert, Jeremie Renier and Marisa Tomei; 'Happy New Year, Colin Burstead' Directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Bill Paterson, Charles Dance, Hayley Squires, Richard Glover and Sam Riley; 'The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao' Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Karim Ainouz which took out the Cannes’ prestigious Un Certain Regard prize; 'The Kill Team' Directed by Dan Krauss and starring Adam Long and Alexander Skarsgard; 'Kursk' Directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Lea Seydoux, Colin Firth and Max von Sydow; 'Monos' Directed by Alejandro Landes and winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award; 'The Mountain' Directed by Rick Alveston and starring Jeff Goldblum, Tye Sheridan; Udo Kier and Denis Lavant; 'Skin' Directed by Guy Nattiv and starring Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Daniel Henshall, Vera Farmiga, Mike Colter, Bill Camp and Mary Stuart Masterson; 'The Souvenir' Directed by Joanna Hogg and starring Tilda Swinton, Honor Swinton Byrne, Richard Ayoade and Tom Burke this film picked up the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic category, and a sequel is already in the works; 'Swallow' Directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis and starring Haley Bennett and Austin Stowell; 'Them That Follow' Directed by Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage and starring Alice Englert, Kaitlyn Dever, Lewis Pullman, Olivia Colman and Walton Goggins; 'Tommaso' Directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Willem Dafoe, Anna Ferrara and Cristina Chiriac; 'The Tomorrow Man' Directed by Noble Jones and starring John Lithgow and Blythe Danner; and 'Vivarium' Directed by Lorcan Finnegan and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots.

Headliners

Headlining the festival’s wide-ranging program, these films include some of the most anticipated new works from some of the world’s most revered auteurs and exciting new filmmakers – many screening at MIFF direct from Cannes.

Among these are : 'Bacurau' from Directors Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Madonca Filho; 'The Day Shall Come' Directed by Chris Morris and starring Anna Kendrick and Marchant Davis; 'The Dead Don't Die' Directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Caleb Landry Jones, Carol Kane, Chloe Sevigny, Danny Glover, Iggy Pop, RZA, Rosie Perez, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swinton and Tom Waits; 'Official Secrets' Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode and Rhys Ifans; 'Pain and Glory' Directed by Pedro Almodovar and starring Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz; and 'Sorry We Missed You' Directed by Ken Loach.

For more news, views and the full programme details on the upcoming Melbourne International Film Festival, you can visit the official website at : https://www.miff.com.au/

Turning attention back to this week, we have four new release movies coming to an Odeon near you. We kick off with not so much a new movie but one that is celebrating its 40th anniversary and has been remastered visually and audibly to bring you a classic epic Vietnam War story pretty much as the Director had originally intended. Maintaining the war theme we go back further in time to post WWII that sees this true story of a German POW held in Lancashire, England go on to become a highly acclaimed goalkeeper for Manchester City culminating in his side winning the 1956 FA Cup Final. And keeping with the football theme we have a documentary about the rise and fall of an Argentinian soccer playing legend that represented his country in four World Cup tournaments, winning one; and in closing out the week we have a documentary about Japanese whaling ships hunting down whales in the Southern Ocean all in the name of scientific research as their attempts are  often thwarted by the anti-whaling vessel The Sea Shepherd, and then of course there is the plight of those hunted whales themselves.

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 week ahead.

'APOCALYPSE NOW : FINAL CUT' (Rated R18+) - this 1979 and now a classic American epic war film about the Vietnam War was Directed, Produced and Co-Written by Francis Ford Coppola and now gets it's 40th anniversary re-release in the manner that Coppola had perhaps always intended. Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Harrison Ford, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Scott Glenn and Dennis Hopper with the Screenplay, Co-Written by Coppola and John Milius was loosely based on the 1899 novella 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad. 'Apocalypse Now' was honoured with the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered unfinished before it was finally released on August 15, 1979. The film is today considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for eight Oscars at the 52nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Duvall, and went on to win for Best Cinematography and Best Sound among its total awards haul of twenty wins and another 31 nominations. The film took US$150M at the global Box Office off the back of a US$32M Budget.

In Vietnam in 1970, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) a veteran U.S. Army special operations officer takes a perilous and increasingly hallucinatory journey upriver to find and terminate Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Forces officer with the 5th Special Forces Group who has gone rogue and supposedly completely insane at an outpost in Cambodia. In the company of a Navy patrol boat filled with street-smart kids, a surfing-obsessed Air Cavalry officer Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore (Robert Duvall), 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment commander, and a crazed freelance photojournalist (Dennis Hopper), Willard travels further and further into the heart of darkness. With a running time of 183 minutes, backed up by a 4k restoration and all the technological advancements in sound design, Coppola reportedly said that it now 'looks better than it has ever looked, and sounds better than it has ever sounded', and that he's 'thrilled beyond measure to present the best version of the film to the world.' A must see on the big screen - catch it for a limited time only at limited theatres.

'THE KEEPER' (Rated M) - this British and German Co-Produced biographical drama offering  Directed and Co-Written by Marcus H. Rosenmuller saw its World Premier screening at the Zurich Film Festival back in early October 2018, before going on release in Germany in mid-March this year and in the UK in early April. And so, 'The Keeper' tells the almost unbelievable true story of Bert Trautmann (David Kross), a German soldier and POW interned in Lancashire, who, against a backdrop of British post-war protest and prejudice, secures the position of Goalkeeper at Manchester City, and in the process becomes a footballing legend. Struggling for acceptance by those who regard him as the enemy, Bert's love for Margaret (Freya Mavor), an Englishwoman, sees him overcome this adversity and he wins over even his harshest critics and opposition by winning the 1956 FA Cup Final, even playing on with a broken neck to secure his teams victory. But fate of course will soon takes a turn for the worse for Bert and Margaret, when their love and loyalty to each other is put to the ultimate test.

'DIEGO MARADONA' (Rated M) - continuing with the soccer theme, this British documentary film is Written and Directed by the British film maker Asif Kapadia whose previous notable doco's were 2010's 'Senna', based on Ayrton Senna the famed Brazillian Formula 1 motor racing ace, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary and Best Editing and the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011. He also filmed 2015's 'Amy' based on singer Amy Winehouse, which has become the highest grossing documentary of all time in the United Kingdom, and also won him an Academy Award and Grammy Award in 2016. Constructed from over five hundred hours of never-before-seen footage, this documentary centres on the career of celebrated Argentinian football player Diego Armando Maradona, who played for Barcelona and then Napoli in the 1980's, with both teams scoring a record beating transfer fee at the time. In his international career with Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, in 1982 in Spain, in 1986 in Mexico where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, then again in 1990 in Italy and in 1994 in the US. The film saw its World Premier screening out of competition at this years Cannes Film Festival, went on release in the UK in mid-June and has so far made just over US$1M at the Box Office.  Maradona is now 58 years of age and is/was coach of Mexican side Dorados de Sinaloa.

'DEFEND, CONSERVE, PROTECT' (Rated PG) - Produced in Australia and financed successfully through a global crowdfunding effort, 'Defend, Conserve, Protect' is a documentary film that took over four years to make, and was shot across France, The Netherlands, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Directed by Stephen Amis and narrated by Dan Aykroyd, this film pits the impassioned marine conservation group, Sea Shepherd against the Japanese whaling fleet, in an epic battle to defend the majestic Minke Whales of the Southern Ocean. These noble, curious Minkes are easy prey for the Japanese, who claim to kill in the name of science aboard their 'Research Vessels' – an assertion that has been widely discredited outside Japan for many years. At the helm of the Sea Shepherd is 28 year old Captain Peter Hammarstedt who hunts the whaling ships, not the whales. The documentary clearly depicts what happens when a small group of determined people stand up against an aggressive corporation flagrantly defying international law.

With four new release movies 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-